Rail guards stand firm: RMT Coup and counter strikers hold private train coup: tyranny in operater Abellio to account Turkey • see pages 12,10&11 • see page 8 £1 • issue 481 • 5th – 18th August 2016 scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com POST-BREXIT: THATCHERITES SNATCH POWER As Labour implodes, the choice is independence or a generation of Tory rule • SCRAP TRIDENT! Jobs not bombs • NO TO RACISM! Refugees welcome • END POVERTY PAY! £10 min. wage Thanks to Eddie Truman for the inspiration EDDIE TRUMAN EDDIE TRUMAN: hundreds have paid tribute to Eddie, who died on July 1st. Eddie was a founder member of the SSP and made friends across the political divide through a lifetime of tireless activism. Eddie is pictured above with former SSP MSP Frances Curran (photo: Craig Maclean) and left, with his partner Catriona Grant. A Voice -style tribute was handed out at his funeral Hundreds remember Eddie Truman: socialist, polemicist and grandfather by Ken Ferguson has deprived us all of years we analysed the world every mo - old grandfather but a carer for should have been able to share ment he was awake. his grandchildren. EDDIE TRUMAN, one of the with him and for me, as I am “He analysed it politically, “Last year Eddie started to founder members of the SSP, sure with others, leaves an socially, and economically. He become unwell and from mid- long term socialist activist, aching of sadness and regret. analysed it through philosophy April until his death on July 1st, photographer and polemicist in At his funeral at a packed and music. His analysis and he was in hospital three times. many formats died last month Warriston Crematorium in Ed - passion was the greatest I’ve “We all thought he’d get bet - at the achingly early age of 53. inburgh, his comrades and ever seen. ter and for weeks at a time it His death leaves a massive friends were privileged to hear “He was passionate about looked like he was. But then gap for his family and myriad a loving, moving and often hu - buses, trains, books, films, he would dip again. of friends and comrades in morous eulogy from his partner music, his daughter, his “His final stay in hospital politics, journalism, Hibs sup - Catriona Grant. We reproduce beloved dog, the late Missy meant he was taken to Inten - porters and many, many other part of her words here: Dawg, his granddaughters sive Care and he fought to get aspects of his multifaceted life. “How can I eulogise Eddie and, thankfully, me. better to stay alive, he missed I first met him when he was Truman, completely? The real - “He would literally jump up me and the twins and we working as press officer for the ity is it can’t be done. There and down, waving his arms missed him. SSP’s parliamentary group after were too many parts of him, about when telling a story, lis - “He was delighted with his the election of our six MSPs in too much to put into words. tening to Dutch Trance music, friends coming to the hospital 2003 in the old Lothian Region “Eddie wasn’t just a political or encouraging me to go to the especially James McKenzie, offices and took an instant like man, that would be to misun - library to study for some bor - Euan McColm, Pete Lethaby, to his personality, humour and derstand him – Eddie was ing law exam. Lee McPhail, Craig Maclean straight talking directness. man of great passions. “Euan McColm, in his piece and Paul Hutcheon. On that sunny July day, nei - “His belief that the world in the Scotsman said “he was “He would hold their hands ther of us could have imagined could be radically different 100 men” and it’s true—he and I know he shared intimate the storms ahead many of from how it is organised today, was. The one of those men we moments with his male which we faced shoulder to his belief in socialism never need to honour first is the friends. Eddie was a fighter shoulder, in a way I will never left him. He was a dialectical grandfather to Ella, Poppy, and a lover, not just my lover. forget. His death so very young and historical materialist, he Daisy and Pippa; not just any Thank you for loving him.” 2 • scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com • issue 481 COLIN FOX Sorry Sanders booed by own support as he endorses Clinton for President by Colin Fox, were equally bewildered by his U-turn on democratically elected government in SSP national co-spokesperson Clinton. He had spent all year exposing Honduras. She attacked the Arab Spring her record and now here he was in 2010 and led the military onslaught that I’VE FOLLOWED Bernie Sanders demanding they support her. His killed tens of thousands and fomented career for 20 years. We invited him to humiliation was complete when he anarchy in Libya in 2011. Not to mention speak at the Edinburgh May Day rally in claimed this woman at the heart of the US her support for the wars in Iraq and 2005 but he had to pull out at the last political establishment over the past 30 Afghanistan. One of her biggest backers, minute. His decision to seek the years “… will make an outstanding as Sanders has repeatedly pointed out, is Democratic Party nomination for President President. I am proud to stand with her.” Wall Street who have given her tens of surprised me not least because he is not a The key question Bernie Sanders and millions of dollars in recent years. This party member. He ran because no one his Chief of Staff Jeff Weaver must now sponsor is closely followed by the Israeli else would. The ‘left caucus’ wanted answer is what have they left behind for lobby and the arms companies who profit Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to run the socialist movement in America to build from the violence she foments in the but she refused. So like Jeremy Corbyn in upon? And the painful truth is very little Middle East. She can never therefore Labour’s 2015 contest, Sanders stepped indeed. His ‘political revolution’ has left fight Trump as the representative of ‘real in simply to raise the left’s arguments. town and his offices have closed. ‘Bernie’s political change’ or of ordinary Americans. Many doubted the wisdom of seeking Sandernistas’ have been demobilised. Owen Jones’ suggestion is so the nomination but over the past year, Little remains but confusion and misplaced that it is the billionaire Trump, those doubts were put to one side as he disappointment. Worse, he has created odious, racist and idiotic as he is, who is mobilised millions of Americans round his illusions in both Hilary Rodham Clinton now seen as the anti-establishment socialist case for change. They turned and the Democratic Party itself which no candidate in this contest! That is why he out in their thousands at hundreds of self-respecting socialist should ever do. is neck and neck in the polls. rallies in towns and cities across America. Those who insist, as Owen Jones Drawing in $100million in small donations naively did in The Guardian this week, No short cut to socialism he recruited thousands of volunteers to that “The task ahead is to defeat Donald The lesson here is that there is no promote his message on universal Trump and create real political change by short-cut to building a mass movement education and healthcare, on income backing Clinton,” should ask themselves for socialism in the United States or inequality, on Wall Street corruption, what real political change Hilary Clinton anywhere else. Pretending anti-socialist racism, imperial wars and the prospect of represents. Her popularity among parties such as the Democrats will serve a better world for those most in need. working class Americans and young the interests of working class people as people is as bad as Trump’s! There is Sanders has suggested this last year is Predictable dilemma nothing progressive about her. She is foolish. A principled socialist party But his tactic was always destined to part of the problem, not its solution. steeped in the working class tradition in fail. For he sought to build a popular As John Pilger points out on America is needed more than ever. socialist movement in America via a newmatilda.com, Clinton has been an It may take some time but as the capitalist party and ended up in a utterly reactionary response to Sanders message shows, predictable dilemma. It was inevitable he Secretary of State. the potential at least is there. But it would have to endorse Hilary Clinton, She threatened to needs to be intellectually focused and something no socialist “totally obliterate” committed. No self-respecting should ever do. Not Iran by using socialist would join the US even in the face of nuclear weapons Democratic Party. someone as against them. She And as if to amplify the point, odious as Donald backed the coup Bernie Sanders has announced he Trump. How sad it which ousted the will stand as an Independent socialist was then to see again when he seeks re-election to him booed by the Senate for Vermont next his own year. It is of course supporters at remarkable how the Democratic far he got in the BERN AND LEARN: National Bernie Sanders and his race. But Convention supporters should know ultimately that inside the Quick there is no short-cut to shows just Loans Centre in building a mass movement how bad a Philadelphia. for socialism in the United candidate States or anywhere else Millions watching at home Clinton is.