“People’s manifesto”: Sandra SNP: John McAllion on Webster on the party that’s not what the new wave of afraid to put people before profit MPs can expect • see page 2 • see page 5

£1 • issue 457 • 24th April – 7th May 2015 scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com

Before the election/after the election... INCREASE ACTION AGAINST AUSTERITPHOTO: CYraig Macle an

• £10/hour min. wage NOW • End zero hours contracts • Axe anti-trade union laws ScottishSocialistVoice.wordpress.com /ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice by Sandra Webster, SSP national co-spokesperson

WE SHOULD be proud of our manifesto which is a blueprint A PEOPLEF’EASTURED PHMOTO by CrAaig MaclNean IFESTO for our policies. Policies which visers. A friend with a sick child present our vision of independ - was sanctioned recently as she ence and a statement of intent could not attend her weekly in - that for us independence is terview because her child was only the beginning. ill. This led to her family being af - It truly is a people’s manifesto fected and having to rely on a which puts the interests of hu - food bank. Sanctions don’t only mans before big business. In - affect the individual but punish vesting in people rather than in the whole family. Other reasons global corporations will create a for sanctioning include not ap - more equal society. Trickle plying for 60 jobs a day, or being down economics have been late. We will put an end to this proven not to work in this gov - regime and allow staff to support ernment’s five years in office. people to find work. The rich are getting richer or at Our other policies, such as best holding on to their capital. free public transport and the Social “entrepreneurs” in - building of more council hous - crease their wealth from the ing could have the benefit of misfortune of others’ lives. We creating more work, if these are as socialists have the opportu - brought into public ownership. nity to share another narrative. Imagine a Scotland too Greed isn’t good, despite the where people have access to Thatcherite mantra. Caring for free public transport and where others and a more equal distri - a council house is another op - bution of wealth will create a tion instead of private renting. more compassionate society. At the moment, Housing Benefit is nothing more than People before profit MANIFESTO : to get yours, phone 07810205747 or see the SSP website rich landlord’s subsidy going That is why I am proud that into the pockets of those who our manifesto is not ashamed Our policy of ‘£10-an-hour care for them. Despite listening least need it. Housing Benefit to put people before profit. No now’ will take thousands out of to carers and the promise of the paid into the public sector will other party has said they will poverty not in some distant Smith Commission in devolving support an ongoing programme protect the most vulnerable. utopian state like a carrot dan - disability benefits to Scotland, of building more social housing. While other parties pledge to gling before us but immediately. the best the SNP could come continue austerity and only We will also reach out to car - up with is increasing Carer’s Al - People’s election reach out to “hard working fam - ers, ensuring they have the lowance in line with Jobseeker’s These are a few highlights of ilies” we recognise that what - same opportunities. This will Allowance. The SSP is also the the manifesto. A people’s man - ever unit you live in, you want transform the lives of people only party that is critical of exist - ifesto for what I hope will be a the best for those you care for. with disabilities and those who ing Self Directed Support which people’s election. It was written has created a postcode lottery not by political mandarins but throughout Scotland. by people with experience in Individuals face real hardship, life. We are not poverty-tourists having to pay the “care tax” but a party who will always put To subscribe, see: scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com or fill in this form which means a certain amount people before profit. and send it to: SSV, Suite 370, Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Glasgow being taken off care benefits at As a candidate in the Gen - G2 6LD. Phone: 07810205747. Cheques payable to ‘’ source before an individual re - eral Election, I see it as ammu - ceives a personal budget. This nition and the chance to show Name...... has led to increased poverty we are different from the other Address...... among people with disabilities. parties. During the indyref, we ...... We also acknowledge that the moved politics to the left, and current welfare system is unfair this process will continue dur - Phone...... and unfit for purpose. Civil ser - ing this election and those that Email...... vants are expected to stick to follow. I’m proud of this mani - g £5 for 2 issues g £10 for 4 issues g £20 for 8 issues targets to enforce benefit sanc - festo and of being able to stand tions rather than their role as ad - with you, comrades.

2 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 457 The more Cameron vilifies the SNP, the more Scots voters flock to the nationalists by Colin Fox, SSP argued the move was unavoid - national co-spokesperson able after their budget was cut by the SNP government. THIS GENERAL Election ap - So, for all Nicola Sturgeon’s pears to be a foregone conclu - opposition to austerity, the SNP sion. The polls all predict another make cuts all the time. Edin - hung Parliament. And the more burgh City Council, run by a David Cameron vilifies the SNP Labour/SNP coalition, last (in order to weaken Miliband’s month voted to cut £30million support) the more Scots voters from services. flock to the nationalists. And their promise to increase The Tories having failed to public spending by 0.5 per cent persuade voters they deserve an - looks ‘progressive’ only be - other term may win the largest cause the other parties want number of seats but it looks like cuts. But a 0.5 per cent increase it will not be enough to govern, is paltry. It means accepting even with the help of their allies ELECTION: socialists ought not to get carried away with SNP propaganda 13.5 per cent of cuts imple - the Liberal Democrats, UKIP mented since 2010 and will do and the Ulster Unionists. suddenly appear from Nicola ents, introduced tuition fees and little to grow the economy. On the other hand, Ed Sturgeon’s handbag. PFI, restricted trade union rights This is the same SNP who Miliband having failed to mo - The neoliberal economic poli - and launched an unforgivable voted for Scotland to join bilise the widespread anger at cies these pro-capitalist parties war on Iraq based on lies and NATO in 2013. They also the ConDem Coalition, and de - share will continue to dominate naked warmongering. But the promised to eradicate fuel spite his ‘pre-election denials’ our lives. None of them are SNP are different it is claimed, poverty in Scotland by 2015 (in that he will not work with Alex about to challenge the corporate they don’t support privatisation of its 2007 manifesto) but that Salmond, seems the most likely elite who run UK PLC and con - the NHS, they don’t make cuts. pledge was abandoned just to form a government involving trol its political institutions. In Edinburgh, construction when it was most needed. Labour, the ever-available Lib The most common experience workers have just begun laying Now Nicola Sturgeon sug - Dems and the SNP. SSP canvassers face on the the foundations for the city’s gests only that she would restore doorstep is listening as people new Sick Children’s Hospital. the Winter Fuel Allowance. Corrupt force vent their contempt for Jim Mur - It will stand alongside the Labour’s ‘triumph’ however phy and the Labour Party. And Royal Infirmary Labour built in Monarchy will be bittersweet in Scotland because the mood is so anti- 2005 using their infamous Pri - And in response to the wide - where their political collapse Labour most will simply not vate Finance Initiative. Whilst spread financial corruption at means the end of the one party hear any criticism of the SNP. Labour’s privatisation was con - Westminster SNP candidates re - state that has dominated this They almost put their hands demned by the SNP, the nation - fuse to match the SSP’s commit - country for 50 years. No one who over their ears when we point out alists are not so keen to tell voters ment to live on the same wage favours progressive political ad - the nationalists’ own record of the Sick Kids they commissioned as those they represent. They vance will mourn it’s passing. austerity at local government and is also privately-owned. also favour the monarchy over a Labour has been a socially con - Holyrood these past few years. The SNP’s record in govern - modern, democratic, republic. servative and politically corrupt The situation reminds me of ment is not something we be - So whilst we rightly celebrate force in Scotland for decades. 1997. New Labour and Tony lieve that should be hidden from the end of Labour’s hegemony in On another important level Blair were seeking election and voters. Scotland, socialists ought not to however this election will the dominant view was ‘we need And neither are their cuts to get carried away with SNP prop - change very little. Working to get rid of the Tories. Nothing pay and conditions of govern - aganda. Nor should they build il - class people will continue to else matters’. Ironically many of ment staff! Last week, PCS lusions in another corporate party suffer regardless of who wins. the same Scottish cheerleaders members at the National Mu - armed with a neoliberal eco - Low wages and Zero Hour for Tony Blair then now advocate seum of Scotland in Edinburgh nomic programme similar to Contracts will not disappear. a ‘SNP landslide to shake up went on strike over manage - New Labour. That message may The chronic shortage of afford - Westminster’. They appear to ment plans to cut thousands of not be popular in Scotland today able, social housing will re - have forgotten what they said in pounds from their wages by but it is important to understand main. Inequalities will continue 1997. That is because Tony withdrawing a long-standing if progress is to be made towards to widen. Opportunities denied Blair—their great messiah—at - weekend allowance for anti-so - the goal of an independent so - working class people will not tacked the benefits of single par - cial hours. NMS management cialist Scotland.

issue 457 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 3 EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson

AS HUNDREDS perish in coffin ships in the Mediterranean, fleeing poverty THE CRUELTY AND GREED and war, the elites running the EU call a meeting. These are the same elites OF WESTMINSTER’S ELITE who last year agreed to scrap the Mare Nostrum rescue operation which saved thousands of refugees on the grounds that having lifesaving services on call would act as an incentive for more refugees to try and escape. In that one statement the cold callousness of the supposed humanitarians in both the Westminster and Brussels elites is laid bare, exposing the utter hypocrisy behind their brave talk of human rights, freedom and democracy. As they bow to pressure from anti-immigrant forces LET’S ALL DO THE HUDDLE : when the TV debates gave a such as UKIP and the French platform to parties who opposed austerity, the public sat up and noticed, and the elite went into overdrive against them National Front and scapegoat immigrants as the source of At the heart of the election Scots were sanctioned by the from its Scottish defeat. As we all economic and social woes battle is the simple question— benefits system than were discuss elsewhere in this the drownings in the what side are you on? fined by the courts and Voice , the great unspoken in Mediterranean are simply the In staged events, “leaks”, thousands of those who this election is the ability of most extreme outcome of briefing by insiders and supposedly benefited for from working people to organise to their anti-people policies. cheesy and cheesier the so called “jobs boom” defend and advance their “campaign events” the actually face zero hours, own interests for decent pay, Ruthless power austerity message is miserably paid near serfdom. proper non-casual jobs and That such horrors are hammered home with an end to unchallenged justified by politicians and their carefully spun “facts” about Anti-austerity bosses power rather than acolytes should not really come more jobs, economic success Against this miserable totally depending on as great surprise. They have a and an endless round of prospect it is hardly surprising politicians promises. long history of exercising claim and counter claim. that when the TV debates Key to this is the repeal or ruthless power and lying about However these events gave a platform to parties defiance of the anti-union what they are doing. stand in sharp contrast to the who opposed austerity—from laws which make collective Here in Scotland, we saw reality experienced by the Greens, SNP and Plaid— action all but illegal and so this approach during the millions of people every day the public sat up and noticed, marginalise trade unions that referendum and we are as they suffer the direct and the elite went into millions who need them are seeing it on a daily basis as consequences of the cuts overdrive against them. discouraged or even afraid to the mainstream Westminster imposed by the professional Whatever the outcome on 7 join them. parties go all out to sell the politicians in the cosseted May however, any conceivable Of course winning the best idea that their austerity Westminster bubble where anti-austerity programme most progressive government agenda of misery for the poverty is as rare as hen’s faces the implacable is central but the left must many and millions for the few teeth and subsidised dining opposition of big business, the both set out its own is the only possible choice. rooms are the norm rather city and the cross-party deficit distinctive agenda and Even the SNP, despite its than food banks. reduction consensus. seriously address the urgent anti-austerity pitch still lay Across the UK close to a It remains to be seen if a task of winning the conditions stress on dealing with the million people now need food much bigger SNP to build a powerful movement deficit albeit slightly more banks and 157,000 people Westminster group could force to win a decisive break with humanely and over a longer are on Scotland’s housing concessions from a minority neoliberalism and it various period of time. waiting lists. Last year more Labour party still smarting supporters of whatever party.

4 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 457 JOHN M cALLION former MP and MSP John McAllion sounds a warning LABOUR’S LEFT wing icon What awaits new SNP MPs Nye Bevan was first elected as a MP in 1929 shortly before the Wall Street crash that led to the last Great Depression in the – if the polls are correct? 1930s. Writing almost a quarter earnings in the most recent year. of a century later he set down Once inside the magic West - what his biographer Michael minster bubble the world can Foot would describe as “a young look a very different place. Labour member’s initiation into Westminster also sets the parliamentary mysteries”. boundaries within which “na - To the then 32-year-old tional” politics are conducted. Bevan, Westminster’s seat of Since the onset of capitalism’s power seemed to have a church- latest crisis in 2008, dealing like quality with its vaulted with the Government’s deficit roofs and stained glass win - has been the dominant theme of dows. The rows of statues of political debate. The big three Britain’s great statesmen, the Westminster parties are all com - echoing halls, the Serjeant-at- mitted to austerity and to a slash Arms’ soft-footed attendants, and burn attack on public the whispered conversations— spending and services. all were alien and all seemed Absurdly, Labour—the would- designed to overawe and intim - be peoples’ party—has even idate a working class miner based its appeal to workers on the from the Welsh valleys. ‘ANCESTOR WORSHIP’: the UK parliament is theme of a “Budget Responsibil - designed to overawe and intimidate new MPs Bevan pronounced it a form ity Lock”. Challengers to this or - of “ancestor worship” before re - mitted anti-war party pledged to being the “most exclusive club in thodoxy will be dismissed across minding himself and his work - use any war crisis to bring about Europe”. In the next Parliament, the Westminster influenced ing class readers that these were social revolution. On the out - members will have a basic salary media as “deficit deniers”. not “our” ancestors. break of the war its MPs voted of £74,000 plus expenses. They for the patriotic war and joined will automatically carry the title Unforgiving hostility A conservative force with the other bourgeois parties of “Honourable Member”. Those elected next month on If the current opinion polls on the green benches in singing Staff across the parliamentary an anti-austerity ticket will be are accurate, more than 40 new “God Save the King”. estate will be charged with recog - charged with challenging that SNP members will, like Bevan The “Red Clydeside” MPs nising who they are and then orthodoxy. On arrival in Lon - before them, be introduced to elected in 1922 pledged that the treating them with due deference don, they will be beset on one “parliamentary mysteries” that atmosphere of the Clyde would and respect. They will have ac - side by flattery and temptation will be outside anything they get the better of the House of cess to subsidised “member only” and on the other by the unfor - have previously experienced. Commons. It never happened. bars and dining rooms. Only giving hostility of a House that The 2015 Parliament that Then left-wing firebrands like members and their guests will be is overwhelmingly unionist. convenes later this year may be Davie Kirkwood and Manny allowed on the exclusive terrace Their personal behaviour will a very different and reformed Shinwell would end their West - that overlooks the Thames. come under the scrutiny of rival institution compared to its 1929 minster days wrapped in ermine Members from far-flung con - Whips, a biased media and se - predecessor, but at its core it re - and safely ensconced in the stituencies enjoy first class air curity services that rate Scottish mains a deeply conservative House of Lords. Jimmy Maxton, and rail travel. They are entitled independence as a threat to UK force and influence that has suc - the most iconic of the Clydeside to second homes in London. national security. They will need cessfully held together a demo - revolutionaries, would later be Through cross-party parliamen - the strength of lions and the sol - cratically flawed “Crown State” patronised by Churchill as “the tary groups, they will be able to idarity of each other if they are for more than 300 years. New finest gentleman in the House of join fact-finding missions to to survive in the longer term. MPs should be warned. Commons”. When he died in every corner of the world. Their Scotland’s newly elected Since the widening of the 1946, the entire House of Com - ringside seat at the UK’s centre MPs will arrive in London as franchise to include workers, mons stood for a minute’s si - of political power brings with it Westminster outsiders. If they Westminster has successfully lence, a tribute without the attention of other powerful are to retain the trust of those withstood waves of would be precedence for a back-bencher. and wealthy interests. who voted for them and com - revolutionaries. In 1914 Labour, The list could go on. Part of Gordon Brown earned almost plete the job they have been as a member of the Second So - Westminster’s continuing allure £1million and George Gal - elected to do, they must remain cialist International, was a com - is the atmosphere it generates of loway over £300,000 in outside outside the Westminster bubble.

issue 457 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 5 WORKPLACE

FOR WORNOKT PELERASS TO ’ by , and Ed Miliband borrow spin coPllectivOe actioLn by ItheT workIing Cing tIhe LAivingN Wage”S , £7.85. That SSP national workplace doctors’ phrases: “Scotland suc - class majority to overcome that cleverly appeals to workers des - organiser ceeds when working people suc - exploitation, that class division, perate for a pay rise, without up - ACTceIed”. TOhe SNP bid foNr traditional where the richest 10 per cent of setting big business, because the THE WOMAN serving me a Labour voters with talk of being Scots own 20 times the combined Living Wage is entirely voluntary! coffee at the STUC Conference “the voice of working people”, wealth of the poorest 30 per cent. Now, to outbid Labour, they’ve spoke volumes in a short chat. alongside their central slogan of Yes, we need to demand maxi - declared for an £8.70 minimum After asking where I was from, “standing up for Scotland.” mum reforms and redistribution wage, but again not until 2020. In and me explaining I represent the Looking beyond 7 May, work - of wealth from whatever combi - reality that would be less than SSP, she said: “I’ve always been ers (and their unions) need to cut nation of parties takes the reins. today’s £7.85 Living Wage, al - from a Labour family, but I don’t through the fog of slick spin and And the seismic upheaval of though with the saving grace of know who to vote for. I can’t stand vague promises, and get back to Labour being swept aside by an being legally enforced. Labour, but I’ll never vote SNP. basics. Those joining the annual SNP that stands a bit to their left Standing out from all this noise “I don’t trust Nicola Sturgeon,” May Day celebrations of interna - will immensely increase expecta - about what they’ll do for us in she added in a whisper, as if in tional workers’ solidarity need to tions of radical wealth transfers five years’ time, the SSP has un - fear of upsetting polite society. recall the fundamental features of from the rich to the rest of us. equivocally demanded a living But her most telling comment this society, and how workers in - But to secure that requires minimum wage, legally enforced, was her parting shot, after we ex - ternationally have ever won im - lighting bonfires beneath their of £10 NOW, in 2015. Based on changed views and experiences provements in life, living backsides, with rallies, demos and the modest formula of two-thirds of low pay in retail and catering. standards and rights. even strike action, or it won’t hap - median male wages. The other “No matter which of them The SSP quite consciously en - pen—because every single one of critical difference is we demand wins, I’ll still have to come to titled our Election Manifesto the parties likely to be in govern - it for all workers and apprentices work on the 8th of May.” ‘Standing up for Scotland’s ment ultimately stands up for big over 16, whereas both Labour The election and media circus Working Class Majority’. business, for capitalist Britain or and the SNP would retain the will move on, but reality will re - We are courageous enough to capitalist Scotland—not for the monstrous age discrimination of main for the working class major - tell the truth. There are two Scot - working class who produce the lower youth rates. ity: the struggle to survive on lands, divided by a chasm of wealth of goods and services. It’s The same milk-and-water poverty pay, Zero Hours Con - class differences. The Scotland wise to not forget the basics. promises are made into headlines tracts, part-time and insecure jobs, of the richest 100 with wealth of by Labour and SNP on the mod - and the ongoing brutality of sav - £25billion; 432 landlords owning Bids war on wages ern serfdom that is Zero Hours age cuts to vital public services. half the land; millionaires like The growing clamour for an Contracts. Both repeatedly talk of Brian Souter funding the SNP end to poverty pay has forced the “tackling”, or “clamping down”, Two Scotlands from the fortune he grabbed from rival parties into a bidding war— on what they both insist on call - But the potential power of the transport privatisation. And the for votes. The hateful, upper-class ing “exploitative Zero Hours working class to change all that is Scotland of 100,000 relying on Tories claim the minimum wage Contracts”. When are they not reflected in the language of the food banks to avert starvation, will ‘naturally’ rise to £8 by 2020. exploitative? Why not just abol - competing parties; they’ve sud - and workers socially isolated by Labour promises £8, with whis - ish the lot, and bring in secure denly discovered the need to harp fares they can’t afford. pered asides “by 2020”—which contracts with guaranteed hours, on endlessly about “hard working Class is at the heart of society. would make it virtually no rise at full-time or part-time? people” and how much their rival Class exploitation is the very na - all on today’s pitiful £6.50. Labour has elaborated a system brands of capitalist visions ‘repre - ture of capitalism. Soaring profits The SNP have very belatedly where after 12 weeks of regular sent’ us. Even the Tories shame - are sourced from the unpaid gone beyond—or at least given hours worked, that would be - lessly claim to be “the party of labour of the working class. It re - the appearance of going beyond— come the contract hours. But working people”. Jim Murphy quires collective organisation and their previous mantra of “support - what’s to stop employers dodging

6 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 457 WORKPLACE Rights. That’s why those workers rightly abandoning the Labour Party that long ago abandoned them, should not in turn be blinded by the SNP’s kindly rhet - oric. Not once, ever, has the SNP or Nicola Sturgeon pledged to dismantle the anti-union laws. They make welcome noises about “embracing the unions”, “respecting the unions’ voices”, “recognising the value of collec - tive bargaining”. Compared with Labour’s words and deeds, this is very welcome, and sounds “progressive”, to use Nicola’s current buzz word. But it’s mostly all candlelight and mood music, a wooing of the working class, with no sharp, defining, concrete measures to guarantee workers’ rights and ability to or - ganise collective action. Post-election, workers need to organise action for a living mini - AFTER THE ELECTION : workers need to organise action for a living minimum wage, secure jobs, mum wage, secure jobs, redistri - redistribution of wealth, resistance to escalated austerity cuts, and workplace rights PHOTO: Craig Maclean bution of wealth, resistance to escalated austerity cuts, and work - such ‘regular hours’, or simply of massive union membership 15 April saw the biggest fast food place rights—with collective ac - shedding and replacing workers and waves of strike action for bet - strike in history with 60,000 tion, where necessary in defiance after 12 weeks—like the avoid - ter wages. The reign of terror of workers involved in over 200 of the anti-union laws concocted ance tactics used towards im - the last 30 years has reversed that cities, demanding a minimum to help the capitalist minority rob proved agency workers’ rights? process, leaving wages at their wage of $15 (£10). Walmart re - wages and public services off the In truth, it’s only because some lowest share of GDP on record. cently conceded $10. Cities like working class majority. unions and the likes of the SSP Inequality was at its lowest when Seattle and Chicago have agreed have spearheaded persistent cam - 83 per cent of workers were cov - to phase in $15. Workers’ action paigns demanding £10 NOW, ered by union collective bargain - As we head for the ballot box, Workers will need to organise and outright abolition of Zero ing, whereas inequality is now at and march on May Day events, and demand concessions from a Hours Contracts, that these main - its worst, when only 23 per cent working class Scots should take government that will be in crisis, stream parties have gone as far as are covered. Workers learn from inspiration from our own past as the ruling class panic at the de - they have. The underlying reality international experience too. In struggles, and the present strug - mise of their most reliable prop in is that only collective action by the heart of the capitalist beast, gles of fellow workers in the the working class—Labour. Not workers, up to and including the USA, wages have plummeted USA. They have defied anti- as spectators at an election cir - strike action, will enforce a de - since the 1970s. Most of that union laws, taken militant action, cus—heavily populated by cent living wage or secure job time, labor union leaders capitu - marched for decent wages, and at clowns and opportunist politicians contracts for all. lated, merely begging the capital - least won substantial conces - juggling words and principles— The strangling repression of ist Democrats to be their friends. sions. Those are the methods of but as the one reliable active force workplace rights—the most vi - Since 2012, a wave of coura - collective struggle that will be re - for change and progress. cious anti-union laws in Eu - geous actions have been taken by quired to squeeze something out The socialists of the SSP will rope—help hold down workers’ brutally low-paid workers in the of whatever new government is continue to stand up for and with conditions. Which makes it all the fast food and retail sectors. elected, and off the unelected, the working class majority in pur - more significant that in contrast obscenely overpaid boardroom suit of a fundamental redistribution to the noisy bidding war of words International lessons bosses of companies whose of wealth and power. We will not between Labour and SNP over Several strike days and protest whole source of profit is the plead for crumbs off the capitalist wages, there is deafening silence marches by Walmart workers wages they don’t pay workers. politicians, but advocate and take from both of them on repealing and fast food staff have won Anti-union laws have been in - workers’ action to win a decent life the anti-union laws. more concessions on wages from strumental in enforcing a reign of for the likes of the woman at the It is no accident that wages as their multinational employers terror on the ‘shopfloor’. That’s STUC coffee bar. No matter who a share of national wealth, GDP, than 40 years of pleading by why they need to be repealed, re - wins on 7 May, we will be back peaked in 1975. That was an era union bureaucrats. Wednesday placed with a Charter of Workers’ to work for socialism on the 8th!

issue 457 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 7 WORKPLACE Donate to SSP Homeless caseworkers’ strike General Election by Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser campaign fund SEVENTY CASEWORKERS in Glasgow city council’s Homeless Service have been staging an indefinite strike since 31 March. These workers, members of UNISON, LIKE EVERY election campaign the are battling against being paid a grade lower than 400 other workers doing very similar is involved in, it frontline jobs in other areas of the Social Work department. All they ask for is parity. has to be paid for, and unlike the London Those on strike provide a critical service to many of the city’s most vulnerable or Edinburgh-based parties, the SSP has people. Between them, the 70 strikers have nearly 3000 people on their caseloads. no rich friends or big business backers They assess the needs of homeless people and families, organise and oversee crucial to bankroll our campaign. support for them, helping them get emergency, temporary and permanent The Scottish Socialist Party rely solely accommodation. But they are being treated with high-handed contempt by senior on the support of our members, management and the Labour council, who have refused to even meet them for supporters and friends to finance our negotiations. Instead of awarding these key workers the job evaluation they richly campaigns, and while our local branches deserve, the Council is squandering £millions of taxpayers’ money to use expensive have been working hard to raise money private B&B accommodation, to pretend all is normal despite the strike. locally for the campaign, we feel that to I spoke to UNISON shop steward Stuart Graham about the background and issues develop the General Election campaign at the heart of a dispute that deserves the fullest solidarity of all workers. at local and national level we have to ask our members, supporters and friends to This is a pay dispute over the concept definite strike. Once the decision was financially support our campaign. of care management within social reached, 100 per cent of UNISON mem - That is why we’re appealing directly to work. We identify issues impacting on bers have come out on strike. But de - you through the pages of the Voice to people’s ability to sustain accommodation, spite that, Glasgow city council have not make a pledge or donation to the general then put services in place by making initial come near the negotiating table. We election appeal fund today. referrals, advocating on behalf of the serv - first held a nine-week work to rule, dur - Every penny the Scottish Socialist ice user, reviewing the services after a suit - ing which 300 households were identi - Party receives will go directly to funding able time, and changing them where fied as needing our services. our campaign. necessary. But instead of resolving the issue the We want members of the public to get council left these people in limbo, in tem - HOW TO DONATE: the best service they can, because after us porary accommodation, without the serv - You can make a pledge or donation to the they have nothing; we are their final serv - ices they’re entitled to. The council has Scottish Socialist Party General Election ice. For eight years, we’ve had managers tried to put on a ‘business as usual’ front Appeal in the following ways: saying we provide this high level of care during the strike, at first telling people it • Pay donation direct into the appeal fund management. The council was only too was an IT problem and that we’d be back bank account through a bank transfer happy to tout our statistics on reducing at work within a week! Their claims of account details are The Co-operative Bank. homelessness when they come under crit - maintaining a full service is a joke; we can Sort Code 08-92-99 / account number icism during winter months. But after we barely do that with the full workforce! 65094637 (if you pay direct into the account, lodged a collective grievance about our The solidarity from other trade union - can you please text me the details of the grading in November 2013—which ists, especially others in social work who donation on 07810205747, so we can keep wasn’t acknowledged until February have refused to do our work, has been a record of your donation). 2014—management agreed that we do tremendous. Only managers are trying to • Pay by cheque made out to ‘Scottish provide all these services, but because cover our work. People in Glasgow can Socialist Party’ and return to Jim McVicar we’re on a grade lower they claimed this help us by contacting their councillor to at the SSP national office, Suite 370 can’t possibly be a Care Management ask why they’re not negotiating with the Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, function, only an aspirational form of care workforce in a legitimate, democratically Glasgow G2 6LD. management! We find this arrogant and mandated industrial dispute. • At your local SSP Branch meeting or patronising. If people are in need of the services we directly to your branch organiser or branch We’ve always reduced homelessness provide they should demand them of the treasurer. amongst marginalised people, but the council, rather than be fobbed off. They • Email jimmcvicar.scottishsocialistparty level of contempt from senior manage - are entitled to that—it’s a statutory obli - @hotmail.com or text me on 07810205747 ment reflects the service group we repre - gation—and that’s what we pay taxes for. or and let Jim know the details of your sent. There’s a fundamental disconnect pledge/donation and I will make between front line staff and senior man - • These workers need and deserve all arrangements to get it collected. agement; they genuinely don’t realise how forms of solidarity. To send donations • Pay via PayPal, using this email address: much work we do to reduce homelessness. to their strike fund, or send messages [email protected] When collective grievances got us of support, or ask for a striker to • Donate directly to the SSP through the nowhere we held a strike ballot at address your union meeting. Contact: donate facility at our website at Xmas, with 84 per cent voting for an in - [email protected] scottishsocialistparty.org/donations/

8 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 457 CULTURE Antonio Gramsci – A Great and Terrible World: The Pre- Prison Letters, 1908-1926 edited and translated by Derek Boothman . Published How can alliances for by Lawrence & Wishart by socialism be built? THE RECENTLY published the institutions of the state. For The timescale and nature of society. In Scotland the over - book on Gramsci’s early politi - Gramsci this was true as far as it this transformation will be set by whelming majority of workers cal writings, A Great and Terri - went but did not tell the full story. the relative balance of forces be - either work in the public sector ble World, is a timely reminder In a capitalist democracy the rul - tween the working class and the or the retail and financial sec - of the tremendous contribution ing class rules through consent capitalist class and their respec - tors. Manufacturing industry Antonio Gramsci made to so - because the majority of workers tive allies. The aim would be the represents only a small propor - cialist ideas in the 20th century. overtly or tacitly support the sys - election of a left government tion of the economy. The result Born in Sardinia in 1891, he tem. For them the ideas of capi - committed to a transformational is that the organised working was one of the founders and talism have become the common programme supported by a mass, class is much smaller and less leaders of the Italian Commu - sense ideas of the age. At the radical movement in the country. influential than before and has nist Party until his untimely same time the ruling class doesn’t This programme is likely to stop largely lost its industrial base. death in 1937. Despite crippling rule alone but forms alliances short of socialism but when im - It alone can no longer be the ill health and eight years spent plemented will have shifted the same vehicle for socialist in a fascist prison, his contribu - balance of power from the capi - change it was in the past. It has tion to the theory and practice talist class to the working class in to forge alliances with wider so - of socialism marked him out as favour of the latter ready for the cial forces seeking to build a one of the great Marxist next stage of struggle and the broad based alliance against thinkers of his time. road to socialism. capitalism. This alliance would Despite coming from a strong Gramsci died more than 70 include community based or - Bolshevik tradition and emerg - years ago and his ideas only be - ganisations, social movements ing as one of the key leaders of came widespread in Europe and single issue pressure groups the revolutionary movement after the war so why are they as well as the trade union organ - which swept Italy after the First relevant today? For socialists ised working class united by the World War, and in the wake of here the key question is how to struggle against the effects of the Russian Revolution, he build an organised movement capitalism on the people they came to question the validity of for socialism in a post-industrial represent. This broad move - the Bolshevik model as a strat - society? When Britain had an ment will be the vehicle for rad - egy for achieving socialism in industrial economy this was a ical change with socialists the relatively advanced capital - fairly straight forward question. working within it to link the ist countries of Western Europe. with other classes and social/cul - Britain had a large working particular struggles with the tural movements in society class centred on industry and or - overall aim of socialism. Civil War broadening its support base. ganised through the trade union The Bolsheviks came to For socialism to succeed the movement. This created the Struggle power in Russia following the ideas of socialism have to move labour movement including a Gramsci rejected a doctri - collapse of the Russian state and from a set of utopian ideas to a mass party of the working class; naire approach to the struggle ruthlessly defended that power blueprint for the practical reor - the Labour Party or in Italy; the for socialism or the form that a during the civil war; something ganisation of existing society Italian Communist Party. socialist movement might take which Gramsci completely en - along socialist lines with those For socialists the labour at any one time. The struggle dorsed. However the likelihood ideas replacing capitalist ideas movement was the vehicle for for socialism and the form the of such a collapse happening in as the common sense of the age. socialism and their role was to movement takes will be shaped Western Europe was, for Gram - The working class would also work within that movement by the specific events and con - sci, highly improbable and un - require to form strategic al - moving it to the left and result - ditions at the time. In Scotland desirable. A different strategy liances with other social and ing in the election of a left gov - the post-industrial nature of the would be necessary for the ad - cultural movements. ernment. The only tactical economy and the welding of the vance to socialism. Implicit in this strategy is the discussion was whether social - struggle for socialism to the At the heart of this was a ques - idea that socialism will not be ists should work within the struggle for independence is tion. In a capitalist country which achieved through a single dra - mass party of the working class creating its own distinct move - has a democratic political system; matic revolutionary moment as or build a distinctive socialist ment with socialists playing a how does the ruling class rule? in Russia but rather involve a party within the movement. leading role. Building that The standard Marxist reply process of transformation over That was then. Today Britain broad based movement is the would be through its control of a period of time. is an archetypal post-industrial key to achieving socialism.

issue 457 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 9 INTERNATIONAL Bill Bonnar gives a personal recollection Vietnam’s ‘Great Spring Victory’ PICTURE THE scene. It is 1am in Moscow on May 1st 1975; 40 years ago. I was an 18 over the US – foPHOTrO: Pthiliyp Jon esy Grifefiths ars on year old on a delegation walking home to my hotel. All around stone age and it is only now that workmen were putting up huge their society is beginning to re - banners of Ho Chi Min; the for - cover. As part of a final sick irony mer Vietnamese President along Henry Kissinger and the Viet - the route of the Moscow May namese Foreign Minister were Day demonstration which would jointly awarded the Nobel Peace take place the next day. By the Prize after peace negotiations in time I got back to my hotel the 1973. The Foreign Minister de - significance was clear. Viet - scribed the award to Kissinger namese liberation forces had en - as ‘an insult to the intelligence of tered Saigon and driven the last the people of the world’ and re - of the American occupiers out. fused to accept the award. Vietnam was free. Although the liberation of Viet - This marks the 40th anniver - nam lay in the hands of the Viet - sary of that tumultuous time and namese people themselves they the end to one of the defining were supported by a worldwide struggles of the 20th century. trolled death squads running an ing anti-war movement at home. anti-war movement particularly in Vietnam had been a French assassination programme. By Anyway, they didn’t need them the United States which plunged colony until the French were 1960 an estimated 200,000 Viet - because they had something just American society into crisis as driven out by the liberation forces namese had been murdered. as effective up their sleeves; Op - more and more ordinary Ameri - led by Ho Chi Min. When this proved ineffectual US eration Rolling Thunder. cans came to recognise what ground forces arrived to take the This was an attempt at what their government was doing in Peace conference fight for ‘freedom and democ - Secretary of State Henry their name. Most telling were vet - In 1954, a peace conference racy’ to the heart of the conflict. Kissinger described as ‘bombing erans of the US army which was held in which the country Proving no match for the Na - Vietnam back into the stone age’ helped to liberate Europe during would be divided between the tional Liberation Army the Amer - For one week over Christmas the Second World Way. They North with its capital in Hanoi icans increasingly relied on air 1972 the United States launched regularly described American ac - and the South with its capital in power which soon took on the the greatest ariel bombardment tion in Vietnam as similar to what Saigon. The arrangement was to character of a war against the in history. During that week more the Nazi’s did in Europe. In Britain be temporary pending elections. whole Vietnamese civilian popu - bombs were dropped on North the anti-war movement was also These elections took place in lation. By the beginning of the Vietnam than on the whole of very effective particularly in forc - the North resulting in landslide seventies this war had reached Europe during the whole of the ing the hand of the then Labour victory for the communist-led almost genocidal proportions Second World War. This satura - Government into not actively sup - Liberation Front. Fearing the aimed at destroying Vietnam as tion bombing destroyed every porting the American aggression. same result in the South, the a functioning society. city and town in North Vietnam United States organised a mili - Targets included cities which as if they had been attacked by Victory for humanity tary coup and the permanent di - were reduced to rubble and fields a barrage of nuclear weapons. As a young socialist activist vision of the country. and irrigation systems with the And still it did not break the re - who first took part in an anti-Viet - From 1956 to 1975 South Viet - aim of starving the population into solve of the Vietnamese govern - nam war demonstration as a 14 nam was ruled by a military dic - submission. Vietnam’s centuries ment and people. year old in 1972 protesting tatorship controlled, armed and old system of dams were tar - In fact from 1973 the Viet - against Operation Thunder and financed by the United States; a geted causing catastrophic flood - namese Liberation Army based who followed the course of the puppet regime. It was the start of ing. The strategy also embraced in the south supported by North war almost daily from that point American military aggression chemical warfare with millions to Vietnam gradually pushed the on; that May day demonstration in against the Vietnamese people tons of chemical defoliants South Vietnamese/American Moscow in 1975 was one of the which would eventually lead to dropped on forests’, jungles and forces back resulting in the final highlights of my life. Particularly two million dead, millions more fields. Even today huge numbers victory in May 1975. The cost of the sights of hundreds of Viet - wounded and the total destruc - of Vietnamese suffer cancers and defeating the American aggres - namese students from Moscow’s tion of the country, before they disabilities caused by this chemi - sion was enormous in terms of Patrice Lumumba International were eventually defeated. cal warfare. The United States human lives and a totally de - University marching proudly be - The aggression started slowly even considered using nuclear stroyed society. In that sense hind an enormous banner of Ho with Operation Phoenix in 1958 weapons but decided against Kissinger succeeded. They did Chi Min. We all shared in this vic - which involved American con - fearing the reaction of the grow - bomb Vietnam back into the tory for humanity.

10 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 457 INTERNATIONAL Amsterdam students force uni rethink by Jack Ferguson, arrested, and others violently in Amsterdam evicted in shocking scenes. The eviction was met two THE STUDENT movement at days later by a massive march the University of Amsterdam through the University campus, (UvA) has scored a symbolic with near universal chants of victory with the resignation of “Resign” in reference to the Ex - the President of the Executive ecutive Board. Their hasty ac - Board, Louise Gunning. It fol - tions have radicalised many who lows a dramatic PR disaster for were previously more moderate, University bosses, after they and shattered what trust had pressured city authorities to been built up in their good faith. sending police officers to vio - After hundreds of staff signed an lently evict staff and students open letter demanding they go, occupying the University Sen - the position of President Gun - ate, known as the Maagdenhuis. ning became untenable. The Maagdenhuis was the third University building that Victories had been occupied since the be - An interim replacement has ginning of the academic year been appointed, with hopeful sig - last September. The previous nals that incoming managers are site, part of the Faculty of Hu - more inclined to listen to the manities which is threatened MAAGDENHUIS: occupation agreed to leave voluntarily on 12 April protests’ demands. In the mean - with drastic cuts, has also been time, work on the committees forcibly evicted, which sparked This has been accompanied The protest groups are to play forges ahead. Occupiers empha - a mass march and the further oc - by the entry of the University a leading role in their formation sise that the eviction cost the cupation of the University Sen - into the world of property spec - and implementation. movement nothing but a build - ate back in February. Students ulation, as it has engaged in all Fragile trust between manage - ing, and has in fact brought many turned the large building into an kinds of financial dealings on ment, staff and students had been more people over to the cause. alternative teaching space, with the back of its large portfolio of built up on this basis. The occu - With their position signifi - staff donating their time for free property in the centre of one of pation agreed to leave voluntarily cantly weakened, the Board are lectures under the banner of De Europe’s most crowded and ex - on Sunday 12 April. in much less of a position to re - Nieuwe Universiteit. pensive cities. However, in a move that has sist implementation of change. Alongside this, there is a feel - backfired spectacularly, the It is to be hoped that the vic - Occupation ing that professional managers Board declared that this was not tories of the movement here at In the weeks following this, it and bureaucracy have removed fast enough for their purposes, UvA can be built on, to provide appeared that the College van democracy and academic in - and pressured the Amsterdam a working example of change at Bestuur, or Executive Board, volvement from the decision city administration to send in po - a University won by radical was listening to protesters, re - making of the University, in lice during the final event of the movements, which can provide leasing a statement that they un - order to implement this neolib - occupation, an academic Festival an example across the Nether - derstood their concerns and eral agenda. of Arts and Sciences. Nine were lands and around the world. were willing to negotiate. After discussions between De This was facilitated by a Nieuwe Universiteit, ReThink much greater involvement of UvA (a body grouping critical staff in what had been a student staff), the Humanities Rally Fill in this formJ and osend iit tno: Sc ottishh Sociealist P aSrty, SuSite 37P 0, led protest, with hundreds of (against cuts to their faculty), 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD. Or phone: professors and lecturers pub - the officially elected Em - 07810205747. Or join the SSP online: scottishsocialistparty.org/join-us licly supported the issues raised ployee’s and Student’s Coun - g by the occupation. cils, staff unions and the I would like to join the Scottish Socialist Party g The core of the protest is a Executive Board, a tentative I would like more info on the Scottish Socialist Party feeling that UvA has suffered agreement was reached. Two Name...... because of financialisation – re - committees are to be formed, Address...... search and teaching agendas are one examining the financial af - ...... being moulded to only ensure fairs of the University, and the Phone...... profitability, rather than advanc - other to oversee democratisa - Email...... ing knowledge and education. tion of its governance.

issue 457 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 11 for Socialism, Independence and Internationalism Issue 457 24th April – 7th May 2015 email: [email protected] scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com Promoted by Jim McVicar on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Party, Suite 370, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. Printed by Forward Graphics, Elderpark Workspace, 100 Elderpark Street, Glasgow G51 3TR Paisley and Renfrewshire South – Glasgow East – Liam McLaughlan Sandra Webster Another busy period here for us in Glasgow East SSP in the run-up Only days until the election and Renfrewshire activists supported by to the election. We’ve had another successful public meeting in the members from other branches continue with a level of activism that area, this time in Tollcross Community Centre and have managed other parties might envy. We continue to have regular stalls and to recruit another two new members to the party locally, following leafleting and canvassing in the local community. We have had two on from our earlier successful event and four new comrades in public meetings under our belt which we have used to talk to folk living Easterhouse. Postal votes are beginning to arrive in the in the local community emphasising that our candidate Sandra is a true constituency and we remain ever hopeful of receiving a respectful neighbour. People know who we are because of our community voting figure the party can be proud of. We’ve always had our first activism and regular stalls we hold throughout the year. We are going local hustings event last week were our unique socialist message through an unprecedented election. When we decided to stand it was highlighting the £10-an-hour living minimum wage went down a assumed this was a safe labour seat but many polls indicate that the bomb with a fiery and passionate as ever East End audience and SNP may take this seat. Very surprising when Douglas Alexander’s we look forward to the second hustings this coming Thursday in majority was 16,000 at the last election. Easterhouse. Our royal mail leaflet has been printed and is being We never underestimate the party machinery of the bigger parties though handed in later this week with 40,000 lucky east-enders getting to and acknowledge our financial resources are less than the rental of the view the SSP’s distinctive and unashamedly class based message. SNP’s and Labour’s rent of their hubs. Our main expense has been a We will continue to hold regular street stalls at Parkhead Forge and leaflet which has been delivered to the GPO for delivery. One positive of Easterhouse Shopping Centre and are relishing the chance to carry this being such a too close to call seat is the amount of press we have the torch for socialism in Glasgow East into May 7th, proudly received. Sandra has regular standing up for Scotland’s columns in both local papers which working class majority and for a cover the local constituency. She locally based workers MP on a has also been interviewed by workers wage. national press and will be on the radio soon. We will continue to use Edinburgh South – these links after the election for the Colin Fox benefit of the local and national The SSP campaign is only growing party. We hope to increase our more intense in Edinburgh South as vote but expect to be squeezed as the General Election approaches. people vote tactically. This will not Since the last report, the Edinburgh stop us though getting the South SSP campaign has produced message out there and using this and prepared 45,000 quality election as a pathway to future election leaflets to be delivered by elections. We have learned so the Royal Mail and further delivered much and will put this knowledge door to door another batch of nearly to good use. People know we are 5000 leaflets for our next public here to stay not just for the meeting, “£10 Now! Come and hear duration of the election. the case for the £10 Living Wage!” featuring our Edinburgh South candidate Colin Fox. With more of our Glasgow South West – Bill Bonnar posters for this campaign, and for the meeting starting to appear about the Days to go and the Scottish Socialist Party’s campaign in Glasgow constituency, we’ve been keeping our visibility and profile high in the area. South West is in full swing. Tens of thousands of leaflets have Every home in the Inch area of Edinburgh South will soon have received been distributed, hundreds of people canvassed, lots of public at least three leaflets, had its door chapped by a canvassing team at least stalls organised, two public meetings staged and a lively debate once, and been invited to a public meeting. In the Marchmont area, by the held by Sunny Govan Community Radio. The campaign has end of the campaign every home will also have received at least three already achieved its primary objective which was to continue to leaflets, been invited to a public meeting, and in this instance, if the build the Scottish Socialist Party in the constituency. The party weather permits, there is still the scope and resources for at the least a profile has greatly increased over the past few weeks with sizeable portion of the area being canvassed by the end of the campaign. significant numbers of relatively new, younger members being Across the rest of the constituency the story is the same. SSP leaflets and involved. It has also allowed the party to campaign on key issues canvassers are increasingly common sights at the door! There is still the like the £10-per-hour minimum wage and the ending of Zero Hours need for that final push before the election though. That last chance before Contracts. In fact, on the stalls and at meetings it is this latter the 7 May to send a powerful message around the constituency to say issue which is raised most often. Whatever the eventual vote the that our communities will not sit idly by and accept the brutal austerity campaign has proved a worthwhile exercise in getting the party without a fight. To say that it’s time we gave ourselves a voice by voting for out there and promoting the case for socialism and independence. the Scottish Socialist Party on 7 May, and that going forwards beyond The experience will stand us in good stead for the Scottish then, the SSP will always be prepared to stand up with and for the hard- Parliament election next year. pressed people of Edinburgh South.