Scotsman
Mother of Dead Soldier Banned from Labour Conference
By Joe Quinn, Political editor, Scottish Press Association
The mother of a Scots soldier killed in Iraq was refused access to the Scottish Labour conference, she said today.
Rose Gentle, whose Royal Highland Fusilier son Gordon was killed last year, branded the decision a "disgrace."
She turned up with a fellow campaigner at the hotel where visitors are accredited to seek access to the Dundee conference,
"We said we are applying to get into the Labour conference," she said.
"But they said our campaign was not an organised one and we could not get in.
"I asked if we could speak to someone higher, and the person said no," said Mrs Gentle, from Pollok, Glasgow.
Mrs Gentle, who since her son's death has campaigned against the war, speaking in particular at Scottish Socialist Party events, added: "They should have let me in.
"I wasn't going to cause a scene.
"My son was killed in Iraq and I think it's a disgrace."
She said the refusal had strengthened her resolve. She now planned to lobby delegates as they made their way to the conference.
A Labour spokesman said: "It was a very short conversation.
"One of our people was in the corridor welcoming people as they arrived.
"He asked if they were party members or if they had been invited.
"They said 'We are from families against the war' and he said: 'I'm afraid you won't be accredited.'
"There was no discussion, and they left. I don't think there was any difficulty or confrontation."
Scottish Parliament Debate on G8Below are the opening and closing speeches in the debate. You can read the full debate at the Scottish Parliament website by clicking on the link above.
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): I hope that this debate is as lively as the one that preceded it.
The Scottish Socialist Party looks forward very much to the G8 summit that will be held in Gleneagles in July. In particular, we look forward to welcoming the people who will join us in the protest against the G8, its agenda and its record. Motion S2M-2506 seeks to reaffirm the basic human right to protest, to dissent and to highlight our opposition. That right is in danger of being compromised.
In my opinion, the scare stories and over-zealous police preparations are creating an atmosphere of fortress Gleneagles. I wonder whether they are designed to prime the population for attempts to curtail our right to protest peacefully. In some quarters, the coverage so far has amounted to ridiculous scaremongering. Many commentators paint a crude picture that suggests that those who wish to pursue their democratic right to protest are set on violence rather than peaceful protest.
This morning, Parliament is being asked to reiterate our right to speak out against those whom we do not support. I hope that no member–regardless of their attitude towards the G8–will oppose such a basic democratic right. Such rights are not granted by the powers that be, but are fought for again and again by the people.
On Tuesday evening in the Parliament, the human rights campaigner Professor Alan Miller of the University of Strathclyde said:
"One of the most positive things coming out of the G8 is that it will internationalise civic society."
Those words ring true. Professor Miller has sought repeatedly to put the debate in context by asking the Executive to keep its promise–made a long time ago–to deliver a Scottish human rights commission. He was quick to point out that Scotland has been condemned throughout the world for jailing children at Dungavel and for forcing prisoners to endure the degradation of slopping out.
Just this week, the Home Secretary tried to introduce house arrest–in other words, detention that is ordered by a politician rather than through the judicial process. That is an even worse blot on the landscape than the infamous Diplock courts. At Belmarsh prison in London, there has been detention without charge. We have no right to rest on our laurels. Such repressive practices are visible throughout the G8 countries.
The counter-argument, which is that we do not have an absolute right to assemble, is never put. It is always argued that that right is to be granted only in certain circumstances and under certain conditions. That explains the compromise amendments from Labour and the Conservatives.
Why do hundreds of thousands of people want to protest against the G8? What is so dreadful about its record that makes people want to come from all over Europe to Scotland in July to protest? The group of industrialised countries that we know today as the G8 was established in 1975 by the heads of state of the leading industrialised economies to consider their shared economic and political interests and the international community. The group has consistently controlled the terms of international trade and of relations between the G8 and the developing countries. It sends out diktats on a host of issues including arms control, the information superhighway, crime and human rights. The G8 heavily loads the help that it gives to developing countries with political, economic and military influence.
The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has said that, as the host of the Gleneagles summit, he is entitled to highlight two issues–Africa and climate change. If history is anything to go by, many mighty promises will come out of Gleneagles and, true to form, none will be kept. The G8 has been promising to abolish world poverty, hunger, disease and war since its inception 30 years ago and its record is risible. There are more people living in poverty in Africa than at any time before. Throughout the world, 50,000 people die from tuberculosis every day, even though the cure costs just £10 per patient. There are more enslaved people in the world today than there were in the time of William Wilberforce.
In 2002, the G8 announced the heavily indebted poor countries initiative, the aim of which was to reduce the debts of African countries by $19 billion. At the end of 2002, low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere owed the rich world $523 billion, which is roughly half their gross national income. Each year, low-income countries pay back more in debt to the G8 than they spend on education and health. Let us be clear about the fact that the G8 and its policies are the godfathers of capitalism. Those policies are responsible for the perpetuation of inequality and injustice. People who look to the G8 for a solution to world poverty will be sadly disappointed.
The make poverty history organisation–which I know enjoys widespread support from members of all parties–argues that, above all, the "glaringly unjust world trade system"
is at the root of the problem. That brings us to the debate's key question. What forces will be able to get the G8 to change its ways and to hold it to account?
One of the world's leading dissidents, Professor Noam Chomsky, will visit Edinburgh in the next few weeks to speak on that very subject. He has written that the neo-liberal agenda behind G8 globalisation is creating its own gravediggers in the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement. By failing to deliver on its promises to eradicate poverty and, instead, driving ahead with a nakedly imperialist agenda, the G8 is creating a huge worldwide movement of opposition, especially in the third world and the middle east. The anti-war and anti-capitalist movement is the sign of a desire to force an agenda that is entirely different to that of the G8. That is the phenomenon that we will see on the streets of Edinburgh on 2 July and at the summit in Gleneagles.
We should explain to the people of Scotland the relevance of the G8 agenda to them. The G8 is responsible for the privatisation of our public services, the globalisation of trade, the casualisation of the labour market, the low pay in our economy and the denial of basic human and trade union rights. Lest we think that poverty is found only in the third world, on Monday the United Nations Children's Fund highlighted the fact that 20 per cent of children in the United States of America live in poverty.
The G8 alternatives group is part of a vibrant, healthy movement of opposition to the G8 that is flourishing throughout the world. In Edinburgh in July, there will be a carnival of forums, discussion and debate on the theme that another world is possible and necessary. The view that another world is possible and necessary is held by the vast majority of people, who want a socialised economy–one that is run on the basis of providing benefit for the many in the world rather than for the few. That puts them at odds with the G8. We are the many; it is the few. We want a world in which the world's resources and talents are shared equally among all its peoples. We should divide up the world's wealth and, in the first instance, look after those who are in most need.
I move,
That the Parliament puts on record its support for Article 20 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that "everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association"; notes that the G8 summit will be meeting in Gleneagles in July this year, and resolves to uphold and support the right to peaceful assembly and protest in Scotland, in particular in Edinburgh at the Make Poverty History demonstration and at the summit itself in Gleneagles.
Summing Up for the SSP:
Rosie Kane (Glasgow) (SSP): In July this year, the G8 summit will be held in Scotland. Personally, I am happy about that, not only because the world will get to see how beautiful Scotland is, but because the people of Scotland will be able to show the world what they think of the leaders who make up the G8. The First Minister, Jack McConnell, once described G8 members as "the top table". He was not far wrong. These jokers get to sit at the world's top table and feast, while the rest of the world sits below the table waiting for the crumbs to fall and hoping to receive some sustenance.
At this year's summit, there will be a high profile make poverty history campaign, which we all support. The summit will follow on from the terrible, devastating effects of the south-east Asian tsunami, which has focused the eyes of the world on our so-called leaders. Ordinary people have dug deep to help their sisters and brothers throughout the world. The focus will be on Africa, on civil war, on starvation, on war in Iraq, on weapons of mass destruction, on environmental destruction–[Interruption.]
The Deputy Presiding Officer: Order.
Rosie Kane: Thank you, Presiding Officer.
On all those fronts, the vulnerable on this planet have taken the brunt.
Under such very current pressures, the G8 public relations machine will no doubt tell us how the G8 leaders will deal with those issues. They will claim that the G8 will make poverty history. Many folk out there who want a better, healthier world might want to feel reassured. However, poverty is not a new phenomenon and nor is the G8, so why is our world spiralling deeper and deeper into disaster despite the fact that these geezers have been meeting for years? What have they done for the world so far?
I will tell members what the G8 leaders have done. The socialists are here for today's debate to highlight how some world leaders have acted in tandem with the multinationals. The world has been raped and pillaged of everything, from oil to diamonds, so that those at the top table – and their buddies–can prop another cushion under their gold-plated, fat backsides. Let us not kid ourselves that G8 members are caring and compassionate. The folk who dug deep for the tsunami or who drew attention to, and collected money for, the relief of poverty across the globe are the ones whom we should celebrate.
Let us take a look at who these G8 leaders are. Japan's Koizumi is pro-business and pro-privatisation–[Interruption.] Members on the Tory benches may well cheer. At least they align themselves honestly; this lot on the Executive benches pretend.
Germany's Schröder is for big business and is pro-war. France's Chirac is pro-nuclear weapons, pro-big business, anti-trade union and pro-privatisation. Russia's Putin is pro-war, anti-human rights, anti-free speech and anti-democracy. He presides over hideous and continuing brutality in Chechnya. He is corrupt to the core. Canada's Martin is a multimillionaire tax avoider, union buster, environmental law-breaker, social services cutter, private finance champion–[Interruption.]
The Deputy Presiding Officer: Order.
Rosie Kane: Italy's Berlusconi is a multimillionaire and flogger of public services. He has been under investigation for everything from fraud to corruption and bribery, but has got out of it by changing the law to protect himself. America's Bush is pro-war, pro-big business, anti-environment, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-trade unions, pro-nuclear weapons and pro-death sentence. Britain's Blair is pro-war, pro-big business, anti-environment–[Interruption.] Presiding Officer, do you mind?
Blair is anti-environment, anti-trade union and a liar. [Interruption.] Presiding Officer, I must complain about the decibel levels.
The Deputy Presiding Officer: Order.
Rosie Kane: The whole lot of G8 leaders are out for themselves and out for their pals. It is not in their best interests to eradicate poverty.
They have blood on their hands. They know that, members know that and those who will converge around Gleneagles know that. It bothers me that many politicians and less responsible sections of the media have set their focus on riots and violence. If they want violence, they will find it not in the minds of protesters but in the actions of the G8 and their big-business pals who attack the planet, push people aside and put greed before need. The talk of water cannons, rubber bullets and even ground-to-air missiles is a diversion. A frenzy has been whooped up to divert attention from the real issues. The First Minister should not kid himself or the public that the G8 will end poverty. The G8 is the problem, not the solution.
As a child, when I was fed my dinner at night with my brothers, my mother or father would tell me, "If you don't eat your dinner, you're wasting it, when there are children starving across the world." In my childlike mind, I imagined how I who had enough could send that food to all those children. It turns out that, for every £1 that we send in aid, £3 is owed in debt repayments. Under those circumstances, had I sent my dinner across the world, the child in Africa who received it would have had to put gravy on it, put silver service with it, give me a tip and send it straight back. That is what the G8 has done for us. It was like that then, and it is like that now.
If the G8 is so good, so kind and so righteous, why must it meet behind a security shield? When the G8 leaders say that they will make poverty history, they lie and millions die. As Martin Luther King said, a lie cannot last forever. I hope that the G8 cannot last forever. I hope that protest worldwide will expose the G8 and bring about its downfall, rather than the downfall of the planet.
I ask that members support the motion in my name, support the right to protest and reject the G8.
Scotsman Report
Edinburgh Evening News DEPUTY education minister Euan Robson was today urged to act more like TV chef Jamie Oliver and deliver healthier school meals.
Scottish Socialist MSP Frances Curran said the Executive’s current policy had failed and called on the Scottish Parliament to back free school meals across Scotland.
"As a society we are supporting and condoning stuffing our kids full of over-processed food laden with salt, fat and sugar," she said during a parliamentary debate.
And she urged the Executive to take a lead from Oliver, whose current TV series, Jamie’s School Dinners, has tackled the poor state of food in some schools.
Mr Robson was today visiting Leith Primary School to promote healthy meals, but he rejected the SSP’s call for free meals for pupils.
He said: "Providing free school meals to all pupils will not improve their health if the food itself, as well as the atmosphere in which it is eaten, is not appetising and stimulating."
Tory MSP Brian Monteith said many pupils did not want nutritious meals. He recalled a visit to Leith Academy, where he said the canteen menu included pasta, baked potatoes and broccoli.
"Where were the pupils? They were outside the school. It was the teachers enjoying the broccoli."
But Ms Curran said: "If you accept the argument that kids won’t eat healthy food, then you’re accepting that multinational food companies will slowly poison a generation of Scottish children and that we will be bystanders."
SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit Press Release: 02/03/05Parliament to debate school meals & right to protest at GleneaglesThe Scottish Socialist Party will use its business time in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday to highlight the party's priorities ranging from socialist internationalism around the mobilisation for the G8 summit at Gleneagles to the fight to improve Scots children's health through free school meals. The SSP will highlight the inadequacy of the Scottish Executive in relation to the health of Scots schoolchildren by moving a motion congratulating Labour administrations which have taken radical measures in relation to school meals; the National Assembly for Wales and the city councils of Hull and Glasgow. The motion will be moved by West of Scotland MSP Frances Curran who said today; "Free school meals is an idea whose time has come. "It would be the biggest single anti-poverty and pro-health measure introduced in Scotland for generations. "Scotland's health crisis is notorious the world over. A man in parts in the East End of Glasgow can expect to die 25 years younger than a man in Dorset. "Poverty, combined with our junk food culture, is literally killing us. "We have to start the fight against ill health in our schools by ending the burger and chips culture. "Let's call a halt to the queue at the bakers for meat pies and doughnuts at lunchtime. "By far the best way to do that is to provide attractive, healthy, free school meals for all."
A motion in the name of Rosie Kane calls on the parliament to support the right to "freedom of peaceful assembly and association" under Article 20 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in respect of demonstrations around the G8 summit. The Scottish Socialist Party has been at the forefront a broad based movement building support for a massive show of opposition to the leaders of the G8 when they arrive in Scotland in July. SSP national convenor Colin Fox will move the motion. Colin said today; "The Godfathers of capitalism will be arriving in Scotland in July and the thousands of people who wish to make clear their opposition to world poverty, to the catastrophic policies of the industrialised nations in relation to the environment and over the Iraq war have the right to demonstrate at Gleneagles. "The SSP Group will be joining the demonstrators and we are determined that the right to peaceful protest should be upheld despite the fact that the UK now has one of the most authoritarian governments in Europe."
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S2M-2507 Frances Curran: School Meals and Our Children's Future "That the Parliament notes that all serious nutritionists are predicting that obesity will double in Scotland over the next 10 years, causing a health crisis which will dramatically increase demand for health services and lower average life expectancy; therefore endorses the principle that radical action is required to tackle Scotland's diet- related health problems; believes that there can be no better use of Scotland's resources than to invest in our children's future, and congratulates the National Assembly for Wales and the city councils of Hull and Glasgow for their action in providing free breakfasts for all primary children and the councils for their further commitment to extending free, nutritious school lunches to all their primary school pupils.
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S2M-2506 Rosie Kane: The Right to Protest at Gleneagles "That the Parliament puts on record its support for Article 20 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that "everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association"; notes that the G8 summit will be meeting in Gleneagles in July this year, and resolves to uphold and support the right to peaceful assembly and protest in Scotland, in particular in Edinburgh at the Make Poverty History demonstration and at the summit itself in Gleneagles.
Sunday HeraldEVERY Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) MSP is to undergo non-violent direct action training in preparation for demonstrations against the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July.
The party’s six MSPs will each pay around £100 to take part in a two-day training session, run in April or May, by the Scottish Centre for NonViolence in Dunblane. They also intend to call on SSP supporters and others planning to join in the protests to consider undergoing similar training.
Frances Curran, the party’s enterprise spokeswoman, said: “Some of us have done the training before – including [MSPs] Carolyn Leckie and Rosie Kane – but we are all going to do it for the G8 because we are intent on having a peaceful protest. The training teaches you what to do when you’re facing riot police.
“It urges you to think why you are protesting and what are you trying to achieve.”
Thousands of protesters are expected to join demonstrations against the gathering, in Perthshire from July 6 to 8, of world leaders from the G7 group of wealthy nations plus Russia. Anti-capitalist and anti-war protesters are planning a week-long campaign of events around the summit, including a march of up to 200,000 people, in Edinburgh and associated events at Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde (home of Britain’s Trident submarines) and Dungavel detention centre in Ayrshire, where asylum seekers are held.
Police are planning to draft in 10,000 officers, including hundreds from London, to deal with the threat of disruption to the summit.
In response, several groups, including Trident Plough shares and Seeds for Change, are now running courses on non-violent direct action in the run-up to the summit.
Curran added: “We will be calling on other SSP members and suggesting everybody goes through [training]. Most of our members have been on countless demonstrations across Scotland and there has never been one hint of trouble.”
Curran is to meet Tayside police in Perth on Tuesday, and on Thursday the SSP is using its allotted time in parliament for a debate on the summit.
