Colin Fox MSP addresses 1500 demonstrators in Edinburgh calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq and of Palestine. The rally was addressed by Iraqi and Palestinian speakers, author A.L. Kennedy as well as Green and SSP representatives.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Anti-war protest in the capital

Protesters have gathered outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh to demand the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

About 1,500 people attended the rally which was organised by the Scottish Coalition for Justice not War.

The demonstration was part of a campaign to indict Tony Blair for taking Britain to war in Iraq without a United Nations mandate.

Police said the event was largely incident-free, although three men were arrested for hanging a banner from scaffolding in Princes Street.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Independence 'convention' call: "Mr Sheridan told the meeting of about 60 activists: 'Our country isn't going to sleepwalk towards independence.

'Our country is going to have to be inspired.

'There is going to have to be a vision for the type of independent Scotland we have in our hearts and our heads.

'And we are going to have to march our citizens proudly towards the vision of a small nation that becomes a beacon of social justice across the world.' "

SSP members picketed the Irish Consulate in Edinburgh and handed in protest petitions calling for the freeing of Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and councillor Clare Daly who have been jailed as part of the ongoing bin-tax campaign.

Edinburgh Evening News - Top Stories - Parties urged: unite for go-it-alone fight A NEW cross-party campaign was launched today in an ambitious attempt to build a consensus for Scottish independence.

Organisers of the Independence Convention want the SNP, Scottish Socialists, Greens and others to work together to draw up detailed plans for a go-it-alone Scotland.

And SSP leader Tommy Sheridan claimed there was already close to a majority in favour of independence.

The convention was being launched at a fringe meeting at the Scottish Nationalists’ annual conference in Inverness, addressed by Mr Sheridan, leading SNP backbencher Alex Neil, pensioners MSP John Swinburne and actor-director David Hayman.

There were messages of support from Labour’s John McAllion and former Clydeside communist Jimmy Reid.

And organisers have also lined up support from figures outside politics, including actors Elaine C Smith and Peter Mullan. The convention aims to capitalise on the fact that, despite heavy SNP losses in the May elections, there are now three parties - plus independents - in the Scottish Parliament who believe in a separate Scotland.

Mr Sheridan said: "I’m very enthusiastic about the prospect of a wide-ranging campaign, united to promote the principle of independence that cuts across party lines. I think there is close to, if not already, a majority of Scots who would support independence. Among some sections, particularly the young, it is an overwhelming majority." Edinburgh Evening News

BBC NEWS | Scotland | SNP levies elected members SNP levies elected members
The Scottish National Party has told its elected politicians to donate £250 a month to the party.

The levy, passed at the party's annual conference in Inverness today, came after it emerged that one third of its MPs, MSPs and MEPs give nothing to the party.

The conference heard that last year, Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan personally donated more cash to his party than all the SNP parliamentarians collectively donated to theirs.

However the new levy, which was backed by party leader John Swinney, was criticised by local party members who said that they now stand to see little or none of the proceeds.

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 26/09/03

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane today welcomed the news that the Scottish Executive planned to introduce 20 MPH zones around schools but called on the zones to be made mandatory.
Rosie, who was knocked down by a car as a child, also wants the 20 MPH zones introduced around play parks and built up areas around motorway exits.
Rosie believes that lives would be saved and accidents reduced if the zones were made mandatory by a law passed in the Scottish Parliament.
Rosie said;
“Introducing mandatory 20 MPH zones would have an immediate impact on children, mothers with prams and buggies and on older people who feel frightened and intimidated when they are faced with busy roads and speeding traffic.”

CONFERENCE OF WORKERS AND TRADE UNIONISTS Papers from the SSP Workers and Trade Unionists Conference are now available on the SSP website.

Scottish Parliament - Official Report Tommy Sheridan calls for the end of the Council Tax and it's replacement with a service tax, based on ability to pay, during First Ministers Questions.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | 'Convention' call to SNP: " A leading figure in the Scottish National Party has called for it to consider joining a 'convention' of pro-independence parties.

The idea is being floated publicly at a fringe meeting of the SNP conference in Inverness on Friday.

The Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan will be among those arguing in favour of the move.

Prominent SNP MSP Alex Neil said there were now three parties at Holyrood with a policy of independence of Scotland."

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Bill seeks to axe council tax: "Bill seeks to axe council tax

A plan to scrap the council tax has been lodged at Holyrood by Scottish Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan.

The SSP leader has put forward a member's bill in the Scottish Parliament proposing to replace the council tax with an income-based alternative.

Earlier this week, Liberal Democrats voted to axe the council tax at their UK conference in Brighton, but the party in Scotland did not make abolition a condition of its coalition deal with Labour in May.

The Scottish Executive has only committed itself to a review of how councils are funded.

'Pensioner's purse'

During First Minister's Questions on Thursday, Mr Sheridan called on Jack McConnell to scrap the council tax.

He highlighted the UK Lib Dem's campaign to replace it with a local income tax of up to 3%.

The current system was 'hammering' the elderly who face rises much larger than increases in their pension, Mr Sheridan said.

He said that five out of Holyrood's seven political parties now wanted to abolish the council tax.

Mr Sheridan told the first minister: 'It's about time that you supported a system based on personal income, that instead of continuing to plunder the pensioner's purse, we started to fleece the fat-cat wallet.' "

Plea to women MSPs

FEMALE Labour MSPs were today told they should back nursery nurses in their fight for more pay.
Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie called on them to back the staff over their re-grading claim.
In a Members' Debate in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Leckie tabled a motion demanding councils made an offer that met nurses'"modest and legitimate" demands.
The MSP said: "This is an obvious case of a gender pay gap where work traditionally done by women is being undervalued. They are entitled to an even greater rise than what they are asking for and I would hope Labour women politicians, in particular, would publicly support this claim."
The motion has cross-party support, but only one Labour MSP, Elaine Smith of Coatbridge and Chryston, has signed it.
A fully qualified nursery nurse with eight years' experience receives a maximum of13,800.
Their union, Unison, has rejected an18,000 offer and says it wants a pay scale of £18,000 to £21,000. Glasgow Evening Times

Rebel LibDems back Sheridan on tax abolition

TWO rebel Liberal Democrat MSPs and three independents last night gave unexpected force to a Scottish Parliament back-bench bill from Tommy Sheridan to abolish the council tax.
Mr Sheridan, leader of the Scottish Socialists, surprised Holyrood by effectively gaining the minimum backing necessary for forcing the parliament to consider his proposed law replacing the council tax with a tax "based on personal income".
His Council Tax Abolition (Scotland) Bill must now be placed in the parliamentary pipeline and, if considered constitutionally valid by George Reid, the presiding officer, will be sent for consideration to the appropriate committees, probably those considering local government and finance.
Abolition of the council tax and its replacement with a local income tax is SSP and LibDem policy. The SNP also wants the council tax abolished, but has so far no policy on what would replace it.
If the bill gathers more support, particularly from Labour left-wingers, it could provoke a plausible challenge to the Labour-LibDem coalition's six-vote majority.
John Farquhar Munro, the individualist LibDem MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, and Donald Gorrie, another LibDem parliamentary free spirit, both signed Mr Sheridan's bill along with John Swinburne, the pensioners' list MSP from Central Scotland; Margo MacDonald, the Lothians independent; and Jean Turner, the hospitals campaigner from Strathkelvin and Bearsden.
To make headway in Holyrood, a member's bill must attract 11 signatures plus that of the sponsor. Apart from the two LibDems and three independents, all five of Mr Sheridan's SSP parliamentary colleagues will support it, and Mr Sheridan said he also had support from other MSPs, including some Nationalists.
His move comes after the LibDems in Brighton this week voted to scrap the council tax after an outcry in England about its soaring cost, particularly to pensioners and those on low incomes.
The SSP campaigned during the Scottish Parliament elections for the tax to be scrapped and replaced by a "service" tax, which was widely interpreted as a local income tax.
Labour claimed income tax excepting the basic rate was a power reserved to Westminster and that the SSP plan was therefore a non-starter.
The SSP leader said: "The unfair Tory council tax is now on the scrapheap. It hammers the pensioners and lower paid workers in Scotland, but pampers the rich and wealthy. It has been called the 'pensioner tax' because of its disproportionate effect on pensioner incomes.
"We in the SSP want a Scottish-wide service tax applied progressively to redistribute income and generate more money for local authorities. The Liberals and SNP are also opposed to the council tax. My bill will allow it to be abolished."
Mr Sheridan will challenge Jack McConnell on the council tax at question time today. The Herald

In Ireland Joe Higgins TD and councillor Clare Daly have both been jailed for a month each for opposing the unjust "bin tax".

There will be a protest outside the Irish Consulate in Edinburgh on Friday at 2 pm. 16 Randolph Crescent. Please try to attend.

More info on Indymedia Ireland

SNP conference: Battle to keep healthy membership rolls

TOMMY Sheridan taunted the SNP leadership last night, urging dissident nationalists to defect to his Scottish Socialist Party if they wanted to do more than just "swop flags and anthems". The SSP leader will join Alex Neil, the SNP MSP, at a meeting on Friday on the fringe of the party conference in Inverness to speak in favour of the proposed independence convention, based on the constitutional convention which led to home rule.

Mr Swinney is to snub the meeting and will press on with his own plan for a referendum bill. Mr Sheridan told Nationalists critical of Mr Swinney: "If you want to be part of a radical, left-wing, pro-independence party, join the SSP." He said he was opening the SSP's door to those wanting to go farther than "just swopping flags and anthems", and taunted Mr Swinney, claiming: "The SNP no longer has exclusive ownership of the cause of independence. And on its own, the SNP cannot achieve independence." The Herald

SNP obsession with backroom politicking Herald Letters

Letter to The Scotsman

The SNP’s route map to independence involves seeking to become the biggest single party at Holyrood, establishing a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, then, three years into that government, holding an independence referendum.

Such a strategy is fraught with pitfalls. Even if everything else goes to plan, the SNP’s "pre-legislative referendum" would not take place until 2010, at the earliest. This would then be followed by several years of negotiation with Westminster, presumably followed by a further referendum on the final deal.

The SNP should be working with pro-independence parties and individuals in an independence convention. This could work out a detailed constitution for an independent Scotland. If there was a pro-independence majority at the next Holyrood election, or in the next Westminster election, the plan could be put before the people in a referendum.

As a road map to independence, this would be a fast, broad highway, in contrast to the SNP’s slow, tortuous de-tour along country lanes and byways, some of which may prove to be impassable.

ALAN McCOMBES
National policy co-ordinator, SSP

The Scottish Parliament: Nursery Nurses Dispute

With the dispute on Nursery Nurses pay and grading still unresolved after 18 months, Central Scotland MSP Carolyn Leckie will lead a members' business debate in Parliament on the dispute on Wednesday, 24 September.

Click on the link above to participate in an online debate at the Scottish Parliament website.

Carolyn Leckie's Motion

"Nursery Nurses
That the Parliament sends solidarity greetings and best wishes to all Scotland's nursery nurses and UNISON in advance of their gala day on Saturday 13 September 2003; supports their grading claim in full, and considers that COSLA should make an offer that meets the modest and legitimate demands of the nursery nurses."

Supported by: Colin Fox, Ms Rosemary Byrne, Frances Curran, Stewart Stevenson, Tommy Sheridan, Rosie Kane, Tricia Marwick, Chris Ballance, Ms Sandra White, Mr Adam Ingram, Shiona Baird, Christine Grahame, John Swinburne, Elaine Smith, Fiona Hyslop (List correct at 22 September 2003)

Taking a bite out of city's poor diet

MALNUTRITION is a problem many people associate with the developing world and pictures seen only on the television news.

But now visual images are being used to highlight the effect poverty is having on diets here in Scotland, where children are malnourished, not because they do not have enough food, but because what they are eating is bad for their health.

A photography project in Edinburgh’s Wester Hailes has highlighted the problems families on low income face when the choice of produce, and shopping opportunities are limited.

It is estimated that 40 per cent of people admitted to hospital in the UK are malnourished, and in Scotland around a quarter of people live in low-income households, higher than the UK average.

There are an estimated 18,500 lone parent families in Lothian alone, with a meagre average income of £204 a week, leaving few choices when it comes to the weekly food shopping.

But why are people on low incomes tending to eat junk food such as chips and pizzas rather than fresh food and vegetables?

"People on low incomes do not have the same access to healthy food as those who earn more," explains Danny Philips, head of Child Poverty Action Scotland.
So how do we solve this massive problem? Philips is a strong believer in providing free school meals for all children in Scotland, which would go a long way to redressing the balance. He is part of the campaign to encourage the Scottish Executive to introduce this policy...

"It is our duty to provide children with a good diet, just as we provide them with an education," he says. "If they are given a healthy meal in the middle of the day at school then they will get many of the daily nutritional elements that they need. Also, they are more likely to tell their parents that they enjoy certain healthy foods and the risk factor is reduced, meaning parents can buy these foods knowing their children will eat them. Children will then grow up knowing what it is to eat a healthy, balanced diet.

"But, ultimately, we have to educate people about healthy eating and also increase their income so they can afford to buy these foods. Only then will we be able to truly tackle food poverty head on." Edinburgh Evening News

Anger at plans to expand Dungavel

THE Home Office has spent months secretly planning the expansion of Dungavel detention centre amid nationwide calls for its closure, it was confirmed yesterday.

Rosie Kane, the Scottish Socialist list MSP for Glasgow, said: "The Home Office have been playing Jack McConnell for a fool. While 80% of Scots want Dungavel closed, the Home Office have been planning all through the summer to expand it. It looks to us as though Westminster doesn't want Scotland's powers so much devolved as dissolved.
"Surely now the first minister, who has been coming on the hard man all week in relation to Scotland's justice system, has to stand up to the little Englanders who run the Home Office and who are determined to run a detention camp on Scottish soil that the people and elected representatives of the Scottish Parliament have no control over."

...Ms Kane flies to Dublin today to assist a socialist member of the Irish parliament who supported the case of Mercy Ikolo, who was detained in Dungavel and allowed into the MSP's care pending a Home Office decision on her future.
Joe Higgins was jailed after protesting about taxation and taking up the case of Ms Ikolo and her daughter, who was born in Ireland. "With Joe now in the jail for taking a principled stand, I need to raise Mercy's voice in the Dail," Ms Kane said. The Herald

Sunday Herald: Swinney attacked on all sides in leadership race
"The leader’s tactic is to present an alternative to a proposed cross-party convention of those supporting independence, holding its first meeting at a conference fringe event next Friday. This is being pushed by the left-wing and fundamentalist part of the SNP, including former leadership candidate Alex Neil and former leader Willie Wolfe. It will have at its inaugural meeting Tommy Sheridan of the Scottish Socialist Party, senior citizen MSP John Swinburne, plus former shipyard union leader Jimmy Reid and actor/director David Hayman."

ic Wales - Creators of Labour Party poised to sever all connections: "Mr Crow told delegates he was keen to forge closer ties with Welsh and Scottish nationalists, the Scottish Socialist Party and any Labour MP still supporting the RMT's calls to re-nationalise the railway network." Western Mail

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 21/09/03

Scottish Socialist Party National Convenor Tommy Sheridan MSP today pledged support to a group of 300 pensioners in Devon and Cornwall who are refusing to pay the Council Tax because they cannot afford recent above inflation increases.
Sheridan said;
“The Scottish Socialist Party fully supports the courageous pensioners of Devon and Cornwall who have been forced to take a stand against the completely unjust Council Tax.
“We have long said that the Council Tax is a pensioner tax and must be scrapped.
“Here we have some of the most vulnerable people in society forced to take a stand that may result in some of them going to jail.
“The Scottish Socialist Party has been campaigning to have the Council Tax scrapped and replaced with a Service Tax based on ability to pay.
“We will be getting in touch with these brave pensioners and offering our full support and explaining our proposals for an alternative to the iniquitous Council Tax”

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 21/09/03

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane will fly to Dublin on Monday on a double mission in relation to the jailed Socialist Party member of the Irish parliament Joe Higgins and the former Dungavel detainee Mercy Ikolo.
Higgins, who has been jailed along with a Socialist Party councillor in relation to protests against a tax on household refuse, had taken up the case of Mercy Ikolo and her daughter the former Dungavel detainees who have been living with Rosie Kane since being released on bail.
Percie Ikolo was born in Ireland.
Rosie said;
“Joe Higgins had taken up Mercy’s case but now that he has been jailed for standing up against a tax that hits the poor, I’m going over to Dublin to take solidarity messages from the Socialists in the Scottish Parliament to our comrades in Ireland.
With Joe now in the jail for taking a principled stand, I need to raise Mercy’s voice in the Dáil.
“As a white woman with a passport I have the freedom to travel and protest that Mercy Ikolo does not have.”

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 21/09/03

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane today hit out at reports that Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre is to be expanded.
She said;
“The Home Office have been playing Jack McConnell for a fool.
“While 80% of Scots want Dungavel closed, the Home Office have been planning all through the summer to expand it.
“It looks to us as though Westminster doesn’t want Scotland’s powers so much devolved as dissolved.
“Surely now the First Minister, who has been coming on the hard man all week in relation to Scotland’s justice system, has to stand up to the Little Englanders who run the Home Office and who are determined to run a detention camp on Scottish soil that the people and elected representatives of the Scottish Parliament have no control over.”