FBU Demo in Glasgow



Thousands of FBU members were joined by supporters in a march through Glasgow today. The Scottish Socialist Party brought hundreds of supporters to the march and SSP leader Tommy Sheridan addressed the march before it set off. At George Square Scottish FBU leaders pledged that they would remember which politicians had supported them, and which had attacked them. They singled out Tommy Sheridan of the SSP for praise. FBU leader Andy Gilchrist said that the strikes were solid, had public support and that they were fully prepared to continue to fight for fair pay and against the cuts of the Bain report.

More Pictures: 1 2 3 4 5

Edinburgh Evening News - BNP targets striking firefighters in Capital

Colin Fox, Lothians list candidate for the Scottish Socialist Party and a leading campaigner on race issues in the city, said: "The SSP takes the same view as the firefighters on this issue. The best thing to do is throw their poisonous leaflets on to the brazier before you even read them.

"If we ever find out that they are attempting to get a foothold on the picket lines or in the housing schemes of Edinburgh they will soon find out that they are not welcome here.

"There is no place in Edinburgh for their vile brand of racist nonsense." Edinburgh Evening News

MacDonald and independents form anti-war political group

A NEW political group in the Scottish Parliament is likely to be born next week after the expulsion of Margo MacDonald from the SNP.

It will be known, at least until the May elections, as the Anti-War Alliance.

The left-wing group will comprise Holyrood's five "minority" MSPs, enough to be recognised and earn voting rights on the powerful business bureau which sets the parliament's agenda.

A core of five MSPs who form a group have the right to one bureau seat. A source said: "There are now five minorities and it makes obvious sense to group together and increase their voice on the bureau."

Along with Ms MacDonald who will fight the Lothians regional list at the election as an independent, the other four members will be: Tommy Sheridan, leader of the Scottish Socialists; Robin Harper, the Greens; Dennis Canavan, independent MSP for Falkirk West; and Dorothy-Grace Elder, elected on the Glasgow regional list for the SNP but now an independent.

All five MSPs are left-wingers, anti-war, and all believe in Scottish independence. The Herald

The Scotsman - Politics - Sheridan unveils tax proposals

TOMMY Sheridan, the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, outlined his tax proposals during his party’s debating time in the Scottish Parliament yesterday. The Scotsman

BANKRUPT GLASGOW SCHOOLS - SHERIDAN DEMANDS THEY BE TAKEN BACK INTO COUNCIL CONTROL

Scottish Socialist Party MSP and Convenor Tommy Sheridan today demanded that Glasgow schools be taken back from the troubled PPP contractor Amey, which has put them up for sale.

Tommy Sheridan said,

“Now we see the real face of PPP. Far from taking out the financial risk for the public sector, private finance has put Glasgow schools at risk of being traded like a commodity for sale. The only answer is that Glasgow City Council should take the schools back into public ownership and at no compensation to shareholders. It is obscene that our schools should be bought and sold like companies on the stock market. Glasgow Council and the Scottish Executive must end this nonsense.”

For more information, contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 0131 348 5631/07713 063647

GLASWEGIANS STAND TO GAIN MOST FROM SSP SERVICE TAX PROPOSAL

The Scottish Service Tax proposal to abolish the unfair council tax and replace it with a fairer and more progressive income-based system would benefit Glaswegians more than any other part of Scotland.

Detailed analysis of the Service Tax proposal reveals that 77% of Scottish households would benefit from the Scottish Service Tax. However, within Glasgow 85% would be better off. The reason Glaswegians benefit so much from the Service Tax is the combination of low pay and high council tax which haunts the city.

Tommy Sheridan, Scottish Socialist Party MSP and Convenor, said today,
”The Scottish Service Tax proposal is a major anti-poverty initiative. By scrapping the unfair council tax and replacing it with a Service Tax based on personal income, we effect a wealth transfusion in Scotland from the wealthy and the millionaires to the pensioners and low paid. A massive 77% of households across Scotland benefit from the Service Tax, but Glaswegians benefit the most. 85% of Glasgow’s households would pay less under our system and therefore have more disposable income available for food, clothes and other important expenditure.

The Scottish Service Tax is not only fairer than the council tax, but easier to collect, more transparent and generates more income for local government jobs and services. The wealthiest 16% of Scots would pay more but they can afford it and have benefited from two decades of tax cuts for the rich introduced by Thatcher, Major and Blair. It’s time they paid their share.”

The Scottish Service Tax proposal will be fully debated tomorrow at 11 a.m.

For more information, contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 0131 348 5631/07713 063647

SHERIDAN SLAMS EXECUTIVE JOBS STRATEGY AS TOTAL FAILURE
- INWARD INVESTMENT PLUMMETS BY 91% IN LAST FIVE YEARS

Tommy Sheridan, Scottish Socialist Party MSP and National Convenor, today slammed the Scottish Executive’s job and inward investment strategy as a “complete failure”.

Citing detailed statistics from the Scottish Parliament Information and Research Centre, Sheridan highlighted the massive 91% drop in inward investment to Scotland from £3.1 billion in 1996-1997 to only £271 million in 2001-2002. The number of jobs created by inward investment also plummeted from a 1999 high of 19,334 to only 6,386 in 2001-2002.

Tommy said,
“These figures prove the Executive policy of selling Scottish workers as cheap labour to international capital to entice investment is now failing miserably as new centres of cheap labour become available across Eastern Europe. There has been a 91% fall in inward investment over the last five years and the number of jobs created has also plummeted and they are invariably insecure. By offering Scotland as a cheap labour option to the multinational sharks, the Executive has created huge insecurity and exposed us to disinvestment as these companies relocate to other countries with even cheaper labour. Investment in Scotland must be based on attracting secure, well-paid employment and urgent legislation is required to make it more difficult for foreign companies to abandon Scotland and leave despair and debt in their wake to haunt the abandoned communities.”

For more information, contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 0131 348 5631/07713 063647

SHERIDAN DEMANDS NO SCOTTISH SURRENDER TO PRESCOTT



Scottish Socialist Party MSP and Convenor Tommy Sheridan today demanded the Scottish Executive stand up to John Prescott’s Mussolini type tactics on the firefighters’ strike.

He said,
“It is clear that New Labour is pushing Labour in Scotland to follow his bully boy tactics and impose a settlement on the firefighters. This will lead to the cutting of firefighters’ jobs, fire stations and fire cover. New Labour will put Scottish lives at risk in order to crush the FBU.

I shall be challenging Jim Wallace today and Jack McConnell tomorrow that they must stand up to New Labour. If they don’t, then it is not just firefighters who will remember this, but all trade unionists and Labour voters at the coming election. Richard Simpson MSP famously accused the firefighters of being fascist. We now know who the real fascists are.”

For more information, contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 0131 348 5631/07713 063647

SSP SLAMS NEW LABOUR MUSSOLINI-STYLE UNION BUSTERS

The Scottish Socialist Party today condemned Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott’s statement that he will force a settlement on the firefighters and impose a new national pay and conditions package on the FBU.

SSP Industrial Organiser Richie Venton said,
“This is a dictatorial attempt by a Labour government to impose a settlement as part of its plans to cut the number of firefighters, fire stations and fire cover. It is a major threat to public safety and a dramatic attack on trade union rights. The whole trade union movement should resist this and I urge all trade unionists to turn out on Saturday 1 February at 12 noon in Blythswood Square, Glasgow to the STUC rally where Tommy Sheridan and Andy Gilchrist will be speaking.”

Tommy Sheridan, SSP MSP and National Convenor said,
“This is a disgraceful attack on trade union rights and Scotland must resist it. The fire service is a matter for the Scottish Parliament and I will today be placing a motion in the Parliament and a question to Jack McConnell demanding he refuses to implement this dictatorial settlement in Scotland. The SSP will continue to give full support to the FBU on the picket lines and we hope that people across Scotland will support them.”

He added,
“This highly provocative action is more akin to Mussolini’s Italy than to a democratic country.”

MOTION: That the Parliament condemns the dictatorial attempt by the Deputy Prime Minister to impose a new national settlement on the firefighters; believes that this is a prelude to cutting the numbers of firefighters, firestations and firecover and is a threat to the people of Scotland and the UK as a whole; and demands that the Scottish Executive resists these attempts and continues the normal process of negotiations and agreement with trade unions.

For more information, contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 0131 348 5631 or Richie Venton on 07899 732068

SSP WELCOMES MARGO'S INDEPENDENT STAND

The Scottish Socialist Party today welcomed Margo MacDonald’s intention to stand as an Independent.

Colin Fox, SSP Edinburgh Organiser and No. 1 for the SSP in Edinburgh and the Lothians, said,

"Margo is a good friend of mine and I have great respect for her. We would happily welcome her into the SSP, but I respect her decision to stand as an Independent. I hope to see her sitting next to me as an MSP after the election next May. Her decision to stand as an Independent is a major indictment of the SNP who have become like all the other main parties and offer no real alternative to the status quo. I think the Edinburgh and Lothians electorate will elect both an SSP member and Margo and Robin Harper next May. I look forward to working with her."

Tommy Sheridan, SSP MSP and National Convenor, added:
"The fact that there is no room in the SNP’s Parliamentary team for Margo MacDonald is a sad reflection on how robotic and mainstream the SNP has become. It casts a major doubt on the SNP’s future prospects."
[ends]
For further comment, contact Tommy on 07887 795075, Hugh Kerr on 0131 348 5631 or Colin Fox on 07790 581883

SSP hold anti-war meeting

A PUBLIC meeting in Ayr next Wednesday (January 29) will put the case for Justice Not War in the Middle East.
Organised by the Scottish Socialist Party branch, it takes place in the Citadel at 7.30pm. The Ayrshire Post

YOU'RE A DAMNED DISGRACE, FLOOD VICTIMS TELL COUNCIL

Moray councillors were branded a "damned disgrace" and a "joke" by flood victims at a boisterous meeting in Elgin Town Hall last night. Moray councillors came under fire for failing to turn up to a flood debate by the Scottish Socialist Party last week. But last night 25 of the 26 councillors heard the concerns of the 250 people who made up the angry audience. Press and Journal

PRESS RELEASE from Sighthill United*

PICNIC ON THE PICKET LINE
Sighthill United unity with firefighters!

Join the Picnic-Barbecue Tuesday 28th January 1-3pm Springburn Fire Station Petershill Road, just off Springburn Road, North Glasgow, near Tesco's

PRESS CONFERENCE is at 2pm, with Strathclyde FBU, Sighthill United and North Glasgow Hospitals UNISON branch

Our battle-cry:

* Join the firefighters' fight - they fight for us all!
* SOS - Save our Station!
* Support the FBU!

Besides the usual buffet-barbecue food, Sighthill United in conjunction with asylum seekers from various countries, are preparing and bringing along plates of food from different cultures - an expression of real solidarity.

Local unions, workers and students are also giving support to the picnic. For example, North Glasgow Hospitals UNISON branch have donated 200 pounds just for this event.

Sighthill United consider that what we are doing, uniting our community and other local unions/workers behind our firefighters' just request for decent pay and to save our station from closure - is the type of unity needed with every single fire station.

Stevie Masterson, a Sighthill community organiser, says:

"Blair will not pay firefighters a decent wage, nor pay for proper health and education - but he readily spends billions on a murderous war for US-UK oil companies. The increasingly vicious wave of Labour and media attacks on asylum seekers is to create scapegoats and divide the growing fightback on all fronts. These wars against our workers, asylum seekers and Iraqi people all serve to make the rich richer, and make workers and the poor pay at home and abroad. Our call behind our firefighters must be for "mass civil disobedience" - as several MSPs have called for in the war against Iraqi people. Only by other public sector workers joining in and breaking the anti-union laws en-masse - will Blair be defeated. At our picnic, we will scream, "Enough is enough - fightback time!"

*Sighthill United is the umbrella body for SIghthill community organisations that was born after the murder of asylum seeker Firsat Yildiz, 20 months ago.