POSTIES IN BITTER STRUGGLE TO SAVE OUR POSTAL SERVICE

PARENTS TAKE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO SAVE SCHOOLS

 

Glasgow City Council voted to close 22 out of 25 primaries and nurseries despite widespread opposition among the public and non-Labour politicians - and it’s not over yet as another 34 closures are on the cards.

More from the Sunday Herald here.

 

The Labour Council claim they want the closures in order to transfer the kids to better quality buildings (from list C and D to list A and B.) This has been proven to be false as some of the schools earmarked for closure are of a higher grade than the ones they want to transfer the pupils to.

The fact of the matter is that they want fewer classes in fewer buildings in order to reduce running costs and cut the numbers of school staff. This means larger classes, heavier workload for staff and poorer quality education for children. It has been proven that kids do better when their class sizes are smaller, so forcing them to join classes in other schools, thereby doubling the class sizes, is bound to harm the education of both the incoming children and the ones already at the new school.

Many public buildings such as former schools, once knocked down or vacated have been turned into luxury flats for non-local house-buyers so that the council can make money from developers who in turn cream off a huge profit while robbing the local community of its much-needed facilities.

Many of the schools that the council voted to close are in the Maryhill area which has already seen the loss of several schools over the last few years. Parents are naturally angry at this and have been campaigning in the local communities with “Save Our Skools” banners to be seen around the areas. The SSP is in full support of the parents and against the destruction of local communities which is what the school closures will lead to if they go ahead.  SSP’s Richie Venton along with the parents and supporters from Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign have organised protests against the closures. Demonstrations have taken place in Glasgow’s George Square and in Drumchapel and Maryhill. Campaigners have created online petitions and have participated in various stunts including balloon launches and visiting the City Chambers dressed as clowns. Click here for various photos from throughout the SOS campaign including balloon launch

Parents have also taken to occupying school buildings including rooftop protests in an attempt to save them. Despite the council’s decision to close the twenty-two schools on 23rd April, parents are vowing to fight on. “We shall not be moved” has become a familiar chant among the campaigners and they plan to obstruct the closures if they cannot have the closures reversed. On Mon 27 Apr there were protests forming rings around the threatened schools. Short video of hands round schools protest.

June 2009: Parents reoccupied Wyndford Primary School for 2 and a half weeks after a legal challenge concerning the council’s sham consultation fell through. They physically obstructed council vehicles trying to remove materials from the schools. The council turned the water off in their efforts to force the parents to leave the school but campaigners supported them with donations of bottled water and the parents held a water festival in the school grounds with inflatable paddling pools etc. Now the reoccupation of the building is over but they have vowed to fight on. Read more here

Parents vowed to campaign against Labour in the next elections in return for the contempt that the Labour Council has shown them, and campaign they did. They stood outside polling stations asking people not to vote Labour. It’s ironic that the very schools that Labour wants to close were used as polling stations. As one parent said: “The school buildings are good enough when it comes to them being used as polling stations.” It is a scandal that Labour want to save money by closing schools while they waste much more in expenses for luxuries and things that normal people have to pay out of their own wages. Two of them spoke at the SSP European election rally. Speeches here and here.

Richie Venton has written to all 129 MSPs and the First Minister seeking the support of the Scottish government in opposing the closures. The Glasgow council’s vote to close schools contradict the Scottish parliament’s stated intention to cut class sizes.

Read more here

On 14th May Richie and a large group of parents went to lobby the Scottish parliament. More about the lobby including photos and and links to videos.

This year’s Glasgow May Day march was attended by SOS protestors.

The May Day speaking platform is traditionally dominated by Labour but they are out of touch with the workers they claim to represent. They have slashed jobs, cut pensions, cut services. SOS campaigners let Labour know exactly what they think.

On 23rd April there was a blockade of the council meeting in the City Chambers but despite this the council voted to close 22 out of 25 schools and it has emerged that a further 34 schools are earmarked for closure.

Parents from Our Lady of the Assumption and Victoria primaries began an occupation of their children’s schools on Monday 20th April. At Our Lady of the Assumption (OLA), Bilsland Drive, Ruchill, parents occupied the school roof for several days until the results from the council meeting. They slept on the windy roof in all weathers with just a couple of tents between them. Passers-by and motorists waved and tooted their support from the main road. Those capable of scaling the locked school gate and climbing a ladder visited the parents in person with donations of food etc or simply to chat to them to help boost their morale and relieve the monotony of waiting. View video of rooftop protest. View photos of Our Lady of the Assumption rooftop protest

The parents marched out of the two schools on April 18th with continued defiance, and gave speeches showing their determination to continue the fight to save their schools.

On 17th April a Glasgow demonstration and lobby of the City Council executive took place. Parents spoke out about how moving small children to far-off schools will affect them. Watch video clip of one of the speeches

A local demonstration against the council’s proposed school closures also took place on 9th April which marched round the Wyndford area with much local support. Videos: part 1, part 2, part 3.

On Friday 3rd April 2009 Maryhill parents responded to Glasgow City Council’s threat to close 25 schools and nurseries by occupying two of the schools earmarked for closure St Gregory’s and Wyndford primaries. They marked the beginning of the Easter holidays by entering and occupying the schools for 15 days starting at the end of the last day of term’s lessons. The Wyndford nursery has already been threatened with closure in the past and was saved by vigorous campaigning. As one local resident said: “If the schools close, it will have a knock-on effect on the few remaining facilities and the small shop will likely go too and the Wyndford will become a ghetto.” Two groups of parents, one of which contained at least 17 people, locked themselves in the school buildings using chains and a crowd of supporters steadily grew outside. There was a large police presence who threatened to bodily remove the parents if they did not come out by 6pm. 6pm came and went and the police were still standing there. Other parents, friends, relatives and well-wishers used innovative means to get provisions inside, passing food, soft drinks, sleeping bags, a portable DVD player and DVDs through the windows. One window was too high up to reach and a hooked pole was used to catch a sleeping bag being passed up. Read more and view photos of the Wyndford & St Gregory’s occupations.

 

 

 

 

                                          GREEDY BANKERS CAUSE RECESSION,

                                                UNEMPLOYMENT AND MISERY

 

 

 

The ongoing greed of the capitalist speculators has artificially inflated the value of shares and houses for years and now the bloated, get-rich-quick bubble has burst and the fake value that was put on shares and houses has taken a dive, causing great losses for people who bought them when they were overvalued and even bigger losses for society and the world as a whole as firms go bust due to shares plummeting causing escalating unemployment as well as money not being able to buy as much with soaring prices of essentials and basics like food and fuel. Numbers of genuine jobseekers are soaring just at a time when the government is hammering people on benefits. People made redundant because of the current recession will have to suffer the double injustice of not only losing their jobs, their salaries and maybe their house, but also the bad attitudes and treatment at the hands of the welfare system. The government bails out the biggest banks with gifts of billions of pounds and takes from the poorest and most vulnerable to pay for it e.g. the genuine sick who are being forced off benefits after being put through intimidating interrogations.

 

Instead of cutting essential public services and throwing good money after bad by bailing out banks, governments across the world should be nationalising the banks they have practically already bought anyway with their bail-out packages instead of letting bankers continue to pay themselves obscenely high salaries and bonuses and retirement packages while continuing to let the bank go down the plug-hole for the ordinary customers.

 

The SSP believes that a 10% tax on the super-rich would be a fairer way of generating the income that is needed to supply jobs, housing and services, given that it was the super-rich who got us into this mess in the first place with their reckless gambling. For more information click here:

http://scottishsocialistparty.co.uk/makegreedhistory/?page_id=137

 

Read the SSP’s financial expert Raphie de Santos here

For years Royal Mail bosses have been cutting more and more jobs in the postal service resulting in increased workloads for postal workers and a poorer service to the public.

Despite the extra workload there has been no extra pay for the workers – this in spite of record profits for the company in the middle of a recession. Two years ago a national strike forced the bosses to the negotiating table and the Pay and Modernization Agreement was set up. Any change was supposed to be introduced by agreement but in practice the exact opposite has been the case. New conditions involving even higher job losses and increased workloads have been imposed using intimidation, threats of disciplinary action and workers taken off pay. There has been no pay rise and the Final Salary Pension Scheme has been abolished. Despite the record profits there is also a record pension fund deficit: why? - because the government who are the sole shareholders allowed Royal Mail bosses to pay nothing into it for 13 years. But the bosses continue to pay themselves huge bonuses. Adam Crozier is the highest paid public sector boss and in the space of a year his “earnings” have jumped between two and three times to more than £3 million last year. He has been overseeing the breakdown of the postal service including the closure of thousands of post offices and the abolition of one of the two daily household deliveries and is preparing for the sell-off of the most profitable parts of the service and has been ruthless in his determination to smash the CWU Communication Workers’ Union as part of this process.

Read more here by Richie Venton

November 2009: Royal Mail bosses have recently persuaded union officials to cancel a 2-day national strike by implying they are willing to negotiate but they haven’t given any concrete promises. What they really want is a truce over Christmas, the busy period, when a national strike would have the most effect. Once they are by the peak season when they make the most of their profits it will be easier for RM bosses to weather any future strikes and make no concessions and further intensify their brutal cuts. More here

The Scottish Socialist Party is a party that campaigns for fairness, peace and justice and against poverty, exploitation and inequality. The meetings of the Maryhill local branch are held once a fortnight, and consist of discussion to organise activity and we also have speakers and debate on various topics. We hold stalls in the local area with petitions to campaign on various issues such as free school meals and transport. We support workers in struggle who have included firefighters, nursery nurses, care workers and postal workers and we campaign to save public services. We have campaigned against against post office closures and against school closures.

 

We are against profit-driven wars that victimize innocent civilians and damage the environment, waste young people’s lives and cost the economy a fortune which would be better spent on health, housing, education, transport and other public services. We are for an independent socialist Scotland where Scotland’s resources would be spent on bettering living conditions for the majority and not squandered on needless wars or subsidies to capitalistic companies which frequently take millions of pounds in grants to create jobs then switch to countries with cheaper labour leaving Scots jobless.

 

Our campaigning both on the streets and in the Scottish Parliament on issues like free prescriptions and the abolition of the Council Tax has helped raise awareness about the injustice to low-paid workers and pensioners, and although most MSPs have voted down SSP bills when we first raised these issues, the SNP since they replaced the Labour leadership in the Scottish parliament have promised to introduce a watered-down version of the SSP’s abolition of the council tax bill i.e to replace it with a local income tax instead of our proposed Scottish-wide income tax. This would still be better than the existing council tax - but now the SNP are saying they are ditching the plan as a result of the new Labour Westminster government’s threats to penalise them financially if they go ahead. There is one solution to that: go for full independence and let Scotland control our full finances. We call upon the SNP-led Scottish parliament to have the guts to stand up to New Labour in Westminster, implement the abolition of the Council Tax in favour of a fairer income tax, let Westminster carry out their threats, then implement independence and take Scottish income tax money back into Scotland where it belongs. It may be difficult but not impossible to break Westminster’s stranglehold. We need to elect people to the Scottish parliament who have the will and the guts to do this, namely the SSP.

 

Our branch campaigns on various issues in the Maryhill constituency area and in the Maryhill/Kelvin and Canal wards as well as joining with Scottish Socialists in other parts of Glasgow and Scotland for Glasgow- and Scottish-wide events and activities.  The constituency area is wide and includes Summerston and areas adjacent to Maryhill Road down through Burgh Hall area, Wyndford, North Kelvinside, Ruchill, Possil, Milton, Firhill, Woodlands. The wards include the Dawsholm and Kelvindale areas. Our most frequent stalls are held at Tesco, Maryhill Shopping Centre and Lidl, Firhill or St George’s X underground. We also work with other local activists in the community in encouraging local residents to stand up for themselves and know their rights regarding things like housing and services. More information about stalls and other activities can be obtained from our branch meetings or by contacting our mobile no. listed below.

 

If you are angry about poverty, ill-health, low pay and lack of facilities, don’t be a silent victim! It doesn’t matter whether you are a student, a pensioner, a worker, disabled or unwaged: whether it’s through letter-writing, e-mailing or campaigning on the streets, you have a voice and the power to change things. We in the SSP firmly believe this and will keep on fighting for what is right.

If you are interested in getting involved in campaigning against injustice and for a fairer society you are welcome to attend one of our meetings or join in the activity at the stall.

For more information about the party

or on how to join or get involved, contact

ssp.glasgow@btconnect.com

Suite 308/310, 4th floor,

Central Chambers,

93 Hope St,

Glasgow

G2 6LD

Phone: 0141 221 7470

Direct phone number for Maryhill branch:

07981 305362

    

For other information visit:

 http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org

Free fares to tackle poverty, pollution and ill health

 

Free public transport would go a long way towards alleviating poverty and pollution. Traffic congestion caused by too many cars causes not only excess pollution and contributes to the destruction of the planet but increases childhood asthma, taxes the immune system and contributes to other diseases, but also causes more accidents, stress, road rage, violence and deaths. The high cost of fares currently makes work prohibitive or difficult for low-waged and part-time workers. Private bus companies are there to make a profit which means that certain routes are not well-served for buses, resulting in people being trapped in their homes or forced to buy a car which they can ill-afford. Pensioners, while they are already eligible for free transport cannot use it when there isn't a bus service in their area! Socializing with friends or going to clubs is very important for the elderly as they can easily become isolated. If they can't get a bus at all or the service is so poor that they would need to wait 2 hours for a bus, it effectively prohibits them from social contact. Expensive bus fares also prohibit many families from taking their kids out for the day or sending them to classes to learn and practise their hobbies. Some Scottish children have never been to the seaside despite living on an island! Free fares would not only help workers but would increase culture and tourism. Most low-incomed families have seen very little of their own country due to lack of affordable transport. When you add transport costs to accommodation costs, some of the most beautiful sights in Scotland are out of the reach of ordinary people. The cost to the government of free transport would be more than offset by the savings to the NHS through a reduction in road accidents, pollution, stress and poverty-related illnesses, the increased revenue from tourism and participation in culture, hobbies, music, cinema etc, an increase in job uptake, more spending power for low-paid workers not to mention the non-material benefits of better health and happiness from being able to participate fully in life.

For more information visit http://www.freepublictransport.org/

Video on free public transport

In the run-up to the European parliamentary elections the BBC gave Britain’s most racist party an hour’s free publicity with a phone-in on TV, while as usual, any publicity on progressive parties is blanked. One of the SSP’s Euro candidates Dr Nick McKerrell from Glasgow launched a formal complaint into how a blatantly racist organisation like the BNP can be promoted by a government-backed channel like the BBC. By allowing people to phone in with racist comments it could legitimize them and incite more race hatred. Read more:

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/BBC-phonein-incites-race-hate.5298324.jp

 

October 2009: Now it seems that the BBC is further legitimizing the racist organization by inviting its leader Nick Griffin onto Question Time. Although he was made to feel most unwelcome by most of those who spoke or heckled, this could actually serve to win him sympathy from some quarters. It would have been better not to allow him to appear on the program at all. His French counterpart Jean-Marie le Pen has enjoyed an increase in support since being given a platform by the French media for the first time in the 80’s. It is especially dangerous during a recession heading for a depression to give these people a platform as similar conditions allowed the Nazis to rise in power in Germany in the 30’s.  We should take a lesson from history and not allow the same thing to happen in Britain in the 21st century.

 

14 Nov 2009 Emboldened by all the media attention given to their partners in crime the BNP, the fascist “Scottish Defence League” have been planning racist activity around mosques but they did not succeed in Glasgow where there were demonstrations and rallies against the racist thugs. 20 Feb 2010 The fascists also failed to march in Edinburgh.

Parents and children with "Save the heart of our community" banner in the grounds between Wyndford and St Gregory's primary schools.

MARYHILL  SSP

Red star on yellow background

EVENTS:

 

JOIN THE SSP HERE:

MEMBERSHIP RATES

 

Main party website

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rail workers have begun 1 day strikes because public safety is being threatened by staff cuts on a new line. Read more here by Richie Venton.

RMT website

RMT leaflet

Photos of picket

 

 

6 March EIS demonstration

“Why should our kids pay?” 10:30am

Kelvingrove Park

 

 

AFGHANISTAN

On 22 Feb the SSP held a public meeting in Glasgow on the illegal occupation of Afganistan. There were speakers from the Scottish Afghan society and Military Families Against War as well as SSP co-spokesperson Colin Fox. It was noted that the biggest army recruiting has being going on in the poorest areas where people are desperate for any job. Photos here.

 

ANTI-RACISM

On the 28th Nov the STUC held their annual anti-racist march. They also launched an official BDS (boycott, disinvestment and sanctions) campaign of apartheid Israel on 9 Dec. Prior to that they printed Palestinian flag posters to distribute to Celtic fans at a match against an Israeli team. They also hope to persuade organisations like the Football Association to have an official sporting boycott. Sports and cultural boycotts helped in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. SSP members took part in all events. The SSP condemns racism, apartheid and genocide wherever it occurs. Photos of STUC antiracist demo.

WEE RED BOOKSHOP

137 London Rd, Glasgow

Open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays

 

NAE TAE G20

The financial leaders of the twenty richest countries met for closed door meetings in St Andrew’s on the 6th & 7th November 2009

Protests took place over their visit.

Photos of the events here

Why we demonstrate against the summit of the leaders of the richest countries:

Article and photos from the anti-G8 march at Gleneagles in 2005.

 

WAR FOR OIL:

Photos of Glasgow 5th anniversary march against the war in Iraq

 

Click to read SSP newspaper the Scottish Socialist Voice

Other news links

Locations of visitors to this page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more links you click, the more the page will turn red!

Welcome to Maryhill Scottish Socialist Party branch website!

There have been mass demonstrations against Johnny Walker owner Diageo’s plans to lay off 700 workers in Kilmarnock and 140 in Glasgow despite making billions in profit per year over the last decade. Read more here

Photos by Rikki Reid

On the picket line: Richie Venton (above) and Kevin McVey (below) give support to striking postal workers

Thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in what is a crime against humanity.

 

In December 2008 and January 2009 attacks were stepped up against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

 

White phosphorous which is an internationally banned substance has been used by the Israeli soldiers. International criticism of Israel’s war crimes has resulted in a UN building being bombed as well. The Palestinians have been continuously driven out of their homes or bombed while still in them and Israeli forces have been continually surrounding any new gained territory and have built a thick iron wall around what little territory remains for the Palestinians in what is now known as the biggest prison on earth. The Palestinians have been left with little land suitable for farming and no means of getting in or out to trade and are literally starving to death while until recently pleas to let humanitarian aid in have been ignored by Israel.

 

The SSP held a successful public meeting in early 2009 on the crisis in Glasgow and we resolved to campaign for a boycott against all products and ambassadors from Israel. Boycotting products from South Africa assisted in bringing apartheid to an end. The boycott also brought encouragement to the South African people knowing that people around the world cared which prevented them from completely despairing in a very difficult situation. Please aid the Palestinians by asking your local supermarket to stop stocking Israeli goods. The Scottish Palestinian Solidarity campaign has organised weekly pickets outside Waitrose in Byres Rd on Saturdays from 1-3pm. Waitrose not only imports Israeli goods but produce that has been grown on Palestinian land illegally occupied by Zionist settlers. The STUC launched an official BDS campaign - Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions in Dec 2009. They held a public meeting on Dec 9th, and a week before that they and others distributed leaflets and posters of Palestinian flags at Celtic Park where a match was being held between Celtic and an Israeli team. Most fans accepted the posters and some brought their own large flags. One employee of the football management tried to stop the leafletters as seen in this video.

 

It has emerged that not only are the Palestinians being denied a proper homeland in the Middle East but are being killed in a slow genocide as Israel which has control over the Palestinian water supply has added high levels of nitrates to their water causing a new blood disorder and breathing disorders in the newborn. In Israel T-shirts with pictures of Palestinian women with targets on their pregnant bellies accompanied by slogans like “one bullet two dead” are popular. On Dec 31st 2009 a worldwide attended demonstration in Gaza was planned but Egypt, an ally of the US and Israel wouldn’t let a convoy of demonstrators through. Eventually they did but obviously this will have affected the time, resources and stamina of the demonstrators some of whom may have had to catch a return flight or return to work by a certain date. London-based Scots politician George Galloway, known for his interest in the Middle East has been deported from Egypt.

Zionism - Israel’s holocaust in Gaza

Read Allan Armstrong on the five campaigners facing “racially aggravated breach of the peace” charges.

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign: http://spsc.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php

 

MARCH FOR JOBS IN GLASGOW’S SPRINGBURN

 

On Saturday 7th November 2009 people took to the streets to demand jobs.

Youth unemployment is soaring thanks to the recession caused by greedy bankers gambling the country’s money. Super-rich investors have become billionaires by doing no work other than to artificially inflate the value of shares and houses, then sell them on quickly before the value plummeted, causing businesses to collapse and ordinary people to lose their jobs and their houses. Our economy is in a mess thanks to their greed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Services have been cut, schools have been closed, community and advice centres have been closed, the postal service is gradually being sold off with many job losses. Loss of services and loss of jobs go hand-in-hand, a double blow for already impoverished communities. A whole generation of youth will never work and all generations will suffer from the lack of services unless the government gets its act together. Video of march for jobs More photos here.

 

Kevin McVey, the SSP’s candidate for the recent Glasgow North East by-election, who led the march said: “scrap Trident and implement a one-off greed tax of 10% for every millionaire and not only would you pay off our public debt but you’d have billions to create jobs, building much needed housing and improving public services.” Video of Kevin speaking at rally

 

The north-east of Glasgow has suffered its share of school closures and parents who campaigned long and hard against the closures vowed to punish New Labour at future elections since they are no longer representative of the ordinary people. Primary kids now have to walk past an asbestos disposal site (the largest in Europe) with a construction site giving off chemicals on the other side of the road. Click here for a short video of one parent’s speech concerning the asbestos issue.

Striking postal workers picketing to save their jobs and your postal service.

SSP's Kevin McVey and Scottish Socialist Youth lead a demonstration for jobs past tenements and flats in Springburn bearing a banner reading  "Scottish Socialist Party. NOT ANOTHER WASTED GENERATION!" Some of the placards read "Jobs for youth!" and "Jobs not dole". Smoke from a whisky distillery chimney can be seen in the background, a reminder that hundreds of distillery workers are facing redundancy from the Johnnny Walker distillery despite owner Diageo's billions of profits each year.

Glasgow has some of the worst poverty-stricken areas in Britain. Springburn already suffers high unemployment, poverty, poor health and short life-expectancy, and the recession is exacerbating those conditions.

Photo: J Lanigan

 

RACISTS ROUTED ONCE AGAIN!

Anti-fascists gathered and demonstrated in Edinburgh on February 20th to prevent the so-called “Scottish Defence League” from marching and spreading their race hatred. As a result some fascists were turned back at the train stations. Those that made it to a pub were trapped in there surrounded by anti-fascists and police and were eventually ejected one by one onto a bus. An anti-racist rally also took place during the day. Read the Scottish Socialist Youth’s report on the day’s events. Photos of events. Videos of antifascist march: part 1, part 2. A rally speech urged students to register to vote to ensure fascists do not get elected in forthcoming elections.

Right: antifascists fill Edinburgh streets on 20th Feb 2010

Bottom right: SSP banner declares “No pasaran!” “They shall not pass” referring to fascists.

Bottom left: on 14th Nov 2009 fascists frustrated at not being allowed to march in Glasgow argue with police.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three months earlier on 14th November antifascists also prevented the racist SDL from marching on a Glasgow mosque. Thousands of people marched in Glasgow to condemn and prevent them from organising racist activity in the city. Scotland United Against Racism and Fascism held a rally and organised a march from Glasgow Green in the early afternoon and the SSP and other anti-fascists organised a feeder march in the morning to join up with the main rally where there were numerous speakers from both small organisations and main parties, all condemning the racist and fascist SDL. The morning march started from Glasgow’s St Enoch underground and marched up as far as the Thistle Hotel in Cambridge St where large police cordons were lined up. The fascists were in the Cambridge Bar and the side streets were blocked off by police. Demonstrators waited a long time then some continued on to Glasgow Green for the rally while others stayed to keep an eye on the situation. After a time the police allowed the neo-Nazis out but tightly surrounded them. The cordons which had been blocking access to the street had relaxed and let people through as the huge numbers of police outnumbered the neo-Nazis and easily kept them away from the anti-fascists. The SDL waved a couple of banners and chanted a couple of songs, still surrounded by police, while anti-Nazis shouted back at the fascists but the fascists were very limited in what they could do. Thanks to the antifascist presence the police did not let the racists anywhere near the mosque as they did not want any trouble, but herded them onto chartered buses to send them away. A great victory against racism and fascism! Meanwhile, as the fascist thugs left, the anti-racist rally at Glasgow Green was finishing and anti-racists who had gone to the Green for the rally began to march back to the centre of Glasgow. Photos of Glasgow anti-fascist march here.

Main march video. Video of feeder march and SDL thugs surrounded by police

Nazis outside Fazzi's. Police encircle would-be SDL marchers outside Fazzi's delicatessen restaurant not far from where they had been drinking in the Cambridge Bar in Cambridge St, Glasgow and don't allow them to march on Glasgow mosque. In this photo some of the racists are arguing with the police. One racist's eyebrows are contorted with rage and the other's bottom lip hangs sulkily.

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o aid peole in finding our site in the event of typographical errors , the following keyword misspellings/typos or phrases including misspelled words havebeen included: Glasgoe Maryhi;; Scottiash socialaim, partyt equaltiy globalisatino politica; antiglobalisatuon, justive profteering cmapignging Sprinburn Envirmomentalisn  cooncil tax healthvcare prsewcriptions countires racsm fascit

Above photos by R Reid

 

BIG BROTHER

How would you like to pay to be spied on? That’s what the government is planning to introduce.

Read more here

 

 

On the 16th Nov, the SSP held a public meeting in Glasgow against racism and fascism. The meeting was addressed by several speakers and a lively discussion followed with plenty of ideas from the audience concerning future action. Some spoke of personal experiences of racism and fascism e.g. one of the guest speakers Carolina Perez described how her father had fled Chile in the 70’s during fascist dictator Pinochet’s reign of terror and how, during the Falklands war between Britain and Argentina her family received  a brick through the window as obviously the racists couldn’t tell the difference between Chile and Argentina! Moreover Chilean dictator Pinochet actually aided  right-wing Thatcher during the war. Others spoke of their experiences of being involved in the anti-racist and anti-fascist movement. The general theme of the meeting was “No pasaran!”

 

 

OTHER SSP SITES:

 

Scottish Socialist Youth:

http://www.ssy.org.uk/

 

http://www.

dundeessp.org/blog/

 

http:/www.taycoastssp.

blogspot.com

 

http://aberdeenssp.org/

 

http://sspkirkcaldy.

wordpress.com/

 

http://eastlothianssp.

wordpress.com/

 

http://westlothianssp

blog.blogspot.com/

 

Edinburgh north: http://

edinburghnorthssp.

wordpress.com/

 

Edinburgh south:

http://edinburghssp.

wordpress.com/

 

Co-spokesperson

for the SSP: http://ssp

colinfox.blogspot.com/

 

Euro election candidate 2009 http://drnik68.

blogspot.com

 

Glasgow North East by-election candidate 2009 http://sspglasgow

northeast.blogspot.com/

 

http://ssprenfrewshire.

blogspot.com/

 

http://eastdunbarton

shiressp.blogspot.com/

 

SSP Councillor: http:/

jimbollan.blogspot.com/

 

Financial expert: http://

www.leftbanker.net/

COPENHAGEN 2009 EVENTS   

SSP Members took part in Glasgow’s biggest environmental “Wave” march, one of a series of demos aimed at persuading world leaders at the climate summit in Copenhagen (COP15) to act now to reduce the causes of climate change. Read more and see more pictures here. Videos of demonstration: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 See also the stopclimatechaos.org site.

SOCIALISM 2010 The SSP hosted an international rally which included speakers from Denmark, France, America and Ireland in Maryhill’s Community Central Halls on 5th February and on the following day there was a conference with workshops on various topics such as Marxism in the 21st Century, Latin-American socialism and call for a 5th international, a Scottish Republic, trade unions, women’s equality, capitalism after Lehmans, fascism in Scotland. The talks were very inspiring and the participants enjoyed the workshops.

Photos by J Lanigan here

                                                                                            Photo: P Kirk

Pictured: workshop participants at the Socialism 2010 conference.

Greedy-pig banker with money-bags

                                                              SAVE OUR SERVICES!          

                                               Glasgow City Council have voted for even more savage cuts in services. Read more here by Richie Venton, SSP workplace organiser.

                                                  P Kirk