International News
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 16:38
To all Unison members: Nominate Roger Bannister
Dear Colleague
I have decided to canvas for nominations for the General Secretary election, to argue for radical change at the top of UNISON.
I fought this election in 2005, obtaining over 41,000 votes. Since then I have continued to campaign as an NEC member for the North West Region, for fighting policies to defend jobs and conditions of service. I am currently about to ballot members for strike action in defence of our 35 Hour Week Agreement, and against the imposition of a redeployment policy by the employer that will lead to compulsory redundancies. It is my belief that UNISON needs a General Secretary with this Hands On experience of dealing with the problems faced by ordinary members.
My election programme would be based on:
• A General Secretary on a Worker's Wage
• Fighting policies against spending cuts – defend all jobs – fight the pay freeze – not a penny off our pensions!
• UNISON members first - Break the link with New Labour, use our Political Fund to support candidates whose policies are best for UNISON members
• End low pay amongst UNISON members
• Oppose all privatisation
• Oppose the BNP & the Racist right
• Election of all officials
• For the right of all members to campaign under rule within the union without fear of attack
Yours sincerely
Roger Bannister (Membership Number 1318436)
Thursday, 28 January 2010 14:28
Over 120 people, members of community groups and trade unions, attended a meeting called by the Glasgow City Unison branch. The meeting was organised to begin the fight back against cuts in jobs and services in the city.
Ian Leech, Glasgow Unison
At its January budget meeting, Glasgow City council will vote in favour of cuts totalling £66 million for the year 2010 alone. This massive cut will see 600 job losses and the slashing of funds to voluntary sector projects and to council budgets.
In response, Glasgow City Unison has devised an anti-cuts strategy that involves building links with community groups across the city.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 09:27
A real alternative for working people is needed
One year ago, on 20 January 2009, the largest gathering of people in US history witnessed the inauguration in Washington DC of Barack Obama as president of the United States. For many older African-American workers, this was viewed as the most important political event of their lives. Millions of young people gained a renewed sense of optimism after growing up with an instilled hatred against Bush and the Republicans.
Bryan Koulouris, Socialist Alternative (CWI, USA)
After eight years of a widening wealth gap, adventurist wars, declining civil liberties and an increasingly embarrassing circus in the halls of power, people deeply desired a sharp shift away from Bush and company. With Cheney, Rove and Bush on their way out, big business needed to restore credibility to an important institution of US power and prestige, the presidency.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 09:08
Disaster has struck the impoverished people of Haiti once again; a powerful earthquake, early on 13 January, toppled buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince. The 7.0 magnitude quake - the biggest recorded in this part of the Caribbean - left the capital’s 3 million people who live on hillside slums made of wood, tin and cheap concrete, particularly vulnerable. Up to 200,000 people have died, with many more badly injured or missing. According to the Reuters news agency, “Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris.” Many buildings were destroyed, including the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission (around 9,000 UN police and troops are stationed there to “maintain order”) and the presidential palace.
Niall Mullholland
Power supplies and communications have also been disrupted. The desperately poor country has few resources to deal with the catastrophe, lacking heavy equipment to move debris and sufficient emergency personnel. Local people are reduced to trying to rescue victims from rubble with their bare hands.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 09:04
January 7th saw the culmination of a series of discussions by participants in the ‘No2EU-Yes to Democracy’ European election coalition to see whether another alliance could be constructed for the forthcoming general election. The result is that there will now be an election challenge, under the newly-registered electoral banner, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
No2EU was an alliance for a specific election, registered as a party as required by electoral law, involving the RMT transport workers’ union, the Socialist Party of England and Wales, the Communist Party of Britain, Solidarity – Scotland’s Socialist Movement, and others. This time the RMT is not formally backing the coalition. However, RMT branches and regional councils will be able to apply to the union’s national executive to support, politically and financially, individual candidates in their area. And Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, is supporting TUSC in a personal capacity, and will serve on its steering committee.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 08:52
Defend Glasgow's services campaign meeting
Saturday 23 January @ 11am
UNISON Branch, 4th Floor (lift)
18 Albion Street, Candleriggs
A meeting for Trades Unions, public service workers, community
organisations and the citizens of Glasgow
Speakers from Unison, FBU, PCS and the local community
We won't pay for this crisis
It is estimated that Scotland ’s councils could face a loss of income of up to 15% over the next three years. Glasgow City Council has indicated that it intends to cut it’s workforce by at least 10% over the next few years, make cuts in grants to community and voluntary sectors organisations of 20% and force its arms length organisations to implement “efficiencies”.
Brian Smith - Glasgow Unison branch secretary (personal capacity)
Overall, this will mean the loss of thousands of jobs in the city and less services for local people. If one in ten council jobs in Scotland were lost then that could mean a cut of around 20,000 jobs across the country. Jobs cuts in the community and voluntary sector would be on top of this figure. So much for the warm words of the pro - capitalist politicians to fight unemployment!
Sunday, 03 January 2010 14:55
2010 – Savage social cuts, workers’ resistance and growth of socialist ideas
The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) extends warm New Year greetings to the members of its sections and groups worldwide and to supporters and readers of socialistworld.net
We thank all those who have given assistance – large and small – to the CWI over the past year. We call on all readers of socialistworld.net to join us today to meet the challenges for the international workers’ movement in 2010 and to help in the struggle for a socialist world, a new society free of the diseases of capitalism - mass unemployment, poverty, wars and environmental catastrophe.
Below, Peter Taaffe (General Secretary, Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales) looks at the main events of 2009 and perspectives for 2010.
Socialistworld.net
The British capitalists, together with their counterparts worldwide, have unleashed a barrage of propaganda – disguised as “irrefutable facts” – to soften up working class people for an unparalleled assault on their living standards. The International Monetary Fund says this will mean “ten years of austerity”. Like their previous Tory ideologue, Margaret Thatcher, they wish to create the impression that “there is no alternative”.
Friday, 18 December 2009 09:14
On the decision of one judge and at the behest of British Airways bosses, the workers of Britain and their trade unions have been told that the democratic right to strike has been cancelled.
This "disgraceful legal judgment" as the union Unite correctly called it, makes voting in any union ballot almost irrelevant if it does not suit the wishes of the bosses and their friends in the judiciary. Any strike can be declared 'illegal'.
Every commentator has admitted that the so-called ballot irregularities would not have made a blind bit of difference to the outcome of the strike ballot. Unless the whole trade union movement faces up to what is required then the unions face the danger of being put back in legal terms to the infamous Taff Vale judgment of 1906 which made unions liable for commercial damages following the effect of any strikes they organised.
Monday, 14 December 2009 12:08
Defend Glasgow Services campaign to be launched
Glasgow City Council has announced 600 job losses with more planned in the next few years.The Council has said that they want to cut the workforce by at least 10%. The 2010 cuts include the closure of twelve community centres, a library and a swimming pool. Charges are to be made for school breakfast clubs and sports centres will have reduced opening times. Cuts will made in home care services and support to people with disabilities. Three of the city's 10 centres for people with leaning disability will go under the heading of "service reform". Welfare rights workers will be lost and community worker jobs cut by 50%. Grants to community organisations are also to be slashed by 20% over the next three years.
Brian Smith - Glasgow Unison branch secretary
Wednesday, 09 December 2009 17:55
Weeks before the mid-December UN summit in Copenhagen was due to convene, Barack Obama killed any lingering hopes that it would deliver a new treaty on global warming to replace the one agreed at Kyoto in 1997. PETE DICKENSON looks at the sticking points that led to failure and the prospects for the 'political framework' that now appears to be the likely outcome in Copenhagen.
The main controversies in the pre-Copenhagen talks have been the nature of US participation in a new treaty, the help that would be given to 'developing' countries to reduce greenhouse gases and the level and timing of the cuts needed in carbon dioxide emissions, the main culprit in global warming. Another key question was the type and extent of so-called offsetting arrangements, ie firms in industrialised countries being allowed to pollute more in return for sponsoring green projects in poor nations.
Wednesday, 09 December 2009 17:47
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
Monday, 07 December 2009 11:26
Joe Owens 1964 - 2009
Joe Owens was a young 18-year-old miner from Blackburn in West Lothian when he joined Militant (the forerunner of the International Socialists in Scotland and the Socialist Party of England and Wales) in 1983. Joe was a leading figure in Militant in the East of Scotland in the 1980’s – playing a key role at all levels of the organisation. We first met him at a public meeting in Edinburgh in support of the print workers who were on strike against Eddie Shah’s attempts at the Messenger Group in Warrington to smash the print unions. From the first Joe stood out as an outstanding public speaker, full of passion, anger and not a little humour, as well as an incredible depth of knowledge for someone so young. As was to be the case throughout his too short a life, Joe, who was a force of nature, made a huge impact on all those who had the privilege to know him.
Joe, like his father, worked in the Polkemmet colliery in West Lothian where he was elected as the youth delegate for the NUM. When the miners strike began in 1984 he was already a committed Marxist and used all of his abilities to emerge as a leading figure in the year long dispute. I vividly recall Joe Owens speaking in 1984 at the Labour Party Young Socialists summer camp in the Forest Of Dean. Hundreds of young socialists had packed into the marquee to hear the opening rally on the miners strike. Joe Owens was billed to speak as a young miner, perhaps for 5 or 10 minutes, with Ian Isaacs from the South Wales NUM planning to develop the wider political issues of the strike and the strategy to win. Joe, being Joe, spoke for over half and hour covering everything from the strike, to the crisis of British capitalism, the importance of a fighting trade union leadership by the TUC and the need for socialist society. After a prolonged standing ovation, Ian Issacs got up to speak commented; “well after listening to Joe there is really nothing left for me to say.”
Monday, 30 November 2009 18:26
The SNP government in Scotland has marked St Andrew’s day by presenting a “white paper’ which sets out its case for a fully independent Scotland. This is to be followed in early 2010 by a parliamentary bill allowing for a referendum on Scotland’s constitutional future, which will include a question on independence.
However, the majority of MSPs, at this stage, are opposed to a referendum on independence and there is little chance of a referendum bill being passed by the Scottish parliament before the next Scottish elections in 2011. The SNP have therefore made it clear that they are not opposed to a third question in a referendum that gives the option of extending the powers of the parliament – but which falls short of full independence. This option has majority public support according to all opinion polls at the moment.
Thursday, 26 November 2009 19:00
From the Socialist - paper of the Socialist Party in England and Wales
The first convention of the People's Charter took place on Saturday 21 November. Speakers included Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, and John McDonnell MP. The Charter has the support of eight national trade unions and of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Hannah Sell
The Socialist Party supports the demands outlined in the People's Charter. The Charter's demands include restructuring the tax system so big business pays more and the working class less; stopping house repossessions; increasing the minimum wage; bringing the privatised utilities back into public ownership - demands that all socialists should support and which are popular with the vast majority of working class people.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 15:03
Fight for real jobs and free educationNew Labour and the Conservatives are determined to make young people and workers pay for this crisis. Labour's plans to slash funding for youth training and to put greedy fat cats in charge of setting university fees have been exposed.
Ben Robinson, Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign national chair
£350 million cuts in youth training schemes are planned. Out of around 600,000 school leavers, only 8,000 will get real apprenticeships, ones which lead to a job and a qualification.
Youth Fight for Jobs leaflet pdf
The body charged with reviewing university fees levels includes some of the biggest capitalists and privateers in Britain, such as Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP. How does profiteering out of natural resources and environmental pollution qualify him to comment on education?
Monday, 16 November 2009 13:57
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
Monday, 16 November 2009 13:25
Tommy Sheridan clearly seen as main left alternative
Tommy Sheridan stood for Solidarity in the Glasgow North East election. Standing as a workers’ MP on a worker’s wage, Tommy came 5th out of 13 candidates, winning 794 votes which was 3.9% of the poll. He came well ahead of the Lib Dems, polling almost double their vote, and won more than double the vote of the Greens. Unfortunately, despite Solidarity supporting left unity discussions to try and avoid more than one socialist candidate both the Scottish Socialist Party and the Socialist Labour Party rejected any idea of a united left candidate and also stood in the election.
Monday, 16 November 2009 13:13
But no enthusiasm for New Labour policies
Labour’s victory in the Glasgow North East by election last week by more than 8,000 votes over the SNP seems, on the face of it, to be a surprise. The by election was, after all, triggered by the forced resignation of the longstanding right wing Labour MP and Commons speaker, Michael Martin - a consequence of his role in the MPs expenses scandal. Gordon Brown’s New Labour government at Westminster are also presiding over the deepest recession in generations, while their electoral support is draining away.
Wednesday, 04 November 2009 14:21
Support the Postal Workers - Stop Royal Mail’s scabbing operation
Monday 9th November 12 noon
Bathgate Delivery Office, Inchmuir Road, Whitehill Industrial Estate
March to scab mail centre in Bathgate
Speakers at rally include:
Billy Hayes (CWU general secretary), Bob Crow (RMT general secretary), Janice Godrich (PCS national president)
Time to plan for all-out postal strike
Editorial from the Socialist - The paper of the Socialist Party England and Wales
The third week of national strike action at Royal Mail has seen the bosses on the run. They fear the disruption of mail in the pre-Christmas period when over two billion letters, cards and parcels are processed through the system.
They thought they could force the union into making more concessions just as they did in the 2007 deal, which many postal workers (and how right they were) feared was the thin edge of the wedge. The plans of Royal Mail to cut jobs, intensify workloads and drive working conditions back into the Victorian age have been completely exposed by their actions since the 2007 deal.
Monday, 02 November 2009 14:15
SNP, New Labour & Tories - All pro-capitalist parties threaten major cuts in jobs and services
Philip Stott, International Socialists (CWI in Scotland)
The Scottish government is set to table a bill for a referendum on independence on St Andrew’s day, on 30 November. At the recent Scottish National Party (SNP) conference, SNP leader, Alex Salmond (see picture opposite), claimed that any political party that voted to deny the people of Scotland the democratic right to a say on their constitutional future could not survive for long. The SNP also set a target of winning an unprecedented 20 MP’s at the forthcoming Westminster election. This would, according to Alex Salmond, mean that in the event of the SNP’s favoured option of a ‘hung parliament’, Westminster would be forced to, “dance to a Scottish jig.”
Tuesday, 27 October 2009 10:31
Gary Clark, Sub area rep.
Scotland No.2 CWU
Postal workers across the country are getting ready for a second round of strike action. These are not strikes, as is being put forward by the Royal Mail management, against modernisation or a workforce who just don’t want to work.This is a strike to defend a national service which we can be proud of.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 08:05
Glasgow North East by-election
Ray Gunnion
Tommy Sheridan is standing in the Glasgow North East by election on November 12th. Standing as a “Workers’ M.P. on a Workers Wage” for Solidarity - Scotland’s Socialist Movement, Tommy contrasts strongly with the disgraced former incumbent, Michael Martin (now Lord Martin of Springburn), whose resignation as Speaker and as an MP, triggered this by-election in an area that has been represented by a Labour MP since 1935.
Friday, 16 October 2009 06:43
Defend Union rights
Bill Mullins and Philip Stott
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 15:57
Main parties competing to slash our jobs and services - new party for workers, not bosses needed
Peter Taaffe, General Secretary, Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales)
Like an impenetrable sea mist, the prospect of a Tory government hung over New Labour’s conference in Brighton. What this will mean in increased suffering and pain for working-class people has been indicated but not yet fully spelt out in all its brutal detail by David Cameron and his cronies at the Tory party conference in Manchester.
The empty chairs in the voluminous hall in Brighton at the beginning of the Labour conference – matched by the absent stalls of the formerly fawning big business supporters of New Labour – is in contrast to the brash self-confidence on view at the Tories’ conference. Salivating at the prospect of the goodies that will fall into their laps from a Cameron Tory cabinet, big business, present in Manchester, is rushing into Cameron’s corner.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 15:27
Violent attack on socialist student meeting
Geert Cool, LSP/PSL (CWI in Belgium)
Tensions have grown in the past few weeks at Antwerp University. The good response to a campaign by socialists students, combined with a growing frustration amongst layers of the far right have led to a violent confrontation.
The Active Left Students (student organisation linked to the LSP/PSL – CWI in Belgium) have organised highly successful meetings all around the country. The main subject for these meetings was, “Capitalism in crisis. Marx was right”. In 9 universities, a total over 300 students participated in these meetings, an indication of the possibilities that exist for Marxists today.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 15:55
Capitalist establishment conduct a campaign of fear to secure a yes vote in second referendum
Socialist Party reporters (CWI in Ireland)
There are only a few days left before the second referendum vote on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The big business and political elite in Europe on the one hand, but also many workers and activists on the other, will be watching the result closely but hoping for different results.
The Socialist Party (CWI in Ireland) and our MEP, Joe Higgins, have been key elements in the campaign for a no vote. Joe Higgins is the only MEP who is fighting for a no vote. Even more so than last year, Joe has clearly been the most consistent, clear and effective leader on the no side in the media, able to deal with the general points but also bringing out the very dangerous attacks hidden in the depths of the treaty. Joe and the party have made a real impact.
The Lisbon Treaty is being promoted as a ‘tidying up’ exercise, aimed at stream-lining the structures of the EU. The reality is that Lisbon is not about achieving a better future for all.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 21:07
As thousands of students return to university and college and many others arrive for the first time, most have something in common, another year of debt to look forward to.
Leah Ganley, Dundee University
The SNP government might claim to "have restored the principal of free education" in Scotland by crapping the Graduate Endownment, but this falls far short of their 2007 election promise.
Thursday, 17 September 2009 08:42
Postal workers in the CWU are balloting for a national strike against cuts, job losses and attacks on the union.
Jane James
This follows hundreds of strikes in postal workplaces across the country where workers have taken action to defend jobs, pay, conditions, and their union reps from attacks by Royal Mail management.
Many workplaces have requested strike ballots which have not been processed.
Following the strikes in 2007, the union agreed to negotiate a national deal with management on 'modernisation.' But since then management have unilaterally imposed cuts and attacks on postal workers and their union.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009 09:47
The politicians keep telling us that the recession will mean our lives will be hard for a short period but that young people can still have a bright future. They say those who have lost their jobs or can't get work should try going to university, training will be provided for those without a job and the economy will pick up sooner or later.Matt Dobson
Socialist Students organiser
They are lying! The current economic crisis is bringing with it mass unemployment and attacks from the government on education which will block the hopes of the majority of young people who aspire to a decent standard of living. We can't hope and wait for things to get better! We have no option but to fight for our future!
Wednesday, 16 September 2009 09:32
“Bonuses are back.” That’s the new slogan running round the City of London and the bankers’ boardrooms today.
Philip Stott and Brian Smith
As unemployment races towards 3 million and working people face an avalanche of demands for pay cuts and job losses top bankers are greedily swallowing billions in bonuses.“Getting a nine by three” – that’s £9 million for three years work – is the benchmark for these parasites.
Take the near death RBS, kept alive through a £20 billion bail-out from public money and now 70% owned by the government.
Wednesday, 09 September 2009 17:23
Workers action needed to save jobs at Johnnie Walker
Diageo, the global drinks multinational, is to press ahead with its planned jobs slaughter in the West of Scotland. A total of 900 jobs are due to be lost at Johnnie Walker’s bottling plant in Kilmarnock and the distillery at Port Dundas in Glasgow. Diageo bosses rejected the Scottish governments “alternative business plan” that had proposed a new bottling plant in Kilmarnock but with hundreds of fewer jobs. Despite making profits last year of over £2 billion the Diageo bosses rejected the offer of government money and said: "We examined the alternative proposals thoroughly. They don't deliver a business model that would be good for either Diageo or Scotland.
The trade unions at Johnnie Walker’s had gone along with the Scottish governments proposals despite the fact it would have led to hundreds of their members losing their jobs. This strategy has utterly failed and the only way forward now is for the workers at Kilmarnock and Glasgow to organise decisive and urgent action to defend their livelihoods and the future of their communities.
Tuesday, 08 September 2009 17:27
Big-Business agenda fuels discontent
Philip Locker, from Justice, newspaper of Socialist Alternative (CWI in the USA)
Just seven months after taking office on a wave of hope and euphoria at the end of eight years of George Bush’s rule, President Barack Obama has seen a sharp fall in public support. Discontent is building from all sides, as disappointment with Obama’s inability to bring real change has brought about the end of Obama’s honeymoon.
Obama’s job approval is down to about 50% from a high of 70% on inauguration day. On Obama’s signature issue – healthcare reform – there has been a sharp fall-off in support for his approach. A CNN/Opinion Research Poll conducted at the end of August found that only 44% of Americans supported his handling of healthcare, while 53% disapproved.
Tuesday, 08 September 2009 17:15
Why the Lisbon treaty is bad for workers' rights?
Socialist Party reporters (CWI in Ireland)
Today at a press conference in the Davenport Hotel, Dublin, prominent Socialist Party spokespeople, accompanied by strike leaders from Coca Cola and MTL Dockworkers, laid out their opposition to the Lisbon Treaty, and explained how the treaty would undermine workers' rights.
Councillor Clare Daly pointed out, "If the government was truly concerned with the rights of workers there was nothing stopping them introducing legislation in the Dáil (Irish parliament). Not one specific claim has been made by the government or any of the ‘yes’ side as to how ratifying Lisbon is going to enhance the position of workers.
Thursday, 03 September 2009 17:04
Seventy years ago, the major powers plunged humanity into the horror of world war
Peter Taaffe, from Socialism Today, magazine of the Socialist Party, cwi in England and Wales
"Winston Churchill, wrote the following about Hitler’s rise to power (see picture opposite) in the 1939 edition of his book, Great Contemporaries: “I have always said that if Great Britain was defeated in war, I hope we would find a Hitler to lead us back to our rightful position among the nations”. The Nazis were financed and aided by the British ruling class with massive support from British big business so long as they faced east, towards attacking the Soviet Union. Thus Britain effectively backed Hitler’s rearmament programme in the 1935 Anglo-German naval agreement that allowed an expansion of the German navy that broke the Versailles Treaty’s limits."
And I can’t help but wonder now Willie McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?
Did you really believe them that this war would end wars?
But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame –
The killing, the dying – it was all done in vain.
For Willie McBride, it’s all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.
© Eric Bogle
The lyrics to Eric Bogle’s haunting folk song, No Man’s Land (The Green Fields of France, or Willie McBride), set against the background of an imaginary young soldier killed in the first world war, are as relevant today on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the start of the second world war which falls on 1 September. War did happen ‘again and again’ with its countless victims and will continue to do so as long as capitalism remains. Indeed, the total number of victims of the second world war dwarfed even the carnage of the first. Estimates of the total number of casualties for the war suggest some 60 million died, 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 18:03
The release from Greenock prison of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people, has provoked a storm of political protest. US president Barak Obama called the decision a “mistake”, the Director of the FBI Robert Mueller accused the SNP’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill of giving “comfort to terrorists”, and some Republican senators in the US have called for an economic boycott of Scotland in protest.
Given the horrors that the families of those killed have suffered there has been understandable, widespread anger and opposition to the release of Megrahi, especially among the US families of those who died.
The recent debate in the Scottish parliament saw leaders of all the main opposition parties attack the minority SNP government and MacAskill for allowing the terminally ill Megrahi to leave Scotland on compassionate grounds for Libya after spending eight years in prison. A vote of the Scottish parliament on the issue is likely next week. Megrahi was welcomed back to Libya by the Libyan leader, Colonel Gadaffi. In Libya Megrahi is widely seen as having been a victim of a miscarriage of justice. Gordon Brown has so far refused to make any comment on the decision to release Megrahi
Philip Stott
The seventieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War falls on 1 September. A minimum of 60 million people died (some estimates put the number as high as 77 million): 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. While the 'theatres of operations' did not spread to the whole of the world, it nevertheless touched most of humankind and its consequences certainly exercise a profound effect today.
PETER TAAFFE looks at the lessons of this devastating event.
Nuclear weapons were first deployed obscenely at the very end of the war on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since then a massive stockpile of weapons has hung like a terrible sword of Damocles over us, threatening to bury humankind and probably all animal life, under nuclear rubble. Why and how did we arrive at this situation, what were the causes of the Second World War, how did it differ from the First World War and, crucially, is it possible today to avoid the nightmare that our parents and grandparents endured during this catastrophe?
Tuesday, 01 September 2009 20:39
The limits of reform from above – the need for struggle from below
He has been called a “socialist” and “Nazi.” They say there will be “death panels” where government bureaucrats will make decisions on whether or not to let grandma live. These are just some of the attacks raised against US President Obama and his plans for health care reform by enraged Fox News-sponsored right wingers who are disrupting recent 'town hall' meetings around the US. Of course none of them are true.
Jesse Lessinger, Socialist Alternative (CWI in the USA)
Tuesday, 18 August 2009 12:41
A turning point in history
August 1969 was a turning point in the history of Northern Ireland. It was then that the Labour Government of Harold Wilson took the decision to send troops onto the streets, first of Derry, then of Belfast.
The measure was presented as temporary – troops were needed, they said, because, with riots sweeping the streets, with huge parts of Derry and Belfast sealed off behind barricades and with pogroms starting to develop, it was clear that the Unionist government at Stormont had lost control. It was to be a ‘stop gap’. The troops would be withdrawn ‘as soon as law and order is restored’.
Peter Hadden, Socialist Party (CWI in Northern Ireland)
Monday, 10 August 2009 10:28
Perjury trial to begin in January 2010
Tommy and Gail Sheridan’s trial on charges of perjury will begin on January 11th 2010 at the High Court in Glasgow. Repeated Freedom of Information requests from members of Solidarity forced Lothian and Borders police to reveal that their more than two year investigation into this case has cost at least £1.8 million in public money and usurped 52,000 hours of police officers time not to mention the public resources consumed by officials of the Scottish Crown office. One Lothian and Borders police officer was quoted as admitting that they were devoting the type of resources to this case as are normally assigned to a murder inquiry. All of this is apparently justified in an attempt to secure a prosecution of Scotland’s most recognised socialist. This case is increasingly being viewed as a political vendetta being conducted on a grand scale.
To a long litany of legal precedents will now be added the longest perjury trial in Scottish legal history. The trial of Tommy and Gail Sheridan on a total of three counts of perjury has been scheduled to last for between 8 and 12 weeks in duration. The total legal costs involved are likely to run into millions. The first ever perjury investigation following a civil trial in Scotland became the most expensive perjury investigation in Scottish legal history and will now produce the longest and one of the most expensive legal cases ever.
Tuesday, 04 August 2009 10:38
PROTESTS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND
25 people including 16 workers sacked by Thomas Cook at their Grafton Street store in Dublin were arrested this morning (Tuesday 4th August) after defying an court order which was granted when they occupied the shop on Saturday. Dozens of Gardai broke into the store by smashing the window and arrested the occupiers. Those arrested included Socialist Party Councillor, Matthew Waine and an eight and a half month pregnant woman who gave birth to her daughter after being taken to hospital following her arrest.
The workers and supporters arrested appeared at Dublin's Four Courts this afternoon (Tuesday) where hundreds of supporters rallied outside the court. The judge released them all accepting they had purged their contempt, while also commenting that he "cannot permit the law to be broken, as that would be a recipe for anarchy."
Protests were held in Dundee (see photo on right), Glasgow and Belfast in solidarity with the workers arrested.
Messages of support can be sent to the workers via their 'Stop Thomas Cook Shop Closures' Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=117888623383&ref=mfMore Articles...
- 1200 Glasgow council workers to start indefenite strike
- Support Vestas Workers
- Breakthrough in Admin dispute
- Unison witchhunt - Four banned
- Mass protest to save Johnnie Walker jobs
- Johnnie Walker – Support the fight to save jobs
- Joe Higgins first speech to European parliament
- CWI Summer School 2009
- Support Vestas occupation
- Withdraw the troops from Afghanistan
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