Inside this Scottish Socialist issue ... Poverty pay: SSP councillor Jim Bollan on the young council apprentices working for slave wages of £2.65 an hour • see page 7 10 good reasons: why workers should vote Yes to independence £1 • I ssue 3V99 • 6 thOJuly - 2 nd IAuguCst 2012 E • see page 6 A scottIsh socIAlIst PArty PublIcAtIon OONNEE LLAAWW FFOORR TTHHEE RRIICCHH ...... DIAMOND ANOTHER FOR GEEZER? ANOTHER FOR Bob Diamond says he resigned to protect Barclays’ TTHHEE RREESSTT OOFF UUSS ‘reputation’ by Colin Fox world’s finance houses in With this Libor scandal, the rule in the book and sneer at reg - search of easy money than the same bankers who took the bis - ulation as they do so. The Greek The resignation of Barclays aggregate of all the other trades cuit for arrogance, greed and philosopher Anacharsis surely CEO Bob Diamond in the after - multiplied by 100. reckless incompetence in 2008 had them in mind when he wrote: math of the London Interbank Of - Consequently, financiers think remind us that lying, cheating “Laws are like cobwebs - strong fered Rate (Libor) scandal was they are untouchable, that they and stealing in the financial world enough to hold the weak but too inevitable but remains insufficient. stand above the laws the rest of simply have no match elsewhere. weak to hold back the powerful.” Diamond epitomises the us must abide by. These people relegate corrupt Anyone who thinks Barclays’ ‘Masters of the Universe’ arro - Prisons across the world are full MPs and unscrupulous media fraudulent manipulation of gance prevalent in investment of people convicted of fraud but hacks to the Blue Square Premier Libor - and they are not the only banking throughout the world. the cells seldom contain invest - League of dishonesty and graft. ones implicated - was the work This culture feeds off the fact ment bankers despite the fact they In wielding enormous sums of of a few bad apple rogue traders that each day there is more have illegally deprived billions of money on an hourly basis they acting on their own volition money ‘slushing’ around the people of unimaginable sums. are encouraged to break every • Continued on page 2 news 40,000 back Revenue and Customs strike John Davidson of PCS dress the £120billion tax a year days soon for further strike action want is a firm commitment that Revenue and Customs GEC that goes unpaid by big business should the department continue they won’t be doing business (personal capacity) looks at and the super rich, recognising to refuse to negotiate. with outfits such as Teleperfor - what happens next that only by properly resourcing HMRC were surprised at the mance and Sitel - paid £4million us can we seriously pursue the level of support for the action by HMRC for a 12-month ‘trial’ to Over 40,000 likes of Vodafone and Goldman and have subsequently hinted steal our jobs - who pay their members backed Sachs. We are currently consult - that they are willing to talk about workers over £6000 less than the strike in HMRC on 25 June, ing our branches on a strategy of privatisation - but only if we call Revenue staff, force them to bringing the department to a vir - further industrial action designed off the action! work unpaid overtime and em - tual standstill. The mood to maximise disruption to the de - The Group Executive refuses ploy them on ridiculously short- amongst pickets is positive, we partment throughout the summer to sell out the membership on the term contracts of only six weeks. realise that the Tax Justice For and will be looking to name the basis of vague talks - what we We know that privatisation All campaign won’t be won or and departmental cuts are both lost from one day of action but parts of the ConDem’s wider there is growing support for the austerity agenda, and will also long-term strategy required to be building towards national ac - force the employer to make real tion alongside PCS colleagues concessions on our demands. across the civil service and other We are entirely reasonable to public sector unions in the au - call a halt to the job cuts in tumn, starting with the TUC HMRC when bodies such as the demo on 20 October. We are National Audit Office and Parlia - confident that the U-turn coali - mentary Accounts Committee tion can be forced into further re - lambast HMRC for failing to ad - PRESSURE: staff are ready for more action this summer treat both in HMRC and beyond. allow thieving on this scale to go wards them in merely offering to unpunished any longer. forego their multi-million pound ONE LAW FOR THE RICH It demands Diamond and his annual bonus as an act of contrition. • Continued from page 1 Services Authority is chicken feed equally culpable counterpart Their multi-million pound salaries should not be allowed out on their for Barclays, the industry expects Stephen Hestor at RBS are held to should be taken off them too at own. To suggest that Bob Dia - further investigations to result in account. Let’s not forget that RBS least, if indeed they are not jailed. mond didn’t realise what was similar penalties for the other last week earned the unprece - Tory Prime Minister Edward going on in his division of the cor - banks involved and greater regu - dented condemnation of the Gov - Heath once described financiers poration is simply preposterous. latory reforms. ernor of the Bank of England like Diamond and Hestor as the If it was true, and it clearly Politically the situation is Mervyn King for its failure to “unacceptable face of capitalism”. isn’t, Diamond should have been white-hot too. When weaklings provide even basic current ac - That was in the 1970s when they sacked for incompetence. But as like Ed Miliband suggest Dia - counts operations after a “cata - had nowhere near the economic several of his staff have pointed mond should be sacked, signifi - clysmic” IT failure left its power they do now. out over the past few days - cant change has occurred. And the 4.5million customers unable to But even then he was way short anonymously, as they fear com - truth is that the wider public, suf - access their monthly salaries. of the mark. The fact remains the pany retribution - not only was he fering the worst economic hard - Hestor and Diamond badly un - banks believe they are too big to aware of the fraud, he oversaw it. ship in 80 years, is in no mood to derestimated public hostility to - fail, and too big to jail. His resignation statement says To subscribe, fill in this form and send it to: Scottish Socialist Voice, he stood down from his highly lu - e crative post with immediate effect c Suite 370, 4th Floor Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD. i because he feared the scandal was o Or telephone: 0781 126 5388 “damaging the [Barclays] fran - V Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to ‘Scottish Socialist Voice’ t chise”. It is hardly a sign of his re - s Visit our website: www.scottishsocialistvoice.net i morse and it remains to be seen just l a Name.......................................................................................... how lucrative his pay-off has been! i Reports suggest that around c Address....................................................................................... £1trillion is traded via Libor o S .................................................................................................... transactions on a daily basis so its h Phone......................................................................................... corrupt manipulation means The s i City of London’s reputation has t Email........................................................................................... t been shot to hell. Whilst the o I enclose: g £5 for 5 issues g £10 for 10 issues g £20 for 20 issues £300million penalty handed c Solidarity rate: g £6 for 5 issues g £12 for 10 issues g £24 for 20 issues down by the toothless Financial S 2 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 399 news coastguard faslane birthday bash unions for the happy campers demand halt by Carolina Perez to closures Last month saw the 30th an - Coastguard and seafar - niversary of the Faslane Peace ers unions PCS and RMT have Camp which was set up to demanded a halt to the UK gov - protest against nuclear sub - ernment’s planned cuts and clo - marines on the Clyde. On 28 sure programme to coastguard June, activists of SSP Campsie and maritime rescue centres. Branch alongside members of The demand came as it Acting Strange Theatre Com - emerged that one of the threat - pany provided birthday greetings ened rescue facilities, Clyde, is with an afternoon of perform - set to be closed in December with ance, poetry and songs. indications that no alternative ca - Satirical sketches like ‘Lock-in’, pacity is due to come on stream an analogy that demonstrates the until 2014 leaving the life-saving political ties between Scotland services with hopelessly inade - and England, showed how cru - quate cover for over a year. cial the forthcoming Independ - PCS and RMT say that the ence referendum will be in terms whole botched Clyde coastguard of the future of nuclear missiles at closure plan, confirmed in a letter the Faslane Naval Base. from the minister Mike Penning, Performers simulated a ‘lock- shows that the nationwide reorgan - in’, (not the pub kind!) a tech - isation by the Maritime and Coast - nique used by seasoned guard Agency is simply a cuts-led protesters using a plastic tube to WARHEADS ARE NOT BETTER THAN NONE: activists exercise that will have devastating attach themselves together mak - hand in a letter to staff at Faslane naval base last month implications for safety at sea. ing it harder for police officers to It also appears to go against a cut them free and arrest them.