Food banks: DWP director New pamphlet: For a says people ‘welcome the Modern Democratic jolt’ of benefit sanctions Republic by Colin Fox • see page 7 • see pages 8&9 £1 • issue 439 • 30th May –12th June 2014 facebook.com/scottishsocialistvoice “I’m the only politician keeping the flame of thatcherism alive,” says UKIP leader Nigel Farage. No he isn’t! All the No men sing from the same hymn sheet, and: • BACK ANtI-UNION LAWS ANOTHER FALSE • BACK tRIDeNt NUKeS • PAmPeR the RICh • DemONISe the POOR • CUt SeRVICeS • BACK PRIVAtISAtION FARAGE CLAIM • PUt PROFIt BeFORe PeOPLe As Westminster takes another lurch towards a new thatcherite nightmare of cuts, sackings, poverty and war, the AS HE BACKS Scottish Socialist Party says: VOte YeS FOR A ReAL ALteRNAtIVe! THE faNceboOok.c oCm/SAcottiMshSocP ialistVoice @ssv_voice EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson FIRST THE context. Across England, the right wing populists of UKIP emerged from the Euro poll in first place. In Scotland, they Time to be bold in came fourth, scraping a seat ahead of the Greens. That is not complacency, simply fact. But that is not the same as suggesting that the wake of Euro poll UKIP surge is of no consequence for Scottish politics – it is. Puzzled commentators who portray the UKIP rise as demonstrating an “anti-politics” mood which is part of a wider mood sweeping both the UK and Europe really are missing the point. The truth is that since the rise of neoliberal economics, which removed all controls on big capital and saw de-industrialisation and mass job cuts undermining living standards, mainstream politicians have increasingly FOUR SHADES OF BLUE: UKIP, Labour and the ConDems offer nothing but different brands of Thatcherism acted as cheerleaders for the fat cats. Issues in such a programme Now a brutal reality of falling could include workers rights, UKIP coverage wages, insecure jobs, benefit public ownership of green This process, underway cuts and zero hours contracts energy, ambitious targets for since the Thatcher era and faces millions and the mainstream rented house building, action carried on by a deeply parties have no coherent answer on low pay and zero hours compromised New Labour, since they are actually part of the among others. was masked in the era of problem as supporters of the system Such an approach leaves cheap and easy credit which open discussion of the ended with the 2008 crash. causing it... contents of such a Now a brutal reality of a Scottish seat where they and green forces campaigning programme and, crucially, falling wages, insecure jobs, are a negligible presence on for a Yes vote to get beyond does not require the building benefit cuts and zero hours the ground. However, it also the pages of the broadsheet of new organisations or contracts faces millions and has implications both for the press and present concrete parties but the support of the the mainstream parties have broad sweep of progressive proposals to voters in a clear existing parts of the no coherent answer since opinion in Scotland and the and popular form. independence left. they are actually part of the role it must play in the drive to Loyalty to a party or group problem as supporters of the win a Yes vote in September. cannot be allowed to stand in Key battle system causing it. Tentative discussions last the way of such an approach, The prospect of a No vote, This is the underlying year about the possibilities of and talk of any one force followed by a Tory/UKIP cause of the support for the a Red/Green candidate or playing the leading role is this victory, is indeed close to a apparently easy answers slate came to nothing, yet the task are deeply unhelpful. Doomsday scenario not just offered by UKIP and their figures indicate that such a Both the SSP and the for Scottish democracy but European counterparts. formation might just have Voice have proposed that a our entire social fabric. That this was in large mobilised sufficient extra way that this can be achieved The Euro poll makes the measure driven by the votes to win the last Euro could be through a Common task of winning a Yes vote saturation coverage of UKIP seat and halt UKIP. Programme for the left, even more urgent, and in that offered by the mainstream More widely it also covering a range of policies key battle the role of the left media is part of the reason underlines the urgent need for in a succinct statement of in mobilising the working for their sweeping gains and the ideas and vision of the left what a Yes vote can deliver. class majority is central. 2 • Scottish Socialist Voice • issue 439 COLIN FOX by Colin Fox AS THE polls predicted, the right wing UKIP has again dom - inated the European elections in The prospects for a Yes Britain, winning more votes and more seats than any other party. And although Farage’s party trailed in behind the SNP, Labour vote after Euro elplaeins whcy thet rigihto has dn one so and the Tories in Scotland, some well in these elections and the left, 140,000 Scots voted for their such as it is, has done so badly. ‘dog-whistle’ brand of racist poli - The left must do much better tics to elect their first representa - in clarifying our message, deliv - tive here. Why did they win? And ering it with aplomb and con - what are the likely consequences fronting the racism of UKIP and for the independence referendum? its Tory, Labour and Lib Dem Incredible as it may seem, ‘bedfellows’ in this debate. UKIP, with its Home Counties The results of these elections base and right wing views, are will of course be fiercely con - DIFFERENT COUNTRIES: regarded not just as an anti-EU Nigel the first of England, tested in so far as they tell us any - and anti-immigrant party but also fourth of Scotland, was never thing about the independence as ‘outsiders’ by the British po - off our TV screens and his debate. The Yes side argued litical establishment. The more message was sponsored by UKIP was a xenophobic, far- Nigel Farage is attacked by the several tabloid newspapers right, English party by and large chattering classes and the metro - ‘ordinary guy’ hero rushed to We are asked by UKIP to ig - rejected by voters here. politan political elite, the more him in their droves. His face was nore the fact that immigrants popular he appears to become. never off our TV screens and his make this country wealthier by Grip of xenophobia message was sponsored by sev - coming here, that they pay far That view is undermined Merchant bankers eral tabloid newspapers. more taxes into the UK Treasury somewhat by the fact 140,000 This is a remarkable achieve - Millions of Britons in the mid - than they take out, that our NHS Scots voted for them. Yet Scot - ment given he is himself part of dle of the worst recession in 80 and other key services benefit land by and large does reject that elite. Here is a public school - years have seen their wages fall enormously from their labour, racist xenophobia whilst England boy, millionaire merchant banker 17 per cent on average since that immigrants come here for is in the grip of it. UKIP topped and former Tory, now mas - 2010 whilst the cost of basic work not for paltry benefits, that the poll in England whereas they querading as a ‘rebel’ who sticks commodities like gas and elec - young workers from Poland and came fourth in Scotland. two fingers up to EU bureaucrats tricity has doubled. Yet instead of Spain have halted Scotland’s However, it would have been and corrupt Westminster politi - turning to the left for answers, population decline, that our qual - much better for Yes if UKIP had cians whilst blaming immigrants they have turned to the right. ity of life is greatly improved by not secured a Euro seat here. and claimants for a crisis cause Whilst the turnout in Scotland multiculturalism and that Scots Finally the last word on these by merchant bankers! was only 33 per cent, there is themselves have emigrated for elections goes to that ‘expert’ on Whatever else may be said widespread revulsion at the po - centuries in search of a better life. Scottish politics, the Bradford about his odious, reactionary litical elite who are seen as both The right has persuaded some MP George Galloway who ap - message it is clear, simple and corrupt and completely out of people that the collapse in their parently suggested UKIP and the often repeated. UKIP dominated touch with ordinary people and living standards has been caused SNP were merely ‘two cheeks of these elections with a view that their lives. Like it or not, for mil - by immigrants and claimants the same arse’. This idiotic re - is not difficult to comprehend. lions of voters immigration is (who either work too cheaply or mark surely secures for Gal - Those looking for simple an - now the ‘dog whistle’ issue at the not at all) rather than the bankers loway the title of the biggest swers, easy scapegoats and an centre of British politics. and corporate capitalism. This ex - ‘arse’ in Scottish politics today? Always the bridesmaid: further disappointment for Greens THE SCOTTISH from 7.5 per cent in Bella Caledonia, Mike rootless and unable to the Greens and the Greens’ failure will 2009). This suggests Small of the Scottish reach beyond the SSP this time last year, again disappoint those they lack wider appeal Independence Guardianista.” it could have made the who felt they were the as ‘the torchbearer of Convention went even In due course, the difference.