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Brexit Or Not.. INDYREF 2 STILL KEY to CHANGE Colin Fox: Sturgeon’s Brexit Jobs cuts: Tories claims could demobilise the planning mass civil independence movement service sackings • see page 9 • see page 8 £1 • issue 472 • 26th February – 10th March 2016 scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com Brexit or not.. INDYREF 2 STILL KEY TO CHANGE • Use May elections to reclaim right to indyref • Neither cuts nor freeze – scrap the Council Tax • £10-an-hour minimum wage for all NOW! ScottishSocialistVoice.wordpress.com /ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice RISE WOMEN by Jenni Gunn, lead RISE candidate, Mid Scotland & Fife Cornton Vale protestors THE RUSSIAN novelist Fydor Dos - demand radical change toyevsky famously said; “The degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” If Dostoyevsky is correct, we need to take a long, hard look at our own society and ask ourselves frankly and honest: “is this good enough? Is this really the best that we can do?” In light of recent reports about lack of timely access to sanitation, dozens of ac - tivists gathered outside of HMP Cornton Vale on Tuesday night to demand better conditions for inmates in Scotland’s only women’s prison. PROTEST:: fforrmerr SSP MSP The protest, organised by RISE Rosiie Kane and RIISE Miid Scotland & Fife lead Women, marked the third demonstration Scotland & Fife lead candiidatte Jennii Gunn werre organised by the Network this month, and among demonsttrrattorrs sought to highlight the plight of women liv - demandiing a rradiicall shake-- up of the judicial system, ing in confinement in Scotland. up of the judicial system, whiich mettes outt custtodiiall Protestors also demanded a radical senttences tto women who shake-up of the judicial system, which pose no tthrreatt tto tthe general public metes out custodial sentences to women general public who pose no threat to the general public. nomic and social inequality, which is a olent crimes by holding our courts and our I had the privilege of addressing the scourge upon our communities the length government to account, and by demanding demonstration alongside former Scottish and breadth of Scotland. alternatives to custodial sentences by in - Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane and Economic and social inequality is being vesting in community programmes that are RISE Glasgow candidate, Suki Sangha, exacerbated by an austerity agenda that readily available to all in need, and that sup - at an event that I hope will help to foster doles out social violence upon all of our vul - port women within their own communities. a serious discussion about women’s in - nerable people, but under which women Thirdly, we must fight austerity and at - carceration in Scotland, which is currently are being targeted. Statistics have shown tacks on our public services upon which so the second highest in northern Europe. that cuts to welfare benefits are hitting many vulnerable people rely on for survival. women twice as hard as men. Women Progress is being made, but complacency, The heart of the issue make up 95 per cent of lone parents and 62 at this important juncture, is not an option. Rosie Kane, who spent six days in the per cent of unpaid carers, a demographic The truth of the matter is that women prison for refusing to pay a fine she re - disproportionately burdened by deep cuts are not the only people that our justice ceived for protesting against Trident nu - in public spending. Austerity is nothing short system is failing, and Scotland’s system is clear weapons, addressed the gathered of an assault on the living standards of in need of serious and far reaching reform. activists in an emotionally charged and women who depend on these vital services. harrowing speech. Rosie spoke about her To add insult to injury, services that are Take on the system own experiences in Cornton Vale, and tasked with protecting vulnerable women, Suki Sangha, RISE Glasgow candidate about the young, vulnerable, abused such as Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis, are and activist in RISE’s Women and BAME women that she met during her short stay facing significant challenges from lack of networks stated: “Being black, being a in the facility. Rosie said: funding. Whilst these organisations continue woman, being young and being poor does “I didn’t meet one woman in Cornton to be under-funded, and whilst poor women not make you a target…We need to take on Vale that hadn’t suffered abuse at the are plunged further into desperate situations a system in which people are dying in police hands of a male partner, a family member.” by austerity cuts, there is little hope that we custody, where women are locked up miles This goes to the heart of the issue: we will break the cycle of violence, addiction, away from their families and their support are imprisoning women who are victims of abuse and incarceration that affects women networks, where young people are being abuse, who suffer from poor mental health, in some of Scotland’s poorest areas. arrested because of their political beliefs.” who are addicted to drugs: women who What is to be done? Our solution must The protest at Cornton Vale sought to ad - live in perpetual poverty, in communities be three fold. We must ensure that dress one important part of this failing sys - plagued by violence and inequality. women in prison are held under condi - tem, but we have work to do in ensuring that It’s high time that we stopped imprison - tions which do not violate their most basic our police, our courts and our government ing poor and desperate women. universal rights to respect and dignity. are serving the best interests of the people, We need to address the root causes of Secondly, we must challenge a system and where prisoners are afforded their women’s imprisonment—namely, eco - that punishes women punitively for non-vi - basic human right to dignity and respect. 2 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 472 EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson Brexit or not, pro-indy left WITH THE super hyped Cameron EU “deal” already fad - ing from memory, the real reason case remains essential for the supposedly historic EU ref - sues on which the pro-indy erendum is growing ever clearer. forces would campaign to win. At heart this has little to do There must, in this context, with benefit levels, emergency be real doubts about the ap - brakes or border controls and proach of the SNP where on the everything to do with divisions one hand we are told that a in the Tory party and competing commitment to indyref2 will visions of how best to keep the not figure in the Holyrood man - world safe for capital generally ifesto but will be “unstoppable” and the money lenders of the in the event of Brexit. City of London in particular. A SUB-RACIST VERSION OF This is at best confused and at PROJECT FEAR AGAINST All this overlaid on the fight ALL THINGS EUROPEAN: worst dangerous for the entire for the party between the sup - the debate is taking place independence case. posed “one nation” Tories who on grounds chosen by the The idea that a mandate for a favour social compromise to se - Tories, the Mail, The Sun, second referendum can be left cure their aims and the unrepen - and Nigel Farage’s UKIP out of May’s manifesto, only to tant disciples of Thatcher who, down in quasi-racist terms on dyref as a key step towards be claimed from a triumphant like their heroine, simply bludg - immigrants. The strong likeli - transforming Scotland. Tory right which has just won a eon their opponents. hood that this will set the tone The current crisis of cuts and Brexit vote over the UK irrespec - It is no surprise that the lat - for the next four months as what sackings in local councils is a tive of Scottish votes, is fantasy. ter’s stock in trade is founded on is in fact an internal Tory de - prime example of why such a a union jack waving nationalism bate—with the UKIP extremists programme is urgently needed, Strategic approach which embraces a thinly-veiled joining in—is portrayed as a na - as the SNP, after years of freez - The idea that a UK Tory racism driving their obsession tional UK political debate. ing the unfair Council Tax, sig - Prime Minster—probably post- with immigration. It is this view, For the left this presents both nal that they have U-turned on Brexit Boris Johnson, basking shrilly backed by the right wing dangers and opportunities. The plans to replace it, planning to in a union jack sunburst of hard- papers such as the Mail and The danger is that politics across the tweak it instead. right victory—would then con - Sun , with Farage at its centre, UK—including a pro-EU Scot - We need to be clear that RISE, cede a referendum not sought which is now setting the terms land—is pulled to the right as the Scotland’s Left Alliance, op - two months earlier in an SNP of the debate. right wing media replay a sub- poses both Westminster and manifesto, is just not credible. racist version of Project Fear Holyrood cuts and—picking up However, even more impor - No easy answers against all things European, on the work pioneered by the tantly, the left needs to be clear For the left, the current de - played out against the background Scottish Socialist Party—backs not just of the indyref case but of bate has no easy answers. Some of demands for Britain in general, an income-based Scottish Serv - the policies on key issues such as who back a leave position argue and England in particular, to rally ice Tax to make the rich pay their currency, on which it would be that the EU is an un-reformable to the union jack and get out.
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