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Trade union conference: as the STUC Radical indy: new meets, we argue that workers would book is brimming be better off with independence with good ideas • see pages 8&9 • see pages 12&13 £1 • issue 436 • 11th –24th April 2014 facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice REALITY OF THE BETTER TOGETHER PARTIES UNIONISTS BACK BENEFITS CAP AS EXPENSES SCA‘WhNy thDe beAneLfits cap doesn’t fit’ • see page 10 RESfaUceboRok.coFm/SAcottCishSoEciaS listVoice @ssv_voice OBITUARY Colin Fox gives his disease that killed her but personal and political tribute politically brave too. She fought the Labour Party for 50 years MARGO MACDONALD and the SNP too. But she fought MSP was a friend and ally of the the Scottish establishment Scottish Socialist Party from the above all. very beginning. Passionate And I treasure the way she about independence she shared alone confronted the our desire for a Scotland that Parliamentary authorities that was socially just, democratic and expelled me and my SSP left wing. And like the SSP she colleagues in 2005. We were had abundant faith in the MARGO handed the most severe penalty Scottish working class’s ability to any ‘Parliamentarians’ have achieve extraordinary things and received since the English Civil respond positively to progressive War over our silent protest at the causes well presented. Scottish Executive’s attempts to Born in Hamilton seventy subvert the democratic right to years ago her first act of protest against the G8 leaders at rebellion was as a young political Gleneagles. activist in rejecting the corrupt They banned us from and stifling Lanarkshire Labour Parliament for 30 days and fined establishment to join the us £30,000. And Margo fledgling SNP. This was the MacDonald was the only MSP to 1970s. The SNP was not then speak out against their decision the slick party of government it is to deny us a hearing of any kind. today. Margo was on its working Faced with a Parliamentary class left from the outset. ‘lynch mob’ she was the only one She stood for the SNP in a brave enough to confront them. Parliamentary by-election in I really admired her for that. Govan in 1973 and won a famous victory that changed the Advice shape of Scottish politics forever. I was also indebted to her for It was an advance for the the advice she gave me in nationalists every bit as iconic as MARGO M ac DONALD: the only MSP brave enough to confront the helping me steer my Bill to Winnie Ewing’s groundbreaking Scottish Executive when four SSP MSPs were fined and banned from abolish NHS prescription success at Hamilton in 1967. Holyrood without a hearing for defending the democratic right to protest charges through Holyrood. It was against the G8 leaders at Gleneagles in 2005 PHOTO: Craig Maclean a long process and Margo sat on Broken the mould the Scottish Campaign to Yet it was more significant Later living in Edinburgh she administrative hiccups and was Remove all Prescription charges because although Margo lost her rejoined the SNP and was on a knife-edge. She took me [SCRAP] Committee alongside own seat in the first General elected as a Lothians list MSP in aside before the result was John Swinburne and the other Election of 1974 the SNP went the first elections to the new dramatically declared and MSPs sponsoring the Bill. on to win 13 others. Her success Scottish Parliament in 1999. patiently advised me how to I am comforted that I got to in Govan had broken the mould. But she fell victim to bitter handle the figures when they say my goodbyes to her last She was soon rebelling again internal politicking in the SNP at were finally announced. Not for week. I was at the house to take this time against her own party that time and was in effect the last time did I fail to heed her Jim Sillars to speak at an SSP leadership who were taking the deselected. Undeterred she left wise counsel. I was soon public meeting in Govan. SNP to the right and moving its and stood as an Independent. “hurdling around Meadowbank Clearly in great discomfort and political base away from the It was not an easy decision for stadium like a kangaroo on on strong painkillers, she was populous central belt. Expelled her nor without risks but she won speed” as one wag famously eager for news about the SSP by the SNP as a member of the a resounding success in 2003 described my spontaneous and the Yes campaign. banned left wing ‘79 Group’ and again in 2007 and 2011. reaction to the result. She She gave me good advice on along with Alex Salmond and It was during my time as a forgave me of course, not least what to say at the meeting and others, she would remain a fellow Lothians MSP that I got to because she and Jim were just told me how confident she was feature of the Scottish political know her personally. And I’ll as delighted at our success. of a Yes vote. She felt all the landscape for the next 40 years. always be grateful for the She was intelligent, incredibly classic signs of victory were She brought up her two friendship and kindness she witty, unbelievably gregarious, visible in the way people were daughters Petra and Zoe and showed towards me. On the kind, loyal, fiercely determined now responding to our message. launched a successful career as 2003 election night the result in and above all brave. Brave not That was Margo: engaged, a broadcaster and journalist. the Lothians was delayed by just in battling the Parkinson’s positive and clear to the end. 2 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 436 EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson TOP NATO warmonger and Top warmonger rallies neoliberal bitter opponent of independence Lord Robertson, in a startlingly frank outburst, has confirmed elite against Scots independence the case of the independence left ous anti-nazi coalition at the end on the international significance of the war. Given the massively of a Yes vote. diminished state of Britannia, it Of course, in his speech to the now largely remains held in place powerful US Brookings think by the nuclear weapons prop. tank, the long term supporter of No Trident, probably no seat at NATO bombing and intervention, the UN top table, diminishing in - painted a rather more right wing fluence with our senior US mili - picture than that of the left. tary partners and recognition that, For him, a democratic deci - other than as a minor actor the sion taken in a free vote to back British part in ‘policing’ the independence after years of de - world is over. bate would not be welcomed but rather would represent a Alternative gain for the “forces of dark - For the left, the speech should ness” and a victory for the ene - be seized upon as clear evidence mies of the west. of the progressive potential that a As a bolt of lightning can Yes vote can unlock, not just in harshly illuminate the scene LORD ROBERTSON: never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake peace but in boosting those across amidst the darkest storm, so the Europe and the world fighting for noble Lord’s words lift the lid on sands marched for peace. He then mas”, that underpins the scary a people’s alternative to the man - the central fears of the powerful went on to become secretary gen - words by this long term cheer darins, bureaucrats and profiteers. men at the heart of the ruthless, eral of NATO which, after the So - leader for British imperialism. The left might like to heed the warmongering British state. viet collapse was not dissolved A Yes vote will, despite black - words of Napoleon who wisely like its Warsaw Pact opponents mailing by Robertson and his ilk, counselled “never interrupt your The brutal truth but expanded. force Trident out of the Clyde and enemy when he is making a Never mind all the honeyed Robertson was central in almost certainly Britain (or what mistake”. words about our shared her - launching NATO’s bombing is left of it) out of the distastefully Lord Robertson, scion of the itage, democracy and being campaign in Yugoslavia – la - named “nuclear club” of terror rich and powerful, director of the “Better Together”, Robertson’s belled an “unpardonable folly” weapon states. Weir Group, darling of the gener - speech tells the brutal truth – for by Alex Salmond in the first time Make no mistake, the arrogant als and copper-bottomed imperi - the British state, their status as the alliance had used its military mandarins shaping British for - alist has certainly done that. a nuclear armed militarised muscle. It would not be the last. eign policy are determined to stop The Yes forces should go all- power is absolutely central to He came into his own after this and thus endangering the per - out to expose his pompous war - their determination to defeat the the 9/11 terrorist attacks, back - manent British seat on the UN se - mongering scares and tell the Yes campaign. ing NATO’s Afghan campaign curity council. truth that another peaceful and A look at Robertson’s political and going on to support air raids This was granted to the UK as prosperous Scotland and planet history quickly explains how it on Iraq. one of the partners in the victori - are possible. was he, among the clutch of right During his time at the NATO wing, ermined Labour Lords helm, the alliance moved from gracing Better Together, that was deterrence to real warfare and in - chosen to play the war card in the deed is now largely viewed as the Fill in this formJ and osend iit tno: Sc ottishh Sociealist P aSrty, SuSite 37P 0, indy debate.

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