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SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 09/09/05

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Frances Curran today called for the Scottish Parliament to end the privatisation of Cal Mac

Frances, MSP for West of Scotland, said:
"The tendering process and privatisation of Cal Mac has brought problem after problem - the issue of the pensions deficit being the latest in a long line of unresolved concerns.
"Privatisation is not in the interests of the islanders and others who use the ferries, and it's not in the interests of Cal Mac workers.
“In fact, it's hard to see whose interest it is in!
“We've hardly had people taking to the streets of Stornoway and Kennacraig demanding the ferry service be sold off, or filling the newspaper letters pages singing the praises of the free market.
"Instead of pandering to the whims of the shareholders and fat cats, the Executive should stand up for the communities that they represent - keep Cal Mac public."
[ends]

Press Associatiation report
A Labour attack on plans to scrap council tax backfired after the party used inaccurate figures in an attempt to criticise the move.

The party used the examples to claim the new charges would cost people more than council tax but failed to take account of the first £10,000 being tax free.
Under the Bill, which is currently being scrutinised by Holyrood's Local Government Committee, a salary of £17,600 would in fact cost that taxpayer £342 and £297 for someone on a salary of £16,600.
A spokesman for the Scottish Socialist Party said: "If Labour can't even understand the basics of progressive taxation then they're not in a position to criticise the Scottish service tax proposals."
A Labour spokesman said the figures were a mistake made by a party researcher which should not have happened.

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 08/09/05

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Tommy Sheridan today said that it was “acutely embarrassing” that members of the Local Government and Transport Committee who were taking evidence on the Council Tax Abolition and Service Tax Introduction (Scotland) Bill did not understand the basic principles of progressive taxation.
Tommy was speaking after a meeting of the committee in which Michael McMahon, MSP for Hamilton North and Bellshill, read figures from a document in relation to tax rates under the SSP’s Scottish Service Tax proposal which were completely incorrect.
Whoever had prepared the document seemed unaware that under the SST proposal the first £10,000 of income earned would be except from tax; a basic principle of any progressive taxation system.

Tommy said tonight;
“It is acutely embarrassing that MSP’s sitting on a committee which scrutinises legislation do not understand basic progressive taxation.
“It is vital that the public have confidence in the proper scrutiny of legislation and I welcome detailed analysis of the Bill I have put forward to abolish the Council Tax and replace it with a Scottish Service Tax.
“What is not welcome is ill informed and plain ignorant criticism based on party political bias.
“I suggest Mr McMahon do his homework before the next round of evidence instead of relying on crib sheets prepared by New Labour spin doctors who are out of their depth when it comes to local government finance.”
[ends]

The Herald

MSPs from all parties will today be urged to fill one of the biggest gaps in Holyrood's new legislative programme by backing a bill for the abolition of council tax.
Tommy Sheridan's member's bill will begin its long-awaited passage through parliament's committee system with an initial evidence session on the idea's general principles.
The Scottish Socialist MSP for Glasgow has proposed replacing council tax it with a Scottish Service Tax (SST) based on income, rather than property value, to help the poorest in society.

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 07/09/05

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane today called responded to a new study of immigration patterns with a call for Scotland to open up her borders to new immigrants

Rosie said:
"We welcome the publication of these figures, as they bust some of the myths
that exist around immigration.
"While some elements of the media will no doubt use bald figures like the overall 1m + population increase to whip up racism against asylum seekers and refugees, a glance at the statistics shows that Americans, Australians and South Africans are among the biggest groups of foreign born residents.
"Just 3.3 per cent of Scotland's population were born overseas, well below
the UK average.
"At a time when Scots are still emigrating, the birth-rate is dropping and the remaining population is ageing, this research shows yet again the need to abolish the racist immigration laws.
"We need skilled workers like nurses, primary school teachers, plumbers and carpenters - yet we refuse to let asylum seekers work, we lock families up in Dungavel and make it near impossible for anyone to come here.
"We have to tackle the racism that mars the experience of immigrants to Scotland - starting with the government's racist immigration laws."
[ends]

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 06/09/05

Scottish Socialist Party MSP for South Scotland Rosemary Byrne today hit out at Jack McConnell over his pledge during the Scottish Parliament debate on the legislative programme that the Scottish Executive would deliver the “'biggest school investment programme for over a century.'
McConnell made his remarks on the same day that Edinburgh City Council announced that a corruption scandal involving its £550 million Public Private Partnership scheme to rebuild eight city schools would mean a delay of at least a year in the much needed school building programme.
Rosemary has repeatedly spoken out against PPP school building schemes, saying that private firms should not be allowed to profit from public services and that educational interests of school children are not being served.

Rosemary said;
“When is the Executive going to accept that PPP schemes are not only expensive but also lend themselves to corruption, quite apart from not providing real community facilities.
“PPP projects are repeatedly being exposed as unworkable and undemocratic and yet the Scottish Executive is not prepared to face up to the truth.
“There are massive profits in PPP schemes for private companies but they are worse than useless to the local communities who receive substandard facilities in return.
“It is time for the Executive to end Public Private Partnership’s once and for all and to return to the use of public money to fund public services.”
[ends]

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 06/09/05

Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Colin Fox MSP today dismissed the Scottish Executive programme as “more of the same” and said that two bills that the SSP has before parliament would have a huge impact on the lives of the low paid, sick and elderly and all the Scottish Executive had to do was tell it’s MSP’s to vote for the measures; the SSP has already done the hard work for them in drafting the bills and sending them out for consultation.

Colin said;
“"It is more of the same from the Executive, more banging of the law and order drum on the orders of McConnell's boss in London.
"What would make a real difference to the people of Scotland would be the abolition of the council tax and prescription charges.
"The Executive would only have to tell their MSP's to support the two bills before parliament that would achieve these two radical improvements to the lives of the low paid, sick and elderly, the SSP has done all the hard work for them."
[ends]

PA News StoryFour Socialist MSPs barred from the Scottish Parliament following a protest in the chamber have staged a demonstration outside Holyrood against the ban.
MSPs ordered that SSP leader Colin Fox and Carolyn Leckie, Frances Curran and Rosie Kane be banned from the Parliament complex during September after they staged a sit-in.
The four were also docked around £30,000 in wages following the exchanges with Jack McConnell on the right to protest at July's G8 summit in Gleneagles.

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 06/09/05

SSP: 'just say no' fails to tackle drugs problem

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosemary Byrne today called for radical reform of the drug laws as a Drugscope survey showed prices falling on Scotland's streets

Rosemary said:
"The 'just say no' prohibitionist approach of successive governments has been shown time and again to be a failure.
"This latest survey is not good news - cheaper drugs will mean more young people being sucked in by the dealers.
"If cannabis were to be legalised, its sale could be regulated as with alcohol and cigarettes.
"Those who wish to use cannabis would not be exposed to a world of dealers and heavier drugs.
"The growth of crack cocaine as a supplement to heroin also shows the failure of the government's policy on tackling heroin addiction.
"The SSP has long called for heroin to be made available on prescription to addicts through the NHS, removing the dealers' market, removing the need for addicts to commit crime to support their habit, and enabling addicts to stabilise their lives and give up drugs."
[ends]

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 04/09/05

The Scottish Socialist Party today unveiled plans for protests and public meetings across Scotland over the suspension of 4 of its MSP’s from the Scottish Parliament during the month of September.
The party also revealed that over 2,000 people had signed an online petition against the suspensions including the campaigning journalist John Pilger and that a financial appeal had raised over £7,000 so far.

The protest plans include a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday September 6th from 9am and a series of public meetings across Scotland from Inverness and Aberdeen to Kilmarnock and East Kilbride.

Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Colin Fox said today;
“The support and messages of solidarity we have had from across Scotland and from socialist and left organisations and individuals across the world has been marvellous.
“The SSP will use the month of September to take our message to the people of Scotland while the two MSP’s who are not suspended will continue to the vital work we are doing in parliament.
“George Reid said the SSP must choose between the barricades and parliament but in the month of September we will continue doing both; taking our message of socialism onto the streets of Scotland at the same time as Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne keep the red flag flying in the parliament.
“That red flag includes the first stages of the bill to abolish the council tax that Tommy Sheridan is steering through the parliament, a bill that would lift the grotesque burden of an iniquitous tax from the low paid and pensioners of Scotland.
“The suspensions and financial penalties handed out by the parliament are viewed as a gross over reaction to a peaceful protest by the vast majority of people in Scotland and beyond.
“We will be taking our message of defiance to meetings and rallies across Scotland and I appeal to people to come to those to register their disgust at these draconian sanctions.”
[ends]

Notes

On the 30 June 2005 four Scottish Socialist Party parliamentary representatives were summarily suspended and stripped of their pay and parliamentary allowances for staging a silent protest in the Scottish Parliament This unprecedented and draconian penalty was imposed through a process which makes a mockery of natural justice.
The SSP MSPs were tried in their absence, without any kind of due process, right of appeal or any of the basic human rights that are enshrined in law.

The 4 MSP’s made their protest after the First Minister Jack McConnell repeatedly refused to say he would uphold a vote of the Parliament on 3rd March 2005 upholding the right of peaceful protest at Gleneagles.
Despite claims that a deal had been done to allow a demonstration to take place at Gleneagles, the police and authorities repeatedly tried to prevent a demonstration, culminating in an attempt to sabotage it on the day by using the news media to announce that it had been cancelled.

The four suspended MSP’s are Colin Fox, Lothians, Carolyn Leckie, Central Scotland, Rosie Kane, Glasgow, and Frances Curran, West of Scotland.


Protest outside Parliament: Tuesday 6th September from 9am
Hear the MSP's they tried to silence
Scottish meetings September 2005
Aberdeen: Tuesday 6th September, venue to be confirmed
Alloa: Tuesday 6th September, venue tbc 7.30pm
Dundee: Wednesday 7th September, DVA, 10 Constitution Road, 7-9 p.m
Edinburgh: Tuesday 6th September 7pm St Georges West Church
East Kilbride: Monday 5th September, Murray Owen Centre, 7.30pm
Glasgow: Thursday 8th September 7pm, Quality Hotel, Central Station
Inverness: Thursday 8th September 7.30pm, Spectrum Centre
Kilmarnock: Thursday 15th September 7.30pm, Grand Hall
Livingston: Wednesday 7th September, Craigsfarm Campus, Craigshill, 7pm

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 04/09/05

The Scottish Socialist Party today pledged to do everything in its power to hold the Bush administration to account for the scandalous treatment of hundreds of thousands of the poor and dispossessed of New Orleans and the other states hit by hurricane Katrina.
Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Colin Fox MSP today said he was “absolutely sickened” by the failure of President Bush’s Republican administration to protect the sick, the elderly and the poor from the effects of the hurricane.
Colin said that the treatment of survivors was “a crime against humanity”.
Colin has visited the United States on a number of occasions and has spent time in the poorest areas of New Orleans.
Colin welcomed statements by the Presidents of Venezuela and Cuba, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, pledging medical aid to the disaster area.
The MSP for the Lothians contrasted the bungled disaster relief operation with the ability of the US to move an entire army to the Middle East to invade Iraq in 2003.

Rosie Kane MSP has recently returned from attending a conference called by Cuban President Fidel Castro and added to Colin’s statement a series of points contrasting the way that the Cubans have dealt with 6 major hurricanes between 1996 and 2002 in which a total of only 16 people have died.

Colin said today;
“People all over the world will be absolutely sickened by the way the poor and dispossessed of New Orleans and the hurricane hit states have been treated by the Bush administration.
“The treatment of the survivors of hurricane Katrina is nothing less than a crime against humanity.
“It is clear that the US President who ordered an entire army and its logistical support to the Middle East for the invasion of Iraq does not give a cent for the lives of black and poor Americans.
“The Scottish Socialist Party adds its voice to the outrage that is sweeping the world at the images of the dead and dying left in mountains of rubbish at the New Orleans convention centre and corralled in the Superdome.
“The President of the world’s richest nation has made it quite clear that he regards the poor, the sick, the elderly and more particularly the black population of America as being not worth the effort to save from the absolutely horrific conditions following hurricane Katrina.
“I know the poor areas of New Orleans well and the people who live there are kind, generous and warm hearted.
“It breaks my heart to see them treated as animals by a President who should now be driven out of office by the American people.”

Rosie Kane added;
“I have recently returned from Cuba and the way that one of the poorest countries in the region deals with hurricanes stands in stark contrast to the catastrophe that has unfolded in the US.
“In the seven years between 1996 and 2002, six major hurricanes have hit Cuba, yet a total of only 16 people have died.
“Cuba has a strong well-organized civil defense, an early warning system, well-equipped rescue teams, and emergency stockpiles.
“Cuba mobilizes its community with solidarity as the watchword and a clear political commitment to safeguard human life.
“The population is “disaster-aware” and educated in the necessary actions to be taken in event of a disaster.
“For over 40 years the USA has tried to starve Cuba to death but it is now time for the US to end that war and learn from the principles of solidarity and commitment to human life that are the watchwords of Cuban society.”
[ends]