SHERIDAN TO JOIN HUMAN CHAIN AROUND ALEXANDER BAIN HOUSE

12.45 -1.15 P.M. - MONDAY 14 APRIL
ALEXANDER BAIN HOUSE, YORK STREET BROOMIELAW, GLASGOW

Tommy Sheridan will join CWU workers staging a lunchtime protest around BT's flagship call centre in Glasgow. Several hundred workers are expected to take part in a human chain, devised to symbolise their opposition to UK jobs being out-sourced to India.

Their issue is not with the Indian workers, but with a British company which chooses to relocate to an area where labour is cheap, the average worker earning less than a fifth of his/her British counterpart.

Already Directory Enquiries and Reminder Calling (to replace reminder billing) have been relocated to call centres in Bangalore and New Delhi. Jobs relating to Broadband services, BT's biggest potential new market, are currently being created in India and the CWU feels that these jobs could and should have been created in the UK. The switch to the subcontinent could cost up to 12,000 UK jobs, a move which will particularly devastate Glasgow, where over 10,000 people are employed in the call centre industry.

Tommy Sheridan says,

"This isn't just about one small group of workers - the drive for ever lower costs at the expense of human beings will affect all service industry employees. Be assured that where BT ventures, other companies will follow and the slow drip of jobs to ever cheaper labour pools will turn into a flood.

I'm proud to take part in this protest and to see ordinary working men and women standing up for themselves, shoulder to shoulder. The sooner we return telecommunications to public ownership, the better for both customers and employees."
[ends]
Notes to editors:
Tommy Sheridan: 07887 795 075
Billy Muir (CWU): 07850 77 36 36

SHERIDAN CALLS FOR BOOST TO HEALTH WORKERS' PAY

Scottish Socialist Convenor Tommy Sheridan was campaigning on the hustings at the UNISON Health Conference in the Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow today.

He highlighted some of the key health policies of the SSP (see Health excerpt from SSP Manifesto, pp. 17-19). In particular he underlined the SSP’s policy to pay all NHS staff a minimum wage of £7.32 an hour and introduce a 35-hour-week for all health workers, give nurses a 13% pay rise and restore wages for student nurses to combat the 1-in-4 drop out rate and encourage badly-needed recruitment of new nursing staff.

Tommy Sheridan said,

“Last year MSPs voted themselves a 13% pay rise to £48,000. If that’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for health workers who do far more valuable jobs than MSPs. We will cancel all private contracts within the health service and will return all staff to direct NHS employment on NHS wages and conditions.”
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518/07713 063647

SCOTTISH SOCIALISTS LAUNCH SERVICE TAX AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANIFESTO

PRESS CONFERENCE

MONDAY 14 APRIL AT 11.30 A.M.

GLASGOW FILM THEATRE
ROSE STREET, GLASGOW


On Monday 14 April the Scottish Socialist Party will announce further details of their plans to scrap the council tax and replace it with the Scottish Service Tax.

They will also announce their candidates for the local council elections in Scotland. The SSP plans to field a record number of candidates for local council elections this year, challenging New Labour in its heartlands.

The SSP already has several councillors and looks forward to winning a significant number of seats when we have proportional representation for local government elections.
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518/07713 063647

Musical start to SSP campaign for Sheridan

Angus Calder, the writer, said people would question the cost of plans such as doubling the arts budget.

"I put it to you," he said, "double two peanuts is four peanuts." Mr Calder also argued that the cost of providing every school child with a free and healthy meal was cheaper in the long run than not doing so.

Defending subsidised art, he said the real recipient of aid was Gordon Brown, the chancellor, who took 17.5% of the cost of every theatre, cinema and performance ticket sold in the UK.

Mr Mullan described the arts today in Scotland as almost a third-world industry. Mr

Sheridan said Scotland spent ?12 per head of population on the arts compared with ?60 in Finland and ?57 in Sweden. The Herald

SHERIDAN RESPONDS TO McCONNELL'S RANTINGS - RECYCLED LIES FROM SCOTLAND'S FIRST HYPOCRITE

Tommy Sheridan, Convenor or the Scottish Socialist Party today responded to the leader of the New Labour Party in Scotland, Jack McConnell in the following terms. He said,

“Mr McConnell is very weak on recycling waste, but very strong on recycling lies. His ranting and raving against me and the SSP is designed to deflect attention from his shameful, whole-hearted support for the illegal bombing of Iraq and the consequent loss of thousands of innocent Iraqi children’s lives. McConnell told the Scottish Parliament that Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to Scotland and Britain. He was wrong. He had lined up with Tony Blair and George Bush’s right wing administration who want to dominate our world and are willing to spill tons of innocent blood to get their hands on billions of barrels of oil.”

Tommy Sheridan further said,

“Mr McConnell has become Scotland’s First Hypocrite. He appealed for a clean election campaign and has proceeded to throw insults, lies and distortion at the Scottish Socialist Party. A vote for McConnell’s New Labour Party is a vote for illegal wars, nuclear weapons and kow-towing to George Bush and American global domination in the face of shameful pensioner and child poverty in Scotland.”
[ENDS]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075

SSP BUDGET RESPONSE:
TINKERING ON THE MARGINS, NO SOLUTIONS TO POVERTY

The Scottish Socialist Party today condemned Gordon Brown’s budget as merely tinkering on the margins and failing to address the real issues of poverty and inequality in our society.

Alan McCombes, SSP election co-ordinator said,

“Gordon Brown boasts about economic growth in Britain, but my question is where has it all gone? The numbers in poverty in Scotland have gone up to 23%, one third of children in Scotland and 25% of our pensioners live in poverty. None of his measures today will alter that.

The SSP say that our pensioners should get a basic state pension of £150 a week. We also need a £7.32 an hour minimum wage to end poverty wages plus a big uprating of Social Security rates. Students should have the full grant reinstated. Promising the poor baby bonds for 20 years ahead will not solve the problems of poverty today.

To address the root causes of poverty in our society, we need to bring about a fundamental redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. Our policies would be a start on that road and would immediately raise the disposable income of the poor, the elderly, single parents and students.”
[ENDS]For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518

ARTISTS FOR SOCIALISM
Press Conference

ARTISTS FOR SOCIALISM

GLASGOW FILM THEATRE

THURSDAY 10 APRIL, 11.30 A.M.

POLITICS – POETRY - MUSIC


The Scottish Socialist Party will be launching its policy for sport, entertainment and culture at a press conference in the Glasgow Film Theatre tomorrow. It will be hosted and endorsed by a group of leading Scottish writers, actors, artists, film-makers and musicians.

Present at the Press Conference will be Peter Mullan, award-winning actor and director, Gary Lewis, star of “Billy Elliot” and “Gangs of New York”; Alasdair Gray, one of Scotland’s leading writers plus Peter Arnott, playwright, Elaine C Smith, actress and comedienne; Edward McGuire, composer and musician; Kokumo Rocks, performance poet and Angus Calder, writer and many more.

Gary Lewis said,

“The middle ground of politics has become very congested and it is only the Scottish Socialist Party which will break the deadlock and call for the redistribution of wealth which is the solution to so many of Scotland’s problems. The SSP will fight for a better life for ordinary working class people rather than capitulate to the privileged few.”
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518

SSP Manifesto for the Highlands and Islands - 2003

Socialism - Not just an urban solution. Now available on the SSP website, the SSP Manifesto for the Highlands and Islands.

Sheridan puts oil factor back on the agenda

TOMMY Sheridan yesterday delved into political history to resurrect the SNP's famous "It's Scotland's Oil" slogan for the Scottish election campaign.

The 1970s oil boom in Scotland became a potent electoral weapon for the Nationalists after they invented the slogan now being recycled by the Scottish Socialists.

He said the SSP wanted a return to the days when the people owned 51% of the North Sea through the former British National Oil Corporation, which was later privatised.

"Scotland's oil should be back now on the political agenda," Mr Sheridan said.

"About £13bn a year of revenue is generated by North Sea oil and, instead of being funnelled into the pockets of the fat cats in the oil companies, it should be used for improving public services in Scotland." The Herald

Election 2003

You can now see photographs, including full size images, of most of our list and constituency candidates for the elections. Click on the link below.

SSP Candidates for the Scottish Parliament 2003

It's all so black and white

"Andrew Wilson, currently economic spokesman and one of the Nationalists' best-known politicians, has a chance in Cumbernauld and Kilsyth of replacing Cathy Craigie. But in doing so he may make way for the SSP's Carolyn Leckie, the Unison official from East Kilbride who is top of her party's list in Central Scotland.

Duncan Hamilton, Mr Wilson's sidekick, would be hard pressed to describe Ms Leckie as drab and boring. Indeed, the prospect of more SSP MSPs brings with it the probability of some forceful women.

Frances Curran, heading the SSP list in the West of Scotland, is a former member of Labour's Scottish executive and NEC, a confident and capable politician."

The Herald

SSP LAUNCHES ENERGY POLICY TUES 08 APRIL

PRESS CALL

TUESDAY 8TH APRIL AT 11.30 A.M.

SCOTIA BAR, GLASGOW


The Scottish Socialist Party will tomorrow launch its policy for Scotland’s energy. It will highlight a new report by Glasgow University lecturer, Andy Cumbers called “Remaking the case for public ownership: A critical review of privatisation and a proposal for democratic control of Scotland’s energy resources”.

Tommy Sheridan, National Convenor of the SSP will talk about how this could transform the problems of poverty and public services across Scotland.

He said,
“Every day, wealthy shareholders plunder £30 million from North Sea oil profits, while the five million people of Scotland receive just 5% of that sum, £1.5 million. In a democratic socialist Scotland, the £13 billion annual revenues from North Sea oil would be used to transform Scotland’s public services and lift out of poverty hundreds of thousands of low paid workers, pensioners, lone parents and students.”
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518

SSP ATTACKS LABOUR MANIFESTO

The Scottish Socialist Party today attacked Labour’s manifesto for the Scottish Parliament.

Tommy Sheridan, National Convenor of the SSP said,

“They admit that too many Scots are living in poverty, yet they have been in power for six years and Westminster and four years at Holyrood. Their manifesto promises no measures to tackle poverty and at the end of the next four years, there will still be too many people living in poverty. Their big new idea is to imprison parents who fail to control their teenage children, but this is a nonsensical idea which will fool no one.

Labour have stolen the Tories’ economic policies and now they’re trying to steal their clothes on law and order. Scottish voters should treat them with the contempt they deserve on 1st May”.
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518

SSP Manifesto 2003

A PDF version of the manifesto is now available.



SSP Manifesto PDF Version (59 pages/1.3 mb)

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Interview: Tough talk from the rebel without a pause

Jackie Ashley meets Tommy Sheridan, Scottish Socialist party leader

"For anyone who remembers marching in the seventies, even the banners and socialist stars bring back memories - never mind the brave talk of independent socialist republics, class struggle and promises to "tax the fat cats". This is as old left as political language gets. So how come it is also the language of a young, new party that expects to win seats in the next election?

The answer is that they are Scottish parliamentary seats, not Westminster ones. So far the Scottish Socialist party has a single MSP, the handsome, perma-tanned and beetle-browed former poll tax rebel Tommy Sheridan. After May 1 he expects to be joined by up to eight colleagues, making the SSP the only real socialist party with significant representation anywhere in Britain. The possibility of it holding the balance of power is not outlandish."

Monday April 7, 2003
The Guardian

Sunday Herald - Sheridan hailed as successor to Bevan


"Philip Hobsbaum, Professor Emeritus at Glasgow university, is to join the Scottish Socialist Party after annointing Tommy Sheridan the 'true successor' to Aneurin Bevan."

Sunday Herald - Voters and party faithful distrust the SNP leader

"Asked which leader voters trust most, McConnell came top, though only on 19%. The Liberal Democrats' Jim Wallace was at 13%, Tommy Sheridan of the Scottish Socialist Party was on 12%, with Swinney on only 9% and the Conservative David McLetchie on 8%."