Scottish Socialist Party
General Election 2005

SSP Joins RMT `Rail Against Privatisation' Demo

The Scottish Socialist Party will this weekend take part in the RMT
trade unions `Rail Against Privatisation' Glasgow to London mobile
demonstration.

Starting in Glasgow on April 16 and culminating with a rally in
London on April 30, there will be events, meetings and rallies along
the route, as well as in other towns and cities around Britain,
involving every RMT region.
Re-nationalisation of rail is an immensely popular policy, supported
by a massive public majority and the trade union movement, and is
Labour Party policy ˆ and RMT believes the time has come to put it at
the top of the political agenda.

The Scottish Socialist Party is proud that the RMT is an affiliated
trade union and both Colin Fox, SSP national convenor, and Tommy
Sheridan SSP MSP for Glasgow will be taking part in the Scottish
Events.
Alan McCombes, SSP national policy co-ordinator, has written a
pamphlet that will be available on the demonstration; "Reclaim our
railways; show the rail profiteers the red signal".

Colin Fox said today;
"The Scottish Socialist Party is proud to be participating in the
RMT's Glasgow to London demonstration to demand the return of the
railways to public ownership.
"Rail subsidy now exceeds that provided to British Rail, yet services
are substantially worse.
"Since privatisation, private train operating companies alone have
received £10 billion in public subsidy and banked £1 billion in
profits.
"The SSP stands unequivocally behind the call of the RMT for the rail
industry to be taken back into public ownership and for an end to the
plundering of public money by the rail profiteers."
[ends]

GLASGOW
Rally & March - Saturday 16 April 2005
Assemble 12:30pm, St Enoch Square
Rally 1:00pm
Speakers - Bob Crow, General Secretary, RMT
Bill Spiers, General Secretary, STUC
Tommy Sheridan, MSP
March to Duke Street Railway Station - move off 1:45pm

EDINBURGH
March - Sunday 17 April 2005
Assemble 11:45am, Market Street
Move off 12:15pm
Supporters' Meeting - CWU Club, Brunswick Street
Speakers - Bob Crow, General Secretary, RMT
Colin Fox MSP (Convener SSP)
Time - 2:30pm

Evening News

MSPs set to chew over pupils' play

SCHOOL pupils are being given the chance to put their views on healthy eating to MSPs when they take part in the first play to be staged at the Scottish Parliament.

The youngsters, from secondary schools in West Lothian, have been invited to perform their play "Life’s a Pizza" by Scottish Socialist MSP Frances Curran.

And the young actors may find themselves playing to a packed house of MSPs, including First Minister Jack McConnell.

Mrs Curran organised the performance as part of her campaign to pass a Bill to deliver free school meals to all Scottish pupils.

All of the country’s 129 MSPs have been invited to attend the show, being held in a conference room of the Parliament tomorrow night.

The nine secondary school pupils taking part in the play, are all members of the West Lothian Youth Theatre.

And during a section of the show they will be discussing the themes raised by the show with members of the audience.

The play itself is about healthy eating and aims to show youngsters that making the right choices, in everything from friends to food, can have a huge impact on someone’s life.

It is split into three ten-minute segments with titles including ‘The Fat Family’ and ‘Life’s a Pizza’.

The Herald:
"The findings were welcomed by the Scottish Socialist party, which has policies on tax and redistribution of wealth most closely aligned with the findings.
Colin Fox, the SSP leader, said: 'Scots are in tune with the SSP's policies of redistributing Scotland's wealth to deal with the grotesque situation of abject poverty existing alongside incredible wealth.
'Scots are canny folk and they know fine well that wealth doesn't trickle down to the poorest. It has to be redistributed by government policy.
'The SSP's policies would ensure that high earners are taxed accordingly and that the mega rich and corporations currently evading paying taxes through dodges and schemes are brought to book.'"

Scotsman: "Glasgow Socialist MSP Rosie Kane branded the Executive-appointed inquiry into the motorway extension a 'sham' and claimed the news gave a 'green light for direct action' by those opposed to the construction.

She said: 'The truth about the inquiry is that it was a charade - three quarters of a million pounds of public money spent as a pretence.

'The whole episode is an affront to democracy. The Scottish Liberal Democrats should hang their heads in shame that one of their ministers was complicit in this deception.'"

Scottish Socialist Party
General Election 2005
Press Release: 11/04/05

SSP stand down candidate to back Rose Gentle in East Kilbride

The Scottish Socialist Party has agreed not to contest the East Kilbride constituency in the Westminster election.
Instead the SSP will be backing anti-war campaigner, Rose Gentle, in the seat of Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram.
Rose is the mother of Gordon Gentle, the soldier from Pollok, Glasgow, who was killed in Iraq.
East Kilbride will be the only constituency in Scotland that the SSP will not contest.
In line with the party constitution, party members at branch, regional and Executive Committee levels all agreed that the party should stand down.

Cathy Pederson, who had been selected as the SSP candidate in East Kilbride said:
“The party locally and nationally has tremendous admiration for the principles and courage of Rose Gentle in her campaign to bring the troops home from Iraq.
"We will be enthusiastically campaigning to hold Adam Ingram to account for the lies, death and destruction resulting from the Iraq war.”

Carolyn Leckie MSP, member of the local East Kilbride SSP branch said:
"I would normally be against the party standing down for independent candidates.
"Cathy Pederson would have been a great candidate and I'm sorry she's no longer standing.
"Rose Gentle lost her son in the carnage in Iraq and she is standing on an anti war, troops out platform.
"Rose Gentle not only deserves the support of the SSP but of all parties that claim to be anti-war.
"The Greens, Lib-Dems and the SNP should also stand down their candidates.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to strike a blow at the heart of Tony Blair’s war cabinet."

Colin Fox, SSP convener said:
"We are proud to back Rose Gentle in East Kilbride.
"Nor will we let Labour run a “Basil Fawlty” campaign in the other Scottish seats.
"Every time they try not to mention the war, we will shout out; “You lied to get us in to this illegal, unjust war” and we will demand “Bring the troops home!”."
[ends]

BBC NEWS | Scotland: "The Scottish Executive has defended spending ?41m on land along the route of the planned M74 extension before it gave the project the go-ahead.

The executive has decided to press ahead with the project despite a public inquiry ruling against it.

The land purchase aimed to minimise disruption to businesses forced to relocate because of the extension.

However, protesters said the move showed that public consultation on the plan had been a sham.

The Scottish Socialist MSP, Rosie Kane, said the emergence of the land purchases had given campaigners the green light to go ahead with direct action against contractors on the M74.

'If the Scottish Executive has no regard for the law and due process, why should we?,' she asked."

The Herald

HUNDREDS of asylum seekers are being left destitute because of simple administrative errors and delays by the Home Office, a new report claims today.
With asylum and immigration issues topping the election agenda, the Oxfam-funded study reveals how the system is failing refugees in Scotland...

Rosie Kane, of the Scottish Socialist party, said: "At the moment, I am aware of an Ethiopian woman, three men from Sudan and recently a woman and child from Sri Lanka – all destitute.
"It beggars belief as the words Sri Lanka should be enough at the moment. At the very same time, we are sending out emergency aid, a Sri Lankan family gets kicked on to the streets of Glasgow – which is as far as anyone needs to go for evidence.
"I am horrified by all this but not surprised. The majority of the time when I am dealing with this, Nass has made a mistake or been negligent. The system is not working."

The united state of pollok - [Sunday Herald] A look back at Pollok Free State and the struggle to stop the M77 back in 1995. Now we face a new fight against the M74.

"Which brings us back to the proposed extension of the M74. Although a £1m public inquiry found against it, the Scottish Executive has given it the green light. Rosie Kane has been campaigning on the issue for a decade now. No trees will be felled, but it will be a loud, brightly lit, 50ft high, eight-lane highway, affecting many residential communities along its five-mile route. Its construction will disturb earth used for chemical fly-tipping in the past century. Protesters believe there are grounds for a judicial review. If this fails, 100 activists are ready to engage in non-violent disruption. American and German campaigners demonstrating at the G8 summit may get involved. Tommy Sheridan and Lindsay Keenan will join the protest."