Dundee SSP

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.

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.

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

Yesterday saw the launch of our manifesto and the showing of our first Party Political Broadcast.

Our next broadcast will be on the 24th of April.

This was posted on our Contact form, so posting to let more people see it.

Do you know any community activists who might want to study Environmental Justice?

Friends of the Earth Scotland and the Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh run an award winning, part-time, 18 month, distance learning course on Environmental Justice.

Designed for anyone wanting to make a difference for the environment in their community or workplace the course still has places left on it when it starts again in April.

No qualifications are needed, the only entrance requirement is that you have an environmental project based in your community or workplace that you can work on while you are studying. The course is taught using a special website and using specially prepared handbooks with course notes, you do need access to a computer and the internet.

Support and supervisions is provided by the tutors and support staff based at Queen Margaret University and at Friends of the Earth Scotland. There will also be regular opportunities to meet other students and environmental activists in face-to-face sessions.

Students in receipt of benefits – including family tax credits – will have fees waived.

If you are interested then please contact Phill or Clare on 0131 554 9977 or visit the Friends of the Earth Scotland website at www.foe-scotland.org.uk

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.

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

The NCR rapid response team have released a summary of their report (previously at http://www.ncrteam.org.uk/summary.pdf, now dead link)

Simclar The Truth

Some of the workers from Simclar have started a blog to get the truth out past the media filter.

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.