Issue134

The SSP makes an earth shaking breakthrough in the May 1 elections
Tommy Sheridan is this week joined by another five Scottish Socialist Party MSPs in the Scottish Parliament. Over 128,000 Scots cast their second vote for the SSP - the biggest vote for a party to the left of Labour in Scotland's history.
After just four years of existence, the Scottish Parliament is unlikely ever to be the same again as our MSPs prepare to rock Scottish politics to the core.
We'll be fighting to scrap the unfair Council Tax, to drive the private profiteers out of our schools and hospitals, and for free school meals for all Scotland's school children.
But we won't just be making a noise in the Parliament. The SSP is committed to fighting in workplaces and communities across Scotland for jobs, decent wages, housing and facilities - and to change our world into a place where poverty and inequality are nothing but distant memories. Join us.

news

MI5 meddle in the media

As the Daily Telegraph attempts to frame anti-war MP George Galloway as an agent of Saddam Hussein, Eddie Truman looks at the British secret state's long running involvement in the media.
Through the years the British intelligence services have used newspaper editors and their journalists to plant false stories and black propaganda to discredit leading labour movement figures viewed as a threat by the state.
The biggest of these operations was the framing of Arthur Scargill by Robert Maxwell's Daily Mirror over allegations that he had taken money from Libya and used it to pay off his mortgage.
Despite the fact that Gavin Lightman, now a High Court judge, described the story as 'entirely untrue', the Daily Mirror journalists who had been fed the story by the security services were presented with a British Press Award by Neil Kinnock in 1991.
In November 1995, the Sunday Telegraph published a story about the son of Colonel Gadaffi of Libya's connection to a currency counterfeiting plan.
The story was later exposed as a fabrication of the British security services by David Shayler, the former MI5 agent who was recently jailed for breaking the Official Secrets Act.
The story was written by the paper's chief foreign correspondent, and it was falsely attributed to a "British banking official".
In fact, it had been given to him by officers of MI6, who, it transpired, had been supplying the journalist with material for years.
In an article in The Guardian in December 1994, respected ITN journalist Jon Snow described how the security services had tried to recruit him:
"A Mr D Stilbury, writing from the old War Office Building, had done his stuff. He certainly knew a great deal about me - relationships, friends, politics and career prospects.
"He was also pretty certain that I would accept his tax-free offer to double my then salary and that for years to come would be able to count on me to continue in the media, whilst at the same time keeping tabs on subversive or left-wing journalists on Fleet Street."

Final appeal begins for death row Scot

This week, an innocent Scottish man on death row in America begins his final appeal - his last chance to escape the electric chair.
In 1981, at the age of 18, Kenny Richey left his home in Scotland to live with his American father in Ohio State.
In June 1986, one week before his return to the UK, Kenny was arrested and charged with the death, in a house fire, of six year old Cynthia Collins.
The trial was full of lies and inaccuracies and since his wrongful conviction Kenny has been sitting on death row for 17 years.
During the months preceding his appeal on 21 March 1997, evidence was presented to the Ohio Court, conclusively establishing the innocence of Kenny Richey.
This compelling evidence was submitted to support a bid for a hearing to allow Kenny's defence team to show that the case was a tragic miscarriage of justice.
The state prosecution did not dispute the accuracy of the new evidence. Prosecutor Dan Gershutz said:
"Even though this new evidence may establish Mr Richey's innocence, the Ohio and United States' constitution nonetheless allow him to be executed because the prosecution did not know that the scientific testimony offered at the trial was false and unreliable."
Without setting any reasons, Judge Michael Corrigan agreed, (Judge Corrigan was the foreman of a panel of three judges who convicted Kenny then sentenced him to die by electrocution).
He refused the defence's request for a hearing and dismissed Kenny's appeal.
Thus Kenny was denied the right to prove his innocence of the crime for which was convicted.
Kenny Richey is an innocent Scotsman on death row. May 7, 2003 is the start of Kenny's final appeal.
Sometime this year the US Court of Appeal will decide whether to free or execute an innocent man.
You can do something about it. Send letters in protest to:
US Court of Appeal, For the Sixth Circuit, 524 US Court House, Post Office Building, Cincinnati, OHIO, 45202/3988.

n For more information on Kenny's case see: www.kennyrichey.org

Police call for change to Britain's drugs laws

by Roz Paterson

Despite being amongst the harshest in Europe, Britain's drug laws aren't working.
In fact, they're making matters worse, with the incidence of drug problems accelerating, particularly in rural areas, where arrests of drug dealers have increased by as much as 35 per cent.
Alas, but hardly surprisingly, Jack McConnell, aided and abetted by the witless Daily Record, prefers to score cheap political points by promising to lock up more people for more time in more privatised prisons than actually address Scotland's crippling drug issues.
It's far harder to campaign on a ticket of understanding and long-term improvement, especially with fuming red-top tabloids screaming hysterically that, should we do anything less than imprison drug-users and throw away the key, we're effectively encouraging our youngsters to become junkies.
But without a serious re-think, we can expect the cost of drug addiction - in terms of health care, court and crime costs - to increase beyond the estimated £4 billion a year it currently stands at across the UK, not to mention more drug deaths and more communities blighted by heroin abuse.
The Police Federation, unlike the Labour Party, has a handle on this and have called for an urgent review of the "ineffective and outdated" Misuse of Drugs Act (1971).
They feel that too much police time is squandered chasing up mild-mannered academics who fancy a joint with their real ale, and not enough spent tackling the drug dealer networks.
A Police Federation spokesman commented:
"To many officers, it is clear that outright prohibition under the act has been staggeringly unsuccessful, although most officers fall short of outright legalisation.
"What we are calling for here is a review to update the act and make it more relevant to the drug problems we are seeing on the streets everyday."
McConnell's 'knee-jerk' response to crime was not, he felt, in any way helpful.

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anti war

The battle for world markets

by Mike Gonzalez

This week, George Bush announced that the war in Iraq is over.
The public services are not restored, food supplies are erratic, there are still occupying armies across the country, people are still dying every day.
For ordinary Iraqi people, the disruption, the chaos, the uncertainty, are anything but over.
Bush, of course, simply meant that the US had re-established its control over Iraq, one more step in Washington's project to control the Middle East and eventually the world.
Imperialism isn't measured by the number of US soldiers in Iraq.
If most of them leave tomorrow and are replaced by British and Polish troops, as Bush suggests they might, the Middle East will still be under US control and domination.
As recent months have shown us, it is Washington that controls the situation. Blair only has a role to the extent that he agrees to Bush's grand imperialist project.
What is that project?
In a global capitalist system, war is the servant of economics.
What matters is not who controls this piece of territory or that, but who controls the world market, and the supply and distribution of goods.
In the past, the French, British, German and Spanish empires competed for markets in oil and minerals.
That competition was ferocious, destructive and incredibly violent.
In India, the British crushed local rebellions and then reshaped the whole local economy.
They diverted the course of rivers and changed local agriculture to produce goods for export - even if it meant, as it did for millions of people, that there was not enough food and they would starve in their thousands.
Today, the world's more powerful nations still compete for markets. Their decisions are made with profits in mind - and nothing else. Britain and France, as well as the US, sell arms to anyone who will buy them, whether or not they will be used to crush their own population.
The huge multinationals that increasingly dominate the world economy ensure that cheap drugs will never be produced, that cigarettes are widely sold in the poorer countries, that GM food dominates the market.
As the 21st century begins, US imperialism is far more powerful than any other. France's objections to the war in Iraq were swept aside; Britain rides the tiger and imagines it is telling it where to go.
But the reality is that Washington's military power and ideological determination will overwhelm any of its smaller partners.
What drives it, though, is competition and the increasingly international character of global capitalism.
As capitalism develops its basic units of production become bigger and bigger, the smaller companies go to the wall or are absorbed into the giants. Fewer and fewer multinationals dominate the markets - five in the world oil market, the same number in car production, two or three in pharmaceuticals, and so on.
They operate on a world scale, fighting to control the markets across the planet.
But sooner or later that competition will produce violence. The battle for markets becomes a war.
Sometimes, it is because the local agent for capitalism gets greedy or breaks the rules (like Saddam).
Sometimes, the people who pay for those profits with their cheap labour or miserable living standards resist and fight back.
Sometimes, a competitor steals a march on the big players.
At those times, the global companies need armies and states to turn to, to protect their interests and fight for their markets.
That is why armaments are still the world's most valuable commodity.
That is why capitalism, as a competitive economic system, will always produce violence and war.
And that is why only a world that is not dominated by the relentless search for profits, a socialist world, can be truly peaceful.

Deportation opposed

by Simon Whittle

"It is not safe for asylum seekers to return to Afghanistan."
That was the judgement of angry demonstrators earlier this week as they protested against the forced deportation of Afghan asylum seekers. Most fear that they would face the death penalty if they were forced to return. The protestors, mainly Afghan asylum seekers, were joined at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Brand Street, Govan, by newly elected SSP MSP Rosie Kane, who told the hundred or so present:
"If Afghanistan was declared safe tomorrow, I would still beg you to stay because you and your children have enriched our lives, culture, communities and schools here in Scotland."
One Afghan asylum seeker told the crowd: "For 25 years there has been war in Afghanistan. In one year since the Americans invaded, you think this has solved the problem? Ask the Afghan people.
"We know more about our country than the Home Office.
"It is the warlords that run the country. Every warlord is a president in his own area. There are fewer Afghan asylum seekers in the UK than there are in other European countries. But no other countries are deporting Afghans."

No regrets for the brave human shields in Iraq

Oban SSP member Rory McEwan spent time acting as a human shield while the US and UK bombed Iraq. Here are extracts from his diary explaining what the human shield movement hopes to achieve.
During and after the first Gulf War, many more people, especially children, died from disease than they did from the bombing.
The human shield movement began to try to stop this happening again.
We placed ourselves at sites essential to the civilian infrastructure - power stations, water treatment plants - and informed the aggressor nations of our location.
We were there not to support or condemn the regime, but to stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq.
While we were there, our sites were not bombed.
Similar locations in Basra - where there were no shields - were hammered in the first days of the war, and people are now dying as a result.
At least thirty two nationalities of shields were recorded at our Bagdhad office. I met several from Latin America, some Japanese and Koreans, a whole Brigade of socialists from Spain, six or seven Scandanavians.
We witnessed the devastation that 12 years of sanctions have had on Iraq.
Our senior guide, Abu Hayan had spent twenty years teaching general science.
Now his pension was worthless and he was acting as our minder for a pittance.
Abu Achmed was a genuine tourist guide, with a deep knowledge of his country's history, and his condition was considerably worse.
As 'junior' guide, his wage was the tips we chose to give him; Hayan brought him his breakfast every morning to relieve the monotonous government rations.
The damage is not only economic. Achmed is the only breadwinner in his family. His mother, wife and daughter all suffer from serious diseases of the blood and heart.
His daughter has just had a triple bypass operation. She is 15 years old.
Human shields are self funding, but many have used up all their resources.
We need more human shields, which is a big commitment, but I have yet to meet one of us who regrets making it.
We also need people to raise funds and publicise what we are doing, to keep Iraq and Palestine in the public eye as the media moves on to its next story.
We have a website, check it regularly and circulate information to people without access.
Please do what you can to help.
n Websites: humanshields.org

and melodycentral.co.uk - videos and still images of shields in Bagdhad, including hospitals.

election round up

off the air
Colin Bell

I am H-A-SSP-P-Y

Well, deadline time having been stretched to the limit, I can only hope they've declared the result in Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale by the time you read this.
After a long, and pretty cheering, night, I know just what everybody else's votes achieved - but I write this having no idea what good ours did. Whether this is the consequence of cobbling together a completely artificial constituency (Penicuik to Gala, for heaven's sake) or the spectacular incompetence of the Scottish Borders Council, I could not say.
So I'm not quite sure just how happy I should be - but certainly as happy as I can ever remember being after any election.
Not only has my party done well, but the War Criminal's Party has taken a dunt, and, I imagine, the SNP should have learnt that you really can't be all things to all voters and expect to get away with it.

Frying pan to the fire

Things elsewhere haven't been going quite so well. As I understand it, our inglorious assault on Iraq has overthrown a regime which shot political opponents in order to let in a regime which will amputate shop-lifter's hands, and stone adulterers to death.
But it's probably rash to commit such treasonable words to print, given the triumphalist zeal of the Daily Torygraph to pin peaceniks to the wall with a salvo of lies. We can soon expect to read further thrilling exclusives, I feel sure.
How about "Pope Unmasked as Osama bin Laden", "Saddam Traced to Elysee Palace" and "Germ Weapons Found in Pilger's Fridge"?

Warked sense of humour

One thing which does still stick with me from that long night glued to the rather chaotic election coverage on BBC1 is the astonishing poker-faced brazenness of Kirsty Wark badgering various politicians about the escalating cost of Holyrood. Does she think we've all forgotten that she was one of the Friends of Donald who were wafted in to saddle us with it?

No fun in fundamentalism

Incidentally, my scheme to re-brand my hovel as a Religious Community and thus dodge Council Tax has run into trouble. I can't make up my mind whether to pattern the project on the Branch Dravidians of Waco, or the murderous nutters of Jonestown. The only thing for sure, having seen The Magdalene Sisters, is we feel unable to go to that extreme.

Til death us do part

Isn't it curious of New Labour to assume that "Divorce" (their new word for self-determination) is a terrifying, nay disgusting, prospect? I mean, has that thought always dominated the zipper-discipline of Lord Irvine, Robin Cook - or even Jack McConnell?

Life, liberty and the pursuit of handguns

Facts about the bastion of the free world you may find useful when being bombed.
More Americans are killed each year by other Americans exercising their constitutional right to bear arms than have been killed in all the military adventures of the past 30 years. More Americans are currently in prison than are engaged in full-time agriculture.
And America is one of only six countries in the entire world which imposes the death penalty on juveniles - the others being Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Hey, aren't all those others Islamic countries? Well, funny you should say so.

SSP wins two councillors

by Matt Preston

As well as contesting Holyrood seats, the Scottish Socialist Party made an effort to win representation on local council's across Scotland.
SSP candidates stood in every ward in Glasgow and made dramatic gains, coming second place in a quarter, and third place in half of the seats.
In Glasgow's Pollok, Keith Baldassara successfully held on to Tommy Sheridan's seat. Tommy has held the seat for 11 years but was required to stand down as the rules meant he could not continue as both MSP and councillor.
Keith won the seat by 30 votes. Speaking to the Voice he described the campaign:
"Labour were absolutely convinced that they were going to take Pollok back.
"The ward has changed dramatically over the past four years to include 65 per cent owner-occupancy.
"Over 1,000 houses in Pollok are worth over £100,000. New houses in the ward are worth £150,000 - £200,000.
"Labour played up this fact and made a big fuss about law and order and vandalism.
"Their candidate was a Justice of the Peace and they used a leaflet that could have been produced by the Tories ten years ago, pushing the point that Labour would be hard on youth crime.
"Labour were also convinced that the SSP are a one man band. They had no idea that people respect the hard work we have put in for the community and not just Tommy's personality.
"I was concerned that thousands of people would not have representation if Labour got in."
In West Dunbartonshire the SSP's Jim Bollan held on to his seat with double the vote of the SNP candidate.
Jim will continue to fight against the closure of the Vale of Leven Hospital and against the council housing sell-off.
Unfortunately SSP councillor Iain Hogg lost his seat in Renfrewshire council, beaten by just ten votes.
Throughout Scotland, SSP candidates campaigned hard to bring the voice of ordinary people into their local councils.
With the undemocratic first-past-the-post system still in place this was always going to be an uphill struggle.
On the basis of Thursday's vote, had a system of proportional representation been in place, the SSP would now have over 200 local councillors.

Stobhill stoater knocks out New Labour's skunk

Sitting MSP and New Labour devotee Brian Fitzpatrick was an early shock casualty on election night.
Nicknamed "the skunk" by the Mirror for his Mallen streak and his propensity to indulge in dirty politics, he was ousted by the Save Stobhill candidate Jean Turner.
Riotous scenes of joy enveloped the Leisuredome in Bishopbriggs when it was announced that Dr Turner had scraped home by 438 votes.
The SSP had played their part in the campaign by standing down and handing an expected 2,000 votes to the hospital candidate.
Standing only for council elections and prompting a second vote for the SSP, the local branch made it clear in all election proclamations and literature that they supported Dr Turner in the Holyrood ballot.
Local SSP organiser Willie Telfer said:
"Rejoice - the Kirky area is free from the stench of the skunk.
"Dr Turner may not share all our politics but she definitely shares our commitment to Stobhill.
"The votes in favour of her came in droves from the poorest areas of Strathkelvin and I hope she reflects on this in the parliament."
The skunk squirted his stench for one last time in the council ward of Campsie, where SSP candidate Mary Rocks was standing.
Touring the ward with a load hailer for 20 minutes, he shouted: "Don't let the Trots in the council chamber, they'll flood your streets with heroin."
But his lies didn't work, as Mary scored 24 per cent of the vote.

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"If voting ever changed anything they'd abolish it" Ken Livingstone famously wrote in the title of his autobiography.
Although there's an element of truth in that statement - if voting is divorced from a broader movement - it doesn't seem to be cutting much ice right now in Scotland!
Hopes that our young and relatively neutered parliament can be used to change things have been raised after the election of six socialists, seven greens and four independents.
There's no doubt about it, the result was a magnificent achievement for the SSP in particular.
Six MSPs is a testament to the work done by the whole party in the last four years; the innumerable campaigns in local communities across the length and breadth of Scotland; our imaginative and resolute work in the anti-war movement especially; and not least for the way that our solitary representative in Parliament has used his position as an MSP over the last four years as an effective and powerful ambassador for socialism.
It's good to keep both feet on the ground at the same time as having the imagination to dream of the possibilities opening up.
As a party we have won the electoral support of around 120,000 people in Scotland plus many others who didn't vote.
It's more than just a start. It's a small but significant section of the five million population. The hard part comes next.
I desperately want to see our six MSPs take up a number of issues related to drugs policy in much the same way I know our spokespersons for transport, the environment, education, health, trade unions, etc will all be pushing their own areas of responsibility.
Over the next four years, the party's policy spokespersons will have a duty to make our voices heard in the areas we have been given specific responsibility for.
The days of the media calling up Tommy to speak on every area of party policy is over. This should be a challenge in itself to the various policy spokespersons.
To give an indication of how this one area has to change dramatically, answer this: How many of our policy spokespersons could you name? (Without checking Conference papers!)
How many of their names or faces appear in the media regularly?
It's been tough for the last four years because the media wanted to portray us as a one man band but the result on May 1 should help alter this state of affairs.
In the communities too, if we are to grow as a party to the next stage, we're gonna have to do a lot of listening.
Finding out from local people what type of resources are needed in the local areas.
It's all very well being involved in big national and international issues but it's in the communities that the real hearts and minds are to be won.
On the drugs issue I won't feel we've done enough, if, in four years time, we have achieved anything less than establishing a heroin maintenance programme in Scotland for registered addicts (which is currently blocked by the Scottish Executive despite the principle won two years ago at Westminster); for effective community resources available to combat addiction; and for the supply of cannabis to be taken out of the hands of the criminal black market where it often overlaps with the use of heroin.
The six MSPs won't be able to achieve any of this on their own. It'll take a lot of work outside Parliament as well as with other parties and organisations.
The next few years should be interesting times, exciting times, and I'm looking forward to these new challenges as much as anyone.

The SSP's stunning victory in the Holyrood elections puts it squarely in the front rank of the new European radical left.
Only Rifondazione Communista in Italy, which came out of a mass split in the old Communist Party, has more MPs - but a lower share of the vote.
The combined vote of the three candidates of the radical left in last year's French presidential election was 10 per cent - but there is no united socialist party in France to capitalise on it.
Scotland doesn't usually get a lot of coverage in the media in Europe but last Thursday's result was widely reported in the press here.
Of course, the journalists have never heard of the SSP, but socialists who have, have been sitting up and taking notice - and wanting to know how the SSP did it.
And the fact that four of the party's MSPs are women has not gone unnoticed.
The European left is at a crossroads. An old dying left coexists with the new left that is breaking through.
One part of the old left is what remains of the communist parties, who oscillate between tail-ending New Labour-style social-democratic parties and sliding back into a Stalinist ghetto.
Another part is made up of the traditional far-left groups, many of which have difficulty breaking from old sectarian habits.
The new left, the future of the left, lies with parties built by socialists coming from different traditions and by many people new to politics.
The SSP is undoubtedly the most politically advanced and dynamic of those new parties and last Thursday's result shows beyond a doubt that it is also the most successful.
It has succeeded in rehabilitating socialism after the failures of the last century.
It has also shown that not all parties are the same - that it is possible to build a party that is democratic and pluralist, feminist, non-hierarchical and above all principled and honest.
Those are lessons that will interest many socialists in Europe.
Last Thursday's result will give the SSP new authority in the discussions that are taking place for next year's European elections.
It will be an encouragement for all those who want to see a clear united socialist challenge put forward right across Europe.

Socialists also stood last Thursday in elections for the Welsh Assembly and in council elections in England.
In Preston, the Socialist Alliance won their first councillor, beating the runner up Labour candidate by over 100 votes.
In Coventry, the Socialist Party's Karen Mackay retained her seat with nearly 50 per cent of the vote in the St Michaels ward.
Preston is in Lancashire, where mainstream election coverage has concentrated on the nazi BNP. The BNP won eight councillors in nearby Burnley, five more than at last year's council elections.
But the racists lost out in seats contested by the Socialist Alliance, challenging the idea that a socialist candidate would split the anti-nazi vote.
Tess McMahon, from Burnley Socialist Alliance told the Voice:
"Avril Hesson, the SA candidate for Bank Hall ward in Burnley, is very clear from her canvassing that the SA won votes that were long lost to Labour.
"Voters disillusioned with Labour were offered socialist answers rather than the hate-based answers of the BNP.
"I think we reduced the BNP vote where we stood, rather than BNP seats, as we stood where Labour was expected to win with a good margin."
The BNP stood a total of 221 candidates across England, just a small percentage of the 12,000 contested council wards.
And in Scotland, the BNP thugs' electoral challenge consisted of one pathetic council candidate and one Scottish Parliament candidate on the Glasgow list.
They were beaten by the SSP in the Auchinleck council ward, just one of the 320 council wards where the SSP put up a candidate.
The Glasgow BNP candidate - who, ironically for this viciously racist, anti-immigration party, has just emigrated here from Canada - polled 2334 votes, or 1 per cent.
The SSP has knocked the legs out from under the Hitler-worshipping BNP's attempt to establish itself as a respectable alternative to New Labour in Scotland.
The Socialist Alliance holds the potential to play that role in England.

In this special feature, Alan McCombes SSP election co-ordinator, looks at the implications of the election of six socialist MSPs. And the new Scottish Socialist Party MSPs say what they think is possible in the Scottish Parliament

May Day is the traditional festival of the working class and the oppressed, the day when the red flag flies high and The Internationale is sung.
May Day 2003 will especially be celebrated for years to come as a turning point for the left and socialism.
This was the day sizeable sections of the Scottish electorate rose up against the old establishment parties and painted a new political landscape in bright new colours.
Back in 1999, political analysts and pollsters were confounded by the election of one Scottish Socialist, one Green and one independent.
This time around, no fewer than 17 red, green, and independent MSPs stormed into the Scottish Parliament, decimating Labour and laying waste to the Scottish National Party.
The new parliament includes seven Greens; six Scottish Socialists; Dennis Canavan who won the biggest majority in Scotland; the left wing nationalist, Margo McDonald; the save Stobhill Hospital campaigner, Jean Turner; and John Swinburne of the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, which campaigns for a £150 a week state pension.
All of these new MSPs are to the left of the big parties. All opposed the war on Iraq and all support at least some of the core policies of the SSP's manifesto.
What is even more remarkable is that this colossal advance for reds, greens and independents was achieved in the face of an outrageous blackout by whole swathes of the Scottish media.
Scotland's biggest selling daily newspaper, the Daily Record, managed to censor out of existence the SSP throughout the four weeks of the campaign, lifting its ban fleetingly to lie to its readers that the polls were showing the SSP would end up with one seat.
Both Tommy Sheridan and the Green Party's Robin Harper were excluded from the two televised party leaders' debates.
Up until the last few days of the campaign, the daily news bulletins on BBC and STV focussed almost exclusively on reports of the campaigns of the four big parties.
For weeks, the SSP and Green press conferences were lonely affairs. That was until the afternoon of May 2.
In Glasgow the scenes outside the GFT were reminiscent of a blockbuster film premier as the paparazzi jostled for shots of the new Scottish Socialist Party MSPs.
The result of last Thursday's election is certain to pave the way for a turbulent four years with key issues such as PFI, free school meals, low pay in the public sector, the scrapping of the Council Tax, PR for local government, GM crops, the treatment of pensioners, drugs policy, hospital closures, prescription charges and the future of the £500 million M74 extension forced onto the agenda.
Both the Scottish Socialist Party and the Green Party have now crossed the five seat threshold for recognition as official parties, allowing access to all parliamentary committees and to the bureau which sets the Holyrood agenda.
Even more important than the changed make up of the parliament is the new political balance of forces taking shape within society, especially in urban Scotland.
Although the Greens have one more seat than the SSP, the swing towards the SSP was the highest of all the parties.
In the first-past-the-post constituency contests, the Scottish Socialist share of the vote rose from under one per cent to over 6 per cent, while the list vote rose from 2 per cent to just under 7 per cent.
Meanwhile, all of the big parties saw their vote slashed to ribbons. The two giants, Labour and the SNP, each lost hundreds of thousands of votes.
The Tories and Lib Dems each lost tens of thousands of votes.
Across both ballots, 1.25 million fewer votes were cast for the big parties than in 1999 while hundreds of thousands more voted for socialists, greens and independents.
The Scottish Socialist Party is now represented across the whole of the central belt and southern Scotland from the Clyde to the Forth, from the Solway Firth to the North Sea.
By the narrowest of margins the party failed to win a seat in the Highlands and Islands, mainly as result of the sectarian intervention of Arthur Scargill's tiny Socialist Labour Party, which siphoned enough votes to prevent the election of Steve Arnott - ironically a veteran campaigner for the Fife miners during the 1984 strike.
In contrast to the Greens - who ran an effective campaign for the second vote, but abstained from the constituency contests and the council elections - the SSP fought three campaigns simultaneously.
In 70 constituencies across Scotland, from the Shetland Isles to the Borders, the SSP took the big parties head on for first-past-the post seats.
In over 40 constituencies the SSP held its deposit, notching up some dazzling results in the process.
Across Scotland the socialist vote on the first ballot was a stunning 6.5 per cent - even though we had no chance of winning in this part of the election
In the Orkney stronghold of Lib Dem Jim Wallace, the SSP's John Aberdein took a sensational 11.5 per cent of the vote.
In Glasgow's Maryhill constituency the youngest SSP candidate, 24 year old Donnie Nicolson took over 16 per cent of the vote. In Pollok, 28 per cent of the electorate backed the SSP.
In Ayrshire, Rosemary Byrne took over 11 per cent of the vote in Cunninghame South for the SSP.
The SSP also stood in hundreds of council seats, achieving superb results the length and breadth of Scotland.
In Glasgow, Scottish Socialist candidates defeated the SNP to win second place in 18 wards.
Keith Baldassara was elected councillor for Pollok while in the Renton ward of West Dunbartonshire, Jim Bollan - standing for the first time under the banner of the SSP - won by a landslide.
In the aftermath of the election, some media commentators have suggested that the SSP would have made more parliamentary gains by concentrating exclusively on the second list vote.
The simplicity and clarity of the campaign waged by the Greens - and by Margo McDonald in the Lothians - for a second vote did have big advantages in maximising their list votes.
Undoubtedly, the second vote for the SSP would have been even higher if we had pursued the same tactic. It may even have tilted the balance in one or more of the three regions where we failed to make the breakthrough.
The confusion that still surrounds the voting system was strikingly illustrated by a feature in the Glasgow Evening Times on polling day in which several members of their voters' panel expressed the view that the SSP was by far the best party - so they intended to give the SSP their first vote and transfer their second vote elsewhere.
Nonetheless, even though it will have led to some slippage in the second vote, it was the right decision to fight the constituency seats and as many council seats as possible.
The Scottish Socialist Party is seeking to build a grassroots party built from communities upwards rather than from parliament downwards.
By standing in scores of constituencies and hundreds of council wards we have strengthened the party politically and organisationally on the ground.
On top of the thousands who have contacted the party centrally in the past few weeks in response to our election leaflets and broadcasts, thousands more have been drawn into the orbit of our local branches.
This building of grassroots movement, rather than just a large parliamentary group, will pay dividends in the years to come.
For example, because of the new balance of forces in Holyrood, it is highly likely that PR for local government will be introduced by the 2007 elections.
Even on a cautious projection of doubling our support, that could open the door to 150-200 SSP councillors at the next local elections, helping us to sink deep roots in local communities in every corner of Scotland.
Even now, the right wing media has begun to panic at the rise of the SSP.
The Scotsman and the Scotland on Sunday - controlled by Andrew Neil from his villa in the South of France - has produced a stream of foaming mouthed editorials and opinion columns raging at the breakthrough for the SSP.
'Stop The Carnival - Holyrood Must Not Be An Extremist's Circus' ran the headline in the Scotland on Sunday editorial.
'Advance Of The Fringe May Be A Recipe For Anarchy,' screamed The Scotsman.
The paper's associate editor, George Kerevan - a former member of the International Marxist Group - worked himself into a hysterical McCarthyite frenzy, suggesting that if the SSP had won another four seats, "the Trots would have been in pole position to wreck what is left of the Scottish economy."
Throughout the election, Kerevan repeatedly warned that the SSP would "impoverish Scotland" - richly ironic coming from the man who insisted that Scotland's future prosperity consisted of wholesale investment in dot.com companies... just as the dot.com carnival was about to turn into a funeral.
This seismic shift in Scotland's political landscape is a reflection of the fact that the Scottish electorate is decisively to the left of the mainstream parties.
A new book Devolution - Scottish Answers To Scottish Questions compiled by a group of academics provides masses of detailed statistical information measuring public opinion in Scotland.
The statistics illustrate clearly that on almost every issue, from trade unions to wealth redistribution, from taxation and public services to private enterprise and public ownership, the people of Scotland have a generally left wing, socialist outlook.
In contrast, the four mainstream parties all now stand on the centre right. Even the SNP, which re-emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a left opposition to Labour, now proudly proclaims its pro-business, pro-enterprise credentials and downplays its former left wing image.
Some commentators have falsely attributed the steep fall in the SNP vote to a shift away from independence.
In fact, the vote for pro-independence parties - the SNP, the SSP and the Greens - increased by one point in the constituency vote and soared by eight points in the regional vote.
Meanwhile support for the pro-unionist parties - Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems - fell by two points in the constituencies and by more than five points in the regions.
The real reason for the SNP's dismal performance, especially on the regional list vote, was the party's failure to inspire working class voters to break with New Labour.
The SNP spent millions on a campaign that was hailed for its slickness and professionalism. But when the glossy wrapping was stripped away, there was nothing inside.
John Swinney's promised onslaught against New Labour was conducted with all the passion and charisma of a chartered accountant arguing over a couple of pennies unaccounted for in the balance sheet.
Even the SNP's pro-independence message was muffled, prompting Margo McDonald, to declare the SSP the real party of Scottish independence.
Most of the academic post-election analysis has concluded that the SSP's gains came largely at the expense of the SNP. That interpretation is borne out by the shock result in Dundee, where the SNP took the seat from Labour's John McAllion, even though the local SSP branch stood down to back McAllion.
In the neighbouring and more marginal Dundee West seat, the Labour candidate held on, with the anti-Labour vote split between the SSP and the SNP.
Despite this seeping away of support to its left, the initial signs after the election are that the SNP will position itself even further to the right.
In TV interviews, John Swinney and his close ally, Nicola Sturgeon, attributed the party's failure to the "problems involved in making the transition from a party of protest to a party of government".
This is reminiscent of the attitude of Peter Mandelson and his cabal in the aftermath of Labour's 1992 general election defeat.
From there, they went on to mould and shape New Labour as a party of the centre right, openly aligned with big business and viciously contemptuous of the trade union movement.
The SNP leadership appears to be headed in the same direction, though they will face resistance from activists in the Central Belt who will draw exactly the opposite conclusions and seek to re-establish the SNP as a left of centre, hardline independence party.
They are unlikely to succeed. Most of the SNP's active base is concentrated in rural Scotland. There are more SNP members in John Swinney's Tayside North constituency than in the whole of Glasgow.
Meanwhile, the SSP is poised to challenge the SNP for the mantle of the main opposition force in urban, working class Scotland.
In the regional list vote in Glasgow, the SSP routed the Tories and Lib Dems and came within just 3 per cent of relegating the SNP into third place.
Equally significant is the fact that the SSP has become a truly nationwide party with surging support in every corner of Scotland.
In Glasgow, starting from a far higher base than anywhere else, support for the SSP doubled in the regional vote.
In Lothian our support tripled. In West Scotland it grew three and a half times over. In Central Scotland, North East Scotland and Mid Scotland & Fife it grew four times over.
In the South of Scotland it grew five times over. In the Highlands & Islands it grew six times over.
Nationwide, this was the biggest socialist vote to the left of Labour in Scotland's history, surpassing even the 120,000 votes for Jimmy Maxton's Independent Labour Party in 1935 when it had four sitting MPs.
That was in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s when millions of Scottish slum dwellers lived in conditions of semi-starvation.
Society has changed beyond all recognition since then. But strip away the veneer of prosperity and the old social injustices remain.
While there is capitalism there will always be violence, greed, poverty and inequality.
But this historic May Day election represents a resounding vindication of the title of the Scottish Socialist manifesto: Another Scotland is Possible.

Carolyn Leckie
Like everyone else, the full impact of what we've achieved still hasn't quite registered. Already we've had an effect by bringing the ideas of socialism up for discussion again. There have been all sorts of psuedo-intellectuals in the media passing comment when they don't know what they're talking about.
I think our election will give low paid workers, especially in the public sector, a lot of confidence in the battle for decent pay and conditions.
Our election, combined with the vote for the SSP across Scotland, puts the party in a very strong position to push our five fast track pledges.

Rosie Kane
I'm a bit numb and scared at the enormity and gravity of the job we've taken on.
I'm an activist by nature and now I'm going in to the debating chamber that I usually rant at.
It will be hard keeping my confidence but it is important that socialists are represented. We're the only ones who'll bring a reality check to the doctors, lawyers and professional career politicians.
We will reinvigorate our aim to scrap the Council Tax and make the rich pay their share through the Scottish Service Tax.
In Scotland, 77 per cent of households will benefit from this, and I'm one of them. My wages were arrested for Council Tax arrears last month.

Rosemary Byrne
I think, with six MSPs, we'll make more than six times the impact on the Scottish Parliament.
The make up of the parliament in general is different and I think we'll be able to work with others and wake up a few back benchers.
As a teacher, I'm interested in trying to make a difference in education, but there are many other issues that the SSP group can tackle. Things that I've been involved in in my community are drugs laws and housing and the treatment of asylum seekers - all these things the Scottish Parliament can have an effect on.
As a trade unionist I want to be able to support and promote the issues around trade unions and workplaces.

Frances Curran
Ordinary people don't get access to the Scottish Parliament.
This is a huge opportunity for the concerns of ordinary people in Scotland to be put onto the agenda - low pay, childcare, housing and all the other issues that effect how people live their lives.
If we succeed, then after four years there will be grassroots organisations across Scotland linking up with the SSP to campaign for the same things.
Above all, across the two councils in the West of Scotland, we are going to unite tens of thousands of people in the fight against PFI in schools.
We will do all we can to stop the sell-off and privatisation of education in West Renfrewshire and Dumbarton.

Colin Fox
From a Lothians point of view, we're ecstatic. This result has put an end to to all the critics who say the SSP is just a Clydeside party or a one man band.
I am quite daunted at the task we're taking on. We are going to be part of all the committees in the parliament and we'll be under constant scrutiny. Every word we utter will be dissected - but not in a positive way!
Across Scotland, we got 128,000 votes on the list and that is very humbling. Last time we won the argument on Free School Meals but lost the vote in parliament.
This time we have a chance to deliver free, nutritious school meals to my two kids and everyone else's kids in Scotland.

Give us your opinion
YOUR VOICE is your chance to give us your opinions on any issues we’ve covered.
Letters should be kept to around 200 words. We can accommodate longer articles but, due to space, these should be discussed with the editorial staff first.
You can contact us by fax, phone, letter or email. Tel: 0141 221 7714 Fax: 0141 221 7715
Email: voice.editorial@scotsocialist.co.uk Address: SSV, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow, G2 8QD
Letters, columns and signed articles which appear in the Voice do not necessarily represent the editorial view of the Scottish Socialist Voice or the Scottish Socialist Party

In this 'free' country we jail innocent kids
Liz Walker, of the Dingwall Scottish Socialist Party branch, writes about her visit to one Kurdish family locked up in a Scottish detention centre for asylum seekers.

Mr and Mrs Ay, who are Kurds, fled persecution in Turkey and lived in Germany for 14 years.
Their four children - Beriwan (14), Newraz (12), Dilaran (11) and Medya (7) - were born in Germany.
They were deported from Germany three years ago and lived in Gravesend in Kent.
A year ago, Mr Ay was deported first to Yugoslavia and then, it is believed, back to Turkey. He has not been seen or heard from since.
Yurdugal Ay and her children went into hiding for two months, terrified of what might happen to them. Eventually, unable to sustain themselves, they came out of hiding and were taken into custody.
After a period in a London detention centre they were sent to Dungavel Detention Centre in Ayrshire, where they've been held for ten months.
I visited the family there two weeks ago.
Dungavel's 12 feet high perimeter fence is constructed of sheet steel and razor wire.
I was taken to the reception area where I was required to fill in a form giving my personal details, fingerprinted, photographed, given an ID number, and told that I could not give the family the sweets and flowers that I'd brought.
I was searched and then I had to place my mobile phone and car keys in a locker.
Yurdugal and her children arrived and after lots of hugs and kisses we sat down and talked.
We talked about many things - the conditions they are held under, the minimum amount of education the children receive, the stultifying boredom they suffer and the psychological damage and depression which is affecting Newraz and Dilaran particularly.
We talked about Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears. Medya, the youngest, can't stand Britney but all the girls like Blue.
They are allowed to watch one video a week on a Friday night so we discussed their favourites - Monsters Inc, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
I asked Dilaran, the little boy, what his favourite bit of Harry Potter was and he replied that he liked the bit with the cloak of invisibility and he really wanted one so that they could escape.
The time came for me to leave, we hugged and kissed some more, and I too longed for a cloak of invisibility so that I could take them away from that terrible place.
With a sinking heart I watched them being taken away knowing that all they had to look forward to was either being sent to another detention centre or being put on a plane to Turkey.
If they are deported to Turkey it is almost certain that Yurdugal will be taken into custody and her children, who have never been there, left to wander the streets.
The steel gate clanged shut and was locked behind me. I sat in my car and burst into tears - tears of sadness, frustration and shame.
Shame, that in my country human beings can be treated like this. Shame, that children can be incarcerated in total disregard of human rights. Shame, that families are split up and people sent back to a country that persecutes them.
This is one family. At the time of writing this, to the best of my knowledge, there are 25 children in Dungavel.
A couple of days after my visit the Ay family were moved to another centre near London and a flight was booked for them to Turkey.
Fortunately their lawyer managed to avert this and also was able to have them granted a hearing next month.
So if you would like to show your support for the Ay family and asylum seekers in general, I urge you to do the following.
Purchase two blank postcards and send one to the Ay family with a message of support.
Send the other postcard to the Home Secretary and register your disapproval of the way the Ays and other asylum seekers are being treated.
Remember to put your name and address on both postcards.

Yurdugal Ay and family,
Hamondsworth Detention Centre, Colnbrook Bypass,
Langford, W. Drayton,
Middlesex, UB7 0HB

The Home Secretary,
Houses of Parliament,
Westminster, London

SSP must challenge Labour's left
It is with some disappointment I read of the decision of the Dundee East branch's decision not to stand against John McAllion in the Scottish Parliament elections (see Voice issue 132).
The justification for such a decision was to "maximise the socialist vote" in order to prevent what is a marginal Labour seat falling into the hands of the SNP. Added to this was the argument that McAllion supported the free school meals campaigns amongst others.
There is no mention, however, of the fact that every SNP MSP also voted in favour of the free school meals bill and that although the SNP policy regarding war against Iraq was that it was only justified with a second resolution, many SNP MSPs opposed it on any ground.
If the SNP candidate is to be judged by her party's policies, then let's judge McAllion by his party's policies, which prosecuted the war, opposed free school meals almost to the last MSP and who continue to wage daily attacks on the working and living conditions of normal Scottish people.
Add to this the suggestion that a vote for the Labour Party is a 'socialist vote', and a vote for the SNP isn't. It appears to me many of the leaders of SSP platforms and, ultimately, many in the SSP leadership, still have a residual belief from their 'Labour days' that the Labour Party is still the real 'people's party'.
Can we be sure, therefore, that should the SSP obtain electoral success that we won't ourselves, like the Iraqi people, still be fighting for real 'regime change'?
Alan McIntosh,
Glasgow
NB. The decision to stand down in Dundee East was taken at local level rather than national level.

Does it matter?
Does it matter that British troops have left an estimated 2000 unexploded cluster bomblets in Basra alone to add to the thousands dropped elsewhere over Iraq?
Does it matter that at least one nine month old baby crawled over one blowing her to pieces and badly injuring her mother?
Does it matter that a little girl with a lilac top and delicate hands had her legs shredded on March 24?
Does it matter that we dropped over 2000 tons of depleted uranium shells, 40 per cent of which, on impact, turns to toxic dust and is scattered in the winds?
Does it matter that The Royal Society, Britain's national science academy, fears that uranium might be leaked into the water supplies?
Does it matter that we have no idea how many civilians have been killed or lives destroyed by mutilation?
Does it matter how many Iraqi soldiers, many forced conscripts, were killed?
Does it matter that this war was advocated several years ago by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield, Jeb Bush, Paul Wolfowitz and co, and that their plan, after meticulous preparation to coincide with US economic interests, has come to fruition?
Does it matter that they once supported Saddam? Does it matter that they have just torn up the UN charter? Does it matter that Hans Blix will not be allowed back into Iraq?
Does it matter that Mr Blair used his talent to back these US neo-conservatives?
Does it matter that the Scottish Labour hierarchy followed suit?
Does our vote matter on the May 1? I hope with all my heart it does.
Paul Laverty,
Madrid

BUPA not super
The subject of private medicine came up when Tommy was being interviewed on TV.
His interrogator was making the point that involvement of private hospitals would help the NHS to reduce waiting lists.
The reason for waiting lists is lack of staff of all kinds in the NHS. Private medicine contributes nothing to this. Its doctors, consultants and nurses are trained at the expense of the community.
Not having to train staff means there is money available to poach staff from the NHS.
Private hospitals also cherrypick their operations. For instance they like coronary bypass operations. They are profitable as the post operative care is short.
My late brother was in the BUPA setup. He had a lipoma - a benign tumour - and a private hospital was happy to remove it for him. This was a straight forward job with no follow up.
My sister-in-law also developed a tumour. Hers was possibly life threatening and expensive follow up treatment, including radiotherapy, was necessary. The private sector opted out of this one and dumped her on the NHS.
H A Pfaff,
Paisley

Tabloid TV?
Kevin Williamson's praise for the BBC's Walking with Cavemen is misplaced (see Voice issue 133). This series dramatised the lives of human beings' early ancestors in the most sensational manner.
It really was tabloid TV, portraying early human society as violent, warlike, aggressive and male dominated. Yet there is no evidence for any of this, it simply fits into the 'common sense' anti-socialist argument that wars, violence and sexism all exist because it is 'human nature'.
The programmes were based on the behaviour of chimpanzees, but apes are not human, even though we share a common ancestor, and in any case all the different species of ape exhibit very different types of behaviour. For example the Bonobo, or pygmy chimpanzee, has a female dominated society, where sex, not violence, plays the major role in social interaction.
A much better documentary was the BBC's History of DNA.
In that series the respected biologist Richard Lewontin argued that we should be very wary of "just-so" stories which use evolutionary theory to justify existing capitalist society, but are based on pure speculation and no real evidence - that for me summed up Walking with Cavemen perfectly.
Joe Hartney,
Edinburgh

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page nine

cultural resistance

Doing the wrong thing

25th Hour (cert 18) directed by Spike Lee. On general release now.

by Keef Tomkinson

For film fans, Spike Lee is either loved or loathed.
His passionate and political filmmaking has produced slick social commentary (Do The Right Thing) but also over-elaborate preaching (Girl 6).
Lee's outlook comes across as a mix of Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson-type politics.
He divides not only the white but also the black establishment.
At a glance, 25th Hour would appear to be more of the same.
The film follows the last day of freedom for a convicted drug dealer as he tries to makes sense of his life and future.
The acting is fine, the style okay and the story interesting enough.
But a film has gone wrong somewhere when you leave the cinema feeling that you have just had two and a half hours stolen from your life.
I didn't care about any of the characters.
They drift along doing their thing but are cold and distant.
Indeed, many of the characters are more caricature than real.
Lee's trademark anger rarely makes an appearance, and when it does it's more of a tantrum than a rage.
While it is good to see the human side of a heroin dealer explored, the film is too sympathetic, forgetting that he breeds misery and pain.
During the film, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks are meant to haunt the background. Instead, clumsy references are shoved like a square block being pushed into a round hole.
Essentially I felt cheated by 25th Hour.
This is maybe the root of the problem but I had expectations based on Lee's back catalogue. I expected a passionate angry message being sent to those in power.
This is the most un-Spike Lee Spike Lee film I have seen.
The Black-American experience is missing, racial prejudice is absent, political solutions are ignored.
But am I justified in disliking this film for those reasons? Surely Lee should not be pigeon-holed into making black cinema? 'Maybe' and 'No' would be my two answers.
Spike Lee is allowed to change, age and mellow. This could be a side-step before he returns with Do The Right Thing for a new generation.
I hope it is, because America's fractured society has many more tales to tell.
All I can say is that I would prefer to watch an assembly line of anti-establishment politically confused rants from Lee than see another 25th Hour.

The death of the music critic

by Mark Woffenden

With digital broadcasting increasing the number of different ways of hearing music (an estimated 350 digital radio stations by the end of 2003, according to The Guardian Friday March 7, 2003), and with the ever growing number of ways of obtaining music for free through your PC - Kazaa, one of the most popular file-sharing applications, has around four million users - it is clear that the way we consume music is changing and, in many ways, has changed forever.
Artists such as Public Enemy have made entire albums available over the internet before general retail release, and it's standard practice on most smaller label websites to allow selected tracks to be downloaded as tasters for the full album.
In what must be the most interesting development, The White Stripes' latest album, Elephant (see Voice 133), was bootlegged and available online about three months before the release date but, here's the twist, the album is currently number one on the retail charts.
The common argument, put about by the 'Big Five' record companies that control the music industry, that "the bands will suffer as a result of the fans' eagerness to hear the work" is demonstrably not a valid one.
But by far the most interesting facet of this development in the way music reaches the public is the pointed irrelevancy of the "middlemen", the critics.
When you have what is essentially a direct link between the artists and the consumers, what is the role of a person who gets to hear the songs before you, often writes less then 100 words about an album and gives it a mark, when you are able to establish for yourself whether you like the sound of it?
In removing the privilege of early and extended access to music, mp3s and similar formats provide a major challenge for people who write about music to do it seriously. (like, for example, Wire magazine).
More substantially, it provides a major opportunity for "ordinary members of the public" to establish themselves not as a sales unit but someone who wants to make their own decisions about what they like.
n see www.slsk.org and www.kazaalite.com

Anything to Bragg about on May Day?

by Sean Hurl

I have a real problem with Billy Bragg.
I genuinely like the guy but he's in that awkward box along with Tony Benn - people who seem tied to the apron strings of the Labour Party and unable to draw the conclusion that in spite of the nominal link to the trade unions, it is no longer the natural home of the left, of socialists, in Scotland and Britain as a whole.
So the man who has written some great political pop and love songs comes to Glasgow Green for Maydaze (yuk!) and performs a set of his own and Woody Guthrie songs but when prompted from the audience says he is genuinely heartened by the success of the SSP and ashamed of the rise of the BNP in his own country.
He calls on Scottish people to help rid the scourge of the fascists and is genuinely fired up and spitting venom.
This is the Billy Bragg I like to see and hear.
Bragg has been writing a lot about what it means to be English in post-devolutionary times but has, until now, not seen that the splitting of the British state will be a good development for the left internationally.
But he sings an updated version of Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards, full of fury at the Bush administration and their supporters in New Labour and maybe the first seeds of doubt are beginning to appear.
He proclaims himself a socialist and calls for Marxists to rebrand their message and oppose US hegemony.
As Bragg points out, the Bush administration is carrying out attacks on the working class at home as well as internationally.
Indeed, Bragg finishes his set with his modernised Internationale.
A great short and bitter set.

Comfort food

Full of Life by John Fante.

by David Watt

Both invasions are now over. I refuse to use "war" for what happened to Iraq, and Whitehall's foothold here is just a modern invasion, sponsored by its Scottish lackeys (again).
In the latter case, we're in for more years of the same old crap, though they'll have a tougher time slinging it at us this round, with so many more SSP, Green and independent MSPs.
So after all the election rah-de-dah, here's a brief remedy to settle down with for a couple of days, something much more life affirming than another Lab-Lib coalition.
Of all the books I've ever recommended, John Fante's Full of Life has been appreciated most - across tastes in reading, political perspective, age, gender, race or class.
It is a tale of the human heart, narrated by the son of an Abruzzian bricklayer, a writer and his pregnant wife starting a new life in Los Angeles, though neither really gets away from the past.
As with Fante's other books, among them Brotherhood of the Grape and the Bandini books, Full of Life has an abiding class awareness and expresses the claustrophobia of entering the narrow wedge between the haves and the have-nots.
It's also full of Fante's wry humour, told in a spare style that reads quickly and easily.
Take a little time for yourself to re-energise, have a laugh and a tear.
This is comfort food for the soul.
And another recommendation: instead of supporting corporate publishers who'd rather print a 19th book of rubbish by a known hack than give some new writer a chance, go to www.abe.com.
Also, buy from small, independent booksellers in this internet consortium which offers countless affordable used copies, available at your fingertips.

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page ten

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page eleven

international news

Road map to nowhere

Colm Breathnach, who went to Palestine last year as part of the Intenational Solidarity Movement, reports on the prospects for peace in the Middle East
This so-called peace plan is a cruel joke on the Palestinian people. All the responsibility for ending the violence is dumped on them.
As a 'reward' the Israelis will then return to the situation as it was in 2001 by pulling out of larger Palestinian towns and lifting travel restrictions.
Most of the illegal Israeli settlements will remain, with only those built since 2001 to be dismantled.
There will be no sanctions on Israel if it fails to implement its side of the agreement or halt its constant attacks on Palestinian civilians.
And guess who's going to police the process? Yes, Israel's best friend the United States.
The Road Map is dangerously short on detail, with no proposals on the borders of the future Palestinian state or on the question of Palestinian refugees.
On that key issue, the Israeli Foreign Minister has already made it clear that there will be no progress until the Palestinians abandon their 'demand' for the right to return of refugees.
While Bush talks peace, the Israeli state continues to wage its war of terror on innocent Palestinian civilians.
Last week 13 people were killed in one raid on Gaza alone. Life remains unbearable, with most Palestinians under constant curfew and prevented from travelling even short distances.
Fearful that their crimes may be witnessed, the Israeli army has also begun to target international peace activists.
They have falsely tried to link the International Solidarity Movement, which works closely with Palestinian groups committed to non-violent resistance, with a British born suicide bomber and may use this as an excuse to deport all foreigners from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
As part of this 'peace process' the West has imposed a new government on the Palestinians.
The new Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, has himself been accused of corruption in the past and his Junior Security Minister, Dahlan, has a reputation for savage repression and is seen by most Palestinians as a stooge of the CIA.
What Israel and the US really want is not democracy but puppets to do their dirty work for them.
Only one plan can bring peace to the region; the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli Forces from the Occupied Territories and the establishment of a fully independent Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.
That will not be imposed from above but achieved by the mass resistance of the Palestinian people with the solidarity of ordinary people throughout the world.

US pressure grows on Castro's Cuba

by Nick McKerrell

The international instability caused by the recent carnage in Iraq has had an immediate effect in Cuba.
There has been a crack-down on dissidents by the regime in Havana and an increase in provocative actions by the Bush administration bolstered by events in the Middle East.
The leading US diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, has taken a much more hands on approach under Bush.
He heads an organisation with the shady name of the United States Interest Section (USIS). He has held regular critical press conferences and organised meetings of opponents of Castro's regime.
One previous holder of this post, Wayne Smith, has stated in the New York Times that Cason's acts were part of "Bush's blundering tactics" and designed to provoke Castro to act.
It certainly has done that - 78 people have been arrested and were tried in early April receiving lengthy sentences.
The arrested include journalists, poets and leaders of small trade unions. The American state claims they may intensify its blockade of Cuba as a result of the arrests.
However the Cuban government has produced extensive evidence that the dissidents were receiving funds to the tune of $20 million from the US government - a crime under the Cuban Criminal Code. This was delivered through the auspices of the USIS.
With the actions in Iraq the Cuban regime believe that Cason and US imperialism are deliberately trying to destabilise the regime.
On the May Day demo in Havana, Castro was clear, saying: "A strong campaign of destabilisation against a Latin American nation has been unleashed."
There are other examples of this American strategy. In 1994 an agreement was reached between the US and Cuba that America would allow 20,000 Cubans to emigrate to America every year.
In the last six months, however, America has only granted 505 emigration visas which seems designed to provoke a crisis within Cuba.
Although the Bush administration has been to the forefront of promoting 'human rights' in Cuba they offer no such protection in their own borders.
Five Cubans - the Miami Five - have been imprisoned on spying charges. They were put in solitary confinement and prevented from contacting their families.
Demonstrations of hundreds of thousands in their support have been held in Cuba.
Their crime was infiltrating the anti-Castro hard right groups based in Miami.
These groups used to be closely monitored by the FBI as well. In fact the Cuban government shared information on these groups with them.
There is no evidence that they sent any secret information about America to Cuba, their only concern was the actions of the anti-Castro groups.

Building Evian on Earth

by Sarah Peart

The next stop for anti-corporate protesters across Europe is in Evian where the next G8 summit will be held from May 29 to June 1, 2003.
The G8 has faced angry protesters wherever it has met and with the war on Iraq in its wake, this year will be no exception.
Activists are in the process of making the final plans for a range of actions, protests and counter summits that provide clear opposition to the corporate and military domination of the planet.
The G8 comprises the world's largest industrialised powers: the US, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Russia and Italy.
The official G8 summit will discuss issues of trade, Third World debt, the environment and conflict resolution.

Promises
The summit is likely to include promises to cancel a little of the Third World's debt to the rich countries and to reduce the limitations on the entry of Third World products into rich countries.
Few protesters, however, believe that anything will be changed in any major way.
At the G8 Cologne summit in June 1999, debt relief of up to 90 per cent was announced for some of the poorest countries.
One year later at the Okinawa summit, the Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt calculated that only about US$2.5 billion worth of debt was cancelled.
That's just 1.2 per cent of the poorest countries' debts and 0.12 per cent of total Third World debt.
The G8 countries hold almost half the votes on the boards of both the IMF and World Bank and could easily enforce 100 per cent debt cancellation on them.
But to do so would weaken the two institutions' role as the enforcers of corporate globalisation in the poor world.
Join the 'Summit for Another World' protests in Evian.
n Coaches will be leaving from Scotland to Evian on Friday May 31 in the morning, returning on Monday June 2 to arrive back in Scotland on Tuesday June 3. Tickets cost £70.
Contact Sarah for more details: 07961 583 042

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page twelve

voice at work

Firefighters square up

by Richie Venton,
SSP Workplace Organiser

Firefighters are squaring up for renewed strike action in the face of growing stubbornness from the government.
The FBU leadership succeeded in convincing two thirds of the recent recall conference delegates to accept the recommendations of Professor Burchill, the so-called independent chair of the joint negotiating body.
But members' meetings at station level are, quite rightly, rejecting this as a shoddy deal that would come nowhere near the FBU's justified pay claim and would still not prevent cuts or station closures. Furthermore, they recognise that the employers are not prepared to accept Burchill's proposals, and indeed that the government now looks set to rush through legislation to impose a deal.
Strike action may be called on May 15 and deserves the full-blooded support of every trade unionist.
New Labour has just suffered a drubbing in elections right across Britain, which leaves them with no mandate to assault live-savers like firefighters and control staff.
The votes for firefighter candidates and the SSP - and the eviction of Richard Simpson as Ochil MSP after his notorious description of FBU members as "fascist bastards" - all show the popular support for the firefighters' cause.
What they need now is a leadership with the resolve to see through the strike action without further endless cancellations and retreat. The government no longer have the excuse of war on Iraq as cover for their brutal class war at home.

Storms brew in Scottish Water

by a UNISON member in Scottish Water

Scottish Water (SW) employees have been experiencing turbulent times over the last year.
Already 1300 jobs have been lost to voluntary redundancy although the work load hasn't decreased.
The announcement of an additional 1400 redundancies over the next two years means the workforce will be reduced by more than half.
This has come just after the formation of SW's new partnership venture with two large consortiums from the private sector.
The changes in Scotland's water industry is being dictated by the Scottish Executive and the WIC (Water Industry Commissioner).
Water tax payers are already paying a heavy penalty for the costly PFI projects which SW has indulged in.
Now the they will pay rising water charges to subsidise the profits which go straight into share holders' pockets. It is the continuation of backdoor privatisation of Scotland's water.
When profit is top of the agenda there is the danger that health and seafety will suffer.
A year ago the four unions which represent SW employees (UNISON, T&G, GMB and AEEU) entered into a partnership agreement with management.
Management have used this Scottish Water Council to bulldoze ahead their own agenda.
As well as job losses and laboratory closures, the Scottish Water Council has overseen depot closures, centralisation of workplaces, and the continuing restructuring of the workforce.
Employees are disenfranchised, demoralised and unsure of their future in SW.
Only one side has benefited from this partnership, and it is not the deflated workforce.
It is time for the unions to bin this partnership deal and start the real fight back against water privatisation, workplace closures and job losses.

TUC delegates clash over war

by Phil McGonigle

The TENth anniversary of the TUC Black Workers Conference saw delegates clash with committee members over their weak stance over the war on Iraq.
In Liverpool, 400 delegates gathered to discuss a wide range of motions of concern to the black and ethnic minority communities including racist attacks, employment quotas and racist reporting in the media concerning asylum seekers.
But it was the war that generated most heat.
An emergency motion welcoming the fall of Saddam while criticising the war was ruled out of order.
This allowed the TUC Race Relations Committee to put out, what was seen by some delegates, to be a "weak political statement" on behalf of the conference.
It failed to criticise the government for going against TUC policy of getting a second UN Resolution and didn't mention the fact that weapons of mass destruction have not been found. A committee proposal to debate the statement, without any right of amendment, was challenged by SSP member Graham Campbell of RMT - with support from the FBU - in order to voice these grievances.
But this was narrowly defeated in a vote notable for the confusion that caused most delegates not to vote at all.
The RMT stance led to criticism by one NASUWT delegate who asked "Is the RMT running the show now?" "We may not be running the show," came the reply "but we are driving the train!"
Other concerns included the struggle of black members to get a real say in decision making, with most delegates being elected by the whole membership - black and white.
So although there has been some success in gaining official and leadership positions, there is still no solid base at rank and file level to ensure real inclusion at decision making levels for black members.

Transport union elections

by Richie Venton

SSP members in the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) are supporting Tony Woodley for general secretary of the Transport and General workers Union (TGWU).
He is the current deputy general secretary and is the former convener in the Vauxhall car plant on Merseyside.
He is also the most pro-democracy and left candidate of the four standing.
At a campaign meeting last week Tony hit on some of the issues he is fighting on.
"The TGWU, like the Labour Party, has been taken over by people who are corrupt.
"Without agreement anywhere in the union the outgoing deputy general secretary was given a £30,000 a golden handshake.
"A culture has developed of a union that is not fighting for its members. How many times do you hear members saying 'why are we being asked to re-ballot?'

Angry
"I am fundamentally against social partnership and concession bargaining.
"The Labour government has done next to nothing for working people.
"The minimum wage is a poverty wage and £19 billion in pension surplus has been stolen by the employers.
"Every month 25,000 jobs disappear. Companies should be penalised so that they can't just walk away.
"We need to repeal anti-union laws and give workers rights from day one.
"I'm not a loony leftie, I'm just a frustrated, angry ex-convener who has not lost his roots."
A victory for Tony would be a breath of fresh air in a union stultified by dead-handed bureaucracy.
If you can, help to leaflet workplaces in order to defeat the Blairites and take another step towards a fighting union.