Voice Forum 2: after the success of Euro Election: are the last one, the March 8th forum the Greens the left looks at ‘Yes Beyond Salmond’ choice for Europe? • see page 7 • see page 4 £1 • issue 432 • 14th - 27th February 2014 facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice

by Richie Venton

THE SCOTTISH Socialist Party is joining thousands of ten - ants and workers hammered by the Bedroom Tax in celebrating its effective burial in Scotland. We warmly welcome the deci - sion by the Scottish Government to increase funding to the full £50million required to pay for every tenant’s Bedroom Tax, either through Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) or some similar mechanism, should the Westmin - ster government’s Department for BED TAX Work and Pensions carry out their threat of blocking the additional £15million top-up of DHP funds. This will lift a heavy rock from the shoulders of 85,000 Scottish Tenants and activists celebrate as the families directly hit, as they will Tories’ hated Bedroom Tax is swept aside no longer have to fork out an av - erage £14 a week, usually from a after months of protest and lobbying pitiful £71 a week benefit, with the VICTORPHY OTO: Simon Whittle dread of eviction haunting them. The numbers who had already ap - plied for DHP quadrupled since the Tory Tax was imposed, with 45,000 households getting it – a clear proof of the desperation peo - ple face from this punitive theft of benefits. Now the Scottish Gov - ernment will pay all affected ten - ants’ Bedroom Tax bills.

Daily battling In all the day and daily battling by the SSP, No2BedroomTax campaign, and ordinary tenants organised in local anti-Bedroom Tax groups, two of the most fre - quently asked questions were: “Will this do any good?” and “Do you think we can ever get rid of it?” The short, proven answer to • continued on page 2 facebook.com/ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice BEDROOM TAX • continued from page 1 both is a resounding Yes! Organ - ised ‘people power’ has pounded the politicians into action – even - tually. Everyone who signed a petition, attended a public meet - ing, joined a protest lobby or BUILD ON VICTORY march, and especially those who gave up much of their personal time to hold meetings, deliver leaflets, advise people – this self - less army of volunteers forced AGAINST HATED the politicians in Holyrood to sit up and listen. They should be proud of themselves. Protests PHOTO: Simon Whittle work – so don’t be defeatist! BEDROOM TAX! To their credit, the SNP never favoured the Bedroom Tax. But their initial response, a year ago, was to say nothing could be done about it this side of winning inde - pendence. In some Labour-run councils the SNP moved motions for no evictions, but initially did not do the same in SNP-led coun - cils, until the growing pressure of tenants and the likes of the SSP on the ground shifted them into a dec - laration by Alex Salmond at the SNP conference that no SNP coun - cil would evict. At Scottish Gov - ernment level the SNP never PRESSURE: tenants and the likes of the SSP pressed Westminster and Scottish governments to axe the tax agreed to ban evictions, limiting their position to ‘encouraging’ a severely disabled mother for ar - evict Bedroom Tax victims. In con - It is a totally welcome, almighty councils to find other solutions. rears, only halting the procedure trast to Labour, the SSP has not victory for those affected by it and after uproar from local anti-Bed - only consistently argued and pub - those who fought it. But the money Labour’s record room Tax campaigners. And in licly campaigned for the SNP gov - has to come from the block grant Labour’s overall record is South Ayrshire council, where ernment to cough up the issued to Scotland by Westminster frankly shameful, inexcusable. Labour is in coalition with the To - £50million to remove all the ef - under the current devolution set- They did nothing to denounce, re - ries, they issued letters threatening fects of the Bedroom Tax, but up. From a block grant slashed al - sist and mobilise against the Bed - not only eviction for Bedroom Tax we’ve also always argued this ready by at least £10billion over room Tax when it was passed as arrears but also the snatching of should not be at the expense of the past 4 years – with another law in Westminster – in fact it was children (by social services) from other services. We have persist - £4billion of cuts threatened by the previous Labour government the families unable to pay up! ently argued Holyrood should pay Westminster via dismantling of the that themselves introduced a di - It took the Labour leadership up up the £50million AND mount a so-called Barnett Formula should luted version of the same punish - until their September 2013 UK mass campaign demanding the we vote No to independence. ment towards private sector conference before they dropped money back off Westminster – So the straitjacket of devolution tenants, through the Local Hous - and reversed their talk of keeping mobilising tenants, trade unionists means the Scottish Government ing Allowance, whilst refusing to an amended Bedroom Tax if and the vast army of Scots who robbing ‘Peter to pay Paul’ – which cap the obscenely high private elected to government in 2015. hate a tax they are not even directly is why the SSP has always de - landlords’ rents. Labour council - And even their latter-day con - affected by. As we’ve put it, “Give manded the £50million to under - lors refused to pledge ‘no evic - version to calling for the Scottish us back our stolen billions”. write the Bedroom Tax bills facing tions’; they defeated the first ever Government to fund the £50million And that is the down side of the tenants who simply don’t have the motion lodged in any Scottish shortfall seems driven by tribal decision by the Scottish Govern - money to pay it, but also advocated council with that and other de - party politics, an attempt to embar - ment to fund all tenants’ Bedroom a mass campaign to win back that mands to mitigate the impact, rass the SNP, rather than a genuine Tax payments through DHP (or a funding off the thieves in West - moved by SSP councillor Jim commitment to standing up for ten - homelessness prevention fund if minster who have stolen not just Bollan in West Dunbartonshire. ants and workers – especially given Westminster blocks the £15million £50million, but billions of pounds In fact, in Labour-run North La - their track record on benefit cuts in breach of the cap they imposed on off Scottish services, jobs and narkshire council they tried to evict government, and their attempts to DHP payments). wages through their control of the

2 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 432 BEDROOM TAX

PEOPLE POWER: this is a victory for 85,000 families victimised and impoverished by the universally despised Bedroom Tax PHOTO: Simon Whittle purse strings. Furthermore, that’s rather than the entirely bogus Tory-funded, Labour-fronted – that credit for this victory are serious, why the SSP has openly linked the claims made for the Bedroom Tax. wants to keep us imprisoned in the they should force Miliband and battle to bin the Bedroom Tax with Top-notch, environmentally- Westminster jailhouse that still his band to propose immediate the need for independence. sound and affordable public sector keeps alive this vicious Bedroom abolition – and turn up to vote this Free of the Westminster Old- housing has to be one of the many Tax south of the border. time! The decision by the Scottish Etonian millionaires’ government, central objectives of an independ - It is a tremendous boost to all Government puts the Lib Dem Scotland would never have intro - ent Scotland, one of the many con - those fighting for its abolition in partners in Tory crimes even more duced such an obnoxious tax. After crete, compelling reasons for England and Wales – a living behind the eight-ball, boosting the all, 91 per cent of Scotland’s MPs working class people to vote Yes in proof that fighting to advance the chances of getting the Bedroom – for all their other manifold short - September. interests of the Scottish people is Tax scrapped by the only place comings! – voted against it’s intro - This is a victory, and it’s impor - a help, not a hindrance, to the bet - currently holding that power – duction, but Westminster’s tant to recognise one, as they are terment of the English and Welsh Westminster. Those extraordinary unelected government imposed it. not two-a-penny! It’s a victory for working class. ‘ordinary people’ who won this 85,000 families victimised and im - victory should register the advan - People in need poverished by the Bedroom Tax; Return the billions tages of having a Scottish Gov - An independent Scotland for hundreds of social housing staff Those who won this victory ernment – by definition more opens the door to reshaping the hammered by cuts to their liveli - should celebrate, but also demand susceptible to the pressure and de - entire benefits and welfare sys - hoods; for the thousands who took back the £50million off Westmin - mands of the Scottish people than tem in a fashion that supports to the streets against the Tory Tax; ster, and indeed build up the cam - the remote, aloof Westminster – people in need – the sick, dis - for the army of volunteers who paign for the return of the billions and join the fray for full-blown abled, elderly, children or unem - formed into anti-Bedroom Tax of stolen money to save all jobs self-government. ployed – with a decent living groups and the No2BedroomTax and public services. No more Bedroom Taxes, no income and comprehensive sup - campaign; for the SSP, as the one The simplest and most immedi - more mass poverty and cuts to port services – funded by taxation party that most persistently fought ate way to win back the £50million services, no more rule by the mil - of the rich and big business. its impact with a package of imme - allocated to Bedroom Tax bills by lionaires in mansions! Join the It would allow the Scottish diate and long term solutions the Scottish Government – and to SSP in fighting for an independent working class majority the oppor - which we popularized on the use that money for other, worth - socialist Scotland that perma - tunity to elect a government of the streets and in meeting halls while services – is to build on this nently evicts the Tories, not ten - genuine left that could initiate a throughout 2013. victory and demand the immediate ants; defends the millions, not the programme of house-building and This is a serious blow to the abolition of the Bedroom Tax at millionaires; the people, not profit. renovation, creating jobs and ap - Westminster government, it’s twin Westminster. prenticeships as well as tackling Tory parties, and consequently the If the same Labour Party cur - • See page 12 for the SSP’s the real causes of housing crises, entire Better Together cabal – rently making false claims of record on the Bedroom Tax

issue 432 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 3 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS by Cllr. Maggie Chapman

SCOTLAND ELECTS six members of the European Parlia - ment this May. The numbers indi - Can the Greens stop cate that the sixth place, currently occupied by the Liberal Democrat George Lyon is up for grabs. Having exposed themselves as a UKIP taking Euro seat? party of cuts and class war on the This is an obvious first step to poor, the Liberal Democrats’ pop - charging us all for using the NHS. ularity has crashed. This is, of course, no surprise – Of the parties contesting the the interests of capital and big election there are two likely out - business will always be against comes. Either the Scottish those of the people. Greens take the sixth spot, or I am committed to standing UKIP do. Currently Scotland is with those who come to our coun - the only part of the United King - try. I am also committed to reduc - dom that is UKIP-free. But the ing the barriers to people moving. election is about much more than We must not allow restrictions to just the electoral arithmetic. be placed on immigration within The mainstream media have the EU, and we must argue for been talking UKIP up for over a full freedom of movement for year now. The politics of nation - those outwith the EU. alism, racism, divisive attacks on those living in poverty and on NATO benefits claimants is being spear - The European election hap - headed by this UKIP focus. MAGGIE CHAPMAN: Edinburgh Leith Walk councillor Maggie is top of pens, of course, in the context of I am standing on a platform the Scottish Greens list for the 2014 European Parliamentary Elections the independence referendum. that is directly opposed to these The result will have a significant right-wing ideas. a Member of the Scottish Parlia - rity are destroying people’s impact on the sort of Scotland we ment by his constituents in Argyll lives. We must stop them. have after the referendum. The Radical reform and Bute after a failed attempt to I will make the case for a Citi - SNP’s decision to support NATO I believe we must support a privatise Caledonian MacBrayne zen’s Basic Income for all. This membership is one area where radically reformed Europe that ferries. His reason was that Euro - will begin to redress the failure to electing a Green will send a clear supports workers’ rights, that en - pean directives meant he had to support domestic work. It will also signal about the nation we want. sures freedom of movement for privatise the lifeline ferry service. make it much harder for bosses I am opposed to the militarisa - citizens, and that acts to create a In my nearly seven years as an to exploit workers. tion of Europe, to membership of better world. That means we councillor in Edinburgh, I’ve seen While capital and the rich be - NATO and to the renewal of Tri - need to see more power for the the same story about European come ever more mobile, more re - dent (or any other nuclear democratically elected European rules used time and again by the strictions are being placed on the weapons). I will be a voice for the Parliament, and less for the un - administration to make the case movement of people. The panic very many Scots who want an democratic Commission. But it for privatisation. Having led oppo - over Romanian and Bulgarian end to war and the military-indus - doesn’t mean walking away. We sition on the Council to “Alterna - immigration at the New Year trial complex. must work to make a better Eu - tive Business Models” (or, the demonstrated the mainstream This election offers us the op - rope from within. wholesale privatisation of public media’s hostility to foreigners. portunity to defend public services I am for a workers Europe, not services) I will use my position in The sight of Labour MP Keith in public hands, promote a new a bosses Europe. I am committed Europe to argue against any fu - Vaz at Heathrow to “monitor the approach to social security, stand to public services and to social ture directives that encourage pri - situation” shows that politicians up for immigrants and oppose security. It is clear that privatisa - vatisation. I will also use my role who should know better are militarisation in Europe. It offers tion does not work for citizens or to clarify the existing directives being led by UKIP and the media us the opportunity to keep UKIP for workers. which are being used to drive pri - on this issue. out, and to show that Scotland re - The Royal Mail sell-off and vatisation initiatives. It is not just the moral case for jects racism and xenophobia. the destruction of the English We need to reclaim the argu - immigration that must be made. We need a broad front to op - NHS are naked attempts to ment about social security. The interests of immigrants and pose the rise of fascism, and the plunder our collective wealth. The hounding of benefits those of workers are often dominance of big business. They must be opposed, and I claimants by the right-wing aligned closely. The UK Govern - If Scotland elects me as an pledge to do that. media and the Conservative/Lib - ment are using fear of immigrants MEP, I promise to work beyond George Lyon, the sitting Liberal eral Democrat government’s to introduce charging mecha - party politics to build a new Democrat MEP was dumped as punitive attacks on social secu - nisms to the NHS in England. Scotland in a new Europe.

4 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 432 JOHN M cALLION by John McAllion out” and quoted one senior party source as saying “...it’s IN THE wake of Labour’s vic - not even contempt any more – tory in the recent Cowdenbeath we’re laughed at on the by-election, the Labour List doorstep.” website crowed that the result This haemorrhaging of sup - represented “a dreadful start to port for Scottish Labour has co - 2014 for those who would split incided with the party’s drift to Britain.” As the result was an - the right and with its embrace of nounced, Anas Sarwar, the GGrroowwtthh pro-market policies under suc - Westminster MP who is co-ordi - cessive leaderships since the LAUGHABLE: nating Labour’s referendum 1980s. Scottish Labour campaign in Scotland, tweeted ooff YYeess The recently published Scot - leader Johann “bring on the indyref”. Lamont dismissed tish Social Attitudes survey Clearly, Labour’s leadership mmiirrrroorrss Trident WMDs, the shows a strong correlation be - viewed the result as a harbinger Bedroom Tax, illegal tween support for independ - wars and policies to of a crushing No vote still to ence and social class. Some 40 boost childcare and come in September’s independ - Labour’s per cent of households earning Labour’s tackle child poverty ence referendum. as “wee things” under £14,300 a year are likely However, there is not a scrap ddeecclliinnee to vote Yes. of objective evidence to support against their party’s position on for Holyrood. Between the 1999 By contrast wealthy Scots, in - their view or to credibly link the independence in September. and 2011 elections, Labour lost cluding 72 per cent of business result of a by-election to choose This, of course, is something 278,000 constituency votes leaders, are resolutely hostile to a constituency MSP in January the Labour hierarchy would and 38 constituency seats. The independence. The survey also with the likely outcome of a na - prefer to keep secret. once solid heartlands are shows that support for inde - tion-wide poll on Scottish inde - When Labour for Independ - steadily fragmenting. pendence reflects broad pro - pendence eight months later. ence (LFI) was launched 18 Analyses of party supporters gressive values. Compared There is plenty of evidence months ago, Labour’s leader - are even more worrying for with the Scottish average, yes that points in the opposite direc - ship denounced it as a nation - Labour. At the 2010 general supporters are much more tion. The professor of politics alist sham and accused SNP election, the SNP led Labour by likely to favour spending on and public policy at Stirling Uni - members of posing as Labour 14 per cent among Scots iden - support for people with disabili - versity commented that the re - activists in staged photographs. tifying themselves as working ties, on pensioners and on the sult “says nothing about the One critic dismissed LFI as a class. The SNP was also the unemployed. They are also referendum.” “shell organisation...a proxy run party of choice among public more likely to support higher by the SNP” so as to create the sector workers, trade unionists taxes, wealth redistribution and Party politics false impression that Labour and even Catholics - all tradi - the principle of universalism. Scotland’s favourite pollster, supporters were pro-indepen - tionally Labour supporting sec - professor John Curtice of dence. tions of the voting public. ‘Wee things’ Strathclyde University added Last month LFI held the first The SNP even outnumber They are, in short, the kind of that the result “tells you more of a series of national events in Labour in terms of councillors people who once formed the about party politics than the ref - Glasgow. 250 activists crowded elected across Scotland. Local backbone of Scottish Labour. It erendum.” into two halls in the STUC to government is no longer a is no accident that, as Labour’s Moreover, polling carried out hear a series of rotating speak - Labour stronghold. Scottish leader derides the pro - by the SNP during the by-elec - ers, with another 250 following Party membership is much gressive case for independ - tion about voting intentions for the proceedings through live harder to judge as the figures ence as “a list of wee things” the referendum revealed 41 per streaming of the event. The published by parties are gener - and calls multinational bosses cent intending to vote Yes, 36 next national event will take ally unreliable. However, most and the governor of the Bank of per cent No and 23 per cent un - place in Dundee at the end of commentators estimate that England in aid of her case for decided in a sample of nearly this month. Labour had around 30,000 voting No, that at the grassroots 12,000 voters in the Cowden - Labour’s secret is out and is members in Scotland at the level Labour’s working class beath constituency. getting bigger with each passing time of the 1997 general elec - voters are turning away from a Cowdenbeath is one of week. No one, however, should tion. According to Wikipedia, party that has turned its back Labour’s heartland constituen - be surprised. Labour has been that membership had dropped on social democratic values. cies and forms part of Gordon losing Scotland for some con - to 17,000 by 2008. Bob Holman, a lifelong Brown’s rock solid Kirkcaldy siderable time. Between the In the 2010 contest for lead - Labour Party member and and Cowdenbeath Westminster 1997 and 2010 general elec - ership of the Scottish party, Easterhouse’s best known anti- seat. For the Yes campaign to tions, Labour lost almost a quar - Labour issued only 13,000 bal - poverty campaigner is the latest be ahead here confirms that ter of million votes in Scotland’s lot papers. One newspaper ar - Labour supporter to come out many traditional Labour sup - Westminster elections. ticle wrote about the party’s for independence. porters are planning to vote The figures are even worse membership being “hollowed He will not be the last.

issue 432 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 5 EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson Holyrood and Westminster. All the evidence shows that support AS TORY toff Cameron’s PR for a Yes vote is strongest guru harnessed the fading glory Olympic Cameron amongst working class voters of the London Olympics as a who are the bedrock of Labour background for his “phone a support. That’s why convincing friend” anti-independence waves his flag but those voters that a Yes vote is offensive, the Scottish Bedroom not a vote for the SNP but for Tax victory told a different tale. opening the way to a progressive After months of relentless No Scots Bedroom Tax government capable of taking propaganda “warning” Scots of the steps they support on jobs, pestilence and death if they vote health, housing and public Yes, the switch to what Etonians defeat steals gold services – long abandoned by consider a charm offensive cut the Labour party they used to little ice. Away from the Union know – is a key task. Jack Brigadoon world of Cameron, the stunning defeat of PR stunt the Bedroom Tax provided a As fat cats line up to lecture vision of the class-driven reality voters on why they must stay behind the Tory sugar. British, and Cameron – like Blair It’s no accident that Tories – 20 before him, more actor than years after Thatcher left Downing politician – mouths his lines in a Street – are still detested in PR stunt at the Olympic Scotland and only able to impose DAVID CAMERON: desperate velodrome, hard reality will out. their will with the collaboration of for more GB cycling medals The choice for working class the spineless Lib Dems. that only Scots can provide. voters is vote No and get the Next speech – Wimbledon... Tories or their close twins in Detestation justifies their mass rejection with the Better Together No service-cutting, nuclear-armed, The detestation of the Tories – which has reduced them to a camp is funded by hard line poor-demonising non-socialist now increasingly shared by the solitary Tory MP in Scotland. Tories and fronted by Labour Labour – or vote Yes to make the former ‘nice’ Lib Dems – is based However, although this and is causing growing splits Tories history in Scotland and on hard reality and decades of should be good news for the within Labour ranks. open the way for real alternative Tory governments which Scots Tories’ partners in the No Most dramatic has been the putting people before profit. didn’t support, imposing policies camp, Scottish Labour, unease rise of Labour for Independence, This is the potential prize from they never voted for. is welling up in their ranks as which recognises that a Yes vote a Yes vote, which breaks with the From the Poll Tax to the their Westminster and Holyrood is the best way to reassert failed finance-driven British Bedroom Tax with a myriad of wings scrap over their post-No policies and values central to model. The working people of industrial closures, cuts and vote “offer” to voters. The Labour voters and largely Scotland are the key to winning sackings, their record richly reality is that their participation abandoned by the careerists in that prize.

bOy BKenI TFeUrguAsoRn Y: PETMcECa rSthyiEte UEnG-AmEeriRcan A–ctiv T- HE VOICE OF THing Eca nPes, mEaOrchiPng LwiEth the Oc - ities Committee’s red baiting. cupy Wall Street protests in 2011. FROM SINGING alongside However he enrages the witch He lived on the Hudson river in legends such as Woody Guthrie hunters when, unlike the majority New York State which had been in the epic battles building unions of those questioned,he refused to heavily polluted by industrial in the teeth of the bosses thugs use the US 5th amendment which chemicals and with his sloop the with the militant Congress of In - allows silence to avoid self incrim - Clearwater waged a long and ul - dustrial Organisation to his pio - ination but pled the 1st amendment timately successful campaign to neering work reversing pollution guaranteeing the right to speak and force the polluters to clean it up. in the Hudson river, Pete Seeger’s publish. Decades of blacklisting Way ahead of the car making activism was inseparable from followed keeping him off TV and multinationals, he took the petrol his music. mainstream media but undaunted PETE SEEGER: 1919-2014 engine out of his car and replaced His banjo was, like Woody’s he sung for civil rights and against it with batteries making an early guitar – on which was written “this the bloody war in Vietnam where Seeger left the Communist electric car. As an environmental, machine kills fascists” – pressed his famous song Knee Deep In The Party in the ’50s saying he was no peace, civil rights and labour ac - into service in rallying progressive Big Muddy caused a storm in the longer a communist with a big “c” tivist, Seeger was irreplaceable – America in the war to defeat Hitler media but caught the mood of but he remained firmly on the left but his songs will live on and are only to find himself before the protest sweeping the US. including, supported by two walk - surely his memorial.

6 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 432 COLIN FOX by Colin Fox

FOLLOWING THE success of the Scottish Socialist Voice Forum on independence in Decem - Voting Yes doesn’t ber, a second one will take place on Saturday 8 March in Edinburgh University’s Martin Hall on the theme ‘Yes Beyond Salmond – make youY ESa BEY ONnD SAaLMONtD: iocampn. Equaally ltheire sare t those why voting for independence Jean Urquhart MSP is amongst Labour MSPs who propose new the panellists at a second doesn’t make you a nationalist’. powers such as control of income Scottish Socialist Voice Forum Like our first Forum which ex - on independence and tax spending in Scotland, setting amined the Scottish Government’s nationalism, in Edinburgh on welfare budgets and devolving em - White Paper Scotland’s Future, this Saturday 8 March. You can ployment legislation. But they in one is aimed at engaging the pro-in - book free advance tickets via turn have been warmed ‘these pro - scottishsocialistparty.org dependence left and also features an posals will never get through the impressive array of panellists. Intro - Westminster Parliament’. ducing the various issues involved will be the former SNP Deputy Standing room only leader and author of the recently And of course, there’s the rub. published book In Place of Fear II – Devo max involves amendments to A Socialist Programme For Inde - the 1997 Scotland Act that must be pendence Jim Sillars, the Independ - passed by a Westminster Parlia - ent Highlands and Islands MSP side leader John Maclean and to likely to influence the opinion polls ment stacked full of Tory and Jean Urquhart, Allan Grogan from Edinburgh’s James Connolly, fully most in the months ahead. With the Labour MP’s hostile to any further Labour for Independence, Jonathon understands that our international - gap narrowing between the Yes and powers being devolved to the Scot - Shafi from the Radical Independ - ism is not at odds with support for No campaigns all the time, indica - tish Parliament at all. ence Campaign, and myself. independence. And this is of course tions are that the ‘don’t knows’ will All these issues will be developed This Forum takes place as the one of the many themes that will prove decisive. And here the evi - in the second Scottish Socialist Voice polls show a marked increase in emerge from this second Forum. dence suggests they are largely Forum on 8 March. The first Forum support for the Yes campaign. And The polls, which have shown a devo max supporters waiting to see was packed, with standing room they confirm the Scottish Socialist narrowing in recent weeks, are ex - what extra powers the Unionist only, and this one is likely to be the Party’s analysis that support for in - pected to narrow still further if parties propose before finally de - same – so all those interested in dependence is much stronger UKIP emerges as the biggest party ciding to vote Yes or No. coming along are strongly advised to amongst the working class and the down South in May’s European The Labour Party is reported to book their tickets in advance. poor than the better off. elections. They are not expected to be at ‘sixes and sevens’ over the ex - get a single seat in Scotland. And tent of the powers they should offer • Tickets for the event, which Growing support if, as seems possible, the Tories in any devo max settlement. is free and co-sponsored by This reflects the fact they see in - look like winning the Westminster Most Labour MPs are said to Edinburgh University Scottish dependence as a fundamental break General Election both these factors prefer few if any significant extra Socialist Society, are with the British State and offering a will show just how different the po - powers being offered. But this tactic available now via better route towards the progressive litical climate is north and south of runs the very real risk of pushing scottishsocialistparty.org or change the majority of Scots prefer. the border. Having said all that, it is dissatisfied devo max supporters by emailing: The Yes campaign is understand - Labour’s devo max dilemma that is into the welcoming arms of the Yes [email protected] ably buoyed up by this growing support and is focused in particular To subscribe, fill in this form and send it to: Scottish Socialist Voice, now on persuading working class Suite 370, 4th Floor, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. voters that supporting independ - Or telephone: 0781 126 5388 ence doesn’t make you a nationalist. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to ‘Scottish Socialist Voice’ The Scottish Socialist Party is Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice & Twitter: @ssv_voice passionate about independence but we would never describe ourselves Name...... as ‘nationalists’. We belong to that Address...... honourable socialist tradition that ...... sees the break up of the UK State as a welcome development both for Phone...... 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issue 432 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 7 HIDDEN HISTORIES CUTS, BETRAYAL AND A PACT by Campbell Martin TWhIeT 1H9 T3O1 RNIaEtSio AnNalD G LoIvBeErRnmALeS nt JUNE 5TH 1929 saw the election of the second ferred to in the Nationalist movement as ‘King on the international money markets (mainly Labour government in Britain, again under the John’ because of the leading role he played in de - from American financiers). leadership of Scotsman Ramsay MacDonald. veloping and building demands for Scottish inde - However, prior to making funds available, As was the case with the first Labour adminis - pendence. The first meeting of the left-wing American bankers demanded the Labour Govern - tration (Dec 1923 – Oct 1924) MacDonald found National Party of Scotland was chaired by Robert ment implement a range of ‘austerity measures’, himself leading a minority government, depend - Cunninghame Graham, the former Liberal MP including slashing unemployment payments by ent on support from Liberals in order to take for - who had championed Keir Hardie’s candidacy as 10 per cent. Reducing benefit paid to the unem - ward legislation. Labour also had the misfortune an Independent Representative of Labour at the ployed through the National Assistance Scheme to find itself elected to office just as the global cap - Mid-Lanark by-election in 1888. was a step too far for some Labour Ministers and italist system collapsed in what was to become the Keir Hardie, at the time a mineworkers’ union the Cabinet could not reach agreement on the mat - Great Depression. In its first term of government organiser in Lanarkshire pits, had sought to stand ter – a small majority supported the measure (11- Labour had been a massive disappointment to the as a Liberal-Labour (Lib-Lab) candidate. 9). Fearing the issue could lead to a split within working class, and had also failed to deliver on a However, the Liberal Party rejected Hardie in the Labour Party as a whole, Ramsay MacDonald commitment to Scottish Home Rule, which had favour of John Philipps, an English solicitor. As and his government formally resigned from office been a founding principle of the Scottish Labour an Independent Representative of Labour, Keir on 24 August 1931, but what followed led to Party in 1888 and subsequently of the Britain- many within the Labour movement labelling wide Independent Labour Party in 1893. MacDonald as a traitor. A ‘National Government’ A Scottish Home Rule Bill introduced in May comprised of Conservative, Labour and Liberal 1924 by Glasgow Govan MP George Buchanan MPs was formed, with Ramsay MacDonald as its was allowed to be ‘talked out’ in the House of leader. The Scotsman who had done so much to Commons, meaning the proposal fell and was establish the Labour Party and was Prime Minister dropped. Many of Labour’s Scottish MPs were in the first two Labour governments was subse - furious that such a matter of principle had been quently expelled by the party. meekly conceded – the Independent Labour Party in Scotland had been a founding member of the The Scottish Party Scottish Home Rule Association in 1921. The In Scotland, 1932 saw a split within the centre- measures proposed in Buchanan’s Bill, and sup - right Unionist Party, which resulted in the forma - ported by Scottish Labour MPs, were for a federal tion of a new pro-Home Rule organisation called system of government within the United King - the Scottish Party. November 1933 brought a by- dom rather than full independence. In 1927, while election in Kilmarnock, caused by the sitting MP, in opposition to a Tory Government, Scottish Sir Craigie Mason Aichison, who was also Scot - Labour MPs again attempted to introduce legis - land’s Lord Advocate, being appointed to the po - lation to bring about Home Rule for Scotland. RAMSAY MACDONALD : expelled by the Labour sition of Lord Justice Clerk. Aichison had been However, yet again, the Bill – in the name of the Party for leading the ‘National Government’ elected in 1929 as a Labour MP but had followed Reverend James Barr (MP for Motherwell) – was alongside Conservatives and Liberals in 1931 Ramsey MacDonald into the ‘National Govern - ‘talked out’. Parliamentary records from the time ment’ with the Conservatives and Liberals. He show the Scottish Home Rule Bill made way for Hardie finished third in the election, with a re - was also expelled from the party and subsequently a debate on ‘Bugs, fleas and vermin’. spectable 8 per cent of the vote. sat as a National Labour MP. On January 1st 1929 the National Party of Scot - The Scottish Party decided to field a candidate Labour’s failure land fielded its first candidate in a UK parliamen - in the Kilmarnock by-election and, significantly, Two years later, with Labour back in power, tary contest - the Midlothian and Peebles Northern the centre-left National Party of Scotland endorsed Home Rule for Scotland had fallen to 63rd posi - by-election. The NPS candidate, Lewis Spence, their selection rather than fielding a candidate of tion in the government’s list of priorities, which polled 4.5 per cent and finished last of the four their own. The contest was won by National comprised of 63 issues. In Scotland, Labour’s fail - candidates: Labour won the seat. Labour’s Kenneth Lindsay, beating candidates ure to advance the cause of Home Rule led to By 1931 the Labour Government at West - from the Labour Party and the Independent growing support for other organisations, such as minster was plunged into a financial crisis by a Labour Party. The joint candidate from the Scot - the National Party of Scotland (NPS), which had run on the price of gold, triggered by a report tish Party and the National Party of Scotland fin - been formed in 1928. that the UK budget deficit could reach £120mil - ished fourth, but secured a very respectable 16.9 The NPS emerged from the Glasgow Univer - lion by the following year. MacDonald’s Cabi - per cent of the vote. The following year, 1934, the sity Scottish Nationalist Association and was the net sought to remedy matters by initiating cuts National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party brainchild of John MacCormick, later to be re - to public spending, increase taxes, and borrow amalgamated to form the Scottish National Party.

8 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 432 WELFARE by Sandra Webster

THROUGHOUT Scotland, huge changes are going to Is Self-Directed Support the take place in the delivery of community care for some of the most vulnerable adults in future of community care? Scotland. JOHN SWINNEY: moved to another area to study Although these are sold to has announced where she was only assessed that the Self- carers and people with Directed Support to need to pay £30 a week. disabilities as “personalised” model piloted in Imagine if it had been the other services, the harsh reality is Glasgow should way round though she would that they are about cuts to be rolled out not have been able to study. services and impact on many throughout As usual it is unpaid carers Scotland individual’s human rights. and people with disabilities One of the local authorities who bear the brunt. The reality who have piloted the Self- is that as authorities behave Directed Support is Glasgow badly and use Self-Directed City Council who have been Support as an opportunity to criticised by carers and make cuts to services. academics due to their People face more stress as approach to implementing they attempt to navigate their Self-Directed Support. way through financial Self-Directed Support should assessments. The charges are be a good thing. It means that causing distress with some everyone has a personal this change can be devastating. pay £60 a week from her own people having to cut back on budget and can access their ‘Harry’ has dementia and is money but she goes to her day essentials such as food to pay own care directly. cared for by his wife and centre for five days a week for a charge for care needs. attended a day centre for ten nothing. We can’t afford the Glasgow especially is coming Glasgow years. His care needs were charge.” in for a great deal of criticism. In Glasgow however, Self- scrutinised for Self-Directed The charge is having a huge Directed Support is being Support and he was assessed impact as is the financial Human rights introduced at the same time as as requiring two days of day assessment carers face. This Unfortunately John Swinney cuts to direct services. services. is placing a huge burden on has announced the Glasgow Traditional day services are However he was assessed many of the most vulnerable. model should be rolled out criticised for being as having to contribute £90 a IRISS the Institute for throughout Scotland. “institutionalised”. The city week towards this care which Research in Social Services in This will mean many more aims to deliver services to all was taken off his Self-Directed a specially commissioned people’s basic human rights its clients between the ages of Support payment at source. report for the Scottish being threatened and eroded. 16 and 64 who currently His family could not afford Government, on the impact of Self-Directed Support receive a day service by this and he stopped going to Self-Directed Support felt it legislation is moving through offering Self-Directed Support his existing day service. could breach the human rights the Scottish Parliament but is it payments. His condition deteriorated of the enjoyment of life for fit for purpose for the kind of For many though using day and six months later was in a people with disabilities. society we want for carers and centres and respite this means nursing home. His family had They recommended that the people with disabilities? a financial assessment and a gone from receiving free care Scottish Government look to When we look to an charge for services they to being forced to pay a huge the model of Self-Directed independent Scotland we must already use. charge of £90 a week which Support in England and Wales. remember that it begins with Unlike existing access to day they could not afford. In England no one under the equality and the rights to services an individual is Harry’s story is sadly not age of 45 is expected to pay independence for those expected to pay a weekly unusual with many carers as they are seen as not having without long term health charge which comes off direct reporting similar accrued enough income during conditions taken for granted. payment before the money circumstances. As one their lifetime. A Yes vote must mean a even goes into an individual’s women carer put it: In Wales there is a cap of decent standard of living for all account. “I felt as if Glasgow City payments set at £50 a week. our citizens. That is why we This is in direct opposition to Council had put a gun to our Meanwhile in Scotland there must support carers and the current model where an heads about the charge. are inequalities across people with disabilities in individual accesses a service “They assessed Gayle as different areas. anything that threatens their and the charge is pursued requiring 20 hours of day care One young woman who paid rights to the kind of everyday separately. For some even a week. They said she had to £130 a week for services life most of us take for granted.

issue 432 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 9 NEWS by Chris Cassells

THE PRACTICES of GCHQ and the NSA are fundamentally at SNOWDEN RECTORIAL FIGHT odds with an open, free and dem - ocratic society. This is why we, as Glasgow University students, SPOTLIGHTS STATE SPYING chose to nominate and campaign too absent in government and should not, rely on those outside with all those who have sacrificed for the whistleblower Edward media circles, about our right as the student body to fight our bat - everything to bring the truth to light. Snowden: to show our support for citizens to lead our lives away from tles for us. And over the coming years it looks his actions and our disgust with the gaze of spies and spooks. We From Ross Kemp to Charles all too likely that we will become the perverse desire of the security have had an overwhelming re - Kennedy’s inauspicious second more dependent on the courage of services to monitor our every key - sponse to the nomination and will term, we have been let down time individual whistleblowers. stroke. Once every three years we continue to build the campaign and time again by working rectors With the seemingly wholesale have a powerful opportunity to against state surveillance. whose tenure is characterised by outsourcing of our remaining public have our say on an issue of our We are optimistic that the en - absenteeism and complacency. services, well beyond the reach of choosing and Glasgow University ergy and enthusiasm of our sup - democratic oversight, the job of students have a long and proud porters will see Snowden elected Immoral practices standing up to corruption and injus - tradition of electing student rectors to this centuries-old position, but By electing Edward Snowden tice is all too often going to fall to to reflect their political views – the work will not stop there. we will speak clearly to a global brave men and women like Ed - from ANC leader Albert Lutuli to, If elected, we will continue to audience and live up to our insti - ward Snowden. in 2005, the Israeli whistleblower campaign for Snowden’s courage tution’s motto: Via, Veritas, Vita. Fundamentally, our concerns Mordechai Vanunu. The cam - to be recognised and for the citi - We will reaffirm our reputation as about state surveillance affect paign to elect Edward Snowden zens of this country and beyond to students with concerns reaching everyone who has ever logged- sits firmly in that tradition. have a democratic say on their far beyond campus and as stu - on, picked up a smartphone or en - right to privacy. dents committed to the freedoms gaged with any kind of digital Threats Student representation takes and liberties which are essential to communications technology. The Snowden’s chilling revelations many forms: from the Hethering - our studies and lives beyond. question is simple: do you want are well known, and their scope ton Occupation and mass protests Throughout our campaign we your every email, tweet, Facebook far too wide reaching to reiterate of 2011 to our elected representa - have not only highlighted NSA message to be viewed and stored here, but what is clear is that all of tives on the SRC. and GCHQ’s appalling incursion by state security? our personal communications are We do not pretend that Snow - into our private and personal lives We hope that on 18 February now subject to invasive scrutiny by den will be a working rector. He but have celebrated all whistle - the answer will be a resounding state security. This is not accept - may never be able to even set foot blowers who risk their lives and no. But win or lose, we can able. Nor is the treatment of Ed - on campus. But we have been livelihoods to expose corrupt and proud of our campaign and we ward Snowden, particularly now here before with no ill effect on immoral practices by the state and join an increasing number of in - threats to his life have emerged. student representation. And when other powerful groups. stitutions seeking to honour and The UK government’s response else will we be able to speak From Mordechai Vanunu, to protect Snowden and stand up to this scandal has been woeful, clearly on our opposition to perva - Chelsey Manning and Edward for the whistleblowers who do us as has the coverage in certain sec - sive state surveillance? Snowden himself, there are a pan - all a valiant service. tions of the press. The rectorial I have no doubt that each of the theon of whistleblowers still suffer - contest has given us an invaluable other rectorial candidates would ing as a result of their actions. By • Chris worked in the Edward platform from which to have a pub - carry out the role with commitment standing in solidarity with Edward Snowden rectorial campaign lic debate, one that has been all and diligence but we cannot, and Snowden we stand in solidarity at Glasgow University

FJill ino thisi fonrm a ndt sehnd ite to: S coSttishS SociaPlist P arhty, Seuite 3r70e, 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 432 INTERNATIONAL by Bill Bonnar

SOME CONFLICTS are simple and clear cut with the left secure in its support of one side Is there a way out of over the other. Other conflicts are more complex requiring the left to adopt a more sophisticated response. The various conflicts the Syrian quagmire? in the Arab world are a case in CATASTROPHIC STALEMATE: neither the point none more so than the cur - regime nor the rebels are strong enough to defeat each other. Syria’s civilians rent situation in Syria. continue to suffer in their millions The Syrian civil war has reached a catastrophic stalemate. One the one hand the Baathist regime in Damascus is strong enough to stay in power but not strong enough to defeat the rebel - lion. On the other, the rebels are strong enough to keep on fighting but not strong or united enough to defeat the regime. For the Syrian people the situation could not be worse. Scores of thousands have died most of them civilians while several million people have be - come internal or external refugees. The economy has all but collapsed and with it vital services such as ism all wrapped up in the banner clusion of other. It was around is - liance with the more progressive education and health care. of modernisation. sues such as repression and corrup - elements of the opposition and at - It is worth pointing out that the tion that sparked the initial tempt to create some kind of gov - Assad Syrian state they created did em - rebellion in 2011 inspired by the ernment of national unity. Syria emerged as a French Pro - brace many of these facets. It was Arab spring elsewhere and it is of Just as Assad cannot be part of tectorate at the end of the First strongly nationalist in the anti-im - little surprise that the rebellion that process neither can many of World War and as an independent perialist sense and for most of its found support among more ex - the Islamic fundamentalist groups republic in 1946. The Current modern history formed a close al - cluded groups. Since then the con - currently engaged in the conflict. regime based on the Baathist So - liance with the Soviet Union as flict has degenerated into These are deeply reactionary cialist Party came to power in a well as being a bulwark against Is - generalised civil war with coali - forces which cannot be reconciled military coup in 1963 and was rael. Its commitment to pan-Ara - tions of forces on either side. either with the regime in Damas - consolidated under the rule of bism took the form of an What can be done? It might cus or the kind of progressive sec - President Assad in 1970. economic, political and social seem self-evident and simplistic ular state Syria aspired to be. The Baathist movement rose to union with Egypt while it em - but their needs to be a ceasefire. While peace involves removing prominence at the end of the Sec - braced some of the features of so - The armed conflict has become Assad it also involves defeating ond World War in a number of cialism in terms of bringing key unwinnable on either side; a fact these groups. In recent times peace countries. What united them was parts of the economy into state recognised both by the regime and talks are taking place in Switzer - opposition to the Western colonial ownership. Most tellingly, Syria key elements of the opposition. land to try and negotiate a settle - powers who had consigned the became a fiercely secular country ment. It will come as little surprise Arab people to a life of exploita - in which all forms of Islamic fun - National unity that they have made little progress; tion, repression and poverty and damentalism were repressed. A political settlement involving nothing much else was expected. the old Arab order who allowed it On the other hand the regime the creation of a government of The talks were more symbolic to happen. was ruthlessly authoritarian re - national unity is the only way for - than anything else. Those old regimes were cor - pressing all opposition and in its ward. The starting point must be A recognition by Damascus and rupt, repressive , presided over a later years become increasingly the removal, by whatever means, those opposition groups attending conservative Islamic order and corrupt particularly around the of President Bashir al Assad and that their needs to be some kind of were happy to exist in alliance rule of the current president, those around him. His very pres - settlement. Hopefully this will lay with their colonial masters. The Bashir al Assad and his entourage. ence unites the opposition and the basis for future negotiations. Baathist Movements were a reac - Another telling factor was the way guarantees that there can be no set - The alternative could be apocalyp - tion against this and combined a the regime built alliances around tlement. This would then create tic with the collapse of the Syrian heady mixture of nationalism, pan particular groups such as the the space for what remains of the state itself. If that happens the en - Arabism, socialism and secular - Alawites and Christians to the ex - Baathist regime to forge an al - tire region could go up in flames.

issue 432 • Scottish Socialist Voice • 11 for Socialism, Independence facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice and Internationalism [email protected] Issue 432 14th – 27th February 2014 by Richie Venton

FOR THE past 15 months, the Scottish Socialist Party has been at the heart and head of the anti- Bedroom Tax movement, along - side tenants in the No2BedroomTax campaign, trade unionists hit by cuts to wages and jobs passed on by SSP: tireless local Housing Association chiefs, and thousands of ordinary people desperate to bin this abomination of a tax on the poorest. to adopt the same policies. We We’ve conducted countless fought alongside others for the street stalls every week all over BedroomSc ottiTsh Govaernment txo ban all Scotland; held numerous SSP evictions nationally, thereby public meetings; spoken along - also protecting local housing as - side others in No2BedroomTax sociation tenants. campaign meetings; helped build PHOTO: Craig Maclean Since Christmas 2012, the networks of local people to pre - SSP simultaneously argued and vent any threat of evictions; fighters campaigned – later in tandem helped build the mighty No2Bed - with No2BedroomTax cam - roomTax demos last March and paigners – for the Scottish Gov - later outside the Lib Dem UK ernment to fund the shortfall, Conference in Glasgow. the estimated £50million this year, to remove all fear of evic - Scrap it now! tions or excuses for cuts to jobs, Since late 2012 we consis - pay and services by cash- tently argued on the streets for starved social landlords. its immediate abolition – at a time when most people at first Growing rebellion didn’t know what we were talk - And it was the SSP, through ing about! – as a vicious and to - the online petition that I tally unjustified attack on the launched on behalf of the party, poorest, which caused family accompanied by thousands of upheaval, hunger, poverty and petitions collected at SSP street stress in dread of evictions, and stalls, that helped put Ed even drove several people to Miliband and his Labour MPs suicide. The Tory-Lib Dem at Westminster on the spot, de - Coalition MPs who imposed manding they move an immedi - this have blood on their hands! ate emergency Motion to Whilst fighting for its aboli - abolish the Bedroom Tax. tion, the SSP were the first to also To their eternal shame, when broadcast a package of immedi - they were pressurised into doing ate steps that should be taken by this by the growing rebellion of those in power at council, local working class people against the housing association and Scottish Tax, 47 Labour MPs (ten of them Parliament levels – to mitigate from Scottish seats) didn’t bother the impact, whilst calling on the turning up to vote for Labour’s Labour and SNP politicians to own Motion for its abolition. join and build a mass rebellion of STREET FIGHTERS : the SSP have fought the hated tax since day one Presumably because these working class people for its im - Labour Bedroom Tax deserters mediate abolition. classification of rooms so as to council in Scotland to pledge regard the issue as far too trivial We organised demonstrations remove people from Bedroom both these steps, at least par - (“wee things” as Scottish Labour and lobbies of councils and Tax liability. Our persistence tially, to mitigate the impact. leader Johann Lamont might housing associations demand - and repeated street protests led We lobbied and convinced phrase it!) to bother attending ing ‘No Evictions’ and for re - to North Ayrshire being the first some local housing associations parliament to vote on!