To usual form they claimed that it was only Iraqi Insurgents killed etc etc.

The SSP are holding a public meeting on the war on Wednesday.

Wednesday at 7pm in the DVA Constitution Road Dundee.

The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow were boycotted in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Then–U.S. president Jimmy Carter announced the boycott in February 1980, and Canada and dozens of other countries soon followed suit. In his state of the union address that year, Carter made the case against the Soviet war:

“The vast majority of nations on Earth have condemned this latest Soviet attempt to extend its colonial domination of others and have demanded the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops. The Muslim world is especially and justifiably outraged by this aggression against an Islamic people. No action of a world power has ever been so quickly and so overwhelmingly condemned. But verbal condemnation is not enough. The Soviet Union must pay a concrete price for their aggression.”

Now Canada is part of a coalition occupying Afghanistan whilst hosting the Olympics.

Read the rest of the article at the link for more information.

Dundee SSP are holding a public meeting about the continued war and occupation in Afghanistan on the 24th of February at the DVA.

Don’t forget to commemorate the Dundee volunteers to the International Brigade at Macmanus Galleries this Saturday.

The main speakers will be

• Colin Fox, SSP co-national spokesperson
• John McAllion, former MP and MSP for Dundee East
• Joan Humphreys, Military Families Against War

followed by Q&A and discussion time.

The chilly blast of austerity will be felt by us all in the shape of cuts to public services and wage freezes.

However, the Scottish Socialist Party believes there could and should be some more welcome cuts made, including:

• Nationalisation of all banks, bringing the obscene bonus culture to an end.
• All MP’s and MSP’s to be paid an average skilled worker’s wage.
• Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. These campaigns currently cost billions each year, and that’s without counting the appalling loss of life.

Bus from Dundee :-

Bus – 33 Seater booked – spaces still available, If you would like to book a seat please get in touch as soon as possible

To reserve seat contact: Karen Grogan, karen1grogan@hotmail.com.

Bus leaves Meadowside, opposite Post Office, at 8.30 a.m.

Returns to Dundee by 5.00 p.m.

£10 per seat (£5 concessions).

Assemble 10.30am East Market Street, Edinburgh, leaving at 11am

Troops Out of Afghanistan Now / No to NATO / Scrap Trident

The NATO defence ministers are meeting at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre the weekend of the 14th. The war in Afghanistan is waged under the NATO banner. Opinion polls make it clear that a big majority want the troops home now.

Joan Humphries, whose grandson Kevin Elliott was killed while on foot patrol in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on 31 August, will be speaking at the end of the march and there will be music from David Ferrard

Called by Stop the War Scotland, supported by STW UK, CND, SCNDSACC

Dundee East and West branches of the Scottish Socialist party organised a public meeting in the city’s Queens Hotel on the evening of Wednesday, September 23, to protest at the continuing war in Afghanistan, and calling for the troops to be brought home.

It was a particularly poignant time to hold this meeting in Dundee, as two young soldiers from the area, one from Dundee itself and the other from nearby Monifieth, had lost their lives in the fighting in Afghanistan during the previous three weeks, in this pointless and senseless war.

Street stalls were held on the five days leading up to the meeting and the reaction from the public was overwhelmingly against the war and agreeing with the SSP‘s position.

Many of those signing our petitions and pledging support for our stance told us that they were either family or friends of service personnel currently on duty in Afghanistan.

In the two days leading up to the meeting, Dundee West member Angela Gorrie was interviewed on the two local radio stations, Radio Tay and Wave 102, giving her the opportunity to state the Scottish Socialist Party’s case against the continuation of the war in Afghanistan.

The meeting itself was well attended with around thirty members of the pbulic turning out to show their anger at Britain’s continuing involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

Speakers at the meeting were Colin Fox, national spokesperson of the Scottish Socialist Party; former MP and MSP and Scottish Socialist Party member John McAllion; and Mohammad Asif, of the Scottish Afghan Society.

First to speak was John McAllion, who highlighted the enormity of the lies and deceptions surrounding the war, while the next speaker, Mohammad Asif, told of the countless unnamed Afghan casualties who never seem to rate a mention as victims of a war being fought on their own soil.

In the final speech of the evening Colin Fox stated that on the run-up to next year’s general election the war in Afghanistan and the ongoing crisis of captitalism would be the main issues on which the election would be fought.

Following their speeches, the speakers then answered various questions from the floor of the meeting.

As regards further anti-war activity, it was agreed that we should use the time between now and the anti-war demonstration in Edinburgh on November 14 to build for the demo, and we should attempt to get the maximum number of people from Dundee through to Edinburgh for the event in order to keep up the pressure on the government.

SSP Public meeting on Afghanistan – Aberdeen

Wednesday 28th November in Aberdeen Trades Council Social Club, 13 Adelphi, off Union Street

Speakers
Colin Fox, SSP joint national spokesman
John McAllion, Former MP and MSP
Mohammad Asif, Chairman Scottish Afghan Society

Wednesday 23rd September, 7.30pm, Queen’s Hotel.

Confirmed speakers include Colin Fox and John McAllion

Afghanistan Public Meeting Leaflet

Wednesday, September 23rd, 7.30 p.m.

Queens Hotel, Dundee

Confirmed Speakers—

Colin Fox,
John McAllion

Assemble 8.15 p.m. march off 8.30 p.m.

Speakers: John McAllion (confirmed) others yet to confirm.

Bring candles, hand lights, banners, etc.

Also, to commemorate the bombing of Nagasaki, please join Erik Cramb on Sunday, 9th August, at 11.01 a.m. at top of Law.

Dear Colleague,

I write to advise you of 2 important forthcoming events for peace movement in Scotland. I wonder if you would send this letter and the attachments on to your usual contacts.

1. A joint STUC/Scottish CND Conference entitled ‘Trident, Jobs and Scotland’s Economy’ to be held on Saturday 6th June at the STUC, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow from 10.30am to 1.30pm. The speakers will include Jeremy Corbyn MP, Bill Kidd MSP, Lynn Henderson, Jackson Cullinane(TGWU/Unite), and Dave Moxham STUC. Among other things the Conference will mark the launch of a new STUC/CND research report providing up to date figures on the job losses associated with the Trident programme. Contrary to other claims, Trident renewal is actually costing Scotland vital jobs now and cancelling it could release resources for new productive investment in its economy. Attached is a leaflet in PDF format. I would be grateful if you could circulate your contacts to inform them of this important event.

2. A march and rally in Glasgow entitled ‘Crunch Time for Trident’ on Saturday 20th June – assemble George Square 11am, march to Kelvingrove Park for a rally. There will be keynote speakers and songs specially commissioned for the event. The event is organised by Scotland’s for Peace. Again, I would be grateful if you could circulate your contacts and encourage them to bring banners etc to the event. I attach a copy of a leaflet to advertise the event. If you would like to receive copies of the leaflets for either event or posters for the latter event, please contact the Scottish CND office at 15 Barrland Street, Glasgow G41 1QH – tel 0141 433 2821.

Yours in Peace

Alan Mackinnon
Chair, Scottish CND

Viva La Revolution St Andrews

Students at St Andrews University were in the headlines last week for occupying their College Halls in support of the Gaza Palestinians and in particular against the University’s links with Israeli defence contractors. Last Wednesday as their week long occupation drew to a successful conclusion they asked me to come up and address them. Many of the 200 or so protesters had organised my election campaign to become Rector of the University last October.

These are my remarks to them

I am very proud indeed to be back here at St Andrews tonight. I am especially proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with you at the end of this remarkable occupation. I am proud to see so many of the students who led the campaign ‘Fox for Rector’ in October involved in furthering the cause of the Palestinian people.

I am sure Kevin Dunnion [the successful Rector candidate] is delighted to see you take this action and demonstrate the strength of feeling on campus. – Kevin Dunion was, unbeknown to me, sitting in the meeting as I spoke!

I wish to congratulate you all on behalf of the people of Scotland and indeed the vast majority of the peoples of the world who like you share the view that a terrible injustice has befallen the people of Gaza in recent weeks. You have done both them and yourselves immense credit by the principled and dignified way you have conducted your protest.

You are a credit indeed to us all, to the people who have gone before you at this University and the spirit of learning which this place exists to promote. You have learned that it is right to stand up to tyranny and abuse. It is right to resist injustice and to rebel against exploitation. Read Shelley, read Oscar Wilde, read Malcolm X.

In my experience over 30 years now as an active participant in the international class struggle your actions do matter, they do affect change, you will give huge encouragement to the Palestinian people by this action this past week. News of your protest will have given great encouragement to hundreds of millions of people throughout the world who support the Palestinian cause.

Furthermore your action will have severely irked those who wish you hadn’t done it; the UK Government, the US Government and of course the warmongering Israeli propaganda machine.

They would have rather you hadn’t had this occupation. They would rather you had stayed in the bar drinking and mind your own business or stayed in your halls with a joint getting stoned. In fact they would have far rather you were protesting on their side in favour of BAe’s links to the Israeli military.

I see the Palestinians in 2009 as the black South Africans of the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s – facing down the barrel of a gun and overwhelming military intimidation for their basic democratic and human rights.

The struggle for justice for the Palestinians today is every bit as important as the anti Apartheid campaign. The treatment of Palestinians is no less brutal that that meted out to the black majority in South Africa. The injustice is rife, the military odds stacked against them virtually insurmountable. Yet the international support is as it was for Nelson Mandela and the ANC.

And lets not forget they won and so will the Palestinains.

Your occupation this week has played its small part in bringing the day the Palestinians achieve the rights the rest of us already take for granted that bit closer. I salute you , you should be proud of yourselves and each other. Thank you.’

Craig Murray has posted an excellent piece detailing how Harriet Harman is lying for claiming the British Government never knew it gained intelligence from torture and explains how Jack Straw and others justified it at the time.

An exert

• In October/November 2002 and January/Februray 2003 I sent two Top Secret telegrams to London specifically on the subject of our receipt of intelligence gained under torture. I argued this was illegal, immoral and impractical. The telegrams were specifically marked for the Secretary of State.
• I was formally summoned back to the FCO for a meeting held on 7 or 8 March 2003 specifically and solely on the subject of intelligence gained under torture. Present were Linda Duffield, Director Wider Europe, FCO, Sir Michael Wood, Chief Legal Adviser, FCO, and Matthew Kydd, Head of Permanent Under-Secretary’s Department, FCO.
• This meeting was minuted. I have seen the record, which is classified Top Secret and was sent to Jack Straw. On the top copy are extensive hand-written marginalia giving Jack Straw’s views.
• I was told at this meeting that it is not illegal for us to obtain intelligence gained by torture, provided that we did not do the torture ourselves. I was told that it had been decided that as a matter of War on Terror policy we should now obtain intelligence from torture, following discussion between Jack Straw and Richard Dearlove. I was told that we could not exclude receipt of specific material from the CIA without driving a coach and horses through the universality principle of the UK/US intelligence sharing agreement, which would be detrimental to UK interests.

Looks like they are trying to win the hearts and minds one dissected and boiled set of genitalia at a time.

Help Craig Murray be heard by the committee by e-mailing them following the details on a later post.

Now the Labour Party are planning to privatise 30% of Royal Mail. Twice disgraced Business Secretary Peter Mandelson claims that Royal Mail is in danger of running out of money and that the taxpayer could not be expected to fund potential liabilities in the region of £8bn in the companies pension fund. Part of the reason the pension fund is in deficit is that the return on the investment for them is based on Labours glorious Free Market which has just failed, spectacularly, again. The main part though, and this is good, is because Labour allowed the bosses to take a pension holiday for thirteen years!

They encouraged the bosses to not pay money into the pension fund, then use the fact it’s now, obviously, in deficit to attack the service.

Billy Hayes, leader of the Communication Workers’ Union hit the nail on the head:

The government is saying they want a foreign company to run the post office, which is ridiculous. We could be faced with a situation where the Royal Bank of Scotland is nationalised and the Royal Mail is privatised.

This is not an isolated incident, Labour and the Tories freed up the most profitable parts of the Royal Mail to competition, and more recently Labour have been attacking whole swathes of the service. This included disgracefully closing four post offices in Dundee, one of which was in the area they are now trying to convince voters to elect them in. Dundee SSP were out campaigning constantly getting people to sign petitions and write letters objecting to the closures and taking part in the Consultation.

The outcome of privatising the most profitable parts of the service is that Labours demands that the company turn a larger profit is harder than ever, because of Labour gutting the service in the first place.

New Labour for consultation is clearly English for proclamation and farce. The objections of hundreds were ignored. A handful of Post Offices have been saved from closure, only for others to take their place. Showing clearly they were not closing based on popularity or local need but purely because they wanted to close X number. The act of removing one from that list resulted in the adding of another.

There are two petitions on the issue, and the least you can do is sign them. After that write to your MP. There will no doubt be other protests and actions taking place over this issue so pledge to take part in any that do.

CWU petition

Petition on Number 10 site

The students have now set up a blog

Student are also asking for anyone living or working in the area to visit them – show your support!

Having presented the petition, already signed by over 30 academics and 700 students, to the Principal of the University around 50 people have occupied Lower College Hall in protest at the University’s complicity in the Israeli occupation.

———-

We, the concerned students of the University of St. Andrews demand that the university condemns the illegal bombing and genocide in Gaza and Israel’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians. In particular, as an educational establishment we urge that it shows practical solidarity with the Islamic university of Gaza and other schools and colleges damaged during the bombing.

We believe that now is the time for the university to firmly and unilaterally cut all financial and commercial ties with any companies that in any way supports the apartheid state of Israel. The university has led the way in adopting a policy of ethical investment. Now is the time for students, staff and management to show that we do not lack the courage to condemn crimes against humanity, nor the generosity to help those who are in such desperate need. Specifically we demand that the university:

1. Immediately suspends and pledges not to renew its contract with Eden Springs, the Israeli water company which illegally steals water from the Golan Heights. It is not enough that this contract run out this year, it must be canceled now.
2. Investigates its million pound research contracts with defense companies and the ministry of defense. Centrally, that the university sets up a review seeking to find replacement funding for the research contracts with BAE systems and its extensive links to Accenture. Both have close ties with the apartheid regime of Israel.
3. Sets up a scholarship program for Palestinian Students and commits to a minimum of 10 scholarships. This would send out an important symbolic message that we will not turn a blind eye to the Palestinian students who are unable to study because of the attacks on educational infrastructure and constant state of terror which prevents students from attending university.
4. Organizes a collection on campus, including a broadcasting of the DEC appeal, for aid for Gaza, makes available non-monetary aid such as course books, desks etc. and also establishes links with the Islamic University of Gaza in order to find out how it might aid with reconstruction.
5. Following the letter signed by fifty medical students, that Bute medical school provides medical aid for Palestine in the form of medical equipment and drugs and through supporting organizations such as medical aid for Palestine (supported by Medsin)

In all of these measure the university might link up with other Scottish and English universities who are also adopting similar policies in order to develop a common, humanitarian and equitable approach to Israeli companies and those linked to its war machine and to the Palestinian people and its ravaged educational infrastructure.

Many thanks,
St Andrews Univeresity Student Occupation

The petition text is below, follow the link to sign it.

To: President of the United Nations General Assembly and the UK Attorney General

BWCF – THE BLAIR WAR CRIMES FOUNDATION

To The President of The United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, and The Attorney General of the United Kingdom, and their successors in office.

RE ANTHONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIR

We, the citizens of the United Kingdom and other countries listed, wish to uphold The United Nations Charter, The 1998 Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Rule of International Law, especially in respect of:-

1. 1949 Geneva Convention IV: Article 146
   The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention.
2. 1907 Hague Convention IV: Article 3
   A belligerent party which violates the provisions of the said regulations shall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation. It shall be responsible for all the acts committed by persons forming part of its armed forces.

We therefore call on you to indict Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in his capacity as recent Prime Minister of the UK, so long as he is able to answer for his actions and however long it takes, in respect of our sample complaints relating to the 2003 Iraq War waged by the UK as ally to the United States of America.

We are concerned that without justice and respect for the rule of law, the future for us and our progeny in a lawless world is bleak, as revealed by recent US declarations about the use of torture and the events of December 2008 in Gaza show.

The following are our sample complaints relating to the Iraq War 2003-2009:

1. Deceit and conspiracy for war, and providing false news to incite passions for war, causing in the order of one million deaths, 4 million refugees, countless maimings and traumas.
2. Employing radioactive ammunition causing long-term destruction of the planetary habitat.
3. Causing the breakdown of civil administration, with consequent lawlessness, especially looting, kidnapping, and violence, and consequent breakdown of womens’ rights, of religious freedom, and child and adult education.
4. Failing to maintain the medical needs of the populace.
5. Despoliation of the cultural heritage of the country.
6. Supporting an ally that employs ‘waterboarding’ and other tortures.
7. Seizing the assets of Iraq.
8. Using inhumane restraints on prisoners, including dogs, hoods, and cable ties.
9. Using Aggressive Patrolling indiscriminately, traumatising women and children and wrecking homes and property.
10. Marking bodies of prisoners with numbers, writing, faeces and other degrading treatment.
11. The use of cluster bombs and other indiscriminate weapons including white phosphorous on shake and bake missions.
12. Supporting indiscriminate rocket attacks from F16 fighter planes on women and children in Fallujah in Nov 2004
13. Supporting the shooting up of ambulances and medical personnel in Fallujah in Nov 2004
14. Supporting the expulsion of the entire population of Fallujah save for young men of military age, for a reprisal attack on that city in Nov 2004.

Strathclyde University Occupation

50 Students are currently occupying srathclyde uni mccance building. a delegation is meeting the principal andrew hamnett to present the following demands :

1. cancel SU‘s contract with eden springs
2. refuse investment from arms manufactyrer BAe systems and find alternative funding for the engineering dept.
3. fund and facilitate 50 scholarships for Palestinian students
4. solidarity with Gaza’s Islamic university – send a letter of support, twin SU with the Islamic uni and aid the rebuilding
5. condem the BBC‘s refusal to show the DEC appeal, show the appeal in lecture theatre’s and hold a fundraising day on campus
6. stop Israeli academics promoting military research at SU the students of the occupation are appealing for solidarity , come down and support us! we will be here until our uni commits to supporting the Palestinians.

The BBC are right. If they broadcast that appeal for food and medicine to be sent to Gaza it would be taking sides. The Israeli Defence force could legitimately say “We’ve gone to enormous lengths here to kill people, then you go and help to keep them alive. How do you square that with your remit to be neutral?”

So the BBC needs to look at other areas in which its ‘impartiality’ could be called into question. To start with they’ll have to scrap Crimewatch, which clearly takes the side of the murdered against the interests of murderers. Maybe they could get round this by having a new balanced Crimewatch, in which the police plea for witnesses to a crime, but then the presenter says “Next tonight – have you seen this man? Because Big Teddy and his gang are desperate to track him down and do him in for ringing us up earlier. So if you have any information please call us, where Nobby the Knife is ready to talk to you in complete confidence.”

Please donate something to the Disaster Emergency Appeal and while you are at it complain to the BBC about their deplorable decision to not screen the appeal.

The appeal in question

If you wish to contact Tayside for Justice in Palestine, the details are:

Email: taysideforjusticeinpalestine@gmail.com
Phone or Text: 07803 052239

Alternatively you can post here and we can pass on to the organisation.

The text from their latest leaflet is below. Several members of Dundee Scottish Socialist Party are involved in the organisation.

The Killing has stopped but the fight goes on

As predicted, the slaughter has stopped in time for the inauguration of President Obama. Now, when the children of Gaza ask their parents when they are going to die, they can be given a little reassurance. But this is only a ceasefire. Over 1,000 have died including 400 children, thousands of lives have been destroyed, Gaza lies in ruins, and the Israeli army could strike again at any time. Moreover, beyond the immediate horror, the political oppression, of which this war was a particularly bloody part, still continues. Israel has strangled the Gaza economy and sealed its borders so that it cannot even receive essential medical supplies; they show no signs of lifting their embargo. Meanwhile, on the Palestinian West Bank, Israel continues to take the best Palestinian land for Israeli settlements and to seal the Palestinians behind a concrete apartheid wall. Our campaign must go on to end the illegal occupation of Palestine and force Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders, as ordered by UN resolutions. We cannot forget the Palestinians just because Gaza no longer dominates our TV screens.

What can we do?

Boycott Israeli Goods

Stop buying produce from Israel or from the West Bank (which means the illegal Israeli settlements). Check the label, especially when buying citrus fruits and fresh herbs. This boycott is an international movement and it is growing. Wear one of our stickers to show what you are doing. See Big Campaign

Write to your MP and MSP and MEP asking them to put pressure on Israel to open Gaza’s border and withdraw from the occupied territories. Government action should include ending the export of arms to Israel; ensuring an immediate end to the favourable status awarded to Israel in the EU; and firm diplomatic pressure on the United States, which effectively underwrites the Israeli state.

Sign our petition

Contribute money for medical aid to Gaza. See Medical Aid For Palestine

Find out more about what is going on and play a part in counteracting Israeli propaganda

Some useful websites

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Scottish Jews for a Just Peace

Jews for Justice for Palestine

Palestine Solidarity Campaign

How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

Leave a contact email so we can alert you to further actions

Public report of police harassment and charging of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! street protest. Dundee, Saturday 17th January 2009.

The day had started very well with a militant, angry and noisy protest march against Israel’s attack on Gaza going into Dundee’s city centre. After the rally, activists from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism, one of whom had spoken at the event, set up a protest stall in the Murraygate to continue building support for the people of Gaza and Palestine.

Once again the city centre ambassadors demanded we remove our stall as we did not have permission or insurance. Once again we told them no! The police were called this time and proceeded to threaten the comrades with Breach of the Peace or causing alarm. It was suggested they go and consult their law books and superior officers as we were not backing down to such contrived charges. They appeared to accept this but returned an hour later with a van and told those present that this time they had come up with obstruction as a charge.

Third time lucky for them maybe but the comrades then began speaking to the gathering crowds explaining what the police were doing and asking them to stay around as witnesses, sign the petitions and support political rights. People were told to check out the YouTube videos about the cops in Liverpool trying to close down protest there and to check out Dundee Arrest on YouTube where a comrade was violently assaulted and arrested by Tayside police for handing out leaflets about Cuba. Speakers explained that when people start to protest here about unemployment, low wages and rent rises that the same cops would be out attacking their rights too. We were speaking out for the people of Gaza who were dying at that moment and we would not allow the police to silence us.

Talk about obstruction! – by now there was 1 police van and 100 people prepared to listen to speeches and chants about free speech. Comrades from the Socialist Workers Party joined the protest having been harassed for doing political work for Gaza that week.

By now the police action was a very public affair and they were not looking so comfortable. They charged Michael with obstruction under Section 53 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. As Michael explained to the youth present this was one of the hated Margaret Thatcher’s laws and it was no surprise that her favourite bobbies were digging it up now!

53. Obstruction by pedestrians.
Any person who, being on foot in any public place—

• (a) obstructs, along with another or others, the lawful passage of any other person and fails to desist on being required to do so by a constable in uniform, or
• (b) wilfully obstructs the lawful passage of any other person shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £500

Michael was threatened with arrest if the stall was not immediately removed and after consulting with the comrades and the crowds it was decided to call a rally in the Murraygate at 12 the following Saturday to protest the harassment and charges.

We call on everyone to openly and publicly challenge this attack on democratic and political rights. Get up! Stand Up! Stand Up For Your Rights!

Defend Democratic Rights!

no to Police interference!

Rally at Murraygate. 12 Noon, Dundee, Saturday 24 January 2009.

Contact the campaign on frfiscotland@yahoo.co.uk

Venceremos!

We Shall Win! Shall Win!

Press Release from Tayside for Justice in Palestine

This Saturday, 17th January, the people of Dundee will be marching to show their support for the one and a half million people of Gaza, and their condemnation of Israel’s brutal war and policy of oppression. Even before the military attacks, the Israeli blockade had turned Gaza into an open prison. Now it is at the mercy of one of the world’s most well equipped armies, and its people have nowhere to hide. Over 1,000 Palestinians have died, thousands more are seriously wounded and the psychological damage is immeasurable. At the same time, while any death is too many, the total of 13 Israeli dead has been fewer than those killed on Israeli roads, and cannot even begin to justify what is happening.

This is an opportunity for Dundee to demonstrate the importance of its well-established links with Palestine, and the march follows on from two weeks of vigils and meetings in response to the current crisis.

The march will assemble at the New University Building at the corner of Hunter Street and Old Hawkhill at 11.30 a.m. and terminate in a rally at the City Square.
Speakers to be confirmed.

Poster for Dundee demo

Assemble 11.30am Saturday 17th January,

New Teaching Block, Old Hawkhill, (Dundee University)

March to City Square

Israel disqualifies Arab parties

Israel’s election authorities have voted to ban two of the three main Arab political parties from running in next month’s general elections.

One Arab committee member said it best

They are accusing us of supporting the terror while they are killing children in Gaza

Tuesday 13th January, 7:30PM, Queens Hotel, Dundee

Chair: Mike Arnott (Dundee Trades Council)
Speakers:

• Keir McKenchnie (Chair, Stop the War Scotland)
• Nadia El-Nakla (Tayside Justice for Palestine)
• Louise Whiteside (Student Activist)

This meeting is to organise support for the Palestinians and get people active in the movement against it.

The following week Dundee SSP will be having an open branch meeting on the situation to discuss the politics behind the situation. Supporters and friends of the SSP are welcome to attend, more details will follow once confirmed.

The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by “an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders”. I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel’s vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration’s complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.

This article has been circulating around left e-mail lists and discussion boards but really should be read more widely.

The full story of Israel and Palestine has very little to do with Qassam Rockets fired from Gaza into Sderot as the Cartoon Papers would have us believe. The current crisis, does not have its roots in the election of Hamas in the Municipal Elections of 2005 as some of the so-called Quality Press would have us believe, certainly not in the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. This current crisis is the latest stage in an old conflict, a conflict that reaches way back, passed the Second Intifada and the First Intifada in the eighties, passed the Yom Kippur War in the 70’s, passed the six-day war in 1967 and the infamous United Nations Resolution 242. It reaches passed the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, passed the incompetent and disastrous Post WW1 British Mandate, destructive as it was. The roots of this conflict, this death and this destruction, including the bombing today of a UN run school only today, stretch way back before any of us were even born, right back to an idea that festered in the latter half of a 19th Century Europe plagued by an unspeakable anti-semitism.

Follow the link to read the entire article.

Sisters and Brothers:

The PGFTU has been working at all levels in Palestine and in its international relations to mobilize international support for peace in the region. This is the ultimate goal for our working families in Palestine, who labored in every way possible to bring about an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories. This occupation is the longest and worst in the modern history.

Over the years and even at this moment, these efforts have been met only with terrorism against our people by the Israeli army of occupation which has indiscriminately destroyed homes and worksites, slaughtered our people, confiscated our land, established and expanded illegal settlements, and limited the movement of workers who are only trying to feed their families. These measures have affected every member of Palestinian society.

The recent construction of the Apartheid Wall stands as a symbol of the extent of Israel’s brutal aggression against the Palestinian people and denial of their legitimate rights, dignity and human needs.

We call upon all peace-loving people in the world:

You are now witness to the criminal aggression by the Israeli army in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, bringing a new wave of killings and massacres against the Palestinian people by Israel as the occupying state. These are war crimes according to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

As our families in Gaza (the poorest in the Middle East) are being slaughtered nonstop for a week now, many of us are reliving what occurred in the summer of 2006 during the Israeli aggression against the people of Lebanon.

We witnessed then as we experience now waves of support and solidarity and similar anger and energy against this brutal injustice. We cannot afford to let this surge of support pass us by without utilizing the moment to build our movement to face future challenges. The most important thing is to be aware and equipped.

We urgently ask you and your sister labor organizations to help us spread the message that

WE ARE ALL GAZA – that this war is against all poor workers and families of the world. These are not just crimes against the people of Palestine. They are crimes against humanity.

• Help us create a strong voice for the working families of Gaza by building coalitions with unions, faith groups, antiwar movements and all social justice organizations.
• We join you in the hope that in the election of Barack Obama, he will fulfill his reputation as a pro-union antiwar candidate, and that he understands that the CHANGE he spoke about during the campaign must include a fundamental change in U.S foreign policy so that FREE GAZA. …FREE PALESTINE becomes more than just a slogan.
• We support and encourage your Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) efforts against Israel around the world, but especially in Europe and most particularly in the United States as a response to the harsh economic conditions, violations of labor and human rights, and other forms of oppression imposed by the illegal and immoral Israeli Apartheid occupation.
• We ask you to stop US aid to Israel. This becomes not only necessary but also a duty of international solidarity among labor unions around the world. It is US government aid that provides Israel with the weapons of oppression and US government support that enables them to use those weapons against our people.
• We ask you to be an active player in raising funds to meet the bare necessities of food, medicine and medical supplies for the people of Gaza.

[See below for information on how to send financial contributions to the PGFTU for Gaza Aid]

With your solidarity with our struggle for human rights and justice, we can transform this moment of crisis into a turning point for an end to the brutal occupation and a step toward the liberation of the people of Palestine.

With the will and determination of all the people, we can say FREE PALESTINE … YES WE CAN.

Manawell Abdel Al, Executive Committee Member
Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

Al- Rahbat Street
PO Box 1216
Nablus- Palestine

Website: www.pgftu.org, website in English
E-mail: mailto:pgftu@pgftu.org

Chapterhouse, St Ninian’s Cathedral, Perth (entry via courtyard to the North, reached through small lane off Atholl St, near Dunkeld Rd traffic lights)
 
Chair: Bishop Michael Hare Duke
 
Speaker: from Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
 
Aim of Meeting: to create a context for concerned people in Perth to consider ways we can work together to ’raise our game’ in response to this ratcheting tragedy.

Among responses we will be discussing together are:

• self- and other-education
• writing to public officials and organisations
• soliciting humanitarian donations
• encouraging solidarity actions such as consumer boycotts (NB helped change the other Apartheid).

Stop Israel’s crime against humanity

Scotland-wide Demonstration

Edinburgh

Saturday 10 January 2009

Assemble 12:30pm East Market Street (behind Edinburgh Waverley Train Station)

March through the city centre and to the US Consulate.

Bring in-date medicine for Gaza, and spare shoes.

Supported by Stop the War Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Pauline McNeil MSP, Sandra White MSP, Muslim Association of Britain, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign, Lebanese Community Scotland, Scottish Afghan Society, Scottish Islamic Foundation, Scottish Friends of Palestine, and others to be confirmed.

Coaches departing Glasgow, George Square, Saturday 10 January 10:30am. To reserve seats call: 0791 2348 366 or email: glasgowstopwar@gmail.com

For details on transport to Edinburgh from other parts of Scotland, please contact 07840101589.

—-

In Dundee:

At a meeting today at Brown Street Mosque, a few important decisions were taken:
Activists’ meeting, Wed, 7th Jan, 6.30 p.m. at YY centre (across from the Mosque, Brown St.)
Saturday, 10th Jan, March to Dundee City Square, 12 noon. More info re starting point etc. to follow.
This has been postponed and a vigil is being held in Dundee City Centre on Friday 2:30pm-6pm instead.

Also decided at meeting, to name campaigning organisation: Tayside for Justice in Palestine. Also, 26 people from Tayside travelled on hired bus to demo in Edinburgh on Sat. (Many more made their own way). Excellent response. We’ll keep up the pressure.

Edith Constable

We demand an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, an increase in the flow of humanitarian aid, the re-opening of negotiations, an end to the expansion of Israeli settlements, the withdrawal by Israel to 1967 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Nadia El-Nakla

The vigil is not intended to debate politics. The aim is to highlight the recent inhumane abuse of power, violence and excessive force along with the humanitarian crisis that faces 1.4 million people in the Gaza Strip.

Bus leaves Discovery Point (opposite Rail station) 10.30 a.m. Saturday. Leaves Edinburgh 3 p.m. arrive back in Dundee 4.30 p.m. £10 waged, £6 concession.

SACC initiated a Petition against this and issued a statement which CACI International Inc, have taken offence to.

CACI are the organisation who ran Abu Ghraib, the prison in Iraq where torture images were proven to originate from.

According to SACC they have bullied the media in the United States into silence over their involvement and they are now doing the same here after two articles were published in the Sunday Herald

Scottish Government hires firm accused of torture in Iraq and SNP face backlash for hiring firm accused of Iraq torture.

Aldermaston Big Blockade – Monday, October 27 2008

Help disrupt illegal work on WMD at Britain’s nuclear bomb factory

In 2006/7, Faslane 365 saw well over 1000 arrests during a year-long blockade of the Trident submarine base in Scotland. Last Easter, AWE Aldermaston saw its biggest demonstration in two decades as 5000 people surrounded the base to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Aldermaston march. Trident Ploughshares now invite you to a major blockade of the Berkshire nuke factory, where billions of pounds are currently being spent developing new warhead facilities that will scupper nuclear disarmament for another 50 years. Help us uphold international law by blockading this factory of death in what promises to be a colourful celebration of life and people power. There is a role for everyone. This event is supported by CND.

For further details, see: Block AWE and Trident Ploughshares.org

Trident Ploughshares is a campaign to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a non-violent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner. There will be a mini-bus(at least) going from Glasgow. If you want to join them e-mail Jane or phone 0845 4588 367

Scottish CND

This message has been sent to you by Scottish CND on behalf of Trident Ploughshares

If you with to change the types of messages you receive from Scottish CND, please visit Their site

Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
15 Barrland St,
Glasgow,
G41 1QH,

0141 423 1222

Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Saturday, 25th October, 12 noon,

George Square, Glasgow.

How would you spend £20 billion of public money in the next 5 years?

Speakers: Bruce Kent, Judith Robertson, Oxfam; Matt Smith (Unison); Dave Gibb (music) and others. Stalls/Food. Anyone interested? Enough interest to organise transport from Dundee or at least help with expenses those wishing to participate.

North East Biographies – About our candidates standing for the North East List in the Scottish Parliamentry Election.