Conference Report by Tom Penman, Dundee Solidarity

 On the 25th and 26th November was Socialism 2006, a weekend of discussion and debate hosted by the Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales). Debates ranged from "Which way forward for British Muslims?" with Said Fergani from MAB and "How can we end Homophobia?" with Peter Tatchell from OUTrage to discussions on whether the Labour Party could be reclaimed for workers (or not) and sessions on historical events such as the workers uprising in Hungary in 1956.

The highlight for many though was the Rally for Socialism on the Saturday night with the "galaxy of speakers" as Peter Taaffe put it, which over 800 attended. Tommy Sheridan, MSP spoke at a meeting in England for the first time since his court victory over the Murdoch press. He spoke alongside Socialist Party General Secretary Peter Taaffe and international speakers including Germany's Lucy Redler of the electoral alternative WASG as well as speakers from Greece and Sri Lanka.

The speakers outlined the international fight back against neo-liberalism and global capitalism. This includes the momentous class upheavals in Latin America, the strike action of immigrant labourers and transport workers in the USA and mass protest movements in Europe. But it also includes the fight to defend the NHS here in Britain, which was represented at the rally by Len Hockey UNISON joint shop steward at Whipps Cross hospital, London who has recently led successful strike action against the privateers and Dr Jackie Grunsell, Huddersfield Save Our NHS councillor. 

The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) have taken the unprecedented step of welcoming a statement from a political party on the cause of the Palestinian people.  Mick Napier, SPSC Chair, said in the letter that this was the first time that any political formation in Scotland had oficially expressed their open and unambigious support.

John Wight of Lothians Solidarity welcomed the letter as an example of how Solidarity are building respect in the wider movement:

"This letter shows that the clear positions and solid work that Solidarity have carried out is having an effect and is respected by campaigners for justice."

The letter also caled on other political parties to show the clear commitment that Solidarity had and asked Solidarity to establish links with Palestinian left wing parties. 

Letter to Solidarity


Dear Solidarity


The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomes the statement from ‘Solidarity’ on the deepening crisis in Palestine. No political formation in Scotland to date has expressed officially, openly and unambiguously its support for the just struggle of the Palestinian people.

Unison members in Glasgow Council have voted 2 to 1 in favour of strike action in an effort to force the city's Labour leaders to back down over the threatened pay cuts to 4,500 low and middle earning workers as part of an inadequate, poorly funded equal pay review.  Sixty-six per cent voted to stand by this minority of the workforce who face cuts of up to £5,000 in just two years time. The local branch described the result as "a tremendous result on a relatively high turnout" and have called three days of all out strike action on 5 - 7 December, backed up by selective action.

The result shows that huge numbers of the so-called "winners" saw through the Council's divide and rule tactics and rejected the Council's offer of a back dated payment in December - in effect a bribe just before Xmas - and chose to show solidarity with their fellow workers. The strike action will see almost 11,000 workers called out and will have a massive impact on council services from residential homes, daycare centres, environmental services, libraries, sports centres, museums, financial collection, nurseries, etc.

It is unclear at this stage whether Steven Purcell, the Council Leader, will attempt to negotiate a new deal in light of the threatened strike action or will dig in for a battle with his workforce. Purcell and other leading Labour Councillors attempted to cut across the unions by inviting the "losers" to meetings to explain how the pay review was a scientific, transparent and well funded offer. The whole exercise backfired with the Councillors not understanding the services they are responsible for or their employees' jobs.  One even suggested that the workers could not read which led to some workers walking out in disgust and ripping up their new pay letters on the way out the door!

Solidarity condemned as shameful the evidence from the Save the Children charity and Scottish Executive figures that almost nearly half a million children will this winter live in unheated homes in Britain, and one in five Scottish households have to survive on less than £10,000 per year.

The recent rocketing price rises for gas and electricity is driving hundreds of thousands of people into fuel poverty, levels of which have doubled in the last three years.  Solidarity MSP for Glasgow, Tommy Sheridan, condemned the obscene profits of the private energy companies:

“The Scottish Executive’s claims that they are on course to eradicate child poverty are a shameful con. It is clear, for example, that the 5 price rises in the last two years in fuel bills are dragging thousands of Scots into poverty.  Scottish ministers are doing nothing to challenge what is now robbery on a grand scale. It is a 21st century scandal that privatised power companies can make billions of pounds in profit at the cost of the misery that these price rises cause for ordinary families. We demand urgent action to slash fuel costs. And that can best be achieved by bringing these companies into public ownership and using their ill-gotten profits to reduce the burden of fuel costs.”

Today's announcement by Human Rights Watch that the trial of Saddam Hussein was "so flawed that its verdict is unsound" loses much of its potency in the context of the magnitude of the crime that is the ongoing occupation of Iraq, and its resultant human catastrophe for the Iraqi people.

The show trial which ended in a sentence of death for Saddam and two other defendants, for crimes against humanity, was an exercise in victors' justice, carried out at the behest of those who by all measure should have been in the dock alongside the former Iraqi dictator, whose regime enjoyed the support and funding of Western governments during the era in which the worst of its atrocities took place.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch group said in their report:

"The trials were among the most important since the Nazi trials in Nuremberg after World War II, representing the first opportunity to create a historical record concerning some of the worst cases of human rights violations, and to begin the process of a methodical accounting of the policies and decisions that gave rise to these events."

Solidarity demands such an accounting with regard to the illegality of the war in Iraq, responsible thus far for the slaughter of 655,000 men, women and children. We also demand that charges are brought against those responsible for the sanctions which cost the lives of an additional 2 million Iraqis, 500,000 of whom were children.

This weekend’s press revealed that the allowance scheme goes right to the top of the tree, with Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen having purchased a property in Edinburgh in both his and his wife’s name, at the taxpayers expense.

The Greens have tabled a motion in Parliament calling for a review of the allowance after the elections in May, Sheridan says this doesn’t go far enough:

“Any changes to the scheme should not allow those who are currently MSPs to get off the hook. Any decision taken should apply retrospectively to the last term in parliament.

Concerns over the activities of Tayside’s controversial Special Branch Community Contact Unit (SBCCU) were discussed at the civil liberties sesion of a conference organised by Dundee Social Forum on Saturday.

Sarah Scott from Dundee University Student Socialist Society told the meeting of efforts by students to raise the issue with the Student Advisory Service.

Richard Haley, from the civil liberties campaign Scotland Against Criminalising Communities, said that the campaign had written to Tayside Chief Constable John Vine in June, raising a number of concerns and complaining of racist and Islamophobic attitudes displayed by SBCCU officers. SACC is still waiting for a response from Tayside Police.