Assemble 12noon, West gate of Dudhope Park (postcode DD1 5RE for satnav / GoogleMap). March off at 12:30pm. Route; Lochee Road, Marketgait, West Marketgait, Nethergate to rally in City Square (postcode DD1 3BA) commencing at approx 1pm. Provisionally, feeder marches are being investigated from Dundee University (via Hawkhill to join up at Marketgait Circle) and Abertay University (via Bell Street to join up at Marketgait).

TUs are asked to check & advise on speakers (Dundee or national officers). STUC speaker has been requested.

Further details; dundeetuc@ymail.com, 07951 443656.

48 hours after the results are known the media has had saturation coverage of an independence referendum. This morning on the Sunday morning politics programmes Labour and Tory politicians were wheeled out and attacked the SNP because of all the talk of independence.

The tory went as far as to repeat the Wendy Alexander Bring it on taunt to the SNP.

As daft as the phrase sounds, there is a minor point. In 2007 the SNP promised a referendum in 100days, er a year, er within the first term of office. The unionists allied in opposition enough to make the SNP bottle holding one. They are now hinting about one towards the end of the current term.

In addition the Tories supported holding the AV referendum even though advocated a No vote. If they see that the two positions are not contradictory then why do these parties not support having the referendum but then campaign against a Yes to independence result?

So on the one side you have the SNP trying to delay implementing the policy they exist for.

On the other you have the Lib Dems, Tories and Labour trying to block a referendum for a variety of public reasons (mainly cost) and private reasons (they don’t want it to pass). The arguments against didn’t stop Tories and Lib Dems supporting the recent AV referendum. Nor Labour the slightly less recent referendum on more powers for the Welsh Assembly.

As ever the goalposts have moved.

In the past few weeks Labour were saying a vote for SNP is a vote for independence. Presumably now they would insist a referendum has to take place first?

Of course rags like the Daily Mail are a bit miffed. Apparently the rest of the UK needs to vote on Scotland being independent, it’s not just those in Scotland. To use the old argument, a husband and wife would both need to agree to a divorce or if only 1 wants it be forced to stay together?

Quite pathetic really.

Of course the logical end of this argument is ignored.

The first commenter on the article Muggins, Manchester I want out of the Union as well; the European Union. What’s the betting we don’t get a referendum on that one!.

So does Muggins think that a UK referendum on leaving the EU would only be valid if the rest of the EU voted that the UK could leave?

Presumably not…

Location: Burns’ Statue, Albert Square, Dundee
Time: 26 March · 12:00 – 13:00

There is an event set up on Facebook for further information.

So how do the SSP differ? We have both a different political programme from the banks fans and also the will to implement it.

As the build up to the Holyrood elections approaches the major political parties are putting forward their modest economic proposals for what they would do if they formed the next Scottish government. But what could a government do to radically change the landscape of Scotland to transform it from a country of mass unemployment and cuts to one where people had a bright future, communities were regenerated, the austerity that people are facing is reversed and instead the social needs of society is met? What follows are the measures that such a government could take in its first 100 days in office to take Scotland along that road.

Full article on SSP site

On Friday 29th April there will be a demo starting from 11:30 in Hilltown park with a rally in the city square at noon.

Mayday2011

Later that night there will be a social in Lyrics in St Andrews Lane from 7:30pm. This will have Music, Raffle and Revolutionary Enjoyment tickets cost £10.

SocialPoster2001

Next meetings:

• Wednesday 12 January 2011
• Wednesday 26 January 2011
• Wednesday 9 February 2011
• Wednesday 23 February 2011

There is an Dundee anti-cuts meeting on the 19 January so to avoid a clash we have had an extra week break over the holiday period.

The main topic for the next meeting will be the coming Tory/Lib Dem cuts. To come along contact us in one of the listed ways.

Tommy Sheridan’s conviction today for perjury was inevitable.

Six years ago, as leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, he proposed to sue a tabloid newspaper over stories he knew to be true and demanded that our party went along with his lies. All his closest friends and political allies of 20 years urged him not to take such a reckless course of action.

He will now be dealt with by the judge. We have no desire for vengeance.

What is more important is that all those who have been falsely denounced by him and his allies as liars, plotters, perjurers and forgers have been cleared.

The idea that there was a conspiracy involving Rupert Murdoch, Lothian and Borders Police and the SSP is nonsense and yet this is the narrative that Tommy Sheridan’s supporters publicly promoted for the past 4 years.

By his actions over six years, Tommy Sheridan has disgraced himself and negated his political contribution to the socialist cause over 25 years. History will now record that he did more harm to the socialist cause in Scotland than any good he ever did it.

That astonishing conclusion would not have been thought possible at the height of the poll tax struggle he led so well, or during his early period in the Scottish Socialist Party and Scottish Parliament.

The SSP reaffirms that its aim is to defend the interests of working people, the millions against the millionaires and to fight for a socialist transformation of society in the interests of the majority.

We now draw a line under this sorry saga and move on. The Scottish Socialist Party has been tested to the limit over the past six years and has proven it is a party of principles and integrity.

In this time of savage attacks by the rich against the poor, Scotland more than ever needs a strong left wing socialist party that can be trusted.

Helping the Dundee folk in distress

A Dundee pair set up a Facebook page to co-ordinate helpers for vulnerable people in Dundee during the severe snowstorm we are experiencing just now. Volunteers are going shopping for elderly people trapped in their homes and clearing paths to make it safer for people to get about sheltered housing complexes etc.

Whether through this group or not it is instinctual for people to do these sorts of things. Most of the papers have praised the group whilst being shocked that about 30 years of individualist propaganda people will do these sorts of actions. Some seem to think that it is strange to imagine those of us who clear paths near us or chap our elderly neighbours to see if they are ok and if they need anything. This says more about the ideas constantly bombarding us through the media than the community spirit of the vast majority of society.

In the coming year some of those out gritting roads will be made redundant. Some of those out shovelling snow and shopping for neighbours will lose jobs or homes because of the recession. The bankers and politicians who caused this mess – how many of them will be out in their wellies helping their neighbours and friends? If the cold hits again next year will it cause more disruption when councils cut waste i.e. make some of those people clearing snow and gritting paths redundant?

It’s bad enough that relatives and visitors to the sick and injured are lining the pockets of the Vinci parasites but raising the charges just adds insult to injury.

Dundee SSP have campaigned against these charges for years. What is most galling is that most other hospitals have had them abolished. Only those with disastrous PFI deals remained.

Recently the newspapers were full of politicians outraged over the locked in contract which delivered terrible value for money on aircraft carriers.

It is worth noting that those same politicians are silent when it comes to worse contracts sucking money out of our schools and hospitals in PFI deals.

PFI – created by Tories, perfected by Labour.

Well here it is in it’s totality

No doubt when some poor soul finds out next week that they were overpaid a couple of hundred quid benefits than they should have they will get front page coverage but for now their spokespeople are oddly silent.

For a better Tax Campaign group see Tax Payers Alliance

A call to the people of Dundee

• The Tory / Lib Dem Government has proposed massive cuts in services, benefits,
  pensions, jobs and wages as their answer to the deficit created by the banking crisis.
• Dundee City Council is set to cut £40Million over the next four years, and that’s on
  top of local cuts in budgets for Police, Fire, Health, Universities and the Civil Service.
• The poorest are facing a bigger share of the cost of a crisis that was not of their
  making. The bankers, who caused that crisis, are still raking in their bonuses.
• Last year £123 Billion of UK tax was either dodged through loopholes (avoided),
  illegally not paid (evaded) or simply not collected. Google’s UK earnings were £1.6
  Billion. Using loopholes in UK tax law, they paid no Corporation Tax. They should have paid £450 Million. UK Boardroom pay went up 7% and bonuses by 22%.

There is a better way

• The Government’s vicious cuts are not necessary: Current UK debt is only 68% of
  GDP, compared to Greece 115%, Japan 217%, USA 83.2%, Germany 73%, Belgium 97% and France 77%. The average for advanced economies is 77.3%.
• The UK and Argentina are the only G20 countries to withdraw financial stimulus from
  their economies for 2010. The others are investing in infrastructure and growth.
• We should be supporting our economy by investment in jobs, industry, training and
  research. We should be building our way out of this crisis; creating a future for our
  young people by developing our green industries such as offshore wind generation.
• We should be supporting our students and our Schools, Universities and Colleges.

Public March & Rally

Dundee, 29th September 2010

The European Trade Union Confederation is staging a European Day of Action on 29 September next. This Day of Action follows a decision by the ETUC Executive Committee on 1 and 2 June. It will be made up of a Euro-demonstration in Brussels and trade union actions in the various European countries. The European trade unions will be demonstrating against the austerity measures adopted recently by many EU countries, and to demand recovery plans in favour of quality jobs and growth.

As Dundee’s contribution to this activity a March & Rally will take place;

Assemble Hilltown Park, 11.30am

March off; 12 noon: Route: Hilltown, Victoria Road, Meadowside, Albert Square (North side), Reform Street to City Square.

Rally: City Square from approx 12.20pm to 1pm.

Called by Dundee Public Services Campaign, comprising Dundee TUC, Dundee Joint Shop Stewards Liaison Committee, Right to Work Campaign (Dundee).

One of them is Head Fixing Industry by John Keracher. John was born in Dundee and later moved to America where he formed a group called the Proletarian Party of America.

Interesting stuff. Hopefully someone can find the time to run some text scanning software against it and get a text version of it.

The election of the Tories – the Twin Tories, with the treacherous Lib Dems joining forces with the Tory Butchers – marks a new threat to education workers, education services and communities. We all face a level of carnage to jobs, conditions and services not experienced since Thatcher at her most rampant.

Cameron and Clegg have lost no time in pronouncing their top priority is to cut public spending.

These upper class butchers want to wield the axe to jobs, pay, pensions, benefits, public services – to enrich their own class even further.

Cameron’s claims that we all face pain for years to come is false to the core.

The bankers who enjoyed a bountiful handout from public funds don’t face ‘pain’ – for instance, 100 of them at the RBS recently awarded themselves a £1m bonus each!

The richest 1,000 fat-cats whose incomes rocketed by 30% last year, to £353billion! – do not face ‘hard choices’ or ‘painful decisions’.

It’s Scotland’s 630,000 public sector workers, alongside workers in the private sector, our families, our communities, who face a massacre – unless a united, determined, militant campaign of resistance is built, starting now!

In resisting the cuts, EIS and other unions need two central guiding principles: unity in action is our best defence – and a convincing set of policies to explode the myth that cuts are unavoidable.

Teachers, civil servants, council and NHS workers have marched and taken strike action against cuts.

It would be fatal if these fights were kept separate and apart, or if any union adopted the notion that cuts are inevitable – but ‘not in our service’. That would weaken the resistance and guarantee cuts to all services.

So SSP members in the EIS (and in all other unions) strongly advocate united action – across all public sector unions and alongside community groups, anti-cuts campaigns, Save Our Schools campaigns…

EIS and other unions should build a united public rally on Saturday 26th June, after new levels of carnage are announced in the 22nd June Butchers’ Budget – as a springboard for building a mass march in the autumn, when even more cuts will be announced in the government’s Spending Review.

Such events would help build the fighting morale of tens of thousands who right now are terrified of what the future holds.

Equally important in building a rebellion against cuts from a government that has no mandate in Scotland – with 85% voting against the Tories – is a convincing set of policies that exposes the lie that cuts are necessary and unavoidable – a monstrous lie peddled not only by the Tories and Lib Dems, but also New Labour and the SNP! Otherwise many people will fall for the argument that there’s not enough money to defend jobs and services, that cuts are a necessary evil – and then fall out amongst themselves over where the cuts should occur.

That divide-and-conquer trickery lies behind the Tory plan to consult people over what to cut! There is no need for any cuts! There are oceans of wealth swilling around – but in the hands of the bankers. billionaires and boardrooms of oil companies – not in the hands of the public.

The SSP fights for alternatives that would create jobs, improve services, protect conditions. Commit EIS to action against the cuts – alongside other unions – and argue for socialist policies that would fund the expansion of jobs and services. And join the SSP – for an independent socialist Scotland.

Twenty’s Plenty in a class

The Scottish Socialist Party has an unrivalled track record of standing up for kids, communities and education. We have consistently fought school closures that lead to larger classes, job losses, increased stress for staff, worse education.

We have led several Save Our Schools campaigns, uniting parents, communities and trade unionists – demanding smaller classes and investment in community-based schools within easy, safe reach of children’s homes.

We led the mass opposition to Labour’s school closures in Glasgow last year. During that campaign we popularised the slogan Twenty’s Plenty in any class, and lobbied the SNP government to pass legislation to limit classes to 20 for all age groups.

At the recent STUC Congress, SSP members pushed this policy and won the backing of the conference for a campaign for classes of 20 maximum for all.

In East Dunbartonshire, when the Labour-Tory Coalition announced closure of 8 primaries last week,the SSP called a protest demo and public meeting to set up a Save Our Schools campaign.

150 local people joined the demo, the councillors took fright, and shelved their butchery – for now!

EIS shares the SSP’s policy of 20 max in a class. The time is rotten-ripe for the EIS leadership to lead action in support of this policy – including industrial action.

This would be cause for celebration if not for the comments of Councillor Lyall in the Courier this morning.

If the plans aren’t approved tomorrow, they’ll simply come up next year and the year after that until they are.

Utterly contemptible.

So for those who have missed this the process of consultation is as follows:

1. Consultation on downgrading
2. People say NO!
3. Fire station not downgraded
4. wait a year
5. go to start of list

I think you get the idea.

Saturday, 01 May 2010
Time:
11:40 – 12:50
Location:
Cowgate to Albert Square

The Fire Board have for the second year in a row marked it for cuts. It needs to be defended for the second year in a row.

Read about the campaign at the website Save Balmossie

If one of your councillors is on the Fire Board please contact them to ensure they vote against downgrading.

A list of members can be found at the campaign site

They include

• Elizabeth Fordyce (Maryfield)
• Helen Wright (Coldside)
• Rod Wallace (The Ferry)
• David Bowes (Coldside)
• Andy Dawson (North East)
• Richard McCready (West End)
• Christina Roberts (East End)

So basically 6 of the 8 wards in Dundee.

There are also other councillors from Angus and Perthshire.

Professional Firefighters in Tayside are on the Threshold of taking Industrial Action to Protect Your Community from cuts to Your Front Line Emergency Fire Cover.

Join us on Saturday 20th March 2010
Protest Once Again Against the Chief Fire Officer’s Proposals

Speakers include
Matt Wrack, FBU General Secretary
Jim Malone, FBU Regional Organiser
Local Tayside Politicians

Assemble 12.30 Castle Green, Broughty Ferry
March Begins at 13.00.
Rally at St Aidens Hall.

CUTS COSTS LIVES – YOURS

March will be led by the Mains of Fintry Pipe Band

For more information see the campaign site

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

We previously covered the re-dedication of the new plaque

The SSPs annual educational weekend is taking place soon.

Friday night will have a rally with international speakers, expected guests include members of Frances NPA, Portugals Left Bloc and Denmarks Red-Green Alliance.

Saturday will have workshops and educationals on a variety of subjects

More details posted soon, or keep checking the SSP site

If you live in the Aberdeenshire area there is a new Aberdeen branch.

East Lothian has also been formed.

Congratulations and welcome to these groups of activists are due.

Lilya 4 Ever free showing.

Date: 1st December 2009, 6pm.

The film will be followed by a period of discussion about the issues around trafficking and violence against women.

Details of how to book can be found here

This post is as good as any to also promote the White Ribbon Campaign and to encourage all men to join it.

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

To join the SSP go to the site and fill out a form, email, phone etc.

The Scottish Socialist Party offers unqualified support to CWU members forced to strike against bully-boy bosses and their Labour government backers. They are out to crush the union, crucify jobs and rights at work – in the hope they can sell off Royal Mail to greedy profiteers at Jumble Sale prices.

Every worker, trade unionist and community needs to stand by their posties in a potentially vicious battle to defend the very survival of a public service under assault from Royal Mail bosses, the Labour government and large sections of the media.

Over-paid butchers knife jobs, services and rights

Over-paid Royal Mail bosses, with absolutely no history in the postal service, have prepared for this showdown since the 2007 strike settlement. The key phrase in the Pay & Modernisation Agreement was change will be introduced by agreement. The exact opposite has happened. Bullying, intimidation, threats of disciplinary action, workers taken off pay, have become the standard methods of imposing new conditions that have meant catastrophic job losses and unbearable workloads.

With this reign of terror, Royal Mail bosses have slashed 60,000 jobs since 2003 – and they aim to shed another 60,000 in the next 2 years. Record profits (£900,000 a day last year!) have resulted from vastly increased productivity and heavier workloads from drastically fewer workers. The workers’ reward? Zero pay rise; abolition of the Final Salary Pension Scheme; ‘absorption’ of extra work into existing workloads with no extra pay; not a penny reward for increased productivity … and 60,000 job losses!

Crozier’s 35,000 scabs

Crozier and his cronies are hiring 30,000 temps as an army of scabs – recruited from people desperate for a few weeks’ work in the midst of recession – in addition to 5,000 Royal Mail managers being deployed to scab on the actual strike days. Royal Mail bosses are spending a fortune (of the public’s money) to break the strike, break the union, break the backs of the workforce, to usher in later privatisation.

They have no interest in reaching a resolution that protects workers’ conditions and jobs whilst improving the public service. They only belatedly offer to go to ACAS to get the pre-Xmas strikes cancelled, so as to come back with a vengeance in January. They must not succeed!

Bosses launch war

Instead, they have prepared for war. The secret document, exposed by BBC Newsnight, shows they plan to remove union facilities to help prosecute their war on postal workers. That is already the local experience in many areas. And they are in collusion with the Labour government on this! Lord Mandelson, whose scheme to privatise Royal Mail was shelved in the face of public uproar and the threat of strikes, is out for revenge. He has publicly denounced strikes – legally balloted for according to his Labour government’s vicious anti-union laws – as suicidal.

Interviewed on TV, he showed an incriminatingly detailed knowledge of the secret Royal Mail document, homing in on how much union facility time costs Royal Mail, which suggests he either wrote it – or at the very least has been in cahoots with Crozier and his crew.

Labour government collusion

Labour government ministers have been quoted saying this could be our miners’ strike. They egg on Royal Mail bosses to confront the union, to casualise the workforce with floods of part-timers, in their anti-working class mission to create armies of cheap labour in a de-regulated labour market that maximises profits.

As sole shareholder in Royal Mail, the Labour government have the power to settle this dispute in defence of workers and the public, but instead they encourage vicious hysteria in the press against the CWU – such as reports of riot cops preparing for battles between strikers and scabs. They let Royal Mail bosses enjoy a 13-year pension fund holiday, creating a record pension fund deficit, which workers are being punished for.

Don’t feed the hand that bites you!

New Labour has never been innocent by-standers in this long-running conflict, contrary to their protestations – and in stark contrast to the mind-boggling continuation of funding of New Labour by the CWU. Last year alone the CWU gave their arch enemies over £1million.

The national union should unreservedly declare an end to this crazy support for the party that is butchering CWU members, as one strand to the current war for survival. As we first wrote in SSP workplace bulletins in January 1999: make the break from New Labour’s New Tories – don’t feed the hand that bites you!

Members of the Scottish Socialist Party inside the CWU played their full part in winning the landslide majority for unified national strikes. The SSP does not hesitate in giving full-blooded support to CWU members on strike. We will build public support, until you win a deal that defends jobs, services, conditions and workplace rights.

UNITE – stop scabs!

SSP members in UNITE will press the UNITE leadership to call on their members not to be used as organised scabs. Royal Mail regularly jets managers into local offices on strike, taking care to deploy them from far-flung places, to reduce the likelihood of them taking sympathy action with CWU members they already know.

Leaders of UNITE should instruct their members to do their normal duties, not other people’s jobs, and not to manage Crozier’s scabs – and start a campaign for a strike ballot of their members in Royal Mail – whose jobs are on an extremely shaky nail.

Other unions, and the TUC/STUC, should call and build mass solidarity marches – and appeal to the unemployed not to scab.

If Royal Mail and the Labour government raise the stakes even higher, for example by taking court action against the CWU, other unions should call members out in defiant days of solidarity strike action to help win this critical battle.

• No suspension of strikes – pre-Xmas is the best time to hammer
• Royal Mail bosses – it makes up two-thirds of their annual profits.
• Stand firm and united – victory to the CWU!

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.

Royal Mail workers have voted by a record-breaking majority to take national strike action against the concerted assault on their jobs, pay, workloads, the service they deliver to the public – and the attempts to smash the Communication Workers’ Union as a national union.

They voted by over 3:1 for national strikes – a 76.24 per cent Yes vote in an extremely high turnout of 67 per cent. 61,623 voted Yes, 19,207 No.

This is a mass rejection of the bully-boy rule of Royal Mail bosses – egged on in their reign of terror by the job-cutting, privatising New Labour government, headed up in their crusade against CWU members by Lord Mandelson.

It is a mass mandate for effective, united and immediate strike action, at a time of year when the volume of mail rockets, workloads rise, and the value of our posties is even more recognised by the public.

Royal Mail spin-doctors are trying to whip up public fury at these workers daring to ‘disrupt Christmas’ – the same bosses who have ‘disrupted’ the lives of 60,000 workers (and their families) who have lost their jobs with Royal Mail in the last 5 years.

Willie Marshall, secretary of the Scotland no2 branch of the CWU, told me what he thinks of the vote.

This is a bigger majority even than the 74 per cent YES vote in 2007, the last time we had a national strike. I wasn’t surprised at the massive turnout, when you look at the level of anger amongst members.

It proves members are ready for the fight. And this is not about pay; it’s about the survival of Royal Mail.

Members want the strike action within 7 days after the national meeting of regional secretaries and divisional reps on 12th October. We want the action as soon as possible, and for at least the first strikes to involve the entire workforce, all out together, to show our unity and solidarity.

Members of the Scottish Socialist Party inside the CWU played their full part in winning this landslide for unified national strike action. The SSP does not hesitate in giving full-blooded support to CWU members forced to strike against the decimation of jobs, public services, pay, pensions and union rights. We will do all we can to build public support for their strike action, until they win a decent deal that defends jobs, services, conditions and workplace rights.

And we will do what we can to press the leadership of UNITE to call on their members not to be used as organised scabs during strikes.

Royal Mail managers used to be in a union called CMA, which has now merged into UNITE. Top dogs in Royal Mail have prayed in vain for a No vote, or at least a poor turnout in the strike ballot, but lost no time in organising for managers to be deployed as scabs to sustain the pretence of a postal service just in case CWU members had the audacity to vote Yes!

They have regularly jetted managers into local offices on strike, usually taking care to deploy them from far-flung places, to reduce the likelihood of them taking sympathy action with CWU members they already know.

Willie Marshall commented to me, The excuse they used for doing striking CWU members’ work during local strikes is that nobody informed them! That is nonsense, but they can’t use that excuse this time.

Leaders of UNITE should instruct their members to do their normal duties, not other people’s jobs, and start a campaign for a strike ballot of their own members in Royal Mail – many of whose jobs are also on an extremely shaky nail.

The national CWU leadership have been handed a massive mandate to forge ahead with national strikes, to keep up the momentum, and they should immediately approach UNITE to organise solidarity with their battle for the survival of Royal Mail as a public service – rather than stand silent as UNITE members are organised by top management as a battalion of scabs.

Stand by your posties – victory to the CWU!

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

To read about the campaign go to the blog. To get involved by either donating money or donating time please contact the SSP using the contact details on the campaign blog.

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

Confirmed speakers include Colin Fox and John McAllion

Afghanistan Public Meeting Leaflet

The Diageo bosses have booted their workforces at Kilmarnock and Glasgow right in the teeth. These profit-hungry capitalists have spat in the face of mass public opinion – expressed through 20,000 marching in Kilmarnock, and 500,000 email protests to Diageo shareholders – by confirming closure of the 200-year-old plants. And they didn’t even pretend to consult; they announced this on day 71 of a 90-day consultation period.

The Scottish Socialist Party has from day one warned that multi-nationals like Diageo have only one care in the world: profit! They don’t give a toss about chucking 900 workers and their families on the scrapheap, virtually closing down the town of Kilmarnock in the process. And we have equally warned that any belief that such greedy profiteers can be persuaded by arguments into saving the plants was dangerously delusional – that the only language they will listen to is decisive action that wallops their wallets.

With this callous, arrogant announcement that they are forging ahead regardless, the time is rotten ripe for the unions to lead workers in a campaign of industrial action, to hit Diageo’s profit margins.

This could be accompanied by a truly international appeal for a mass consumer boycott, which would potentially have a devastating impact on a company that relies overwhelmingly on overseas markets, and its overseas image.

Already the campaign of protest emails and online petitions has garnered widespread support in the likes of the USA, one of Diageo’s prime markets, and the Teamsters’ Union has offered to support action by UNITE the union.

A tremendous publicity campaign has been conducted over the summer, on the streets, at football matches, and at golf and other sporting events sponsored by the world’s biggest drinks company. But unless the national union leaderships give confidence to workers to hit back with action that damages the production of profits for Paul Walsh and his cronies in the boardroom, there will soon be nothing left to fight back with.

Diageo’s chief executive Paul Walsh has just had another obscene boost to his wealth, at precisely the time he struts the world stage handing out redundancy notices to families who face a future of not knowing where the next meal will come from.

His ‘wage’ actually went down last year compared to 2008 – when he took home £5.1m. That previous income should help cushion him from having to exist on £3.5m in the year up to 30 June 2009 … the very day before the closure announcements!

That means a ‘salary’ of £67,300 a week! And if that is not vomit-inducing enough, his pension pot more than compensated for the fall in salary: it rose by £3.4m to £11.7m during the past year. So if this arrogant prat decides to retire, he stands to draw a pension of £637,000.

Walsh assured the SNP government-led Task Force – in an interview on BBC Scotland – that, I will be very open-minded when I look at the content of their alternative business plan. But in real life he didn’t wait even the derisory six days that elapsed between receiving the governments’ proposals and publicly shattering the fate of these workers who have given a lifetime to creating his obnoxious levels of wealth.

Within a couple of hours of declaring his open mind, Walsh was in the midst of a conference call to his cohorts in the USA, where he boasted:

A lot of the restructuring we’ve announced over time will help gross margin. They may invoke some letters to our shareholders, as we close plants in Scotland. But it’s the right thing to do for the future, and we have firmly grasped that nettle in order that we do not see gross margin slippage.

This arrogant contempt buries all the hopes of the SNP government, Ayrshire and Glasgow councils, and some in the leadership of the unions that – as Alex Salmond put it – we are looking for something that reconciles Diageo’s financial objectives with Scotland’s social objectives.

They are irreconcilable! Diageo has just announced another 4 per cent rise in their profits, to £2.6billion. But that is still not enough for these greedy parasites, so they want to cut back from three to two bottling and packaging plants in Scotland, chucking 900 families into despair, to save themselves £42m a year.

And if they get away with this butchery without a real shot being fired, how long will it be before they try to ship whisky across the high seas to be bottled in India or China by slave labour, closer to one of their huge markets?

Whilst the unions need to build members’ confidence for swift industrial action, and appeal for supportive consumer boycotts internationally, the government should drop it’s grovelling pleas for Diageo to accept public money and save maybe half of the 900 jobs; it’s not going to happen! Instead, they should seize the assets that have been built up by two centuries of workers’ skills and labour, supplemented by public subsidies to Diageo in the past, and turn them into public property, sustaining all jobs, embracing the know-how of workers in creating a genuine alternative plan for a publicly-owned drinks and food industry.

The time for action has arrived. Vast public support exists for the Diageo workforce in their plight. That could easily be channelled into a movement to halt the closures, with calls on the governments of Edinburgh and London to step in and bail out these workers, the way they were both so keen to do for the bankers who wrecked the economy in the first place.

6th August 2009

A rash of factory and workplace occupations is spreading across the globe as workers defy the brutal consequences of the recession.

Instead of surrendering to mass redundancies and outright closures – sometimes at a few minutes’ notice, often without even redundancy packages – workers are occupying their workplaces as a central method of struggling for justice.

Every example that wins concessions is boosting the belief of other workforces that there is an alternative to just resigning to the butchery in the boardrooms – that belligerent, militant class action can win at least something where workers have nothing to lose.

Socialists have a duty to assist fellow-workers in deploying the best methods of struggle to save jobs – as well as uniting workers around fighting socialist policies that would challenge and eliminate the need for redundancies.

Victory to Vestas

The sit-in at Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight has created a storm of international publicity and sympathy for the 600 workers who face the dole, at the very time the Labour government pledges to create 400,000 new green jobs over 5 years.

The 25 Vestas workers who staged this factory occupation, supported by a mass rally outside every night, displayed tremendous courage in the face of numerous attempts by the bully-boy, anti-union Vestas bosses to evict them.

They tried to starve them out, blocking food supplies being sent in by supporters. They threatened the sack and removal of redundancy payments from the workers staging the sit-in. They took out an injunction to gain re-possession of the factory – in order to close it and move production to the USA and China!

Vestas had no union recognition. Some workers joined a union and started organizing others. A group of them established a campaign committee and organised the sit-in from 20th July. This bold action won the active support of hundreds others – Vestas workers, other trade unionists, environmentalists, the local community – on an island where there are no other jobs to go to.

Vestas workers have gone further than any of the other recent factory sit-ins in terms of the demands they are making from their ‘campaign headquarters’ inside the factory: “Gordon Brown – Nationalise this!” declared the banner from day one.

A statement from the workers’ occupation declared, If the government can spend billions bailing out the banks – and even nationalize them – then surely they can do the same at Vestas.

Every victory encourages action

As well as organizing solidarity for these heroic fighters for jobs and the protection of the environment, we have a duty to learn from workers’ experiences of sit-ins as a method of struggle, particularly as redundancies and closures sweep the land like a pandemic.

Vestas is only the latest in a series of workplace occupations in the UK. And Thomas Cook workers in Dublin, members of the TSSA union, on 31st July occupied in defiance of closure of 100 offices.

The recent outbreak of factory take-overs in Britain and Ireland began with Waterford Glass workers occupying the plant on 30th January, when the employers announced an immediate end to production and 480 job losses.
After 8 weeks’ struggle, they reluctantly accepted a deal that saved 176 of the 480 jobs.

Visteon occupations

But their example fed the appetite of other workers facing savage closures under brutal terms and conditions. On 31st March, over 600 workers at three Visteon (ex Fords) plants in Belfast, Enfield and Basildon occupied and picketed when they were declared redundant at a few minutes’ notice, without any redundancy pay and with their pensions frozen.

A month later, appropriately on May Day, the workers won enhanced redundancy terms, payments in lieu of notice, and holiday pay.

As Kevin Nolan, UNITE union convener at the Enfield factory put it,

People ended up with a year and a half’s worth of salary. That’s a victory when you consider Visteon were hiding behind the recession as a way of completely abandoning all responsibility for 600 UK workers and just dumping them.

Prior to that high-profile sit-in, a small group of non-unionised workers at Prisme in Dundee occupied their workplace, encouraged by Waterford Glass workers, (who subsequently visited the Dundee sit-in). They had been sacked without notice and without any redundancy pay Fifty-one days later, the sit-in beat off the redundancies by establishing a cooperative.

Vital part of history

Workplace occupations are not a new form of struggle, of course, but this new wave of sit-ins follows many years of the method receding into the background.

Italian car workers seized their factories in northern Italy in the 1920s. What were dubbed ‘sit-won strikes’ swept countries like France and the USA in the mid-1930s. Closer to home and to the present, the most famous workplace occupation was the 1971-2 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) ‘work-in’ – in reply to the Tory government’s closure of the yards with at least 6,000 redundancies. This triggered a mass movement, saved many of the jobs after the Tories were forced into a U-turn, and was the impetus to at least 200 sit-ins across the UK in the first half of the 1970s.

For a time such audacious actions receded, although Lee Jeans (mostly women) workers in Greenock occupied in 1981; Caterpillar workers in Uddingston in 1986; and Glacier Metal workers in Glasgow won an outright victory after their seven-week occupation in November-December 1996.

Now, as the global capitalist crisis bites, with even more catastrophic closures and cut-backs on jobs looming, this form of struggle could come back into its own.

Powerful weapons of struggle

Sit-ins are a powerful weapon, paralysing production; psychologically bringing the battle into the bosses’ ‘own territory’; preventing them from stripping the factory of machinery and equipment that they may want to shift to other production sites, including abroad, in their hunt for subsidies and cheaper labour; preventing bosses from bussing in scabs past picket lines that are hamstrung by anti-union laws and deployment of the police (as seen, for example, at Timex in 1993).

But a sit-in ‘with folded arms’ can still be defeated, or at best win shoddy concessions far short of the potential victories on the agenda, if workers’ occupations are not accompanied by concerted campaigning outside the sit-in.

When workers facing closures consider a sit-in they should also try to prepare for a campaign of seeking solidarity from fellow workers and local communities – or at least put that into action as soon as they occupy. Such outgoing, concerted campaigning is critical, firstly to help prevent employers evicting them, secondly to enhance the prospects of outright victory for their demands. That was the advice we put into action from day one of the Glacier Metal occupation in 1996. It is clearly what the Vestas workers are ably applying.

Touring other workplaces; taking to the streets with leaflets, bucket collections and megaphones to explain the case behind the sit-ins; organizing solidarity mass pickets, rallies and demonstrations – all this and more was done in conquering outright victory for the 1996 Glacier Metal workers sit-in, and is the method being applied at other recent occupations to one extent or another.

Demands from the sit-ins

The other key question that remains is: what do workers demand whilst they occupy their workplace?

Of course that depends on what they are fighting against! In the case of Glacier Metal it was mass dismissal of the entire workforce in the drive to smash the union and rip up hard-won conditions. Full re-instatement of every worker, with continuity of terms and conditions, and continued union recognition, were the demands of the sit-in. And that was what was won!

In the case of Visteon, workers occupied to win redundancy payments and protection of their pensions. They won substantial concessions, though they still lost their jobs.

Vestas workers have made the most far-reaching demands – and absolutely appropriate ones to the situation, occupying in support of nationalization of the factory. With the need to save jobs and simultaneously save the planet from catastrophic climate change, the best route is public ownership of the UK’s only wind turbine factory, as part of the call for public ownership of the energy industry as a means of democratically planning clean, green energy production.

Most occupations arise from closures or mass redundancies. So defence of every job is the starting point. And instead of pouring a fortune from the public purse down the throats of profiteering bosses who are hell-bent on racing across the globe in pursuit of super-profits, workers and their unions should champion the demand for public ownership of the assets, under democratic working class control, to sustain jobs.

Alternative plans of production

In situations where a workers’ inspection of the company accounts and the industry concludes that continued production of their pervious products are either unviable or undesirable, alternative plans of socially useful and environmentally friendly output comes into its own.

Way back in the 1970s, workers at Lucas aerospace plants constructed such workers’ alternative plans of production. In subsequent years, several other examples were produced by workers in struggle, with the help of sympathetic experts. And the unions and peace movement have published well-researched proposals for jobs diversification in the defence industry that would actually increase employment.

In the 21st century, this is especially important, with vast scope for job protection and job creation to match the need for green social production, such as energy-efficient housing, a vastly expanded, integrated public transport network, and production and distribution of clean green energy. 

Reverse the tide of closures

Workplace occupations are not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ method of struggle, applicable on every single occasion.

They should not be turned into a fetish. But they are an enormously powerful weapon of struggle that should be utilized far more widely in the teeth of closures and mass redundancies, and in the vast majority of cases have won huge concessions or outright victories.

Strikes are another indispensable means of fighting to defend jobs. Often they are the most viable method of resistance in workforces spread around scattered workplaces – as in the Royal Mail currently, the civil service – and places that provide services rather than being centres of industrial production. On the other hand, in some conditions, strikes against closures can sometimes allow the employers to just walk away, leaving whole communities wrecked. Strikes can sometimes be more akin to a boss’s lock-out, and less effective in stopping asset-stripping by employers shifting production to richer pastures for profiteering.

In stark contrast to both, appeals to the employers’ good nature to ‘change their minds’ about closures are a pitifully weak response to the boardroom boot-boys, who will only ever ‘change their minds’ when they know the alternative is carnage for their reputation and profit levels.

Many workers will increasingly see they have nothing to lose in the teeth of mass redundancies, and a lot to win by taking up the cudgels. As Visteon’s UNITE convener Kevin Nolan recently told Labour Research magazine,

We just thought: ‘What do we have to lose?’ So we just went for it. If anyone else is in the same position I’d say weigh everything up and if you think there’s a chance of winning something back or improving your situation by occupying the place, then go for it.

By seizing control of the company assets, including valuable machinery, plus halting production, whilst using the workplace as a huge campaign headquarters, occupations provide workers with an unprecedented platform to take on the bosses who want to heap the crisis they have created on the shoulders of working people.

We have a duty to concretely assist every group of workers who take such action; every victory won is a boost to the generalized struggle to save jobs, not profits, to reverse the tide of closures and cut-backs endured for far too long. The national unions, TUC and STUC should urgently call rallies and demonstrations in solidarity with all who have the courage to stand up for jobs, and give courage to those cowed by the Juggernaut of closures and redundancies.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 7.30 p.m.

Queens Hotel, Dundee

Confirmed Speakers—

Colin Fox,
John McAllion

This Saturday, 22nd August, assemble 12 noon George Square, march to Kelvingrove Park.

Midlothian Branch of the SSP, invites all Socialists to join a Socialist picnic from 3pm on the last Sunday in August near to the Golf Tavern on the Meadows Edinburgh (South West Corner between Tollcross and Bruntsfield.

Please bring enough food and drink for yourselves and if possible a socialist symbol, e.g. red flag.

See you there
Regards
Bob Goupillot
Midlothian Branch

by Richie Venton – 16th July 2009

It’s a classic case of the greedy rich sacrificing human beings to amass even more profit.

The announcement by the world’s biggest drinks company, Diageo, that they will shut the giant bottling plant in Kilmarnock, plus the distillery and cooperage in Glasgow, have provoked a wave of justified rage.

The whisky firm has been in Kilmarnock since 1820, the Glasgow cooperage since 1810. After two centuries of workers’ skills, hard graft and sacrifice helping the owners stack up billions in profits, these ruthless exploiters have declared war on whole communities.

They want the ‘Striding Man’ to walk away from Ayrshire. It would mean the direct loss of 700 jobs in Kilmarnock (making it one of the worst unemployment blackspots in the whole of Scotland) and another 140 in Glasgow. And that’s not taking any account of the knock-on effects, with shops, haulage firms and others facing devastation from the decisions of remote boardroom bosses who put profit first, second and always.

And they can’t even trot out the lame excuse that “it’s the recession”! It is not due to plummeting sales. This is the world’s biggest drinks firm. In just the last 6 months of 2008 – yes, half the year – Diageo piled up £1.63billion in profit!

But their top bosses have blurted out the real reason for the threatened closures: We want to protect future profit levels.

Nor can they claim they are cutting back on all expenditure to save the company. They have just forked out to get the Johnnie Walker logo on Lewis Hamilton’s helmet at Grand Prix races. This is part of a £90 million leap in advertising expenditure – from £643m in the first half of 2008 to £732m in the second half.

The top dogs in Diageo will certainly not suffer. Chief Executive Paul Walsh last year ‘earned’ £2.3million! A million of that was his ‘basic’ salary; £1.19m a ‘performance bonus’; £39,000 in other benefits. And that takes no account of his 720,000 shares in Diageo, worth about £6m – or his pension pot of £8.26m, which makes the much maligned Sir Fred Goodwin look like a pensioner pauper!

These criminals have the cheek to make speeches about the social responsibility of corporations, and then announce annihilation for whole communities. Paul Walsh is European chairman of an outfit called the International Business Leaders’ Forum, which tries to promote big business as a way to build sustainable and equitable societies!

That’s a sick joke for starters: big business exists to make profits, not to help people, and builds a gaping chasm of inequality into society.

But if you think the idea of money-grabbing capitalists being the source of sustainable and equitable societies is monstrous, it gets worse. Paul Walsh told the International Business Leaders Forum conference

Above all, I want Diageo to become a byword for integrity, social responsibility and commitment to the communities in which it operates. I want business with soul!

The people of Kilmarnock and Glasgow are up in arms at this betrayal for profit. Window posters, petitions, summits with councils and government ministers, and a rally in Kilmarnock are all part of the resistance.

To add insult to injury, Diageo bosses try to say there is an option for the workers facing devastation: there are 400 jobs being created at a bottling plant in Leven, Fife!

Who the hell do they think is going to commute from Ayrshire or Glasgow to Fife to work? And why should families be uprooted for the sake of protecting future profit levels?

Big business is out for one thing only: profit. The only way to resist their butchery is through decisive action, people uniting in their unions and communities, marching, protesting, looking at industrial action to hit the profiteers where it hurts – their wallets.

The governments of Westminster and Edinburgh should not offer to subsidise these corporate gangsters’ profits from public funds; they should demand Diageo drop all redundancy and closure plans, and if they refuse to bow to public outrage, step in and take over their assets, to sustain the jobs.

As one Kilmarnock man put it: “What would the farm born grocer [Johnnie Walker] say? Shame on you Diageo, 189 years of tradition sacrificed for some fat cat’s wallet!”

The SSP will fight all the way alongside workers and their communities, united to fight the closures, putting people before profit – a real version of social responsibility.

The Scottish Socialist Party is in full support of the thousands of postal workers who are staging strike action and other protests on Friday 17th July, in anger at arbitrary cuts to staffing levels and service levels to the public.

These cuts are being imposed by Royal Mail bosses in flagrant breach of the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement, signed after strike action that year.

Delivery Ofices and Mail Centres in Edinburgh and East/Central Scotland will walk out, as will Irvine posties the next day. This is part of a growing groundswell of strikes across the UK , with 400 other offices requesting ballots for strike action.

High-and-mighty Royal Mail bosses are imposing cuts to staff and services; managers are using bully-boy tactics to impose the cuts, and ever-increasing workloads are being heaped on the shoulders of a shrinking workforce. Pressure and stress is at breaking point for postal workers, who are hitting back with escalating strike action.

John Brown, Scottish Regional Secretary of the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) told me what lies behind the rolling anger and action by posties.

Royal Mail is trying to impose cuts way beyond levels acceptable to either staff or the public who rely on the service we deliver. They are totally intransigent, refusing to negotiate and abide by the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement, which stated that the union would be fully involved at all levels at all stages of modernization.

They want 10 per cent savings across the board and insist that this must mean 10 per cuts to duties. There are not compulsory job losses as such, but they are sneaking through job losses. For instance, Royal Mail are forcing people to leave the industry; alongside their ‘savings’, a redundancy package is on offer, so when people who are fed up and want to get out of the job leave, they are not being replaced.

The press is trying to play up the idea this strike action is about pay. Well, in reducing the numbers in Delivery Offices, Royal Mail is offering full-time workers part-time jobs – which obviously involve big pay cuts.

But this is primarily strike action against the attack on the public service provided through arbitrary reductions in staffing levels.

And these are not cuts due to the introduction of new machinery. The national Agreement means any new technology can only be introduced with the full agreement of the union and its members. So far only 4 or 5 pilot offices have had the new machinery tried out, and as we expected, they have not led to the savings Royal Mail predicted.

But the cuts members are striking against are before the job cuts that new machinery will involve. By striking, members are effectively saying we cannot provide the level of service to the public expected of us because of the arbitrary cuts being imposed through executive action by the employers.

There have been little or no local negotiations. Senior management of Royal Mail has failed to even turn up to the previous talks with the national union. Today (15th July), they are supposed to meet the union in London . Maybe the strike action in London will have concentrated the minds of the Neanderthal men in senior management and force them to make concessions!

With the Royal Mail making £900,000 a day in profits, there is even less excuse for these cuts to jobs and services.

The New Labour government has been dealt a bloody nose on their plans to part-privatise Royal Mail. Now is the time for this wounded beast to be pursued through united, national strike action against their cuts.

These attacks are partly motivated by a desire for revenge for the defeat of privatisation on the part of Royal Mail bosses and Lord Mandelson, the Prince of Darkness and Dirty Deeds, who has announced his desire to accustom workers to a full decade of austerity, so as to enrich his friends in industry and the banks.

The growing revolt, through spreading strikes, could now be escalated into national strikes – accompanied by withdrawal of funding of New Labour by the CWU – which is an increasingly abusive relationship, akin to voluntary payouts to an arsonist to buy the fuel to torch your home!

The SSP stands unashamedly on the side of workers striking to preserve a vital public service.

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.

What do you think of transport in the city? Is your street clogged up with cars? Does your bus take forever and not stop near your house? Quicker walking home after work than being stuck in a queue? Fancy riding a bike to work but not back up that hill again afterwards?

Feel free to comment below with your thoughts on transport.

The Scottish Socialist Party has selected Kevin McVey as candidate for the Glasgow North East by-election.
A civil service trade union representative for 20 years, Kevin was brought up in the constituency, in Ruchazie.
Kevin joined the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1984 and was expelled from the Labour party 5 years later for being a socialist.

Kevin has a long track record of fighting the poll tax, against school closures, and for taxation of the rich to improve public services.

Kevin McVey said this evening:

At a time of daily news bulletins on the stench of corruption arising from Westminster, I am proud to publicly pledge that I will reject the £64,000 MP’s salary and live instead on the average skilled worker’s wage – not a penny more.

After the mainstream parties have been caught fiddling expenses for food, furniture, second homes, and Michael Martin was booted out for trying to cover up these crimes against people struggling to pay the bills, Labour now wants him promoted to the unelected, undemocratic House of Lords.

That’s an insult to ordinary hardworking people. Where I have worked you would be sacked for doctoring expenses or for failing to act against fiddles if you were in a manager’s post!

The people of Glasgow North East deserve a socialist MP who will fight for them, not another chancer who pockets the obscene salary and then grabs even more in expenses.

SSP Glasgow Regional Secretary Richie Venton said today:

We are proud to put up a candidate with such a long and principled history of fighting for the working class.

The SSP has been at the heart of fighting to save several local schools and nurseries from Labour’s butchery. We have helped stop the ambitious councillor Gordon Matheson becoming the Labour candidate, because even the out-of-touch Labour hierarchy knew he would be a complete liability in an area blitzed by school closures, which he was at the heart of. The SSP will make Save Our Schools a major issue in the by-election, demanding class sizes of 20 or less for all kids, to give them a decent start in life and to hire more teachers and nursery staff.

From Richie Venton, Glasgow Save our Schools Campaign organiser

Please take 2 minutes to sign the e-petition for the Scottish Parliament; help fight for smaller class sizes and greater democracy in decision-making.

Dear friends and fighters,

We have been fighting the Glasgow Labour council’s closure of 25 primaries and nurseries since January. We have built a mass movement, using every conceivable method of struggle.

Now we have taken the battle to the Scottish parliament and the Scottish government, demanding they take a clear stance in opposition to the closures and their consequences – especially the regressive increase in class sizes.

Our massive efforts saved 3 of the 25, but the rest are now closed, with horrendous consequences for kids, families and communities.

The Labour Council cynically calculated that since there will be no Council elections until 2012, they would ride the storm, hope people forget, and save themselves £3.7m a year at terrible cost to communities in working class areas of the city. We are determined to make them pay for these crimes – and in the process, stop the threat of 34 further potential closures!

If you want more background information, just go to the Glasgow Save Our Schools website

At the heart of our battle now is that for smaller class sizes. Our Campaign has persistently demanded cuts to class sizes of 20 maximum for all ages. That would improve education and protect and create teachers’ jobs.

That is also the official policy of the teachers’ unions. And the Scottish government claims to aim at 18 maximum in Primary 1-3.

As one important strand of our ongoing campaign, we have lodged this petition in the Scottish parliament Public Petitions system.

In case you are not aware, the Scottish parliament allows the public to submit petitions to a committee of MSPs to consider, with the option of inviting representatives to address this Public Petitions Committee to justify the case, and the power to then lodge the issue as a matter for debate in the full parliament and its sub-committees.

So we need vast numbers to add their names to this petition online, to add pressure to the MSPs in favour of inviting us to address them when they meet again in September. We have a limited few weeks to maximise the numbers signing the petition online.

It is straightforward – just click here to sign the e-petition for the Scottish Parliament.

And you have the option of adding a comment on the discussion board to help add weight to the debate; but at least please add your name to the list of signatures today.

And when you’ve done that, get others in your family to do it; and others in your trade union or community group. Then forward this email to everyone on your list of email addresses, to encourage them to sign up as well.

Thanks for your help – sign up and spread the word!

Yours in struggle and unity,

Richie Venton

Parents have occupied Wyndford primary school in Maryhill since Friday 26th June, as the doors were slammed shut by Glasgow Labour council at the end of the school year.

This audacious action has thrown the arrogant council leader, Steven Purcell, who expected all to go quiet over the summer holidays, hoping that by the time of the next council elections in 2012, everyone would have forgotten about their dirty deeds against kids and communities across the city.

The council has made no pretence of negotiations with the sit-in. They have just fired out statements that the sit-in is pointless, the school is shut, end of story.

Yet despite all their arrogant strutting, the same council has thrown sops towards the local community in the form of proposals for a new Family and Recreation Centre, based in the neighbouring school (also shut), St Gregory’s.

This is a crude attempt to buy off the anger in the community, generated by their brutal closures, which leaves the Wyndford estate a desert in terms of facilities. None of this would have happened without the ferocious battle mounted by local people, through the Save Our Schools Campaign. And it is too little, too late.

I spoke to several of the parents staging the occupation, inside the school, about their aims and feelings.

I would appeal to everyone reading their comments below to:

• (a) contact them with messages of support on 0778 350 8740
• (b) try to visit the sit-in at Glenfinan Drive , near Tescos in Maryhill Rd – if possible with supplies of food and water
• (c) build attendance of adults and kids at the sit-in’s Water Festival, Thursday 2nd July at 1pm – in response to the council’s dirty tricks department – who today (Tuesday) cut off drinking water supplies under the disguise of checking an imaginary gas leak.

Bring the kids, bring water pistols, bring supplies.

Tell the Council that the school occupation won’t get dirty like the Glasgow Labour Council!!

What the occupiers say:

We want a school in the community. We have nothing. We are waiting for a Judicial Review on the issue of nursery parents not being consulted on the closure of the primary.

We don’t want a school – we need a school in this community!

The other schools offered by the council are too far away, along dangerous routes.

On 23rd June the council put a proposal to make St Gregory’s primary into a Family Centre, and to turn the existing Recreation Centre into a power station for the Wyndford estate.

So if St Gregory’s is good enough for a Family Centre, it’s good enough for a school. All we are asking for is one school in the estate, we’re not even being greedy, asking to keep both St Gregory’s and Wyndford primary.

Family Centres can be built anywhere, so why compromise a school for it? And the Glasgow council are only offering this because right throughout the campaign we shouted that we have nothing, no facilities, from one end of Maryhill to the other.

Our fear is that the council want to demolish the school building – possibly to use the ground for a part of the Family and Recreation Centre. CMI, a demolition firm, has already been in twice to inspect the building, for asbestos before demolition. That’s another reason we’re holding the sit-in, to stop demolition.

Since we occupied the school last Friday afternoon we’ve not seen the Council. No talks or negotiations. Then today (Tuesday) they sent along a council worker pretending to be looking for a gas leak, cutting off the water to the school. And it seems it’s just the drinking water they’ve cut off. Well that won’t shift us either.

In reply we are organising a Water Festival on Thursday (2nd July) at 1pm – a bit of fun for the kids, with paddling pools and water pistols. Our message is ‘join us – don’t let the school occupiers become as dirty as Glasgow city council!’

The community is still united. St Gregory’s parents have been in to help us occupy Wyndford, and they have helped stage the barricades on the gates to stop the Council getting equipment out of the building.

On Saturday they sent in 30 vans. They loaded up with school furniture and equipment. But because parents, kids and supporters refused to budge on the gates, we forced them to unload again and have the vans inspected by us before they went away!

On Monday they sent two vans to pick up the safe and photocopiers, but pickets on the gates appealed to them, sat down on the road, and the drivers turned away empty-handed.

We’re appealing for support and supplies – including food and water – from the local community and people from other areas and schools. We’ve had parents and grandparents from as far away as Barmulloch, St Gilbert’s and St Agnes schools here supporting us.

As Barmulloch parents we think it is great what Wyndford are doing. We are happy to help in any way we can.

We’re not moving until they give us a school; they can turn off whatever they want. Our message to the council is ‘you’ve shut our schools, but we’re still here, we’re still in your face’.

We would like to thank all those in Dundee and beyond who voted for a campaigning Socialist Party.

We saw a modest rise in our percentage both in Dundee and nationally. Clearly it was not as high as we would have hoped but it has been steadily rising in the city for the past 2 years and it is a start of the rebuilding process after the low of the 2007 results.

Unlike most other parties you didn’t only see us on the streets in the run up to the election and we won’t disappear immediately after it. Although at this election the other parties were seen even more rarely than usual. They wouldn’t have something to be embarrassed about would they?

Wherever you are in Scotland you can vote for the SSP by marking one cross next to us on the ballot paper.

We have managed to dish out thousands of leaflets to passers by to let them know two things that not only are we standing in the European elections but that we are active in the area.

Today was glorious sunshine in Montrose surrounded by the excellent background music of the festival going on behind us. We look forward to our semi regular stalls in Arbroath and Montrose – the SSP, not just on the streets at an election.

These include:

• seriously consider[ing] the possibility of fixed-term parliaments
• reducing the number of MPs by 10%
• Text alerts on progression of Bills.
• More publication of expenses
• possible curbs on the whipping of votes
• backbenchers would get powers to choose the chairmen and members of select committees

These, he claims, will transfer power from the state to the people. Sounds good, unless you realise this is a man who voted for people to be detained by the state without charge for 28 days.

So lets look at the list:

seriously consider[ing] the possibility of fixed-term parliaments.

Not only is it a pitiful reform but it is surrounded by two weasily non-commital caveats. Why not fixed numbers of terms for MPs if you want to fix terms? (The SSP voted for 2 terms at our conference a number of years back)

reducing the number of MPs by 10%

In a parliament which is a representative type this makes the body less accountable, not more.

Text alerts on progression of Bills.

Post a reply if you can name one Bill currently going through parliament.

Yep, thought not.

The bills are available here if you wish to see.

More publication of expenses

Long overdue, but whilst MPs make the rules they then defend themselves by not breaking it is toothless and purely populist.

possible curbs on the whipping of votes

How exactly would this be enforceable? Notice again the weasely caveat.

backbenchers would get powers to choose the chairmen and members of select committees

Well hold me back, that is exactly the demand being made by everyone on a daily basis, the problem with parliament being the backbenchers don’t get to choose chairmen of talking shops. Sounds more like throwing a bone to get the support from backbenchers though.

Reforms which were noticeable by their absence included

• Reducing pay of MPs or linking to some measure of wages/income. Might we suggest a maximum of 5 times the state pension? Then there might be some action on pensioner poverty.
• Abolition of the unelected and undemocratic House of Lords
• Abolition of the unelected and undemocratic Privy Council
• Recallability of MPs – by petition of a percentage of constituents or triggered by voting against election promises or by changing their political affiliation
• Proportional Representation – deliberately excluded by Cameron
• Extending the franchise
• Overhauling voter registration to remove the current ease to commit fraud with postal vote registration.

None of these are revolutionary demands. They are basic reforms which are far more radical than anything Cameron has just dreamed up. Of course further reforms would be a real democracy, with the parliament chosen by lot, rather than the oligarchy we have now.

The actor is of course Tam Dean Burn

Glasgow: Tuesday 26th May, 7.30pm, Piper In The Square, George Square

Dundee: Wednesday 27th May, 7.30pm, Queens Hotel, 160 Nethergate

Edinburgh: Thursday 28th May, 7.30pm, The Melting Pot, 5 Rose Street

Speakers in Dundee will be Angela Gorrie (SSP candidate), John McAllion and the visitor from the NPA.

We will also be showing our latest broadcast and various other bits and bobs.

Come along.

Instead he repeated the SSP policy that anybody elected for the party will live on a skilled worker’s wage.

Former MSP Fox is top of the SSP candidate’s list for the European elections on June 4th.

He said:

The Scottish Socialist Party is entitled to have voters reminded that each and every one of their candidates is pledged to refuse the highly inflated salary of an MP/MSP/MEP and live instead on the average wage of the people whose interests they seek to represent.

And since promises in politics today are seen to be usually worthless it is important to remind voters that the SSP MSPs honoured that promise for the entire time they were at Holyrood between 1999 and 2007.

Each one of us lived on the average wage in line with party policy.

In the forthcoming European elections in June we will once again pledge to live in a skilled worker’s wage and shun the millionaire lifestyle beloved of MPs which has rightly outraged the public.

The entire sleazy episode nullifies any credibility ‘career politicians’ have about their motives for going into politics. It’s a funny way to ’serve the public’ stealing from the public purse and the SSP will have none of it.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/16/scottish-socialists-election-guarantee-we-won%e2%80%99t-play-the-expenses-lottery/feed/ 2 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/ssp-meetings-speaker-from-npa/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/ssp-meetings-speaker-from-npa/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 19:02:52 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=772 A wee reminder about meetings.

This Saturday we have an open meeting with Raphie de Santos leading us off on the crisis of capitalism, the recession, the credit crunch and economics.

In two weeks time we will be having a meeting as part of the election campaign. Speakers to be confirmed but we will have a candidate over from Frances new NPA – the New Anti-Capitalist Party. It will be at the DVA, 10 Constitution Road Queens Hotel on Wednesday 27th May at 7:30.

More details will be posted once confirmed..

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/ssp-meetings-speaker-from-npa/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/interview-with-colin-fox/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/interview-with-colin-fox/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 18:57:57 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=769 The Daily (Maybe) has posted an interview with Colin Fox.

They discuss the SSP campaign for the European Elections on June 4th.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/interview-with-colin-fox/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/conference-and-demo/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/conference-and-demo/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 18:26:12 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=765 Letter from Alan Mackinnon, Chair, Scottish CND

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

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/14/conference-and-demo/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/13/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-3-johanna-dind/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/13/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-3-johanna-dind/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 20:37:52 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=739 Johanna Dind is our third candidate for the SSP list for the European elections on June 4th 2009.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/13/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-3-johanna-dind/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/13/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-4-nick-mckerrell/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/13/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-4-nick-mckerrell/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 17:27:07 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=741 Nick McKerrell is number 4 on the SSP list for the European elections on June 4th 2009.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/13/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-4-nick-mckerrell/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/12/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-2-angela-gorrie/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/12/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-2-angela-gorrie/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 17:22:49 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=737 Angela Gorrie from Dundee SSP is number 2 on the SSP list for the European elections on June 4th 2009.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/12/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-2-angela-gorrie/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/11/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-5-raphie-de-santos/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/11/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-5-raphie-de-santos/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 17:30:57 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=744 Raphie de Santos is number 5 on the SSP list for the European elections on June 4th 2009.

Raphie is leading a discussion in Dundee on the economy on Saturday – come along!

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/11/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-5-raphie-de-santos/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/11/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-1-colin-fox/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/11/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-1-colin-fox/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 17:22:27 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=733 SSP Co-National Spokesperson is number 1 on the SSP list for the European elections on 4th June 2009.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/11/interviews-with-ssp-candidates-1-colin-fox/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/06/open-meeting-16th-may/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/06/open-meeting-16th-may/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 18:02:18 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=719 Scottish Socialist Party Open Meeting

Capitalism in crisis and the socialist alternative

Speaker: Raphie de Santos

12.00 Saturday 16th May

Abertay University
Kydd Building
Bell Street
Dundee

Respected economist and writer, Raphie de Santos was an advisor on derivatives and financial markets to several financial institutions including the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and the Italian Ministry of Finance.

He has been a guest lecturer on derivatives and financial markets at Harvard and New York universities and the London School of Economics and has spoken at the annual Nobel Foundation conference in Stockholm.

Raphie is co-author of recently published Socialists and the Capitalist Recession which will be available at the meeting. He is also a committed socialist and a member of the SSP and is a candidate in the European elections in June.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/05/06/open-meeting-16th-may/feed/ 2 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/28/outrage-as-ssp-councillor-suspended/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/28/outrage-as-ssp-councillor-suspended/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:40:25 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=708 Jim Bollan has been suspended from Council Meetings for nine months.

Read more about it on his blog.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/28/outrage-as-ssp-councillor-suspended/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/27/ssp-announce-european-candidates/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/27/ssp-announce-european-candidates/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:39:34 +0000 agorrie http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/27/ssp-announce-european-candidates/ SSP co-national spokesperson Colin Fox will head the party’s list for the European elections on June 4th closely followed by Dundee SSP member Angela Gorrie.

• 1. Colin Fox (Edinburgh South)
• 2. Angela Gorrie (Dundee West)
• 3. Johanna Dind (Edinburgh South)
• 4. Nick McKerrell (Glasgow Shettleston)
• 5. Raphie de Santos (Edinburgh North)
• 6. Felicity Garvie (Central Fife)

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/27/ssp-announce-european-candidates/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/27/european-anti-capitalist-left/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/27/european-anti-capitalist-left/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:14:06 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=701 The Scottish Socialist Party have signed up to a joint European wide declaration for the European elections on the 4th of June.

Read the statement here. Parties signed up so far are from Belgium, France, Germany : England, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spanish State, Sweden and Switzerland.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/27/european-anti-capitalist-left/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/25/ssp-to-stand-in-european-elections/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/25/ssp-to-stand-in-european-elections/#comments Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:36:33 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=696 Originally from SSP website

The Scottish Socialist Party is to take the message that the answer to the gathering crisis is to work for an alternative socialist society into the European elections in June.

The party took its decision at its annual conference in Arran at the end of March.

Amidst growing concern at the gathering economic crisis, rising unemployment economic insecurity and concerns over climate change delegates gave a firm yes to the need to put socialist solutions to voters.

As in Scotland with New Labour, former mass socialist parties in the EU are now involved with saving the existing order with, for example German social democrats in coalition with right wing Chancellor Angela Merkel and most others adopting a pro capitalist line.

In opposition to this a range of new formations such as Das Link in Germany and the New Anti Capitalist Party in France are staking out the ground for socialist ideas and policies which also draw on the growing concerns on environmental questions.

The SSP also rejected a call for a withdrawal from the EU at its conference and will aim to campaign for radical change on a socialist programme and will co-operate with comrades across the EU sharing that view.

Delegates clearly believed that an approach of fighting with other left forces for demands across Europe such as a European minimum wage was the way ahead.

The fact that a large number of the voices calling for EU withdrawal come from right wing forces such as UKIP, the BNP and far right Tories clearly further made the demand unattractive to delegates.

The party now faces a major battle to raise the resources including a deposit of £5,000 which are needed to fight an all Scotland election and are a major barrier to smaller parties putting their case.

Massive demonstrations in France, riots in Greece and unrest and questioning across the EU grows daily as factories close, dole queues grow and threats of wage and benefit cuts loom.

For the first time in many years the elections to what many see as a toothless European parliament will have a sharp relevance for voters who see the illusion of market capitalist prosperity evaporate like the mirage it was.

In such a situation there is a vital need to put the alternative of a socialist society based on need and not profit to voters.

Alongside comrades and allies in Europe the Scottish Socialist Party will ensure hat case is put to Scottish voters.

SSP co-spokesperson Colin Fox said;

The Scottish Socialist Party will contest the European elections on our unique anti-capitalist programme, as we have done in all elections in the 10 years of our existence.

The SSP looks forward to our part in a European wide protest by the left, socialist and anti capitalist parties at the terrible consequences for working class people of the financial catastrophe that the banks and big business have brought upon us.

In the forthcoming European elections the SSP will be once again ask voters to mark their cross beside the SSP, for socialism, independence and internationalism.

Victories for left candidates and parties would indeed be a spectre to haunt the cosy coterie of capitalist politicians facing the crisis.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/25/ssp-to-stand-in-european-elections/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/25/letter-from-olivier-besancenot-npa/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/25/letter-from-olivier-besancenot-npa/#comments Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:30:03 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=693 From Colin Fox’s blog

Dear comrades,

What is happening in Scotland confirms the fact that in all countries in Europe workers are suffering under the same blows from the bourgeoisie. The attacks against public services as a whole in a view to their privatization are just an example among many. The project to privatise the Royal Mail,which is taking place at the same time as that of privatising La Poste in France, proves it. We are, therefore, in complete solidarity with the struggle you are carrying out to prevent it.

In France, resistance to this privatisation plan has been organised around a large front of trade union, political and social organisations. Such a gathering of forces, which is absolutely exceptional, has resulted in the creation of local or regional committees around the country.

The purpose of these committees is to carry out an information campaign to mobilise the whole of the population, not just the workers of La Poste. We will not hide from you the difficulties we have encountered. As the government is for ever setting back the date to concretes this project, many people are under the impression that the privatisation of La Poste is something to happen sometime in the far future.

However, we all know how important it is to start the mobilisation from now, and not to wait.

At the same time, the series of wild strikes that have been taking place at La Poste show that the mood might change very quickly. I have myself taken part in a strike which lasted several weeks in my section. We demanded better pay and better working conditions. This is but one concrete way of fighting against privatisation!

So, comrades, we all wish you good luck in your struggle: when faced with a world economic crisis without precedent, it is urgent for all workers to unite and resist together.Long life to a Europe in which workers fight back together!Brotherly anti-capitalist greetings,

Olivier Besancenot

Postier Porte parole du NPA

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/25/letter-from-olivier-besancenot-npa/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/23/prisme-workers-win/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/23/prisme-workers-win/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:33:19 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=688 The Prisme workers look to have won in their struggle. If you are free why not pop along on Friday to greet them as they leave?

Prisme Packaging Occupation

Statement by the occupying workforce.

After 51 days in occupation the Dundee Prisme workers have decided to end their occupation. The reason we have taken this decision is that it looks like we have secured funding to take our co-op venture forward and save the jobs that we thought had gone.

Our occupation began to secure our redundancy payments and other monies that were denied to us by our employer when we were sacked. However, during the occupation we also decided to fight to safeguard our jobs because we believed there was a viable business, even if our predecessors did not. It looks like we have achieved this aim. A new company Discovery Packaging and Design Ltd is going to be launched on 1st May 2009.

This victory would not have been possible if it had not been for the support we have had from the general public, trade unionists, socialists and many others. This support and solidarity has been overwhelming and has helped give us the energy and determination to carry on for more than 7 weeks.

We said at the beginning of this that we were little people who had refused to be little anymore. We are proud of what we have achieved and our dignity is intact. We showed we would not be walked over by an uncaring employer.

We want to thank all those who have supported our struggle over the last 51 days, your support has been invaluable. Thanks once again to you all.

The Prisme workers will be leaving the factory together and united at 5pm on Friday 24th April.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/23/prisme-workers-win/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/20/link-tay-coast-ssp/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/20/link-tay-coast-ssp/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:46:16 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=679 A new blog has been launched by the Tay Coast SSP branch.

The Tay Coast branch covers North East Fife including Cupar and St. Andrews.

Go to taycoastssp.blogspot.com/ for more info.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/20/link-tay-coast-ssp/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/18/labour-tamper-with-ballot-boxes/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/18/labour-tamper-with-ballot-boxes/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:18:17 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=671 If they can’t even be trusted to not tamper with the boxes in their own internal elections how can we trust them not to do the same with ballot boxes at local and national level?

SSP members are reminded that the elections for the European candidate list will be taking place over the next week or so. The regional hustings in Dundee and Edinburgh are taking place this Sunday – contact your branch or branch secretary if you have not received details.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/18/labour-tamper-with-ballot-boxes/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/14/public-lecture/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/14/public-lecture/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:46:55 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=662 Public lecture

How can we stop Israeli human right violations

By: Manawel Abdelal
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

Wednesday 22 April 2009 @ 7:00pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Tower Building
Dundee University

Event Organised by: Dundee Trades Council, Dundee University Islamic Society and Tayside for Justice in Palestine

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/14/public-lecture/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/07/rural-pamphlet-now-available-online/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/07/rural-pamphlet-now-available-online/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:12:22 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=659 Rural Scotland and socialism in the 21st century is now available online at the SSP website.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/07/rural-pamphlet-now-available-online/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/07/wyndford-primary-and-st-gregorys-primary-schools-occupations/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/07/wyndford-primary-and-st-gregorys-primary-schools-occupations/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:00:33 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=655 Local people, activists from other schools fighting closure, socialists and trade unionists marched on Saturday in support of the continuing occupations of Wyndford Primary and St Gregorys schools in Glasgow.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/07/wyndford-primary-and-st-gregorys-primary-schools-occupations/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/04/glasgow-save-our-schools/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/04/glasgow-save-our-schools/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:12:24 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=649 Occupation

Save Our Schools parents and education workers are occupying Wyndford Primary and St Gregorys in Maryhill. People living near by are asked to go to the school with food supplies and messages of support. Text messages of support to:

Wyndford: 07894 123721

St. Gregory’s: 07776 396152

Demonstration in support of schools occupations today (Saturday 4th April) at 12 Midday

The Glasgow-wide Save Our Schools Campaign is appealing to people from the local community and across Glasgow to join a demonstration in support of parents occupying Wyndford and St Gregory’s primary schools today at 12 noon.

The support event is at Wyndford and St Gregory’s schools, Glenfinnan Drive, at the back of Maryhill Rd Tescos.

SSP on the Save our Schools campaign

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/04/glasgow-save-our-schools/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/03/forthcoming-meetings/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/03/forthcoming-meetings/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:32:28 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=643 Next meetings:

• Wednesday 15 April 2009 – guest speaker Ken Ferguson, editor of the Scottish Socialist Voice
• Wednesday 29 April 2009 – no main topic decided yet
• Wednesday 13 May 2009, guest speaker Gerry from the SSP Cuba Delegation

If you would like to come along, please contact us

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/03/forthcoming-meetings/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/03/boycott-the-sunday-mail/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/03/boycott-the-sunday-mail/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:10:46 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=638 From Socialist Unity:

NUJ Industrial Action at Trinity Mirror – Boycott of the Sunday Mail

On Saturday 4 April, journalists working at Trinity Mirror newspapers (Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail) will take strike action over management’s decision to cut 70 jobs. The edition of the Sunday Mail which appears on Sunday 5 April will be produced by non-union labour using copy from agencies. It would be of tremendous benefit to the NUJ and striking workers if the sales collapsed as a result.

Therefore, the STUC is calling on all its affiliated organisations and their members to boycott the Sunday Mail this weekend.

Stephen Boyd

Assistant Secretary

Scottish Trades Union Congress

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/03/boycott-the-sunday-mail/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/dundee-ssp-photos-online/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/dundee-ssp-photos-online/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:10:40 +0000 agorrie http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/dundee-ssp-photos-online/ To see some photos of us out and about over the past few years click here.

More to come soon…

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/dundee-ssp-photos-online/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/follow-us-on-twitter/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/follow-us-on-twitter/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:45:57 +0000 agorrie http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/follow-us-on-twitter/ We’ve just created an account on Twitter, with the intention of following live events as they happen. Please follow us
here

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/04/01/follow-us-on-twitter/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/scottish-socialist-voice/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/scottish-socialist-voice/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:09:15 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=607 The SSP produce a fortnightly paper titled Scottish Socialist Voice which has been published in various frequencies over the past 10 years.

The current issues has all of page two and half of page three written by people from Dundee or about events in Dundee.

The forthcoming issue has had two articles about Dundee submitted to it.

As well as reading the Dundee SSP site why not purchase an issue of the Scottish Socialist Voice or consider taking out a subscription?

You can post here to discuss political issues but the Scottish Socialist Voice also has a letters page – write into it and have your say.

The current Scottish Socialist Voice is out of date and various options on updating it are under way but priorities for the paper are with producing and printing the paper itself.

As the big business papers face plummeting sales why not try the newspaper which dares to be different?

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/scottish-socialist-voice/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/drama-in-dundee-city-council/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/drama-in-dundee-city-council/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:42:19 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=584 Following the Maryfield by election the make-up of Dundee City Council changed. Made up of 29 councillors, the SNP now had 14, one short of a majority and with an even stronger democratic mandate to take power. One independent councillor, Depute Lord Provost Ian Borthwick had previously stated that it was undemocratic for Labour (now 9) the Lib Dems (2) and Tories (3) to exclude the SNP from the convenership roles and being in charge.

The rumour mill was in full force and all eyes were on Borthwick to see if he would walk the walk having talked the talk. Distracted Dundonians didn’t expect the resignation of Lord Provost John Letford from the Labour councillors group and the party. This reduced the Labour group of councillors to 8 causing their spokesmen to go into a mud slinging rage.

According to Jim McGovern, Letford has overnight lost all his principles. Ironically he mocks him for previously stating what was at his core – Labour and the Trade Union Movement. He falsely concludes that because he left Labour this can no longer be true. It may be no longer true, but it is also possible that if he still has this at his core that’s the very reason he can no longer stay in the Labour Party. Twenty Four hours later his vitriolic attack had changed into the Labour losing an argument position of Draw the line under it and move on

Kevin Keenan, leader of the Labour group of councillors flip flopped all week long. From publicly requesting Letfords return to the Labour group (now unprincipled or not) to in desperation trying to hold an olive branch to the SNP by pledging to support one of their councillors to be made Lord Provost. Whether both these plans could be carried out at the same time was irrelevant, they were pure spin from the Labour group.

Other local Labour members from former councillors Jill Shimi, Chic Farquhar and former rent a quote MP Ernie Ross were wheeled out to sling mud too.

What’s interesting about those slinging the mud is only one of them is a Labour councillor. The other seven councillors have been strangely silent on the proposed change in administration.

The last twist in the saga before the council meeting to redraw up power was some claims about an OBE. Letford insists Kevin Keenan had urged him to stand down and he would arrange for him to have an OBE. A series of denials from those involved make it unclear what actually happened, but this would have been a large carrot to someone Keenan described as the biggest unionist I know. That Letford sees his best chance to be the Queens representative in the city has more chance by supporting the SNP than it does Labour says something about both of those parties. For Labour it is the final signpost in their demise in the city. For the SNP it shows how their politics lie on both independence and republicanism if they are making deals with the biggest unionist known to the leader of the Labour Party in order to keep the chains of office.

Ernie Ross had also made the bizarre claim that Labour are a democratic socialist party. Wrong on both counts Mr Ross! Why are the Labour Party fighting over the chains of office rather than trying to break them when in power if either of these propositions were true?

The two independents, Borthwick and Letford were expected to vote with the SNP, keeping their Depute/Lord Provost roles.

At the council meeting Ian Borthwick proposed to delay the meeting to try and have a majority administration of everyone. Apparently the recession means this is necessary. The issue that flagged up this change was not the economy going in to recession but the Lord Provost resigning from his former party. Seconded by the Tories it was lost to the votes of the SNP and John Letford.

The SNP had put forward this idea in 2003 and 2007, as had John Letford in private. Now it looked like the SNP would be in power, the undemocratic coalition who had kept them out of power and looked like losing it suddenly warmed to the idea.

The SNP then proposed John Letford and Ian Borthwick for Lord Provost and Depute as expected. Labour countered with a proposal for one of their councillors to be Lord Provost. Their third preference for the position in a week.

The SNP proposal won through with the support on John Letford with The Tories and Ian Borthwick abstaining.

Immediately all the Labour councillors raised their dissent at the decision. They subsequently opposed the decision to label committees as X Opposition instead of Labour, Lib Democrat etc. It should be pointed out that 20 minutes previously they had demanded the council choose from across the board for the best people for positions but were having trouble with doing that amongst the opposition – showing how unworkable their proposal was in the first place.

What does this mean for the people of Dundee. Well we have finally removed Labour from office, although at what cost? Look next door to Angus to see the actions of the SNP in power. They were one of the longest to hold out to the Nursery Nurses and gave one of the worst offers.

More recently they are attempting to claw back half a days wages from teachers. These teachers left school on an in service day due to the heavy snow. Buses were stopping and schools were closing across Dundee and the surrounding area. People were being advised left and right to get home safely whilst they could. The Council were holding a meeting in Forfar and decided to abandon it and go home as it was too dangerous for them to stay in the town. The teachers in Forfar apparently were in no danger of being stranded and should not have. (see comment below)

Or in other words, as happened in transition nationally between Tories and Labour in 1997, expect no noticeable positive difference.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/drama-in-dundee-city-council/feed/ 3 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/snp-now-run-dundee-city-council/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/snp-now-run-dundee-city-council/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:45:58 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=593 Beating both the BBC and SNP to the news – the Lord Provost and Depute Lord Provost are staying as John Letford and Ian Borthwick. Borthwick did not vote for himself as Depute!

The proposal from SNP for Borthwick and Letford to stay in their roles and the SNP to take convenership roles won 15 votes, the SNP and John Letford. The Labour proposal with Richard McCready as Lord Provost won 10 votes, Labour and The Liberal Democrats. The Tories and Ian Borthwick abstained.

The people of Dundee can now look forward to an even more anti-trade union administration than the discredited former regime.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/snp-now-run-dundee-city-council/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/travel-dundee-staff-vote-to-strike/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/travel-dundee-staff-vote-to-strike/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:43:04 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=587 The staff of Travel Dundee have voted 3 weeks of work to rule action, followed by a one day strike on 24th April.

The reasons for the strike are a pitiful pay offer and the workers bearing the brunt of commuters anger and frustration of cuts and changes to the services. This anger should of course be directed towards Travel Dundee management.

The line from the company and the media is of course appalling. Part of the work to rule action is that drivers, mechanics and others will no longer work through breaks to make up delays caused by faults and poor traffic due to the huge number of roadworks going on in the city recently. Their line is that this will bring disruption to customers and services are set to suffer.

The flip side of this is that the services are returning to their normal state. If not for drivers sacrificing break times to catch up we would see the real state of the services being provided – and that is what is set to happen from Friday April.

The reality of it is the services have only not been suffering because of workers sacrificing their own time. Managements contempt for workers both through their wages and time are the reason there will be disruption and why services suffer.

The power of workers collective action is shown in the statement by Travel Dundee boss Lawrence Davie when acknowledging that there would be no buses running on the strike day.

As the business is fully unionised, the proposed strike action on April 24 will result in a complete suspension of services for our customers he conceded.

We wish the workers every success in their struggle and would urge all those affected during the next three weeks to review the SSP policy on public transport.

Whether you are on strike, or the strike has affected you by showing how much the staff sacrifice to ensure your bus home arrives on time you should find it illuminating.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/travel-dundee-staff-vote-to-strike/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/behind-the-rural-idyll/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/behind-the-rural-idyll/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:55:40 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=578 The SSP have published a new pamphlet titled Rural Scotland and socialism in the 21st century.

Rural Pamphlet Cover

It is available for £2.

To see a sample of the content read the article by Colin Turbett on the SSP website.

Behind the rural idyll

Scotland’s countryside may be an ideal holiday destination or second home location, but behind the glorious scenery is a story of inglorious poverty and despair.

For the people who live there, rural life can be rife with problems, from scant housing to social alienation, dying communities to disappearing amenities.

Official figures reveal that hits rock bottom in picture-postcard Dumfries and Galloway, and that other indicators of poverty and inequality feature commonly in rural areas: low income and chronic ill-health for pensioners, and mortality rates for under-65s.

The Highlands have been described as the suicide capital of Europe.

The population is ageing, a trend likely to increase with the onset of recession and the hemorrhaging of younger people to the cities, and health and social services for older people are being slashed because of never-ending rounds of public spending cuts.

Continues on SSP website.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/30/behind-the-rural-idyll/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/25/caltongate-saved/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/25/caltongate-saved/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:02:43 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=571 The Independent Republic of the Caltongate is reporting the demise of property developers who were intent on ripping the heart out of the community.

Pundits, sycophants and supporters of this Toy Town scheme mocked all of those who raised questions about the financial logic of this development based on ever increasing land prices and free and easy credit from the banking system, once those two things crashed the project was doomed. Caltongate was based on artists impressions of a architect’s dystopian fantasy and those architects names must be etched on the tomb of Edinburgh’s real disgrace – such as Richard Murphy, Allan Murray and Malcolm Fraser. Hopefully this Shakespearean tragedy will not be replayed over and over again.

The council used public money and council taxes to facilitate a big business plan for yet another Old Town development without looking at the needs and desires of the community.

The protesters and campaigners have been called liars and trouble makers for genuinely raising our concerns about lack of sustainable development and ignoring the community! More links here

It is quite ironic that the council ignored the objections based on the ludicrous financial model of the development only for the proposed proponents of the blight of the Old Town to go bust due to their ludicrous financial model.

One to celebrate throughout Scotland. Next we need the Tram Vanity project to get binned and the people of Edinburgh can live in their area instead of existing in the background of consumerism.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/25/caltongate-saved/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/16/ncr-people-not-profit/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/16/ncr-people-not-profit/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:40:08 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=476 For the past few years the SSP has run a campaign called People not Profit. The meaning of this is shown clearly at NCR.

Bill Nuti, the Chief Executive of NCR has been awarded a bonus of £5.6 million. A month later he axes manufacturing at NCR in Dundee throwing 252 workers on the dole. They are not the only ones to lose out. Bill Nuti is feeling the pinch too – he has downsized from a private jet to a private helicopter. That’s spreading the cuts in the language of the head parasites of global corporations.

How many other workers around the country are being asked to take pay cuts or wage freezes for the good of the company? There is no good of the company – only good of the shareholders. The worst part of these cuts is not that the factory is not profitable but is not profitable enough.

It is not enough that the factory is not making a loss and that it makes money to these people. They don’t value the skills and experience of the workers – the ones who create the profit in the first place. They only value their own dividends and the madness that is demanding increase upon increase in their return year upon year. This not only leads to the decisions such as these but also the short term view of the company. Who cares if the decisions taken by chief executives mean a company will survive for the next 10 years, getting a massive increase in profit in the next quarter guarantees them big bonuses then. They then have the cheek to talk about the good of the company.

The workers of Prisme have shown the way, not intent on taking a P45 and no redundancy from their boss they, are starting up without the boss.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/16/ncr-people-not-profit/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/14/readers-polls-and-feedback/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/14/readers-polls-and-feedback/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:31:44 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=470 You’re asking me to vote – again!
Yes, but not in a by-election this time.

We have been running this site for two years and it’s time for our first reader survey.

At the left hand side there are two polls, one asking why you visited the site and the other asking how you found us.

We would also like to know a bit about the direction our readers and supporters want the site to go. What do you think about the level of coverage of what we write about:

• Dundee SSP
• SSP nationally
• SSP in other areas
• local news
• national news
• international news

Do you want to see anything we are missing, should we have interviews? Do you want to send us readers letters about politics.

So far the use of the site has been pretty one way, we have posted stuff and loads of you have read it. Is there a reason barely anyone comments? Is the comment system hard to use (in which case contact us another way!)? is it because we are always right (unlikely)? Is it because you found us searching for some random phrase? We would like to know as we would prefer this to be a two way communication tool – that’s why we chose a blog for our site and unlike other local political parties, have left the comments open.

Please use the comments to let us know what you think. We have a couple of ideas for things to do already but want to get some reader feedback first before we decide what direction to go with them.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/14/readers-polls-and-feedback/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/14/14th-march-roundup/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/14/14th-march-roundup/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:55:14 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=464 A number of important event have happened locally yesterday.

On Friday it was announced that manufacturing was to close down at NCR. This will also lead to a number of job losses at related companies including Taylor Group Diecastings Limited.

Texol also announced their closure.

The Evening Telegraph has a depressing list of the major job losses which have hit Dundee in the last two years: 1539 jobs in total. This does not include the recent announcements just in time for the end of the financial year and the big bonus payments to the bosses.

It is yet to be seen if these workers will fight back having seen the Prisme workers do so.

There is now a Prisme workers fund, send cheques with payment to: TUC Lobby Fund, to
Prisme Workers Solidarity,
c/o Mike Arnott,
Dundee TUC,
141 Yarrow Terrace,
Menzieshill,
Dundee,
DD2 4DY.

The other event overshadowed by these depressing reports was the election results in the Maryfield by election. As expected the SNP walked it, although surprisingly not in the first round. The SSP had a disappointing result but it was as we expected. In a two horse race like a by election the votes get squeezed for smaller parties. It is unknown how many second votes were given to the SSP after giving a first vote to Labour or the SNP. In a normal council election with multiple councillors being elected these may be passed to us, in this case there was no chance of them ever being passed to us.

The people of Dundee have resoundingly said they want an SNP council. They were the largest party returned at the council elections and at the two subsequent by elections won them both comfortably. It is yet to be seen if the anti-democratic coalition of Labour/Tories/Liberal Democrats. Ian Borthwick got off the fence last time and sided with the will of the voters in Dundee, it is to be seen if he will do so again.

Not that an SNP council will be an improvement for the working class of Dundee. Just ask teachers or nursery nurses in nearby Angus Council how an SNP council treats it’s employees.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/14/14th-march-roundup/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/10/maryfield-by-election/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/10/maryfield-by-election/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:46:44 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=454 It’s been a frantic few weeks of campaigning in the Maryfield by election and the result will be known on Friday. Before you cast your vote remember this is an election using a Transferable Vote, not just a cross in a box.

You can vote SSP 1, Labour 2 or SNP 1, SSP 2 or whatever way you want. You can’t waste your vote. Vote in order of your preference.

You can still vote tactically.

If you normally vote Labour but want them to care more about working class people then mark SSP 1 and Labour 2. Labour will then get transferred the vote if and when the SSP are eliminated. It sends a message to them about what their voters other priorities are. If one party sees their votes coming to them as a second choice behind the SSP it sends them a clear message that their supporters think they are too right wing or authoritarian.

Vote for what you want not against what you don’t want.

See where you are politically at the Political Compass. For reference the SSP would be left wing and liberal (the same square as Gandhi). Labour would be right wing and authoritarian (the same square as the Tories and the Italian Fascists). You can also see the drift to be both right wing and authoritarian by Labour.

Unfortunately there is no Scotland wide table. On this graphic the SSP would be about the same place as the Greens, with the SNP being a bit to the left of the Liberal Democrats.

Take the test, see where you are and vote for the party or parties who most match your views.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/10/maryfield-by-election/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/09/hustings-tuesday-10th-march/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/09/hustings-tuesday-10th-march/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:50:48 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=451 The Stobswell Forum are hosting a hustings meeting on Tuesday 10th March at 7pm in the Boomerang Hall (110 Albert Street).

This is the first and only hustings to have taken place in the by-election. If you live in the ward pop along to quiz the candidates.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/09/hustings-tuesday-10th-march/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/1984-85-miners%e2%80%99-strike-%e2%80%93-a-personal-recollection/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/1984-85-miners%e2%80%99-strike-%e2%80%93-a-personal-recollection/#comments Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:18:30 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=449 There is an excellent and detailed post on SafeSpace about the Miners Strike. If you are too young to remember, or have only heard the medias accounts, it is well worth reading. Even if you are neither of these it should be read, as you will probably relate to the take by having heard hundreds like it.

The personal recollections of one woman’s memories of it, how it affected her family and how they viewed the portrayal in the media. It should be a real eye opener for those who dismiss the lefts and working classes hatred sheer hatred of Thatcher. The Tory policies destroyed families and communities and they should never and will never be forgiven for it. It is also why the attacks on New Labour for having the same policies as the Tories are pretty much the worst insult you can throw at them.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/1984-85-miners%e2%80%99-strike-%e2%80%93-a-personal-recollection/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/outrage-as-police-threaten-to-confiscate-strike-fund/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/outrage-as-police-threaten-to-confiscate-strike-fund/#comments Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:00:20 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=444 Outside the Labour Party conference there were a number of protests about the organisation’s presence in the city, from those dressed as fat cats objecting to billions being given to the bunch of bankers, to Palestine Solidarity stalls.

Among them were members of the SSP and of Solidarity working together to highlight the Prisme occupation and raise funds for them.

The police, prompted by a complaint by a member of the public (most likely some Labour Party loyalist, approached each of these in turn to threaten them with further action should they not desist from their activities. The Palestine Solidarity Stall were spoken to for a while. The fatcat banker was warned over his possession of clearly fake money – something companies and churches use all the time for advertising and prosthletising respectively.

Most outrageously was the police action over the solidarity with Prisme workers. Those collecting were told that they must immediately stop collecting money. Their names, addresses and work details were taken. They were further informed that if they continued to collect money in a bucket they would be charged and that the money would be seized.

The rest is nonsense and worth fighting for a day in court, but the threat to seize donations raised for workers in struggle was believed to be most serious. The SSP unreservedly condemn the police decision in this case. Surely for one Tayside Police have better things to do such as continually and habitually break the speed limit without penalty, such as their 140MPH+ chief constable. Secondly the money is being raised for workers who have been treated appallingly by their employer.

We will continue to work with the striking workers and to raise money for them. Currently they have no mechanism for receiving donations other than directly in cash, so we will publicise any other ways to do so if and when they are available.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/outrage-as-police-threaten-to-confiscate-strike-fund/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/prisme-workers-photos/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/prisme-workers-photos/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:11:41 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=441 Pictures from the occupation at Prisme. Due to technical difficulties, i.e. e-mails going AWOL, they are slightly delayed.

Group with banner

Group with banner

Group

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/prisme-workers-photos/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/rally-tomorrow-to-support-prisme-workers/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/rally-tomorrow-to-support-prisme-workers/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:26:59 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=437 The Facebook group is reporting two rallies happening tomorrow in support of the workers.

Rally Saturday 7 March 10am City Square, Dundee (5 minutes from train station), outside Labour Party Conference

12pm at Prisme Factory, Tannadice Street (next to stadium, across from Jerry Kerr stand, 20 minutes from city centre)

Also from group an interview with Matthew, one of the workers

On Monday we came into work as normal and the Managing Director came in and gave his letter of resignation. So we phoned the company secretary who was actually on holiday. We were told to speak to a guy called Alan Dand. On Tuesday he called us and an administrator came to look at the accounts. Then the company told us that they didn’t have enough assets to pay for the administrator and said ‘Looks like we’re just going to shut the door’.

We were told that the director and a legal representative were coming to tell us our rights but in fact the legal representative was for the director and wouldn’t tell us anything. They won’t even tell us who owns the company! We demanded that we be given a letter how much we were entitled to in redundancy payments, our P45’s and statutory redundancy forms. When we received the letter it stated how much our statutory redundancy payments were and that we were entitled to wages, pay in lieu of notice and accrued holiday pay. Then the next sentence of the letter said ‘Unfortunately, we do not have any money to make these payments to you’.

They said there were other routes we could take to get our redundancy payments but all they have suggested is speaking to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

After receiving these letters we were told to leave and come back at half nine in the morning but we decided we’re not leaving until we receive what we’re entitled to. We’re not giving them the opportunity to lock the doors while we’re out so we end up with nothing.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/rally-tomorrow-to-support-prisme-workers/feed/ 2 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/colin-fox-on-visit-to-prisme-workers/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/colin-fox-on-visit-to-prisme-workers/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:23:09 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=434 Colin Fox on the visit

Prisme Packaging Workers Occupy Factory

Thirteen people at Prisme Packaging in Dundee lost their jobs on Wednesday the latest victims of an increasingly brutal recession. Their firm, which manufactures cardboard boxes, lost its biggest customer on Monday and has subsequently gone bust.

But this non union workforce found to their cost that they are more vulnerable with the treatment they received as the firms owners announced they were all sacked with immediate effect and would not receive any redundancy pay or even their wages for March.

They were each handed a letter telling them they would not get a penny piece even though some of them had worked there for 14 years and were legally entitled to severance pay as the firm had gone bust. Their response was immediate and unanimous, they occupied the factory and took control of the assets.

Since I happened to be up in Dundee on Thursday, campaigning for SSP candidate Angela Gorrie in next weeks Maryfield by election, I went along to offer my support to the occupation.

I was delighted to meet Matthew, Christine, David and the others and find them in such good spirits considering what had happened to them. I recounted my experience in the Caterpillar occupation of 1988 and pledged support from the SSP in helping them save their jobs or at least secure the redundancy monies they are entitled to.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/06/colin-fox-on-visit-to-prisme-workers/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/05/oor-workers-your-workers-abodys-workers/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/05/oor-workers-your-workers-abodys-workers/#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:36:37 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=425 Report from STV about workers occupation of factory in Dundee

Workers occupy Prisme video report

Courier report

Facebook Group

Indymedia report

A number of SSP members including Colin Fox, former MSP and Angela Gorrie, Maryfield by election candidate visited the workers today to show their support. Pictures and report to follow.

Messages of support can be sent to christinaf1956@hotmail.com [Appears to no longer work] , prismeworkerssolidarity@googlemail.com, or by text/phone to 07882804212.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/05/oor-workers-your-workers-abodys-workers/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/04/viva-la-revolution-st-andrews/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/04/viva-la-revolution-st-andrews/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:39:46 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=419 Below is a short article written by Colin Fox about the occupation of St Andrews Uni. Come along to our open branch meeting tomorrow night to hear Colin Fox speaking about the Council Tax and Angela Gorrie speak about the Maryfield by election. (see meetings page for details)

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.’

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/04/viva-la-revolution-st-andrews/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/28/lib-dem-right-hand-doesnt-know-what-left-hand-is-doing/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/28/lib-dem-right-hand-doesnt-know-what-left-hand-is-doing/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:36:22 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=404 According to the Herald the Lib Dems have failed to meet the deadline for a commission at Holyrood.

Fair enough you might think.

Except it was a commission they were architects of.

The excuse is of course that they need some more time to think of what to submit.

The topic of the commission is a federal UK, which the Liberal Democrats have been in favour of for decades!

So they set up a commission to investigate of of their flagship policies but haven’t thought about it enough to submit something to the group.

No wonder they do things like claim they support scrapping the Council Tax, then vote against SSP bills to scrap the council tax.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/28/lib-dem-right-hand-doesnt-know-what-left-hand-is-doing/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/27/scrap-the-unfair-council-tax/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/27/scrap-the-unfair-council-tax/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:47:14 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=397 The Scottish Socialist Party has for years campaigned to abolish the council tax, which hits the poorest hardest, and replace it with the Scottish Service Tax, which is based on income and ability to pay.

Open Branch Meeting
All welcome
DVA,
10 Constitution Road
Thursday 5 MARCH, 7.30 p.m.
Speakers—Colin Fox, SSP Co-Convenor,
Angela Gorrie, SSP candidate for the Maryfield by-election

Come along to the meeting and find out about the radical alternative to the council tax.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/27/scrap-the-unfair-council-tax/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/24/labour-government-show-hypocrisy-over-royal-mail/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/24/labour-government-show-hypocrisy-over-royal-mail/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:34:52 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=384 Recently, if you have been watching the news or reading any newspaper you will have noticed the complete failure of whole sections of the private sector. Basing their business plans on profits they were expecting to make, the profits never arrived, but massive debts and write offs came instead. You will also have noticed that Labour threw hundreds of billions of pounds at the failed companies, some of which is being syphoned off by their greedy directors as bonuses, clearly not related to performance.

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

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/24/labour-government-show-hypocrisy-over-royal-mail/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/24/dundee-maryfield-by-election/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/24/dundee-maryfield-by-election/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:16:33 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=379 Short article by Dundee SSP candidate in the Maryfield by election, Angela Gorrie also on the SSP site

Dundee SSP announced our candidate in the Maryfield by election Angela Gorrie.

The by-election in the Maryfield ward of Dundee City Council, scheduled for Thursday March 12th, will be the first local authority contest since the SNP’s u-turn on Council Tax. In an area where Council Tax rates are among the highest in Scotland, this will not go unnoticed.

Although a win in the poll, triggered by the resignation of Labour’s Joe Morrow, will not be enough to give the SNP a majority, it will leave them just one seat away. The 29 member council is currently finely balanced with 13 SNP members, 10 Labour; 3 Conservatives; 2 Liberals and an Independent.

The ward, one of the largest within Dundee, ranges from the docks of the Tay, through the City Centre to the north edge of the City.

Unusually, it also straddles the boundaries of the Dundee East/West Scottish and Westminster parliamentary seats. Unfortunately for activists however, much of the area lies on a steep slope!
The SSP have consistently held stalls in this area over the past few years, something which many passers by certainly seem to appreciate.

Along with weekly City Centre stalls we try to hold earlier activities in the outlying areas of the city. Stobswell Junction, which sits at the top end of the ward, has always been a popular location.

While the early days of the campaign have so far focused on the SSP’s commitment to replace the hated Council Tax with our Scottish Service Tax, based on income and ability to pay, our other policies have also been well received.

The area has a large student population, so our message of abolish all fees and loans; bring back grants has been well received. Due to the location there are also a high number of council workers in the area. Dundee SSP members were highly active around the last Local Authority workers’ strikes last year, spending many mornings, before and after, leafleting workplaces and showing solidarity with workers.

This has not been forgotten, and we have received many positive comments on the streets about our support.

While the ward boasts enviable public transport links – Dundee Bus Station is within the area, and the Railway Station is just to the West – the costs continue to rise. When I first moved to Dundee four years ago, the standard fare was £1.10. This has now spiralled to £1.45. The cheapest fare increased to 80p earlier this year.

At a time when many local facilities are closing, this has put additional financial pressure on many who live in the area. The SSP’s Free Public Transport policy is recognised as a way to combat this, while going some way to save the environment at the same time.

Dundee, as a city twinned with Nablus, has always taken the fight of the Palestinian people to its heart. This was clear at the recent demonstration, one of the largest the City has witnessed in recent years. Dundee SSP is proud to be a part of this movement.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/24/dundee-maryfield-by-election/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/23/scottish-peoples-charter/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/23/scottish-peoples-charter/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:36:01 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=376 The Scottish Peoples Charter is being launched this weeked

Scottish Peoples Charter

We need Change. We need Hope.

We need a fair Scotland and a [fair] Britain.

A fair economy for a fairer society

Progressive taxes without loopholes or tax havens. We must own and control the main banks. Guarantee all pensions, mortgages and savings. Tie pensions and benefits to wages. Give pensioners free transport and heating. Increase the minimum wage.

More and better jobs:

Defend and improve employment. Make a massive investment in new jobs particularly in green technology for our childrens’ sake.

Decent homes for all:

Create 250,000 new publicly owned homes in Scotland over the next five years. Stop the repossessions. Control rents.

Save and improve our services:

Energy, Telecommunications, Water and Transport to be owned by all of us. Remove profit making from the NHS. Support our public service staff.

For fairness and justice:

Equality for all. Together against all racism and discrimination. Equal pay for women. End child poverty. Give young people a future. Free child and youth facilities, education and training for all. Repeal the anti-trade union laws to fight poverty and inequality.

A better future starts now:

No more blood and money for war. Bring the troops home. No more £billions for nuclear weapons. No replacement for Trident. We want massive investment for a greener, safer world. Get rid of the debt economy in Britain and cancel the debts of the poor of the planet.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/23/scottish-peoples-charter/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/21/save-our-schools-in-glasgow/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/21/save-our-schools-in-glasgow/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:50:42 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=365 We like to occasionally report on activity going on around the country.

In Glasgow the Scottish Socialist Party have been involved in a campaign to save a series of schools from closure and merger.

Photos from the Save our Schools Glasgow demo.

A report on the campaign Save Our Schools work can be found here

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/21/save-our-schools-in-glasgow/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/20/democracy-2/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/20/democracy-2/#comments Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:56:19 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=333 Democracy isn’t just putting a cross or some numbers on a bit of paper every four years, no matter how much the pro-capitalist parties would have you believe. There are other essential parts such as recallability and accountability. One way of holding elected representatives to account is to challenge them when they stray from their manifesto promises, for example the SNP abandoning pledges to scrap council tax and student fees.

A website has been set up called VoteWise, it’s purpose is to allow a space for people to publicly challenge candidates up for election.

Maryfield by-election page has been set up. So send your questions to the candidate and whoever wins, make sure the stick to what they claim they will do and will not do on it and their leaflets etc.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/20/democracy-2/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/18/support-st-andrews-university-students-in-occupation/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/18/support-st-andrews-university-students-in-occupation/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:36:21 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=329 Please send your messages of support to the students at St Andrews University who have just began their occupation in protest at the University’s complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people: campaign@scottishpsc.org.uk

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

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/18/support-st-andrews-university-students-in-occupation/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/17/capitalism-in-crisis/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/17/capitalism-in-crisis/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:07:18 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=325 No doubt you have heard the constant press stories about the latest bust cycle in capitalism.

East Dumbartonshire SSP hosted a discussion on the crisis.

The lengthy video of the discussion is below.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/17/capitalism-in-crisis/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/16/maryfield-by-election-2009-leaflet/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/16/maryfield-by-election-2009-leaflet/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:44:25 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=309 Dundee SSP announced our candidate in the Maryfield by election Angela Gorrie.

The Maryfield by-election leaflet is now produced, the text is below with links to images of the leaflets. If you would like to help in the campaign by leafleting, canvassing or making a financial donation to help then get in contact with us. Unlike the SNP, Labour or Tories, we don’t have multi millionaire backers so anyway to help out would be appreciated.

Vote for the SSP

Leaflet front

Vote for the SSP the campaigning party

The Scottish Socialist Party campaigns on the streets of Dundee every week, not just during elections.

• The City of Dundee has one of the highest council tax rates in Scotland. The SSP has for years campaigned for it to be replaced by a tax based on income and ability to pay.
• Dundee has a student population of 17,000. The SSP says, Abolish all fees and loans. Bring back grants.
• The Scottish Socialist Party supports workers in struggle and during the local authority dispute last year stood firmly behind the council workers.
• When Post Office closures were announced in Dundee last year, the SSP mounted a campaign against the cuts.
• The Dundee SSP has taken direct action against the parking charges at Ninewells Hospital, with stalls both on the street and within the car park at Ninewells Hospital itself.
• The Scottish Socialist Party is the party committed to campaigning on behalf of working class communities.

To join the Scottish Socialist Party, or for more information, contact us at
PO BOX 6773
DUNDEE, DD1 1YL
or online at www.dundeessp.org

Leaflet back

Capitalism in crisis – Who pays?

The Scottish Socialist Party is an anti-capitalist party. We believe in people, not profit. As socialists, we fight for a different type of system where the needs of the many are put before the greed of the bosses. The current economic crisis is a result of the insatiable drive for profits of capitalism. While the bankers get obscene bonuses, we face redundancies, home repossessions and cuts in services. We believe it does not have to be this way:

• End the fat cat bonuses
• Stop all home repossessions
• Fully nationalise the banks under workers’ control

Wars and the attack on Gaza

The city of Dundee is twinned with the Palestinian town of Nablus, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. During the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, the SSP has helped to organise demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza, medical aid and the boycott of Israeli goods. We oppose all imperialist wars and play an important role in the anti-war movement in Scotland.

For free public transport

The Scottish Socialist Party believes that free and efficient public transport would benefit both the people and the planet.

As the world’s climate heats up it makes sense to reduce our oil dependency and get cars off the road. We should also be investing in research and development of alternative sources of energy for the future.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/16/maryfield-by-election-2009-leaflet/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/11/dundee-ssp-maryfield-by-election-media-release/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/11/dundee-ssp-maryfield-by-election-media-release/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:58:20 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=306 At a time when the economy is being shaken to its foundations, retention of this vile tax will condemn those households most under pressure to face a tightening budget for years to come.

The effects will also be strongly felt throughout the public services where so called efficiency savings will increase.

Since it’s inception the SSP has fought to replace the hated Council Tax with the Scottish Service Tax, a system where the rich would be forced to pay their fair share.

While others have made promises, the SSP remains the only party to have put an alternative before the Scottish Parliament.

It is now clearer than ever that the SNP‘s priorities lie with big business, not the voters of Maryfield.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/11/dundee-ssp-maryfield-by-election-media-release/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/11/ssp-salmond%e2%80%99s-cowardly-manifesto-u-turn/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/11/ssp-salmond%e2%80%99s-cowardly-manifesto-u-turn/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:43:31 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=298 The Scottish Socialist Party today accused the SNP government of a cowardly manifesto u-turn, abandoning pensioners and low paid workers in favour of the rich and business interests who bankroll their party after Finance Secretary John Swinney told MSPs that legislation to introduce a local income tax would not be introduced in the current parliament.

This is not the first time the SNP has abandoned opposition to the Council tax and watched hundreds of thousands of pensioners and low paid workers who stood to benefit most from abolition of the Council tax lose out.

SSP national co-spokesperson Colin Fox said today;

The SNP’ cowardly manifesto u-turn means that the super rich businessmen like Brian Souter who bankroll the SNP with their bonuses will continue to benefit while pensioners, low paid workers and millions of those worst affected by the current economic recession, like the thousands of sacked Woolworths workers who would have at least enjoyed some financial relief with the reduction in their Council tax bills, will continue to be hammered by this unfair Tory tax

The SNP has again failed to capitalise on the majority support across Scotland for abolishing the Council tax. They have now given up the idea without a fight or even a vote in Parliament.

How different their approach to that of the Scottish Socialist Party on this issue.

The SSP, with just 6 MSP‘s, were able to make far greater headway. Our Bill to abolish the Council tax, a bill which incidentally the SNP voted down [on Feb 1st 2006] attracted considerable support across civic Scotland.

The SNP‘s subsequent local income tax plan with its regressive 3p across the board charge attracted much less enthusiasm. Our local income tax replacement by contrast was graduated to ensure the better off paid more as their income went up and the poorer were exempt.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/11/ssp-salmond%e2%80%99s-cowardly-manifesto-u-turn/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/dundee-ssp-announce-maryfield-by-election-candidate/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/dundee-ssp-announce-maryfield-by-election-candidate/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:23:50 +0000 agorrie http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=276 Dundee SSP have today announced Angela Gorrie, 21, as their candidate for the forthcoming Maryfield by-election.

Angela initially moved to the city to study at Dundee University, and now works in Customer Services.

While at university, she was highly involved in the successful campaign to remove Special Branch from campus, and was active in the fight to prevent cuts to university departments.

In the wider community, she has taken up issues from public service closures and the need to implement a free public transport system to calling for an end to the slaughter in Gaza.

Outside of politics, Angela is a keen musician and enjoys walking and watching football.

Angela is a member of the Scottish Socialist Party because she believes in People not Profit – whether that’s fighting for local services, supporting striking workers or resisting the SNP’s big business agenda.

For more information on the campaign please contact contact@dundeessp.org

Promoted by Roderick MacGregor, on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Party, Suite 308/310, 4th Floor Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street Glasgow, G2 6LD

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/dundee-ssp-announce-maryfield-by-election-candidate/feed/ 2 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/fighting-back-against-redundancies/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/fighting-back-against-redundancies/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:42:49 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=272 By Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser

Hardly a day passes without new announcements of devastating job losses, sometimes outright company closures, at levels not seen since at least the 1980 recession.

Workers’ lives are being made misery after years of being told by those in charge of the boardrooms and the Labour Cabinet that all was for the best in the best of all possible systems.
Household names like Woolworths has shut up shop with 27,000 redundancies – on bare minimum state redundancy packages of a few hundred pounds.

MFI, Adams, Arran Aromatics, Findus Foods … the food and retail sector is in meltdown, with forecasts of one in ten shops being empty by the end of the year.

That spells disaster for tens of thousands eking out a living on wages mere pennies above the minimum wage.

Bankers – and bank workers

The finance sector has been bludgeoned by the chaos caused by irresponsible, profit-crazed bankers, who made incomprehensible fortunes by gambling on the capitalist markets. The government’s bailout of the bankers has prevented complete collapse, but has not eased up credit nor boosted the spending power of the working and middle classes.

So now taxpayers’ money is to be raided further for a second, even bigger bailout. But this does little to protect finance workers’ jobs; 47,000 have already been lost, with another 10,000 redundancies expected in the next three months.

A familiar scene over the years when companies go into administration or liquidation is the intervention of financial services giant KPMG. Now this outfit is ‘offering’ its 11,000 staff the glorious ‘choice’ of three months ‘sabbatical’ on 30 per cent pay, or a 4-day week, with accompanying pay cuts.

As the bottom falls out of the housing market, construction workers face mass layoffs. We have the obscene contradiction of a Scottish building worker joining the ranks of the homeless on the eve of Christmas because he lost his job and couldn’t keep up the mortgage!

Car industry crisis

Another major sector facing the worst crisis in at least 30 years is the car industry. With a slump in sales and production, car workers are made to pay the price through a cocktail of pay cuts and job losses.

Honda has just extended its two-month shutdown by a further two months: the Swindon plant won’t re-open for production until June! The 4,200 workers in the factory are to survive on 50 per cent wages for those four months.

In Sunderland, Nissan is chopping 1,200 of its 5,000 workforce. The same outfit recently got £6.2m of government funding for production of a new model; they have shifted production of the Micra to slave-labour India.

Manufacturing industry is in freefall. Factory output collapsed at an annual rate of 22 per cent in November. And there is little prospect of rapid recovery. For instance, the collapse over 2008 in the value of the pound against the Euro (down 30%) and the US$ (down 27%) will not on this occasion lead to an export-led recovery in the UK, because recession is blighting the USA, Japan and the whole of Europe.

Public sector slaughter

Right now the private sector is in the front line of job losses. But on top of the tens of thousands of jobs already lost in the public sector in recent years, a devastating new round of Thatcher-like cuts confront the NHS, local authorities and civil service in the next year or so. As the Scotland on Sunday recently reported:

UK Ministers have already warned that the tax cuts and fiscal stimulus plans being put into place to offset the worst of the downturn will have to be paid for – and soon. The pain will begin, say many, at the end of the next financial year, in April 2010.

SNP Ministers fear that as the Treasury starts to rein in spending, its budget will drop by £500m a year. Scotland’s NHS and councils are heading for a repeat of the 1980s cuts enforced by Thatcher.

Leadership needed

In the face of these devastating blows to entire communities, cities and regions, one of the most disappointing features is the lack of decisive, coordinated calls for action from the leadership of the trade union movement – through the likes of the TUC and STUC.

It is hardly surprising that many of the workers facing the scrap heap are initially shocked and stunned, rather than confident of taking action to save their jobs and livelihoods. But to change that and turn shock into anger and action requires leadership.

Too many of the union leaders are like rabbits mesmerised by the headlights of a lorry bearing down on them. Too often they merely echo the employers’ fatalistic words about the global crisis, without offering any radical alternative that would save and create jobs. In the case of a regional official of UNITE who organises the Nissan car workers facing 1,200 job losses, he stated “One firm can’t ask for a bailout; every firm would want one”!

Instead of portraying themselves as powerless in the teeth of the capitalist crisis, union leaders need to rally their members with events and arguments that give individual groups of workers some confidence that they are not on their own, that there is a point in fighting back.

Union rallies

In 1980, within months of Maggie Thatcher’s axe-wielding government being elected, the unions and Labour Party mobilised some of the biggest demos in the UK’s modern history, against unemployment. Hundreds of thousands marched, and this gave a boost to the fighting spirits of individual workforces facing mass redundancies.

As a minimum first step, the STUC, TUC and national unions should call national demos and rallies against unemployment; in defence of jobs; for a 35 hour week without loss of pay to create jobs; and for an increased minimum wage.

The combination of big united rallies, and fighting policies that point to a different alternative, would begin to turn the tide against the working class being made to pay for the capitalists’ crisis.

It would give courage to workers to use every means possible to save their jobs for future generations of workers – including workplace occupations to combat asset-stripping by bosses who often shift production to slave labour economies abroad – after getting £millions in grants off the government to set up shop in the first place.

Socialist alternatives

Socialist measures are not a luxury for May Day speeches; they are an indispensable weapon that should be wielded by the unions to mobilise their millions of members and their communities, and to answer people’s widespread fear that there is no alternative to mass redundancies.

For example, there is a drastic need for public sector house-building and renovation – and for universal home insulation to cut fuel bills and help combat climate chaos. Tens of thousands of jobs could thus be created, if the governments of Westminster or Holyrood had the political will. To carry out such a plan of public sector housing, the unions should argue for public ownership and democratic control of the construction industry.

If there is a glut in the car market that causes shutdowns and lay-offs, the unions need to fight for socially useful alternative production. For example, the developing world needs agricultural machinery that car plants could build. Closer to home, a vastly expanded free public transport system would create tens of thousands of transport workers’ jobs and cut poverty in the communities, as well as helping the environment. But it would also require building fleets of buses, trams, ferries and trains – a source of jobs for many facing a shaky future right now.

The bankers have been bailed out to save their skins – and those of their pals in the wider system. So the unions rightly call for investment to shore up the car industry. But why not call for public ownership and democratic control, instead of for subsidies to the bosses’ profits and debts?

The unions need to call public rallies that rouse the confidence of workers to fight back, but equally they need to expound measures that go beyond the straitjacket of capitalist production for profit. Public ownership of the banks, big retailers, energy, oil, transport, construction and manufacturing would be a means to plan the production of goods and services for public need.

Struggle – or starve!

Scotland faces an exponential growth of unemployment, with the Centre for Economic and Business Research predicting an 88 per cent rise in the numbers unemployed this year – from 121,000 to 227,000.

The Scottish economy is plunging towards its worst contraction since 1931. The rich elite who rule and ruin our lives are determined to make the working class pay for the crisis, driving us back to the 1930s if needs be.

The time is rotten-ripe for the unions and socialists to champion a different future, where work is shared out under a shorter working week, but without loss of pay; where the assets of companies that have been built up through generations of workers’ labour and taxpayers’ subsidies are taken into public ownership – but with democratic control.

A future where real jobs and training are restored, with new environmentally-friendly manufacturing a part of the answer. A socialist future where democratic needs and wishes are paramount, instead of millions being tossed in the dustbin for the protection of profits.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/fighting-back-against-redundancies/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/challenges-facing-the-unions-in-2009/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/challenges-facing-the-unions-in-2009/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:35:05 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=268 by Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser

Over the past few weeks, working people are as likely to have been wringing their hands in anxiety at job losses as listening to the ringing of jingle bells.

Daily news reports and pundits’ commentaries harshly confirm two central truths: capitalism doesn’t work, and the working class are being pounded with the devastating consequences, to make us pay for the crisis created by the capitalist elite.

For years we were told – by New Labour politicians in particular – that the days of boom and bust were over; that the government’s fiscal ingenuity, extended credit and the inherent glories of the market system would guarantee a rosy future.

Now economists are competing for who can come up with the gloomiest forecasts for 2009 and beyond.

Typical headlines and predictions are: 600,000 jobs to go in 2009 – 1,600 a day; 100,000 Scots to lose their jobs; Worst level of redundancies in 30 years; Employers hold back on redundancies until after Xmas…

The Scottish Council for Development and Industry has just predicted the first year of ‘negative economic growth’ in Scotland since 1980.

Closures

Recent weeks have seen closure of the iconic Woolies stores on every High St, with 27,000 workers thrown on the scrapheap after a century of trading.

Other household names in retail, the finance sector and the car industry have seen equivalent levels of job decimation and threats to workers’ futures.

The merger of HBoS with Lloyds threatens up to 40,000 finance workers’ jobs.

The retail sector is poised on the brink of a slaughter: Experian forecast 1,600 retailers will be driven out of business this year, leaving one in ten shops empty.

Yet that was precisely one of the areas that mopped up previous mass unemployment, replacing it with mass low pay for hundreds of thousands of retail workers struggling to survive on pay just pennies above the pathetic minimum wage. Now it’s back to mass unemployment.

In the car industry, workers suffer mass lay-offs, job cuts and enforced down time. Toyota, Honda and Nissan have shut down production for two months. Vauxhalls have ‘offered’ their 2,200 Ellesmere Port workers a 9-month ‘sabbatical’ – on 30 per cent pay!

Pay Cuts

The other favoured trick of employers being deployed is pay cuts. In JCB, for example, they told the workforce in November that unless they took a 10 per cent pay cut there would be further redundancies – on top of the 600 since August 2008. The GMB union lay down and accepted this demand, which cut pay by £50 a week through reduced hours… and then JCB bosses proceeded to impose another fresh bout of 400 redundancies, plus announcements of zero pay rise for 2009, and removal of the profit-related Xmas bonus (which was £1,000 in 2007). A classic proof that weakness invites aggression, as the bosses pile the crisis of their own creation onto the backs of workers.

Public Sector

The private sector may be first in line for the wave of closures and job losses, but the public sector faces the same future. Behind all the hype around the government’s November pre-Budget, they kept hidden their plans to cut public expenditure by £5billion a year from 2011. That spells a devastating assault on public sector jobs and the services they provide – and will be even more deep-cutting given that public spending on unemployment benefits is set to rocket meantime.

The trade unions and socialists face their biggest challenges for decades, in the face of the destruction of communities, workers’ lives and living standards through capitalist crisis. In fighting mass redundancies and closures, there are never any cast-iron guarantees of victory. But one thing is certain: weak-kneed acceptance of the bosses’ demands guarantees terrible defeats for workers and their families. Talk in some union circles about a Social Contract between unions, employers and the government is a cruel road to ruin, which has been travelled before, particularly in the 1970s.

Class divide

Instead of pretending that workers and their bosses have a common interest that should be turned into some kind of ‘Spirit of Dunkirk’, we need to expose the gulf dividing the interests of these two classes. For example, the top seven directors in Fords last year had salaries and pensions totalling £100million – whilst they refused to invest that same amount in their Southampton plant to build the new Transit van.

Low-paid workers would spend the extra money gained if the minimum wage was boosted to two-thirds male median earnings – that would be a minimum of between £8.50 and £9 an hour currently – whereas the same bosses who echo Gordon Brown’s talk of setting aside ‘prudence’ and spending our way out of the recession are also calling for a freeze on the derisory £5.80 minimum wage.

Pay cuts at JCB did nothing to stop further redundancies – but boosted the employers’ profit margins.

Instead of covering up the truth behind the recession, the mighty potential power of the organised working class in the unions should be mobilised around a massive campaign to halt mass redundancies. They need to fashion an armoury of fighting demands that could rally workers in united action for an alternative to job losses and pay cuts.

35 hour week – without loss of earnings

Instead of pay cuts through lay-offs, they should demand the work be shared out without loss of earnings.

The unions should resist the calls from Brown and Cameron to allow the UK continued opt-out from the European Working Time Directives, which is only a mild-mannered protection from being compelled to work more than an average 48-hour week (workers can still waive this right and work it ‘voluntarily’ under the opt-out clause). And instead put on a ‘drive for 35’ – a united union fight for a maximum 35 hour working week, which would create vast numbers of jobs … but critically demand this be without any pay cuts.

This would raise the whole issue: where have all the profits gone… and where have all the state subsidies gone? Companies have been bailed out with taxpayers’ money, development grants etc, but now want to protect their profit margins at workers’ expense (as NCR did in Dundee last year).

The unions should demand open, public scrutiny of the accounts of any company threatening job losses – to expose the fact many of them have enjoyed an orgy of profiteering for years, dividends to the big shareholders and obscene bonuses to the top bosses – whilst leaving thousands who created that wealth without a source of income.

Seize company assets

The unions should also demand that the government seize the assets of companies threatening closures, to stop corporate asset strippers, many of whom shift their production to slave-wage economies abroad. By taking over their assets the government could then employ the skills of workers to produce for social need.

Production for social need

Back in the 1970s many fighting union leaderships – particularly at shopfloor level – devised alternative schemes of useful production for their workplaces. In the 21st century this becomes even more vital as one of the fighting weapons against mass unemployment: the skills and machinery are often there, available for adaptation to socially useful and environmentally sustainable production.

For example, rather than rely on the bubble of crazy credit and artificially created consumer spending – both of which are now in freefall – the unions could advance a programme of useful public works and green production around public transport, social housing, universal insulation of homes, alternative sources of energy, etc.

Public ownership – not bailouts of profit

The government has bailed out the bankers. Demands are growing for government investment in the ailing car industry. But instead of subsidising the profits of the capitalist gangsters who have ruined people’s lives, the unions should campaign for public ownership of the machinery, buildings, production and distribution, under democratic control.

Such a socialist alternative, combined with militant forms of struggle, would encourage workers that there is something can be done in the face of the capitalist recession.

There is no one-size-fits-all method of struggle, but workplace occupations may arise again as a viable way of halting closures, provided union leaderships encourage a fight rather than whip up surrender. Otherwise the danger is that many will be overwhelmed, feeling that they are being devoured by a Juggernaut that cannot be halted as it closes down workplaces and smashes jobs.

The recession throws down the challenges: socialists in workplaces and unions need to encourage a vision of ways of halting the slaughter of livelihoods and shaping a socialist future in the process.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/10/challenges-facing-the-unions-in-2009/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/04/256/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/04/256/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:50:59 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=256 Students are currently occupying a building at Strathclyde uni over the war on Gaza. They have issued a list of demands and are holding a rally tomorrow. Their message follows after the address of their blog

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.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/04/256/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/03/by-election-in-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/03/by-election-in-dundee/#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:15:28 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=254 Due to the resignation of a Labour councillor in Dundee for the Maryfield ward a by-election has been triggered. The BBC are reporting this as being held on the 12th March.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/02/03/by-election-in-dundee/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/31/glasgow-community-service-workers-strike-enters-fourth-week/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/31/glasgow-community-service-workers-strike-enters-fourth-week/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:42:00 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=247 They may be small in number, but the strike by 21 Glasgow council Community Service Workers has brought the service to a halt.

They have resorted to indefinite strike action since 6 January after months of fighting the council’s review of their jobs, which proposes increased hours of work, vastly increased responsibilities, but a pay cut of over £1,000 for many of them!

These workers deal with offenders in groups of five, carrying out community services as an alternative to prison. After the first week of their strike, the Labour council – which refuses to even speak to them let alone protect their pay through proper grading – has been forced to shut down the service to offenders for at least two weeks.

The strikers have toured round major council buildings, picketing them, winning warm moral and financial support from fellow-UNISON members, and they have lobbied the Labour councillors’ meetings. They have been boosted by support from other UNISON branches in Scotland, as well as the PCS civil service union national leadership.

Donald McNaughton, Community Service Superviser, told me the background and the strikers’ modest demands:

It goes back to the Council’s Pay & Benefits Review, where they promised that anyone losing out financially would get training and be promoted, that there’d be a Review and nobody would lose money.

UNISON and Community Service Workers fully participated in this Review, only to be told before Xmas that we would have an increased working week, with compulsory Sundays, and increased duties and responsibilities.

Up to now we worked four days over seven, a 32 hour week; got enhancements for working Saturdays and Sundays; and got £1,400 for driving council vehicles.

Now they want us to drive as part of our normal duties (without the payment), work compulsory Sundays, find placements for offenders, train them, assess their employability – all on top of our normal duties. For that we are to go on Grade PCS4, which still leaves us in detriment on pay.

For months we protested by sticking to our job roles, refusing to drive council vehicles or train offenders. The council hired black hackneys to ship the boys round the city, and simply refused to negotiate with us. So we had no alternative but to withdraw our labour.

We’re disgusted at the council, and its leader Stephen Purcell, for breaking their promises, and refusing to talk to us, when there are only 21 of us.

We work with squads of offenders. The separate workers who deal with individual placements of offenders have been upgraded to PCS5. That’s all we are asking for, the same grade 5 to prevent pay cuts.

We demand that the Council recognise we do a decent job, to respect us and talk to us. It’s not asking much for them to come and explain why they have broken their written promises to the unions in 2007.

An un-named council spokesman has said we are getting paid for what we do. That’s an insult.

They’re finding all this money for the Commonwealth Games. They are asking us to help clean up the city to make it attractive to tourists, yet they won’t pay us a fair rate or even negotiate.

We’re getting great support from colleagues in UNISON and other unions, moral and financial, and want to thank them for their support.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/31/glasgow-community-service-workers-strike-enters-fourth-week/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/31/ssp-statement-on-power-station-strikes/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/31/ssp-statement-on-power-station-strikes/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:20:43 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=243 The SSP fully supports all those workers in the construction and engineering sectors taking strike action in defence of their jobs and those of future generations. This dispute is not directed, as suggested by the media, against foreign workers but rather against anti union employers and their refusal to employ UK labour for sub contracted work.

The SSP supports the free movement of Labour and vehemently opposes racist immigration controls introduced by New Labour. At the same time however we unequivocally support the demand that UK workers should enjoy equal consideration for work on these contracts. We reject efforts by organisations such as the BNP to divide workers up on the basis of race or nationality.

This is fundamentally a dispute to defend jobs, wages and working conditions and it requires the unity of all workers, of all nationalities, in rejecting multi national employers’ attempts to slash jobs, wages and conditions and trades union rights.

We urge UK unions to support those defending their right to work and to urgently meet with unions in Italy and Portugal to build a unified approach capable of halting employers efforts to divide and exploit workers across Europe.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/31/ssp-statement-on-power-station-strikes/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/25/raffle-has-been-drawn/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/25/raffle-has-been-drawn/#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:11:23 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=236 The SSP raffle has been drawn and yet again a winner was from a Dundee ticket. Many thanks to everyone local who helped raise some funds.

1st prize-Acoustic 26 ins HD LDC TV
Winner R Reid – Glasgow

2nd prize-Samsung mini DVD camcorder
Winner K. Mc Nulty – East Kilbride

3rd prize- Bush desktop micro hi fi
Winner Ml Deighan – Paisley

4th prize- Prize –I pod shuffle
Winner N .Watson – Lasswade

5th prize – Acoustic DVD Player
Winner J Connor – Dundee

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/25/raffle-has-been-drawn/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/23/tayside-for-justice-in-palestine/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/23/tayside-for-justice-in-palestine/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:20:49 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=231 A number of people have found our blog looking for information on Tayside for Justice in Palestine.

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

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/23/tayside-for-justice-in-palestine/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/22/another-attack-on-democracy/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/22/another-attack-on-democracy/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:10:08 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=225 The following is a statement released by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!

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!

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/22/another-attack-on-democracy/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/20/bbc-coverage-of-dundee-solidarity-action-with-gaza/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/20/bbc-coverage-of-dundee-solidarity-action-with-gaza/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:15:54 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=222 The BBC had a short article about the demo in Dundee. There was apparantly good coverage in the Sunday Post too. See Previous article Dundee shows solidarity with Gaza

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/20/bbc-coverage-of-dundee-solidarity-action-with-gaza/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/19/any-more-blank-cheques/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/19/any-more-blank-cheques/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:43:29 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=217 Before the Iraq War, Brown famously said that the money was available no matter what. This was just after giving a tiny increase to the state pension claiming the money wasn’t there.

In parliament and elections the SSP made a number of small demands, £50million for universal Free School Meals for example. We were voted against as the money wasn’t there.

After the £50billion bailout Darling has just given a blank cheque for more bailouts!

Where is all this money when people demand a pension where they don’t have to choose between heating and food? Where is the it all when the Unions demand a living minimum wage? Where is it when women demand a wage equal to men from their employers (several councils still haven’t implemented this policy made law 30 years ago)? Where is it when Post Offices like the ones in Lochee and Nethergate are closed?

The money has always been there, but successive Tory governments, both Conservative and New Labour have not had the inclination to spend it in tackling poverty.

We call shenanigans! Get involved in fighting for money to bail out your community, your school, your student debt. Get involved in the Scottish Socialist Party.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/19/any-more-blank-cheques/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/19/dundee-ssp-branch-meeting-on-palestine/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/19/dundee-ssp-branch-meeting-on-palestine/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:01:42 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=213 Our branch meetings are generally open for friends and supporters and people who want to find out more. This week’s branch we are having a political discussion on the situation in Palestine led off by John McAllion. The meeting is at the DVA on Constitution Road from 7:30, but please contact us if you wish to attend, space is limited due to room size.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/19/dundee-ssp-branch-meeting-on-palestine/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/18/ssp-leftbanker/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/18/ssp-leftbanker/#comments Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:14:09 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=210 Quietly bubbling away for a couple of months has been the SSP LeftBanker site. An analysis of the credit crunch and the various effects on the economic system is gradually being added to it as time goes on. According to the Left Banker, we are now entering the second wave of the crisis.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/18/ssp-leftbanker/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/17/dundee-demonstration-about-gaza/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/17/dundee-demonstration-about-gaza/#comments Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:28:11 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=201 Around 800 people turned out today for a demonstration in solidarity with the people of Gaza. The demo was probably the largest local one since the Labour warmongers came to town for their annual conference. To keep updated about local events keep checking this site and sign up for the Tayside For Justice In Palestine list.

Moving towards Overgate

Dundee SSP Banner

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/17/dundee-demonstration-about-gaza/feed/ 6 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/15/more-info-on-demo-in-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/15/more-info-on-demo-in-dundee/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:46:41 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=196 The March is this Saturday (17th) gathering outside the new university building (the big white one) at the corner of Hunter Street and Old Hawkhill at 11.30 and marching to a rally in the city square.

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

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/15/more-info-on-demo-in-dundee/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/14/dundee-demonstration-on-saturday/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/14/dundee-demonstration-on-saturday/#comments Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:32:46 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=193 Demonstration in Dundee against the massacre in Gaza.

Assemble 11.30am Saturday 17th January,

New Teaching Block, Old Hawkhill, (Dundee University)

March to City Square

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/14/dundee-demonstration-on-saturday/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/12/new-book-by-dundee-uni-rector-craig-murray/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/12/new-book-by-dundee-uni-rector-craig-murray/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:34:54 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=186 After his spineless publishers gave in to legal threats from mercenary Tim Spicer, Craig Murray has pushed his latest book online for free.

The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflicts I Have Known is his autobiography from 1998 to 2002. It is also available to buy online through links on his site.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/12/new-book-by-dundee-uni-rector-craig-murray/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/11/scottish-socialist-youth-blog/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/11/scottish-socialist-youth-blog/#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:40:14 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=183 The Scottish Socialist Youth have created a new blog at ssyleftfield.blogspot.com/.

SSY fights alongside the SSP, Scotland’s Socialist Party to build a movement that will defend young people and create a future for them worth fighting for. If you agree with what we’ve said – or even just most of it! – then join SSY and help us fight against poverty and war, or leave the blog a few comments/give us love on bebo

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/11/scottish-socialist-youth-blog/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/11/stop-the-war-meeting-in-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/11/stop-the-war-meeting-in-dundee/#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:20:57 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=180 Stop the War Coalition have organised a rally/public meeting in Dundee for next week. We got full details yesterday, so please try to attend if free.

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.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/11/stop-the-war-meeting-in-dundee/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/08/perth-meeting-on-palestine/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/08/perth-meeting-on-palestine/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:12:31 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=163 Gaza Emergency Mobilisation in Perth
 
Thursday, 15th Jan, 7.15 to 9.15 

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).

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/08/perth-meeting-on-palestine/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/05/demo-in-edinburgh-saturday-19th-january/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/05/demo-in-edinburgh-saturday-19th-january/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:43:32 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=150 A Scotland wide demo on Gaza has been called for Saturday 10th in Edinburgh.
We need to have as many comrades on it as possible.

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.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/05/demo-in-edinburgh-saturday-19th-january/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/01/ssp-delegation-to-cuba/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/01/ssp-delegation-to-cuba/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:42:16 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=144 A few months back the SSP were invited to send a delegation to visit Cuba and have decided to do so in February.

A number of people opted to go and they have set up a blog detailing the arrangement of the trip, and I imagine afterwards details of what they did.

They are planning on taking across a number of items as gift packs for people/groups they meet about the SSP and Scotland. One item that was sought after was some Burns poems in Spanish. Eventually Gerry managed to track down To a Mouse and A red red rose.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/01/01/ssp-delegation-to-cuba/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/31/courier-report-on-dundee-demo/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/31/courier-report-on-dundee-demo/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:11:20 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=141 The Courier carries a report today on the vigil in the city square.

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.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/31/courier-report-on-dundee-demo/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/31/bus-to-demo-on-saturday/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/31/bus-to-demo-on-saturday/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:06:38 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=139 Show solidarity with people of Gaza.

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.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/31/bus-to-demo-on-saturday/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/30/vigil-in-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/30/vigil-in-dundee/#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:27:46 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=135 Around 300 turned out to a vigil in the city square today called at 24 hours notice.

Group in City Square

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/12/30/vigil-in-dundee/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/11/06/balmossie-fire-service-demo/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/11/06/balmossie-fire-service-demo/#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:29:21 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=123 Campaigners for the retention of full-time cover at Balmossie fire station will march through the streets of Broughty Ferry this Saturday.

Assemble at Balmossie at 11.00 a.m.

Public Rally at St. Aidan’s Hall.

Speakers: Matt Wrack, Fire Brigade Union general secretary and Ken Ross, Scottish secretary.

The fire service wants to remove a night-time shift at the station and replace it with a retained crew as part of a structural overhaul that would see new appliances stationed in Perth and Forfar.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/11/06/balmossie-fire-service-demo/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/11/01/colin-fox-second/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/11/01/colin-fox-second/#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:10:24 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=120 In the rectorship contest at St Andrews University Colin Fox got a very credible 28%

Final Result:
Kevin Dunion: 941
Colin Fox: 515
Sir Chay Blyth: 401

The contest was by Single Transferable Vote, but could not find teh full result anywhere, assume that Kevin Dunion won on the first round.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/11/01/colin-fox-second/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/25/colin-fox-for-st-andrews-uni-rector/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/25/colin-fox-for-st-andrews-uni-rector/#comments Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:46:31 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=116 Dundee SSP members were surprised this morning to note that Colin Fox has been nominated for rector of St. Andrews University Rector.

Article in Courier

Colin is the joint national spokesperson for the SSP and one of our former MSPs.

According to the Courier the other nominees are:

Sir Charles Blyth: the first person to sail non-stop westwards around the world in 1971.

Kevin Dunion: the first Scottish Information Commissioner, who is based in St Andrews.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/25/colin-fox-for-st-andrews-uni-rector/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/18/glenrothes-by-election/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/18/glenrothes-by-election/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:58:42 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=113 The Scottish Socialist Party have selected Morag Balfour for the Glenrothes by-election.

There is an article focusing on the SSP in today’s Courier

And a Profile on the SSP website

The election is due to take place on the 6th November so that Labour getting kicked out again can be buried by the news of the American Presidential election.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/18/glenrothes-by-election/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/12/dundee-spanish-civil-war-march/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/12/dundee-spanish-civil-war-march/#comments Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:10:26 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=108 A parade through Dundee to Albert Square to mark the rededication of the City’s Memorial to those who died in the Spanish Civil War, and the unveiling of a new plaque.

The parade was attended by about 200. Banners included the local FBU and PCS banners as well as SSP, Solidarity and CPB. Jack Jones, the 95 year old former leader of the TGWU, who fought in Spain, unveiled the new plaque.

This ceremony was followed by a public meeting where former Fire Brigades Union leader Ken Cameron spoke along with the Spanish Consul and a librarian from the National Library of Scotland who maintains the Spanish Civil War collection.

An exhibition entitled Dundee and the Spanish Civil War will be running in Dundee’s Wellgate Library from October 7th – 25th.

The two plaques

March moving up Reform Street

Jack Jones during rededication ceremony

Some of Dundee SSP waiting on the march to start

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/12/dundee-spanish-civil-war-march/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/11/internatioanl-brigade-events-sunday/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/11/internatioanl-brigade-events-sunday/#comments Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:45:29 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.org/blog/?p=102 I just found out today about the events for tomorrow, so sorry for the delay.

Sunday 12 October:
10.00; Showing of BBC documentary, The Guernica Children, Cinema 1, Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre (DCA), 152 Nethergate,

13.00; Unveiling of Basque Children’s Colony plaque, 17 Mall Park Road, Montrose (a bus to Montrose leaves from the rear of DCA at 11.20)

14:30 Bus back to Dundee.

The events today were terrific, a good turn out of over 200 for the march and rededication and 100+ for the public meeting in the Steps Theatre.

There is an exhibition at Dundee Library on Dundees contribution to the International Brigade which will run for a wee while.

There was a range of merchandise available including the excellent t-shirts and the Trades Council publication on Dundees International Brigadiers. T-shirts were £6 and the publication was £3. If you would like any of these let us know and we will pass on Mike Arnotts contact details for you.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/11/internatioanl-brigade-events-sunday/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/09/wi-cannae-afford-it/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/09/wi-cannae-afford-it/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:59:34 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=147 You’ve heard it all before

2000
Brown gives 75p rise to pensions at the time claiming we couldn’t afford more.

2001
MPs award themselves £2000 pay rise months later.

2003
War given blank cheque as Brown pledges as much money as it takes for the slaughter in Iraq.

Chancellor Gordon Brown says the UK will spend what it takes to tackle Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

Money well spent then seeing as they didn’t exist. In 2001 the Ministry of Defence put the costs so far at £3.1 billion.

Estimated cost of Free School Meals rejected by Holyrood: £100million per year.

2008

Labour agitate for £20billion to pay for replacement for the Nuclear weapons at Faslane.
The poorest have their Income Tax bill increased to pay for a cut for the middle class.

2008 October 4

Labour councils claim there’s no money for free school meals

2008 October 8

Brown gives £500billion to bail out banks.

At every step money is found to pay for weapons and wars and pay rises for MPs. Low paid council workers are told there’s no money to even give them a pay freeze at inflation, never mind a rise, there’s no money for school meals for children but £16,000 from every person in the UK is found to bail out banks.

This after years of being told the bankers bonuses were justified because of the risks they take with their capital. Of being told privatisation is the only game in town and nationalisation is some bizarre old idea.

Recent events show these words to be as hollow as we have being saying they are for a decade. Money is there. Those in power lack the political will to help the poorest in society.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/09/wi-cannae-afford-it/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/09/what-do-they-know/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/09/what-do-they-know/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:08:55 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=144 The people who make the excellent write to them have created a new tool what do they know.

This project automates the process of writing Freedom of Information Act requests by:

• Detailing bodies you can make request from
• Showing what requests have been made to bodies
• Showing the responses from those bodies if there is one
• Automates the process of complaining to the Information Commissioner if they have not replied

Go nuts!

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/09/what-do-they-know/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/08/picket-of-us-consulate-in-edinburgh/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/08/picket-of-us-consulate-in-edinburgh/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:47:49 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=140 Reproduced letter below.

There is a picket of the Edinburgh U.S. Consulate (Regents Terrace) for Thursday October 9th from 4pm to 6pm. This has been called by the Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

This is timed to follow the visit of Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez (wives of two of the Cuban Five) to Holyrood. They will attend the picket and speak. Both have been denied visa’s to visit their husbands in jail.

On the tenth anniversary of their arrest progress has been made in the UK in breaking the silence on the Five. See the links following for reports on their visits to the TUC and Labour Party Conference:

Miami Five and Cuba50 get union and TUC backing

TUC delegates pack Cuba fringe meeting

Miami Five wives at Labour Conference

Unions fight for justice for Miami Five on 10th anniversary of imprisonment

This picket is an opportunity to broaden the numbers in action who defend the five, which ultimately will be the key to securing their freedom.

Please forward this to all others you can : union/political/campaign/ organisation lists, newspapers, etc and urge a large attendance. Please also take any steps you can to get labour movement banners to this too.

regards
Peter Clifford

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/08/picket-of-us-consulate-in-edinburgh/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/08/support-sacc-against-bullying-mercenaries/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/08/support-sacc-against-bullying-mercenaries/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:38:59 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=137 SACC have been threatened with legal action by the organisation who have the contract on the next Scottish Census.

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.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/08/support-sacc-against-bullying-mercenaries/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/02/worried-about-the-economy/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/02/worried-about-the-economy/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:08:16 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=133 Your questions answered!

Millions of people stand to lose their jobs, homes and their livelihood because of the economic crisis. If you’re worried, come and take your chance to put your questions about the economy to a leading socialist economist.

Speakers: Raphie de Santos, formerly head of equity derivatives research and strategy at Goldman Sachs, advisor to Bank of England and Italian Ministry of Finance
Frances Curran, co-convenor Scottish Socialist Party
Jack Ferguson, Scottish Socialist Youth

Thursday 9th October, 7:15pm.

Renfield St Stephens Church, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow

This economic crisis, in which millions will suffer, is a direct result of the economic policies of Labour, but pioneered before them by Margaret Thatcher’s Tory Party.

We were told that industries like shipbuilding and steel were old fashioned, obsolete.

Replacing them would be new industries; the bankers would build call centres and everyone would own shares.

The Tories and Labour deregulated the financial markets and allowed them to build mountains of debt into a casino economy while they paid themselves multi million pound bonuses.

But they bet everything on black and now it’s come up red… and they want the tax payers to bail them out!

We are urged to hand over billions of tax payers money, without any analysis of whether this will work, or how exactly it will help ordinary people.

Politicians are not being asked about specific help for ordinary people, like guaranteeing the value of pensions or re-scheduling mortgages so people can stay in their homes.

Public meeting

For 30 years socialists have struggled to resist public assets being plundered.

We said bankers are playing roulette with workers’ pension funds, insurance funds and privatisation.

We’re fed news stories where we’re urged to view protection of the rich as in our own interest. Just like when they claimed Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction.The media have failed us. This time we won’t be fooled again.

Real economic solutions the government should use now:

• Take HBOS and other banks into common ownership with no redundancies. Use them to create a social bank providing social loans and mortgages.
• Provide affordable social housing for rent. The £110 billion that was spent on Northern Rock would pay for 2 million homes!
• Freeze food and heating prices.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/02/worried-about-the-economy/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/02/free-school-meals/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/02/free-school-meals/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:54:10 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=130 There has been a lot of media reporting of the Free School Meals deal by the SNP.

As welcome as it is, it doesn’t mention the role played by the SSP for years initiating this policy. The policy which was voted down by the majority of the SNP and Labour MSPs at the time, with a few honourable exceptions.

David Osler helps redress this oversight.

Special thanks go to Fix Garvie, who the North East region selected as our top regional candidate in 2007 for her role in the campaign, as well as the others in the SSP and elsewhere for making this policy real.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/10/02/free-school-meals/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/30/spanish-civil-war-memorial-re-dedication/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/30/spanish-civil-war-memorial-re-dedication/#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:32:15 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=125 Message from Mike Arnott, Secretary of Dundee Trades Council and

I’m writing to request a big turn-out from Trade Unionists, especially with banners, for the parade up Reform Street from City Square to Albert Square at 11am on Saturday 11th October (assemble 10.45am). The event is to mark the rededication of the City’s Memorial to those who died in the Spanish Civil War, and the unveiling of a new plaque.

It is hoped that Jack Jones, the 95 year old former leader of the TGWU, and who fought in Spain, will be present.

The ceremony will be followed by a public meeting in the Wellgate Steps Theatre where former FBU leader Ken Cameron will be speaking, along with the Spanish Consul.

Tickets for the evening social, in the Apex Hotel City Quay suite are also available at £5 each, as are commemorative t-shirts at £6.

An exhibition entitled Dundee and the Spanish Civil War will be running in the Wellgate Library from Oct 7th – 25th.

Banners are important seeing as Dundee Trades Council banner was seized by Police whilst on an anti-G8 march.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/30/spanish-civil-war-memorial-re-dedication/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/23/rally-in-dundee-tomorrow/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/23/rally-in-dundee-tomorrow/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:18:56 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=121 Gordon Brown supports greedy bankers.
We support struggling workers.

Public sector Unions, Rally City Square, tomorrow.
Assemble: Hilltown Park, 11.00 a.m. march to City Square.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/23/rally-in-dundee-tomorrow/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/global-economic-crisis/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/global-economic-crisis/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:58:21 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=116

Raphie De Santos

Raphie De Santos of the Scottish Socialist Party has written a series of articles about the current economic crisis. He has also written a pamphlet which is now going for it’s second printing. If you would like a copy, then contact us, the last run were £2.50 each so it should be around that amount. We will have copies on our stalls very soon.

Raphie was head of Equity Derivatives Research and Strategy at Goldman Sachs International. He was an advisor on derivatives and financial markets to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange and the Italian Ministry of Finance.

Raphie has been a guest lecturer on derivatives and financial markets at Harvard and New York universities and the London School of Economics and has spoken at the annual Nobel Foundation conference in Stockholm.

Articles on the Economic Crisis

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/global-economic-crisis/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/aldermaston-big-blockade/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/aldermaston-big-blockade/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:36:32 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=112 From Scottish CND

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

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/aldermaston-big-blockade/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/107/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/107/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:29:00 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=107 T shirts for the IBMT AGM in Dundee on October 11th (design attached) are now available. Orders being taken, £6 each, for s,m,l,xl,xxl. Only 199 available. Contact Mike Arnott for details.

IBMT T-shirt design

IBMT website

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/107/feed/ 2 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/the-power-of-community-how-cuba-became-a-low-energy-society/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/the-power-of-community-how-cuba-became-a-low-energy-society/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:22:39 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=104 Roberto Perez
The Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill, University of Dundee

Saturday 27th September – 6pm

Drinks reception to follow

When Cuba lost access to Soviet oil, fertilizers, and export trade market in the early 1990s, the country faced virtual overnight economic collapse and an immediate crisis – feeding the population.

The story of how Cuba successfully developed permaculture in response to this crisis will be outlined in a thought-provoking lecture by renowned Cuban permaculturalist Roberto Perez in a major lecture at the University of Dundee.

Cuba has in the past 18 years transformed its food production using organic agriculture and Havana produces over 60% of its food requirements from within the city limits. The Cuban people’s hardship, ingenuity, and triumph over sudden adversity, through cooperation, conservation, and community, to create a low energy society is a truly inspirational story as evidenced in the documentary, The Power of Community in which Roberto features.

This lecture is being held in celebration of the University of Dundee being awarded Fair Trade Status earlier this summer.

The lecture is free and tickets can be obtained from the Tower Building Reception, or from the online store at: or by emailing: events@dundee.ac.uk events@dundee.ac.uk

Socialist Unity have an article about his tour which also links to some articles he has written.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/the-power-of-community-how-cuba-became-a-low-energy-society/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/scotlands-for-peace-gathering-glasgow/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/scotlands-for-peace-gathering-glasgow/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:18:41 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=102 Scotland’s for Peace Gathering

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.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/19/scotlands-for-peace-gathering-glasgow/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/16/another-post-office-under-threat/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/16/another-post-office-under-threat/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:25:21 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=98 Tesco are planning to move their Stacks store a mile away in South Road. This store houses a large Post Office which is regularly open on Sundays.

One of the Post Offices being closed following the consultation was in Lochee Road and customers were told it was all ok because they could just walk up the steep hill to the stacks or pay for a bus to get there. Now even that won’t be an option.

Evening Telegraph article on closure

This highlights not only the fragility of the current Post Office network following the closure of branches but the short-sightedness of locating Post Office branches inside supermarkets and inside the premises of other private businesses.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/16/another-post-office-under-threat/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/16/ninewells-parking-charges/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/16/ninewells-parking-charges/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:42:45 +0000 agorrie http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=91 Members of Dundee Scottish Socialist Party were again be outside Ninewells hospital
this morning to continue the campaign against unfair parking charges within the hospital
grounds.

Seeing a friend or relative in hospital can be stressful enough without this unfair
added burden says local activist Helen Fortune.

These charges are a galling example of
profit being put before people when the sick, their visitors and staff have what is in
effect an extra tax placed on them. This situation, brought about purely by private
involvement in public services, clearly shows the lack of control the Holyrood government
have when they enter into such partnerships.

Dundee SSP Members Outside Ninewells Hospital

Banners read (left to right)

• Abolish all car parking charges at Ninewells
• Parking Charges: If you want them oot then give us a toot!
• Abolish all car parking charges at Ninewells
• Parking Charges: If you want them oot then give us a toot!

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/16/ninewells-parking-charges/feed/ 3 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/05/social-forum-on-combating-climate-change-and-peak-oil/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/05/social-forum-on-combating-climate-change-and-peak-oil/#comments Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:50:50 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=87 Imagining and creating a just and sustainable society

Saturday 18th October (11-5.30)
Sun 19th October (11-2)

Edinburgh Students Union, Teviot Building

For all who want action not just targets

Key speakers:

• Sian Berry London Mayoral candidate, Green Party
• John MacAllion, Scottish Socialist Party

Workshop Strands will include:

• 1. WHAT are the causes of climate chaos?
• 2. HOW can we reduce carbon emissions fast?
• 3. WHO can change Policy not just light bulbs?

While the Arctic is set to be ice free and absorbing rather than reflecting heat by 2013, scientists argue that this could be just the start of the feedback loops which will drive temperatures higher and potentially drive us to extinction.

People from a range of environmental and political groups (and from none) are meeting to ask: how we can work together to challenge this system of insatiable economic growth that drives greenhouse gas emissions up daily?

If governments won’t act to tackle the causes of climate chaos, then how can we create a community based, nationally effective, internationally connected political movement to deal with peak oil and avoid climate chaos?

Come along, learn and share views on the issues that need to be addressed and the action that can be taken.

Organised by activists from Democratic Left Scotland, from the Scottish Green Party and from the Scottish Socialist Party

contact: justinkenrick@yahoo.co.uk

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/09/05/social-forum-on-combating-climate-change-and-peak-oil/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/30/post-office-ignores-objections-to-closures-in-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/30/post-office-ignores-objections-to-closures-in-dundee/#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:05:26 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=85 The Post Office today confirmed they are to close the 4 Dundee Post Offices.

Evening Telegraph

Their sham consultation resulted in no change of mind in Dundee, and they disgracefully boasted of the number of public meetings their representatives attended, whilst not organising any themselves in the areas affected.

From partial privatisation to massive bonuses for their bosses whilst attacking their workers pay & conditions the Post Office bosses have shown themselves to have no regard for anything but their own pay packets.

Do they not realise the Post Office network is a public service, run for the public, not them?

Press release to follow.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/30/post-office-ignores-objections-to-closures-in-dundee/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/27/snp-government-giving-contracts-to-torturers/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/27/snp-government-giving-contracts-to-torturers/#comments Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:21:17 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=83 According to a report in the Sunday Herald, the Scottish government has given the contract to conduct the census to a subsidiary of a company involved in torturing people in Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

This is absolutely abhorrent.

Contact your MSPs to object to this, particularly SNP MSPs

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/27/snp-government-giving-contracts-to-torturers/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/ssp-leaflets-in-glasgow-east/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/ssp-leaflets-in-glasgow-east/#comments Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:46:11 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=79

General Leaflet

Leaflet used on polling day

In Glasgow East the SSP used some nice leaflets. Here is the text from the first

Stop the Gravy Train says Frances Curran

No to the political fatcats who line their own pockets

THE socialist candidate in Glasgow East has vowed to launch a crusade against greedy politicians who plunder the public purse to make themselves rich.

Winning a seat in parliament these days is like winning the lottery, says Frances Curran.

MPs have a pay package worth quarter of a million pounds. On top of that, they can rake in a fortune from second homes and first class travel expenses.

Many put their relatives on the payroll to send their household income soaring into the stratosphere.

According to press reports, the last Labour MP for Glasgow East paid his wife and daughter half a million pounds to work from home.

Workers wage

As an MSP in the last Scottish Parliament, Frances spurned the lavish Holyrood lifestyle to stay in touch with ordinary people. She donated tens of thousands of pounds – half her total salary – to the socialist movement. She published every penny of her expenses.

I lived as a workers MSP on a workers wage, like my other Scottish Socialist Party colleagues, says Frances.

If elected as the MP for Glasgow East I’ll do exactly the same again. I believe in improving life for the whole of the East End – and not just for the chosen few who get themselves elected, says Frances.

After 30 years in socialist politics Frances Curran has no expensive possessions. She doesn’t own a house, but lives in a top-floor rented housing association tenement.

She has no car, no expensive furniture, no loot stashed away in a personal bank account.

You may not agree with everything Frances Curran says. But even her opponents admit she’s one of that rare breed of politicians who has never been seduced by glitz, wealth and celebrity.

In The Hot Seat:

Frances Curran takes your questions

Over the last few weeks, Scottish Socialist candidate Frances Curran has been listening to people across the East End to find out what they think. She’s also been asked a whole range of questions about her background, her politics and her ability to do the job.

Here we carry a selection of questions and answers.

George, Shettleston:

Frances, what connections do you have with the East End?

Frances Curran:

My Mum and Dad were both from big extended East End families – the Burns from Barrowfield, and the Currans from the Calton.

I was brought up in Barlanark. Three generations of my family lived there. My grandparents were the first family to move into the scheme when it was first built.

I went to St Andrew’s Secondary School in the 1970s.

In 1979, while still in my teens, I joined Easterhouse Labour Party Young Socialists to fight against Thatcherism which was destroying the East End at the time.

Margaret, Parkhead:

What qualifications and experience do you have?

Frances Curran:

I don’t have a university degree. My Mum wanted me to go to university, but my Dad – a shipyard worker – died in my last year of school. That meant I had to leave school to become the family breadwinner.

But what I lack in academic qualifications, I make up for in experience of real life.

I’ve also been involved in politics at the highest levels. I used to do battle with Gordon Brown on the Scottish Executive of the Labour Party before he was even an MP.

I was then on the National Executive of the Labour Party along with the likes of Tony Benn and Denis Healey.

I worked with people like Paul Weller and Billy Bragg to mobilise the youth vote against Thatcher.

And from 2003 to 2007 I was an MSP at Holyrood.

Anne, Tollcross:

What have you done on the ground, at grassroots and community level?

Frances Curran:

I’ve been involved in grassroots campaigning since the 1980s, when I organised youth strikes against the Tories’ slave labour schemes – YTS and the like.

In the 1990s I was heavily involved in the Easterhouse Community Centre occupation, sleeping over in the centre for nights on end. We succeeded in keeping the community centre open for an extra two years, after the Labour council tried to close it down.

I was also involved in the sit-in to save St Leonard’s – though unfortunately we didn’t win that battle. And I’ve been involved in local campaigns to get heroin and crack out of the East End.

As an MSP I helped to stop a hospital closure in the area I represented. I also occupied an elderly care home until it was reprieved.

In the Scottish Parliament I brought in the Free School Meals Bill, and built a massive nationwide campaign in support of the bill.

It led to every schoolchild from Primary 1 to Primary 3 in Glasgow receiving free school meals every day.

It didn’t go far enough for me – I wanted to extend free school meals to every school student. But still, it was a partial victory.

John, Baillieston:

Why did you leave the Labour Party?

Frances Curran:

The party today is not the party I joined back in the 1970s. It’s now a big business party, a party of the wellheeled suburbs.

Even before Tony Blair and New Labour, I had become fed up with Labour. I was involved in organising the first ever anti-Poll Tax march back in 1989, when 20,000 people marched from Glasgow Green to Alexandra Park.

Labour to its shame refused to back the anti-Poll Tax campaign – and ended up on the side of Thatcher. For me,
that was the final straw.

Michelle, Garrowhill:

Do you support independence for Scotland?

Frances Curran:

Yes, I do, totally. I don’t believe Scotland is too weak, too small or too poor to go it alone. Exactly the opposite. We have oil reserves in the North Sea worth half a million pounds for every man, woman and child in Scotland.

Where I disagree with the SNP is that I believe in a socialist Scotland, where the gap between rich and poor is massively reduced. And where our oil wealth is publicly owned for the benefit of the people in Scotland.

Most oil-producing countries have nationalised their oil wealth. That means the profits are used to boost pensions, wages and benefits.

With a publicly-owned oil industry we could make all public transport free, slash fuel bills, and raise pensions, wages and benefits by a minimum of £50 a week.

Denise, Springboig:

What do you think are the big problems facing the East End?

Frances Curran:

I do resent the way the East End is often portrayed. Here we have some of the most friendly, generous people you’ll find anywhere.

Many people in the East End are involved in voluntary organisations and community groups, and are out night after night working to improve our communities.

Of course we have our share of problems – crime, ill health, drug and alcohol abuse.

The average life expectancy in parts of the East End is 63, which is shocking. Neither of my own parents even reached that age.

Anyone who says these kind of problems are not linked to poverty doesn’t live in the real world.

People in the prosperous suburbs can expect to live 20 years longer. They have access to better quality food, they are under less psychological pressure, they never have to work in dirty, dangerous conditions.

Ryan, Easterhouse:

Do you agree with the SNP government’s clampdown on alcohol abuse?

Frances Curran:

I agree we have to tackle the booze and blades culture and the binge-drinking which destroys people’s health.

I don’t believe that increasing the price of drink is the right way forward. It’s a blanket approach that clobbers everybody for the behaviour of a few.

It especially affects people on low incomes who just want to relax over a few cans of lager or a bottle of wine.

When I was in the Scottish Parliament there was free booze laid on for MSPs almost every night at various receptions and functions.

Westminster is notorious for the amount of drink consumed in the bars by politicians.

I believe the SNP are going down the wrong road by putting up the price of drink. In other countries, it’s far cheaper – but there is very little binge-drinking.

It’s a cultural problem we need to tackle – not an economic problem that can be solved by hiking up prices.

Eddie, Cranhill:

Do you think the Commonwealth Games will benefit the East End?

Frances Curran:

The danger is it becomes a road show that moves in and then out again. The construction companies and property developers will make lucrative profits and there’ll be plenty of supervisors jobs and project managers jobs.

Hundreds of millions of pounds’ profit will be piled up from advertising, sponsorship, TV rights, merchandise and the like.

But I want to make sure the people of the East End benefit. I believe there should be a special windfall tax on the profits from the Commonwealth Games – and that these should be ring-fenced to improve the East End.

I will also fight for local groups to be co-opted onto the organising committee to have a direct input and a direct say on behalf of the East End.

Davy, Barlanark:

Why is the socialist vote split?

Frances Curran:

It’s a tragedy that it is. I spent 10 years and more trying to create a single united socialist party. Unfortunately a minority walked out in the huff.

The other party, the Solidarity splinter group, is now on its last legs. Five of its leaders have been charged with perjury. Its only councillor has defected to New Labour. By this time next year, it won’t even exist.

Unfortunately, even socialists can be seduced by celebrity glitz. I was friendly with Tommy Sheridan for a long time. We fought together against the Poll Tax and in other campaigns.

The Scottish Socialist Party has stayed true to its working class roots. We’re not interested in being champagne celebrities.

We live in the housing schemes and the tenements and live on low incomes like most people in the East End.

Karen, Baillieston:

Do you have any chance of winning?

Frances Curran:

I believe, with all due respect to the other candidates, that I’m the most high profile and experienced challenger to New Labour.

In a by-election anything can happen – in a recent byelection in England, Labour came fifth.

We won’t get the same media coverage as the big two parties. But one advantage of voting for the SSP is you can protest against Labour – and at the same time pile the pressure on the SNP government in Holyrood to stand up for working people in areas like the East End of Glasgow.

If you want a small change for the East End, stick with the SNP. But if you want a big change vote SSP.

Labour legend John backs Frances Curran’s campaign

Westminster MP, and then a Holyrood MSP he was widely respected even by his political opponents.

John knows both Frances Curran of the SSP and Margaret Curran of Labour.

He has no doubt which of the two would make the best MP for Glasgow East:

Frances Curran stands in the best socialist traditions of the East End of Glasgow represented in the past by people like John Wheatley and Jimmy Maxton.

For 30 years Frances has been involved in frontline socialist politics and has never sold out her principles for a pot of gold.

Frances Curran best for East End

- Ex-Baillieston Labour councillor

Jim McVicar was a Labour councillor for Baillieston from 1984 until he was expelled from the party for refusing to hand over constituents’ housing benefit records to the Poll Tax debt collectors.

In the next election, he stood against his old party as an Independent Labour candidate – and won a resounding victory. He says:

I’ve known Frances Curran for decades. I’ve never met a more honest, dedicated, principled person in politics.

Frances would make a superb MP for the East End of Glasgow. Her campaigning skills are formidable.

And unlike so many out of touch politicians, she’s always kept her feet firmly on the ground.

Commonwealth for the Common People!

In the next few years, we’re going to hear lots of talk about the Commonwealth Games.

But what we won’t hear from our political and our business leaders is any talk of sharing out our common wealth.

Scotland is a fabulously rich country, with oil, gas, land, forestry, fish, coal, thousands of miles of coastline, wind and tidal power.

Yet too many of our people are living on low pay and poverty benefits. Too many of our pensioners can’t afford to heat their homes. Too many of our families are struggling to pay the basic household bills.

• The rich will pay higher taxes
• Our public services, including oil, fuel and transport, will be publicly owned
• Our minimum wage will be £8 an hour
• Wages, benefits and pensions will rise by £50 a week, across the board
• All our school children will get nutritious free school meals
• Supermarket prices will be frozen
• Women will get equal pay for equal work
• Young people will get the same national minimum wage as everyone else
• Nuclear weapons will be banned from Scottish territory
• The council tax will be scrapped in favour of a local tax where the rich pay their fair share
• Free public transport will be brought in to ease congestion, pollution and global warming
• Our young troops will be brought home from the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

- Frances Curran

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/ssp-leaflets-in-glasgow-east/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/what-a-result/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/what-a-result/#comments Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:12:02 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=74 Richie Venton on Glasgow East

Some SSP activists during election

What a phenomenal result on two parallel levels: the earth-shattering defeat of Labour in Red Clydesider John Wheatley’s seat, Labour’s 3rd safest seat in Scotland, held by them since 1922; and the tremendous achievement for the SSP in winning 5th place, the highest position for any of the smaller parties, despite all the apparently insurmountable obstacles we faced.

If we compare the votes with those of the 2005 Westminster election in the identical Glasgow East seat, Labour has gone into free-fall from 18,775 to 10,912; the SNP rocketed from 5,268 to 11,277 – in a turnout down from 48.2% in 2005 to 42.1% this time.

Thousands of Labour voters simply stayed at home in disgust with their record on food and fuel prices; failure to tackle poverty and inequality; assaults on the sick and disabled, and their wholesale neglect of the working class. Others did a straight swap to the SNP, as punishment for New Labour in an area they have treated with decades of contempt, stepping on people’s heads en route to grossly overpaid political careers.

The disgust at Labour politicians, and indeed politicians in the mainstream parties in general, was palpable on the streets, people spitting out angry words about them, responding warmly to the SSP’s policy of A workers’ MP on a worker’s wage.

Class differentials

There seems to have been a significant class differential in the turnout, with higher voting in the more affluent parts, such as Garrowhill, parts of Baillieston, Mt Vernon – which would be to the SNP’s advantage, because John Mason has been councillor for Garrowhill/Baillieston since 1998. The most deprived districts had generally far lower turnouts, to Labour’s further disadvantage.

The squeeze between the two political Juggernauts that we predicted, whilst agreeing we should stand an SSP candidate, took place with a vice-like vengeance. For example, 85% of those who voted went to either the SNP or Labour. In 2005 the equivalent figure was 77%.

My first impression of the voting figures is that the SNP upsurge was also substantially boosted by defection to them from both the Lib Dems (who plummeted from 3,665 votes three years ago to 915) and even some Tories (who fell from 2,135 to 1,639). In both cases, defecting voters judged that the best way to boot Brown and New Labour was to vote SNP.

This is an unqualified catastrophe for Labour and Gordon Brown. Labour activists were devastated, with talk of the need for a lurch to the left amongst a couple of the most unlikely Labour hacks I spoke to at the count.

The national question

There was not widespread, overt, explicit talk on the streets of this being a vote on independence. But it clearly is a clash of contrasting opinions on the Westminster Labour government compared to the Holyrood SNP government – and is a massive impetus towards independence … which will be exponentially added to when Labour’s thrashing in Glasgow East adds to the Labour crisis and therefore increases the likelihood of a Cameron government in Westminster.

All of which positions the Scottish Socialist Party well over the next couple of years, with our pro-independence but unashamedly socialist vision for Scotland, in contrast to the pro-big business agenda of the SNP.

The SNP are riding high in the opinion polls right now, and will be an even more rampant force in the aftermath of Glasgow East, but the contradictions in their all-things-to-all-classes approach are beginning to be revealed to more far-sighted sections of the working class. They face strikes by civil servants against their imposition of a 2% pay ceiling; anger from council workers facing cuts where the SNP are in control or coalition, and growing questions over why they dumped their previous commitment to bus re-regulation in the wake of SNP party funding by multi-millionaire bus tycoon Brian Souter.

SSP: the biggest small party

Given the monumental squeeze on all the smaller parties – and even the Lib Dems – the Scottish Socialist Party scored a fantastic achievement, winning 5th place with 555 votes – ahead of the Solidarity vote of 512, and with a crushing lead over the Greens (despite them having 2 MSPs) who could only muster 232 votes.

Of course we need a sense of proportion. Our 555 compares to 1,096 in the 2005 general election, before the split in the SSP. But what is quite remarkable is that the combined left vote held up so well (1,067 – almost literally identical to that of 2005). And in fact the combined share of the vote rose from 3.5% in 2005 to a combined 4.1% this time!

Given the far tighter squeeze in the focussed intensity of this by-election, the prevailing objective conditions that nurtured that dog-fight between SNP and Labour, and the serious, deep damage done to the credibility of the left through the split, it is remarkable that this was achieved, that the left vote held up so well.

This also serves to underline the destructive, reckless consequences for the socialist left caused by the small minority, led by Tommy Sheridan, who split off from the SSP two years ago. If they had instead accepted the decisions of the majority of members in the SSP and kept a united party intact, the combined vote of 1,067 would have put us in 4th place, above the Lib Dems – and that is taking no account of the huge additional vote a single, united SSP would have won.

In the tragic circumstances of a divided left, which the SSP was founded precisely to overcome in 1998, there is a profound significance in the relative votes of the SSP and Solidarity. Obviously we can’t compare figures with 2005 on this as we had one party then. The nearest comparator is the 2007 Scottish election results for Baillieston (which makes up roughly two-thirds of Glasgow east) and Shettleston (the other third).

A mere 12 months ago Solidarity got 5 times and over 4 times the SSP vote in these two seats respectively. In Glasgow East, the SSP got 53% of the total left vote!

Solidarity boasted about their 5:1 vote advantage in the by-election campaign, including at press conferences. Tommy Sheridan contacted journalists declaring the SSP was as dead as a Dodo, repeating the 5:1 differential of last year to try and convince people there was only one party of the left – his.

Solidarity will have got a very substantial family and friends vote for their candidate, and some votes from the family and friends of the child killed by an air gun in Easterhouse.

On top of that they crudely attempted to confuse people into thinking Tommy Sheridan was the candidate, with their one and only leaflet taking the format of a message from him, and the party name on the ballot forms being Solidarity – Tommy Sheridan … not even the softer option of co-convener Tommy Sheridan which they could have legally used.

Given all this, it is a signpost to the future when the SSP not only closed down the 5:1 differential but actually won the biggest vote for a left party in horrendously difficult circumstances.

For the broad mass the headline is Labour’s slaughter, the SNP’s victory. But for an astute and observant minority the SSP/Solidarity result helps explode Solidarity’s false claims to be Scotland’s foremost socialist party.

A conscious socialist vote

Considering the weight of the aforementioned squeeze on us, every vote for the SSP was an extremely conscious vote for socialism, for the rich traditions of Glasgow’s east end, in the full knowledge we were not going to win, but that our undiluted socialist message deserved support. A very courageous, conscious, socialist vote.

Some parties and journalists are trotting out claims that the good SSP vote was due to confusion over the two Currans – Frances for the SSP, Margaret for Labour. That is arrogant, patronising nonsense. Labour put out tens of thousands of leaflets explaining which Curran to vote for. So did we, with the theme that there’s only one socialist Curran in this election – Frances Curran. We spelt out the two opposing worlds these two candidates represented.

The visibility, colour, dynamism and élan of the SSP’s campaign on the streets left nobody in any doubt about what or who they were voting for. We never held back on our socialist message, in leaflets, a newspaper delivered to 45,000 homes, giant banners, through street meetings, and in media appearances. The quality of our campaign – which started out with literally no money or material exactly three weeks before polling day at the meeting of members where we selected Frances Curran as our candidate – was praised by the Greens, SNP, Lib Dems and letter writers to the Herald.

SSP pivotal to the future of socialism

We shouldn’t exaggerate what this result for the SSP signifies, given the very modest votes involved at this stage. But we have to feel vastly proud and confident that the SSP is pivotal to the medium-term unification and growth of a united socialist party in Scotland. It is a time to be proud of the principled socialism the SSP stands for; a time to join us and give renewed impetus to the rehabilitation of the socialist traditions of Red Clydeside in one of its historic strongholds.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/what-a-result/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/craig-murray-on-glasgow-east/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/craig-murray-on-glasgow-east/#comments Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:56:28 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=72 Craig Murray (Rector of Dundee University) made a short post on Glasgow East

Hurray for Glasgow East

Apparently some commenter objected to his personal attack on Margaret Curran. He then responds explaining why he gave up civility on party politics, particularly in relation to the Labour Party. Why Margaret Curran is the cheerleader for a party which supports torture.

Margaret Curran is a lot better off than thousands of very real women, who were just as human as her, and whose lives the illegal wars of New Labour have destroyed.

It is worth remembering that Labours appalling policies haven’t just attacked the poorest members of society in Glasgow East or Dundee East, but throughout the world too, mainly in the name of “The War On Terror”.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/26/craig-murray-on-glasgow-east/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/24/post-offices-decision-to-be-announced-on-30-june/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/24/post-offices-decision-to-be-announced-on-30-june/#comments Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:25:54 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=68 According to today’s Courier the decision on the proposed Post Office closures in the North East and Fife is due to be announced next Wednesday.

Fingers crossed that they have changed their mind.

During the six weeks of the campaign thousands of people expressed their opposition to the closures and we know of hundreds who sent off letters or signed petitions.

On Wednesday we will find out if it was enough.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/24/post-offices-decision-to-be-announced-on-30-june/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/11/hiroshima-day-activities/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/11/hiroshima-day-activities/#comments Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:59:29 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=66 Walk up The Law:  assemble bottom of Law (top of Hill Street) at 8 p.m on Wed 6th August. March off 8.30.  Speakers to be confirmed.  Any queries contact Mike Arnott or Dundee SSP.

Also NAGASAKI  DAY,

Thurs, 7th August, 11.01 a.m. join Rev Erik Cramb for Silent Commemoration.

All welcome.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/11/hiroshima-day-activities/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/07/ssp-submission-to-post-office-closures/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/07/ssp-submission-to-post-office-closures/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:54:23 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=64 The Dundee branches of the SSP submitted the following objection to the proposed Post Office closures

Submission to Post Office Limited regarding proposed Post Office closures in Dundee from Scottish Socialist Party – Dundee branches

We believe that the Post Office network across the UK should not just be viewed as a chain of branches of a standard business, assessed solely on its ability to make a profit.

The nationwide network of Post Office branches is a valuable public asset that provides a vital social service in both rural and urban communities across Scotland. As a public service, Post Offices should be viewed and assessed on the wider role and benefits they provide to communities, not on the profit (or loss) they provide to Post Office Limited.

In light of the government’s recent £50 billion bail out of Northern Rock, Post Office Limited have strong grounds for going back to the government and asking for an increase in subsidy to protect the Post Office branch network, thus maintaining its positive role in communities.

It is also deeply insensitive to these communities, who are having to fight for their local Post Office service, that Royal Mail’s Chief Executive, Adam Crozier, earned £633,000 basic salary, topped up with a £3 million bonus in 2007/08!! How many Post Offices could have been saved with that £3 million?

In March 2007, Adam Crozier was appointed Chairman of the EFD.

At the time he stated

“I am extremely pleased to have been invited to take on this role. Ensuring equal opportunity for all is hugely important to us at Royal Mail and I look forward to helping to promote and develop the terrific work which Employers’ Forum for Disability does with employers throughout the UK.”
Source

On its website EFD states EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.

One has to question Mr Crozier’s commitment to EFD’s stated aims as the closure of Post Offices around the country is hardly going to improve Post Office Limited’s service to its disabled customers. It is going to make accessing post office services more inconvenient, more time consuming and more costly (public transport, taxis).

The recurring objections that have been raised by the hundreds of customers of the four Post Offices threatened with closure in Dundee to whom we have spoken over the last few weeks while campaigning, are:

Accessibility to the next nearest Post Office and the ‘fitness of purpose’ of those alternative Post Offices.

Lochee Road Post Office:

If this branch closes then the nearest Post Offices will be Ward Road, Tescos in the Stack, Brantwood or Blackness Road.

If walking, all of these alternatives involve either an uphill journey there and a downhill journey back, or vice versa. The bus services to both Blackness and Brantwood branches are infrequent. Any bus journey would involve added expense (For example, 2 visits per week to the Ward Road branch would incur a cost of £4.40).

This added expense would have a profound effect on those many Post Office customers who are on very low incomes and benefits. Many of those who use Lochee Road Post Office are elderly or disabled and/or on low income.

Although the public transport into the City Centre (Ward Road) is more frequent the extra expense is still incurred. The service at the Ward Road Post Office is already poor because of the lack of staff, resulting in long queues and standing time. At busy times, it is not uncommon for customers to have to queue for 10 – 15 minutes before being served. This adds to pressure and stress on staff and customers alike and can lead to a hostile atmosphere. Also some of the transactions carried out at Ward Road are the more complicated ones such as passports and car tax, which obviously increase waiting time.

Broughty Ferry Road Post Office:

Like Lochee Road, this branch serves a high proportion of elderly and disabled customers, who will find it extremely difficult to access other branches if Broughty Ferry Road closes.

Their alternative options are Ward Road branch (see above for comments); Maryfield branch or Arbroath Road. Both these branches involve a lengthy uphill walk and bus services in the area have recently been cut. Of course, the use of public transport will mean additional costs to those who can least afford it.

Nethergate Post Office:

The two alternatives for Nethgergate customers are:

• Ward Road branch (see above) and it involves crossing 2 busy main roads to access it;
• Perth Road branch, which is already extremely busy, often experiences lengthy queues in quite a small premise. So again there will be increased waiting times and queues, literally, out the door.

The Nethergate Post Office is also the nearest branch to the University of Dundee which is attended by thousands of students and hundreds of staff. The University has also recently built new premises in the Hawkhill area which might put even more pressure on Ward Road branch.

There are also many businesses in this area, such as Bank of Scotland, DVLA, HMRC and the new Alliance Trust offices being built just around the corner.

Fairmuir Post Office:

Again, there is an elderly population in the area of Fairmuir Post Office. An adjacent branch is the one in Arkley Street, which provides an excellent service, but the premises are very small. Under present circumstances, it can become overcrowded with four people waiting to be served. If it has to absorb Fairmuir’s customers then the service provided will decline. Elderly customers could be queued out into the street. This is surely not an image that Post Office Limited would want to be associated with, particularly during cold or wet weather.

All four branches are surrounded by independent, local shops or small businesses. Those shops we have canvassed have expressed their concern that the closure of the neighbouring Post Office will have a significant impact on their ability to survive. This is at time when they are already under pressure from the supermarket chains such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Another factor that should be considered is that a significant proportion of Dundee’s population is on lower than average income and in receipt of social security benefits. Dundee also has one of the highest child poverty rates in Scotland.

Our extensive research and discussion with residents in all four areas leads us to conclude that none of the Post Offices in Dundee targeted for closure should be closed. We have found support for the retention of these four branches to be overwhelming among their local communities.

July 2008

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/07/07/ssp-submission-to-post-office-closures/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/29/john-mcallion-on-the-resignation-of-wendy-alexander/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/29/john-mcallion-on-the-resignation-of-wendy-alexander/#comments Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:57:13 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=63 John McAllion has written an article about the resignation of Wendy Alexander as leader of the Labour MSP’s.

It can be found on the SSP site here

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/29/john-mcallion-on-the-resignation-of-wendy-alexander/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/29/oaxaca-mexico-meeting-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/29/oaxaca-mexico-meeting-dundee/#comments Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:50:26 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=61 We have just managed to arrange a meeting with a representative of the indigenous Oaxaca communities in Mexico.

DVA 10 Constitution Road
Dundee

Tuesday 1st July, 2008. 7pm.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/29/oaxaca-mexico-meeting-dundee/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/26/annual-walk-up-the-law-hill-to-commemorate-hiroshima/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/26/annual-walk-up-the-law-hill-to-commemorate-hiroshima/#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:33:18 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=60 Make a note in your diaries: the annual walk up the Law is being organised for Sunday 6th August. More information on times etc will be posted once we get full details.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/26/annual-walk-up-the-law-hill-to-commemorate-hiroshima/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/19/keep-josie-in-the-uk/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/19/keep-josie-in-the-uk/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:41:35 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=58 Josie Pasane, a woman who lives in Brought Ferry, is being threatened with deportation due to the Home Office giving her shit advice on her application.

Please sign the petition

Some articles from the local press on the issue

Saturday 14th June
Family face being torn apart after visa mix-up

Monday 16th June
MP fights visa case with Home Office

Tuesday 17th June
Community rallies round to keep Josie in Scotland

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/19/keep-josie-in-the-uk/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/19/no-fare-day-of-action-on-public-transport/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/19/no-fare-day-of-action-on-public-transport/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:02:10 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=57 Today in Dundee and around the country SSP members and supporters took part in street campaigning on the issue of Free Public Transport.

Tonight’s Eveneing Telegraph contained an article about the activity in Dundee

For more information on the issue visit www.freepublictransport.org/

When the policy was introduced in Hasselt in Belgium there was a massive uptake in the use of public transport. Massive numbers of people started cycling after encouragement from the local council (contrast with Dundee where the Council stopped a local bike recycling charityselling their cheap affordable bikes in the city centre!).

If you would like some stickers, posters or leaflets about the campaign, contact us.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/19/no-fare-day-of-action-on-public-transport/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/17/legalise-cannabis-demo-in-glasgow/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/17/legalise-cannabis-demo-in-glasgow/#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:19:14 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=56 Legalise Demo information

LEGALISE IT – 2008 – MARCH TO LEGALISE CANNABIS

GLASGOW – SATURDAY JULY 26th

ASSEMBLE 11.30am – George Square, Glasgow

March to Kelvingrove Park for bands, DJs and more!

FEATURING:

ARGONAUT SOUNDS, THE BEING, LOKI, RESPEK-DA, MARRICK LAYDEN DEFT, TAZ BUCKFASTER, HENDY RUNS TINGS, PHILLYBLUNTZ, DARYL and more!

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/17/legalise-cannabis-demo-in-glasgow/feed/ 3 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/15/how-local-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-people/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/15/how-local-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-people/#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:08:15 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=55 Given the recent new anti-terror laws it is worth highlighting the flaw in the government’s “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” argument. The main one of course being that the laws are used against everyone, not only those they suspect of being terrorists*

*terrorists not being the dictionary definition of course, but New Labours makey upey definition.

A local political activist, Alan Hinnrichs had submitted a request to every Scottish Council about their use of the “Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act” to spy on members of the public and has compiled his results. These have now been printed today by the Sunday Herald today.

SACC article detailing his investigation

Sunday Herald Article detailing his investigation

SACC claims councils are abusing the civil liberties of the Scottish public and says civil servants and bureaucrats should not have such wide-ranging powers. The watchdog believes that spying on ordinary citizens should only be a power granted to the police or the security and intelligence services in cases of extreme danger such as threats to national security or to prevent major crime.

Of the councils which replied to the FoI requests, Edinburgh was found to be using the Ripa laws the most excessively, authorising spying actions 1252 times.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/15/how-local-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-people/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/13/free-public-transport-week/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/13/free-public-transport-week/#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:23:30 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=54 The SSP is launching a week of action highlighting our radical Free Public Transport Policy.

There is a website with all the details here.

In the Belgian city of Hasselt, which covers an area double the size of Dundee, congestion was eliminated in the late 1980s after the introduction of a totally free public transport system.

How It worked in Belgium

The site also contains details of how the policy would be funded and the wide ranging benefits it provides in the other places it has been implemented.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/13/free-public-transport-week/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/01/post-office-closures-in-the-local-press-29-and-30-june-2008/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/01/post-office-closures-in-the-local-press-29-and-30-june-2008/#comments Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:41:47 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=48 The courier printed an article on 29 May about the closures. In it Postwatch urged people to take part in the consultation process.

On the 30th May there was a Letter in the Courier from an independent councillor in Angus detailling what a Post Office closure means to a rural village. Because of the isolation and lack of transport the effect of a closure or service reduction is far greater than in a city.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/01/post-office-closures-in-the-local-press-29-and-30-june-2008/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/01/post-office-closures-in-the-north-east/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/01/post-office-closures-in-the-north-east/#comments Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:16:03 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=46 Here are tables of Post Office Closures seperated into Council Area and sorted by Town, City or Village.

Aberdeen City Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Middlefield	823-827 Great Northern Road	AB24 2BR	Aberdeen
Mount St	1 Mount Street	AB25 2RA	Aberdeen
Nigg The Post Office,	Wellington Road	AB12 3JB	Aberdeen
Mannofield	535 Great Western Road	AB10 6PE	Mannofield

Aberdeenshire Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Montgarrie The Post Office,	Montgarrie	AB33 8AP	Alford
Glassel	The Post Office	AB31 4DN	Banchory
Broadsea	The Post Office, High Street	AB43 9E	Fraserburgh
Blacklaw	Aberchirder	AB54 7PX	Huntly
Longhaven	Longhaven	AB42 0NU	Peterhead

Angus Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Cairnie Street	Cairnie Street	DD11 3BJ	Arbroath
Monikie Panmure Road	Monikie,Broughty Ferry	DD5 3QA	Broughty Ferry
Dundee Road	76 Dundee Road	DD8 1HW	Forfar
Kilry, Peel Farm Coffee, Craft Shop,	Lintrathen	DD8 5JJ	Kirriemuir
Southmuir	Lindsay Street	DD8 5AP	Kirriemuir

Clackmannanshire Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Fairyburn	11 Lornshill Cresc	FK10 2JL	Alloa

Dundee City Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Fairmuir Post Office,	343 Clepington Road	DD3 8BA	Dundee
Ferry Rd	82 Broughty Ferry Road	DD4 6JS	Dundee
Lochee Road	156 Lochee Road	DD2 2LD	Dundee
Nethergate	123 Nethergate	DD1 4DW	Dundee

Fife Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Dalbeath Crescent	The Post Office	KY4 9RN	Cowdenbeath
Newton Of Falkland	Newton Cottage	KY15 7RZ	Cupar
Westport	West Port	KY15 4AN	Cupar
Halbeath	Main Street, Halbeath	KY11 8EE	Dunfermline
Hillend	37 Main Street, Hillend	KY11 9ND	Dunfermline
Torryburn	64 Main Street, Torryburn	KY12 8LT	Dunfermline
Transy	103 Appin Crescent	KY12 7QS	Dunfermline
Kingdom Centre	R.S.McColl, 24 North Street	KY7 5NA	Glenrothes
Keltyhill Costcutters	Blackhall Sq	KY4 0EP	Kelty
Pathhead	Commercial Street	KY1 2NS	Kirkcaldy
Denbeath	552 Wellesley Road	KY8 3PE	Leven
Scoonie Road	Meachers Stores, 1 Bramble Bank, Scoonie Road	KY8 4HG	Leven
Dundonald Park	Supersave Dundonald,2a Dundonald Park	KY5 0DG	Lochgelly
Glencraig, Costcutter Extra,	77-81 Main Street	KY5 8AT	Lochgelly
Lower Largo, Central Stores,	1 Main Street	KY8 6BW	Lower Largo

Moray Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Buckpool	11 St Andrews Square,	AB56 1BU	Buckpool Buckie
East End	Pansport Road	IV30 1HE	Elgin
East End	20 High Street	IV36 1DB	Forres
Fife Keith	14 Regent Street	AB55 5DU	Keith

Perth & Kinross Council

Branch Name	Address	Postcode	Town/City
Bridgend	1-3 Main Street, Bridgend	PH2 7HD	Perth
Cherrybank	186-188 Glasgow Road	PH2 0NA	Perth
Garth Avenue	33 Garth Avenue	PH1 2LG	Perth
Kinrossie	Mercat Green, Mercat Green	PH2 6HT	Perth

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/06/01/post-office-closures-in-the-north-east/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/05/28/who-to-contact-about-post-office-closures-in-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/05/28/who-to-contact-about-post-office-closures-in-dundee/#comments Wed, 28 May 2008 17:55:05 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=45 The contact details buried in one of the massive documents released today is:

Sally Buchanan
Network Development Manager
C/o National Consultation Team
FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM
Email: consultation@postoffice.co.uk
Customer Helpline: 08457 22 33 44

There are 6 weeks before the end of the consultation process so 9th July 2008 (not stated in the documents).

The documents can be located here:

Area Plan booklet

Branch Access Report

Branch Access Reports – Outreach

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/05/28/who-to-contact-about-post-office-closures-in-dundee/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/05/28/post-office-closures-announced-in-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/05/28/post-office-closures-announced-in-dundee/#comments Wed, 28 May 2008 17:26:43 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/?p=44 The Scottish Socialist Party is opposed to any reductions in this vital
service.

In many cases, where cuts are made, the elderly and infirm may be
forced to travel considerable distances to their nearest branch. At
best they will face upheaval to their regular routines.

We should not just meekly accept the Post Office bosses’ decision. By
organising and resisting closures we can retain these community assets
for ourselves and future generations.

It is clear that the demand for the service still remains. Within two
weeks, at a time when cuts remained a distant threat, our stalls
collected hundreds of signatures against these unnecessary closures.

We stand in support of a service for people, not profit.

Closures announced for Dundee:

• Fairmuir, Clepington Road
• Ferry Rd, 82 Broughty Ferry Road
• Monikie, Panmure Road, Monikie, Broughty Ferry
• Lochee, 156 Lochee Road
• Nethergate, 123 Nethergate

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/05/28/post-office-closures-announced-in-dundee/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/02/11/dundee-heathfield-arrest-campaign-bulletin-number-4/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/02/11/dundee-heathfield-arrest-campaign-bulletin-number-4/#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:50:19 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/dundee-heathfield-arrest-campaign-bulletin-number-4/ CHARGES DROPPED! CHARGES DROPPED!

Michael has learned through his Legal Aid solicitor that the procurator fiscal decided way back on 18 December not to proceed with the charge of Disorderly Conduct against him. Only they did not tell anybody. Does this mean that very useful CCTV evidence against the police may have been discarded?

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/02/11/dundee-heathfield-arrest-campaign-bulletin-number-4/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/01/22/world-against-war/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/01/22/world-against-war/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:43:41 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/world-against-war/ Five Years Of Occupation In Iraq
National Demo
Saturday March 15TH
Glasgow
Called by Stop the War Coalition (Scotland)
More details to follow.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/01/22/world-against-war/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/01/15/stagecoach-continues-to-bully-and-harass-young-gay-couple/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/01/15/stagecoach-continues-to-bully-and-harass-young-gay-couple/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:03:22 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/stagecoach-continues-to-bully-and-harass-young-gay-couple/ On Friday 11th January, Mark Craig and Steven Black, a young gay couple from Old Meldrum in Aberdeenshire had been in Aberdeen visiting Steven’s mum. At around 10:30 they left to catch the last bus back to Old Meldrum. They arrived at Berryden Road bus stop at around 11:00pm and waited. Mark said:

The bus arrived at around 11:30. It pulled in to the bus stop as Steven and I were waiting. The bus doors opened slightly and the driver looked at us then looked around him and closed the doors and drove off leaving us standing on the street in the freezing cold. It was the same driver that tried to kick us off for hugging in the back of the bus last year.

Last October Mark and Steven were on the last Stagecoach bus of the night from Aberdeen to Old Meldrum, when the driver suddenly stopped the bus and demanded they get off. This was supposedly at the behest of a fellow passenger, for sitting with their arm around the other, as many couples do. The driver then forced Mark and Steven to separate before continuing on the journey, leaving them shocked and humiliated.

After hearing about this incident, the Scottish Socialist Party organised a mass email campaign to Stagecoach’s Director of Corporate Communications, Steven Stewart. Hundreds of gay rights activists and ordinary members of the public appalled by this story asked for an apology for illegally discriminating against the couple. Stagecoach ignored all of these requests, and made it clear that they thought the driver had done nothing wrong, and had stood by him 100%; accusing everyone else of not knowing the facts of the case.

With the bus company refusing to apologise for illegally discriminating against the couple and fully backing the driver, ‘hug-in’ protests by same sex couples and friends took place on Stagecoach busses around Scotland, with members of the SSP retracing the same route from Aberdeen to Old Meldrum with Mark and Steven.

Now these two courageous young men need our help and support once more. The Scottish Socialist Party is standing fully behind the couple, as we did last year, because homophobic bullying is totally unacceptable, especially when it is perpetrated by a company with monopolies on many of the bus routes in Britain. We ask that the LGBT community and straight allies alike to stand with us and Mark and Steven in opposition to this continued bullying and harassment.

Please contact Steven Stewart, the Director of Corporate Communications at Stagecoach
(Steven.Stewart@stagecoachgroup.com, Tel: 01738 642040 or fax: 01738 443076) to demand that this clearly anti-gay bus driver be suspended from his job pending review and diversity training, and for a full and immediate public apology to be issued to Mark Craig and Steven Black for the appalling way in which they are being treated.

This harassment and bullying by a multi million pound company against one, young, gay couple is utterly disgusting and totally illegal. Nobody should suffer it, which is why we are asking everybody to demand an end to it.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/01/15/stagecoach-continues-to-bully-and-harass-young-gay-couple/feed/ 3 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/16/stagecoach-hug-in-a-great-success/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/16/stagecoach-hug-in-a-great-success/#comments Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:49:09 +0000 hendersonn2704 http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/stagecoach-hug-in-a-great-success/ The protest went very well. We met with Steven and Mark, the couple originally victimised by Stagecoach. They’re great guys, but they’ve unfortunately have had to put up with a lot of nonsense because of this. The Daily Mail printed nonsense about what they had been doing on the bus, which has caused problems for their families.After taking a few photos outside their bar and Old Meldrum bus stop with the red flag and the rainbow flag, the four of us got back on the 305 to Aberdeen with our arms around each other, the pride flag draped over the seat and Steven and Mark even in the same seat, without incident.

When we got back to Aberdeen bus station, we had a chat with some Stagecoach bus drivers about what we were doing and why. They agreed that its shocking that the couple were spoken to as they were by the driver. The Stagecoach employees agreed that a gay person has just as much right to ride the bus as anyone else, and said that their company should apologise to the couple.

Around the country there was a similar picture from Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow. One can only assume that since no one complained, and the drivers didn’t say anything either, that the driver Steven and Mark were unfortunate to have was homophobic, and of course Stagecoach is 100% behind him.

Theres a great article on protest from http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6064.html and there are photos from the Aberdeen protest on http://www.flickr.com/photos/20902609@N05/ more from around the country will be going up as I get them in.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/16/stagecoach-hug-in-a-great-success/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/15/equality-ride-initial-report/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/15/equality-ride-initial-report/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:44:35 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/equality-ride-initial-report/ Pink News have carried a report of the action today. More to follow from Nick on the events of the day

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/15/equality-ride-initial-report/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/09/stagecoach-equality-ride-thursday/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/09/stagecoach-equality-ride-thursday/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:21:33 +0000 hendersonn2704 http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/stagecoach-equality-ride-thursday/ This thursday, the 15th of november, we are going to have an Equality Ride on stagecoach busses around the country to protest the incident where a Stagecoach driver threatend to boot a gay couple, Steven Black and Mark Craig, off a bus in Aberdeen.

We would like you and another person of the same sex to go on a stagecoach bus that day, and one of you have your arm around the other, just like the couple were doing when they were threatend to be booted off the bus, then made to sit apart. Even just one stop would be fine. We want as many people as possible to do it so please let me know how many of you are taking part in the Equality Ride, i.e. more than one couple, what the bus route is and the bus number, and where you are in the UK, and if possible take a picture of the two of you on the stagecoach bus with you arm around the other person. It would be even better if you were holding a bit of paper or something with the word ‘apologise’ or ‘let all couples take the bus’ or something. And we will send it off to the media and to Stagecoach.

Then either text (07760308173) or email me the image (hendersonn2704@hotmail.com).

Some of us are going to Aberdeen where we will retrace the route with the couple, Steven and Mark, where the incident originally took place. If you are free to travel to Aberdeen that day or are there already then please let me know.

Remember that if someone does complain, and the driver threatens you, then that constitutes discrimination under the Equality Act and is illegal. Nor is it innapropriate behaviour, straight couples do far worse on busses all the time.

Please take a ride for Equality this thursday by participating. The media attention we will get and the extra pressure it will put on Stagecoach to apologise will outweigh the downside of having to give money to Stagecoach to protest, but this is about the right of all customers to be able to ride the bus without hassle or intimidation.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/09/stagecoach-equality-ride-thursday/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/08/stagecoach-in-homophobic-incident/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/08/stagecoach-in-homophobic-incident/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:00:17 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/stagecoach-in-homophobic-incident/ The Sunday Mail first carried this story about an incident on a bus owned by Scotlands richest homophobe, Brian Soutar.

Pinknews reported yesterday that a young gay couple in Aberdeenshire were told by the driver to leave the bus, then made to sit apart after a passenger complained about one of them having his arm around the other. (http://www.queerty.com/news/happy-endings-upgrade-to-marriage-20071106)

You can register a complaint with Mr Stewart, Director of Corporate Communications, Stagecoach Scotland at this address:

Steven.Stewart@stagecoachgroup.com, you can also call him at 01738 642040 or fax him on 01738 443076

Robert Andrew, Regional Director, Stagecoach Scotland can be contacted at:
Robert.Andrew@stagecoachbus.com
Tel: 01383 511911, Fax: 01383 516450

A sample email follows:

I am writing in regards to the case of Steven Black and Mark Craig, a young couple who were sitting beside each other on a Stagecoach bus in Aberdeenshire on a route from Aberdeen to Oldmeldrum recently. The gay couple were at first told to get off the bus by the driver, and then forced to sit on separate seats.

I am aware that according to your own internal investigations that you are 100% satisified that the driver acted in a professional manner at all times.

I, however, am not at all satisifed with either the incident or your own response to it. I request that Stagecoch makes a full and immediate public apology on the matter to both the couple concerned at the LGBT community in general. It is totally unnacceptable that anyone should fear being thrown off a bus because of who they are.

I await your reply.

Yours sincerely

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/11/08/stagecoach-in-homophobic-incident/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/25/people-parliament-against-trident/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/25/people-parliament-against-trident/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:51:01 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/people-parliament-against-trident/ March and Rally organised by Scotland’s for Peace, Sat 3rd Nov. Assemble 11.30 a.m. Scottish Parliament, march off 12 noon. Rally Princes St. Gardens 1 – 2 p.m. Music 2 – 3 p.m.

Bus leaves Dundee, The Howff (opposite GPO) 9.00 a.m.

Departs Edinburgh 3 p.m. Ticket donation only

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/25/people-parliament-against-trident/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/23/ssp-policies/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/23/ssp-policies/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:05:52 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/ssp-policies/ Despite being absent from Holyrood this term, two SSP initiated policies have gained support.

Free School Meals pilot

A pilot has started of our proposal for Free School Meals to improve the health of a whole generation of children. We are immensely proud of the work in this campaign and the organisations who joined with us in campaigning for this essential health policy.
Free Prescription Charges

The SNP government have pledged to scrap prescription charges within the next four years. Both the SNP and Greens supported us in parliament when we originally proposed the Bill. It is essential for you to contact your MSPs asking them to support the eventual Bill.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/23/ssp-policies/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/23/international-brigade-memorial-trust-agm-coming-to-dundee/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/23/international-brigade-memorial-trust-agm-coming-to-dundee/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:45:34 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/international-brigade-memorial-trust-agm-coming-to-dundee/ From Mike Arnott, Secretary of Dundee Trades Union Council

Following the AGM of the International Brigade Memorial Trust held in Belfast this weekend, I can confirm that Dundee has been unanimously agreed as hosts of next year’s AGM on 11th October 2008. I will be in touch in due course to ask for your help in squeezing every possible ounce of assistance out of the Dundee labour and democratic movement (and beyond), to develop a full programme of events and activities for the evening of Friday 10th, Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th.

Mike

If you can assist, please contact Mike at: dundeetuc at hotmail.com

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/23/international-brigade-memorial-trust-agm-coming-to-dundee/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/22/post-conference/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/22/post-conference/#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:30:00 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/post-conference/ Once again the SSP Conference was held in Dundee. The first day comprised of part of our “Socialism” event. Due to the large number of conferences held over the past 2 years we are out of sync and it was good to have another day of debate and discussion.

The hit of the day was a walking tour of parts of Dundee by Mike Arnott, Secretary of the Dundee Trades Council. Not only did he have to add a second tour later in the day but there was still demand, including from the Dundee SSP members who knew they ask Mike to do one again. We hope to in future have Mike do a tour as part of a locally held Day School so keep checking back for details.

On another note, an SNP member who was elected as both a councillor and MSP made the difficult choice of keeping the job with 4 times the salary of the other. Due to this a by-election will be held in Lochee on Thursday 22 November.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/10/22/post-conference/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/08/24/busy-summer/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/08/24/busy-summer/#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:54:04 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/busy-summer/ Well, its been a busy summer. As promised before May’s election we have been out every week (minus a couple) on the streets: speaking to people, listening to people , publicising campaigns and collecting signatures for petitions.

In October the SSP conference and Socialism discussion programme are coming to Dundee.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/08/24/busy-summer/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/05/02/just-one-more-push/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/05/02/just-one-more-push/#comments Wed, 02 May 2007 15:35:58 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/just-one-more-push/ Tomorrow, the people of Scotland go to the poll to elect their local authority councillors and MSPs. For the past few months Dundee SSP have been campaigning on the five policies we have highlighted for our campaign:

1. Independence Refurendum
2. Free Public Transport
3. 100,000 new council houses
4. Free School Meals
5. Scrap Council Tax

We hope that we have won support on these important issues at a local and national level. Bleary eyed and tired we will find out at about 6-7 on Friday morning.

Whatever happens, we will be back out in housing estates, communities and the city centre on a variety of campaigns over the next four years and beyond. You will see us again before the whole shibang starts again before the next elections and the big business parties remember you exist.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/05/02/just-one-more-push/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/04/21/weve-been-busy/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/04/21/weve-been-busy/#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:20:29 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/04/21/weve-been-busy/ With less than two weeks to go before the election, Dundee SSPSSP

Hustings, public meetings and leafletting have been the main activities. In the next couple of days everyone in Dundee should be getting an SSP

On Tuesday night you can see the second SSPSee the first one here if you missed it)

And don’t worry, the Saturdays immediately after the election will still give you an opportunity to meet the SSP ]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/04/21/weve-been-busy/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/04/06/our-candidates/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/04/06/our-candidates/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2007 14:12:14 +0000 nessppress http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/04/06/our-candidates/ Dundee City Council – About our candidates standing for Dundee City Council

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

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/04/06/our-candidates/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/03/15/snp-to-scrap-council-tax-allegedly/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/03/15/snp-to-scrap-council-tax-allegedly/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:33:02 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/03/15/snp-to-scrap-council-tax-allegedly/ The SNP plan to scrap Council Tax, or so they claim.

According to the Courier they The SNP yesterday unveiled plans for the biggest tax cut in a generation, promising to scrap council tax and replace it with 3p on income tax across Scotland.

The Scottish Socialist Party have been fighting to replace the Council Tax with an income based tax for years. In 2005 we presented a bill to the Scottish Parliament to replace the Council Tax with our proposed Scottish Service Tax. We had hoped it would pass as the SNP and the Liberal Democrats had also claimed the wanted to Scrap the Council Tax, although neither has tried to actually do this in 8 years of Holyrood rule.

What happenned? on the 1st of February 2006, it fell and both these parties voted against it. At the time the SNP claimed that our proposal wasn’t really local as we wanted the Tax collected by the Inland Reveneue at the same time as Income Tax and National Insurance are deducted. This was estimated to actually save money over the current system which duplicates the same process all over the country. Now they are proposing the same collection scheme.

It’s always easy to see when an elections looming, the pro-capitalist parties start going on the street, holding stalls and proposing policies they have argued against for the last four years. You’d think they only wanted your vote or something…

If you want the Council Tax scrapped and replaced by a local income tax based on the ability to pay then its the SSP who have proposed this, argued for it and voted for it.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/03/15/snp-to-scrap-council-tax-allegedly/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/17/craig-murray-elected-rector-of-dundee-uni/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/17/craig-murray-elected-rector-of-dundee-uni/#comments Sat, 17 Feb 2007 08:58:23 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/02/17/craig-murray-elected-rector-of-dundee-uni/ Craig Murray has won the election to be rector of Dundee Uni by 630-580. This is a phenomenal victory over the Tory/rugby team who dominate the political life of the Uni. Victory came about through the combined effort of all progressive forces on campus, from socialists to peace activists and environmental activists to human rights groups.

This is a great example of what happens when people put thir common interests before the interests of their own organisation. A turnout increase of 50% also shows that the students on campus aren’t apathetic when it comes to political issues.

Well done to Dundee Uni students

Courier report

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/17/craig-murray-elected-rector-of-dundee-uni/feed/ 5 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/15/what-is-paranoid-jim-mcgovern-afraid-of/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/15/what-is-paranoid-jim-mcgovern-afraid-of/#comments Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:12:33 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/what-is-paranoid-jim-mcgovern-afraid-of/ It was reported in the Courier today that Jim McGovern doesn’t want you to know what he’s spending our money on.

Apparantly he thinks us knowing how he’s spending our cash means that if this reaches its logical conclusion, it will be easy for anyone who wants to kidnap, injure or assault an MP because they’ll know their exact movements,

Never mind that we already know when he will be holding surgeries etc, where he lives (from the electoral register), where his offices are and when he’s going to Parliament, if we know that he got a taxi somewhere 3 years ago how would that assist some mythical kidnapper in the future?

That’s if you manage to look at his argument and actually mistake his “logical conclusion” for being logical rather than paranoid fantasies.

Never mind that he’s supported Labours ID Card and Anti terrorism laws which mean the state can find out where you are.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/15/what-is-paranoid-jim-mcgovern-afraid-of/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/13/14/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/13/14/#comments Tue, 13 Feb 2007 18:50:25 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/02/13/14/ The NCR rapid response team have released a summary of their report (previously at http://www.ncrteam.org.uk/summary.pdf, now dead link)

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/13/14/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/10/simclar-workers-story/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/10/simclar-workers-story/#comments Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:10:06 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/simclar-workers-story/ Simclar The Truth

Some of the workers from Simclar have started a blog to get the truth out past the media filter.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/10/simclar-workers-story/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/01/ssp-rallies-round-ncr-workers/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/01/ssp-rallies-round-ncr-workers/#comments Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:31:34 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/ssp-rallies-round-ncr-workers/ From the Scottish Socialist Voice, Issue 293

SSP rallies round NCR workers

The SSP has been unequivocal in its condemnation of Ohio-based company NCR’s recent decision to axe 650 jobs in Dundee.

A decision that has left hundreds of families in abject panic, given that Dundee is a city with an already high level of unemployment, dangerously dependent upon corporate giants like NCR.

In the wake of the decision, SSP convenor Colin Fox travelled north with the party’s message of support for workers squaring up to this wretched decision.
He was also keen to distance the SSP from the attitude of all the other parties that nothing can be done and that the only option remaining is to follow the Scottish Executive lead and provide retraining, advice on setting up new businesses and educational routes forward away from NCR.

Colin, alongside SSP Industrial Organiser Richie Venton and Dundee SSP member Rod McGregor, spoke to local press, radio and TV, and met Scott Murray, Amicus union convener at NCR, to discuss the situation, the union’s approach and the SSP’s support.

The public meeting was organised by Dundee SSP members within days of the NCR announcement.
In building for the meeting, they held a successful stall in the city centre and in two local schemes, leafleted the NCR factory three days running, and got an article in the Dundee Courier.

The meeting was well-attended and constructive, with speakers Colin, Richie, and Mike Arnott from Dundee Trades Council.

Richie called NCR a “subsidy junkie. They have been handed £4million by the Scottish Executive in grants since 1993. And a further £2.2million off Scottish Enterprise just eight months ago.

Instead of offering more handouts to NCR bosses who lie and plunder, the Scottish Executive should seize their assets and keep the workforce and its skills.

Mike Arnott exposed NCR bosses as Corporation Tax-dodgers.
“They channel all their non-US profits – including those from Dundee – through a front company in Ireland. NCR Global Solutions in Ireland employs a grand total of 31 people.

“Yet by this legalised tax theft they can claim in 2005 that 31 people generated $186million profit – almost half their global total! Why do they siphon their profits across the Irish Sea? Because Corporation Tax there is only 12.5 per cent – compared to 30 per cent here.”

Colin Fox warned NCR workers not to be conned into relying on Task Forces that promise to re-train redundant workers.

“Look at Motorola. They didn’t even allow a trade union. But they had a works committee. I met the convener of the works committee when Motorola was closing down, promising re-training.
Six weeks later I met the same skilled worker in Harthill Service Station, sweeping up the forecourt!
Unlike the mainstream parties who wring their hands in pretend sympathy but preach there is nothing you can do, the SSP strongly believes that if the NCR workforce decide on powerful, united action, the jobs can be saved.”

Richie flagged up how Glasgow council workers forced the Labour council to drop plans to slash wages by up to £10,000 – and instead concede life-time protection of wages for most current staff – through mobilising for a three-day strike last month.

Mary McGregor, of Dundee SSP, said, Our party will continue to build support for the NCR workers and their families. We cannot let this devastation of the city go ahead without a fight.

The SSP is there to organise support for any action the workers take.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/02/01/ssp-rallies-round-ncr-workers/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/voter-registration/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/voter-registration/#comments Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:17:14 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/voter-registration/ It’s not too late to register to vote for elections if you haven’t done so.

You can get the form from About My Vote

If you are currently living in Dundee then the form you need is: Dundee Vote Registration

Remember if you are a student you can register at your home and term time address so that you can vote (once) depending on where you are living at the time of the election

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/voter-registration/feed/ 1 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/next-branch-meetings/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/next-branch-meetings/#comments Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:55:31 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/next-branch-meetings/ The branches will be meeting at the DVA, 10 Constitution Road on Wednesday 24th January. If you want to come along Contact us

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/next-branch-meetings/feed/ 0 http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/testing-a-new-site/ http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/testing-a-new-site/#comments Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:05:22 +0000 alangdundee http://dundeessp.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/testing-a-new-site/ This site is a test to see if this blog software can do what we want it to.

]]> http://dundeessp.org/blog/2007/01/19/testing-a-new-site/feed/ 6