The Scottish Socialist Party today sends it's condolences to the families of those killed and injured in today's bombings in London.
The SSP condemns outright the bombings which were targeted at working class Londoners going about their daily lives. Many of those dead and injured would have participated in anti-war protests and would have taken part in the Make Poverty History protests over the past week.

Meanwhile, the men responsible for the war on Iraq and the massacre of 100,000 civilians were safely cocooned behind fortified walls 500 miles away, protected by thousands of police and armed forces.

Today's horrific events further expose the falsity of the claims by Tony Blair and George Bush that the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq have turned the world into a safer place. Exactly the opposite: the world is now darker and more dangerous than ever before.

Today's wave of destruction also underlines the futility of trying to defeat terror by ever more repressive legislation. As the escalating violence in Iraq and Afghanistan illustrates, even the most ferocious repression cannot quell violence and terror.

The most effective action Tony Blair could now take to make the UK a safer place is to pull all British troops out of Iraq.

We note that neo-Nazi extremists are already trying to exploit today's tragedy to whip up fear and hatred towards the Muslim population, the vast majority of whom completely reject acts of violence carried out against innocent civilians.

The SSP pledges to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim community against all forms of racism and Islamosphobia.

Today's horrific events are a further indictment of the world that the G8 leaders have created.

Until the swamps of poverty, war and injustice are drained, countless thousands more innocent people will die needlessly in the months and years to come.

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit Press Release: 05/07/05

SSP Youth Organiser Arrested

The Scottish Socialist Party tonight announced that the party's Youth Organiser Donnie Nicolson (26) and two other members of the SSP, Nick Eardley (17) and John Wight (30) were arrested in Edinburgh on Wednesday 6th July.

Tonight the SSP accused the police of being solely responsible for the events in Edinburgh after falsely informing coach drivers that the demonstration in Auchterarder was cancelled in a clear attempt to prevent protestors attending.

The SSP members were arrested following impromptu demonstrations that took place in the streets of the capital after police officers boarded buses and announced that the demonstration in Auchterarder was cancelled. A Superintendent from Lothian and Borders boarded buses from Edinburgh and announced that anarchists were attacking buses going to Auchterarder with scaffolding poles. This was completely untrue.

Eye witnesses have said that two of the three arrested, Nick Eardley and John Wight, had been involved in negotiations that involved the police, Edinburgh council leader Donald Anderson and the protestors. Donnie Nicolson was targeted later by a police snatch squad.

The three will be appearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Chambers Street on Thursday 7th July from 2pm.

Colin Fox, SSP national convenor and party justice spokesperson said; "The events in Edinburgh on Wednesday were solely the responsibility of the police. "Why did they tell demonstrators and coach drivers that the demonstration in Auchterarder was cancelled ? "It was this deliberate attempt to stop people attending the demonstration that the police had agreed only days ago that resulted in the protests in Edinburgh. "If the police had not intervened in this way the 600 - 1,000 people who took to the streets of Edinburgh would have been safely on their way to Auchterarder. "There must now be an inquiry into the policing of the G8 protests across Scotland. "The deployment of large numbers of police officers with shields and wielding batons from forces that Scots would never normally come into contact with has been extremely provocative and has resulted in unnecessary violence."

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 05/07/05

SSP MSP charged at Dungavel Protest

SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie has been charged after refusing to allow police to
search her handbag as she travelled to Dungavel to take part in protests
there.

Police informed Carolyn that they were invoking Section 60 of the Police and
Crime Prevention Act 1994 and insisted on searching her handbag.
Carolyn said afterwards;

“Yet again we see totally over the top and heavy handed policing.
“Quite what they expected to find in the way of weapons in my handbag I
don’t know.
“I regard it as an infringement of my civil liberties and of all those who
the police searched without a shred of evidence that we were anything other
than entirely peaceful demonstrators.”

Faslane

Picnicking for Peace at Faslane - BBC

Hundreds Protest at Nuclear Base - The Guardian

Former Scottish Socialist party leader and MSP Tommy Sheridan was at the protest. He said: "Faslane is a carbuncle on the face of Scotland. It despoils our landscape, and represents all that's wrong with the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, spending billions on destruction, when we are standing here today for peace and solidarity." Declaring the protest a success, he added: "We've closed down Faslane for one day - I want to close it down for the other 364."

Telegraph

Mr Sheridan, former leader of the SSP, called for the UK's nuclear weapons, which he described as "barbarian pieces of scrap metal", to be abandoned.

"The G8 leaders say they are concerned about poverty but I do not believe that," he said. "If they are concerned, then their $646 billion annual arms expenditure between the G8 nations would go on food and medicine and water."

Edinburgh

SCOTTISH SOCIALIST MSP CONDEMNS “OUTRAGEOUS” POLICE TACTICS IN EDINBURGH

SSP MSP Frances Curran tonight (JULY 4th) angrily condemned police tactics in dealing with anti G8 protesters in Edinburgh as “outrageous and inflammatory^.

Ms Curran said that she had repeatedly tried to gain access to protesters hemmed in by police lines in an attempt to mediate but had been barred by police.

As some of the worst disorders seen in Edinburgh for years raged in the city centre Ms Curran laid the blame squarely at the door of police many of whom, she said appeared to from England be ignorant of Scottish law.

She said:

“The behaviour of the police has been provocative and a total overreaction. They seem to be spoiling for a fight and this ‘take us on if you think your hard enough’ approach has no place in policing a democracy.”

“I have made several attempts to gain access to protesters to try and calm the situation but this has simply been brushed aside”

“There needs to be an urgent review of police tactics and I am demanding that First Minister McConnell accepts his responsibilities and intervene immediately to halt what is a situation rapidly getting out of control.”

SSP National Convenor Colin Fox said:

“I have witnessed some of the most violent policing of my entire life. I witnessed squads of riot police clear Princes Street Gardens by charging and attacking anyone who got in their way including innocent Edinburgh people sunbathing after work.”

“The day started with a carnival atmosphere which was completely destroyed by heavy handed and violent policing”

Daily Record

G8 Protests




Make Poverty History demo pictures of SSP contingent.

Scottish City Besieged for G-8 Summit - Prensa Latina Cuba

Pravda Russia

Colin Fox, the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, said that Gleneagles was turning into an unassailable fortress because of the police measures.

The Herald: "Margo MacDonald, the Independent MSP, has written to Holyrood's presiding officer criticising the handling of the case of the four socialist members who staged a protest in the chamber and the severity of the their punishment.
Colin Fox, Scottish Socialist party leader, and his colleagues Carolyn Leckie, Rosie Kane and Frances Curran, were banned from the parliament for a month, without salaries, staff allowances or expenses, for their 30-minute protest in the chamber after claiming Holyrood had failed to recognise the right of people to protest at the G8 summit.
The Lothian MSP speaks of her 'serious reservations concerning the appropriateness of the disciplinary measures decided on by the standards committee and the process adopted by parliament' caused by a rush to judgment last week that did not result in 'best practice'.
She said in her letter to George Reid: 'We created a precedent and I fear that a great many, perhaps most, of us made the decision to exclude four SSP MSPs without having taken enough time to consider the matter fully.
'I am unsure as to how the penalty imposed regarding the loss of MSPs' allowances will impact on the staff employed by the four SSP members concerned. This is only one example of where a longer cooling-off period might have yielded a more considered decision. It was a heavy-handed way to deal with an incident in which no business was lost, there was no violence and no foul language.'
At yesterday's G8 Alternatives summit in Edinburgh's Usher Hall, Mr Fox launched a public fund-raising appeal to help the party pay for the loss of wages. He said the month outside the parliament would be used to campaign across the country."

Letter to The ScotsmanAn act of vengeance

As a sceptic of the whole G8 business, I was neither impressed nor depressed by the SSP stunt in the Scottish Parliament last Thursday. But I am concerned at the outrage it seemed to provoke among other MSPs, leading to the sentence of a month's suspension from parliament, including loss of allowances, which punishes employees because of employer behaviour - a strange principle for Labour MSPs to support.

I am a former "stunt" man, who disrupted a Budget in the House of Commons, as did Alex Salmond before me (to SNP applause). We are not alone. Tam Dalyell, rightly praised as a magnificent parliamentarian, also has the distinction of being evicted from the Chamber of the Commons.

There are others with a record of disruptive stunts. John Prescott helped bring the Commons to suspension when he and I were members of the Tribune Group; and Gordon Brown, along with members of the present government, was instrumental in bringing another suspension via a demonstration against the tax policy of Margaret Thatcher's government.

On those occasions, the sheer numbers meant no individual punishments. But individuals, like me, Alex Salmond, and Tam Dalyell, suffered the due and proper punishment of banishment from the Commons for a short period. I emphasise a short period.

Disruption in democratic parliaments is not an exceptional event, but a fairly usual one, and the confidence and maturity of the parliamentary institution concerned is demonstrated by the way it is dealt with. At Westminster, it is seen as a tiresome chore, dealt with in a few minutes, requiring a proportionate short sentence of banishment, then resumption of business as if nothing much had happened.

The Scottish Parliament institution failed the tests of confidence and maturity on Thursday, became hysterical, and went over the top in an act of vengeance which, in respect of denying allowances to pay staff as per employment contract, is possibly unlawful. I am beginning to wonder if these people can be trusted with the rational conduct of public affairs.

JIM SILLARS, Grange Loan, Edinburgh

The SSP joined the hundreds of thousands who marched through Edinburgh calling for an end to world poverty and hunger. Join us on Wednesday when we take the message to the gates of Gleneagles.