Muhammad Ali: ‘The greatest of ScotRail ballot: all time’ and champion of the RMT guards vote civil rights movement is dead for strike action • see pages 6&7 • see page 4

£1 • issue 479 • 10th – 30th June 2016 scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com

T LOO BOOT THE THE

THE LOOT vs THE BOOT • a sack of cash for Sir Philip Green • the sack and no cash for BHS employees PROSECUTE THE PScoRttishSocOialistVoFice.woIrdpTress.coEm E/ScoRttishSoScialistVo! ice @ssv_voice YOUR VOICE It’s your Voice... use it THIS YEAR marks the ’s 20th anniversary. The Voice is integral to both the socialist movement and the independence movement here in Scotland. We need you to get involved with the Voice in any way you can – whether it’s writing news stories, articles on demos or campaigns, reviewing films or exhibitions, or taking photos of events, we need you to use your Voice to voice your opinion. As ever, we need more women writers to step forward and make their voices heard – and that doesn’t just mean women covering women’s issues. To get involved, please contact editor Ken Ferguson on: [email protected] Independence, Socialism and the SSP

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2 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 479 EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson

IT IS pretty rare for the Voice to find itself in agreement with a leading Tory but it is hard to disagree with former Prime Minis - ter John Major when he describes the in - creasingly shrill, right wing dominated Brexit campaign as “squalid”. As we go to press, they reached a new low point—so far—with the foul Farage’s claim that voting to remain in the EU would increase the likelihood that women would be raped by immigrants due to “cul - tural differences”. Beyond squalid—just openly racist. Yet as leading Tories ran for cover to TAKE ACTION: distance themselves from Farage’s racist all gains are won by ravings, the truth is that his claims are a workers in struggle, logical outcome of a rabid right wing cam - not gifted by paign which becomes more xenophobic concerned bosses and governments with each passing day. Fearful of revealing their real plan for a deregulated free market economy, trash - ing social protection and workers’ rights Squalid system is the outside the EU, they have turned to the old reliable tactic of blaming the foreigners heart of the problem alongside painting a rosy pictures of rising prosperity if only we could keep them out made in a capitalist-dominated society with mutinous Blairite MPs blaming him of England’s green and pleasant land. such as ours—from trade union rights to for Brexit. In Scotland, the idea that it Of course its a lie, and just a glance at the NHS, through to regulations on health could be the trigger for a second inde - those painting this picture—such as Boris and safety and working time—are won by pendence referendum would be exposed Johnston and Michael Gove who have workers in struggle, not gifted by con - as the hollow claims they are, as West - backed anti-union laws, attacks on the cerned bosses and governments. minster refused to sanction such a vote. poor and favour privatising everything in What is in contention in the EU vote is Meanwhile, away from the name calling sight—reveals the truth behind the “work - which of the options on offer creates the of the tiny elite fronting the EU “debate,” the ers’ friend” fairytales. best terrain on which to wage the contin - fact of UK austerity and vast chasms be - uing struggle to defend and advance the tween the rich and the rest remains a daily Fog of right wing claims interests of the majority over the profiteer - reality, as we report elsewhere in this Voice . Meanwhile, the voices of the minority on ing majority. the left who favour leaving the EU are lost The vast majority of socialist and trade Thrown on the dole in the swirling fog of right wing dominated union opinion backs the remain case but So in the latest example of fat cat Britain, claims and sensationalism peddled by the that does not mean endorsing the EU’s the former BHS boss Sir Philip Green takes Mail , Sun , Telegraph —entirely as predicted pro-business stance. delivery of his latest £100million yacht (he by their labour movement opponents. Rather it entails viewing the current collects them) as 11,000 BHS workers are Indeed, the blind faith of the Lexit camp modest workers gains from the EU on thrown on the dole as stores close. that leaving the EU will usher in a new era workplace rights as a floor to build on Green, who with his associates in his of working class power is in many ways a through action and struggle. Arcadia group took £580million out of mirror image reversed of the tale told by Certainly, as the Tory dominated Leave BHS then sold it for a £1, is reported as Boris, Gove and their free market chums. side move rightwards, the omens for pro - likely to make a further £35million from its Both can’t be right about it. gressive politics with a Brexit vote looks dismemberment. For workers in Scotland, the UK and increasingly ominous. Only independent struggle—both in - elsewhere, the truth is that, as the SSP Cameron, who conceded the referen - dustrial and political—by the majority, and others have argued, the choice on 23 dum largely as a tool of party manage - suckered by the rich, can change this, June is not one of high principle but rather ment, is now staring into the political and the example of the militant action by of tactics. abyss, seriously weakened. French workers in defence of their rights Just as the idea that shaking off EU It is entirely possible that post-23 June gives the lie to claims that EU member - membership sets a course for the social - he will face a revolt, sparking a snap gen - ship prevents trade union action. ist future is fanciful, the picture of the EU eral election, with the prospect of face off While anti-union laws and EU regulations as the benevolent guardian of workers between an emboldened right wing Tory are a barrier to action, it is a barrier which rights is hollow. The truth is that all gains party and a Corbyn-led Labour stuffed determined action can bulldoze aside.

issue 479 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 3 ‘Yes’ vote Another Scotland is necessary by Sandra Webster increase this to £75 in line with JobSeekers Al - in RMT lowance. Many carers have challenged Anas Sar - TIME TRAVEL back to the Smith Commission. war for what we see as a patronising video ScotRail After the campaign for independence, Scotland offering discounts to carers for haircuts and mas - ballot was promised more devolved powers. When sages this week—the yearly pat on the back. Maggie Chapman talked about “collaborating,” So the Scottish Government will have to ad - by Voice Reporter we should have realised that very little had minister these benefits and systems. Never mind changed and that the new powers offered would benefit sanctions and universal credit, which they RAIL UNION the RMT con - cause great difficulty for any Scottish Govern - can claim is a Westminster matter. firmed on 7 June that members ment to administer. Perhaps the most difficult is They need to be challenged to create a fairer sys - voted overwhelmingly for both the responsibility for disability benefits. tem. It is in their power to do this regarding dis - strike action and industrial ac - As Ken Loach said recently, it seems the ben - ability benefits. As socialists, it is our role to hold tion short of a strike over the ex - efit system is becoming a means to punish those them to account and also challenge the existing tension of Driver Only Operation who find themselves in Tory Britain. This is no system. It is time for action and to support those (DOO) and Driver Controlled more evident than for those who are sick or dis - who need us. This will mean being seen in com - operation (DCO) on ScotRail. abled and those who care for them. munities, getting back to the grass roots work of The vote was over 75 per cent Despite Cameron’s helping people challenge for strike action with an even big - promise to protect the FEAR AND LOATHING: the system. We need to ger majority for action short of a most vulnerable, it is us private firms such as educate ourselves what ATOS and Capita have strike. Turn-out was 75 per cent. who bear the brunt of the made millions for the system means and The mandate for action will now cuts. The move from administering the Work help people cut their way be considered by the union’s ex - DLA to PIP has seen Capability tests so hated through the maze it is. ecutive. RMT policy is for no ex - thousands of people lose and feared by many tension of DOO on any route or their entitlement to a PHOTO: Simon Whittle Pressure service and for the guard to be in benefit designed to give This will mean help - full operational control of the support for the addi - ing people complete power operated doors. tional costs of living paper work and accom - Furthermore, RMT has made with a disability. panying them to job cen - it clear that the union is totally tres and Work Capability opposed to any proposals for Vulnerable Assessments. It will take extending DOO, reducing or There have been many time but folk outside the abolishing the safety role of the stories of those who political bubble will re - Conductor and reducing or have died after being alise that actions are abolishing the role of the Con - told they are no longer louder than words. ductor in operation of the doors. entitled to support, and This is how we grow a the sad stories of many movement. Pressure has Targeting members vulnerable people who to be placed on the Scot - ScotRail have been repeat - have committed suicide tish Government too edly informed of RMT’s position as a result of the treatment they have received. about how they will use the new powers. and the company have claimed Private firms such as ATOS and Capita have So far, the emphasis has been on education that they accepted the impor - made millions for administering the Work Capa - with little mention of how they intend to use the tance of these issues. Addition - bility tests so hated and feared by many. devolved powers that have been granted to them. ally, the company were written “When the brown envelope appears through The right to administer disability benefits have to in order to seek the neces - my door, I panic,” says James. “It takes me all been given to them. They will complain of course sary assurance that no exten - day to open it and look at it.” that it is not enough but it is their responsibility. We sion of DOO or DCO would be The majority of refused claims are won on ap - need to campaign, as another Scotland is necessary. put in place during the lifetime peal but it can leave people without their lifeline The Scottish Greens in one of their key mani - of the Abellio ScotRail franchise. of support for weeks or even months. ‘Jane’ from festo pledges—as was RISE’s—was to pay carers Those assurances have not Dundee was refused her claim despite having her a living wage. Proud to say this was SSP policy been forthcoming and instead leg amputated and suffering other serious health at the last elections. I hope they continue to high - of talking directly to the union problems. She had to attend a tribunal but waited light this in this parliament and show themselves Abellio/ScotRail have resorted six months for PIP to be paid to her. to be the socialists some of them claim to be. to targeting individual mem - Many carers too have been affected. If the per - Another Scotland is necessary, and it is up to bers through social media and son they care for loses entitlement to PIP or DLA, all of us and as individuals to reach out to others junk mail in a campaign of they lose the right to Carers Allowance. because we are all human. misinformation which, as this In Carers Week, it should be noted this is a The system should become a safety net, and result shows, has backfired miniscule amount of £62 a week. only political will and a mass movement will re - spectacularly. In their manifesto pledge, the SNP promised to turn it to the people.

4 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 479 by Colin Fox, SSP co-spokesperson

THE SCOTTISH Government’s new SNP Economy Minister Keith Brown used to be in the Royal Marines. Taking up his post minister recently, he made it clear he knew how to follow orders, uttering all the usual SNP warned platitudes: “The Scottish economy is ro - bust...based on firm foundations...this not to government is business friendly and de - termined to reward enterprise...not unduly ignore worried by the fall in North Sea oil prices and the jobs lost...was sure the fundamen - tals of Scotland’s economy were sound.” weakening Well he should be worried, for the com - placency imbedded in his remarks stands Scottish in stark contrast to the darker opinions of most senior economists in Scotland today. economy KEITH BROWN : the new The Bank of Scotland, consultants Economy Minister took Ernst and Young, former RBS Chief Econ - up his post recently, and omist Sir Jeremy Peat, the Engineering made it clear he knew Employers Federation and the Fraser of how to follow orders, Allander Institute each issued reports this uttering all the usual SNP platitudes week that concluded the Scottish econ - omy is declining markedly. Whilst not yet slowing growth,” with mining, construction quasi-Marxist new term ‘Precariat’, or ‘pre - in recession (two quarters of negative and manufacturing all faring badly as large carious proletariat’ to describe their peril. growth represent a technical recession) infrastructure projects such as the No one in Scotland should harbour any the signs are ominous. Queensferry Crossing reach completion. illusions in the SNP’s programme to avoid The Bank of Scotland reports for exam - And the Fraser of Allander Institute at that slowdown or the commensurate fall ple that almost half the firms in Scotland’s Strathclyde University, forecasting its own in working people’s living standards. oil and gas industry intend to make further sharp fall in growth, noted the Scottish The implications for the SNP’s political budget cuts this year, with 37 per cent pre - economy managed only a 0.1 per cent im - programme are clear. A slowing economy dicting significant job losses on top of the provement in the first quarter of this year. will mean falling tax receipts which means 45,000 already shed in the past two years. Keith Brown will be well aware of these less money for vitally needed ‘social ex - figures. And he will be equally well aware clusion’ programmes. The SNP govern - Steep decline he does not have the power to do much ment will be forced to make further cuts Sir Jeremy Peat, a former Chief Econ - about them. The key ‘levers’ to stimulate and these will inevitably reduce their level omist at RBS, warned the new Minister the Scottish economy remain firmly in of political support. against complacency in The Herald , say - Chancellor George Osborne’s grip. ing, “You should not need reminding the The impact of this decline is expected to Ideological weaknesses Scottish economy is in a parlous state,” significantly impact the jobs market. Wage Whilst the illusions in the nationalists and adding, “over the final three quarters rates in Scotland had not yet recovered to are huge at this stage, their record in of 2015, official data shows Scottish GDP pre-crash (2008) levels in real terms. Un - standing up for working people is poor. But stagnant, close to a standstill.” deremployment is now widespread in it is above all the weaknesses at the heart Manufacturing and construction are Scotland, as is casualisation. Unemploy - of their economic ideology, which Profes - sectors in steep decline added the Engi - ment is up for the first time in five years, sors Jim and Margaret Cuthbert of Stirling neering Employers Federation. And if you and the levels of crippling indebtedness University describe as “neoliberalism with factor in the offshore economy, the fall is are evident across the country. Poverty a heart,” that is their real Achilles heel. starker still. The sharp decline in world and inequality are growing again, and this The left in Scotland therefore urgently trade following China’s prolonged eco - before any new recession bites. needs to develop a credible, coherent al - nomic slowdown hardly help matters, with North Sea oil jobs are not the only ones ternative economic programme in the face Scotch whisky exports badly affected. at risk. More than 1,000 jobs at British of this slowdown. Such a socialist pro - The Ernst and Young Scottish Item Club Home Stores will go in Scotland at the gramme, based on a clear understanding reduced its growth forecast for 2016. Hav - end of the month as part of the 11,000 lost of the economic situation and plotting an in - ing earlier suggested Scotland’s economy UK-wide. Across the retail sector, many telligent path forward, is crucial to winning would grow by 1.9 per cent this year they thousands more are said to be at risk mass support in Scotland going forward. now believe even that figure is too opti - from a combination of online shopping, This is just one of the many challenges mistic. Dougie Adams, senior economic automated checkouts and falling sales. the Scottish Socialist Party faces and will adviser to the Item Club, warned, “Scot - The precarious nature of working class discuss at our Annual Conference in Ed - land now faces a third consecutive year of employment has seen sociologists coin the inburgh on 11 June.

issue 479 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 5 OBITUARY

bAy Simon Wlhititle, S:cot tish Soocialist nVoice deeputy edit or man who I’m gonna fight for IF JOHN Lennon was bigger than Jesus, then Muhammad Ali was bigger than God. He transcended 1960s racist America to the prestige, not for become the world’s most recognisable human being. A boxer and a peace activist, a poet, a muslim, an entertainer, a self- me, but to uplift my little educated black man and a world renowned educator. The young Cassius Clay took up boxing after his bike was brothers who are stolen and he ran up to a policeman, claiming he’d whup the sleeping on concrete thief if he found him; the cop—also a boxing coach—asked Cassius if he knew how to box? floors today in America. A few short years later, ‘the Louisville Lip’ Clay brought the light heavyweight gold medal home from the 1960 Rome Black people who are Olympics. “I know I can eat downtown now,” he told himself, proudly wearing his new medal, sitting himself down in a living on welfare, black Louisville restaurant and ordering a coffee and a hot dog— only to be told, “We don’t serve negroes!” Legend has it that people who can’t eat, he ran outside and threw his medal in the Ohio River. Clay moved to Miami to train under Angelo Dundee, striving black people who don’t hard for his shot at the heavyweight crown. Staying away from the usual mafia-tainted in-crowd of promoters and agents, know no knowledge of Clay grew close to Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam; quietly themselves, black converting in 1963. The Nation only publicly came out for him when he defeated people who don’t have Sonny Liston in 1964 to become world heavyweight champion. Clay, only 22, then renounced his slave name and pronounced no future... himself ‘Cassius X’. Days later, Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad re-renamed him Muhammad Ali. – Muhammad Ali The ensuing media storm over Ali’s name change—he ‘ME, WE’: 2005 saw have. If I’m gonna die, I’ll die now, right refused to change it officially, “I’d have to ask a white man, the opening of the here fighting you... if I’m gonna die. You ‘may I call myself Muhammad Ali, boss?’”—put the civil rights non-profit my enemy—my enemy’s the white movement at the heart of everything Ali did outside the ring. Muhammad Ali people, not Vietcongs, or Chinese, or Even inside the ring, in his 1965 title defence against Floyd Center in Louisville, Japanese. Patterson, Ali wailed between punches, “what’s my name? Kentucky, which “You my opposer when I want freedom. What’s my name?” A pre-bout Patterson had echoed the white promotes peace, You my opposer when I want justice. You media’s fury at the sheer nerve of such a subversive move by social responsibility my opposer when I want equality. You a supposed all-American sports hero. and respect. The won’t even stand up for me in America, same year, Ali for my religious beliefs, and you want me ‘No Vietcong never called me nigger’ received America's to go somewhere and fight but you won’t Now a Chicago resident, Ali defended his title successfully two highest civilian even stand up for me here at home!” six times until 1967 when he was drafted to serve in the US awards – the Ali’s draft stance inspired Dr Martin army in Vietnam. On the same day he refused to step forward Presidential Citizens Luther King, who became vocal against at the drafting station, he was stripped of his heavyweight title, Medal and the the war, telling reporters, “As Muhammad convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison. Presidential Medal of Ali said, we are all victims of the same “No Vietcong never called me nigger. They never lynched me. Freedom, for system of oppression, and even though They didn’t put no dogs on me,” he said at the time. “exemplary services” we may have different religious beliefs, On appeal, Ali was ‘free’ but suffered persecution: “I’m not to the USA this does not at all bring about a allowed to work in America, I’m not allowed to leave difference in terms of our concerns.” America—home of the brave, land of the free.” By this time, the National Security So he did that other thing he was very good at—talking. He Agency was monitoring Ali’s lectured US college campuses, closely followed by the mass communications, among other prominent media, heatedly debating his decision not to go to Vietnam US anti-war activists, as part of Project and pointing out the hypocrisy of drafting young black MINARET. There’s nothing like unity, Americans, on one occasion telling an angry white student: between (the by-then-assassinated) “I’m not gonna help nobody get something my negroes don’t Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, and Ali

6 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 479 OBITUARY shook the world

and the soon-to-be-assassinated Dr THE GREATEST OF the fight before knocking Foreman out in the eighth round, King, to strike fear into the heart of the ALL TIME: the iconic dubbing his technique “rope-a-dope”—letting his opponent tire US racist establishment. champion of the himself out before delivering the decisive blow. The following Civil rights activist Al Sharpton boxing ring – and of year, a further Ali-Frazier rematch saw Ali defeat his rival after recognised that Ali sacrificed the best the civil rights the 15-round ‘Thrilla in Manila’. years of his career during this period: movement – By 1981, Ali’s career had nosedived into publicity bouts with “For the heavyweight champion of the Muhammad Ali died wrestlers, and he finally retired from boxing. His final fights were world, who had achieved the highest aged 74 on 3 June blamed for the onset of his Parkinson’s disease, a condition that level of athletic celebrity, to put all of that 2016 in Scottsdale, didn’t see him totally quit the limelight, although he had quit the on the line—the money, the ability to get Arizona Nation of Islam to become a Sunni Muslim a few years earlier. endorsements—to sacrifice all of that for a cause, gave a whole sense of UN committees and goodwill missions legitimacy to the movement and the Twice Ali intervened in hostage crises, in Lebanon and Iraq causes with young people that nothing in the ’80s and ’90s, and he embarked on goodwill missions to else could have done. Afghanistan and North Korea, delivered tons of medicine to “He knew he was going to jail and did Cuba, brought humanitarian relief to the Ivory Coast, it anyway. That’s another level of addressed UN committees on apartheid, and made friends of leadership and sacrifice.” presidents, the Dalai Lama, the Pope and Nelson Mandela. The US Supreme Court unanimously And, as the world held its breath, a fragile Ali met his public overturned Ali’s conviction in 1971. Back again as he lit the flame at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and in the ring, Ali suffered his first professional America’s love/hate relationship with Ali finally dissolved in a defeat, to Joe Frazier after 15 rounds. global embrace. To top it off, the Games gave him a After winning a rematch with Frazier in replacement gold medal for his 1960 Olympic victory. ’74, Ali won the right to ‘Rumble in the The best tribute to such a people’s champion is to continue Jungle’ for the title with George Foreman to stand up, fight and eradicate the racism, poverty and in Zaire. Trained to take a beating, Ali inequality that Muhammad Ali saw as his duty to fight against leaned back on the ropes for much of before, during and beyond his exceptional career.

issue 479 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 7 INTERNATIONAL Turkish president wages war on Kurds and stages a parliamentary coup by Stephen Smellie, co- Daesh/ISIS in Syria was protesting in Ankara for peace The judiciary will now begin convenor, Scottish exposed and the freedom that and democracy were killed in proceedings against them and Solidarity with Kurdistan their fighters had to cross the another ISIS attack. Like the they are likely to be removed border at will gave them an attack in Diyarbakir, despite from parliament, giving SINCE TURKISH President opportunity to launch attacks hundreds of casualties, not one Erdogan the two thirds majority Erdogan decided that the peace including on an HDP rally in police officer or security he needs to vote through more talks with the PKK (Kurdistan Diyarbakir on the eve of the personnel were injured, leading powers for his office. A very Workers Party)were to be election which killed four to suggestions that they had Turkish coup indeed. abandoned in February 2015 people and injured hundreds known about the attacks and MEPs, MPs and MSPs are the country has descended into of others. allowed them to happen. being urged to ‘sponsor’ an violence. Hundreds of civilians However, the HDP were This intimidation led to the HDP deputy so that when they have been killed in state- able to secure 13 per cent of HDP losing votes in the re-run are attacked there will be a imposed curfews and the national vote breaking the election in November, although response from across Europe. bombardments of Kurdish undemocratic tariff of 10 per managing to hold onto 11 per However, whilst Northern towns in the east of the country. cent before any deputies are cent and 50 deputies. The AKP Kurdistan has been burning, The peace process, initiated elected. 83 HDP deputies got their majority back but they hundreds killed and by imprisoned Kurdish leader prevented the President’s AKP were still short of the two thirds democratically elected Abdullah Ocalan, which was on (Justice and Development majority they need to change politicians threatened for the verge of achieving a Party) from retaining their the constitution. criticising government policy, democratic solution to decades majority in parliament and And so the violence has European leaders have been of civil war with the PKK ready scuppered plans to change the continued. Atrocities have willing to throw billions of to lay aside the armed struggle, constitution to give the occurred at the hands of Turkish Euros at Turkey to stop the was abandoned. President more powers. The police and army. 50 civilians flow of refugees from The peace process had 83 were the most diverse burned alive in a basement in reaching Europe. encouraged all sections of the group of politicians ever Cizre. People leaving their 20 million Kurdish community elected to the parliament. 40 homes, to help dying people in Hypocrite leaders within Turkey to look toward per cent were women, They the street, were shot dead. The Brexit campaigners have used democratic means of struggling included other minorities as ancient heart of the Kurdish city Turkey as a scary reason for for their rights. The creation of well as Kurds and Turkey’s of Diyarbakir, Sur, destroyed by voting to leave Europe. Not the People’s Democracy Party first openly gay deputy and tanks and mortar fire while the because it has a government that (HDP), an alliance of Kurdish the first Ezidi woman elected. civilian population tried to resist. believes in mass murder as a and leftish parties, sought to Shortly after, 33 young PKK fighters have attacked legitimate political tactic but build a constituency across the socialists on route to assist in military and police personnel because the Turkish population whole of Turkey. the re-construction of Kobane and groups have emerged in the might en masse decide to were blown up by an ISIS towns digging ditches and relocate to Greater London and Democratic solution suicide bomb in the border town erecting barriers to try to stop the shires. Europe’s leaders, This initiative, proposed by of Suruc. This gave Erdogan the the armoured vehicles from ever the hypocrites, fawn over Ocalan, where the Kurds excuse to declare war on the terrorising the communities. But Erdogan to stop the refugees worked with progressive forces terrorists. ditches and barricades are no and are willing to ignore the to seek a democratic solution One minor attack on ISIS in defence against the air and atrocities he commits every day within Turkey opened up a Syria was then followed by missile attacks that the Turkish against the Turkish population. genuine hope for peace. Ocalan hundreds of bombing raids airforce has launched against Scottish Solidarity with called on the PKK to put down against PKK bases in the their own citizens. Kurdistan seeks to raise the guns. Co-chair of the HDP, mountains of Southern Now, in the past couple of awareness of the plight of the Selahattin Demirtas, met with Kurdistan/Northern Iraq. weeks, the President has got Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere PKK leaders and urged them to Kurdish towns that had voted agreement from Parliament to and demands that our support the peace process. Days 90 per cent for the HDP were remove the immunity from politicians refuse to support before the Prime Minister was placed under curfew and the prosecution of the deputies. any more aid to Turkey and due to sign an agreement, the killing started. The peace The majority of HDP deputies particularly any more arms President called a halt to any process had been replaced by a have been charged with various sales whilst they engage in a further talks. From then on, war process—a war on the offences, including supporting war against the Kurds. attacks on HDP activists population, to show that if terrorist organisations and became frequent as the general people vote for the HDP, they policies—in truth, for speaking • Contact election in June drew nearer. will get violence. out against the barbaric policies scottishsolidaritywithkurdistan Turkey’s support for Over 100 trade unionists of the government. @outlook.com

8 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 479 ENVIRONMENT When it comes to climate change we are not all in this together writes Roz Paterson

THE THING about climate change is that it’s global, it affects everyone, no one es - capes, right? Actually, wrong. We may be feeling uneasy at the way the global tem - perature is rising, and rising, in 2016, be - yond the expectations of even the gloomiest climate scientists, but not everyone is. Just as they could buy up black market fuel when petrol was rationed during the Second World War, and eat like kings while the London poor got by on acrid tea and blitz spirit, so too can the filthy (not ‘super’, not by any means) rich buy themselves out of deprivation in the coming war with the HURRICANE KATRINA : planet’s increasingly turbulent climate. the poor were flooded, Not only can they by-pass the depriva - abandoned, shot at, tion, they can opt out of the violence too. abused, maligned, and While the rest of the world’s population are now forgotten. The face drought, famine, flood, armed with a wealthy fled, in good time mop or perhaps a UN-issued ration card, ond or third homes in happier climates. The ally been delivered. The political will just and the conflict that such events trigger, poor were flooded, abandoned, shot at, isn’t there. The political will is, however, they can take off to their bolt-holes, those abused, maligned, and are now forgotten, very evident in another direction related to gated corners of the globe built to keep all their homes left to rot, or bought at knock- climate change. the nasty, difficult stuff of life at bay. down prices by developers. The migrants seeking escape from coun - These are, after all, the beautiful people, While this event was highly visible, most tries that are becoming uninhabitable be - not because they are beautiful, as the author climate disasters are not. Over 99 per cent of cause of the industrial processes and fuel Alan Hollinghurst noted, but because they the casualties of extreme weather events live consumption of the first world, know all own all the beautiful things, they have taken in developing countries, partly because the about this political will. It’s what leaves them everything for themselves. They haven’t half. southern hemisphere is more vulnerable to to drown in the Med, or incarcerates them in climate change, and partly because the ‘poor stinking refugee camps, all the while demon - Absolute inequality south’ has few material defences against it. ising them in the media. No one at the top Paul Mason has described how capital - We watch in awe as English village pubs table feels comfortable acknowledging that ism has reached a point where all the value, are swept into rivers, but the 1,000 acres of this human misery is the price we pay, as a every last drop of wealth, has been sucked Chinese farmland that turn to desert every species, for the ‘dark luxury’ of the few. up to the top, leaving the vast majority of year, the sheets of ice from glaciers that Christian Parenti, an American investiga - the world’s population—99.9 per cent break off and cause giant waves that flood tive journalist and author of Tropic of kinda thing—with next to nothing. entire villages, the droughts that have Chaos: Climate Change and the New Ge - The rich are madly rich now, they make plagued India and Syria for years...these ography of Violence (2011), calls this the the Bentley millionaires of wartime Britain events don’t even make the news. politics of the armed lifeboat, “responding look like spivs, and the poor are insanely so. For these latter, recovery is almost impos - to climate change by arming, excluding, Branko Milankovic, formerly the lead econ - sible; there is no money to adapt to climate forgetting, repressing, policing and killing.” omist at the World Bank, believes we have, change, which means they are locked in an We are truly seeing inequality on an epic in our advanced capitalist state, achieved the ever-diminishing cycle of disaster and recov - scale, but most of us, the 99 per cent, don’t highest level of relative and absolute in - ery. Ultimately, there will be no recovery. want this, don’t want cheap(ish) food and equality at any point in human history. The rich west is singularly failing to assist. petrol at the price of human suffering like And this inequality has acquired a new cat - For instance, the UN Green Climate Fund, this, even if capitalism’s leaders insist we’d egory—climate-related inequality, whereby established in Cancun in 2010, saw the be sorry if the world was fairer, and our the brunt of climate change is felt by the wealthy nations pledge some $100billion to lives were harder. poorest, whilst the richest are merely incon - help poorer nations build infrastructure that This system doesn’t function for the likes venienced. Hurricane Katrina, which caused would make them more resilient in the face of you and me, but for the rich, the filthy, New Orleans to flood in 2005, is a good ex - of climate change. despicable rich, who will buy their way out ample of how this rich/poor divide functions. Six years on, only seven per cent of the of their own mess time after time, be it crash - The wealthy fled, in good time, often to sec - money pledged for just one year has actu - ing their daddy’s car, or trashing our planet.

issue 479 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 9 WORKPLACE Wholesale robbery by retail bosses by Richie Venton, the cost to workers and ‘consumers’. People The shameless plundering doesn’t even SSP national workplace organiser are bombarded daily by commercial adver - end with actual BHS closure. On one side & Usdaw convener tising to mould them into deciding what they of the class divide, 11,000 workers don’t ‘must have’, with the competition between even know what redundancy packages they “Some people have been in this building rival retail capitalists absolutely cut-throat. will get, and the pensions of 20,000 past and for 45 years, and they are not people who The sharks who infest these waters will present BHS workers will be slashed by at can just walk onto yachts. They are people stoop to anything to engorge their profit least 10 per cent—because the taxpayer- who have mortgages and shop in ASDA.” margins. The successive owners of BHS are funded Pensions Protection Fund only guar - typical of this class of predatory profiteers. antees workers a maximum of 90 per cent SO SAID a BHS worker as liquidation of The Observer editorial opined that BHS of the pension value. On the other side, bil - the chain—a High Street fixture since doesn’t represent a failure of capitalism but lionaire plunderer Sir Philip Green is a se - 1928—was brutally announced. a failure of the owners’ morality. But the cured creditor, and therefore stands to gain All 164 stores will shut. 11,000 workers morality of capitalism is rooted in worship £35million from the liquidation process! have been tossed to the wolves after years of the great God Profit, at whatever cost to BHS workers’ devastation is neither the of loyal service. This is the biggest retail the working class they can get away with. first nor last that the vast battalions of retail collapse since Woolworths shut in 2008. Philip Green bought BHS for £200mil - workers will encounter. As capitalist own - This woman’s quiet anger references the lion in 2000. When he bought it, the BHS ers—and the government that upholds their news that the very same week 11,000 work - pension fund had a surplus of £5million, profit interests—seek to slash workers’ col - ers faced devastation, former BHS owner rising to £12million in 2001. Now the same lective share of the wealth they create, a vi - Sir Philip Green had another new yacht de - pension fund is suffering a black hole of cious circle of job losses and real-life pay livered. A 300-foot vessel valued at £571million, and BHS as a whole owes cuts sweeps the sector. £100million, to add to his existing fleet. debts of £1.3billion. The Retail Consortium has warned of a So he can cavort with celebs round the Green used its initial success to finance bloodcurdling 900,000 retail job losses. For world’s fleshpots this summer, while his takeover of the Arcadia group (which decades, this was one of the worst-paid sec - 11,000 families wonder if they can still take includes Top Shop) in 2002. He then pro - tors of the whole economy—and still is, de - that holiday they’d booked, now they have ceeded to rob it of a fortune, using BHS as - spite headline-grabbing increases on hourly no job, and now their pensions will be sets to back loans for other businesses in his pay rates over the past 12 months, which slashed by at least 10 per cent. Arcadia empire; handing out £422million has won several retail giants warm media in dividends (mostly to himself) over two plaudits. Biggest employer years; dodging Corporation Tax by gifting Much has been written about BHS losing his Monaco-based wife, Tina, a mind-bog - Wholesale retail slaughter its place, outstripped in the mid-market by gling £1.2billion in 2005. All this helped For some of them it’s to comply with the more stylish products in Marks & Spencer, Philip and Tina amass a personal fortune Tories’ obscenely misnamed ‘National Liv - undercut by fast-fashion rivals like Primark. currently standing at £3.22billion. ing Wage’ of £7.20 for workers over 25; for Younger people rarely shop in BHS nowa - Green shamelessly indulged in all this a few, to gain the kudos of the Living Wage days. The shift from bricks-and-mortar perfectly legal daylight robbery—instead of Foundation’s £8.25-an-hour; for all of them, shopping to the digital version is also a sustained investment, modernisation and a partial recognition that low pay not only challenge, with another 13 per cent increase adjustments to keep BHS in tune with shift - means low morale but also low spending in online shopping last year. But did it have ing shopping habits. power—in a consumer-driven ‘recovery’. to turn out this way? Having used and abused it for his own But behind the headlines, brutal attacks Retail is a huge chunk of the overall bounty hunt, Green then dumped the ailing on workers’ premium payments and economy; about 10 per cent of it, with retail BHS (and its pension fund) on a three-times work/life balance are being imposed to fund sales of £340billion in 2015. bankrupt, Dominic Chappell, whose Retail modest hourly pay rises. So much so that in Retail employs the biggest group of Acquisitions Ltd had barely been heard of many cases the very same retail workers are workers in the country, over 3 million of us, previously—for a derisory £1, in March 2015. worse off—not only in having to do far nearly a third of them aged under-25. Tesco Chappell invested nothing; took a salary more anti-social shifts, but in actual, ab - hires 310,000 workers, making it the UK’s of £540,000; moved his family into a rented solute weekly wages too. biggest private sector employer. mansion; bought a new Bentley; loaned Premium payments of double-time or Like all sectors of capitalism, retail is run £1.5million from BHS to his father; and time-and-a-half have been wiped out for for maximum profit for the owners and a then his Retail Acquisitions took £25million most workers for Sundays, Bank Holidays handful of giant shareholders, regardless of off BHS ahead of it going into liquidation! and nightshifts. Workers juggling and strug -

10 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 479 WORKPLACE PHILIP GREEN: the billionaire plunderer bought BHS for £200million in 2000. When he bought it, the BHS pension fund had a surplus of £5million, rising to £12million in 2001. Now the same pension fund is suffering a black hole of £571million, and BHS as a whole owes debts of £1.3billion

gling to balance work with family life are ship of any union in the UK. But member - of industrial action in retail, they should be being robbed of far more of their weekends, ship numbers are only the starting point. reminded that the same applied to Junior especially after scrapped premium pay - Unless a clear, determined lead is given by Doctors until recently—and to the Mandate ments make it cheaper for employers. the national union against the wholesale as - union members in Ireland’s Tescos, who Thousands of workers have each lost hun - sault by retail capitalism, members will be - voted by 99 per cent to strike against similar dreds of pounds through this systematic come resentful and resign again. Feeble attacks—with an 88 per cent supportive cheapening of pay in favour of profit. In jus - words about closures and cuts to pay and ballot amongst the Tescos workers not di - tifying the abolition of premiums for work - conditions from Usdaw HQ won’t pay the rectly affected. ing ungodly hours for ‘business needs’, bills. Action, pulling together first the shop The whole obscene debacle of predatory retail bosses on unimaginable salaries and stewards and activists, then convincing the capitalist plunder of BHS and workers’ pen - perks trot out deceitful phrases like ‘fair - broad mass of members, is what’s needed— sion funds raises point blank the issue of ness’, ‘harmonisation’, ‘equalisation’. Tesco but sadly lacking so far. ownership. Instead of working- and middle- CEO, Dave Lewis, had the brass neck to coo It’s urgent and critical that Usdaw stands class taxpayers bailing out pension schemes these soothing excuses on TV—whilst he up for its membership as an independent, plundered by the likes of billionaire Philip got £4.6million last year! No wonder a pe - collective body of workers, separate and Green, and propping up dirt-cheap wages tition demanding reversal of the assault on distinct from the top management who ex - through publicly-funded Tax Credits, Tesco workers’ premium payments has al - ecute the erosion of payments and condi - Usdaw should forcibly demand that a £10 ready gained 78,000 signatures. tions in the interests of the owners. minimum wage—plus a reinstated system Retail workers have been notoriously dif - of premium payments—should be funded ficult to organise in their own self-defence. Action! from the huge profits made by the retail gi - High turnover, large proportions on part- At the recent Usdaw national conference, ants, not stolen out of workers’ pockets. time hours, a substantial number being stu - we overwhelmingly passed Motions for a Democratic public ownership of distribu - dents—these and other factors have meant £10 minimum wage, abolition of lower youth tion is just as logical as for production. That only about 12 per cent on average unionised. rates, and defence of premium payments. way, retail profits could be invested in de - But growing numbers are seeing the need to That needs to be central to all the union does cent wages and anti-social hours premiums; get organised. And where there’s a strong this year, with action, not idle words. training and upskilling staff; a shorter work - lead given, retail workers join up to defend Instead of negotiating and recommending ing week with no pay losses; job security and improve their conditions. For instance, packages of cuts to pay rates for overtime, alongside full deployment of robotics and in my own large workplace, we’ve in - nightshifts, Sundays and Bank Holidays in other labour-saving technology; and pursuit creased Usdaw membership from 15 per Morrisons and Tescos, the Usdaw leader - of healthy food and environmental protec - cent five years ago to over 55 per cent now. ship should be mobilising members in re - tion, rather than short-term profits regard - Usdaw boasts the fastest-growing member - sistance. When they say there’s no tradition less of cost to people and planet.

issue 479 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • 11 for Socialism, Independence and Internationalism Issue 479 10th – 30th June 2016 email: [email protected] scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com Promoted by Jim McVicar on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Party, Suite 370, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. Printed by Forward Graphics, Elderpark Workspace, 100 Elderpark Street, Glasgow G51 3TR 100 years of imperial duplicity

Bill Bonnar looks at the consequences

NEXT YEAR marks the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution; the greatest single political event of the 20th century. When the Bolsheviks took power, one of their first acts was to make public all the se - cret international deals made by the former Tsarist regime and by extension other allied states such as Britain and France. It revealed a world of cynical imperialist manoeuvres, carving GENOCIDE IN RWANDA: up entire regions of the world for Rwandan Hutus in the colonial exploitation with utter Goma refugee camp, contempt for the people who ac - eastern Zaire (now Congo) tually lived there. Perhaps the in 1994. The genocide was most profound deal was the se - planned by members of the core political elite cret Sykes-Picot agreement signed on 16 May 1916. the north, a Sunni Arab been many attempts to re-write jected to a century of brutality This centenary of the notorious province in the centre and a that history showing the former and exploitation turning the agreement will mean nothing to Shia province in the south. colonial powers in a benign whole country into an enormous most people in Britain but is That this arrangement would role. The view is that they al - slave colony the legacy of which burned into the consciousness of go on to fuel a century of conflict ways tried to act in what they still defines that country today. millions of people in what is now was no concern to the signatories thought were the best interests In the Middle East, the colonial the Middle East. Almost all the of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of the people they were colonis - machinations of France and conflict in that region from then given their callous imperialist ing and that they played a basi - Britain have pitted Sunnis against until now has its roots in this deal. contempt for the people who cally civilising role. Shias, Kurds against Arabs, and lived there. Quite the opposite. In fact their track record Israelis against Palestinians. Ignorant It allowed the various puppet shows them as a collection of They have overseen religious It was the brainchild of an ill- regimes placed in power by barbarians motivated by igno - conflicts, sectarian strife and tribal informed British diplomat, Sir their colonial masters to operate rance, greed, racism and naked wars with only one concern. Mark Sykes, who along with his a ruthless and cynical divide self-interest. How do these affect colonial equally ignorant French oppo - and rule policy playing one interests and which side should site number, drew a straight line group against the other and fu - Colonial rulers we support in each specific con - on a map. elling sectarian division. Take the current conflict in Bu - flict to further our interests? The French could have every - A year later, another deal was rundi and the recent brutal geno - Even when the colonial period thing north of the line; the British signed; a secret for just a couple cide in neighbouring Rwanda. ended and these various countries everything to the south. It was an of months until the Bolsheviks Both can be laid squarely at became independent, colonial in - attempt to carve up this part of published it. the feet of their former Belgium terests were protected by bringing the Ottoman Empire for them - The British Lord Balfour had colonial rulers; Belgium colo - to power puppet regimes who selves. From this other straight openly promised support for the nial rule in Africa was the very protected their western paymas - lines were drawn with no refer - creation of an Arab state in what essence of an evil empire. ters while enriching themselves. ence to existing communities or is now Palestine while at the same They imposed a rigid racial It was only in the 1960s when religious, ethnic or tribal realities. time signing a secret deal with structure on each country which these regimes were swept away A good example was that of Zionists promising British support divided them on racial and tribal by revolutionary forces that mod - the newly created state of Iraq for the establishment of an Israeli lines, and sowing the seeds of ern nation-building began and the which involved the throwing to - state in the same territory. conflicts which have scarred damage inflicted by colonial rule gether of three distinct Ottoman As the colonial period has these countries for generations. could be dealt with. These coun - provinces; Sunni Kurdistan in slipped into history there has In Congo, the people were sub - tries are still trying to deal with it.