Leading indy figures write for the Voice: John Finnie MSP, the RIC’s Jonathon Shafi and the SSP’s share their indy visions • see pages 7 ,10& 13 £1 • issue 440 • 13th –26th June 2014 facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice

As the campaign enters its last 100 days, Jim Sillars says...

by Jim Sillars

IT’S NOT sensible to ignore polls, but they have one glaring fault – they examine opinion at present, but cannot now measure opinion on polling day as it lies in the future. My experience over a very long time is that the present can be very different from the future, with the future being dependent on things that no pollster can measure.

Mislead Polls at present show a gap between Yes and No. They have a methodology I am not equipped WE to challenge. What I can do from experience is show that polls can mislead if construed as the present representing the definite future. • continues on page 4 facebook.com/ScoCttishSocialistAVoice @N ssv_voice NEWS Thousands attend late night anti-rape ‘peace walk’

PHOTO: Amanda Johnston IN GLASGOW, after a spate of thousands more supporting the event Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon recent sexual assaults and rapes online, was billed as “a call to action; to and Glasgow City Council leader across the city, Govanhill women encourage more police presence and Gordon Matheson, calling for answers Amanda Johnston and Ashley Crossan support in this area and to make sure to public safety concerns. “The walk organised a peaceful midnight walk at that these kind of attacks...never was just the start,” they added. “This Queen’s Park on Monday 9 June as a happen”. does not end until our streets are safe.” “show of solidarity, in support of the Amanda and Ashley said they were victims of rape”. “tired of harassment and fear of assault • All donations to Rape Crisis Scotland The march, which attracted being part of our daily lives” and they at: rapecrisiscentre- thousands on the night, with tens of vowed to write to Police Scotland, glasgow.co.uk/index.php?id=149 FOR A MODERN DEMOCR ATIC REPUBLIC The brand new pamphlet by SSP co- spokesperson . Order your copy: scottishsocialistparty.tictail.com Or send £5 (includes p&p) to: , Suite 370, 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD Please make cheques payable to ‘Scottish Socialist Party’ ALSO AVAILABLE...

BUY ALL THREE FOR £10 OR ANY TWO FOR £5 £4 £8 (inc. p&p ) 2 • • issue 440 COLIN FOX by Colin Fox Holyrood in the event of a No vote. This point illustrates well THE INDEPENDENCE Stepping up the Yes why this referendum is still debate passed another there for the winning. milestone on 9 June. With campaign with less Another important feature of less than 100 days to go now, this debate not being picked the debate will intensify as up by the polls is the impact September’s crucial vote than 100 days to go that the hugely impressive Yes approaches. And Scottish Scotland grassroots political Socialist Party activists will campaign is having. Tens of continue to be at the forefront thousands of activists are of the campaign, organising a working away in more than series of public meetings 250 local Yes groups up and across the country on the down the country, canvassing, socialist case for conducting stalls in streets independence. and town centres and The polls currently suggest organising hundreds of public the No side has a lead of meetings to reveal the breadth between 6-20 per cent and of support now being won to this in itself reflects the great the pro-independence camp. degree of uncertainty in the Yes Scotland is the biggest result. Whilst John Curtice political grassroots from Strathclyde University, organisation seen in Scotland the pre-eminent psephologist since the anti-Poll Tax in the country, points out that campaign 25 years ago. GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN : of the 65 polls conducted tens of thousands of activists are since this campaign began in working away in more than 250 local Merits of indy June 2012 only one has put Yes groups up and down the country The task for all of us in the the Yes side ahead, both PHOTO: Craig Maclean Yes camp and the Scottish sides recognise there are no Socialist Party over the next prizes for leading at this are fit to do so. And we will be But the fact remains they three months remains to stage in the debate. The only better at it than Westminster, are offering Scots the chance persuade everyone we can of ‘prize’ that matters is the vote the City of London and the to control just 40 per cent of the merits of independence. on 18 September. Bank of England who run it as our own budget (the other 60 The SSP will be stepping things stand. per cent will be retained by up our activities across the Volatile polls Furthermore, with Westminster). I likened their country over these final few Underneath the headline independence, we can avoid proposals on BBC Radio months to raise the socialist figures however, the polls still the £25billion of public Scotland’s Big Debate last case for independence, reflect a certain volatility. Many spending cuts heading our week to walking into a car particularly with the country’s No voters for example admit to way as part of the austerity dealership to buy a new car working class majority. They being ‘open to persuasion’ still measures intended for us by and being offered one with will be the ones who determine and 20 per cent of voters as a both the Coalition only two wheels. ‘It has 40 the outcome of this vote. whole remain ‘undecided’. Government and ‘Her per cent of the power you There are thousands of The Yes side has ample time Majesty’s Opposition’. need,’ says the salesman! potential new members out therefore to secure the support Independence also means Of course any new powers there for the Scottish necessary to win. there is no risk of another Tory such as these need to be Socialist Party. We intend to The task facing the Yes government being elected to agreed by a Westminster recruit as many as we can side is clearly considerable rule over Scotland next May. Parliament packed full of over the next few months by but our message remains “A No vote is not a vote for hostile Tory and Labour MPs, explaining the SSP’s popular and inspiring. no change,” announced the repelled by the idea of impeccable record in Our vision for Scotland is of united forces behind Better handing any more powers to advocating an independent a country economically Together/No Thanks/United Holyrood. socialist Scotland – a modern wealthier, socially fairer and With Labour somewhat The Labour Party and the democratic republic. politically more democratic confusingly this week. Tories know this mood at And I particularly look than that offered by the No They intend to offer more Westminster but they prefer to forward to outlining the SSP’s side. And none of us should powers to Holyrood in the keep that information from work in building up the Yes lose sight of how attractive event of a No vote, they say, Scots voters ahead of vote over the past two years that message is. with income tax powers and September’s vote. So the when I address the Yes We are perfectly entitled to control of some welfare likelihood is even these limited Scotland lead volunteers run our own country and we responsibilities mentioned. new powers will not arrive at convention in Stirling.

issue 440 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 3 JIM SILLARS by Jim Sillars

IT’S NOT sensible to ignore polls, but they have one glaring fault – they examine opinion at present, but cannot now measure opinion on polling day as it lies in the future. My experience over a YES HE DID: in the 1988 Govan by-election, not face of the polls at present very long time is that the one poll showed that Jim Sillars would win but which show the No camp he won the Westminster seat comfortably present can be very different ahead. What you get out of a from the future, with the future Yes we ccampaaign is relaten d to the being dependent on things energy and the worth of the that no pollster can measure. cause you put into it. Polls at present show a gap In campaign terms, of being between Yes and No. They in touch with people on their have a methodology I am not doorsteps and at meetings, the equipped to challenge. What I Yes side is away ahead. There can do from experience is is a charge of energy in the show that polls can mislead if Yes campaign, a confidence in construed as the present what we can do with the power representing the definite future. of independence to transform Polls cannot take account of the lives of the working class. the impact of a campaign results were announced by Edward Heath. Labour lost. There is no such vision which takes place between the pollsters, media and In February 1974, the Tories from No. Just a dirge about present and the future. Johnston were stunned. were so far ahead of Labour at what we cannot do. There is, McCarthy got 42 per cent to the start of the campaign, it however, something missing Below the radar Johnston’s 49 per cent. The was to be a walkover. But the in the Yes campaign, as we In 1968, Senator Eugene key to that 42 per cent was campaign turned in the second have concentrated on the McCarthy (not Joe) the people-to-people contact week, and the Tories lost. positive policies we offer. It is challenged President Lyndon through canvassing. In the 1988 Govan by- the truth about what a No Johnston, in the New Before then, in the 1948 US election, not one poll showed vote will bring upon the Hampshire Primary, on the presidential election, Harry that I would win. The gap was heads of the people. That is Vietnam War. Johnson had Truman was written off by the wide. The Labour candidate what we have to drive home. stacks of money. He bought pollsters and the media. As was so confident that at the up television and radio the final polls closed, the front various hustings he was very Failing UK state advertisements which page of the Chicago Tribune nice to me, as though I Yes has not done enough drenched the community with proclaimed: “DEWEY deserved a pat on the back in telling the truth about the his messages. McCarthy had DEFEATS TRUMAN.” for bothering to turn up. What dreadful state of the UK no money. The polls gave But Truman won. His Labour hadn’t reckoned with economy, it’s £1.3trillion him between 10-20 per cent. campaign had very little was the relevance of the national debt now, heading He seemed headed for a money. What he did have was campaign I ran, at a time towards £1.5trillion in 2017. crushing defeat. a campaign among the people, when the Poll Tax was being It’s time to explain that after But below the radar of the and that was missed by the imposed – an issue Labour the Westminster election of media, he had an army of pollsters and elite journalists. ran away from. I won. 2015, no matter which 3,000 young students, ringing In the 1970 general election. The lesson to be learned government is in, there will bells, chapping doors, talking Labour were a steady 12 from all of the above, is not be £25billion of cuts to public to the people. When the points ahead of the Tories led that the polls are wrong at services and benefits. A No any time in the present, but vote means more austerity, in that it is the campaign a UK economy that is skint. There is a charge leading up to the day the Of course there are very rich of energy in the Yes votes are cast that matters. people, but some can be rich There is no scientific in a poor state, and it is vital campaign, a confidence in measurement of the impact that we get across to the Scots what we can do with the of a campaign, just a political that a No vote is a vote to stay one when the ballot boxes with a failing state that can power of independence spill out their contents, and only bring them more policies to transform the lives of the reality, not the forecast, like the Bedroom Tax and emerges. I am not writing this deep cuts in benefits. Tell the the working class... to give you false cheer in the truth about No and we will win. 4 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 440 EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson

IN THIS issue of the Voice, we mark the opening of the last 100 days to the historic September in - dependence referendum with contributions from key cam - BIG BEASTS PLAY paigners on the indy left. However, the 100-days land - mark was also marked – rather akin to Nessie at the start of the tourist season – by the appear - UNION CJRASHAGORDCON: Fife KMP and CCameroAn pick uRp the chaD llenge of ance of that creature so beloved ex-PM Brown waded in with his a TV debate with First Minister of mainstream political scribes, wisdom not from Kirkcaldy or Salmond. Overall, the intention Cowdenbeath but from the plush the Big Beast. beneath the smokescreen of a de - surroundings of the House of Like Nessie, this creature has a mand for a new Britishness is just Commons press gallery mythical status and, at least in the a crude as Reid’s earlier effort. notebooks of those journalists It can be summed up simply as who write what passes for politi - the two aims of ‘blame the Tories cal news, is rather fearsome. and Labour-rivals if No loses’ and Its appearance is supposedly a ‘claim the credit for riding to the “game changer” as it brings tac - rescue if they win’. tical wisdom, vast political expe - rience and that highly prized Real issues commodity “gravitas” to bear to Of course, just like the Com - forensically demolish the case of mons’ watering holes, all this is a opponents. Thus they strike fear won by troops including those about the attractions of the union. galaxy far, far away from reality. into puny opponents, slay their from already independent His minders let it be known that On planet Scotland, whichever arguments St George-style and, Canada and those wicked sepa - Brown – still a sitting MP – was brand of unionist comes out on their work done, retire to their ratists from the US among others. “temporarily” rejoining the front - top if there is No vote, cuts and equivalent of moated castles on The point is that like much of line in a bid to save Britain. austerity, nuclear weapons and the board of multinationals, think the British bulldog stuff spouted Of course, despite his billing as war are the menu if we remain tanks or the sleepy benches of the by unionists as they oppose inde - a leading thinker, Brown is in fact locked into a rapidly declining House of Lords. pendence, it’s pretty shallow stuff a calculating Labour tribalist and and creaking UK. That’s why it is from a pretty toothless bulldog. at that level, his peroration did not vital that all those Big Beasts be Crude message But star billing in the Big Beasts disappoint. Blaming the Tories put out to grass by a Yes vote First of these creatures to break parade was reserved from the for turning the indy debate into a which opens the way to real cover was the ex-socialist and in - leader of the pack, Brontosaurus Britain versus Scotland match, he change, dealing with real issues, corrigible warmonger, Lord Reid Brown, regarded as the biggest neatly also framed his detested free from the rose-tinted imperial of Cardowan. One time student hitter of them all by some of the Labour rival Alistair Darling who nostalgia of the can’t-do unionists. communist John Reid has a not No camp’s own separatists in the has presided over this strategy for Winning the working class ma - very subtle line in flag waving whimsically-named ‘United With Better Together. jority to a Yes vote has to be the loyalty to the British state and Labour’. The grumpy ex-PM and As a crowd pleasing morsel for left’s number one priority in the “British” values and is a particu - Fife MP Gordon Brown offered us his journalistic hosts, Brown also remaining days and weeks to the larly ardent fan of Her Majesty’s his wisdom not from Kirkcaldy or threw in the bone of demanding referendum. Eyes on the prize! forces. In a manner which earned Cowdenbeath but from the plush him his reputation as supposed surroundings of the House of bruiser, the former war minister Commons press gallery. shamelessly harnessed the sacri - This lunch club for the politi - Fill in this formJ and osend iit tno: Sc ottishh Sociealist P aSrty, SuSite 37P 0, fice of the D-Day dead in service cal correspondents is, of course, 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD. Or phone: of the union. Big Beast Brown’s natural habi - 07810205747. Or join the SSP online: scottishsocialistparty.org/join-us The crude message was that tat as he shared his wisdom with g those storming Hitler’s Atlantic us through the pens of the union - I would like to join the Scottish Socialist Party g wall were better together and that ist press and in the columns, via I would like more info on the Scottish Socialist Party somehow the fact that eventual a feature, of the house journal of Name...... victory over Nazism was metropolitan liberalism, The Address...... achieved by that unity seals the Guardian. But rather than some ...... case for the union. Of course, the flash of new insight into the de - Phone...... glaring omission from this tale is bate, the tired politician offered Email...... that the victory in Normandy was us the same tired arguments

issue 440 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 5 SSP councillor Jim Bollan told the Voice the background to this latest attack on democracy Scottish Socialist councillor

AS A proud activist in the Scottish Socialist Party and a suspended for third time councillor in West Dunbarton - lenge in local government. It shire, it has become an occupa - appears if you conform and tional hazard to be reported to bend the knee to the system the Standards Commission for then you will be treated lightly. Scotland by the Labour council If you question, challenge, leader councillor Rooney and expose and scrutinise on behalf the chief executive White. of your constituents, then you The Standards Commission will be marked for special treat - for Scotland is an unelected ment by the establishment. quango set up by the Scottish My suspension has left a dis - Government to regulate the be - proportionate democratic deficit haviour of councillors in Scot - for the 13,000 constituents in land. My recent suspension of my ward. I am the only SSP nine months from attending councillor on West Dunbarton - council, committee or sub com - shire Council. The other group - mittee meetings is draconian BOLLAN : “This cements the inequality which is pervasive in our society” ings on the council are plural and another attempt to restrict and would have cover if any of me as a socialist opposition the Corporate Management est while arguing for a grant for their members were suspended. councillor from holding the Team unprecedented delegated a community group in the ward right wing part time Labour ad - powers, so much so that the of - I represent who were on the Attack ministration on West Dunbar - ficers effectively run the council. brink of closing due to the lack Constituents have been de - tonshire Council to account. What crime did I commit to of finances. I admitted this nied full representation by a receive a suspension of nine error – hardly hanging offences. system built to smother legiti - Political malice months? I publicly commented Contrast this excessive sanc - mate scrutiny and freedom of It will not work. The thought- that I felt a senior officer who tion for an SSP councillor with speech. I will be unable to table police will not win. I will con - had been recruited from another that of a Renfrew Labour coun - items for discussion for nine tinue to scrutinise, expose and Council had a “highly question - cillor who sat on a committee months. This is an attack on hold the establishment on the able recent work record” after which awarded his employer a democracy. It is an attack on council to account. the officer in question was part substantial grant, without de - representation. It is an attack on There is no doubt there is po - of a modernisation project which claring he had a financial inter - accountability. It also cements litical malice behind the only was supposed to save the council est as an employee. He was the inequality which is perva - SSP councillor on the council £1.9million but actually lost suspended for four weeks ear - sive in our society. being reported to the Standards £400,000. The officer received a lier this year, missing one com - The undercurrent of why my Commission in a council where final written warning for his part mittee. Equal treatment? politics are being attacked is my democracy, accessibility and ac - in the loss making enterprise. The ‘regulation’ of council - opposition to the right wing countability have been dis - I was also punished for failing lors is part of a system that Labour groups “transforma - pensed with in favour of giving to declare a non-financial inter - seeks to prevent legitimate chal - tion” agenda which is an at - tempt to turn the local authority To subscribe to the Scottish Socialist Voice – newspaper of the Scottish Socialist into ‘ Party – fill in this form and send it to: Scottish Socialist Voice, Suite 370, 4th Floor, Council PLC’. Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. Or telephone: 07810205747 As an SSP activist, the mes - Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to ‘Scottish Socialist Voice’ sages of support I have received Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice & Twitter: @ssv_voice since my suspension was an - View PDFs at: scottishsocialistparty.org/category/socialist-voice nounced on from council unions, staff and constituents Name...... has been incredible. Address...... The struggle continues. The ...... SSP will not conform or bend the knee. We stand as a party Phone...... who have representation, equal - Email...... ity and accountability at the I enclose: g £5 for 2 issues g £10 for 4 issues g £20 for 8 issues heart of our programme for so - cialist change in Scotland.

6 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 440 JONATHON SHAFI Jonathon Shafi of the a mass basis. That is why RIC Radical Independence has called for a national mass Campaign explains why canvass on 22 June. We start they are organising a from a simple premise. No one mass canvass will win the independence refer - WE MUST WIN endum for us. There is not one ON RECENT mass canvases argument alone that can win. No in Glasgow we have found there single party will be enough. to be a very large number of un - Our success will be guaran - decideds. Scanning social media INDYREF FOR teed through the mass organisa - reports its seems to be the case tion of ordinary people. that there remains a high number History is in our hands. To - don’t knows in places all over gether we can set out a course to Scotland As a result many have OURSELVES engage with thousands of people asked why this is the case. Are to promote our perspective: radi - there any particular issues? Is cal, meaningful social change, there anything we can change through independence for Scot - about our messaging? And so on. land. If you have campaigned for In truth there is no magic wand, years, then now is the time to re- or simple solution to this. This ar - double efforts. If you are new to ticle deals with a specific form of campaigning, now is the time to being ‘undecided’. One person get involved. may be balancing the arguments, carefully, critically. They may be Mass canvass tuning into every debate, reading All of this is why the Radical In - the latest developments and dependence Campaign is calling speaking to friends about the ref - a National Mass Canvass on 22 erendum. But another, bigger, June across the whole of Scot - section are not really ‘undecided’ land. Canvasses will run in all of on the basis of the arguments as the major cities but also across such. They are undecided be - many towns, villages and islands, cause they have not yet thought maximizing geographical cover - about it in any serious way. age and inclusion. Everyone is welcome to join. Representation Whatever group you are in, we This in part helps explain why will promote your 22 June event. undecided voters are so high in Our previous mass canvass areas where there is low voter don’t trust politicians, or that peo - further fracturing of our society sessions, in housing estates such turn out. The richer you are, the ple feel there is no point in politi - along the lines of race, benefits as Castlemilk and Drumchapel, more your interests are repre - cal engagement because they claimants, the ‘work-shy’ and so have provided voters with the op - sented and reflected in the politi - have not seen any evidence to on. they have not just been cutting portunity to discuss their con - cal and financial institutions. suggest their action makes a dif - services, they’ve been destroying cerns about the referendum on a Thus, there is a reason to take ference. democracy along the way. one to one basis. They have an interest, because your own in - These are not unimportant – If this is the problem, then the been hugely popular. terests are more likely to be acted but the problem is systemic in na - solution to the democratic deficit This personal approach has on institutionally. ture. In essence the neoliberal is obvious. Rebuild a culture of been welcomed by residents with Conversely, in areas where the democracy is limited to the pa - solidarity, reverse the upwards many stating that they were feel - interests of the electorate are not rameters of the interests of big distribution of wealth and power ing neglected and their questions even an after thought, alienation capital, and in addition the tapes - and energise community pro - were not being answered. The from the political process is deep. try of organisations, groups and grammes, cooperatives, public Radical Independence Cam - Indeed this alienation is in and of community facilities needed to meetings and so on. paign is aiming to change this by itself a long-term process of de - catalyse and maintain a culture of That will take nothing short of speaking to as many people as mobilisation. Structural and social political engagement have been a mass social and political re - possible about issues that affect issues coalesce to create a bar - systematically undermined, shut newal which will require a strat - them and the world around them. rier to political action, including down and shattered by years of egy based on the long-term We believe that engagement is the fact that daily life is enough of strategic neglect. detoxification of neoliberal fail - key to winning. We need to listen, a struggle. Permanent austerity is now the ure. But to make an immediate as well as promote our vision. When people ask why there is over-arching strategy which incor - impact to mobilise the Yes vote in Join the 22 June day of action. disengagement, this is the rea - porates all of this, underlined with the concluding months of the ref - son. It’s not just because people an ideological demonisation and a erendum, we need to mobilise on • See www.riccanvassing.org

issue 440 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 7 by Richie Venton, SSP from their Tory paymasters in the the message conveyed; the keynote avert starvation for her child. Scot - national workplace No camp, by trying to breath life arguments to convince working land is a net exporter of food, yet we organiser into United with Labour – the Mini people they will be better off under rely on over 1,000 food banks to Me Labour offshoot of Better To - independence. Imagine there’d avoid starvation in the 21st century. SINCE OUR formation in 1998, gether. Like any one of successive been no 1707 Act of Union, that Why would we want to give a vote the SSP has consistently fought for Tory and Labour governments, Scotland was not part of the so- of confidence to that obscene track an independent socialist Scotland. these characters rely on sub-contrac - called ‘United’ Kingdom. Imagine record, by voting to stay in the UK? We are the one and only party to tors; United with Labour, and fig - we were having a referendum in Gordon Brown and others in the have done so for the past 16 years – ures like Brown, have been hired as September to join the UK. Would Labour hierarchy have awoken to tirelessly. Throughout the two years sub-contractors to do the Tories’ any self respecting worker vote to the fact growing numbers of their of the referendum campaign, we dirty work amidst the working class. join a United Kingdom with a own traditional working class vot - have championed the central argu - This move is rooted in the grow - record number of billionaires – 104 ers see a Yes vote as a ‘get out of ment that the Scottish working class ing revolt within the trade unions at – and where the richest 1,000 en - Tory jail card’, or even a rapid es - majority are key to the outcome, Labour being part of the toxic Bet - joyed a massive 15 per cent to their cape route from a real and possible having least to lose and most to gain ter Together. Even the Scottish or - incomes last year, to a mind bog - Tory/UKIP prison. – with the potential power to then ganiser of ASLEF, the first trade gling £518billion – whilst many So Labour peddles the line ‘vote go on to transform an independent union to rush through affiliation to workers haven’t had a pay rise in No in 2014, vote Labour in 2015’. Scotland into a socialist democracy. No well over a year ago, with no four or five years, and millions They try to seduce workers with It seems the enemies of demo - genuine prior debate amongst more have had ‘rises’ that are dras - the words of Ed Miliband that cratic self-determination – the members, admitted last week “on tic cuts compared to inflation? “we’re only one Christmas away Unionist parties of Better Together reflection it might have been better Would workers be wise to vote to from a Labour government”, with – have woken up to this, in a per - not to have joined Better Together”. be part of a state where the richest ten promises of “justice under Labour, verse fashion. That Tory-funded He said so at the end of a Yes/No people in Scotland – yes, ten – have a sharing of the greater resources of Fear Factory has been fronted by debate called by rank and file mem - nearly have the wealth of the annual the UK across the regions”.

LBabour Rfor theE pastA two Kyears. bFers thRrough tOhe BathMgate ASLE F BScotItish LGoveLrnmeInt’sO budgetN for AIn a rIecenRt interviEew AlSistair D’ar - They’ve built a cottage industry in branch, where I spoke for Yes the other 5.3 million of us? Or where ling showed no sign of being ironic the manufacture of lies, scare stories (against a member of Labour’s the richest one per cent have as much when he offered workers “the secu - and attempts to intimidate working Campaign for Socialism and Red wealth as the poorest 54 per cent of rity of being part of something big - class Scots with the core message Paper Collective), at the end of the population? Or where billion - ger, with a share of the larger that we are too poor, too small and which 85-90 per cent of the train aires glut on their wealth, with tax resources”. But what has been the too thick to handle independence. drivers present favoured a Yes vote! cuts for them by Westminster, whilst real life experiences of ‘justice with The crowning glory of this insult In the final months of the cam - two million children in the UK are Labour’, as measured by 13 succes - has to be Johann Lamont’s utter - paign, Yes Scotland needs to roll up in poverty – an absolute majority of sive years of British Labour govern - ance that “the Scottish people are its sleeves, shelve caution and hes - them in families with one or more ments? The most regionally unequal not genetically programmed to itancy, and get struck into Labour’s parent working? If most workers state in the whole of Europe. A state make political decisions”. cruel deceit of the Scottish working wouldn’t vote to join such a dysfunc - where 87 per cent of all the working class. Along with hammering the tional state, why should they vote to cranes right now are in London and Change of tack false Labour promises, Yes Scot - remain part of it – which is what a the South East. Where London’s Now the Unionist cabal are try - land needs to make its positive vi - No vote means? growth rates in the recent ‘recovery’ ing to switch tack, in panic at the sion more concrete, on key issues are over twice (nearly five times in backlash their insults, negativity, like wages, jobs, services and work - Breadline Britain some cases) that of other areas of the and orchestrated threats (for in - ers’ rights. The pro-independence Billionaires’ Britain is Breadline ‘United’ Kingdom. stance, about currency) has created movement has worked wonders in Britain. A recent TV programme, But this is not just geographical amongst working class people. canvassing and street activity, and Breadline Kids, told the story of a inequality. It’s a class divide that Whilst Alistair Darling (of the the SSP, RIC and Yes groups have man who had to stop working when dwarfs the Grand Canyon. London rich) still peddles No’s doomsday also revived the age of the public his teenage daughter was diagnosed sucks in labour and capital, with scenarios about independence, meeting, with hundreds cramming with leukaemia, and then had to massive property booms and ob - other sections of the Labour hierar - into dozens of community halls scrimp and search for food for his scene profiteering in the City of chy fear they’ve been rumbled as every night of the week. Another two kids, especially when his ben - London casino economy. Meantime Tory collaborators, and have arena we need to systematically tar - efits were delayed. in the real city of London, a property wheeled out Gordon Brown to get are the workplaces, directly – as And like him, the story of the company called Property Partners tempt traditional Labour voters with well as via where workers live, and mother on zero hours contracts, a has installed metal spikes to stop the a different shade of Unionist lies. through trade union meetings. proud woman who nevertheless homeless from sleeping outside the Brown is trying to distance Labour But then the crunch question is was forced to turn to food banks to doorways of their building!

8 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 440 RICHIE VENTON green jobs in the potential Saudi Arabia of clean, renewable energy that Scotland’s offshore conditions alone could create. Well paid, dig - nified jobs and apprenticeships. And defence industry workers could be guaranteed decent, secure jobs as part of such a plan, by design - ing and constructing the engineering equipment for the green energy sec - tor. Instead of relying on war and slaughter for work, the shipbuilders on the Clyde could use their skills to build such equipment, on top of the need to build a fleet of ferries. JOHANN LAMONT: Industry experts calculate that the “Scotland will not be insane £3billion spent to build each getting more money. aircraft carrier could instead be used It will simply be to build 200 new ferries, and that accountable for raising more of its would generate ten times as many money. I hope that jobs in the yards! And Scotland dispels some myths” needs 100 new ferries to replace the PHOTO: Craig Maclean ageing domestic fleet and meet new EU regulations on clean fuel. As a modest minimum, all that could create five times as many ship - yard jobs as now exist, a sharp rebut - tal to the vicious scaremongering and blackmail of the Unionists. But such a plan can only fully BWhenR GordoEn BrAown trDies to LLabIour,N Tories Eand L ibB Dems Rare dIevolTved HAolyrooId. NN or the levels succeed if energy in all it’s forms, scare workers about the security of neither guaranteed, nor a route out of pensions, nor benefits. Yet we live and the shipyards, are take into their jobs and pensions should they of the fundamental problems of in a slave labour economy, one of the democratic public ownership – vote Yes, we need to remind the poverty and inequality we face in root causes of people relying on food something the three factions of same workers it was Labour in gov - Billionaires’ Breadline Britain. banks to fend off starvation. Thatcherism who dominate West - ernment, with Brown at the finan - If these opportunists were serious The current ‘adult’ minimum minster would never countenance. cial helm, that demolished Final about added powers being devolved wage is worth only 35 per cent of av - Salary Pension schemes; provoked to a Scottish parliament – as opposed erage wages in the UK. Even a mod - Transform Scotland public sector strikes in defence of to trying to con us into a No vote est catching up with the 46 per cent As we enter the last phase of cam - pensions; abolished the 10p tax rate with empty verbal gestures as they of average wages enjoyed in France paigning, targeting workers with for the lowest paid; and announced see workers attracted to the chance – hardly a socialist nirvana! – would concrete alternatives, explaining the slaughter of 100,000 civil serv - of real powers to change things mean £8.14 an hour minimum. And how their lives and standards of liv - ice jobs back in July 2004. That’s through independence – why wasn’t if this country matched New ing could be transformed – provided justice, Labour style! a package of legislation on this in - Zealand’s national minimum wage independence is used to reshape And worse is yet to come if a ma - cluded in the recent Queens Speech as a proportion of average earnings, Scotland from top to bottom – is crit - jority of workers are conned into at Westminster? Johann Lamont has it would rise to £9.55 an hour. Hardly ical to winning a Yes majority. And staying chained to Westminster rule, at least let the cat out of the bag, in a king’s ransom, but a real transfor - the talent, knowledge of life and the dictatorship of capital. Only an an article in the Northern Echo, mation of millions of workers’ lives. work, and the vast levels of thinking estimated half of the Tory-Lib where she clarified Labour’s prom - The Yes campaign has a chance and engagement this campaign has Dem’s public sector cuts have been ises on pathetically minor extra pow - and a duty to focus on issues like a stoked up all bode well for the future. implemented. And that’s before ers for Holyrood over income tax: decent living minimum wage for all We need to hammer the lies of adding on the additional £25billion over 16, with pensions to match: the Labour, remind workers of their of butchery announced by Gideon Living wage SSP has campaigned for at least £9 real track record, and paint a picture Osborne before Xmas. Even if “Scotland will not be getting more an hour, based on two-thirds of of how Scotland could be if the Labour achieves the unlikely by money. It will simply be accountable male median earnings. The Yes working class majority seize the winning office in 2015, they have for raising more of its money. I hope campaign likewise needs to make chance and then construct a socialist declared they will sustain the Tories that dispels some myths”. more of a vision of massive re-in - government in an independent state. cuts. And even the limited conces - And none of their verbal promises dustrialization of Scotland, centred Workers have least to lose, most to sions on extra devolution verbally offer any power to increase the level around house building to tackle the gain, by breaking from the Billion - promised in recent weeks by of the national minimum wage in a 157,000-strong waiting list, and aires’ Breadline Britain.

issue 440 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 9 SANDRA WEBSTER by Sandra Webster 150 people. One person said this was the first time anyone WE HAVE now approached had knocked on his door and the end game of the INVOLVEMENT asked him what he wanted. campaign that will hopefully For all of us involved in deliver a Yes vote in the campaigning for a Yes vote referendum. There is still IS KEY TO we have seen so many much to fight for. Any victory people becoming interested in will only be won by ensuring politics again. that those who do not WINNING This interest should not normally vote feel included come to an end after the and that their vote is valuable. referendum. That is when the For those of us who are YES VOTE hard work starts and it is involved in the independence important that more people campaign, we may be are involved in the political surrounded by the passion process. That will bode well and vigour of other Yes for an independent Scotland. campaigners. It is too easy to These are areas in which lose perspective and, from our we live and work and it is SCOTLAND CALLING : Yes bubble, forget that there crucial we engage people our campaign targets are many others who remain people in poorer areas and distribute voting to be convinced. It is these who are more likely to registration forms so people voters who may hold the support the Yes camp are encouraged to vote. It is balance of power if they but are less likely to vote up to us to encourage our decide to vote or not. PHOTO: Craig Maclean friends, neighbours and For me, when canvassing, family members to vote in the there are four type of voters. referendum. In these last few There’s the Yes and No days which will fly by, as the camps who have already past two years have, it is our made up their minds, those responsibility to campaign who are undecided but there’s both individually and as a also those who say they have will vote Yes. So our expect them to be able to party. no intention to vote. campaigning must reach out attend the traditional These non-voters tend to more to women. meetings. Target activity be young people who seem The SNP in Scotland’s For me, this means Wear a Yes badge and disillusioned with the political Future have fallen into the ensuring that the voices of encourage a conversation as system. The messages of the trap of many other election ordinary women are heard. In part of your everyday life. As a Yes and Better Together have campaigns before them by our own party, so many branch, have public meetings not had much impact. It is concentrating mostly on women have found their in your local areas. Encourage these voters who we must ‘women’s issues’ like voices as part of the Yes women to be on the platform reach. childcare, which was given campaign. These are the and give them priority. ordinary women who are encouragement and support Labour voters split Time and time again, it has respected in their to speak out. The latest Ipsos MORI poll been demonstrated by women communities and who will be Have voter registration suggests that working class voters that they care about listened to. With so many forms on your stall to hand men have mostly made up more issues than just women undecided and still out. Remember that almost 38 their minds. Interestingly childcare. Women For making up their minds, it is per cent of people are many have not listened to the Independence must be crucial we reach out to them undecided – they will win the Labour Party who traditionally applauded for their where they are. Yes vote. expect to have their ear. intervention and targeting The campaign must also We also need to think There is almost a 50/50 split women voters but in these last target those from more outside the box too and target with Yes and No voters. This 100 days we must prioritise deprived areas who are more activity to reach people in their bodes well for the future new ways of reaching women. likely to support the Yes camp communities. Public meetings make-up of a Scottish At all the public meetings I but are less likely to vote. The alone are not enough. Parliament in which people no have attended, women have Radical independence How we win the referendum longer vote on traditional lines been the minority in the Campaign have begun mass is important and encouraging but expect more from those audience and often on the top canvassing in schemes from many more people to get who claim to represent them. table. We have to bring the Drumchapel to Pollok. After involved will bode well for So far, only 28 per cent of debate to women where they the Pollok canvas, they had a democracy in an independent women have declared they are, in communities, not public meeting which attracted Scotland.

10 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 440 JOHN M cALLION by John McAllion

DURING A recent televised de - bate with Jim Sillars on Scottish It’s a myth that Scottish MPs independence, George Galloway warned that the absence of Scot - tish MPs at Westminster would can save England from Tories result in an English Tory Govern - South of England. There are 59 ment south of the border. UK parliamentary seats in Scot - According to George, the with - land. South of a line drawn from drawal of the current 41 Scottish The Wash to the Bristol Channel Labour MPs from the anti-Tory (effectively the south-east of opposition on the green benches England) there are 302 parlia - would inevitably concede an mentary seats. Any political party overall Tory majority in the looking to win in 2015 must pitch House of Commons. This partic - its policies and its appeal to voters ular argument echoes one of the south of that line. great myths that have dominated Scotland’s 41 Labour seats Labour thinking on independence matter little if Labour cannot win since the post-1967 rise of the four times that many seats in the SNP following Winnie Ewing’s south east of England. spectacular success in the Hamil - To make the necessary inroads ton by-election of that year. in the south, Labour has con - ceded the Coalition’s arguments Celtic fringes and shifted its policies accord - It has long been argued within ingly to the right. An incoming the party that the strong Tory vote OPPOSITION? Labour would implement £25billion of Tory-planned cuts Labour government has prom - in England makes Labour in - ised to implement the £25billion creasingly dependent for a parlia - In the three most recent election UK endures not because the peo - of public spending cuts planned mentary majority on support victories between 1997 and ple of Scotland seek self-deter - by the Coalition for 2015/16. from its Celtic fringes in Wales 2005, Labour had majorities over mination, but because the main It has accepted the Coalition’s and Scotland. the Tories in England alone of anti-Tory party in the rest of the cap on welfare spending. It has Roy Jenkins, a Labour Cabinet 164, 158 and 91 respectively. UK has refused to challenge the promised to eliminate the deficit Minister in the 1970s, argued that When Labour wins comfortable core structures of a deeply in public spending within the “if you do not have Scottish majorities in the House of Com - flawed British state. lifetime of the next parliament. members of parliament playing mons it does so because it wins The English and the Welsh It will implement the Coali - their full part in Westminster then majorities in England. Labour working class are free to deter - tion’s policies on public sector the Labour Party could pretty majority governments do not re - mine their own economic and po - pay and pensions. Like the Coali - much say goodbye to any hope of quire the support of Scottish litical futures by taking up the tion it promises to get tough on a majority ever in the UK.” MPs. Six of the Labour govern - challenge of constitutional re - immigration. The list could go on. Forty years on, Anas Sarwar, ments elected since 1945 would form. All they need is political head of Labour’s current No have been elected anyway with - leadership capable of rising to 2015 Tory govt campaign, similarly suggests out any assistance from Scotland. that challenge. Yet a Labour victory in 2015 that the absence of Scotland’s Moreover, if Labour in the rest A Yes majority in September remains far from certain. Fol - Labour MPs will lead to a “right of the UK were to embrace elec - will not therefore condemn the lowing the European and Eng - wing Tory government across toral reform and agree to elect the rest of the UK to perpetual Tory lish local government elections, the rest of the UK”. House of Commons by propor - rule. However, nor will a No ma - there was a consensus that the In reality, all three of the doom - tional representation, the party jority in September rescue Scot - Tories had done much better sayers could not be more wrong. would pretty much guarantee the land from a deeply reactionary than could be expected of a party All of the polling evidence end of majority Tory govern - future already planned by the cur - that had been in government for from actual general election re - ments anywhere on this island. rent Coalition government for a four years while Labour was sults undermines their central Labour, of course, refuses to post 2015 United Kingdom. doing much worse than would thesis that Labour cannot win in do this because it has entered into Those who vote No in 2014 in be expected from a party expect - England alone. In the party’s a Faustian pact with the Tories to the expectation that a Labour ing to move into government in 1945 and 1966 election victories, cling to a first-past-the-post elec - government will be elected in a year’s time. Labour won 164 and 66 more toral system that guarantees both 2015 to reverse the massive cuts If change is really coming to seats than the Tories in England. parties a continuing duopoly of planned by the Coalition should our politics, it can only come It even won more English seats power in a democratically flawed think again. from one direction – a Yes ma - than the Tories in the closely British state. The threat of Tory To win a UK election in 2015, jority in 2014. There really is no fought election of October 1974. darkness engulfing the rest of the Labour needs to do well in the alternative.

issue 440 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 11 WORKPLACE by Voice Reporter NUJ MEMBERS at the BBC have voted BBC STRIKE BALLOT CALLED FOR to ballot for industrial action, including when BBC executives are discussing up to salaries of £150,000 which would release strikes, after dismissing a “derisory” pay deal 600 redundancies in news over the next year. £20million into the BBC’s budget, each and of 1 per cent. There are growing problems After the meeting in London, Michelle every year, a situation that would go some for the corporation as members at BBC Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: way to protect jobs and salaries. Scottish Scotland have already threatened to ballot “The union has argued for a genuine al - organiser Paul Holleran told the Voice: over deteriorating industrial relations in news ternative to the excessive payments to “The two tier treatment is unacceptable centres north of the border. A mass meeting managers and the waste in the corporation. both in respect of job cuts for the workers of Mothers and Fathers of Chapel from “There are structural changes that can and new posts for bosses and of course every BBC centre has voted for a motion be made that would result in fair pay and the derisory pay offer. which calls for major reform at the corpora - free up cash for programming. “The reps were really angry at the threat tion to address the huge differential between “Our calculations show that if pay was of more job cuts in News and Radio down the pay of journalists and programme mak - capped at £150,000, this would free £20 south but also potentially in Scotland. ers and the senior management. million which could be spent on journalism “We need more journalists not fewer, The motion called for a radical overhaul of and programming. This would be to the particularly in Scotland in a year of phe - executive pay and perks. It noted the salary benefit of the staff and licence payers. nomenal number of high-brow events and of Tony Hall, director general, and Anne Bul - “We also want to see the BBC manage - specifically the independence referendum.” ford, managing director, is £450,000 a year ment in the run up to the licence fee deal The anger in Scotland is exacerbated by and James Purnell, director, strategy and and charter renewal fighting on behalf of recent decisions to drop programmes such digital, earns £295,000. The meeting earlier the corporation and battling to maintain the as Newsnight Scotland and Headlines with - this month, which took place in London with high standards and quality programme- out proper consultation with the workforce. dozens of reps in attendance, heard that making that has made the BBC one of the The announcement that high profile pre - managers still received car allowances and premier broadcasters on the globe.” senter Gary Robertson has been told they generous expense accounts. In a lengthy motion the union has called are not renewing his contract because of They expressed their anger that while for an overhaul of executive pay and perks. budget problems has already led to high staff are being expected to “get austerity”, It condemns what they describe as the be - level talks between management and the management continued to enjoy high hind the scenes slotting of senior managers union in Scotland and further talks are salaries but are also recruiting more man - into grade-eleven, where as a result 66 per planned. The UK-wide ballot will run from agers at enhanced rates by bypassing the cent of those in this bracket now earn 20 June to 11 July and the NUJ are seek - BBC’s normal recruitment procedures. salaries above the ceiling of the grade. It ing a similar approach from sister union This expansion of fat cat posts comes highlights the NUJ demand for a cap on BECTU as part of joint union campaign.

ence campaign appeal fund has a target of £50,000 and though still in its infancy, has received dona - Donate to SSP indy appeal tions from every corner of Scot - by Jim McVicar, SSP The pro-independence cam - SSP campaign material. The SSP, land and although £50,000 is a National Treasurer paign have been out on the unlike the Tory and Labour joint- massive amount of money for the streets throughout Scotland, with unionist campaign, have no SSP to raise, I am confident that THE SCOTTISH Socialist street stalls, public activity, pub - friends in big business to we will achieve our target with Party has registered with the lic meetings and door to door bankroll our campaign. your continuing support. Electoral Commission as a Yes canvassing and whether as part We rely solely on the money That’s why I’m appealing to you campaigner for the independence of Yes Scotland, RIC or working we raise from our members, through the pages of the Scottish referendum in September. independently as the SSP we friends and supporters to finance Socialist Voice to make a pledge or The SSP, since it was formed, have received a positive response our campaign, and every penny donation to the independence ap - has supported Scottish independ - to our campaign work and can - we receive to help promote our peal fund today. ence and has campaigned within vassing and have received re - socialist vision of Scotland is See below for details of how to the pro-independence movement quests from all over Scotland for much appreciated. Our independ - donate. Thanks for your support. for an independent socialist Scot - land as a way of lifting working HOW TO PLEDGE AND DONATE MONEY people out of the misery that pro- • Donate via your local SSP branch • Paypal: [email protected] market governments have brought • Send a cheque to ‘SSP Independence Appeal If you want to help with the appeal fund, or if to all our lives. Fund’ and return to Jim McVicar, SSP National you need any more details, contact Jim McVicar In an independent Scotland, Treasurer, Suite 307, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD on 07810205747 or email: working class people will be better • Text 07810205747 with your pledge amount and [email protected] off and Westminster-led Tory gov - email address if you have one • Bank transfer: SSP Appeal Fund Account, Co-op However you choose to pledge, please text Jim ernments in Scotland will be con - Bank, Sort Code 08-92-99 / Account No. 65094637 the details so we can keep track of all donations. signed to the dustbin of history.

12 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 440 JOHN FINNIE MSP by John Finnie MSP

THE QUEST to find a com - parator for our constitutional debate invariably leads com - Lets not fail for lack of mentators to Quebec. Whilst the 1995 vote was nar - rowly lost 49.42 per cent Yes and 50.58 per cent No, the verdict of effort in final 100 days psephologists on the 1980 refer - WOMEN FOR INDEPENDENCE : ning over the significant per - endum was that the defeat was aim to ensure women are involved centage of voters who are ‘un - in the democratic process “because a French-speaking PHOTO: Craig Maclean decided’ to our campaign. politician (Canadian Prime Min - Great effort must be put into ister Trudeau) was able to return addressing an apparent deep- to his native land and appeal to seated ‘conservatism’ of women his brethren.” Is such a turn of on this issue. I remain ready to events likely with our debate? help with any aspect of the cam - We Scots were to have been se - paign; however, I believe it’s duced by Alistair Darling, the various women’s groups charmed by Michael Moore, co - rather than another middle- erced by Alistair Carmichael then aged, grey-haired politician overpowered by the interpersonal who’ll more likely triumph with skills and consistency of message this hugely important and po - by failed Chancellor and Prime tentially decisive group. Minister, Gordon Brown. So that’s all those who are Vladimir and Barrack, and in going to vote, what about the between Eddie Izzard and ‘Gor - ‘missing million’ those, prima - geous George’, were to have rily from our most disadvan - supplemented by David Bowie’s taged communities for whom proxy plea. None have done the the idea of a participative trick of killing off our aspira - per cent of the cuts still to come. with voters. We must seize this democracy means nothing? tions for a better future. Billy You are guaranteed a cap on opportunity or our laudable as - Connolly isn’t going to come welfare. You are guaranteed the pirations will be cast aside by Pivitol role riding over the hill on his three- renewal of Trident – £1.43bil - whoever forms the next UK I am supporting the Radical wheeler to sort us out, not least lion already spent on early de - government. Independence Campaign’s mass as both sides of the discussion sign. And, in the growing We know the unionists will canvass to reach these excluded claim him as theirs. No-one is unlikely event of Labour win - continue to attack Alex people. We must explain the coming. Indeed Better Together ning next year’s election, you Salmond and the SNP, however, pivotal role they can play in may have rumbled that the less are guaranteed attacks on wel - the referendum campaign has changing UK plc, run by and ‘big hitters’ they send north the fare benefits for the under 25s. long moved beyond any indi - for elites. It’s a challenge but we better it is for them. We must give be clear and vidual or party and now in - owe those communities our concise information on issues volves many who have never time and effort and we will be No’s sick message such as pensions to those for engaged in politics of any de - rewarded with support. The No campaign has recently whom voting Yes seems a per - scription before who share our My independent status sees plummeted to new depths, even sonal gamble, our older folk. vision of a better tomorrow. me detached from party ma - for them, and caused alarm Despite unequivocal assurances Majority government has chines, particularly the mighty amongst the parents of children from the UK government min - earned the Scottish Government beast that is the Scottish Na - living in Scotland treated at ister responsible that pensions the legitimate right for their tional Party’s electoral appara - Great Ormond Street Hospital. paid for will be honoured, our White Paper to be the basis of tus, however, between now and They lied that future treatment unionist opponents still seek to the constitutional discussion. 18 September I shall be work - was in doubt, a sick message create doubt from public plat - However, we must emphasise ing with anyone and everyone they sought to spread via now forms and bill poster boards the ‘other versions are available’ to secure our nation’s future. withdrawn cinema ads. length and breadth of the coun - and they collectively make a I understand there have been So, in the time that remains, I try, because they understand strong, shared case for social 49 independence referendums will be out and about telling the this can resonate with those justice. across the world. Some have truth that the independence ref - most likely to vote, pensioners. We are now into the period been official, others unofficial. erendum is ‘an opportunity’, To deliver our positive mes - when neither side will expend Some have been successful, and with few guarantees. sage of a more equal Scotland any effort seeking to win over others have ended in failure. Vote No and you are guaran - we must redouble our efforts, die-hard opponents. All ener - Let’s not fail for lack of effort teed more austerity – with 60 particularly face to face contact gies must be directed to win - – let’s get out and talk.

issue 440 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 13 CULTURE A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens by Guy Standing , published by Bloomsbury Academic by Stephanie Pride You have nothing to THE PRECARIAT, according to the author, is an emerging class growing in number and “characterised by chronic lose but your zero insecurity, detached from old norms of labour and the working class”. Made up of sections of the old working class without stable employment, hours contracts migrant workers and the well-educated forced into temporary jobs beneath their skill level, it is a disparate grouping created by the needs of global capitalism for a ready supply of “flexible” labour. For Standing, members of the precariat (the title of his previous work, sub-titled The Dangerous New Class) are denizens, not citizens – increasingly stripped of their rights and separated from traditional means of asserting them, such as trade unions. They are typically to be found doing casual work, on short-term or zero-hours contracts, at the beck-and-call of employment agencies and dependent on whatever top-up benefits they can squeeze from the state. income as a vital first step. standing up for one targeted minority Much of this book is a trenchant after another, no one will be left to stand Debt-ridden critique of neoliberalism of the kind that up for you. Instead, his approach is There is little positive in such a mode has become the dominant ideology of based on rights, be they civil, cultural, of existence, which is often degrading, western democracies, and he is forceful political, social or economic, and these debt-ridden and desperate. But in in illustrating its many contradictions. are at the heart of his proposed charter, contrast to other groups, members of For example, he cites the hypocrisy of whose articles frame the more positive the precariat are less likely to define the architect of British welfare reform, aspect of the book. themselves by their work, which is Iain Duncan Smith, restricting entitlement purely instrumental, and more by their to benefits (“something for nothing”) Sound principles life and values outside of work. while accepting over £1million in farm Taken in isolation, some of these Standing, an academic and former subsidies from the EU for living on a articles sound technocratic in nature, but International Labour Organisation 1,500-acre estate inherited by his wife. they are all based on sound principles of researcher, is not a believer in the old He also shows how the utilitarianism social justice. values of labourism and thinks activists that underpins neoliberalism has been The problem is, no western state is should develop a new form of used to marginalise and demonise ever likely to put such a charter into progressive politics to address the minorities, who are cast as a “threat” to practice (witness the Freedom Charter structural changes in society. the majority (most effectively in the anti- of South Africa) – as Standing tacitly Some of the changes he identifies are immigration rhetoric of the recent acknowledges in pointing out how far the fragmentation of the old working European elections), while pandering to the parties of the social democratic left class, the loss of ‘the commons’ (or the an imagined, middle-ground majority (most notably the UK Labour Party) common-wealth of society), the whose opinions can be manipulated to have gone in accepting the neoliberal undermining of the principle of support the consensus of the consensus. Clearly there is much work universalism in welfare rights, and the mainstream political parties. to be done, and for the author it is the fact that many jobs are no longer a For Standing, it is wrong for anyone to progressive elements of the precariat reliable route out of poverty. support a policy that makes the already that are in the best position to do it. What is less clear is the kind of disadvantaged even worse off, citing the Freed from the shackles of labourism movement that is required to reverse quote attributed to Pastor Martin and with little to lose but their zero hours these trends – although he puts forward Niemoller on the rise of the Nazis in contracts, only time will tell if they (we) a compelling case for a basic citizen’s 1930s Germany, to the effect that by not really are ‘the new dangerous class’.

14 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 440 OBITUARY by Pam Currie

THE WRITER and activist Maya An - gelou passed away last month, a loss mourned and a life celebrated around the world. Well known for her autobiographical writings including I Know Why the Caged A loss mourned, a life celebrated Bird Sings, Angelou was also celebrated as fMicult periodA as a yYoung aAdult, du rinAg which NGELOU ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou a poet, a performer, an actress, a public she held down a range of jobs including spells speaker and above all as an activist and an as a sex worker and latterly as a singer and You may write me down in history advocate for the rights of the oppressed. actor, she spent several years in Africa with With your bitter, twisted lies, Angelou was born into poverty in the seg - her then partner, South African civil rights ac - You may trod me in the very dirt regated US south in 1928; following her tivist Vusumzi Make, and her young son. But still, like dust, I’ll rise. parents’ separation, she and her younger Returning to the US in 1965, she worked brother were sent to live with hard working, closely with both Malcolm X and Martin Does my sassiness upset you? God-fearing grandparents, subsequently re - Luther King, and was devastated by their Why are you beset with gloom? turning to her mother and new boyfriend. deaths. In the ’70s, ’80s and indeed, until ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Angelou was subsequently raped by this Pumping in my living room. boyfriend, who was convicted but unpun - ished by the courts. He was later murdered; Just like moons and like suns, and this trauma and upheaval impacted With the certainty of tides, hugely on a young Angelou, who was sub - Just like hopes springing high, sequently mute for several years. Still I’ll rise. It was these brutal early experiences which formed the basis of the first part of I Did you want to see me broken? Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which Bowed head and lowered eyes? met with public outcry in many American Shoulders falling down like teardrops, states for its painful accounts of violence, Weakened by my soulful cries? racism and sexual abuse. Following the publication of this book in Does my haughtiness offend you? the late ’60s, Angelou went on to publish Don’t you take it awful hard six further volumes of autobiographical ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines writing, all in her own inimitable style – and Diggin’ in my own backyard. all highly-recommended reading. You may shoot me with your words, Roar of defiance You may cut me with your eyes, Angelou’s poetry was always an inspira - You may kill me with your hatefulness, tion; a roar of defiance but in one and the MAYA ANGELOU: 4 April 1928 – 28 May 2014 But still, like air, I’ll rise. same breath a belly laugh, an absolute per - formance which ink on paper could never do just a few months before her death, Angelou Does my sexiness upset you? justice to. She can be seen on YouTube per - worked as a writer and performer, teaching Does it come as a surprise forming Still I Rise, an anthem of a poem in Universities and reaching tens of thou - That I dance like I’ve got diamonds which tackles head on the racism and sexism sands through a public lectures and speak - At the meeting of my thighs? she faced as an African American woman. ing engagements around the world. In a few short stanzas, the poem tells the Out of the huts of history’s shame story of African-American oppression and Voice for women I rise its roots in slavery, and in particular, the Angelou was a voice for women who Up from a past that’s rooted in pain contradictory images of African American were completely invisible in the 1960s, and I rise women – dangerous, sexualised, ‘sassy’ – who are often still rendered invisible and I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, and throws them back in the faces of the op - silent today: black women; working class Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. pressor: “I rise, I rise, I rise.” women; survivors. Playing this clip just a few weeks before She lived through a period of immense Leaving behind nights of terror and fear her death to a mixed class of white Scottish social change, particularly in her native US, I rise and African Access Social Science students but she didn’t allow her iconic status to Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear in the college where I work, the energy and leave her as a toothless ‘national treasure’; I rise passion of Angelou’s voice was unmistak - she challenged, critiqued and spoke out Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, able, and her work never failed to engage right to the end. I am the dream and the hope of the slave. adults who ‘didn’t do poetry’. I rise Angelou’s contribution went way beyond • See Maya Angelou reciting Still I Rise I rise her writing, of course. After a rootless and dif - on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/n7o69sh I rise.

issue 440 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 15 for Socialism, Independence email: [email protected] and Internationalism Follow @ssv_voice on Twitter 13th –26th June 2014 Issue 440 Promoted by Jim McVicar on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Party, Suite 370, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. Printed by Forward Graphics, Elderpark Workspace, 100 Elderpark Street, Glasgow G51 3TR by Calum Martin, Edinburgh Universities SSP

FRENCH UNIVERSITIES are famous for the political en - ergy their students have shown throughout history. The involvement of French students in the strikes and polit - ical unrest of 1968 are well re - membered, and even now strong support is provided for strikes along with engagement with campaigns that stand up against racism and discrimination. POSITIVE IMPACT : the SSP has enjoyed a resurgence in its university groups such as Edinburgh and Stirling Many in France still regard student politics as an important contributor to grassroots politi - cal movements today. Mean - while, in the Scotland of 2014 student activism also has a use - ful role to play. SSP in resurgence at The Scottish Socialist Party has been enjoying a substantial resurgence in its student groups at universities such as Edin - sStrike cactiono organtisetd byi msul - hhome thue needn to diirecvtly cheal - r(affesctionaitelty iknoewn as s the burgh and Stirling. tiple trade unions. lenge the increasingly xenopho - ‘March for Independence’ cam - Unions including the UCU, bic anti-immigration policies of paign) which saw SSP students or - Strike support Unison and the EIS all commit - UKIP and the Conservatives. ganise two street stalls and a At Edinburgh, for example, ted themselves to take action and Meanwhile at Edinburgh Uni - public meeting on campus every this academic year has seen SSP students across Scotland versity, SSP activists can stand week for the entirety of March. both SSP support for staff strike have been supporting the strike. fast knowing it was the Edinburgh The Edinburgh University SSP action and a campaign by SSP Visible on the picket lines with University SSP Society which has can safely be said to have made students against the xenophobic placards and leaflets, the SSP spearheaded that challenge this a mark on both the course and the policies of UKIP and the Tories. was clear in its support of the year. Stalls on campus carried a tone of the referendum debate on The University of Edinburgh strike with the party’s tradition of petition which condemned politi - campus this semester at Edin - is a wealthy institution but standing resolutely on the side of cians who blame immigrants for burgh University, carrying forth highly unequal in its distribu - working people against exploita - problems caused by the neoliberal the SSP vision of an independent tion of that wealth. tive bosses carried through to an - economics they promote, declar - socialist Scotland. Recent years have seen the pay other new layer of SSP activists ing that such policies have no The Edinburgh University SSP gaps between university staff and and supporters. place in Scotland today. already has one event lined up the bosses continue to widen with Those watching the BBC news for next semester. Edinburgh’s increasing speed. In the last five on 6 February would have seen Flagship meeting next academic year starts eleven years alone, staff have seen the SSP placards proudly at the fore Indeed the Edinburgh Univer - days before the referendum and value of their wages fall by 13 per in the footage of the Edinburgh sity SSP meeting on independ - the Edinburgh Uni SSP Society’s cent whilst management execu - College strike rally at the Scot - ence and immigration proved to final event of the campaign will tives have rewarded themselves tish Parliament. be the flagship of our public be on 11 September – with ex - with mass increases in their own Further industrial action had meetings so far this year. actly one week left to go. pay, with an average increase of been planned but has subse - Running out of space in a The Society’s work will carry up to £22,000 in some areas. quently been called off, following venue with a capacity of 70 stands on beyond the referendum how - Indeed several vice chancel - the resumption of negotiations. testament to what SSP student ever, with SSP student groups at lors across Scotland and the UK The success of UKIP in re - groups are capable of organising Edinburgh, Stirling and beyond now earn well in excess of cent European elections serves on campuses across Scotland. continuing to strive to advance £400,000 a year. as a reminder of the drift to the That particular meeting was a the SSP. After five years of seeing pay political right that the UK is part of the independence cam - This semester has been positive conditions rapidly worsening, currently experiencing. paign drive by the Edinburgh Uni - for the SSP, and following semes - staff voted overwhelmingly for The rise of UKIP has driven versity SSP in the month of March ters promise to offer even more.