Venezuelan revolution: Chavez Say NO to NATO: celebrates election victory will the SNP do but he faces new challenges the right thing? • see page 11 • see page 12 £1 • issue 405 • 19th Oct - 1st Nov 2012 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net Better the devil ‘No’ camp want Scots to vote for you know ... ? more cuts by Ken Ferguson

It was the Roman satirist Juve - nal who coined the phrase “bread and circuses” to describe the way rulers supplied basic food and big events to keep the population quiet. Over the past few months, his acolytes in the No campaign have been busily taking his ad - vice as the breathless pap of the royal jubilee was followed by the shameless Union Jack waving of the Olympics. And now, as previously pre - dicted in the Voice , the million - aires cabinet are laying their plans to use the centenary of the outbreak of the imperialist blood - bath of World War One in 2014 to boost their No message. No doubt unpalatable facts like the much higher proportion of Scots who died defending their regime of plunder and pillage, and whose names adorn count - less memorials from Wigtown to Wick, will be sidestepped. So far, they have scored some CAMERON’S MESSAGE TO SCOTS: PM says there’s no alternative to the misery of cuts and sackings success as shown in polls giving the No campaign a lead in the in - crafted Better Together cam - shadow of an economic crisis Like old fashioned blood let - dependence battle. paign’s case has started to unravel. which all of them - Labour, Tory ting surgeons, they all want to However the last few weeks Looming over the No cam - and Lib Dem - say can only be bleed the patient - only arguing have seen a series of events paign’s three-in-a-bed London solved at the cost of jobs, services about how much blood to take as through which the carefully party alliance is the growing and living standards. • continued on page 2 INDEPENDENCE Break with British failure PHOTO: Craig Maclean by Campbell Martin

In The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists , published in 1914, Robert Tressell (real name Robert Noonan) described life for the working class in the late 19th century. Today, it is hard to contemplate the deep-seated levels of poverty and deprivation endured by men, women and children who worked themselves into early graves. The workers saw no improvement to their lives, but their employers, who did not work, grew ever richer. At the time the book was set, a fledgling socialist movement was beginning to spread across Britain, making the case for working-class’ rights and socialist representation in parliament. a better scotland is possible ! the ssp’s addresses last month’s Yes scotland demo

Indoctrinated meetings and chased them out – Tory, Labour, Liberal collapsed economic system; The response of the ruling of town, believing the line that Democrat – have united in a the certainty of soaring elite – the aristocrats and the workers needed the bosses to partnership to tell Scotland and unemployment; the certainty of bosses – was to issue be in control or there would be the Scots that we are too wee, large areas of multiple pamphlets warning the workers no work and ‘their lives would too poor and too stupid to deprivation in towns and cities that if they voted socialist, their be hell’. govern ourselves. across Scotland; the certainty lives would be hell. Fast-forward just over 100 Our best bet, they tell us, is of cuts to public spending and That message was years and the ruling elite are to remain within the British services we desperately need; addressed to people whose still in place, still exploiting the Union and continue to be the certainty of continuing child lives already were a living hell working class, and still using governed by and from poverty; the certainty that under the capitalist system, but the same line of argument. Westminster (with a devolved many of our elderly citizens will many were so indoctrinated by In 21st century Scotland, we parliament in Edinburgh that is die over the next few months the power of the wealthy that stand on the brink of re-taking entirely answerable to the because they are poor and they actually broke-up socialist our political independence, of British parliament in London). can’t afford to pay the gas and securing the right to govern our electricity bills from profit- The Wee Red own country in the interests of Certainty driven, private utility Bookshop the people and of representing Despite independence being companies; the certainty that Books, T-shirts, ourselves on the world stage. the normal status for most young Scots will continue to be ideas to change the In other words, we are about nations in the world, the sent to kill or be killed in illegal, world! All at very to vote on whether or not we Unionists tell us that, for immoral, imperialist wars. reasonable prices. want Scotland to be a normal, Scotland, it would result in us Independence is simply 137 London Road, independent country. But still “sending our children to a being a normal country. Glasgow. Phone for the ruling elite, the capitalists, deeply uncertain future”. We have nothing to fear from opening info, or if the bosses, the bankers, the The message is clear: vote governing ourselves and you can donate British Unionist political parties for independence and our lives building a better, fairer books, we can tell us that if we vote for will be hell. Instead, the Scotland. It is remaining in the arrange for them independence it will be ‘a Unionists tell us we should stay British Union – 300 years of to be picked up. disaster’ for Scotland (our lives with the certainty of the making life hell for the working will be hell). capitalist-run British State. class - that is the scary The British capitalist parties That is the certainty of a prospect. 2 • • issue 405 independence reject the no campaign’s cuts agenda by Colin Fox goes up claiming that we can - services and offer hard times paign’s drive for independence. not afford travel concessions as far as the eye can see. We want independence to open Behind all the Better To - for older people. Yet again a It is no surprise then that the way to a new Scotland gether campaign’s anti-inde - system backed by the London Labour, Tories and spineless which uses our wealth skills and pendence scares, one truth No parties. Lib Dems all not only sing from talent to end poverty, tax the fat they don’t want to discuss is There are many other exam - the same hard times song cats, break with foreign wars that staying with Britain signs ples of this truth but the basic sheet but are slashing services and nuclear weapons, putting you sign up to the worst reces - message is plain: all that the locally and nationally. peoples interests before the sion in 80 years, sackings, cuts much hyped No campaign of - The SSP is unwavering in our greed of a few. This vision of a and slashed benefits and pay. fers is a set of policies which resolve to defend jobs, services new Scotland is gaining more That’s why, elsewhere in this pamper the rich and drive down and communities while at the and more support - and its a vi - Voice , we put the case for benefits and pay, slash vital same time backing the Yes cam - sion worth fighting for. workers to both fight the cuts and back independence. As we go to press, the an - nual ritual of inflation-busting gas and electricity prices hikes has opened as one energy firm after another expose the fable that they are in competition as they play leap frog to increase power bills and their obscene profits. A system backed by the London No parties. The chaos on our privatised railways grinds on as the pub - lic suffer a double mugging of taxpayer subsidies to rail firms and prices among the highest in Europe. Again a system backed by the London No par - ties. As taxpayer bankrolled bus profits flow into the coffers of privatised owners they chorus usual suspects: unholy alliance of labour, tory and lib Dems want scots to back their recession

per cent of voters will prove a win - the Westminster gang of three is de - Better the devil you know .. .? ning plan. Even arch Thatcherite termined to manage the burgeoning • continued from page 1 city and the banks that their cash is and Tory hatchet man in her cabi - economic crisis in the interests of the patient grows ever weaker. safe as they plan a further £10bil - net Michael Forsyth criticised it in the rich and will make the rest of us To justify this dictatorship of the lion assault on welfare. Bidding ea - an interview with Andrew Neil. pay. As this hits home - 80 per cent rich, they are running a relentless gerly for best supporting act to the Not to be outdone Johann ‘put- of cuts are still to bite - the ability of propaganda war to mug the victims Tory duo, step forward next leader the-gas-bill-in-the-drawer’ Lam - the No men to portray Britain as the of the bankers’ greed with slashed of the Scottish/North British toxic- ont, supposed-Labour leader in best option for an economic and so - benefits, frozen pay, sackings and Tories, Ruth Davidson. Scotland, continued her assault on cial future will steadily decline. slashed services. Having won a leadership elec - the gains won by her party and the It is the key task of the Yes cam - It is this reality that has seen a tion against a candidate who wider Labour movement in bene - paigners both to grasp this reality parade of unionist politicians ped - wanted to abolish her party, she fits and services. and put forwards a vision not just dle their “no alternative to misery” branded Scots as spongers idling As she continued to out-Tory the of independence but of what it can message, seemingly unaware that on benefits, with only 12 per cent Tories on supposed freebies, Lam - offer as an alternative to Britan - by offering this dismal prospect for contributing to national wealth. ont heaped fuel on the fire burning nia’s austerity. Britain, they endanger its attrac - Leaving aside that the 88 per Labour’s credibility as the Peoples’ That’s why the SSP will be tions to voters. cent contain such idlers as firefight - Party in Scotland. Behind the bread backing Yes and campaigning for a Leading the charge were Tory ers, nurses, surgeons and even and circuses of London 2012 and socialist Scotland in which policies toffs Cameron and Osborne who MSPs (like her) paid from the pub - the god bless you ma’amism of the putting people before profit are the went out of their way to reassure lic purse and themselves taxpayers, jubilee then, the cold reality. order of the day. The stakes are the so called ‘wealth creators’ in the it seem unlikely that attacking 88 The British state supported by high but the battle can be won. issue 405 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 3 workplace NOW STRIKE TOGETHER and demand socialist independence PHOTO: Craig Maclean by , fair dismissal - by company shares; SSP national workplace a crude, absurd attempt to make organiser workers even more vulnerable and pliable as unprotected producers of The tens of thousands marching profit for the privileged few. in Glasgow on 20 October, along - People made increasingly sick side the hundreds of thousands by assaults on workplace rights and demonstrating in Belfast and conditions are demonised in the London, are a powerful force with drive to steal billions of pounds off the potential to stop all cuts - and benefits for the sick and disabled, even topple the Twin Tories who with profiteers like ATOS abusing are out to ruin the future for work - them. Millionaires in mansions are ing class people. declaring that people in modest But it will take more than a rally houses have too many rooms, pun - to halt the worst assault on peo - ishing them with the Bedroom Tax, ple’s livelihoods since the 1930s. whilst utterly failing to build af - Workers, communities, claimants, fordable houses for need. pensioners, young people and stu - Working class students are being dents are marching together for a denied courses by Old Etonians better future. As a next step we slashing education. Families face a need to strike together. The recent cold cruel winter as privatised en - TUC congress hotly debated and pressure : a one-day general strike would send a message to ergy companies making hundreds then agreed a coordinated one-day the sNp government to stop passing on Westminster’s cuts of millions in profit jack up house - general strike against the West - hold bills by another 9 per cent. minster assault on pay, jobs, ben - mount pressure on the SNP gov - tion - whilst profits boom. efits, services and workers’ rights. ernment to stop passing on the In his nauseating empty rhetoric Green energy Fine words need to be rapidly Westminster cuts. about an “aspiration nation”, Privatised train companies ham - converted into decisive deeds. Instead of passing eye-watering Cameron denounced “nonsense mer travellers with fare increases Westminster cuts onto FE colleges, about health and safety” in work - whilst raking in £2.7billion subsi - Showdown councils, the NHS and in yet an - places where staff shortages, over - dies off taxpayers last year. The STUC leadership should other year of below-inflation pay work, stress, illness and even Over a million young people, in - play their part in implementing this settlements for Scottish public sec - deaths are rising, as employers cluding 100,000 in Scotland, face united action, by naming the day tor workers, they should be defying squeeze more profits out of fewer the indignity, despair and abject for a showdown with the govern - Westminster, leading a people’s re - workers - who face the fear of mass poverty of being unemployed, ment of millionaires, where the ir - bellion that demands the funding to unemployment. whilst there is a crying need for replaceable role of working people save every job, service and pay The Tories are slashing work - employment in building decent af - in providing goods and services packet - alongside fighting for an place rights, delaying legal protec - fordable homes, expanding green through their hard work would be independent Scotland free of cuts, tion until two years into the job, and energy, educating children, mind - highlighted by a combined refusal unemployment and poverty. then plan charges of up to £2000 ing the sick and elderly. to work for that day. The alternatives to fighting back for pursuing Employment Tribunal These are some of the sure and Combined with rallies, such a in such a coordinated fashion are cases. They are targeting and de - certain prospects not only under the strike day would massively boost unthinkable. The brutality of the monising civil servants - in part be - Tory-Lib Dem coalition, but also if the fighting morale of workers cuts are beginning to sink home, cause these workers have had the Labour was returned to office. and communities who are at their even though 88 per cent of them audacity to fight back, and even The trade unions, with 650,000 wits end, and all too often feel iso - have yet to come! win some concessions - threatening members in Scotland alone, have lated and fearful. And as well as The naked class war from the rights ranging from eye tests to the potential to carve out an en - confronting the Westminster Cuts Tory and Lib Dem friends of the longer hours to the right to be prop - tirely different future - but only if Coalition with a clear message bankers and billionaires, and from erly represented by a union. some of their leaders wake up to that they have no mandate to rule the profit-driven employers them - Osborne offered to buy off what the realities. Marching and striking and ruin Scotland, with a demand selves, has recently escalated. little remains of workplace rights - against the Twin Tories is essential, for their removal, a one-day gen - Ninety nine per cent of pay settle - including redundancy pay, time off critical to the survival of a semi- eral strike would simultaneously ments this year were below infla - for training and protection from un - civilised existence for the majority 4 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 405 culture population. The unions should Instead of standing up for funds off industry, energy, landed estates, openly build a crusade to topple Edinburgh and London to boost construction, transport and all serv - Great line up the Tories, to drive them out. the city’s services and workers’ ices into democratic public owner - But if the only alternative the jobs, the Labour council is hacking ship. In a phrase - an independent for radical union leaders advocate is to wait away at hundreds more jobs on top socialist Scotland. for a Labour government, they may of the thousands they already Those marching on 20 October as well call marches, rallies and slashed - and had to be fiercely - and the mass organisations that book fair strikes in favour of Cameron, Os - fought to even permit the STUC are members of - should join the The 16th Edinburgh borne and Clegg’s continued rule. march the right to assemble in the SSP in fighting for the construction Independent & Radical Book Labour leaders like Ed Balls and historic George Square! of a mass socialist alternative to all Fair opens on 24 October and Ed Miliband have declared they Continued trade union funding the parties and governments of welcomes a vast range of will be “ruthless” in carrying on the of Labour whilst waiting for a cuts, poverty, unemployment and authors from beyond the public sector cuts. They support the Labour government is like volun - exploitation. Driving out the hated bestseller lists. Seeking to devastating pay cuts - more an Ice tarily paying a standing order to an Tories is imperative. But seeking to engage locals as well as Age than a pay freeze. incurable arsonist whilst handing swap them with a capitalist Labour visitors to Edinburgh, every They denounce workers driven over the keys to your house. government is a different route to event at the Book Fair is free into strike action in self defence. the same destination. Continued and it takes place in Leith rather They kept the Tory anti-union laws Tax the rich Westminster dictatorship for and than the city centre. for 13 years of Labour government, Workers and young people need by the rich, regardless of which “Why do we do it?” asks one and privatised more public assets an entirely different Scotland to that major party holds office, is a guar - of the fair’s organisers, and than even the previous Tory gov - on offer from the Tories, Lib Dems, antee of decades of assaults on the owner of Word Power Books, ernments dared touch. Labour - or even the SNP. working class. Elaine Henry. “We want to offer And Johann Lament’s outburst A Scotland liberated from the The quickest, by far most realis - an alternative to the mainstream about Scotland being “a some - Westminster dictatorship of the rich tic route out of this misery for mil - book events. We have real thing for nothing society” not - whatever party sticker the Prime lions is self-rule, independence, the debates and there is plenty only shows how impervious she Minister might wear. A Scotland powers to radically change the sys - time to talk to the writers. We is to the real hardship of real peo - that taxes the obscenely rich minor - tem and therefore our futures. also display a huge range of ple in Scotland, but is also a harsh ity and big business to fund well- But swapping flags and emblems books from small and warning of the assault on bene - paid jobs for all the unemployed on its own will do nothing to create independent presses.” fits, services, the social wage, and and all school leavers. ‘a future that works’ for the working This year’s highlights include the entire notion of social provi - A Scotland with a £9 national class. Those marching on the 20th ex- Guardian features editor sion to expect from a future minimum wage; equal pay for need to carve out a socialist future Richard Gott opening the book Labour government - whether at women; an immediate £50 rise for for a independent Scotland, free not fair and launching his new book Westminster or Holyrood. pensions and benefits; a living just of the Union Jack and West - Britain’s Empire: Resistance, A far cry from the aims of labour grant for all students at 16; invest - minster’s dictatorship of the rich, Repression and Revolt ; movement pioneers, or even ment in housing, health, education, but also free of profiteering rule by Alasdair Gray, reads from his today’s trade unions. public transport and local services. Scottish and multinational capital - forthcoming complete short Workers need look no further A Scotland where the govern - ism. In a phrase - an independent stories anthology; panel events than Glasgow Labour council to ment has the powers and the polit - socialist Scotland. Join the SSP as a like David Graeber on his glimpse what Labour rule means. ical will to take the banks, big modest step in that direction. Bread & Roses award-winning Debt: The First 5,000 Years , Fi Martynoga on Scotland’s Wild Harvest, and Richard Holloway on Belief, the Individual and the Power of Institutions. Voice columnist Alan Bissett will perform The Red Hourglass . There’s also poetry from Stirling roofer William Letford, Tessa Ransford and Iyad Hayatleh. And there will be a live link-up with the ‘poster girl of Palestinian militancy’, now Palestinian National Council member, Leila Khaled - whose life story is told in Sarah Irving’s 2012 book, Fighting For Palestine .

STRIKE now FoR A woRKERS’ FUTURE! we need to carve out a socialist future for an • See www.word-power.co.uk independent Scotland free of profiteering rule by Scottish and multinational capitalism for full details and events list issue 405 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 5 hillsborough by Richie Venton

In our previous feature in the Voice on the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, where 96 Liverpool fans died, we exposed the role of the police, the football authorities, the media and Thatcher’s Tory government - not only in creating this man- made disaster, but in the subsequent monstrous frame-up of the dead and cover-up of the truth (see issue 403). But despite the attempt by the current Tory government, media chiefs and police bosses to draw the sting from the horrendous revelations in the mid- September Hillsborough Independent Panel’s Report - through a combination of public apologies and a switch to frivolous ‘business as usual’ in the media - the clamour for justice has put the authorities under siege.

Corruption And further leaked documents have shown up the corruption of a system that needs to be dismantled for the safety of people at work, rest or play. Senior police officers, including the subsequently HYPOCRISY: for all his unavoidable public apology, David Cameron has not admitted the guilt of knighted Sir Norman Bettison, his mentor Maggie Thatcher and his Tory party in framing the 96 and burying the truth for 23 years and the solicitor representing South Yorkshire police, supervised the recording of junior police officers’ recollections of events that day. In contrast to the normal procedure of writing up their Hillsborough: notes in official police notebooks - which can then be legally ‘opinions’ about fans remained in Those facing potential IPCC investigations have the requisitioned as evidence in any the amended statements - but in charges of gross misconduct or potential, at least, of starting to court case - the police were 116 junior officers’ statements, even manslaughter include bring about some measure of instructed to write them on loose all their original comments Chief Constable Sir Norman justice - although the public sheets of paper. Then they were critical of the policing that tragic Bettison, who had tried to dodge outcry at the revelations of the doctored under the vigilant eye day were removed. the full consequences of his role truth which have been of police chiefs. In the wake of the damning, in the unforgivable cover-up by instrumental in forcing this action Later, these top-rank forgers irrefutable public exposé of the first of all apologising whilst from the authorities will need to offered the excuse that role of senior police in the provoking fury with the remark remain as eternal vigilance to amendments were made to Independent Panel’s Report, that “Liverpool fans had made ensure justice is done. remove ‘opinion’ about the fans. unprecedented investigations of policing more difficult than it And the mid-September Panel That was a cynical, dirty lie: the serving and retired police officers should have been”, and then Report’s damning revelations to documents published by the have been launched by both the by announcing his retirement millions has been joined by the Independent Panel reveal that Crown Prosecution Service and on a full, generous pension current flood of revelations about not a single case of this the Independent Police next March. the despicable sexual abuse by happened. Plenty of vicious Complaints Commission. The scale of the CPS an d Jimmy Savile, and in particular 6 • scottish socialist Voice • issue 405 hillSborough the cover-up by that pivotal wing rebellious Scouse working alleged new evidence by a testing the evidence without of the media, the BBC. class, led by socialists, in 1984. senior legal figure.” reopening the whole affair.” Taken together, these But one of the most On 9 June he rammed home This is in stark contrast to the monumental scandals mean the appalling recent revelations, the same cynical calculation in weasel words of Straw in a powers-that-be will be terrified of hot on the heals of the a secret Memo to Tony Blair, statement to the House of a complete meltdown in the Independent Panel’s Report, fearing the public would refuse Commons four days later, on public’s faith in the media, police, is the leaked documentary to accept their verdict from the 30 June: prosecution services, allegedly confirmation that the Labour government, and that it had to “I am determined to go as far independent complaints bodies, government which replaced come from an independent as I can to ensure that no matter judiciary and governments; the Tories in 1997 sustained source instead. of significance is overlooked and hence their obligation to be seen the cover up of the real facts, that we do not reach a final to do something about it, even if prolonging the pain and Labour betrayal conclusion without a full and it has taken them 23 long, cruel indignity of the victims’ Late in June Straw met the independent examination of the years to even start. families and the vilification of hand-picked ‘senior legal evidence.” the reputations of the 96 by a figure/independent source’, Lord The Stuart-Smith Inquiry Tory guilt clear extra 15 years. Justice Stuart-Smith, appointed dragged out for seven months For all his unavoidable public Within five weeks of taking to lead the review. and predictably concluded there apology, David Cameron has office, Labour Home Secretary Straw told him his officials had was no case for a new Inquiry - not admitted the guilt of his Jack Straw had made up his already looked at the case and and utterly failed to investigate mentor Maggie Thatcher and his mind there was no need for a concluded “there was not evidence that police statements Tory party in framing the 96 and further Inquiry into the causes of sufficient evidence to justify a from the fateful day had been burying the truth for 23 years. the tragedy. new inquiry”. So he conveyed substantially rewritten. Thatcher made the trip north Whilst assuring Hillsborough his scepticism to the judge No wonder Margaret Aspinall, the next day, 16th April 1989, Family campaigners he would before he even started his whose 18-year-old son James to meet with South Yorkshire leave no stone unturned in Review. On 26 June, a Note of a died, responded to these recent Police chiefs, no doubt to seeking the truth, he cynically discussion between Home revelations by stating: “What he endorse their launch of a organised Labour’s own cover- Office Minister Alun Michael [Straw] did was deceitful. All propaganda offensive against up, in connivance with PM Blair. (Straw’s junior) with Des governments let us down, not the victims, in part to protect On 5 June 1997 Straw wrote Parkinson, secretary of the just the Conservatives.” her loyal protectors during the to Attorney General John Morris: Police Association of England This was an appalling momentous class confrontation “I am certain that continuing and Wales, reveals that: example of Labour’s betrayal of of the 1984-5 miners strike - public concern will not be allayed “Jack Straw was very working class people in their the civil war without bullets - with a reassurance from the concerned to avoid starting a devoted defence of all arms of but further fuelled by Home Office that there is no new hare running. the capitalist establishment and Thatcher’s and the Tories’ evidence. I therefore propose “As a result there had been of the capitalist system that puts desire to avenge their that there should be an some ‘creative thinking’ in the power and profit before the government’s defeat by the independent examination of the Home Office to find a way of safety and lives of people. demand justice

STraw : was very concerned to “avoid starting a hare running” BETTISON : after last month’s inquiry, he still said fans’ behaviour - in plain English, he never wanted justice made the police’s job harder than it needed to be on the day issue 405 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 7 neWS Tories’ DownTon Abbey economics by ported 90 per cent of Scots were on countryside or a pied-à-terre in a back all they are given into their benefits. This does not just include nice area of town they can choose local economy to buy food, cloth - In a week where I tried to avoid those on JSA or tax credits but all to live in. In attacking the most ing and all their family needs. In a watching the news as much as pos - the public sector workers from tax vulnerable, they said no to a “man - recession, does it not make sense sible as it’s the annual event I dread collectors to teachers, nurses and sion tax” where the richer mem - to distribute our nation’s wealth every year the Tory Party Confer - doctors. The people who are at the bers of our society would be this way? The Tories will always ence. It is a time for the party faith - centre of our communities. In the expected to make a contribution. look after their own, and they are ful to come together, relax, kick off Tories’ dystopian vision of society, The crux of the matter is that not our own. I am glad to have their paternalistic caring Tories they would like there to be no wel - those with money cling on to it and faith that the poor and dispossessed image and clap and applaud their fare state and no public services. pass it on to the next generation. It are the kindest people in the world leaders spouting venom on the The news that was announced at is Downton Abbey economics. and will always look after each poor and dispossessed. the Tory Conference this week was Those in receipt of benefits put other if they can. They always have a special not news at all. It is part of the wel - group to target and as usual those fare cuts they brought in at the be - on benefits are top of the list. ginning of their government and a According to some polls, most continuation of the previous of the population agree with the Labour government’s plans. Write: SSV, Suite 370, 4th Floor Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Tory policies on benefit cuts. Not For the young just starting out, Glasgow G2 6LD • Email: [email protected] • really difficult to believe when one things are going to be much Tweet: ssv_voice • Message: facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice considers the divide-and-conquer tougher. Those under-25s will no tactics they use. longer be eligible for housing ben - We need to tackle fuel poverty efit. Young people they say should Few opportunities stay at home with their parents. With the Independence Referendum They cut the National Winter Fuel Gideon Osborne kicked it off For some young people this is looming in 2014, ordinary folk in Allowance last November, from this week with his soliloquy on not possible. We have a young Scotland will have many questions to £250 down to £200 for over-60s, how hard working people going woman staying with us as a result ask. But millions of us want to know and they cut £100 off for the over- off to work are dismayed by their of a difficult home life. She will what an independent Scotland will 80s - down to £300. So much for neighbours across the road in their not be able to stay home so she is do to stop fuel poverty? With winter their commitment to abolishing fuel homes with their blinds closed liv - sleeping on our couch. She has no fast approaching, many of us will poverty, eh? The ‘Big Six’ private ing off the state. money from benefits, so like most have to choose between heating or energy companies are reeling in When people have their blinds of you would do, I am helping her eating. The reality is that some profits, while the rest of us shiver. shut it is an attempt to shut out the as much as I can. 20,000 people died of fuel poverty They made £15billion in profits last world and the reality is due to this It is when the impact of the cuts in the long, cold winter of 2009, and year, yet intend to put the fuel up recession there are few opportuni - get personal - and they are going a further 25,000 died in another 9 per cent this November. It ties for work. An event in the St to - that we realise their affect. In 2010/2011. According to the latest went up 19 per cent last winter. Enoch Centre in Glasgow to take the next few years we are going to official government statistics, it is That’s an increase of 28 per cent in on 200 Christmas casuals saw see people we know and love expected that a further 27,000 will 12 months. Who are they kidding? 2000 people turn up. Let’s also un - being impacted the most. die in 2012-13. Over 72,000 We also need answers on these derstand what they mean by ‘peo - This doesn’t impact on the Tory citizens in the UK will have died of obscene pre-payment meters that ple living on benefits’ and their Overlords, most of whom won’t cold-related illnesses in just three millions are forced on to, due to not view of the welfare state. have a neighbour with blinds shut years. Truly shocking. And what is being able to pay the obscene fuel A report in The Independent re - across the road - more like rolling the government’s response to this? bills. If you don’t have enough money to top the meter up, then you

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S Solidarity rate: g £6 for 5 issues g £12 for 10 issues g £24 for 20 issues Poverty - tel: 07747311676 8 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 405 enVironment Food production, sackings, soaring prices - it doesn’t need to be like this says Roz Paterson Food production decisions were made, not by a parent company in As we go to press, the axe is Eindhoven, but at a municipal still suspended over Hall’s of level, matching local demand with Broxburn. If it falls, 1,700 peo - local supply. And it was some - ple will be thrown out of work. thing of a miracle; the sort of thing And in the deep midwinter of that can happen when action is this recession, the possibility of collective and on a grand scale, new jobs to replace those lost are but sensitive to local needs. remote, to say the least. The available average calorie If Hall’s goes down, then so too intake is now 3,200, the highest in do the fortunes of Scottish pig any Latin American country. Not farmers, already struggling due to only that, but this green revolution a recent rise in the cost of pig feed. embraced – as of necessity – or - Many farmers may go to the wall ganic farming methods, it encour - in that case. All this follows a aged biodiversity, slashed food summer of discontent amongst miles and food waste, and pro - dairy farmers, following the su - vided employment for 383,000 permarkets’ forcing them to ac - farmers, and the rest. cept a second 2p drop in the price Imagine, go on, such a thing paid per litre to the producer. happening in Glasgow. Instead of Given that it costs 30p to pro - AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: post-USSR, Cuba now grows its own bleak brownfield sites, acres of duce one litre of milk, being paid green shoots. Potatoes sprouting 26p per litre meant farmers were something’s gotta give. It would agricultural sector contracted by in central reservations. Kale flour - working for less than nothing, be nice to think it won’t be society, 50 per cent, the economy as a ishing in dug-over lanes and back while providing already vastly community, stability that gives. whole by 35 per cent, and the greens. Even, as in New York, profitable supermarkets with a That we won’t be rioting in the available average calorie intake, roof-top gardens worked by the loss-leader to further boost sales. streets in our sheer bloody de - per person, fell from 2,900 to people who live downstairs. spair. It would be nice to think we 1,800, while protein intake plum - Blockades could re-think some of this before meted by 40 per cent. Guerrilla gardening Hence the tractor blockades of it all goes belly up. And so began the ‘Special Pe - Imagine this in Broxburn, Lin - milk processing plants, the anger, In Greece, where the econ - riod’, when Cuba had to grow its wood, Ravenscraig, wherever the and the despair. And more small omy is collapsing faster than the own, from scratch, without chem - sick joke of international com - farms going to the wall. What on Greenland ice shelf (and, mark ical fertilisers and pesticides, merce left whole communities of Earth is happening here? my words, that’s actually quite abandoning pretty much all previ - people without a lifeline. How come, in a country with fast!) many of those young ous agricultural methods. Guerrilla gardening – the prac - the potential to pretty much feed hopefuls who travelled to Private and urban farms mush - tice, increasingly common, of tak - itself – cereals, meat, veg and fruit, Athens for the bigger, better life, roomed everywhere, in vacant ing possession of little bits and not to mention milk, all capable of have returned to their native vil - lots, disused land, even in the bobs of disused land and growing being produced in abundance – lages. To grow food. spaces between roads. stuff in it – isn’t enough to change we are only 60 per cent food se - Not so much because there isn’t As in Britain during WWII, the world, of course. Not even cure, and instead of being self-re - food – though, in fact, the dreadful every scrap of land was dug up enough to give the Hall’s employ - liant, we find ourselves at the summer of 2012 will impact on and composted for the general ees something to smile about. mercy of the global trade winds food availability, and prices – as good. Cuba saw a massive decen - But the example of Cuba, iso - that barrel through our communi - because fewer and fewer people tralisation of production, spelling lated from the world trade cycle, ties and leave them desolate? have enough money to buy it. the end of monolith agribusiness should give us pause for thought. Global capitalism works like In Cuba, following the collapse and monocultures that could be We could run our food industry that, is the easy answer. But it’s not of the USSR, growing food be - felled by a single disease or bad ourselves, for ourselves, and in so really an answer at all, is it? came a sudden, urgent concern growing season. doing, respect nature, increase Global capitalism is in crisis – too. Without the Soviet Union Unused, state-owned land was food security, and live better, more check out Spain and Greece for supplying it, Cuba suddenly had parcelled out for cultivation, and connected lives. And never have the latest updates on how the free no oil, no petroleum-based fer - farmers were supported, through to worry about a decision, made market experiment is currently tilisers, no-one to trade its cash credit schemes, co-operatives and miles away, by people we don’t performing – and at some point, crops with. In consequence, the muscular, grassroots collectives. know, closing us down. issue 405 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 9 women Abortion is A very personAl issue by Sandra Webster ALEX NEIL MSP: two - of course I would know echoing Tory if I was pregnant. But I didn’t This week saw Tory Health upper-class twit discover it till I was 26 weeks Minister Jeremy Hunt and his Jeremy Hunt, the pregnant. We were shocked Scottish equivalent Alex Neil SNP’s Health and mourned as we knew our both come forward to say they Chief publicly lives would never be the both believed the legal limit for stated that he same again. thinks the 24- abortion should be lowered. week limit for We had our youngest son They were both mindful terminating but it had such a huge impact that this was a personal pregnancies on our lives and relationship. belief and all parties were should be We love him dearly though quick to issue statements reduced - causing and are glad he is in our lives. that they will not support a widespread anger A call for an earlier limit to new debate and any vote and condemnation termination would limit the would be a personal matter opportunity for women to of conscience for individual discover if there child was MPs and MSPs. going to be born with a life I was brought up in a limiting illness and even the loving, faith home where basics of knowing they were there was the duality that pregnant and the impact this abortion was wrong and the would have on them. only contraceptive advice I received from my father was Worrying “never bring an illegitimate For these reasons, I don’t child to my door”. believe any man should tell a woman what they should do Choice debates this week and genetic counselling and told or force her into a life- This was in the ’80s and I listened to some of the there was a one in two changing situation. The right hope things have moved on stories of women who had an chance any future child could to choose is ours alone. from then. But I still believe it abortion up to 50 years ago be affected. My husband and This was a very emotional is a woman’s right to choose. and still live with the child I then decided not to have article to write as I am mindful The decision to have a child they have lost. It is a any more children. I decided of all my sisters who are and all the issues surrounding personal decision and the to have a mirena coil fitted reading this and their situations it will have so much impact on women’s right to choose. which I was reassured was and past experiences. a women’s life. No contraception is 100 99.9 per cent affective. I was However, it is worrying that So is having a pregnancy per cent effective. I know this one of the one in a 1000. two men in positions with terminated too. No-one but personally. After my second I know you read of stories responsibilities for health the person themselves could child was born with a very about women giving birth not have made their personal imagine all the emotions rare genetic disorder which knowing they are pregnant positions known. I will always involved in it. I have been had not shown up on and I had read them with campaign for an individual hearing some of the radio ultrasounds, we were given disbelief. I was a mother of woman’s right to choose. Join the SSP here Fill in this form and send it to: , Suite 370, 4th Floor Central Chambers 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD. Or telephone: 0781 126 5388 Or see our website: www.scottishsocialistparty.org g I would like to join the Scottish Socialist Party g I would also like to join Scottish Socialist Youth g I would like more info on the Scottish Socialist Party Name...... Address...... Phone...... Email......

10 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 405 international Hugo Chavez wins: ‘the revolution has triumphed’ by

“The revolution has triumphed.” It was Hugo Chavez’s reaction to the news of another impressive election victory. Despite a united opposition, se - rious health problems, a hate-dri - ven international campaign aimed at isolating the revolution and gen - uine issues of concern even for many of his supporters; this elec - tion victory will be celebrated by progressive opinion all over the world. In the election Chavez polled 54 per cent of the vote in a turnout of 80 per cent. His right wing rival, Henrique Capriles polled 46 per cent. Despite the slanders directed against the revolution by the west - ern media there has been no sug - VICTORIOUS: but the Venezuelan revolution is at a crossroads and faces a number of challenges gestion of election irregularities. In fact, the previous election was de - travelled over the past decade. an approach to international is - government for failing to tackle or - scribed by former American Pres - This includes political reforms sues which have put Venezuela at ganised crime and violence - or ident Jimmy Carter from the aimed at strengthening the coun - the forefront of the struggle that not enough is been done to in - International Election Monitoring try’s democracy - making a mock - against imperialism. vest in the infrastructure of the Group as “one of most democratic ery of some of the slanders which This compares with what went country or that corruption is rife - elections he had ever covered”. have appeared in the western on before Chavez, when a combi - there is more than an element of media branding Chavez as a dicta - nation of disastrous free market truth in these allegations. Challenges tor. In a country with a long history economic policies, environmental In his victory speech, President Hugo Chavez faced a number of of dictatorship, all of the reforms devastation, rising poverty and in - Chavez seemed to accept the va - challenges. His well publicised ill- have been aimed at strengthening equality and the steady erosion of lidity of many of these issues and health became an election issue democratic institutions. democratic rights brought the would seek to address them. The with not unreasonable claim that Such as economic reforms country to the brink of disaster. balancing act that Chavez must he would not be able to fulfil a full which have extended public own - Despite this victory, the revolu - achieve is to tackle these issues term in office. ership and control with the aim of tion is at something of a crossroads while driving forward to the ulti - The right wing opposition was sustainable growth and an econ - and faces a number of challenges. mate goal of socialism. united behind an impressive can - omy which aims to serve the inter - The country is now danger - Perhaps the revolution’s didate in Capriles while the failure ests of all the people and not just ously polarised and the govern - strongest card is that it is not iso - to tackle law and order problems rich elite and foreign companies. ment must ask why 46 per cent lated and is at the centre of an al - became a major electoral issue. Such as environmental policies voted against the revolution. liance of progressive governments Caracas is often labelled the which have tried to tackle an ap - What can be done to win over in the region, all of whom gave most dangerous capital in the palling environmental legacy in - some of these people? strong support to Chavez during world and the failure to tackle this flicted on the country by previous Too much of the political the election. The strengthening of issue led to the opposition win - governments. Such as social re - process is centred on the personal - these alliances are the ultimate ning Caracas in regional elections forms which have directed tens of ity of Hugo Chavez. What efforts guarantee that the political earth - last year. More than anything billions of pounds into pro - are being made to build the emerg - quake that has shaken Latin Amer - else, Chavez’s victory was a mas - grammes to reduce inequality and ing United Socialist Party and with ica in the last decade and moved sive endorsement of the social, poverty with colossal investment it a strong collective leadership? the continent in a radically differ - political, economic and interna - in housing, health, education, the It also has to be recognised that ent direction will continue to its ul - tional direction Venezuela has minimum wage and pensions and when the opposition criticise the timate triumph. issue 405 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 11 for Socialism, Independence and Internationalism Issue 405 19th Oct - 1st Nov 2012 [email protected] www.scottishsocialistvoice.net Nukes ban makes Salmond’s pro- NATO stance ‘even more bizarre’ by David McKenzie, If the leadership proposal is Trident Ploughshares carried or the decision is some - how delayed then there could still There can be no doubt that the be another positive development. strong and reasoned response to The recent Yes Scotland rally the move to drop the party’s long- showed that the independence standing rejection of NATO issue is owned by a much broader membership has given the SNP constituency than the SNP. leadership cause for thought. A bad NATO decision by the A recent indication of this is SNP will expose a new set of po - Alex Salmond’s proposal to in - litical fault-lines within which the clude a ban on nuclear weapons vision of a Scotland responding to in the constitution of an independ - the dispossessed and disadvan - ent Scotland. This is a significant taged at home and abroad, co-op - step for the SNP and the Scottish erating with others on the basis of Government. Previously, in spite respect and equality and working of much pressure from disarmers, SNP/NATO: what came first, the NATO policy or the justification? for the peaceful resolution of con - they have refused to move the flict can still be hammered out. issue into the legal and constitu - Meanwhile, we can be encour - tional arena. The louder they trumpet aged by the impact of our resist - Now the clear implication is their opposition to ance to NATO membership. Keep that their principle objection to sharing the information and the Trident is as a weapon of mass Trident, the more blatant is the arguments and, if you can, come destruction which is illegal under logical and moral contradiction to the demonstration at the Perth international humanitarian law. of sheltering under NATO’s Concert Hall outside the SNP As such, the proposal is most wel - conference on the afternoon of come. At the same time, it makes nuclear weapons umbrella... Friday 19 October. Salmond’s stance on NATO ever ble work that has been done to ufacturers and the secret services more bizarre. The louder they formulate and argue for this pol - as something that matters to ordi - • More detail on the trumpet their opposition to Tri - icy change is so substantial that nary Scots.” conference demonstration at dent, the more blatant is the logi - it must be assumed that the pol - As I write, there is still no cer - www.notonatoscotland.org.uk cal and moral contradiction of icy came first and the justifica - tainty about how the SNP vote There is an excellent rebuttal sheltering under NATO’s nuclear tion second. will go on 19 October. If the party of the recent Angus Robertson weapons umbrella. “This seems to be an inten - sticks with its anti-NATO policy briefing on NATO here: The SNP/CND group have tional attempt to disguise a policy (and the leadership genuinely and www.snpcnd.org/news/data/up summed the position perfectly: that favours the interests of the wholeheartedly accept the deci - images/Correcting_the_NATO “In the end, the lack of credi - US commercial sector, arms man - sion) that is the ideal outcome. _brief.pdf No To NATO Scotland SSP Fringe Meeting demo - outside SNP at SNP Conference conference at Perth Fri 19 Oct, 5.30pm Mission Hall, St Matthew’s Church, Tay Street, Perth Concert Hall, Fri 19 Speakers: former SNP MSP Campbell Martin, Oct, 12noon-5pm former Labour MSP/MP John McAllion, Leonna O’Neil from Faslane Peace Camp, See: NoToNATOscotland.org.uk SSP co-spokespersons Sandra Webster and Colin Fox