Bedroom Tax: As the Voice went to press, the High Court in London ruled the Bedroom Tax did not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people. Here we look at the brutal reality of living in the shadow of eviction caused by the tax. • see page 5 £1 • issue 421 • 2nd - 15th August 2013 facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice

RETREAT: Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he was “embarrassed” by revelations that his Church’s own pension fund has links to Wonga - the payday lender he had said he wanted to put out of business NEITHER WONGA BNUTO FAIRR W ATGEHS, BEENE FBITS IANSD UHNIOON RPIGHS TS • See inside - pages 2, 6 & 7 facebook.com/ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice NEWS Royal baby media blitz can’t bcy Keon Fenrgusocn eal ConDem claswosrld o f mwisery foar the r many alongside opulence for the DAY after day of royal baby few. overkill with colour This however is a world supplements, mindless TV endorsed enthusiastically by coverage and sick-making all the No parties and most “experts” gushing may fill the shamefully by the misnamed media but back on planet Labour Party. Scotland the reality of the Without the participation if ConDem class war continues. Labour in Better Together, the Elsewhere in this Voice we No camp would be exposed look at the continuing impact as the pro-bosses, anti- of the war on welfare and worker bunch they are. wages which is slashing That’s why the Yes living standards and driving campaign needs to ruthlessly increasing numbers into the expose the fact that Labour arms of loan sharks. sets of rip off merchants is a year-long assault on workers’ no different than their Alongside the direct failure and it is high time that rights, started by Thatcher partners in crime and that economic assault further energy was taken into public and carried on by union voting No will not change attacks on already weak ownership and run not as a funded New Labour has that. workers’ rights with charges cash cow for profiteers but a driven down wages and, Only a Yes vote which to take lousy bosses to vital - and affordable - public since the crash, can no opens the way for a employment tribunals - service. longer be filled by cheap government which can repeal designed at the behest of the The same is true of the credit. anti-union laws, break with over hyped Lib Dem Vince Wonga vs The Bishop loans Labour-supported ConDem Cable - came into force. row. Bloated profits cuts and break with the Meanwhile few Voice Rather than scrapping over What is needed is a drive increasingly racist politics led readers will have been how much a loan should cost for decent wages and fair by the Tory/UKIP bloc and tail surprised at the “revelation” the real debate should centre benefits backed by restored ended by Labour. by Westminster MPs that the on why thousands of people union rights and paid for from A Yes vote will not only public have little trust in the have to survive each month the bloated profits and open the prospect of a more big energy firms! on pay cheques that only last dividends of the rich. progressive Scotland it will two weeks, filling the gap with Thirty years of pandering to light a beacon of hope for Fuel poverty loans. the speculators and tax those struggling for change in With about a million Scots The truth is that the 30- dodgers has now created a the rest of the former UK. in fuel poverty and an almost constant stream of To subscribe, fill in this form and send it to: , announcements that the Suite 370, 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. poverty-stricken power firms Or telephone: 0781 126 5388 will need to further hike Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to ‘Scottish Socialist Voice’ prices, their lack of credibility Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice & Twitter: @ssv_voice may be news to handsomely- paid MPs but not to anybody Name...... else. Address...... Yet faced with this rip off of ...... the public the reaction is crocodile tears, hand- Phone...... wringing and pointless calls Email...... for switching accounts or I enclose: g £5 for 5 issues g £10 for 10 issues g £20 for 20 issues increasing competition. Solidarity rate: g £6 for 5 issues g £12 for 10 issues g £24 for 20 issues Choosing between different

2 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 421 BISSETT WHY DO MAJORITY OF SCOTLAND’S ARTISTS SUPPORT INDEPENDENCE? Alan Bissett takes a look Irvine Welsh and Janice Galloway; poets such as Liz Lochhead and RECENTLY, I found myself on Tom Leonard; and painters like Newsnight Scotland , taking part in Alexander Moffat and Ken Currie a discussion about artists and the were able to keep the movement. working-class imagination alive, in The item was prompted by three the face of Thatcherite oppression, events: Alex Salmond inviting and create cultural momentum some of Scotland’s top writers to which carried towards the creation help word the SNP’s flagship of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. White Paper on independence; and A third reason to trust the artists an article by the journalist Joyce is that they are not toe-ing a party Macmillan in The Scotsman , who line. While all want independence, has noticed a dearth of artists sup - none fully support the SNP. Scot - porting the Union. tish culture is left-wing in inclina - In response, the Better Together tion and a great many artists have campaign has announced its own socialist tendencies. cultural response, headed up by the After independence, we will composer, Eddie McGuire. With CULTURAL MOMENTUM: artists like poet Liz Lochhead kept the switch our attention from attacking no disrespect to Mr McGuire, I can Scottish working-class imagination alive in the face of Thatcherism Westminster to attacking the Scot - barely think of any of my fellow tish government, and Scottish cap - artists who will rush to join their not easily fooled by the false nar - artists, primarily, to think. Artists italism, whichever forms those campaign. ratives of the powerful. are in the business of exercising take, using our cultural weight to Here in Scotland they are imag - their minds, daily, and can often campaign for a stronger working- Imagination ining a better social and economic see round the corner of society to class voice in Holyrood. The first question we should future, an increased cultural confi - what’s heading our way. None of us are risking our repu - ask, then, is: why do the majority dence, awaiting us at the other side Scottish artists see only further tations, our hopes and our energies of Scotland’s artists support inde - of independence. They also don’t domination and inequality within simply to help establish a new pendence, when most creative detect a xenophobic or ethnic the Union, and greater social Scottish ruling-class. types run a mile from ‘narrow’ na - strain to Scottish nationalism, un - democracy and fairness with inde - tionalism? It’s because the possi - like British nationalism - as ex - pendence. Scotland’s 1966 bilities of independence excite the pressed by the Conservatives, Another reason to pay heed is The comparison I made on imagination. The Union is a failing UKIP and the BNP - whereby im - that Scottish artists have been Newsnight is that 2014 could be state and a stunted democracy, perialist might and suspicion of proven right before. Robert Burns Scotland’s 1966, our greatest, his - which exists primarily to wage foreigners is symbolised with himself decried the Act of Union, torical moment of cultural triumph. war, buttress capitalism and main - every flutter of the Union Jack. in his famous poem A Parcel O’ Imagine what it was like to be in tain upper-class rule. For these reasons, most in the Rogues , realising, correctly, that London at that time: the youth ris - The very existence of an un - Scottish creative community be - Scotland had been betrayed by its ing up against a decrepit social elected chamber of hereditary lieve that independence will re - ruling class for their personal gain order that still doffed the cap; peers is proof of this. The rhetoric lease a renaissance in our literature, (or, as he put it, “bought and sold music and attitudes changing; civil from the Better Together cam - theatre, film, television and music, for English gold”). rights on the march; the future paign, who want to protect this elit - as we throw off the suffocating cul - Two of our greatest 20th century seeming bright. ism, is backward-looking and tural effects of London dominance. poets Hugh MacDiarmid and On the same Newsnight , Eddie negative, predicting an apocalyptic The other question to ask, how - Edwin Morgan believed in Scot - McGuire could only offer doom- future for Scotland if we vote Yes. ever, is: does it matter what artists tish independence early on, Mac - filled warnings about Greek-style It is no surprise that they even think anyway? If you are unem - Diarmid being among the first to collapse. So much for inspiration! call themselves, privately, ‘Project ployed or a fast-food worker on equate it with the socialist struggle. If we do not have the hope of a Fear’. Furthermore, British ‘na - minimum wage or a lorry-driver or After the rigged 1979 referen - better Scotland - a socialist Scot - tional’ culture seems to consist a cleaner, why should you care dum on devolution, with Scotland land - then we do not have any - these days of manufactured excite - what a bunch of painters, actors left politically impotent, the artists thing. Over the coming year, the ment about Royal weddings, ba - and poets have to say? picked up the slack. Novelists such nation’s artists will be dreaming bies and Jubilees. True artists are I’d argue that it’s the job of as James Kelman, Alasdair Gray, that potential into being.

issue 421 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 3 HIDDEN HISTORIES SCOTLAND’S ROLE IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE IS A PERMANENT STAIN ery was abolished within the British Empire, the former slave-owners received financial compensation from the British Government. Official papers show the British exchequer paid-out £400,000 to 100 Scottish claimants. Most of the by Campbell Martin Scots who received compensation for the loss of their slaves were AROUND the mid-1800s, Scots recorded as living in Glasgow: the were beginning to find their voice amount they received would have in radical and socialist organisa - a value today in the region of £2bil - tions. Living conditions for much HAMISH HENDERSON: lion. The time of British Empire is of the population were appalling, vision of a fair, multi- a period of shame, and the signifi - with large families often crammed racial and just society cant role played by Scots in the vi - into one room of festering, unsani - conquests spanned so much of the in Scotland continued to live in olent repression, subjugation and tary accommodation in Scotland’s world that there was never a time absolute poverty. exploitation of the peoples of other expanding cities. during a 24-hour period when the The British Empire was built on nations is a permanent stain on our Fledgling bodies representing sun was not shining on at least one the pursuit of wealth through ex - history. There are very good rea - workers and local communities part of it. ploitation, the founding principle of sons why, today, the British flag began to demand improvements, Nations and peoples were de - modern capitalism. Scots aristo - fluttering in the warm breeze of for - both in the workplace and from feated by British military might, in - crats and merchants who signed-up eign lands still generates feelings of housing landlords. cluding massed ranks of Scottish to the project were well rewarded, foreboding in local people. Often, a cornerstone of such or - regiments. Once colonised, every while those at the bottom rung of ganisations was the recognition that ounce of wealth was extracted from the colonial ladder saw little bene - Wind of change ‘home rule’ for Scotland was a nec - the conquered nations, with Scots fit, other than a misguided feeling The late Hamish Henderson, in essary requirement in the struggle to the fore in providing clerks and of superiority gained from policing his seminal work Freedom Come to throw-off the yolk of remote administrators within ruling the so-called ‘lesser beings’ of con - All Ye , written in 1960, described governments in London, which regimes, in addition to managers in quered nations. how the role of Scots as both can - were seen as being in the pockets plantations and other British com - While it can be argued that ordi - non-fodder and colonial oppressors of the rich, the very people whose mercial interests. For example, in nary soldiers and lowly clerks were in the British army led to a situation interests were served by the condi - India, the jewel in the crown of the products of their time and knew no where the sound of bagpipes in - tions that trapped the working class British Empire, the first three Gov - better than to carry out the orders of stilled fear in lands across the globe. in grinding poverty. ernors-General were Scots. their social and military ‘superiors’, However, Henderson went on to Throughout this period - the the same argument cannot be made reflect that a wind of change blow - Suppressing mid-to-late 1800s - Scots at home for Scots of supposedly ‘higher or - ing across Scotland - the strength - However, while the seeds of were also seen to ‘benefit’ from ders’ and positions. ening of socialist beliefs and of class consciousness and the im - Scotland’s membership of the To this day, many Glaswegians Scottish national identity, as op - portance of Scottish national self- British Union and as a ‘partner’ in remain unaware that the 19th cen - posed to British - has the potential determination were taking root at Empire. Colonial railways needed tury wealth of the city was built on to sweep-away the British state- home, many Scots were actively steam engines, which were built in slavery. Much of Glasgow’s stun - control under which Scots helped conquering and suppressing the the Glasgow district of Spring - ning architecture and many of its to exploit others in the name of im - peoples of other nations in the burn: mills in Dundee prospered mansions and town-houses were perialism. name of the ever-expanding from the jute industry linked to built by merchants who made their In a vision of a fair, multi-racial British Empire. trade with India. money from tobacco and sugar- and just society, Hamish Hender - Throughout the 19th Century, Fabulous wealth was built by cane cultivated in the West Indies son referred to a Scotland and a Britain extended its military and Glasgow merchants through their and picked by slaves forcibly re - world where we are “aw Jock Tam - economic power around the globe, trade in tobacco and sugar har - moved from their homelands in son’s bairns”, and where Scots, with Scots playing significant roles vested in the West Indies. But, western Africa. shorn of the negative baggage of in the building of an Empire ‘on amidst these ‘success stories’, Not only did Glasgow mer - British unionism and colonialism, which the sun never set’ - a refer - thousands-upon-thousands of or - chants grow fabulously wealthy on are welcomed as friends in coun - ence to the fact that British colonial dinary men, women and children the labour of slaves, but when slav - tries around the world.

4 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 421 BEDROOM TAX

EVICT THE TORIES! a Westminster government will not be the solution and a Labour government will offer no guarantees Under the shadow of the Bedroom Tax by arrears they have built up disability, and not ordinary they attend a budgeting through no fault of their own. income. course. The people on IT has been just over a ‘Sonia’ lives in Some disabled people are benefits should be the hundred days since the Renfrewshire, where the fighting these decisions by teachers! benefit cuts which include the council have pledged that local authorities but for many As local authorities panic Bedroom Tax were first there will be no compulsory like Sonia they feel too about their decreasing implemented but already the evictions due to Bedroom Tax overwhelmed and isolated. income they will put pressure impact is being felt by so arrears, as long as “tenants The staff told her she would on their front line housing many people. work with housing staff”. probably be too well off to staff to collect as much Never before in recent She was relieved, as she is qualify but she would hear in arrears as possible. history at least has such a tax in receipt of Employment two weeks time. There will be no such been designed to hit some of Support Allowance due to ill The next two weeks were pressure on MPs who will the most neediest health however she soon difficult for Sonia as she was condemning the benefit cuts households in Scotland found out what the extra put under pressure by a refuse to say if they will affecting on those who rent caveat to work with staff housing officer by telephone repeal the Bedroom Tax and their homes from social meant. and visits to her home asking say the benefit cuts are landlords. She had never been in if she could pay some of the necessary. In a recent COSLA poll 80 debt in her life and was arrears. A Westminster government per cent of councils reported ashamed after only a couple Her story has a temporary will not be the solution and a receiving half or less of their of weeks to have a letter happy ending as she is now Labour government will offer usual rent revenue with 60 informing her she might be in in receipt of a discretionary no guarantees. per cent reporting loss of arrears and legal action could housing payment until the We must fight to oppose revenue of 40 per cent. be taken against her. end of September but then this malicious attack on the For cash-strapped local She phoned her housing she will have to apply again. most vulnerable and most authorities this means that officer and had a home Unfortunately, Sonia’s story importantly be there for those more vital services interview where her income is not an unusual one as most affected. have been cut. and expenditure were more and more people are I believe our hope is in the The cold mathematics of gathered. Renfrewshire being put under pressure to 2014 independence this means that for many Council count Disability pay Bedroom Tax arrears. referendum, when a Yes vote vulnerable tenants more and Living Allowance as income There have been reports of will mean we can look to more pressure is being even though this is a benefit local authorities offering to build a kinder, fairer society. placed on individual tenants which is meant to help with pay the Bedroom Tax for That is the prize I will be to pay the Bedroom Tax the extra cost of living with a some of their tenants while struggling for in the next year.

issue 421 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 5 WONGA by

ACCORDING to The Bible , 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ entered the temples to find them overrun by money- changers, fashioned himself a NEITHER WONGA whip, overturned their tables, scattered their coins and drove them out. Two millennia on, Justin NOR THE BISHOPS - Welby, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury - and therefore one of the men claiming to represent Christ on Earth - Fan oil OindustryR execu tiveA, and i n LIPayV Day loIansN are the G Wmonth lateAr - or roGll over tEhe entered the debate about 2008 defended disgraced product of a poisonous cocktail debt, then take out more loans today’s moneylenders, bankers from being ‘named and of poverty pay, mounting to pay it off, sliding into the denounced Pay Day Loan giant shamed’. inflation on daily essentials like abyss of mounting Wonga - only to hastily retreat But as he surveys the public food and rent, and the failure of indebtedness. days later when it emerged his outrage at the scourge of Pay the high street banks to offer The underlying cause is the own Church of England has Day Loan sharks, he tries to credit, let alone affordable pathetic £6.19 legal National huge investments in Wonga! reflect some of that fury credit, to the working class Minimum Wage - and that’s the Rather than lash out JC- amongst his flock, pledging to majority. ‘adult’ rate! style with verbal whips, JW “compete Wonga out of Last January, Which? The higher level Living Wage admitted to being “irritated” business” by promoting and magazine found that over half - recently updated to £7.50 - is and “embarrassed” at the assisting the growth of Credit the population had used credit entirely voluntary, the product of revelations of having such Unions. cards, store cards and Pay Day campaigning pressure on dodgy investments, and then Even the Tory-led loans to pay for Christmas - employers. It is hardly a princely heaped praise on Wonga chief Westminster Coalition are trying borrowing on average over sum. But even that modest executive Errol Damelin as “a to perform the same, deceitful £300. 1.75 million adults in the figure has been denounced this very intelligent man, with a balancing act. They have UK are denied bank accounts. week by the Scottish arm of the very professionally managed pledged £35million in funds to Another 9 million have accounts Confederation of British Industry company”, feebly mumbling Credit Unions, but rejected calls that deny them any credit. And as a threat to jobs and the “there are plenty of others for a cap on the interest rates those granted overdraft facilities economy! much worse”. charged by the booming Pay are charged exorbitant daily Low pay is the curse of the Day Lenders like Wonga - rates for using them. modern working class. Over Flock of fury whose ‘representative’ annual one in five earn below the Living The Christian churches - interest rate (APR) is a mind- Poverty pay Wage. Oxfam Scotland whichever wing - are amongst boggling 5,853 per cent!! When the rent is due, and calculate that costs Scottish the most enduring institutions in This £35million is welcomed shopping for food unavoidable, society £6billion every year. human history. One critical by the 400 local Credit Unions, but it’s still a week to go to pay Growing numbers of bosses factor is their ability to tack and who are currently going bust at day, it’s dangerously tempting to dodge even the measly legal weave in response to the winds a record rate and unable to reply to the deluge of seductive Minimum Wage. of change in social opinion, match the escalating demand emails and adverts from This sea of poverty pay adapting just enough to hold for modest loans off working Wonga, Payday Pig, and the slashes spending power - onto their followers. class people. But it is entirely whole array of offers of magic endangering jobs. The Archbishop’s mother was dwarfed by the £2,000million ‘solutions’. Westminster Coalition cuts to Winston Churchill’s personal Pay Day Loan industry; sixty Recent surveys show that in-work benefits have further assistant. He is related to the times over. young workers aged 18-34 are driven workers towards the 1950s Tory leader Rab Butler. Loan sharks are a cancer at far more prone to take out Pay murderous clutches of the Loan He was Eton and Cambridge the heart of Britain’s low wage Day Loans - because they Sharks - whether the backstreet educated; went on to become economy. generally suffer the lowest pay, versions that enforce often in the most insecure jobs. repayments with a claw It shouldn't have happened, A horrifying one in six surveyed hammer, or the £2billion-strong in that age bracket plan to incur ‘legal’ Pay Day Loan outfits. it’s very embarrassing but such crucifying interest charges Workers’ wages are at their these things happen and we have over the next six months. lowest share of national wealth to find out why... When you borrow £100 off in 60 years. Recent government - ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY JUSTIN WELBY Wonga to buy food, you figures admit 280,000 of us in ON WONGA’S LINKS TO THE ANGLICAN CHURCH typically pay back £137 a Scotland who work are in

6 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 421 WONGA interest loans, and up to 10 per cent from the arms trade; anything above these thresholds would presumably be sinful! Workers in low paid, insecure jobs can’t rely on the Tories or the Church hierarchy to rescue them from the Hell of Loan Shark Britain - with it’s brutal anti-union laws, designed to shackle workers and hamstring our efforts to increase pay to a Living Wage as a guaranteed legal minimum for all over 16. Workers in unionised workplaces have on average 12 per cent higher wages than their exact equivalents in places where the government’s laws and the fear and terror used by employers have blocked the unions getting organised. So rather than wait for Eton- educated Westminster RETREAT: Welby said he was “embarrassed” by revelations that his Church’s own pension Ministers or Eton-educated fund has links to Wonga - the payday lender he had said he wanted to put out of business archbishops to challenge officially recognised poverty. Westminster bootboys is a Canterbury, the Anglican Wonga capitalism, (which they That is the pool trawled by dishonest bit of political Church and the Kirk in Scotland are tangled up in anyway), we these ruthless examples of posturing. It’s in the same are prepared to challenge the need to organise and fight back financial capitalism. school of hypocrisy as rule of the bankers, wage- ourselves, as workers, young People desperate to survive Westminster driving half a slashing employers and their and old, religious and non- clutch at the Wongas of this million families into food poverty hired capitalist politicians, they religious. system to tide them over, only and then praising Food Banks. cannot hope to drive the latter- to be drowned in a sea of rip-off And Cameron is day moneylenders out of the Decent living wage charges. No wonder Wonga accompanying this token temple! They cannot hope to We need to demand a decent was named as Europe’s fastest investment with raising the cap overcome poverty and the Living Wage as a legal growing business in 2010; and on interest from 2 to 3 per cent ocean of debt that decent minimum; full trade union rights these predatory capitalists stole a month, a huge leap in working people are drowning in. at work from day one in the job; £62.4million in profit off workers’ repayment costs for those And the Church as an taxation of the bloated rich and wage packets last year. seeking refuge in Credit Unions. institution is hardly clean when it big business; and democratic Credit Unions are a lifeline to comes to capitalist exploitation. public ownership of the entire many working class people. Root causes The Church of England has banking and financial sector, to Their interest rates are capped Plans by the Anglican Church investments worth over then offer cheap loans to at 2 per cent a month - about 27 and the Kirk to set up their own £5.6billion. They used to be the individuals, small businesses per cent APR. Compared to the Credit Unions as well as biggest landowners in the and the public sector. Loan Sharks like Wonga that is provide premises and country, but now also invest When the plundering like heaven on Earth. But their volunteers for existing ones heavily in property and Wongas of this capitalist world resources are limited. On their seems laudable. But it is international stock markets. slap us in the face, we should own, they can’t possibly provide fundamentally flawed because They seek to appease the reject the philosophy of ‘turning the cheap or interest-free loans it does not confront the root moral feelings of their the other cheek’ so they can that would be possible if the causes of people’s increasingly churchgoers by setting limits on smite that too. enormous resources of the desperate reliance on loans. the type of investments they We need to overthrow the banking system were taken And Justin Welby has quoted profit from. The Church capitalist Coalition that dictates over into democratic public annual interest rates of 80-90 Commission’s guidelines on behalf of the moneylenders ownership. per cent as necessary to make accept that they can make and wage-thieves of big Pouring a few drops into a profit in such Credit Unions – money from investing in business. We need to fight back Credit Unions from the ocean of hardly an example of “blessed companies where up to 25 per together, ‘clearing the temples’ wealth in their hands by the are the poor”. cent of profits come from of these obnoxious capitalist wage-cutting, benefit-cutting Unless the Archbishop of gambling, alcohol or high- exploiters and their system.

issue 421 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 7 NEWS Anti-cuts victory in Midlothian by Robbie Paterson the forefront in the struggle to re - closures. At the packed consulta - power. The Green supported the verse the proposals. tion meetings, it was made clear Labour Group, the Independent ANTI-CUTS campaigners At a well attended meeting in to these officials that the people indicated he would abstain. achieved a notable victory when Newbattle Community Centre, of Midlothian wanted local serv - When the vote was taken every - Midlothian Council rejected pro - MCAtC warned of the dangers ices provided in local communi - one was surprised when the posals to close community build - of local councillors voting for ties and not in centralised ‘hubs’. Labour Councillor for Mayfield ings in Mayfield, Newtongrange, closures in their own wards but When the officials reported broke ranks and voted with the Gorebridge and Newbattle and voting for them in other wards. back to the full council meeting, SNP giving them an unexpected centralise facilities in a new Midlothian residents were urged they admitted that there was victory for their proposal to build ‘community hub’ to be built as to show a united front to any overwhelming support for keep - the new school with a commu - part of a replacement building community closures anywhere in ing all community facilities open nity hub while keeping all exist - for Newbattle High School. Midlothian. and they put forward two new ing community facilities open. When council officials an - A petition was circulated stat - proposals; building a new school Despite this successful out - nounced plans to close swim - ing: “We believe our elected rep - only and keeping existing facili - come of the ‘no closures cam - ming pools, libraries and resentatives have a duty to ties open or building a new paign’ activists will remain community centres, local com - maintain the provision of com - school with community hub and vigilant to ensure community fa - munities set up action groups to munity facilities in our commu - closing the community centre cilities continue to be properly oppose the closures. Midlothian nities. At the next election we and library in Mayfield. maintained and kept open. Campaign Against the Cuts will remember and remind others The SNP administration Midlothian have a track record (MCAtC), a group of local trade of the councillors who voted for amended the second proposal by of running down community fa - unionists, service users and con - and against the closure of com - removing the clauses closing the cilities, declaring them unfit for cerned Midlothian residents who munity facilities in Midlothian.” Mayfield facilities. The Labour purpose and closing them. Cam - have been campaigning since the Midlothian council officials group put forward the first pro - paigners will also ensure that the announcement of the ConDem carried out a ‘sham’ consultation posal. In an interesting debate, costs of the new school and ‘hub’ government’s Comprehensive process where the only options the Green and the Independent are not met from cuts elsewhere Spending Review were also to offered contained proposals for councillors held the balance of in the Midlothian Budget. Selective memory of Spanish Civil War casts shadow by Mike Arnott, Executive Jarama, and this September a pressed through a legal attempt Smith MSP respectively, and Member, International new memorial will be unveiled to have a memorial to the Inter - hundreds of personal messages Brigade Memorial Trust overlooking the positions from national Brigades, unveiled in have been sent to the Madrid where they were finally with - the grounds of Madrid University City Council, to ambassadors THE series of commemora - drawn from the front line. in October 2011, demolished. and consuls across Europe and tions, organised over the past Recently, on 20 July this year, The memorial was unveiled in the US and Canada. Informa - couple of years to mark signifi - a new memorial was inaugu - by four veterans, including tion on the campaign can be cant 75th anniversaries of rated in Duchess of Hamilton British Battalion member Dave found on the IBMT Facebook events during the Spanish Civil Park, Motherwell, to the volun - Lomon, who has since died. It page and website. War, moves towards its close. teers from North Lanarkshire marks the role the Brigades A short walk away from the July saw us recall the beginning and, as we go to press, we still played in the defence of Madrid memorial, which appropriately of the Battle of the Ebro, then 21 cling on to a living link through and the University City in late stands outside the international September sees the anniversary Stan Hilton, the last survivor of 1936 and is the only such me - students union building, can be of the final withdrawal of the In - the British Battalion, now resid - morial in the whole of the Span - found Franco’s triumphal Victory ternational Brigades and 7 De - ing in a nursing home in Aus - ish capital. The pretext for the Arch and the towering memorial cember the arrival of the main tralia. But, as the International legal ruling is a lack of planning to the Condor Legion, destroy - body of British Battalion volun - Brigade Memorial Trust looks permission, although the Univer - ers of Guernica. I doubt if plan - teers back in the UK. forward to its October AGM in sity did apply (and is still waiting) ning permission was an issue for Highlights have included the Edinburgh, with its membership and in similar cases the award - the victors. Hopefully the cam - creation of the new travelling ex - never higher and interest in the ing of retrospective permission paign to save the memorial to hibition ‘Antifascistas’, telling the brigaders never more avid, a has not been an issue. the brigaders will be successful story of the British and Irish con - shadow has been cast by the at - Condemnatory Early Day Mo - and it can be celebrated by our - tribution in Spain, the unveiling titudes of Spanish civic society to tions have been tabled at both selves and by future generations of a memorial in Tarancon to the the historical memory of the civil Westminster and Holyrood by as a corner of a foreign field that Scots volunteers who fell at war. These have been ex - Jeremy Corbyn MP and Drew is forever International.

8 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 421 McALLION RED ED CLOSES BRITISH ROAD TO SOCIALISM John McAllion explains level, the vast majority of Labour’s politicians and supporters care more THE British left has itself long about winning elections than they do ceased to have any faith in the lead - about the reasons why they want to ership of the Labour Party. The win them. For them winning is itself Communist Party in its “Open Letter enough. to Workers Socialists and the Labour There is no evidence to suggest Movement” (2011) frankly admitted that they see the policies of the Peo - that the movement goes largely un - BLUE ples’ Charter as in any way relevant represented in the House of Com - HEAD:: to them or to their party’s project. mons because the Labour Party diismiissed However, with the unions influ - leadership refuses to fight for poli - Labourr’’s ence over Labour now effectively cies that would defend public serv - rrellattiionshiip ended, the British left strategy of ices, jobs, wages and pensions. wiitth uniions using them to turn the Labour Party They recognise that the leaders of as “olld upside down is reduced to rubble. It the one-time peoples’ party now polliittiics...... is no longer credible to argue that the rightly tamely operate within the free mar - rightly strength of Labour’s affiliated unions hatted” ket consensus that sets the policy will overwhelm its increasingly right limits for Westminster’s three big wing parliamentarians and its mod - parties. quence of this change will be a mas - Dem Coalition with a Labour Cabi - erate membership. Of course, since that letter was sive reduction in the number of trade net that refuses to defend public In electing brother Ed ahead of published, “Red Ed” Miliband has unionists who choose to do so. services, jobs, wages and pensions brother David, the unions believed moved the Labour leadership even As their numbers reduce, so too and supports austerity represents lit - that they had won a famous victory further to the right and ever closer will the influence that trade unions tle or no progress for the wider against what was left of New into the embrace of neo-liberalism. can bring to bear on Labour’s internal labour movement. Their way out of Labour. How wrong they were. Ed He has accepted a Tory cut of more policy development and on its inter - this contradiction was to argue for a has now delivered what Tony Blair than £11billion in public spending nal leadership elections and candi - take-over and transformation of the feared to attempt. The union link is for 2015/16. date selections. Tony Blair himself Labour Party itself. broken. The British parliamentary He has agreed a total cap on wel - describes the reform as “a defining The trade unions were central to road to socialism has come to an in - fare benefits regardless of people’s moment” of “real leadership” quality this strategy. Acting as a kind of left glorious end. needs. He acknowledges that some that shows Labour will govern for the wing Trojan Horse inside the Labour kind of bedroom tax for the poor in country and not just for one section Party, they would act at every level Condemnation social housing is unavoidable. He of it - the trade unions. to change the very nature of the party Under the banner of “One Na - has added his weight and that of his Trade union influence on Labour itself. Unions would make their fi - tion” politics, Labour claims to be party to further attacks on the rights is effectively over. Hardie’s “great al - nancial contributions conditional on the party of the employers and the of unemployed workers. liance” is ended. This presents the the Labour leadership showing “sol - employed alike. Its embrace of anti- British left with serious strategic idarity” with workers in struggle. At union laws, its routine condemnation ‘One nation’ problems. While they were ever will - the grassroots level unions like of striking workers, its support for Most recently, he has also begun ing to attack the Labour leadership UNITE would affiliate their mem - welfare to work policies that drive to dismantle Labour’s longstanding for their many failures, they drew the bers to local constituencies and guar - the unemployed into low-paid and and close relationship with some line at attacking the Labour Party it - antee the selection and election of insecure employment, its failure to trade unions. At its height, Keir self. In its “Open Letter” referred to committed working class MPs. address blacklisting and victimisa - Hardie described this relationship as above, the Communist Party argued Labour in this way would become tion when in office, its collusion in “the great alliance” between the in - that the ConDem Coalition had to be a mass party of the wider labour savage attacks on public sector dustrial and political wings of a sin - dealt a crushing blow at the 2015 movement capable of winning elec - workers, its surrender to a low tax, gle and united British labour General Election and that only the tions and, more importantly, capable deregulated, privatised and free mar - movement. Miliband now dismisses Labour Party is capable of winning of delivering in office the policies of ket economic model - all of these his party’s relationship with the enough seats to deal such a blow. the Peoples’ Charter, the left wing and more tell a very different story. unions as “old politics…rightly From their perspective, no other programme and other Communist If Labour ever was potentially a hated” by all who support his own socialist or left wing grouping has supported platforms. mass party of the organised labour “One Nation” brand of politics. any chance of winning anything like It is doubtful that such a strategy movement, it no longer is or can be. With the applause of the Blairites a Commons majority. could ever have worked. In the most It has become just another political ringing in his ears, he promises to re - They did, of course, recognise the recent Scottish and British leadership prop for an elite state that entrenches form the way in which trade union - futility of winning such a Labour elections, the majority of Labour massive inequalities in wealth and ists pay to affiliate to his party - majority if that majority then put the constituency activists voted for the power, while keeping the workers opting in rather than out of Labour present Labour leadership into Gov - more right wing candidates. At the across the nations of these islands membership. The inevitable conse - ernment office. Replacing the Con parliamentary and constituency under the iron heel of capitalism.

issue 421 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 9 INTERNATIONAL

bCy Saem Golrdoen in brayoungt Ediwarod has nbeen s iwounld hav e aN betteri lifec. aGrenearal Auggusto Suandina o who Nicaragua offered diplomatic asylum in First Lady Rosario Murillo led an insurgence war against Bolivia, Venezuela and never misses a chance to get the US marines who occupied NEWS of US whistle blower Nicaragua. Quoted in La Voz her oar in. Predictably, she Nicaragua 80 years ago. Edward Snowden was del Sandinismo Nicaragua’s spoke of Nicaragua as, Popular revolutions for humming round the world’s President Daniel said, “The socialist, Christian and in national liberation all too often news channels. The United States and the solidarity which also write up a debit of sacrifice governments of France, European Union have things represents a country of unity, but don’t always deliver the Portugal and Spain, backed in common, they want to peace and reconciliation. dividend of a better life for up by steady, reliable old judge everybody and dictate On the street the thousands those who most need it. So Austria were making prats of strategies, so it’s not strange wait for hours, under a has Nicaragua faired any themselves over Snowden’s that with the same goals they burning tropical sun, for differently? non presence on a South endeavour to push for a President Daniel Ortega to A partial response, if not a American jet. coordinated approach.” address them. Daniel has definitive reply, to that query The problem, of course, Staying in Nicaragua, the been doing this for 34 years. came from Daniel Ortega on was that Snowden was not annual commemoration of the What would turn the crowds the day celebrating the strapped into a seat of the jet, Sandinista Popular on this year? A couple of Sandinista Popular chatting to Bolivian president Revolution followed a well weeks before he had Revolution. Evo Morales. established pattern of public announced that a Chinese Nicaragua has a social So, it looks like US celebration. It helps that the company was going to explore security system, but with no intelligence sources had got it Sandinistas are also the party the possibility of constructing a unemployment benefit. So wrong. And that “special of government. inter-ocean canal. This would many of the elderly poor, and relationship”, usually reserved Better still, it’s a national allow ships to pass through disabled, have been unable for twisting Britannia’s arm holiday at the start of a long Nicaragua, linking the to contribute to the national was groping about some of week end. And no one can Caribbean Sea and the fund. This has left them her European partners. US bring in the crowds like the Pacific Ocean. unable to draw a reduced Secretary of State, John Sandinistas. The organisers pension even when they Kerry - what were you up to? say there were 300,000 Forces of nature reached pensionable age. gathered in the centre of the That is looking like it will go On the day of the Gun boat diplomacy capital, Managua; some say ahead; it is hard to see what celebrations Daniel made a This piece of more than 100,000. will stop it. That is, besides decree ensuring the elderly extradiplomatical behaviour - Besides some fraternal the accumulated forces of and the disabled a minimum in a bye gone age known as foreign dignitaries the usual nature and the small question pension, despite not having gun boat diplomacy - got suspects addressed the crowd. of $40 billion, or about the required contributions. some Latin American Cardinal Miguel Obando y £26billion. That has done more to countries into a huddle. Bravo said a few words about Yes, that did get a mention. catch the attention and good But hardly a tizzy, after all how young people had made And as always with Daniel, it will of the population than all there was nothing new. sacrifices so that following was linked to the dreams of the talk of yesterday and As the world now knows generations in Nicaragua his party’s iconic namesake principled declarations.

FJill ino thisi fonrm a ndt sehnd ite to: S coSttishS SociaPlist P arhty, Seuite 3r70e, 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD. Or telephone: 0781 126 5388 Or see our website: www.scottishsocialistparty.org g I would like to join the g I would also like to join Scottish Socialist Youth g I would like more info on the Scottish Socialist Party Name...... Address...... Phone...... Email......

10 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 421 INTERNATIONAL

As the Voice went to press, the rights of women and religious cWlashes weHre contEinuingRE NEXT FOR EGminYoritiesP. T? between the Egyptian army They want the carrying out of a and supporters of deposed programme that, while tackling President Morsi, with a the desperate economic crisis en - rising death toll and growing gulfing the country, also tackles fears of a civil war. US corruption, inequality and poverty. Secretary of State John Those involved in the mass Kerry urged restraint on the movement for change recognise military while EU opposite that it was their division and or - number Catherine Ashton ganisational weakness which al - made a secret trip by lowed the Muslim Brotherhood to military helicopter to meet win the last election. There is now Morsi at an undisclosed active discussions across many military location. Here, Bill groups on how to avoid this sce - Bonnar looks at the nario happening again. How to background to the gathering translate the mass struggle into crisis and the forces some kind of coherent programme involved in it. and forge a political alliance that POOR RECORD:: tthee Musslliim Brrottheerrhood haavvee ffaaiilleed tto deeaall can win the next election. wiitth tthee sspiirraalllliing ssocciiaall aand eecconomiicc ccrriissiiss eengullffiing Egyyptt EVENTS in Egypt took a dra - It is clear that Egypt is currently matic turn last month when the to be much worse. Whole sectors politically and economically. at a crossroads with almost every - army staged a military coup and of the economy have collapsed While initially sympathetic to one collectively holding their overthrew the Muslim Brother - and without a massive increase in President Morsi, its High Com - breath to see what happens next. hood government of President American aid the government mand found itself increasingly Morsi. It did so against a back - would literally have run out of marginalised by the appointment Priority ground of mass demonstrations money. of Muslim Brotherhood members The Muslim Brotherhood has which were the largest the coun - Much has been made of the fact to key positions of influence. been dealt serious blow but remain try had ever seen. that President Morsi was legiti - It also felt that its own vested popular among significant sec - An estimated 27 million people mately elected and that the coup is economic interests where being tions. Many will now reject the took to the streets in towns and an attack on democracy. In fact his threatened by the economic col - ballot box and may seek a military cities demanding the removal of election had more to do with a di - lapse. Perhaps most tellingly they solution with the very real danger the government. This followed a vided and organisationally weak witnessed the mass character of of plunging the country into civil petition calling for the same which opposition rather than widespread the protests and realised that they war. The military High Command, gathered 22 million signatures. popular support for the Muslim had to choose sides. may have been responding to a Three things have emerged Brotherhood. Since taking office Siding with the government radical mass movement, but are from these events. The first has the Muslim Brotherhood’s record might mean being swept away deeply conservative and form an been the growing isolation and un - has been poor by any standard. along with that government. The integral part of the country’s ruling popularity of the government. They have failed to deal with High Command was also worried capitalist class. Safe guarding the the spiralling social and economic about the loyalty of soldiers and economic, political and strategic Catastrophic crisis engulfing the country, have junior officers who seemed to be position of that class will always The second the role of the army alienated the majority secular pop - enthusiastically supporting the be their main priority. and third the re-igniting of the ulation and carried out what mass movement. This means that guns which popular revolution which over - amounted to a constitutional coup By staging a coup on the side of today are pointed at the Muslim threw President Mubarak. All last November by given the Mus - the popular movement they felt Brotherhood could, tomorrow be against the background of a cata - lim Brotherhood effective control that they would be able to shape pointed at the more radical ele - strophic economic crisis with un - of many of the institutions of the that movement and prevent it pro - ments of the popular movement. employment sitting at 32 per cent, state. If an elections had been ducing a more radical govern - The longer the army is in power foreign debt rising from $34billion called it is almost certain that they ment. The demands of that mass the more they will try to create a to $45billion, domestic debt rising would have been heavily defeated. movement could not be clearer. government acceptable to them to 365 billion Egyptian Pounds The role of the army and its mo - They want Egypt to be a modern and the class they represent. The and poverty now engulfing 50 per tivation for staging the coup is one secular country led by a govern - need for the popular movement to cent of the population. of the complexities of the situa - ment that is genuinely representa - find organised political expression This based on official figures tion. The army is a central institu - tive. They want a constitution that and become the next government with many believing the situation tion in its own right both guarantees civil rights including is of the highest priority.

issue 421 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 11 for Socialism, Independence facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice and Internationalism [email protected] Issue 421 2nd - 15th August 2013 Old and new faces celebrate Faslane Peace Camp birthday by Sandra Webster

ON 28 June, members from Act - ing Strange Theatre company visited Faslane Peace Camp along with members of the SSP. Organised by Campsie SSP, this was the second annual cabaret to celebrate the Peace Camp’s birthday. It was a noticeable new chap - ter as the old peace campers have now moved on leaving be - hind new people who will con - tinue to carry the vision and ethos of the Camp to the Independ - ence Referendum and beyond. The new campers have moved from all over the UK and some people have offered to stay part time to offer more support to the OAPs vs WMDs: long-time peace protesters Ron Mackay and Maggi Sale at the gates of Faslane full time campers. We were privileged to have She finished with a sentiment we event. It was a good opportunity Let’s hope that next year’s Act - two long time peace protesters all shared how she will be happy to meet the new campers and ing Strange Cabaret will be the with us Ron Mackay and Maggi when there are no more begin to forge new friendships. last one that is necessary at the Sale. Ron, who in his ninetieth weapons of mass destruction in We all feel relieved that the fu - Peace Camp as after the refer - year is the second oldest mem - Scotland. ture of the Peace Camp is guar - endum the Peace Camp’s work ber of the SSP, spoke movingly Acting Strange members per - anteed in the short term will be done and it can be dis - about his life which is one which formed some sketches while foreseeable future. In the inde - mantled. Plans are already afoot is a testament to socialism. Pauline Bradley and Citizen pendence campaign it will be for next year’s cabaret and we He reminded us of times be - Smart performed some songs. there as a reminder of all that is hope to welcome you along. fore some of us were born when This year and her decent and a presence that in - There is a Facebook page for the anti-nuclear movement was brother Andy McGarvey per - sists that Scotland is no place for any SSP members who may be born with the arrival of polaris in formed an extract from Rosie’s weapons of mass destruction. interested in forming an SSP Scotland. Thousands of people one woman show about her one However for the Campers to CND network and any anti nu - came together to demonstrate. woman protest in Glasgow City continue with their work they clear action. We all hope that next His talk moved onto the pres - Chambers. need practical support both finan - year’s Acting Strange Cabaret ent and filled all of us present with This raconteur had everyone in cial and practical. They also wel - will be the last one that is neces - humbleness for his tenacity and stitches. Rosie also spoke mov - come visitors and people to sary at the Peace Camp as after passion. Maggi Sale (who was ingly of how much she had come to their Wednesday Vigil at the referendum the Peace 70 on the day) spoke of her cam - learned from the peace move - the gates. Camp’s work will be done and it paigning from Greenham Com - ment and environmental protes - Members of the SSP have can be dismantled. mon to the original peace camp tors. The day as always finished begun to form a Scottish Socialist Plans are already afoot for next and her continuing peace work. with a demonstration at the gates Party CND network for all party year’s cabaret and we hope to Last week she hosted a visit of of Faslane naval base which was members who would like to con - welcome you along. Please look the grandmothers of which she is again accompanied by music. centrate some of their efforts into out on Acting Strange’s Face - one. They are an international This was the second Faslane anti nuclear protest. There is a book page for further information. group of women who travel the Cabaret by Acting Strange and it Facebook page or contact Neil Let’s work to make nuclear world campaigning for peace. is hoped this will be an annual Scott for further details. weapons a thing of the past.