Socialist Party Scotland (CWI)

Almost 500 people attended an exhibition and tumultuous public meeting at the Adelphi hotel in Liverpool on Saturday 27 April to mark the 30th anniversary of the socialist Labour council.That council confronted Thatcher’s Tory government and defied its cuts and austerity. The meeting marvellously recreated the mood and fighting spirit of the 1980s in Liverpool. Loud applause and enthusiasm greeted every platform speaker and contribution from the floor.

Cheers erupted from the pubs in the former mining towns and villages in Scotland when the news broke. Decades of economic decline, mass unemployment, poverty and deprivation would allow at least that when the news reported that Margaret Thatcher was dead. The legacy of brutal Thatcherism; shattered communities, generations thrown onto the scrapheap, meant there was no chance that her death would, or should, be received in any other way.

Child abuse is a crime against the vulnerable by those who hold more power over them. It should therefore come as no surprise that anyone in a position of power including those in government or in industry or in entertainment can be the abuser. It is therefore a pity that most of the publicity about child abuse is about how the BBC dealt with reporting it in 2012 rather than the abuse itself. The attack on the BBC from other parts of the media stinks of hypocrisy. Some of the statements emanating out of the empire run by the ‘Murdoch criminal gang’ beggars belief. Their agenda [and that of others] of shutting down public service media is very obvious.

As working class people and the poorest in our society know the global capitalist “premier league” bosses are presiding over an unprecedented world economic crisis caused by the failures of their free market, profit driven system.Here in Scotland a microcosm of that failed bosses system is playing itself out with the events surrounding Rangers FC, as the club is used by “second division” venture profiteers looking for a quick buck.

For a democratic workers' and public inquiry into the role of News International, the police and their links with the political establishment    

 Rupert Murdoch (see picture above) has been forced to call time on the 168-year old News of the World (NoW). The venal phone-hacking scandal had turned the NoW into a completely toxic rag in the eyes of millions and was threatening to undermine Murdoch’s hopes of securing 100% control of his coveted BSkyB.

Socialist Euro MP Joe Higgins to speak at rally in Glasgow

The Scottish section of the Committee for a Workers’ International – the International Socialists - is changing its name to Socialist Party Scotland.  

We have chosen to change our name at this time because we believe that it allows us to have a clearer banner that will help attract the increasing numbers of new young people and workers who are looking for a socialist and Marxist alternative to the crisis ridden capitalist system and the new ConDem coalition of cuts.

Our new name also has the distinct advantage of making a direct link with our sister parties in England, Wales and Ireland who are also known as the Socialist Party.

We already work closely with the Socialist Party in England and Wales through our work in the trade unions like the PCS, where we play a leading role, and in Unison and the CWU among others. We will in the coming months ensure that we use our influence in the trade union movement in Scotland to help build mass opposition to the savage cuts planned by the new Tory-Lib Dem government. We also work closely with our comrades throughout Britain in the Youth Fight For Jobs Campaign.

Most recently during the general election we took part in the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition that involved trade union leaders including Bob Crow of the RMT. Four of the ten Scottish TUSC candidates at the general election were members of Socialist Party Scotland. We will be working with other trade unionists and socialists to build on the experience of TUSC in the months ahead.

While the capitalist world leaders argue about figures in Copenhagen, climate change is already affecting billions of lives across the world.

As with the banking meltdown, ordinary people are being made to pay for a crisis caused by the capitalist system and by the bosses' greed. From those suffering from crop failures in the developing world to the victims of flooding in Britain, it is mainly working class and poor people who are paying for this crisis.

Tom Baldwin

Thousands march against racism and fascism

Over 3,000 anti-racist protesters achieved their stated aim of keeping the far right-wing Scottish Defence League (SDL) from marching in Glasgow on 14 November. Aamer Anwar, one of the main organisers of the counter protest, described the day as " a victory over racism, fascism and the Scottish Defence League". An important factor in the size of the counter protest was the creation of a broad coalition of trade unions, socialists, anti-racists and anti-fascist groups brought together under the banner of Scotland United.

Brian Smith - Glasgow

World and British economic crisis continues

Peter Taaffe, from Socialism Today, Issue 130, July/August 2009 (monthly journal of the Socialist Party – CWI England and Wales)  

Politics in Britain has been dragged through the gutter with MPs caught ripping off thousands of pounds woth in expenses. As working-class people face job and wage cuts, the whole rotten system has been exposed. As a result, New Labour was hammered in euro and local elections, while the far-right British National Party (BNP) made gains. With a general election due within a year, now more than ever, a new workers’ party is needed.

What are the processes underlying the political situation in Britain today?

“A Brown government could be overwhelmed by an avalanche of the stoked-up discontent of the working class, manifested through trade union struggle… A Brown government could also face a crisis of legitimacy… If he delays too long, he could suffer the fate of the other ‘mid-term’ replacement prime ministers, like Callaghan in 1979…The far-right can make significant gains, particularly with the rise in unemployment clearly taking place and the deterioration of social conditions, especially if a left fighting alternative is not provided”. (The Coronation of Gordon Brown, Socialism Today No.110, June 2007)

One ‘leading critic’ of Gordon Brown summed up 12 years of New Labour rule when he declared; “It is one thing to lose to the Tories, but actually to do so badly that we are letting in the fascists is quite another”.

Ian Leech, Unison shop steward Glasgow

The MP’s expenses scandal – outright thievery to most people - has thrown the political establishment into a crisis. But a crisis for politicians who fought so hard to supplement their £65,000 a year salary with £300 a month in food allowances, moat cleaning, home and garden repairs and public money to buy houses while they cash in on the profits is unrecognisable to most people living through the biggest recession in modern times.

The Socialist Editorial June 5th

ANALYSIS AND comment on the local and European election results will be carried in next week's issue of The Socialist. However, in advance of the outcome, some aspects are widely predicted, in particular that the turnout could be low and the main political parties will be shunned by a large number of those who do bother to vote.

The fact that more people voted in the final of television series Britain's got talent than will vote for any of the main political parties in the European election shows the disregard that now exists towards politicians in those parties.

Press release from No2EU
  
No2EU :Yes to Democracy coalition convener Bob Crow has called for urgent discussions involving socialist organisations, campaigns and trade unions to build a concerted response following the election of two fascists from the BNP to the European Parliament.
 
 It issued this press release today:
 
No2EU was the first progressive EU-critical coalition to stand in Britain in any election and it gained 153,236 votes despite an almost complete media blackout.

For an extension of genuine democracy

"A Very British Revolution," thundered the Telegraph in the aftermath of the ejection from the House of Commons of Speaker Michael Martin, the first time this has happened since 1695. Jonathan Freedland followed on in the Guardian: "The Speaker exits with revolution in the air. I say, bring it on... These are indeed revolutionary times - and that radical, convention-breaking change is possible." 

Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary

Shades of 'Jacobinism' or just journalistic hyperbole? Not if you listen to the enraged voices of the 'street', on public transport, in conversations in workplaces or on Question Time on the BBC. Moreover, rather than abating, the tide of mass anger and bitterness at the naked greed of their 'parliamentary representatives' has grown with the daily revelations of MPs' robbery of our money.

In The Great Stink of 1858 the Houses of Parliament hung lime-soaked sheets at the windows to disguise the stench of untreated sewage rising from the Thames. In the Great Stink of 2009 no such solution is available - for the stink comes from inside.

The endless revelations about MPs' expenses have left the population disgusted and furious. Money was claimed for every imaginable frippery - from getting the moat cleaned to paying domestic servants, from massage chairs to buying champagne flutes and eighteen piece dinner sets. Outright fraud was officially sanctioned, or at least tacitly encouraged, with the Fees Office apparently telling MPs that it was fine to claim on mortgage debt that had already been repaid.

Support No2EU candidates in the June Euro elections

The Postal Services Bill which, if passed, would see the privatisation of one third of Royal Mail now seems to be in real trouble. But it has not been defeated yet. The Hooper report which was released at the end of 2008 claimed Royal Mail does not make enough profits and that its workers are 20% over-paid compared to others in the industry. The most blatant attack is the so called "strategic partnership" or in real words 'privatisation' - where the likes of TNT are waiting in the wings to make a fortune.  

by Gary Clark,  Sub Area Rep Scotland No.2 CWU