One year on: Emily: Denise on the mass grassroots Morton on Emily pro-indy campaign Davison’s legacy • see page 5 • see page 9 £1 • issue 419 • 7th - 20th June 2013 facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice

Labour, Tories: BITTER

AS bankers’ pal Alastair Darling wooed the dwindling band of Scottish Tories in Stirling, Labour unionist splits - led by Gordon Brown - widened. TOGETAH growing reEvulsion R at sharing a platform with the Tories and Lib Dems behind the savage austerity cuts saw the first No camp split, with ‘United With Labour’ going their own way. Former Labour MP and MSP John McAllion lifts the lid on the DAVID CAMERON: master of cuts ALISTAIR DARLING: ‘UK OK’ murky stew - see page 3... facebook.com/ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice INDEPENDENCE

bLy Kaen bFergouson ur and Tories: bitter toachigevements itn bhenefiets, her alth and social provision - all accom - As the latest round of benefit cuts panied by crocodile tears and hand slash the income of the disabled wringing about “hard times”. and Bedroom Tax horror tales grow The truth is that Labour is in the anybody looking for relief from midst of a wholesale break with its Labour had their hopes dashed by historic past achievements under shadow chancellor Ed Balls who the cloak of making “communi - warned of “iron rule” and cuts in ties” responsible for services and winter payments to wealthier pen - sub letting key services to the vol - sioners under Labour. untary sector in what will amount The latest stage in the auction to to back door privatisation. prove who can be toughest on the poor, ConDems or Labour, came Fault line as it was revealed that former Anyone with illusions about Labour Chancellor Alistair Dar - being saved from the wicked To - ling is speaking at the conference ries by valiant Labour needs ur - of that isolated fringe group, the BALLS! shadow chancellor warned of ‘iron rule’ and more cuts gently to read the not so small Scottish Tories, as Better Together print and understand that Red Ed, chief. Of course while there is elsewhere in this Voice , the brutal assaults ranging for plans to priva - Johann and her key backers long growing unease in Labour ranks at truth is that beyond the national tise Royal Mail to proposals to fur - ago dropped Labour’s social dem - the prospect of sharing a platform question there much agreement ther weaken trade unions. ocratic past and are now entirely with the hard liners in the West - between the threesome. Not to be outdone Labour joins prisoners of the idea that markets minster coalition in the anti inde - At the heart of this is the fact the auction with Scottish leader are the answer. It is this reality - pendence front, which we look at that all the Westminster gang are attacking the pro - that markets, global finance and Edinburgh working to a common belief that, vision of free prescription under a war for resources are shared val - People’s Festival to rescue the greedy rich who thin smoke screen of needing the ues of the Better Together three - wrecked the economy, everybody money for cancer sufferers and re - some - that is the key fault line in BENEFIT NIGHT else it to face cuts, sackings, soar - treating wholesale from other the debate about independence. Tues 11 June ing prices and austerity stretching keynote policies dressed up as an There must be no stone left un - to the far horizon. attack on “Freebie ”. turned to drive home the message This is the source of the endless And nobody should swallow that a No vote is a vote for dra - media drum beat about scroungers the Balls spin that the attack on matic cuts, sackings and in favour and benefit cheats and almost winter fuel allowances is just to of private greed over public need. daily announcements of “crack tweak things and deprive the rich Only a Yes vote can break with downs” on what must be - at least of their payments. The key part of the pro-war, market-worshipping, in Daily Mail land - the laziest the Balls announcement was the job and service-slashing market population on the planet. In turn promise of an “iron rule” on fi - and money dictatorship backed this helps generate increasingly vi - nance if they win in 2015. by the No parties and open a cious ConDem attacks which are This clearly opens the door to a prospect of a society which put gathering pace and backed up by wholesale dismantling of key people before profit. To subscribe, fill in this form and send it to: , Suite 370, 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, G2 6LD. The Stand Comedy Club, Or telephone: 0781 126 5388 Edinburgh Doors: 7.30pm - Show: 8pm Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to ‘Scottish Socialist Voice’ Featuring two of the finest Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice & Twitter: @ssv_voice comedians in Scotland - Susan Calman and Vladimir Name...... McTavish - and an all star line Address...... up. Tickets: £8 waged, £5 unwaged, available via the ...... Edinburgh People’s Festival Phone...... website and from The Stand, 5 York Place, Edinburgh. Email...... Tel: 0844 335 8879 I enclose: g £5 for 5 issues g £10 for 10 issues g £20 for 20 issues thestand.co.uk edinburghpeoplesfestival.org Solidarity rate: g £6 for 5 issues g £12 for 10 issues g £24 for 20 issues

2 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 419 McALLION CRACKS IN LABOUR’S SUPPORT FOR BETTER TOGETHER ARE WIDENING John McAllion reports former Chancellor will rub shoulders with the authors of THE three opinion polls taken in the tax inside and join with them May on voting intentions in the in setting up a military wing of independence referendum show the “Better Together” campaign an average No vote of 53 per to be called “Forces Together”. cent as compared to an average Darling, one of Labour’s most Yes vote of just 32 per cent. senior figures in Scottish A year on from the launch of politics, appears determined the Yes campaign these figures that “Better Together” will should have been music to the continue to lead and to ears of “Better Together” dominate the No campaign. campaigners. We might have This will cause Scottish expected plaudits for the Labour no end of problems. It is campaign’s chair Alistair Darling now clear that the general and all round satisfaction with a secretaries of Scottish trade job so far well done. unions are failing to deliver their Instead, we have seen the unions official backing and first serious split in the” Better ALISTAIR DARLING: will support for the No campaign. Together” campaign. make an unsurprising The general secretaries of the The launch of “United with appearance at the Scottish Labour affiliated unions are Labour” to make the Labour Tories conference themselves already on board Party’s case for the UK and to was widespread unease among undoubtedly an attempt to the No campaign but are unable operate separately from the rank and file party members pacify a restive rank and file. to deliver their members who cross party campaign is a clear about sharing a no platform with Likewise, his verbal onslaught look at “Better Together” and sign that all is not well inside the the Tories. Dave Watson, a against a Powellite Tory party see only the Tories and the Lib unionist camp. It was no senior figure in UNISON, made spinning off to the right for fear Dems. accident that Gordon Brown, it clear that many unions also of UKIP was meant to put as once likened by Darling to the “had difficulties” about much distance as possible Key battles Labour Government’s mad campaigning with Tories. between Scottish Labour and So far only ASLEF has woman in the attic, was the star This rank and file revolt Cameron’s Tories. backed the Better Together of the Labour launch. demanding that their party It was factually wrong – since campaign while the STUC distance itself from the “Better 1945 Scotland has only once refused an invitation to join the Split Together” campaign is easy to voted Tory (1955) but has cross party campaign. It was also no accident that understand. Labour’s two main suffered 9 Tory governments It is inside the trade union the most significant Labour partners in “Better Together” are thanks to English voters. movement that one of the key absentee at the high profile the two parties who together It is because of the Union that battles over the referendum is launch in the Commonwealth form the ConDem Coalition we can’t ditch the Tories. But now being fought. While the Arena was none other than currently waging class war Brown here wasn’t dealing in Tories and Lib Dems are a total Alistair Darling himself. against working people across facts. He was telling the party turn off for most trade unionists, Brown and Darling disagreed this island. faithful what they wanted to so too are Labour’ continuing over the economy when they It is bad enough that Labour hear regardless of the facts. support for anti-trade union laws were in government together councils have already started Unfortunately for him it didn’t along with the leadership’s and now they clearly disagree eviction proceedings over the work. Within a week of “United acceptance of austerity and its with each other on how the hated bedroom tax, without with Labour” being launched ditching of universal benefits. referendum will be won. Yet the Labour leaders then being Alistair Darling announced he “United with Labour” is a split inside the unionist camp caught on camera in a unionist would be sharing a platform feeble attempt to cover over runs deeper than the embrace with the Tory authors with Tories at their Scottish party these cracks and to con grass personality clash between these of that tax. conference in Stirling. As roots trade unionists into two neo-liberal politicians. So Gordon Brown’s appeal at thousands gather outside of the believing that the Union will At Scottish Labour’s the launch to ditch the Tories conference to protest against deliver for them. Like all cons, it conference in Inverness there and not the Union was the bedroom tax, Labour’s is destined to fail.

issue 419 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 3 HIDDEN HISTORIES ‘WHY SHOULD WE IDLY WASTE OUR PRIME REPEATING OUR OPPRESSIONS .. .?’ by Campbell Martin Scottish lowland cities, while many were put the poems and prose of Burns inspired the early onto ships sailing for the Americas. Scottish radicals to agitate and protest in support THE suppression of the Scottish clan system The actions of Scotland’s absentee, ruling of better pay and conditions in the workplace by the British Government in the aftermath of elite constituted little more than ethnic cleans - and improved social conditions for ordinary the 1745/46 Jacobite uprising was not the only ing, with the traditional Highland way of life Scots. It is easy to see how one poem by Robert issue that still impacts on Scotland. A song of all-but eradicated as the ‘nobility’ sought to gen - Burns - Why Should We Idly Waste Our Prime the day had a verse added to support British erate ever greater wealth for themselves, while - would have had particular relevance to Scots troops under the leadership of Marshal Wade ordinary Scots died of hunger. radicals of the early 1800s: and the Duke of Cumberland as they made their By the early 1800s, thousands of families had way to confront, and defeat, the Jacobites at been evicted from crofts and farms, with the Why should we idly waste our prime Culloden. The song was God Save the King and Duke of Sutherland being one of the worst of - Repeating our oppressions? the additional verse reads: fenders, in terms of numbers thrown off the land Come rouse to arms! ‘Tis now the time and the brutality used in the process. The uncar - To punish past transgressions. Lord, grant that Marshal Wade, ing nature of the landowners was encapsulated ‘Tis said that Kings can do no wrong - May by thy mighty aid, Victory bring. in a letter written to a friend in London by Eliz - Their murderous deeds deny it, May he sedition hush, abeth Leveson-Gower, the Duchess of Suther - And, since from us their power is sprung, and like a torrent rush, land, who referred to starving Scots, saying, We have a right to try it. Rebellious Scots to crush, God save the King “Scotch people are of happier constitution and Now each true patriot’s song shall be: - do not fatten like the larger breed of animals.” ‘Welcome Death or Libertie!’ Today, the song - God Save the Queen - is the The devastation of agricultural labour, and official ‘national’ anthem of Great Britain and the emerging mechanisation of production in Proud Priests and Bishops we’ll translate Northern Ireland, and although the above verse is many industries, coupled with a labour-force in - And canonize as Martyrs; not normally sung, many Scots have a problem The guillotine on Peers shall wait; standing for a national anthem that once exhorted DUCHESS OF And Knights shall hang in garters. an army to crush the rebellious people of Scotland. SUTHERLAND: Those Despots long have trode us down, Elizabeth The latter part of the 18th century and early Leveson-Gower And Judges are their engines: years of the 19th century saw an ever-widening said “Scotch Such wretched minions of a Crown gulf between ordinary Scots and the country’s people do not Demand the people’s vengeance! ruling elite. With the Scottish line of monarchy fatten like the To-day ‘tis theirs. To-morrow we having been replaced by the preferred English larger breed of Shall don the Cap of Libertie! animals” option (albeit of Dutch and German birth), and the entirely subsumed into The Golden Age we’ll then revive: the English legislature and firmly located in Lon - Each man will be a brother; don, Scotland’s landowning aristocracy became In harmony we all shall live, increasingly anglicised. And share the earth together; Many ‘noble’ Scots joined the Anglican Church creasingly concentrated in towns and cities, co - In Virtue train’d, enlighten’d Youth and sent their children to be educated at English incided with the emergence of working class Will love each fellow-creature; public schools and universities. Increasingly the radicalism in Scotland. And future years shall prove the truth vast tracts of Scottish estates were used to fund the In the early 19th century, Scotland had one of That Man is good by nature: London social life of absentee Scottish Lairds. In the most literate populations in the world, partly Then let us toast with three times three fact, members of the ruling class were so im - a consequence of the insistence by the Presbyte - The reign of Peace and Libertie! mersed in their desire to rid themselves of their rian Church that one of the rights of common peo - ‘Scottishness’ that they dropped the name Scot - ple was that they should be free to read the bible In what was to be the first tentative steps of a land and referred to the country as North Britain. in their own language, as opposed to the Latin radical socialist movement in Scotland, many In order to maximise profits, farmers and version favoured by the Roman Catholic Church. Scots came together in workers’ groups to crofters were forcibly driven from the land: it This resulted in many working class Scots being protest against poverty-wages and appalling so - having been found that sheep were more prof - able to read the works of Scottish writers and cial conditions. Significantly, from the very be - itable than the labour of people. In what become poets, not the least of whom was Robert Burns. ginning of such agitation, that Scotland should known as the Highland Clearances, families and Burns, an Ayrshire ploughman, wrote in the break-free from the British Union was identi - often entire communities were forced to move, Scots tongue and from the perspective of the fied as a prerequisite to improved wages, con - some to unworkable land on the coast, others to poor, working class Scot. There is no doubt that ditions and living standards.

4 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 419 INDEPENDENCE

PHOTO: Craig Maclean bYy Ceolin Fsox, S SSP co-cotland - one yetherea are rtwo keoy chanllenges. spokesperson and Yes There’s the materialist one, as it Scotland Advisory Board were, where as people ask us member ‘What is Independence for?’ we reply ‘It is about your job, your IT’S been a year since Yes Scot - wages, your conditions at work, land was launched amid the glitz your pension, your benefits, your and glamour of an Edinburgh mul - NHS, your plummeting standard of tiplex cinema where Independ - living.’ In other words we connect ence activists mixed with Holyrood our cause with their anxieties and politicians, Hollywood stars and hopes for a better future. lottery millionaires. The worst recession in 80 years Blair Jenkins, the Yes Scotland hardly helps the No campaign CEO, announced in his Annual stress ‘the benefits of the Union’! Report last week that 375,000 And secondly, we must all de - people had signed the ‘Declaration velop ‘Yes Scotland’ into a stronger for Independence’ adding ‘we are force, one that takes the case for on schedule for our target of one Independence to the movements million’. He also pointed out that against austerity and the cuts, after 3000 people attended the 32 against under-employment, local authority based launch meet - against Trident and all allied to ings more than 1100 Yes groups Scotland’s social democratic core. have subsequently been estab - lished across the country. And he EYES ON THE PRIZE: the year ahead is crucial to win a Yes vote Crucial role noted that his since his early ob - And here SSP members can jective was to get Scotland talking determined by the Scottish people all of us to make clear that Inde - play a crucial role in their local ‘Yes’ about independence this was an - themselves in the 2016 Elections. pendence is the progressive option group. I have enjoyed speaking at other target being reached. More - And it is clear the public under - in this debate. The SNP’s empha - many fantastic ‘Yes Scotland’ over his pledge ‘to build the stands the distinction between this sis on the civic case for independ - meetings this past year. I have biggest grassroots political cam - coalition and a party. Indeed many ence that ‘those best able to make been delighted by the warm wel - paign Scotland has ever seen’ is have suggested its ‘divisions’ em - decisions about Scotland’s future come our socialist ideas have re - also on schedule for 2014. phasise the plurality of opinion be - are the people who live here’ can ceived in this mass movement. hind Independence. The SSP for be married to the Greens central Our party is widely respected for Successes example has made it perfectly belief that democracy works best our ability to raise the Independ - And yet for all these successes clear from the beginning that we when it is local and close at hand. ence message with passion and the polls stubbornly suggest only favour an Independent socialist And for our part the SSP highlights conviction within the trade union 35 per cent of Scots are in favour Scotland that is a modern, demo - the democratic reality that Scot - movement and in ‘the schemes’. of Independence. And here Blair cratic republic. land’s working class majority will be And we can show some important Jenkins put the best spin on this On the other hand there are better off freed from the chains of successes in both these regards unwelcome fact he could by say - those who dismiss ‘Yes Scotland’ the UK state. throughout the past year. ing ‘we never expected to be as ‘a front for the SNP’. And whilst Whilst our shared objective then Our essential message to all In - ahead at this stage.’ Maybe, but it is true the Nationalists are its is to win the Referendum we retain dependence supporters in the cru - we would all have welcomed it! most powerful constituent part, this the right to debate tactics, centrally cial year ahead is borrowed from Notwithstanding the polls ‘Yes claim foolishly ignores the crucial whether the ‘softly, softly’ approach Martin Luther King who famously Scotland’ has been an undoubted role the SSP and Greens play both favoured by the SNP - keep the said, at a similar time to this, ‘Keep success. This alliance between in broadening the organisations Queen, keep the pound, keep your eyes on the prize’. The polls social democrats and socialists, appeal and in counter-posing the NATO membership – is more likely can and will be turned around if we between businessmen and trade type of independent Scotland we to succeed than that message remember that we offer the people unionists, between supporters of prefer. Notwithstanding these dif - favoured by the Greens and the of Scotland the one commodity Independence on the left, and right ferences we are all agreed that SSP that the Independence case that appears to them to be in such has grown and grown. Its role is Scotland’s social democratic val - is at its most potent when it short supply at the moment, hope. not to develop policy but to max - ues are more likely to be advanced stresses how much things will im - We offer them a powerfully attrac - imise support for Independence. It within an Independent settlement. prove for the vast majority. tive option and we say ‘Come rightly states that the kind of Inde - And it might be argued that in So how are we to turn the polls change the world with us on 18 pendence Scotland opts for will be the year ahead it is incumbent on around in the year ahead? For me September 2014’.

issue 419 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 5 G8 SUMMIT by

COUNTY Fermanagh, in the south west of Northern Ireland, is where I was born and brought up. Visiting my family there is always a tonic to the senses: the lush green rolling hills, the back roads bursting G8 SUMMIT: with birdsong, the stillness and glit - tering tranquility of Lough Erne. Of course the price is almost guar - anteed and persistent rain: as the local saying goes, half the year Lough fracking furious Erne is in Fermanagh, the other six months Fermanagh is in Lough Erne! And at many points in the agri - cultural cycle, you get used to a pow - erful aroma of the most natural of all iresurnfacing tha t hFas beene conducrted mbecause eight acapitalistn heads of gaov - sgtopped anh d searched, squads of mo - fertilizers, spread by the farmers to over recent months, especially on the ernment and their entourage are de - torbike cops on the streets, boats with enrich the grass! main Belfast to Enniskillen A4 route. scending on the county for a couple police patrols on the lough, and po - Not last week though! The all-too- An estimated £11million has been of days. But the G8 invasion of Fer - lice helicopters violating the tranquil - rare glory of sunshine vastly en - spent on road improvements, but managh involves more than paint, ity of the county. CCTV cameras hanced the spectacular scenery, but mostly on the main routes that the G8 pretty posters and pothole repairs. festoon every available lamppost or instead of boosting the smell of ma - media circus might spot, not on rural It includes an appalling extrava - building. nure, it increased the smell of fresh roads most desperately in need of re - ganza of taxpayers’ money being Already 730 police officers from paint! Especially so in the county pair for those who live there. splashed out on a ‘security’ operation England, Scotland and Wales have town of Enniskillen, where every The short burst of employment that has many of the hallmarks of a been trained to drive armoured Lan - street railing had a new black gloss this has created is welcome in an area police state, of an occupied, mili - drovers - a ‘privilege’ normally re - to it; shop fronts boasted bright new of chronic unemployment; a family tarised zone. stricted to police in Northern Ireland colours; you could hardly turn a friend, a skilled tradesman, has had A massive ring of steel fencing - as part of an overall drafting in of street corner without walking into to turn away painting and decorating round the Lough Erne Resort has 3,600 ‘mutual aid’ police from painters up ladders or on cherrypick - work because he can’t cope with the cost over £4.2million. The Shore Britain. Police armed with machine ers. A family friend described in ex - demand, whereas he’d previously Road, that runs from Enniskillen past guns are patrolling the streets weeks asperation how he wanted to had to drive a tanker for a living. the venue, has been blocked off to before the G8, as are British soldiers. decorate his house but literally could - An English company has been general traffic from 1-26 June, with The local media repeatedly pumps n’t find a tin of paint for sale in any handed the £450,000 contract by local residents having to show spe - out the line they are being trained on of the local shops! Fermanagh district council to mount cial passes to get home. This is part ‘how to deal with public disorder’ - To say a full-blown cosmetic ex - vinyl pictures on shop-front shutters! of a vast water and air exclusion zone part of a massive propaganda hype ercise has been launched would be a But behind this gloss lurks a stark - not just on 17-18 June when these about impending violence that is de - gross understatement: empty shops, reality that will remain when the G8 imperialist lords land for their discus - signed to and demonise the trade idle work sites and derelict buildings caravan moves on, captured in one sions on the carve-up of the world’s unionists, environmentalists, social - are literally covered up with giant example: the luxurious Lough Erne resources and war plans, but for the ists, and human rights campaigners posters of idyllic Fermanagh scenery, Resort chosen to host the G8 ex - entire period from 1-26 June. seeking to exercise their right to in several villages and many ap - ploiters’ deliberations has until re - peaceful protest against the G8 jam - proach roads. cently been put into administration, Armed occupation boree. Water cannons are in position. only temporarily re-opened for the School exams are being disrupted Unmanned police drones, costing The G8 invasion G8 event, with workers taken back by the traffic exclusion zone, with over £1million, have been bought to Why? The ‘masters of the uni - on... but on lower wages! students expected to get earlier buses fly over and spy on people and verse’ are coming to town! David Most Fermanagh people aren’t on the days that heavily shape their protests. Cameron chose the luxurious Lough fooled by appearances, however futures. Non-emergency outpatient The prestigious Killyhelvin hotel Erne Golf Resort hotel complex, on pretty. In fact they are downright re - services are being suspended when - normally reliant on weddings, fam - the scenic rural outskirts of En - sentful at the hypocrisy of years of Cameron’s international cronies ily outings and tourists - has been lit - niskillen, as the venue for this year’s being ignored in their pleas for road come. A massive police operation is erally taken over for weeks by a G8 summit of the leaders of eight of improvements and investment in already underway, several weeks be - massive media horde there to report the capitalist world’s biggest jobs and small independent busi - fore Cameron, Obama, Merkel, the G8, no doubt on the prowl for economies. nesses by the government - with Putin et al descend on Fermanagh for any incident of violence by protes - Local people are generally glad to pleas of poverty from the Stormont two days. On a short journey you will tors that they can exaggerate, but see the town and parts of some sur - and Westminster regimes - now sud - encounter at least two or three police very little exposé of the bloodcur - rounding villages getting a paint job. denly transformed into bottomless patrols, on foot, in cars, with random dling violence perpetrated by the G8 They welcome the intensive road pots of gold to spruce up the place checkpoints, people frequently leaders and their system of ruthless

6 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 419 G8 SUMMIT And it can’t even be sold to the local population with the cynical offer of jobs in an unemployment blackspot: Tamboran initially prom - ised 600 jobs north of the border plus 600 in the south, but have now re - duced their pledge to three jobs per pad, a miserable total of 180. Aside from the issue of dangerous and environmentally destructive jobs, that’s hardly compensation for the 5,000 local jobs in farming or the 1,000 tourism jobs that will be jeop - ardised by this monstrous plan to frack Fermanagh. The G8 summit epitomises all that is worst about the capitalist world we live in. Nauseating pomp and privi - lege for the powerful, alongside WHOSE STREETS? the scene in Auchterarder when the G8 came to Scotland PHOTO: Simon Whittle poverty, unemployment and outright hunger for the majority population. exploitation of people and planet. By Bear in mind this super-sized po - tion that is marching through En - Food banks and charity collections way of contrast, former British lice and military operation is being niskillen on 17 June has made oppo - for desperately needed services in the Army and RAF bases in Omagh and conducted in an area where the sition to fracking a central theme. local community, alongside obscene Enniskillen have been turned into biggest town, Enniskillen, has a pop - In 2001, the G8 endorsed High gluttony, publicly funded, at this ‘custody facilities’ for protesters - at ulation just under 15,000, which is Volume Hydraulic Fracturing for gathering of eight capitalist puppets. a cost of £3.9million. roughly a quarter the population of shale gas, in support of the lobby of And the local council has declared the whole of Co Fermanagh. the oil and gas multinationals. State forces itself unable to find a suitable camp Much is being prattled about ‘the Shattering rock, this releases gas, Over 3 billion people on the planet site for protesters, whereas the bill G8 legacy’ in Fermanagh. A crude but also brings to the surface numer - living below $2 a day, whilst 358 bil - for catering and cleaning alone at the reduction in people’s civil rights is ous toxins, such as benzene, lead, lionaires and a couple of hundred G8 resort is £3million. likely to be one actual legacy; they mercury and radioactive material. multinationals have a grip on the Government Ministers have coyly won’t splash out on this monstrous Fracking also contaminates water world’s wealth - 1.3 billion people declined to answer questions about ‘security’ exercise and then simply supplies along new fault lines in the subsisting on $1 a day, and some - plans to shut down internet access dismantle it. Long term job creation rock, reaching into streams and lakes. body dying of hunger every 3.6 sec - and social media at the height of the it certainly will not bring. Two pri - As the lakelands of the north of onds. Environmental destruction so G8 - in stark contrast to the Depart - vate security firms, including the no - Ireland, Fermanagh seems the last that the giant energy corporations can ment of Environment’s fast-tracking torious G4S, have been handed the place on earth that fracking should make a fast buck. of seven temporary new telecoms contract for 650 staff for the G8 jam - be allowed. And deployment of state forces, masts in the G8 conference centre it - boree, but they don’t even intend to But the capitalists who lord it over armed to the teeth, to block the right self and the main police barracks. recruit locally. us mere mortals couldn’t give a frack of peaceful protest to people gen - The British army has arrived to about the well-being of Fermanagh - uinely committed to a decent life, a give back-up to the police, and army Outrageous legacy or anywhere else on the globe. living wage, public services, peace, helicopters will fly the G8 entourage The local RNLI has just launched The Belfast government has al - and protection of the planet from de - to and from the Lough Erne Resort. a public appeal for £60,000 to build ready granted permission to a com - struction for short-term profit. The place is crawling with hundreds a proper shelter for this vital, life sav - pany called Tamboran Resources to Capitalism means world starva - of secret service operatives. ing service, run by volunteers; not for start work on two sites in Fermanagh, tion, poverty and war. Capitalism The Police Service Northern Ire - them the bottomless well of public where they have plans for 60 ‘pads’ - means the dictatorship of the rich, land (PSNI) is spending an overall funding afforded eight men and each a seven-acre site, concreted with the backup of armed forces pre - £50million in policing and so-called women who dominate our lives with over, with heavy and noisy machin - pared to deny the right to resist to the ‘security’. That is an obscene squan - their economic and social policies. ery, with air, water and noise pollu - majority. dering of public funds against the Another local public appeal has just tion - a mere mile apart from one The G8 occupation of Fermanagh backdrop of vicious public service raised £15,000 for defibrillators, after another. Scientists warn that more is a brutal reminder of the world we cuts, where the likes of my mother’s a near-tragedy. Youth unemployment than half the water will be severely need to change, of the need for so - home help service has been cut to the is officially 24 per cent, with low- contaminated, with no means of de - cialism in Ireland, Scotland and bone, and where charity volunteers paid retail jobs one of the few outlets. contaminating it. And the unusually around the globe these creatures are collect on street corners and at stalls One of the most outrageous ‘lega - shallow shale layers in the area - meeting to carve up. in the bigger Enniskillen supermar - cies’ of the G8, if they have their way, about a quarter the depth in other Join that fight now, before they lay kets for life-saving services that are will be fracking in Fermanagh. The parts of the world - makes fracking waste to millions more people and not rendered by the state. Fermanagh G8 Not Welcome coali - in Fermanagh especially dangerous. the planet we share.

issue 419 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 7 CULTURE

Scotlacnd’so Roadt tol Soacialisnm: dc’losse rel atitonsi wimth the woerking cltass oin sh ecer lackh of amobitiono. At thse same e time Time To Choose , edited by England and hopefully elsewhere. Independ - there appears to be common agreement as to Professor Gregor Gall ence does not diminish, in any way, the basis kind of Scotland they want to see. for solidarity. It would be a Scotland which abolishes the by More telling is the argument that the inter - monarchy and becomes a modern, demo - ests of the working class in Scotland will not cratic republic. THIS book is a timely contribution to the be advanced by the government’s proposals It would be a Scotland which values, de - debate on independence taking place on the on independence. This is objectively true fends and extends public services. It would left. It brings together 22 contributors from given the aim of maintaining as much of the extend public ownership in to key strategic a variety of political backgrounds and disci - existing social and economic status quo as parts of the economy like railways and the plines to ask the question, ‘Is there a Scottish possible. However, these commentators are energy industry. It would pursue fairness and Road to ?’ left with a problem. How will the interests equality as an integral party of social policy. Five contributors, mostly from in an around of Scottish workers be better by remaining It would reject militarism, abolish nuclear the Labour Party reject independence while in the Union even under a Labour Govern - weapons and leave Nato. the rest, broadly speaking, are in favour. ment? It also fails to recognise that the SNP It would be a welcoming home for all Those arguing against outline some well- those who want Scotland to be their home worn arguments. These include principled and would place the protection of the envi - opposition to nationalism, a belief that the ronment and sustainable development at the break-up of Britain will undermine the unity centre of government policy. of the British working class and that the in - These contributors are all united behind a terests of workers in Scotland will not be further point. If the referendum is lost it will served by the version of independence pro - be because the has posed by the Scottish government. failed to inspire and mobilise the Scottish peo - The first two have become tired argu - ple behind the campaign for independence. ments. The movement for independence in Scotland is very broad based and contain Left’s vision of the future many forces who do not describe themselves If independence doesn’t actually change as nationalists. very much; why bother? This debate and the For them this is essentially a democratic campaign that flows from it cannot be left to issue. Do we want a Scottish Parliament with the Scottish Government. The left need to be all the powers necessary for the effective involved at all levels of the campaign and in - governing of the country and do we want a ject into it their vision of the future. parliament which is not subservient to West - The contributions in the book from those minster. opposed to independence also highlights a problem for socialists who adopt this position. Sovereignty Progressive opinion in Scotland is increas - If the answer to both questions is Yes then ingly coalescing round the Yes campaign. Fac - what is being described here is independence ing them is an essentially reactionary alliance and sovereignty. All that then has to be of right wing forces mounting a vigorous de - worked out is the detail of that sovereignty. do not own the independence debate. There fence of the Union as it is at present and a neg - As for splitting the British working class are many arguing for a left vision of inde - ative and destructive campaign aimed at this argument has become dated and does pendence and that if Scotland votes Yes in frightening the Scottish people into voting No. not take into account the changes in the or - 2014 there will be an explosion of debate If, when the referendum comes and this is ganised working class in Britain as a result and struggle as to what the new Scotland the outcome it will mean that the Scottish of de-industrialisation. will look like. people voted No in the ballot because they When Britain still had an industrial econ - The majority of contributors argue in did not have the confidence to vote Yes. Is omy it had a large well organised working favour of independence and agree, to a this really the side of history that those sec - class with the industrial working class at its greater or lesser extent, that there can be a tions of the left want to find themselves on? core centred on great national industries. Scottish Road to Socialism in as much as so - Professor Gall has to be congratulated for Since de-industrialisation that core has van - cialism can ever be contained within the bor - bringing these contributions together in a ished leaving a movement which is smaller, ders of one country. book which should be recommended reading much more fragmented and overwhelmingly All are highly critical of the vision of in - for all the left in Scotland. located in the public sector. dependence put forward by the Scottish The debate is on-going with no doubt An independent Scotland will still have its Government in its attempt to keep as much many other contributions to come. This, own organised working class existing in of the status quo intact as possible and by its however, is a good place to start.

8 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 419 EMILY DAVISON EMILY WILDING DAVISON - ‘DEEDS NOT WORD S’

MARTYR: Davison threw herself in front of the King’s horse at the 4 Derby. She died of her injuries four days later Denise Morton looks at Women’s Social and Political had used peaceful means to women experienced similar the death of Union (WSPU), the organisa - make the case for women’s deprivations and their names Emily Wilding Davison tion set up by the Pankhursts representation in the West - are not remembered by many in Manchester in 1903. minster parliament. But suc - people today, except perhaps THIS past week the media, For decades, women had cess seemed to get no nearer for the Pankhursts. But there newspapers, television and been campaigning for the right until the WSPU adopted more is nothing unusual in that. radio have remembered suf - to vote, with no success. direct forms of protest to Women’s history has been fragette Emily Wilding Davi - The WSPU were committed achieve that aim. hidden many times only to be son who, on Derby day 100 using direct action in pursuit of Destruction of property, rediscovered by succeeding years ago, was killed whilst at - their aims, which included ranging from setting fire to let - generations. Remembering tempting to throw a sash or struggling to improve the so - ter boxes to bombing build - Emily Wilding Davison gives scarf over King ’s cial life of women. But with the ings, disrupting sporting us an opportunity to revisit horse Anmer, when the race advent of the First World War, events, such as racing and women’s history and our was well underway. their energies were directed golf as well as rising vocal struggle for emancipation, lib - Much debate has been gen - towards supporting the troops protests and demonstrations eration and equality. erated concerning whether who were fighting a war which were the order of the day. That struggle goes on. she was deliberately courting was supposed to end all wars. Many women were impris - Women all over the world are suicide as a political act or if it The British economy, which oned and soon they began reaching out to each other, sup - was a tragic accidental death. was still a huge global power, hunger strikes. Emily Wilding porting each other’s struggles, Her actions may very well was already in relative de - Davison herself was impris - whether for an end to violence have been the last desperate cline. London was the finan - oned almost 40 times. Not against women, for democratic act of a women frustrated by cial centre of the world and wanting to create martyrs, the rights, reproductive rights or for the lack of progress to win like today it sucked in wealth governments response was the equality in the workplace. The votes for women, or it could and distributed it between a infamous Cat and Mouse Act. struggle goes on. have been a publicity stunt, al - small financial elite. We are determined our beit one where the risk of The lives of the mass of peo - Torture voices will not be silenced, our death or serious injury had ple were marked by increased Women had been force- history will not be hidden and been considered beforehand. poverty and misery. But change fed, which today is considered our complete participation in was afoot - again, not unlike torture. But as their health economic, social, political and Determined today where we are witnessing began to deteriorate they were cultural life will continue and We cannot know for certain the growing and more militant allowed to go home, recover advance. How will we do this? what was in Emily Davison’s demands for democracy in their health and sent back to Inscribed on Emily Davison’s mind on 4 June 1913, except many parts of the globe. prison to complete their sen - headstone is the phrase ‘Deeds that she was determined that For example, there had tence. Emily Davison was at not Words’. Words worth re - the cause for which she strug - been demands for home rule one point locked in a cell membering. So thank you Emily gled would be brought to in Ireland, Canada, Australia which was pumped with water Wilding Davison, thank you everyone’s attention. In that, and Scotland. The established until she nearly drowned. Tor - Mary Barbour, thank you An - she succeeded. colonies were revolting and so ture by water is not a modern gela Davies. Thank you all the Like many, many women, were the women in Britain. day technique. women who have struggled Emily Davison had been an For 50 or more years, the But Emily was not alone in and still struggle to make this active campaigner in the campaign for votes for women her travails. Hundreds of world a fairer more just world.

issue 419 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 9 NEWS OIL AND GAS ARE VALUABLE RESOURCES BUT OWNERSHIP IS KEY TO WHO GETS THE BENEFITS Ken Ferguson sets the doubt is that the vast wealth cabinet minister Denis, now markets - in Latin America scene for two different was pumped from the North Lord Healey. the socialist government in approaches... Sea and that that fact was The myth that Scottish oil Bolivia has taken the key gas deliberately hidden by both isn’t worth much is still a resources into public THE discovery of oil and gas Tory and Labour cornerstone of No campaign ownership and uses the in the North Sea in the 1970s governments to block any - composed of those same revenue to slash poverty. has been a source both of move towards independence, parties that lied about it for In the two articles below, vast wealth - largely for preferring the myth that 30 years. we look at the contrasting private firms and the London Scotland would starve In contrast - and in direct approaches, and it is difficult treasury - and political without London. contradiction of those to deny that the Bolivian controversy. This was confirmed spineless Westminster approach has much to teach However, what is not in recently by former Labour politicians who worship the Scotland. Bolivia: nationalisation puts wealth in hands of the people by Federico Fuentes ber of Bolivians living in poverty had much should be extracted, nor what a year during this period. This is the swelled to more than 66 per cent by happens to the final product. result of a dramatic redistribution of BOLIVIA is demonstrating to the the turn of the century. At the same time, the Bolivian wealth to the benefit of the poor ma - world why nationalising natural re - The decline in state revenue due to government is working to strengthen jority. With government spending on sources is a crucial first step for any the privatisation of the gas industry YPFB so that it can take full respon - health and education grew almost government seeking to put people meant the Bolivian government was sibility for extraction and processing. fourfold between 2005 and 2012. and the environment before profits. increasingly dependent on foreign Importantly, more than 80 per cent The government also began pay - On May 1, 2006, less than four loans to cover its shrinking budget. of all profits from the industry now ing social security to pregnant months after becoming president, This began to change with the na - go to the state via taxes, royalties and women, families with children in pri - Evo Morales decreed the nationali - tionalisation decree and subsequent other means. mary school and pensioners. Today, sation of the country’s gas reserves. re-negotiation of contracts with gas The difference is clear, as hydro - 31 per cent of Bolivians benefit from This move restored state control over transnationals. Under the new con - carbons minister Juan Jose Sosa these payments. the strategic resource. tracts, transnationals no longer dictate noted recently: “Seven years before Rises in the minimum and average In doing so, Morales followed what happens in the industry. Now, the nationalisation, from 1999 to real wage, initiatives to cut unem - through with one of his key election the Bolivian state sets the terms. 2005, the state received about US$2 ployment and price controls on staple promises and met a historic demand Claims that transnationals con - billion. After these seven years, the foods, these policies have made the of the Bolivian people. The people tinue to dominate the sector and ex - state received more than $16 billion.” poor richer and lowered wealth in - had overthrown successive presi - tract the majority of Bolivia’s gas Despite headlines saying such ac - equality have helped cut the gap be - dents unwilling to take Bolivia’s gas misrepresent the real situation. Under tions would lead to foreign compa - tween the richest 10 per cent and out of the hands of greedy transna - the new service provision contracts, nies pulling out of the country and poorest 10 per cent was 128 to 1 in tionals. the state not only owns the gas de - the collapse of the sector, Bolivia’s 2005, but by 2012 this gap was cut Given the status of gas as Bolivia’s posit but also extracted gas and the gas industry remains strong. In fact, to 60-to-1. key resource and source of wealth, it profits arising from its sale. Bolivia’s economy has registered Some environmental critics of the was no surprise — this resources Given the almost complete dis - record growth rates despite the global government argue that hydrocarbons came to be seen as a vehicle for lift - mantlement of the state-owned economic downtown. nationalisation has done nothing to ing the poorest country in the region YPFB gas company during the pe - Figures from Bolivia’s National lower Bolivia’s economic depend - out of its misery. riod of neoliberal privatisation, the Institute of Statistics (INE) indicate ency on the extraction and export of Despite promises by neoliberal state still requires the services of that external demand made a nega - raw resources, in this case non-re - politicians and institutions such as the transnationals. tive contribution to growth. The real newable resources. The greater rev - World Bank that privatisation and These private companies are hired driving force behind Bolivia’s enues, they allege, are simply used as free market economics would lead to and paid for their services. But the growth was the explosion in internal handouts to the poor to quell popular improved living standards, the num - transnationals have no say over how demand, which averaged 5.2 per cent discontent.

10 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 419 NEWS

bTy Iahn Berothe rlhoiode, mtimue whesn netw fiedlds aire ebeing Ayrshire SSP identified, business is booming in Aberdeen, and most oil & gas IT’S bad enough lying to some - workers confidently support in - one and then nicking their stuff. dependence. But to then pretend it didn’t hap - The original McCrone report pen just adds insult to injury. (and potted, print-friendly leaflet- has done format versions), are easily lo - just that by claiming to be un - cated online. But mention of it in aware of the McCrone report, the mainstream media is rare - and the Labour Party’s complic - ignoring a lie only emboldens ity in hiding it from the public for the liar, hence Curran’s ludi - over 30 years. crous assertion that she ‘wasn’t Her unbelievable statement around’ in Healey’s days and comes in the wake of Denis knew nothing of any such report. Healey’s admission that the true (Curran is a youthful 55, but it so value of North Sea oil remains a happens that she was Chair of major concern for Unionists as the Scottish Organisation of the Independence referendum Labour Students at the time.) draws nearer - they’re ‘worried Healey spoke the truth, and stiff about it’. should be applauded for it, but the fact remains that he, and ‘Secret report’ every other senior British politi - TAKING BACK CONTROL: Evo Morales nationalised Bolivia’s gas Anyone who remembers the cian throughout the Callaghan, reserves in May 2006, less than four months after taking power referendum debates of 1979 may recall whispered rumours However, as Bolivia’s Minster of on a number of experiments with of ‘a secret report’ which de - Economy and Finance Luis Arce small state-owned enterprises in the tailed how much oil remained - noted in Economia Plural, the Boli - area of food processing, gold and some said there could be an - vian government is promoting a cardboard production. The plan is for other ten years’ worth, others “New Economic, Social, Communi - these companies to be handed over reckoned it might even last until tarian, and Productive Model” to re - to local communities to run as part of the end of the century. But the place the neoliberal model. fostering the communitarian sector. implication was clear - it’s run - Under this new model, the gov - Viewed as a whole, the measures ning out, so don’t get yourself in ernment now prioritises stimulating taken to recover sovereignty over a lather about it. the internal market, an important step Bolivia’s economy have meant that We know (and have done towards reducing dependency on the state has become the central since 2005, when it was re - MARGARET CURRAN : told foreign capital and global demand. player in the national economy. leased via Freedom of Informa - Radio Scotland “I know I’m This requires not only wealth re - Today, more of Bolivia’s wealth stays tion requests) that the report getting on a bit, but I wasn’t distribution but also the transfer of in Bolivia and is used to expand the was real enough - written by around in Denis Healey’s days” wealth generated in extractive sectors internal market, promote industriali - economist Gavin McCrone and (primarily gas, but also mining) to - sation, and stimulate the communi - presented to the Cabinet in Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown ward the industrial processing of nat - tarian sector. 1975. and now Cameron governments ural resources. Another task is If this is what a small, landlocked We also know that it stated has lied to the people of Scot - stimulating the manufacturing, Andean country that has historically Scotland’s right to the resources land. And they’re still doing it. tourism, housing and agriculture sec - been relegated to the subordinate po - in its territorial waters was indis - The McCrone report was tors to meet this demand. sition of raw materials exporter can putable, and that the revenue marked ‘Top Secret’ and The redirection of wealth toward achieve, imagine what we could generated would result in Scot - stashed away in a Westminster promoting other productive sectors begin to do in Australia if we nation - land having an ‘embarrassingly’ filing cabinet for three decades has also had an impact. The phenom - alised the mines and put our natural large surplus for decades. during which Scotland’s indus - enal jump in the number of registered wealth back in public hands. Now, the whispering has tries were decimated, but it enterprises from less than 20,000 in started again. George Galloway, can’t be reburied - the truth is 2005 to over 68,000 in 2012, con - • A longer version of this interviewed by Max Keiser on out, and the Labour Con/Lib tributed to a 2.8 per cent fall in un - article first appeared in RT, is the latest to peddle the old Dem unionists should be employment (5.5 per cent in 2010). Green Left Weekly. canard - ‘it’s running out’, and he slapped about the chops with it The government has also embarked See: greenleft.org.au has the brass neck to do it at a until their ears bleed.

issue 419 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 11 for Socialism, Independence and Internationalism email: [email protected] facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice Issue 419 7th - 20th June 2013 CHURCH OF SCOTLAND STANDS bFy SIofRiah MMacLeo dO, N PALESTINIAN RIaGnd saHnctionTs (BDS S) and other Campaigns Officer, forms of non-violent direct action. Scottish Palestine Iona Community member Solidarity Campaign Eurig Scandrett said that the Church of Scotland “has not been LAST month Church of Scotland afraid to speak truth to power - the ministers and elders voted over - truth that Israel’s claims to Pales - whelmingly to adopt a report by tinian land is unjustifiable theolog - the Church and Society Council ically or ethically. Israel’s which challenged “claims that credibility has just been dealt a scripture offers any peoples a priv - major blow”. ileged claim for possession of a Fiona Napier, Chair of Scottish particular territory”. Palestine Solidarity Campaign, The Council report argues that welcomed the General Assembly it is “doubly wrong to seek bibli - decisions, saying that “the Israeli cal sanction” given “the fact that government needs to know that the [Palestinian] land is currently Scottish civil society, including being taken by settlement expan - TIME FOR CHANGE: Israel’s occupation of Palestine has to end our trade unions and churches, re - sion, the separation barrier, house fuse to be complicit in their crimes clearance, theft and force”. It is League (ADL) in the US de - and the Palestinians while dele - against the Palestinian people and, now the Church view that Israel’s nounced the Church and Society gates confirmed their position that as we see the situation for Pales - blockade of Gaza and illegal mil - Council and called for the with - the human rights of all peoples tinians worsen, we will find and itary occupation of the West Bank drawal of the report. The ADL has should be respected and that “this take more effective action in sup - and East Jerusalem has to end be - recently been exposed for spying should include the right of return port of Palestinian rights”. fore reconciliation is possible. on progressive, left-wing and and/or compensation for Palestin - Arab groups and individuals in - ian refugees”. Groundbreaking Pressure cluding Noam Chomsky. Dr Bernard Sabella of the Mid - The Church of Scotland deci - The General Assembly vote In response the Church of Scot - dle East Council of Churches, sion is groundbreaking and its demonstrates the strong support land held their position. The orig - based in Jerusalem, a delegate to members will continue to feel the for Palestinian rights within the inal report was amended with the Church of Scotland General pressure from the Israeli govern - Church and also a determination introductory remarks that included Assembly, called the Church of ment, Zionist and pro-Israel organ - on the part of delegates that the a reaffirming of the Kirk’s rejec - Scotland report “a wake-up call”. isations. It is important that the rest Church would not submit to pres - tion of racism and religious hatred Rev Na’el Abu Rahmoun of the of Scottish civil society responds sure from the Israeli government but its conclusion that scripture Diocese of the Episcopal Church by engaging in conversations with and pro-Israel organisations to should not be used to claim exclu - in Jerusalem and the Middle East members of the Church and to bury the Council report. sive rights to territory was un - explained to the General Assembly support the Church as they reject Earlier in May, the Board of changed. A motion to effectively how Palestinian citizens of Israel the hijacking of interfaith dialogue Deputies of British Jews called the remit the report until 2014 was face systematic discrimination, in the interest of the state of Israel. report “an ignorant and tenden - overwhelmingly rejected by dele - and said “we are about 1.5 million, And while Israel continues to tious document masquerading as gates who agreed instead to pro - Christians and Muslims together” demolish homes, expropriate land a theological statement” while Is - mote the widest discussion of the who are “considered maybe sec - and destroy the lives of Palestini - rael’s ambassador to the UK report and its conclusions ond or third class citizens”. ans by imprisonment and torture, Daniel Taub said “it not only plays throughout the local committees Ministers and elders attending it is long overdue for the rest of into extremist political positions, of the Church. the General Assembly were also Scottish civil society to adopt and but negates and belittles the During the debate Church and encouraged by the Church and implement an effective campaign deeply held Jewish attachment to Society Council convenor Rev Society Council to debate the Iona of boycott, divestment and sanc - the land of Israel in a way which Sally Foster-Fulton stressed that Call 2012, a response to Kairos tions against the state of Israel and is truly hurtful”. there was huge “inequality in Palestine that endorses the Pales - the companies and institutions that The pro-Israel Anti-Defamation power” between the state of Israel tinian call for boycott, divestment are complicit in their crimes.