International Socialists (CWI Scotland)

Posted May 1st 2013

The Committee for a Workers' International sends revolutionary greetings and solidarity to workers, young people and all those exploited by capitalism. Workers and the poor throughout the world will be celebrating this international workers’ day.

Socialist Party Scotland (SPS) held its largest and most successful conference since the relaunch of our organisation which followed the split by the leadership of the Scottish Socialist Party from our ranks in 2001. The conference held in Glasgow saw a very high level of participation and positive mood, reflecting the growth of the party and the confidence in our political analysis and perspectives.

Socialist Party Scotland branches are hosting important public meetings next week. The hated bedroom tax and the savage attacks on welfare benefits and how to fight them is the theme of our meeting in Glasgow on Monday. While on Tuesday in Dundee we have organised a public meeting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Timex strike and the lessons for today. Former Timex workers and trade unionists fighting austerity today will be speaking. Come along and join the fight.

Five years ago today a stalwart of the socialist movement in Scotland, Chic Stevenson, died. Chic's contribution to the trade union, socialist and working class movement was immense. In the obituary below, which was printed in the Herald newspaper, Ronnie Stevenson remembers Chic's outstanding record as a socialist fighter. 

Is socialism back on the agenda?

Socialist Party Scotland is holding a series of public meetings in Scotland:

• EDINBURGH - Tuesday 12th June 7pm, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, EH1 2JL
• DUNDEE - Wednesday 13th June 7.30pm, 13 City Square (Room3)
• GLASGOW - Thurs 14th June 7.30 pm, The Iron Horse (upstairs), 115 West Nile Street

Speakers include:  Cllr. Mick Barry, Socialist Party Ireland; Peter Taaffe, Committee for a Workers International; plus speakers from PCS and Youth Fight for Jobs.

Membership of the Socialist Party Scotland has been increasing significantly recently as interest in socialist ideas grows as a result of the capitalist crisis, savage cuts and austerity. One of the newest recruits to the Socialist Party Scotland, Richard Neville from Erskine (centre of picture), explained to us why he became a socialist.

"We Translated Socialism Into The Language Of Jobs, Housing And Services" 

The savage cuts announced by the ConDem government will have a devastating effect on the lives of millions of people across Scotland.  The building of a mass opposition to these cuts is essential if we are to defeat them.  Below is an article about the mass movement in Liverpool in the 1980s led by the forerunners of the Socialist Party, The Militant, which defeated Thatcher's cuts and won a famous victory against cuts and privatisation. The lessons of this struggle has importance relevance for us today.  Below is reprinted article commemorating the 20th anniversary of this extraordinary movement. 

There were no seats left to be had at the packed launch meeting of the Socialist Party Scotland in Glasgow on Thursday 10th June. More than 50 people crammed in to hear speakers from Scotland, Hannah Sell from the Socialist Party England and Wales and Joe Higgins, the Socialist Party Ireland MEP. The speakers made a powerful and inspiring case for mass struggle against the savage cuts being carried through by the new ConDem government in Britain, and big business governments internationally. The need for a socialist alternative to the crisis ridden capitalist system was also the second major theme of the meeting.

The Socialist Party Scotland is a campaigning socialist organisation in Scotland that fights for the interests of the working class and young people.  

We stand for socialist change both in Scotland and internationally - a democratic society run for the needs of all and not the profits of a few.  

We also active in our day to day campaigning work in defending the rights of working class people in the workplaces, trade unions, communities, schools, colleges and universities.  

Members of Socialist Party Scotland play a leading role in the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign and in Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement.  We are working to build a mass working class party that can represent the millions and challenge the corrupt big business politicians.

As capitalism dominates the globe, the struggle for genuine socialism must be international.  The Socialist Party Scotland are part of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), a democratic, socialist international that organises in over forty countries across the world.

work and income 

• For the unions to take immediate action to increase the minimum wage to £8 an hour without exemptions as an immediate step towards £10 an hour. For an annual increase in the minimum wage, linked to average earnings.
• Reject Welfare to Work; for the right to decent benefits, training or a job without compulsion.
• A maximum 35-hour week without loss of pay.
• All workers, including part-timers, temps, casual and migrant workers to have trade union rates of pay, employment protection, sickness and holiday rights from the first day of employment. 
• Scrap the anti-union laws. Build fighting trade unions, democratically controlled by their members.  Full-time officials should be regularly elected and receive no more than a worker’s wage.
• An immediate 50% increase in the state retirement pension, as a step towards a living pension. Reinstate the link with average earnings now.

environment 

• Major research and investment into replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and into ending the problems of early obsolescence and un-recycled waste.
• Public ownership of the energy generating industry. No to nuclear power. No to Trident.
• A democratically planned, low fare, publicly owner transport system, as part of an overall plan against environmental pollution.

public services

•  No to privatisation and the Private Finance programmes. Renationalise all privatised utilities and services.
• A democratically planned, low fare, publicly owner transport system, as part of an overall plan against environmental pollution.
• A socialist NHS to provide for everyone’s health - free at the point of use and under democratic control.  Kick out the private contractors.  
• Keep council housing public. For a massive programme of publicly owned housing to provide good quality homes at low rents.
• Fully fund all services and run them under accountable, democratic committees that include representatives of workers and service users.

 rights 

• Oppose discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, disability, sexuality, age and all other forms of prejudice.
• Repeal all laws that trample of civil liberties. For the right to protest. End police harassment. 
• Defend abortion rights. For a women’s right to choose when and whether to have children.
• For the right of asylum.  No to racist immigration laws.

a mass working class party 

•  Build Solidarity as a step towards a mass workers party that draws together workers, young people and activists from workplace, community environmental and anti war campaigns to build a political alternative to the big business parties.
• Trade unions should disaffiliate from the Labour Party now and help build a new workers’ party.

socialism and internationalism 

• Tax the super rich. For a socialist government that takes into public ownership the top 150 companies and banks that dominate the British economy, and run them under democratic working class control and management. Compensation to be paid only on the basis of proven need.
• For a socialist Scotland and a free and voluntary socialist federation of Scotland with England Wales and Ireland. 
• A democratic socialist plan of production based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people, and in a way that safeguards the environment.
• No to imperialist wars and occupations. Withdraw the troops now from Iraq and Afghanistan
• No to the bosses’ neo-liberal European Union. For a socialist Europe and a socialist world.