Indy appeal: help the SSP storm Oxford: is SSP raise £50k to set to take on the UK elite in finance our campaign the heart of Oxford University • see page 2 • see page 10 £1 • issue 437 • 2nd –15th May 2014 facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice

British Unionist myth exploded

by , SSP national workplace INDEPENDENorgaCniser E WORKERS celebrating so - cialism and internationalism on May Day events will doubtless be subjected to the annual ritual of Labour politicians making nause - ating declarations of their undy - ing devotion to the working class, BOOST TO international solidarity and so - cialism. These chancers don’t even blush as they make speeches that totally contradict what they practice all the rest of the year. They fail to explain how intro - ducing what became the Bedroom WORKERS’ Tax under a Labour government – and Labour’s refusal to pledge its abolition for a clear six months after it was imposed – helped the cause of workers’ unity.

Track record SOLIDARITY They won’t be highlighting Labour’s track record of retain - ing the most vicious anti-union laws in Europe – with Tony Blair boasting about it! – for their en - tire 13 years in government. They won’t want us to recall that it was a Labour government that dragged us into bloody im - perialist wars as they prattle plat - itudes about internationalism. SACK LABOUR AND THE TORIES: more cuts, austerity and unjust wars await if we vote No PHOTO: Craig Maclean • Continued on page 8 facebook.com/ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice FINANCE APPEAL by Jim McVicar, SSP National Treasurer THE SCOTTISH Socialist Cash vital to fuel indy fight Party has registered with the to be seen to be impartial. The CBI dependently as the SSP we have Our independence campaign Electoral Commission as a Yes is an arch-supporter of the Tories, received a positive response to appeal fund has a target of campaigner for the independence who since the days of Thatcher our campaign work and canvass - £50,000 and though still in its in - referendum in September. have supported brutal anti-trade ing and have received requests fancy, has received donations The SSP, since it was formed, union laws. Yet when it comes to from all over Scotland for SSP from every corner of Scotland and has supported Scottish independ - the CBI supporting the unionist campaign material. although £50,000 is a massive ence and has campaigned within campaign, no mention of a ballot The SSP, unlike the Tory and amount of money for the SSP to the pro-independence movement is made or the legitimacy of them Labour joint-unionist campaign, raise, I am confident that we will for an independent socialist Scot - supporting the No camp. have no friends in big business to achieve our target with your con - land as a way of lifting working The pro-independence cam - bankroll our campaign. tinuing support. people out of the misery that pro- paign have been out on the streets We rely solely on the money we That’s why I’m appealing to you market governments have brought throughout Scotland, with street raise from our members, friends through the pages of the Voice to to all our lives. stalls, public activity, public and supporters to finance our cam - make a pledge or donation to the In an independent Scotland, meetings and door to door can - paign, and every penny we receive independence appeal fund today. working class people will be better vassing and whether as part of to help promote our socialist vision See below for details of how to off and Westminster-led Tory gov - Yes Scotland, RIC or working in - of Scotland is much appreciated. donate. Thanks for your support. ernments in Scotland will be con - signed to the dustbin of history. HOW TO DONATE TO THE SSP INDY APPEAL The past week has seen the • Donate via your local SSP branch • Paypal: [email protected] bosses union, the CBI, registering • Send a cheque to ‘SSP Independence Appeal If you want to help with the appeal fund, or if to support the unionist No cam - Fund’ and return to Jim McVicar, SSP National you need any more details, contact Jim McVicar paign, but within hours many of Treasurer, Suite 307, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD on 07810205747 or email: its members were up in arms, say - • Text 07810205747 with your pledge amount and [email protected] ing they had not been consulted email address if you have one • Bank transfer: SSP Appeal Fund Account, Co-op However you choose to pledge, please text Jim and were withdrawing their CBI Bank, Sort Code 08-92-99 / Account No. 65094637 the details so we can keep track of all donations. membership as they felt they had Fighting for a fair and equitable media which benefits journalists, journalism and Civic Society May Day greetings from NUJ Scotland Paul Holleran National organiser James Doherty Chair, Scottish Executive Council

2 • • issue 437 EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson

JUST A few weeks ago in Labour’s Scottish ‘red turn’ turns Perth’s imposing Concert Hall on the banks of the Tay, Scot - blue for Miliband’s squeezed middle tish Labour’s low profile leader appeal to floating voters now Johann Lamont announced the BLUE ROMANCE : Labour’s called the “squeezed middle” to launch of ‘Red Labour’ which, Johann Lamont and Ed win the key English seats we were assured, would out - Miliband – in bed with the Tories needed for Westminster power. flank the social democratic For Scotland the brutal reality SNP on the left. is that in this game even if they It was to be a class act and wanted to be “Red” London was duly written up by the would veto it as the politics of largely tame pro-unionist politi - so called “blue Labour”, fo - cal scribes as a return to Labour cused on middle England, values and posing a major largely discounts their views. problem for Salmond and, by That’s why Miliband’s jaunt to extension, the Yes camp. Less Glasgow with his aptly named gullible activists and writers re - shadow cabinet hardly raised a called that Ms Lamont has been ripple in a Scottish public who busily trashing the key Labour increasingly see through the achievements and reforms in spin to the Tory tinged reality of line with traditional Labour val - parliamentary Labour Party Her heartless views could today’s Labour Party. ues such as free prescriptions with one eye on their own com - have come from the pages of as a “something for nothing” so - fortable life styles simply adds Dickens or indeed almost any Credibility gap ciety. As the old saying has it if insult to injury. From now on Tory leader from Stanley Bald - Nothing more illustrates this it seems to good to be true it any calls for a boost to the pal - win through Norman Tebbit to credibility gap than the deploy - probably is and so it proved. try benefits grudgingly allowed Iain Duncan Smith. However in ment of so called “big guns” the sick, disabled and unem - its logic it flows directly from the Gordon Brown, the grumpy, dis - Vile policy ployed will be met with the call techniques of spin and so mally failed ex-Prime Minster The delegates has barely got of the guardian’s of the rich called “triangulation” which long and the Union Jack-wrapped home from the spin-managed “there is no money!” replaced working class politics ex-Celtic chairman and incorri - Perth “conference” before Truly Labour has voted with in the one time Peoples Party. gible warmonger Lord Reid of Labour MPs – with a few hon - this one measure for a return to It was begun by Neil Kinnock Cardowan, as supposed No ourable exceptions – voted with the oppression of the poor and who abandoned the miners in campaign vote winners. the supposedly hated Tories to unemployed that spawned the their strike, refined by Blair and Both are dinosaurs peddling cap welfare spending. At a hated means test and imposed culminated with the news that an increasingly discredited anti- stroke this vile policy, tailored to forced labour during the hungry the Miliband team have hired – independence doom message. appeal to the mythical strivers 1930s. Now we have Labour for mega bucks – key Obama On May Day, better to heed not the victims of bankers’ employment shadow Rachel spin doctor David Axelrod. the famous words of Burns greed now termed skivers, de - Reeves writing in the genteel All this is driven by Labour who marked their card la - stroys the basis of Labour’s columns of The Guardian that desperation – in the teeth of belling them a “Parcel of proudest achievement the wel - under Labour the long-term un - Tory crowing about the econ - rogues in a nation” and redou - fare state. That this was done employed would not be able to omy and the rise of UKIP in ble or efforts for independence by the whipped sheep of the “linger on benefits”. England – to craft policies to and socialism. WORKING FOR A BE TTER Fill in this formJ and osend iit tno: Sc ottishh Sociealist P aSrty, SuSite 37P 0, 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD. Or phone: SCOTLAND 07810205747. Or join the SSP online: scottishsocialistparty.org/join-us g I would like to join the YesPCS extends May Day greetings to Civil g I would like more info on the Scottish Socialist Party Servants everywhere. Name...... We’d also like to invite you all to our public Address...... meeting at St Augustine’s, 41 George IV Bridge, ...... Edinburgh on Saturday 3rd May from 6-8pm. Phone...... You can also visit our website at: www.yespcs.eu Email......

issue 437 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 3 ALAN BISSETT Don’t let the by Alan Bissett, author and playwright

OVER THE last couple of weeks I’ve found myself under a sustained attack from the media. Given how No camp fool involved I’ve been in the independ - ence campaign this, while unpleas - ant, was probably bound to happen. While I can certainly brush off the likes of the Daily Mail denigrating section which has significance for Welfare State and full employment members of the local community. my poetry or The Telegraph making tyhe Yes caompaign: u a– led bny a Laboury Party thmat truly Yes iso a genuiner peoplee ’s uprising, jokes about my weight, it was a “I’m not sure I qualify as a na - represented the people, not middle- involving Scots of all colours, reli - piece from David Torrance in The tionalist at all, let alone an ‘ethnic’ class swing-constituencies and the gions and countries of origin. Herald calling me an ‘ethnic nation - one. I am a socialist. If I believed USA – I would vote No. That com - What the establishment has been alist’ to which I took most exception. the best future for the Scottish passionate Westminster, however, forced to do, in response, is use that I’ve already answered Torrance working class lay in the Union I existed all-too briefly and is irre - well-worn, divisive subject of on the website Bella Caledonia, and would vote No. If we were still liv - trievable without the shock to the ‘race’. Torrance, to give him his won’t do so again, except to quote a ing in the post-war settlement of the body politic which Scottish inde - due, claims that he meant the defi - pendence will provide.” nition of ‘ethnicity’ from the Oxford This, for me, sums up the posi - Dictionary: ‘The fact or state of be - RADICAL tion of the movement at large. Our longing to a social group that has a opponents – including, disappoint - common national or cultural tradi - INDEPENDENCE ingly, those on the left – like to dis - tion.’ I’m even prepared to believe miss us as ‘nationalists’, a claim him on this, given that goes on to CAM PAIGN which has to be discussed with ex - cite a use of the word in the Scottish amination of what is happening on government’s 2011 census. the ground, not within Unionist There is a contextual difference, fantasies. however, between a census, com - monly used by governments to dis - Grassroots Yes cern how citizens self-identify, and At the weekend, Green activist dropping the term ‘ethnic national - Stan Blackley wrote in the Sunday ism’ into a febrile debate about the Herald that the ‘official’ entity imminent break-up of the British known as Yes Scotland has been left state. It is easy to fall back on dic - behind by the runaway success of tionary definitions, but ‘ethnic na - the wider, informal, grassroots Yes tionalism’ would be considered a movement. In less than a year and smear by most – especially progres - a half, the fledgling community-led sives – conjuring images of Nazi campaign for Scottish independ - Germany or the Balkan conflict. ence has grown to become the When Better Together deploy the largest and most diverse public word ‘nationalist’, they simply seek campaign in recent Scottish history. to distract from the reality of what As someone who is invited to speak our movement is: a struggle for self- Another Scotland is possible. at several such events per week, all determination, improved democ - Build the movement to transform Scotland over Scotland, I can testify to this. racy, dignity and equality. It is worth The panels on which I find myself saying that there is nothing inher - for the millions, not the millionaires. are not stuffed with SNP appa - ently wrong with ‘cultural’ nation - RADICALINDEPENDENCE.ORG ratchiks, but trades unionists, artists, alism or the politicising of the activists, former Labour voters and Scottish identity. This has happened

4 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 437 ALAN BISSETT ganisational unit of the British state. By this rationale, the Unionist left couldn’t care less about the plight of workers in the Republic or Ire - land, since they are not under this aegis. Presumably they also de - mand the reabsorption of all the for - mer colonies back into the British Empire, since that freedom in - volved ‘nationalist’ struggles for self-determination. Did they not notice that the soli - darity between anti-Poll Tax pro - testors and striking miners in all parts of the UK did not require a constitution to ratify it, but hap - pened organically, despite the anti- trade union laws and brutal tactics DENNIS CANAVAN: this referendum is about much more than the SNP or Labour PHOTO: Craig Maclean of the British state? Aren’t they aware that the Scottish vote has in response to the marginalisation of represents small-to-medium-sized blooming from within, a renewal of only made a difference to the out - Scottish and Gaelic culture, history businesses, who still have connec - a moribund democracy which has come of UK elections three times and language by a dominant British tions to their communities, rather the potential to alter politics all since the 1920s? narrative which stands for the tradi - than the swollen corporations in - across Britain, perhaps even across tions of the ruling class. volved with the now-discredited, Europe. That the Unionist left can Rising radicalism Our cultural nationalism, in the pro-Union CBI. still dismiss the scale of this change No, Scotland must simply sur - absence of effective political re - None of these groups describe as mere ‘nationalism’ is nothing render its aspirations and latent, ris - sistance, has in the past acted as themselves as ‘nationalist’ and all short of staggering. Meanwhile, the ing radicalism to the demands of the battering ram against the would run a mile from any ‘ethnic’ No campaign routinely claim, ‘But the same Labour Party who squan - Union’s ideological stranglehold, basis to the movement. Their promi - your relatives will be foreign!’ as dered our trust the last time and creating space in which the SNP nence means that this element is though foreigners are automatically who have committed to further could operate. Increasingly, how - simply not there or is fading under a bad thing. Small wonder that the austerity measures. This, somehow, ever, the extant ‘nationalist’ ele - pressure from the true face of Scot - neo-fascist BNP, EDL and SDL, as is ‘solidarity’. To want a better fu - ments of Yes have given way to land’s future: a republican, demo - well the xenophobic UKIP – while ture is ‘nationalism’. The inde - those of socialism. The most influ - cratic socialism. not formally aligned with Better To - pendence movement is not about ential groups in a grassroots Up and down the land, every gether – are also campaigning ethnicity, no matter how much the movement which now dwarfs night of the week, community cen - against independence. Unionists wish it to be. It’s so much both the SNP and the ‘official’ Yes tres, church halls, pubs and school British nationalists (for that is bigger than that. The knowledge of campaign are Radical Independ - assemblies are full of citizens – what we face) all come draped in that fact, and panic about our grow - ence, Labour for Independence, many of whom have never been po - the triumphalism of the Union Jack, ing size, success and determination, the Common Weal Project and, of litical in their lives – waking from with its sordid, imperialist history. is why the No campaign are so des - course, the Scottish Socialist their slumber to engage with radical They bizarrely seem to regard perate to reduce us to ‘Braveheart’ Party, all far further to the left than plans for the transformation of Scot - worker ‘solidarity’ as being, by def - stereotypes. Don’t let them fool any of the mainstream parties. land. This is an unprecedented inition, whatever lies within the or - you anymore. Come with us.

Serious left voices To subscribe to the Scottish Socialist Voice – newspaper of the Scottish Socialist Add to this the serious left-wing Party – fill in this form and send it to: Scottish Socialist Voice, Suite 370, 4th Floor, voices of Dennis Canavan, Lesley Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. Or telephone: 07810205747 Riddoch, Jim Sillars, Gerry Hassan, Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to ‘Scottish Socialist Voice’ Ian Bell, Ruth Wishart and Tommy Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice & Twitter: @ssv_voice Brennan, as well as the international View Voice PDFs at: scottishsocialistparty.org/category/socialist-voice backing of socialist-anarchist giants Name...... like Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and Billy Bragg. Address...... Other pro-Yes groups such as the ...... Green Party and Women for Inde - Phone...... pendence are not explicitly socialist, but neither are they hostile to our Email...... ideas. Even Business for Independ - I enclose: g £5 for 2 issues g £10 for 4 issues g £20 for 8 issues ence, whose name speaks for itself,

issue 437 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 5 ENVIRONMENT by Roz Paterson

THE LATEST report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli - Climate crisis: i t’s time to mate Change (IPCC), published on 31 March, adopts a rather milder tone than that of its 2007 predecessor. The work of hun - look at socialist sohamlstruung tefifoorts nto es ffect dreds of climate change scien - change. We could, for instance, tists, who sifted through some start investing heavily in sustain - 12,000 peer-reviewed papers, the able energies, such as wave final report suggests that there is power and biomass, ideal for a time to act, that we must work to land surrounded by sea and rich ‘curb’ the worst effects of global in forestry. We must, urgently, warming, that we should view it face up to a post-hydrocarbon fu - as a ‘risk management’ project, ture, without petrol pumps and with a view to costs and effective private cars, petro-chemical fer - use of resources. tilisers and disposable plastics. It Such measured, almost corpo - needn’t be an apocalypse; in fact, rate-speak may seem hardly ap - it could be a bright future, with propriate given the drastic people pulling together and im - climatic developments afoot, plementing collective solutions. from the stinking water gushing How about Free Public Trans - into homes in the Somerset Lev - port? Where the public transport els this winter to the wildfires FLOODS: half of Bangladesh’s productive land could end up underwater networks are taken into public that raged across California to ownership and everyone uses the rising tides now driving methane, a much more trouble - away. And this, perhaps, is where them, because they are free, thus Bangladeshi coastal communi - some greenhouse gas than car - they hope to hit home, and to un - reducing traffic, fatal road acci - ties inland to... Surely we should bon dioxide, through intensive settle our complacency. And the dents, emissions and personal fi - be screaming from the rooftops, animal farming and food waste, timing could not be bettered. nancial outlay. This already with one of those homemade amongst other things. This year, we’ve seen tens of works, in Hasselt in Belgium, banners proclaiming ‘SOS, our The sea is now rising 3mm per thousands of homes in the UK, and in San Francisco. It could planet is drowning!’? year, an increase on the 1.46mm including some of wealthiest work in Scotland. annual average that held true parts of the UK, cut off for weeks In your hands from 1870 to 2004, due to the because of flooding. Sure, Public ownership Actually, maybe the IPCC are melting of the Arctic ice-sheet George Eliot closes The Mill on How about taking the energy on to a good thing here. The and thermal expansion, due to the Floss with a graphic and dev - utilities into public ownership, so apocalyptic language so beloved the fact that warmer water in - astating description of a flood in that instead of being driven for of climate change catastrophists creases in volume. For low-lying Lincolnshire, but it was a rarity profit, and by its very nature en - does not, it seems, produce much Bangladesh, this means that by then, an occasional instance of couraging excessive use of elec - by way of results. 2080, around 40 per cent of its Nature baring her teeth, not a de - tricity and gas, and therefore Being told you are doomed productive land could be either veloping trend, as it is now. And waste, the drive is for efficiency, and that even living in a tent underwater or hopelessly con - with the floodwater, the chaos, and reduced usage? whilst subsisting on dandelion taminated by it, as could much of came the bewilderment; how How about subsidies for local leaves and ditchwater will only the fresh drinking water supply. could it come to this? How could economies, keeping the high make it slightly less hellish is For the Netherlands, this could they let it happen? Ignorance is street alive, thereby reducing the hardly a motivator for change. mean that the centuries-old sys - not bliss, that’s for sure. traffic to out-of-town supermar - Being told you may not be tem of dykes and flood defences But there is ‘still time’ and this kets and increasing the viability doomed, that the future is in your could require a re-think. “The is an important message. Those of local food networks, thus cut - hands, that there is time to act feeling of safety is so strong in stultifying talks at the head table ting food miles? and salvage much – is. the Netherlands that this seems to of the G8 may seem a world We don’t want to see Not that the IPCC is airbrush - be no subject for discussion at away, as do the wave of suicides Bangladesh underwater, Italy ing over the facts. The report ac - all,” notes Frank van der Meulen, of Gujarat subsistence farmers, turned into a desert, the Amazon knowledges, nay, spells out, the an expert working with the wiped out by 33 failed monsoons rainforest engulfed in flames, the impacts of climate change al - Coastal Zone Management Cen - in 50 years, but we have time to African interior rendered unin - ready in evidence, due to our tre, based in the Netherlands, as act and there is much we can do. habitable. We probably don’t continuing dependence on fossil quoted by Germanwatch. An independent Scotland gives even want to think about that. So fuels, the ongoing destruction of The IPCC is quite clear that us great scope to turn the page on let’s think about something else forests, and other human activity, climate change will affect more much of the vested interest and – what we can do now, while such as the production of than just poor people, living far back-slapping networks that have there’s still time.

6 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 437 JOHN FINNIE MSP by John Finnie MSP

BIRDS OF prey have been killed in great numbers – 22 at WHAT LIES BEHIND THE the latest count; there’s even been ‘a demonstration in Inver - ness’ and Police Scotland has MOUNTING TOLL OF BIRDS mounted a large scale opera - tion. What’s it all about? Whilst it may surprise urban eyes, there’s very little ‘wilder - OF PREY IN THE HIGHjobL anAd yoNu loDse ySour h? ome ness’ in the Highlands and Is - too! I am aware of the pressure lands. Few places have gamekeepers feel to ‘have a escaped human intervention. good season’ i.e. lots of birds After the Battle of Culloden the for the ‘guests’ to shoot. Does Lairds drove their loyal kin folk this explain what would drive off the land and replaced them someone to act in such an irre - by sheep and sporting estates. sponsible manner? Until relatively recent times, Now, I have no idea who is many of those estates em - responsible for the recent spate ployed large numbers of staff. of raptor deaths in Ross-shire. Where I grew up in Lochaber In recent years most raptor the estate had a dairy herd, deaths were associated with many tens of thousands of upland grouse moors. Grouse sheep. It was an enormous cannot be hand-reared from tract of land which required cat - eggs like pheasants so the em - tlemen, shepherds, joiners, me - ployee pressures are arguably chanics, lorry drivers, gillies, RAPTOR DEATHS: Golden Eagle found poisoned on Beinn Udlaidh in 2009 greater. I do know that the stalkers and gamekeepers. many red kites, with their dis - As now, the gamekeepers’ traps, set indiscriminately sure that is the case, however, tinctive fanned tail, are missed efforts were directed to rearing about the area – bad news for it does illustrate the tensions by local communities familiar pheasants. Hatching pheasant domestic cats and dogs – and, that understandably exist, the with their graceful hovering. eggs and feeding and nurturing by snares set with little care loss of one lamb to a crofter the chicks until such times as and checked for wounded with a handful of sheep is sig - Rural poverty the Laird’s heavily-tweeded trapped creatures with even nificant. I have seen suggestions that ‘guests’, ‘came up’ to shoot the less care. Fishing is another lucrative the Scottish Government unfortunate birds. Estates have changed a lot source of income for estates should licence shooting es - since I was a boy and hopefully which can charge hundreds of tates. Clearly, that’s one option Predators those cruel ‘gamekeeping’ pounds a day. I know a senior although my preference would Nature note: Crows, rats, practices are a thing of the past. legal figure who, only when I be greater community or public weasels and stoats like eggs. Estates no longer employ large enquired, told me of the death ownership. Wild cats, pine martins and numbers preferring the flexible of his young dog which always It’s been said that land-own - foxes like chicks and adult worker able to tend livestock, accompanied him fishing. ership in the Highlands is ‘un - birds. Birds of prey; eagles, do fencing and service the The loss of the dog was ‘ac - finished business’ and I agree. buzzards, hawks, falcons and sporting side of the business. cepted’ as being the result of it The days of the Highlands and harriers like eggs, chicks and What has certainly changed eating poisoned ‘bait’ left by a Islands being the sporting play - adult birds. Men like to shoot is concerted efforts to reintro - river side. When I asked what ground for the UK and other na - and kill ‘ground game.’ duce persecuted species such he’d done about it I was told tion’s elites must end. Now the pheasants’ natural as the red kite and the sea- zero. He’d no wish to ‘cause Rural poverty and a shortage predators pose a threat to the eagle. any bother’ to the estate where of housing make many jobs, ultimate number of adult birds Now sea-eagles ‘take the oc - he got ‘good fishing’. I think lay - and perhaps the intolerable which may survive to be shot casional lamb’ and in the ing down poisonous bait is a terms and conditions attached, and, by default, a threat to the process incur the wrath of reckless act which should be attractive and both require deci - livelihood of the gamekeeper. farmer and crofter alike. Re - punished severely. sive government actions to sort. As in the factory, country-side cently, an Islay crofter, unim - Estate employees, like most The irresponsible individual employees with poor ‘produc - pressed by the scientists rural workers, are not well paid. or individuals responsible for tion’ levels will not be tolerated. commending the sea eagle’s They do often have a ‘tied’ these cowardly poisonings Those predators must be return, suggested the eagles house and may receive other must be brought to court be - killed – no exceptions! And took lambs ‘because no one perks like use of a vehicle and cause environmental and social killed they were. By vicious gin taught them how to fish!’ I’m not access to firewood. Lose your justice go hand in hand.

issue 437 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 7 WORKPLACE • Continued from front page naked collaboration between rich”, whilst poverty stalked the land Workers and socialists in Scot - But this year sees an added layer Labour leaders and the Tories, for millions. Not to even mention land have nothing in common with of hypocrisy from Labour politi - with Brown most recently using the wars, or Trident. the Brian Soutars of this world, any cians, as they do their damnedest to the toxic, Tory-funded Better To - And Ed Miliband has made it more than with the Richard Bran - block democratic self-government gether to tell us we will get ‘social plain a Labour government – even sons. Both make a fortune out of the for the working class majority pop - justice with Labour by voting if we assume they’re elected in privatisation of transport by succes - ulation of Scotland. against independence’. 2015, which is far from certain – sive Tory and Labour governments. The Better Together fear factory Only victims of extreme amnesia will stick to Tory public spending And we have everything in is funded by Tories and Tory-sup - could fall for that line. Remember cuts; backed the Tory cap on bene - common with bus drivers or rail - porting big business tycoons. the ‘social justice’ we enjoyed fits but refuses to cap private land - way workers, regardless of £1.3million was donated to them by under Brown, Blair and Alastair lords’ rents; will not renationalise whether they’re from Perth or 19 such multi-millionaires on the Darling’s Labour governments of even the railways or Royal Mail, let Poole, Lothians or Liverpool, the eve of Xmas – hoping it was a good 1997-2010?! alone the rip-off energy companies south west of Scotland or the south time to bury bad news! Rampant privatisation, including or the banks; and has absolutely no west of England. The exposure of CBI Scotland as attempts to sell off Royal Mail; the intention of repealing the vicious But since when did the unity and open funders and advocates of con - worst levels of inequality since anti-union laws. class solidarity of workers ever de - tinued misrule by Westminster rein - 1863; announcement of 100,000 pend on the permission, let alone the forces the message: the chief civil service job losses; successive Weasel words encouragement, of Westminster exploiters and enemies of workers’ assaults on benefits; introduction of They use weasel words about governments – whether Tory or in - rights and socialism are at the heart student tuition fees that exclude stopping exploitation under zero deed Labour? When the Tories im - of opposing Scottish self-rule. working class people from higher hours contracts, but point blank re - posed the hated Poll Tax 25 years But they need to subcontract out education; wholesale school clo - fuse to abolish them. So voting No ago – where ‘a dustman paid the their dirty work to Labour to have sures to cut costs at kids’ expense; to democratic control over who gov - same as a duke’ – they didn’t seem any chance of fooling enough threats to jail Glasgow City Council erns Scotland and then praying for a to think we were ‘Better Together”: working people into voting No. strike leaders by the Labour council; Labour government at Westminster they imposed it a year earlier in That’s why ‘United With Labour’ a government – in the exact words that offers social justice is black Scotland, in a crude attempt to di - was set up, fronted by the likes of of one of its central leaders, Peter comedy, a sick joke. vide and conquer. Gordon Brown. That fig leaf has Mandelson – that was “intensely re - But the most insulting lie peddled Did working class people wait for been blown away, exposing the laxed about people getting filthy by Labour leaders – one which their permission from Westminster to re - Tory pals know they couldn’t get volt against the Tory tax? Or for away with uttering – is that inde - leadership by Westminster Labour pendence threatens the unity and sol - MPs, most of whom whinged about idarity of the working class and their its unfairness but told us there was trade unions. The theme that workers nothing we could do to defeat it? in Scotland have far more in com - No, working class people, often led mon with a dustman in London or by those of us who ten years later Liverpool than with a duke in Scot - went on to create the SSP, organised land. Those of us campaigning as so - a mass rebellion that eventually top - cialists and trade unionists for pled Thatcher as well as her tax. independence welcome lectures on And those of us living in England The Executive Committee workers’ unity and solidarity from at the time didn’t sit back and ignore of the Scottish Socialist Labour politicians a lot less than the the battles being waged by Scottish proverbial Grannies welcome tuto - working class communities during Party extends May Day rials on the art of sucking eggs! the year when it only applied to greetings to all our friends and comrades, May Day greetings from both in Scotland and SSP Renfrewshire branch internationally. Scrap Trident, say no to NATO and remove WMDs from the Clyde. Struggle, solidarity and Scottish independence socialism. International socialism

8 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 437 WORKPLACE UK! How explain the more recent membership. Those of us who are internationalism of the cream of trade unionists in the SSP have con - the Scottish working class in sup - sistently argued for democratic port of South African workers and Scottish conferences of elected youth defying bloodthirsty union representatives to decide on apartheid? Or with Chilean work - issues within Scotland. But simulta - ers slaughtered by the fascist neously we have advocated demo - Pinochet regime in 1973 – a gov - cratic meetings of elected shop ernment first recognized by West - stewards or union reps across na - minster’s Tory regime? Or for tional boundaries within the same Danish bus workers, Belfast car services or multinational employers. workers or Nigerian journalists – That would strengthen solidarity, each of whom I and others built concretely, as well as being a huge solidarity for in Scotland? boost to members’ democratic con - trol of their own unions. Within an Genuine solidarity independent Scotland we will fight Genuine workers’ solidarity has for socialist change – progressive never stopped at Dover, let alone taxation of big business and the rich; Gretna Green. And it has never democratic public ownership of all been dependent on the permission, services, banks, energy, construc - let alone the support, of ANY West - tion, transport and big industry. minster governments, whether Tory We will argue for majority control or indeed Labour. On the contrary, by working class people in the run - successive Westminster regimes – ning of these industries and services including those never voted for by – a model that workers outside Scot - a Scottish majority – did their land would be inspired to emulate. damnedest to divide and defeat workers’ struggles. Socialist force To name but one example: they And we will champion genuine privatised and broke up the railways workers’ solidarity, not just with our PEOPLE NOT PROFIT: unlike Labour, we want the rich pay their fair share into dozens of separate companies nearest neighbours, but also far be - PHOTO: Simon Whittle doing the same work. Combined yond the boundaries of this island – Scotland. We built solidarity with striking Tameside care workers, or with anti-union laws banning so- including through elected interna - the Scottish working class; for in - victimised Bristol civil servants? called secondary action – in other tional shop stewards’ meetings. stance I organised a contingent of If they’d taken part they would words, solidarity action! – this was Scottish independence would speed 1,000 people from Merseyside to have found not a single worker in used to legally ban railway workers up the prospects of radical improve - the first big Glasgow anti-Poll Tax Scotland spurned the appeal for sol - doing the same jobs on the same ments to the lives of working class demo. And we learnt from the expe - idarity on the grounds these workers tracks from taking action together people – provided we build a pow - riences of the Scots, inspired by their were English. And why would that against victimisation, pay cuts or erful socialist force – and thereby as - defiance, spreading the mass non- powerful instinct for solidarity with worsened conditions. sist workers in other countries. payment campaign to 18 million fellow workers, regardless of na - Too many trade union leaders And a final promise: unlike people. Workers’ unity and solidar - tionality or ethnicity, suddenly van - confuse workers’ unity and solidar - Labour politicians, we will commit ity was neither dependent on West - ish once the Scottish working class ity with their own centralised power to this all year round, not just once a minster nor the Labour leadership, majority won self-government? over the union, its decisions and its year in May Day speeches! and crossed the borders of Scotland, Is Johann Lamont about to tell us England and Wales. Why would it they will be ‘genetically re-pro - be any different when Scottish grammed’ to become petty, narrow May Day greetings from working class people won self-rule nationalists, against workers from and insisted on radical social and other countries? Too many Labour Cumbernauld & Kilsyth economic change? Surely English loyalists at the tops of the trade union workers would demand ‘some of movement ape these arguments that Trades Council the same’, encouraged to defy and independence, an end to rule by the defeat the dictatorship of the Tories UK Westminster elite, would wreck and the dictatorship of capital? workers’ solidarity. How then do Vote Yes – Where were Labour’s bogus they explain the rich traditions of evangels of workers’ solidarity Scottish workers trekking across the Forward to an when those of us who founded the Pyrenees in the 1930s to fight along - SSP organised workplace solidarity side Spanish workers against independent tours across Scotland for the 500 Franco’s fascist dictatorship? locked-out Liverpool dockers, or Spain has never been part of the socialist Scotland

issue 437 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 9 COLIN FOX SSP national spokesman Colin Fox has been invited to address the Oxford Union next week on the motion ‘This House believes Scotland should SworkinSg class Pand the pFoor thOan XThe N oA side suTggest s sOupport -XandF withO no morRe workiD ng class be an Independent it is amongst the wealthy. ing the democratic rights of na - kids being sent to die in illegal country’. His invitation And I bring news to the Oxford tions like Scotland to wars. Those days are over. gives the SSP the chance Union that the sons and daughters self-determination makes you a These are objectives working to take our case for an of Britain’s privileged elite will nationalist. It doesn’t. It makes class people throughout these independent socialist not be the biggest beneficiaries of you a democrat. Scotland is a na - isles support – despite Labours Scotland to students at Scottish independence. No, tion, a country. We are not a re - attacks on such values – and Britain’s elite university. working class Scots stand to gain gion or province of anywhere their achievement in Scotland He gave the Voice a most as Scotland’s wealth is dis - else, not Britain and certainly not will benefit all of us. preview of his speech tributed far more equitably to en - England. We are therefore enti - Campaigning on the high sure the appalling inequalities tled to the same rights to self-de - streets of Scotland, as I do every by Colin Fox that destroy the life chances of so termination that all 260 other week, and speaking to people at many are eradicated. nations in the world enjoy. Yes public meetings across the WITH THE independence ref - There are thousands of young - Labour opponents of inde - country, as I do three or four erendum just five months away sters in Scotland bright enough to pendence put forward the view times a week now, I sense a dra - and the polls now showing that earn a degree at Oxford but who that it means abandoning the matic groundswell of support the contest is neck and neck, will never get the chance. One in working class in the rest of these that was simply not there six Scotland is gripped by this de - three children in Scotland’s isles to ‘permanent Tory rule’. months ago. bate in a way never seen before. biggest city live in poverty. We This is an argument George Gal - The same polls used to show suffer sickening inequalities loway and Douglas Alexander Indy youth a double-digit lead for the No under Westminster rule that lead foolishly present. (Mind you, It is noticeable how young campaign, not any more. That is to such profound unfairness, and their concern for working class Scots are much more inclined to - because support for independ - our top priority in September is solidarity is rather undermined wards independence. This is a ence is far higher amongst the to bring that to an end. by lining up alongside the To - generation that no longer consid - ries, the Lib Dems and UKIP in ers itself British nor considers this debate.) Westminster relevant to them. The electoral facts show that I will tell the students of Ox - The East Kilbride Scottish seats seldom decide ford University that we are going branch of the Westminster general elections as to win this referendum in Sep - they infer. Tony Blair’s three tember not least because Yes Scottish Socialist general election victories for ex - Scotland, with the Scottish So - ample would still have been won cialist Party’s help, has struck a Party sends May Day without a single seat going to chord in this debate. greetings to all Labour in Scotland. He had a A Yes vote will mean working 168-seat majority in 1997 when class Scots will be better off – workers in struggle there were only 72 Scottish economically better off, socially MP’s [56 of them Labour]. better off and politically better across the globe. off. It is not only a vote for inde - Leading the fight pendence it is a vote against the “The great only Moreover with independence, neoliberal, warmongering phi - Scotland will again be leading losophy of Westminster, White - appear great the fight for ‘social justice’ in hall, the Bank of England and these isles not abandoning it. the City of London. because we are on We will be leading the way to We shall win a famous victory a social democratic nation with on 18 September because we our knees. public ownership preferred over have also built the biggest and privatisation, wealth redistribu - most extensive grassroots polit - “Let us rise.” tion from the rich to the poor not ical campaign Scotland has seen the other way round, higher since the anti-Poll Tax move - taxes for the better off, peace- ment 25 years ago. The British For international mongering not warmongering, ruling classes lost that battle and solidarity and scrapping Trident, refusing to they will lose this one too. On blame claimants and immigrants the other hand, working class socialism for an economic and social crisis people throughout these isles that was caused by the bankers stand to gain enormously.

10 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 437 CULTURE Book review – Settling Scores: the Media, the Police and the Miners’ Strike. Edited by Granville Miners’ strike: major truths Williams . Published by I say timely for two political inventory has the Campaign for Press reasons, one the present lessons for political activists and Broadcasting enquiry into Hillsborough of the left and for all trade Freedom which involves the South unionists today. Yorkshire Police whose Prospero in Shakespere’s by Davy Miller activities during the strike The Tempest says “full occupy a large section of the fathom five I’ll drown my “The God of our idolatry – the book and two because of the book!” But not this one – this press, thou fountain, at which recent announcement of the one stays on the shelf and drink the good and wise thou impending closure of the last should be on the shelf of all ever bubbling spring of end - deep mine in Britain. those who fear right wing less lies, like Eden’s dead pro - All industries will at some repressive governments who bationary tree knowledge of time die and will be replaced, will send in their media and good and evil is from thee.” otherwise we would still have state thugs, as Lorca said of a National Union of Arrow Franco’s civil guards, “in a The above quote from Makers or a National in the strike there are few whirlwind of scissors”. William Cowper is Association of Stage Coach surprises here but chapter and Highly recommended. appropriate with reference to Builders. verse is provided in this book for it is produced But there is a world of comprehensive detail about the • To purchase a copy, ring mainly by journalists in an difference between dying and activities and behaviour of 07729 846146 or send £8.50 attempt (and a timely one) to being murdered which is press, police, leading (incl P&P) to ‘Settling Scores’ redress to some degree, the what has happened to the politicians and even the CPBF, 23 Orford Road, avalanche of lies and mining industry and which judiciary, all draconian in Walthamstow, London E17 distortions to which the public has, in most areas been carrying out a right wing 9NL. Cheques payable to the were subjected during and replaced by nothing. political agenda. CPBF, or buy online at after the miners’ strike. To those who were involved This comprehensive cpbf.org.uk

SCOTLAND No. 2 BRANCH CWU Scotland no.2 branch sends socialist greetings to workers across the world. We call on all workers to vote Yes in the Scottish independence referendum, and build a new Scotland based on need and not greed. Forward to a socialist Scotland

issue 437 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 11 WOMEN FOR INDEPENDENCE by

AS USUAL Cameron got it very wrong with his announcement that Jesus created the Big Society. He didn’t – women did. We are the backbone of society, contribute so much in so many ways but unfortu - nately our contributions are some - times not recognised. Despite some advancements being made in regard to gender equality, there are some roles that are traditionally seen as “women’s work”. These include childcare and caring. Most of us have done a full’s INDEPENDENCE FOR WOMEN: women’s voices must be heard PHOTO: Craig Maclean day work already before we arrive at our paid employment. As austerity cuts gnaw at essential services, it is we women who are LET’S CELEBRATE WHAT WOMEN DO there to ensure that daily life contin - community care as women usually ence campaigns is seeing so many party activists it will include the anti- ues while we do more and more. exhausted, providing care for others. women becoming more involved in Trident demonstrators, the women Women are bearing the brunts of the That is probably the view of most politics. Our passion and enthusiasm who use food banks, the women cuts. It is the only time the Con - politicians who know we won’t will be the key to winning a Yes vote who are campaigning against the Dems have put us first; right in the walk away from those we care for. by reaching out to the many women cuts, the women who nurse a sick firing line. As we approach May Day, we who are sill undecided. child with only care and compassion must be mindful of women in work It has been so wonderful to see so in their hearts. Benefit cuts impact whose rights are being eroded. It is many women in our own party be This has the potential to be a vi - The welfare committee heard ev - a good time to be a boss and be able part of the Yes campaign and speak brant, colourful women’s debate. I idence of the impact of benefit cuts to make your workforce agree to at the events we have organised as a hope this is realised and does not be - on women and those they care for. zero hour contracts. These are also party. There are some changes that come just a token gesture. A woman in Fife who walked nine happening in the public sector, with could encourage women. I have The independence debate has miles to get to a food bank. Women nurses a target. only been on one panel with equal given women more voices and a who after their adult children who The head of the Royal College of gender representation. I know some space to grow and feel they have a have learning difficulties have been Nursing called for an end to zero may say that women should be only right to their viewpoint. For the found fit to work, find they are no hour contracts. Workers have a right there on merit but how can we de - many women who speak it is not longer entitled to carers allowance. to ask for flexibility in their work but velop our skills without being given just about the party politics but a They still have to provide care but these contracts have put an end to the opportunities to practice? wider movement of women. are called “volunteers” by the appa - this. Woman make up the majority This has the potential to change ratus of the welfare state even of part time workers too and are Fairer society Scottish politics forever. Winning though their children still require a often passed over for promotions. The meetings I have mostly at - independence is just the start, then high deal of support in all their daily Still we contribute so much. One tended have been in the evenings the hard work begins of creating the lives. Barbara Taylor the feminist of the pleasures of speaking for the when women can’t go due to fam - kind of Scotland we can only dream historian in her memoir describes Yes SSP and Women For Independ - ily and caring commitments. We about at the moment. bring to the independence debate a Women will be partners in this – different perspective to the every not just left behind with a cursory May Day greetings from day issues that have the potential to ‘thanks’. We will be there, writing create an independent Scotland that the constitution, being decision Cumbernauld & Kilsyth will be better for not only women makers, and a better place Scotland but all of us. Women on the left are will be for it. Women – encourage Scottish Socialist Party finding their visions of a peaceful your sisters with positivity and Scotland, a fairer society, are being praise and let’s rewrite the history listened to and being shared by books. When future generations For independence more and more people. look back at this exciting time, let’s The Scottish Government has an - hope it will be as Scottish HERstory. for socialism nounced a women-only Scottish There are still many barriers cabinet event to debate indy refer - which people do not even realise are for internationalism endum-related issues. I hope it will there but our voices are powerful be representative of all women all and must be heard. It’s time for us to – say YES in September over Scotland, and that as well as take centre stage.

12 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 437 NEOLIBERALISM by

FOLLOWING THE 1945 Crash and burn capitalism is the general election, the Labour gov - ernment initiated a range of so - cial and economic reforms which reality beyond neoliberal promises transformed British society. companies making millions of Key industries were brought short to midterm decisions it has into public ownership, turning no sense of its collective self-in - Britain into a mixed economy. terest. The economic crash of New national institutions such as 2008 was a good example. the Health Service where Leading up to it almost all cap - launched. The education system italists saw what the problem was reformed to allow greater was but, driven by their own nar - working class access to higher row self-interest, where power - education while the reduction of less to act. Only massive state poverty and inequality became a intervention saved the day. central part of government policy. THE GURU: Milton Secondly, all modern capital - The welfare state and social Friedman had his fans ist economies survive because security systems were massively in both the UK and the they exist within an infrastruc - US’s corridors of power expanded while the pursuit of full ture provided by the state. This employment became a key goal. rounded on successive Conser - The first are high levels of tax - includes everything from the It was all very radical, although vative governments for presiding ation which take money out of transport network to the energy this radicalism needs to be put over this process and declared the pockets of business and con - system; the health system to the into context. that the central aim of any forth - sumers. The solution, slash education system. Without Most of these measures en - coming Tory government was to taxes to the bone which will these no modern economy joyed a consensus across the restore capitalism to health by re - boost the profits of companies al - could function and these only political spectrum and would versing as many of these reforms lowing them to invest more and develop through massive long have been implemented even if as possible. It was a project en - put more money into the pockets term state investment. the Conservatives had won the thusiastically carried out by the of consumers allowing them to Thirdly, all the evidence is that election – eg, the Conservatives Thatcher government. buy more. an economic system based on supported almost all the nation - Neoliberalism is the principles Second, high levels of public neoliberalism creates a society alisation proposals. of 19th century free market eco - expenditure represent unproduc - which is unequal, fragmented nomics applied to modern capi - tive capital; in effect dead money. and lacking any kind of moral Reversing reforms talism. It is based on a simple The money being spent by the framework. The social, eco - The guru of modern neoliberal idea. Capitalism is inherently a state in welfare, health and edu - nomic, environmental and cul - thinking, Milton Friedman, in ad - productive and dynamic eco - cation would be better poured tural costs for society are beyond dressing a meeting of Conserva - nomic system the natural ten - into productive areas of the econ - measure. tive politicians in the 1970s, dency of which is towards growth, omy; promoting growth. This new described this post war period as innovation and self-regulation. If growth along with increased dis - Depression an ‘historic defeat for capitalism’ it is failing to do these things it is posable income created by tax The first neoliberal project was and was scathing in his critique because governments are putting cuts would allow individuals to scrapped after the longest reces - of the social and economic sys - barriers in its place; restraining it. buy these services based on an sion in history at the end of the tem it created. He particularly What are these barriers? assessment of their own needs. 19th century leading to the First Third, scrap regulations and World War. The second was May Day greetings from controls on economic activity. scrapped in 1945 after the de - These are simply barriers to pro - pression of the 1930s leading to Fife Scottish Socialist Party ductive activity and restrict the Second World War. The third growth. came to an end after the eco - In other words slash public nomic crash of 2008. spending, use the savings for tax In each case it took massive reductions, end regulation and state intervention to save the set the system free. system from itself. The fact that It is all nonsense, of course is now being revised again by and fails to address three key is - both the Conservative and sues. The first is that self-evi - Labour Parties is because they dently the tendency of capitalism can now envisage no alternative All out for a Yes vote! is not towards self-regulation. within the system. To break with For a Scottish socialist republic! It is to crash and burn. Because neoliberalism now means to capitalism involves thousands of break with capitalism itself.

issue 437 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 13 INTERNATIONAL • continued from back page Degrees notes: “Investing in unconventional gas now will lock us into dangerously high Amnesty accuses US Govt greenhouse gas emissions and make it extremely difficult to meet our legally binding car - bon reduction targets in 2050.” of ‘stacking the case’ What is needed instead is increased energy efficiency, measures to promote conser - against the Cuban Five vation and more investment in by Voice reporter both the defence and Amnesty Sections to bring this the renewables sector. prosecution in equal measure, report to their attention and However, even SEPA, which AMNESTY International mean that in the view of urging them to coordinate does not fundamentally op - (AI), the worldwide Human Amnesty International the campaigning initiatives for the pose UG, has said that it could Rights organisation, has Five could not receive a ‘fair immediate release of the lead to delays in the pro - accused the US Government trial’. remaining prisoners, Gerardo gramme to convert to renew - of ‘stacking’ the case against Hernandez, Ramón Labañino able energy sources, causing the Cuban Five. The Cuban ‘Manifest injustice’ and Antonio Guerrero. a delay in the reduction of Five are five Cuban men The right to a fair trial is a Amnesty International gave greenhouse gas releases and arrested in Miami in 1998 fundamental principle under the formal presentation to the the decarbonisation of the en - while attempting to stop international law which makes London International ergy sector. terrorist attacks against the clear that a trial must not only Commission of Inquiry into As the campaign group 38 Cuban people. be fair but must be seen to be the case of the Cuban Five in Degrees notes: “Investing in The AI report spotlights US fair. It is guaranteed under March alongside presentations unconventional gas now will Government intervention in Article 10 of the Universal from almost 20 witnesses lock us into dangerously high the build up and during the Declaration of Human Rights including lawyers, academics greenhouse gas emissions trial of the Five thus ensuring and Article 14 of the ICCPR, a and Cuban Five family and make it extremely difficult a successful prosecution, but key human rights treaty to members. Over 2000 people to meet our legally binding car - at the same time making a fair which the United States itself attended the Commission bon reduction targets in 2050.” trial impossible. is a signatory. In the same events including the Voices for The systematic payment of statement AI calls the double Cuba concert at the Barbican False promise journalists to write stories life sentence for one of the theatre, and over 300 people What is needed instead is affecting the case, the Five, Gerardo Hernández, a from 27 countries participated increased energy efficiency, obstructions on the Five to ‘manifest injustice’. in the International measures to promote conser - obtain legal counsel and the We would encourage all Commission at the Law vation and more investment in fact that procedural and other those interested in this case to Society in the heart of the renewables sector – as is rights were not afforded to contact their local national London’s legal district. already seen in countries like Germany. But this is unlikely to happen May Day greetings from with the Westminster govern - ment scrapping green levies Scottish Socialist Voice and offering tax incentives to the dirty energy companies staff and contributors with the false promise of cheaper energy bills. The SSP calls for the re - The only socialist paper sponsibility for energy to be transferred from Westminster written, edited and to the Scottish Parliament and the wealth of Scottish energy produced in Scotland sources to be brought into public ownership. Only this way can we hope For socialism, to see the full development of these resources in an ecolog - independence and ically sustainable and socially just manner, putting people internationalism and planet before profit.

14 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 437 INTERNATIONAL Paul Robeson Junior died on 26 April 2014. In 2002, he lead the May Day parade in Edinburgh, where the son of the American singer, actor and Robeson junior and political activist of the same name spoke to Colin Fox about his father and about the political senior rememinbgs. A ceollectiron weould bd e taken situation in the USA to provide him with some small income. In 1942 he had earned HALLE BERRY won an Oscar more than $100,000 – by 1952 it in 2002. Malcolm X and Muham - was less than $6,000. mad Ali have had films made Finally allowed the right to about them. Why has no one high - travel, he returned to Britain in lighted Paul Robeson’s contribu - 1960 to a hero’s welcome. A mar - tion? Have they simply forgotten tyr unbowed, he sang to 25,000 him? His son, Paul Robeson Jun - Scottish Miners in Edinburgh’s ior, explained to the Voice: Holyrood Park. “Robeson is an non-person in Paul Robeson Junior, born in the States today. My father’s 1927, was with him throughout. memory petrifies America still. Educated in London and Moscow “The African American middle where his father had prolonged class deny his existence altogether. spells of employment in concert The only black performer who has theatres, he became his father’s ever paid him his due has been manager and close collaborator. Harry Belafonte. He has just written an acclaimed “He rightly said that without the biography of Robeson’s work. pioneering work of Robeson, no PAUL ROBESON JUNIO R: 1927-2014 PHOTO: Craig Maclean While his father was never a one, not Poitier, not Sammy card carrying member of the Com - Davis, not Spike Lee, not Denzil mission to introduce his father to emerges as Robeson the politically munist Party, his son was a leading Washington, not Halle Berry, no new generations. To those who conscious. He became perhaps the figure, serving on the National one could have progressed with - have not heard of Paul Robeson, best known anti-fascist of all after Committee until he left in 1962. out standing on my father’s wide his approach is to try and construct visiting Spain. He was again per - shoulders.” a picture based on people they do haps the highest profile casualty of May Day invite But surely Malcolm X and know. the red baiting witch-hunt in For 40 years an activist in Muhammad Ali were, in their “US kids know nothing about 1950s America. African American politics, he op - time, figures equally hated by the my father. I introduce them to him From being the highest paid poses the “fascist policies of US establishment? And yet they saying ‘take a little bit of Martin singer in America in 1942 (no [George W.] Bush” as his father have been given a largely sympa - [Luther King], a little bit of Mal - small achievement given the racist would have. thetic Hollywood seal of approval. colm [X] and a little of Frederick atmosphere of the time), by the Invited to Scotland by the Edin - Douglas and that should give you end of the 1940s he was denied burgh May Day Committee, Paul Anti-fascist some idea’. work anywhere because of his po - Robeson Junior took time out to “But Robeson is still too hot for “Then add in that this son of an litical sympathies with the left. meet people and to read widely them to handle,” says Robeson escaped slave went on via a highly The authorities withheld his about the political situation here. Junior. “His message is an anti- successful football career to be - passport for eight years following He was enormously impressed fascist, wholly class conscious, come the highest paid singer in the remarks he made at the Paris by the manifesto and approach of African-American and anti-impe - world, and a hugely successful Peace conference of 1948 about the SSP in constructing a class rialist one. All this is too threaten - actor known the world over.” racism in the USA. based mass movement. ing to them. Robeson was one of the first A huge international star, at “Both Marilyn and myself “They dare not allow him a black students to attend university. least as popular in Europe as at have been very encouraged in - voice. Especially today, when Despite many dispiriting encoun - home, he was denied the use of deed by this trip”, he said. America is attempting another im - ters with severe racial abuse there, halls to perform and recording stu - “I found the comrades here in perialist offensive.” he emerged as a law graduate and dios to make records. Scotland very inspiring. The Manic Street Preachers a professional football star. Few others were to pay as high “I wish all the comrades in the 2001 song Let Robeson Sing is a It was when the legal world a price for sticking resolutely to Scottish Socialist Party every welcome exception which blocked his entry that he turned to his anti-imperialist beliefs. success in their work. I know breaches the dam of silence. But it the arts. In travels across Europe He made a meagre living many people in New York who remains Paul Robeson Junior’s in the 1930s, Robeson the artist speaking to union branch meet - will be equally heartened.”

issue 437 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 15 for Socialism, Independence facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice and Internationalism [email protected] Issue 437 2nd –15th May 2014 by Stephanie Pride

THE MAIN part of a public enquiry whose conclusion could set a precedent for the develop - ment of unconventional gas in the UK has concluded with Council opposes Falkirk Council coming out against the plans. Scottish Government Re - porters will now consider over coalbed gas plans three weeks’ worth of evidence into what would be the first commercial coalbed methane development in the country. Dart Energy had submitted a bid to drill 22 wells, a gas deliv - ery and water treatment facility and pipelines on the site at Letham Moss to produce gas for 20 to 25 years, amounting to just 0.02 per cent of annual UK gas consumption. The method involves the re - lease of methane – a highly po - tent greenhouse gas – by pumping water out of coal seams some 3,600 feet below farmland near Airth.

Dirty energy If they get the go-ahead in Falkirk, the decision is likely to set a precedent for the rest of DIRTY GAS PROTEST: Friends of the Earth Scotland join local campaigners outside public enquiry PHOTO: FoE the UK. But if campaigners win, it would be a landmark case in mate change supporters” (sic) tions are to be controlled swer to climate change”, as a the fight against dirty energy. like Friends of the Earth – who properly. As the FoE blogger bridge in our transition to a In a highly critical summing posted an excellent blog of pro - noted: “They can set standards green future. A report to the up, the council’s solicitor Neil ceedings on their website. for the proposed central gas Scottish Parliament echoes this Collar said the company had He also posed locally and water processing facility, view, arguing that, properly con - failed to provide enough infor - sourced unconventional gas as but can’t be sure they can con - trolled, “indigenous onshore mation to support its claims that the only alternative to imported trol what happens at the well - production would allow the UK the environment and commu - gas from sources such as frack - heads and along the pipelines. to control the emissions better nity life would not be at risk from ing in the US – as already “No current powers let them rather than off-shoring them, the underground works. planned for Grangemouth at take action if methane is found contribute to energy security, Mr Collar said that despite huge expense and with the sup - leaking through the soil. and maintain tax revenues as assurances from Dart’s experts, port of the Scottish government. “This is all because commer - the North Sea wound down.” the threat to air quality from But claims that the plans for cial-scale coalbed methane is a However, even SEPA, which methane gas leaks remained coalbed methane extraction new industry not envisaged by does not fundamentally oppose an issue and criticised the non- would satisfy Scottish envi - current rules.” UG, has said that it could lead availability of key baseline data ronmental impact regulations to delays in the programme to and testing results. count for little as it emerged Serious problems convert to renewable energy Summing up for the com - that current regulations are Despite the mounting evi - sources, causing a delay in the pany, Gordon Steele QC hurled unclear and the Scottish En - dence of serious environmental reduction of greenhouse gas further insults at opposing ex - vironmental Protection problems with unconventional releases and the decarbonisa - perts, portraying local residents Agency (SEPA) has acknowl - methods of gas extraction, the tion of the energy sector. as gullible, misinformed and led edged change is needed if Westminster government main - As the campaign group 38 astray by “well-intentioned cli - unconventional gas opera - tains that it is “part of the an - • continues on page 14