Some of Britain’s funniest comedians have come together to raise funds for Solidarity’s election campaign. Mark Steel will be joined on stage in Glasgow and Edinburgh in April by Mark Nelson, Des McLean and Andy Sir.
Steel has established himself as one of Britain’s most respected political satirists through his books, the Mark Steel Comedy Lectures on BBC4 and his weekly column in the Independent. He is regular panellist on shows like Have I got News for You and Mock the Week.
Solidarity Co-Convenor Tommy Sheridan will compere both shows. The Glasgow MSP said:
“We are delighted that a well know personality of the stature and reputation of Mark Steel is supporting Solidarity’s election campaign. To see him perform alongside some of Scotland’s funniest comedians will be a treat for all of Solidarity’s supporters.”
News that a US anti ballistic missile system is likely to be based on British soil provides confirmation that the UK, rather than a US ally, is in fact a US satellite, little more than an adjunct to US strategic interests around the globe.
On the back of the government's complicity in aiding the passage of US torture flights through British airports, allied to the fact that numerous US military bases are located in the UK, that a US designed, built and targeted nuclear arsenal is based on the Clyde, Solidarity joins with the majority of people around the world in demanding an end to US imperialism.
We pay tribute to Military Families Against the War and their peace camp outside Downing Street, and we look forward to Saturday's 'Bin The Bomb' march and rally in Glasgow at which Solidarity MSP, Tommy Sheridan, will be speaking from the platform.
Solidarity Co-Convenor has called on Labour members to join Solidarity rather than waste their time trying to turn Labour into a socialist party. Speaking after the announcement that Michael Meacher was to stand against Gordon Brown on a platform of scrapping trident and nationalising the railways the Solidarity MSP said:
“Michaels Meacher’s forlorn bid for leadership will amount to a waste of time and energy. New Labour are a pro-capitalist, imperialist party who reject the very notion of public ownership and peace. I call on all socialists in the Labour movement to give up on the lost cause of Labour. Come and join us in Solidarity where scrapping trident, workers rights and public ownership are at the top of the agenda. Every day more trade unionists join our party, it is time that more realised that New Labour are only interested in power and not in socialist ideas.”
Solidarity Comedy Shows
Some of Britain’s funniest comedians have come together to raise funds for Solidarity’s election campaign. Mark Steel will be joined on stage in Glasgow and Edinburgh in April by Mark Nelson, Des McLean and Andy Sir.
Steel has established himself as one of Britain’s most respected political satirists through his books, the Mark Steel Comedy Lectures on BBC4 and his weekly column in the Independent. He is regular panellist on shows like Have I got News for You and Mock the Week.
Solidarity Co-Convenor Tommy Sheridan will compere both shows. The Glasgow MSP said:
“We are delighted that a well know personality of the stature and reputation of Mark Steel is supporting Solidarity’s election campaign. To see him perform alongside some of Scotland’s funniest comedians will be a treat for all of Solidarity’s supporters.”
The shows are at Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms on April 5th and the following evening, Friday April 6th at The Garage in Glasgow.
No Cuts, no closures, no redundancies. Reject the findings of the University of Dundee's Sustainability Review.
Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement fully supports yesterdays protest against the proposed £4.3 million of cuts suggested by University of Dundee's Sustainability Review which saw hundreds of students and staff take to the streets. The cuts will effect every department at the university and threaten the jobs of 100 staff and are being proposed by the university to cover a supposed £1.6 million deficit in the universities accounts for 2005 - 2006. The Dundee University and Colleges Union has said:
"Remarkably, the report simply assumes that a deficit exists and that staff costs are its cause.
"The report says nothing about the financial basis for these assumptions nor provides any detail on the financial position of the university.
"There is no financial crisis requiring reductions in educational provision or staffing, but there is serious financial mismanagement which requires urgent action.".
In fact the supposed £1.6 million deficit includes £1.5 million spent by the university on building work on the privaitised halls of residence and the university's own forecast from December projects a £4 million surplus.
Jim Malone Solidarity candidate for the Scottish Parlaiament elections said:
"The massive scale of the cuts shows that commercialisation of education doesn't work. The attempt by the university to privatise halls of residence and increase its profitability has resulted in students and staff paying the price for the failures of university management. Solidarity- Scotland's Socialist Movement fights for a fully funded public education system with free education for all ages."
Solidarity with NUJ workers at the BBC
More than 4000 journalists across the BBC will strike on Monday 26 February in protest at plans by the Corporation to make up to 6 staff compulsorily redundant.
Almost 3000 jobs have gone at the BBC as part of the so-called Value for Money programme over the past three years but all have been achieved through voluntary redundancy or redeployment. Now the BBC are planning to force six staff out the door despite advertising dozens of vacancies and with hundreds of volunteers denied the opportunity to leave. With management threatening further job losses on the back of a lower than expected licence fee settlement BBC journalists are making a stand against compulsory redundancy.
The latest news on the dispute and the latest BBC strike bulletin is available from http://www.nuj.org.uk
Don't Attack Iran
In response to the news, carried today by the BBC, that a US plan to mount a military attack on Iran is now in place, Solidarity reaffirms its continued commitment to the international campaign to end the twin occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq by US and UK military forces, along with the ending of any and all US military presence in the region.
The present conflict in the Middle East conforms to the implementation of a pre-9/11 agenda formulated by the American ruling class to seize control of Iraq's vast energy reserves in response to the threat posed by the rival and emerging economies of China, India and the European Union. It is, in short, a conflict motivated by an economic system that is predicated on profit regardless of the human, social or environmental cost.
Present US tactics with regard to Iran of pretending to seek a diplomatic solution whilst preparing for war, issuing denials that military action is on the table, manipulating and using the UN as an extension of the US State Department, are the same as were used preparatory to attacking Iraq in 2003. To date, this illegal invasion and occupation has resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, along with thousands of American and British military personnel.
Pat Smith is the Solidarity list candidate for the Lothians in the upcoming Scottish elections. She is also on the national steering committee of the Stop the War Coalition. She said:
"There seems little doubt that Iran will be attacked now. If and when it is the response from the movement, here and abroad, will be immediate and nothing like we've seen before."
Tommy Sheridan, Solidarity MSP and co-convenor, said:
"The news of a US plan to attack Iran makes Saturday's Bin The Bomb march and rally in Glasgow even more important than it already is. I urge everyone committed to waging war on war, on poverty and inequality, to assemble in George Square at 11 AM on the 24th to raise their voices once again against these rich, privileged savages and the barbarism they have unleashed in the Middle East."
Protest Against Removals to DR Congo
Message from the Unity Centre, Glasgow:
14 children and 13 adults from the DR Congo have been detained over the last week and all have removal directions for Monday 26th February on the same charter flight organised specially by the Home Office.
Angelique and Eduard who were detained in Glasgow on Friday afternoon with their two young children, Ashley aged 4 and Ngienga aged 11 months, also have the same removal directions.
PROTEST AGAINST FORCED REMOVALS BACK TO THE CONGO
On Saturday, the new Glasgow Unity committee decided to hold a protest on Wednesday 21st February in support of Angelique and Eduard and all the other families who have been detained in Glasgow.
WEDNESDAY 21st FEBRUARY
Come and protest against the forced removals of families back to the Congo
"Solidarity is not just a word; it describes what we are, it is who we are.”
Rosemary Byrne, Solidarity Co-Convenor, will lead the march and rally of Simclar workers and their supporters through her home town of Irvine on Saturday.
Rosemary has been with the Simclar workers in their struggle over a number of years, from when The Simclar owner Sam Russell tried to refuse union recognition after taking over Fullarton Fabrications, through to taking part in the 24 hour sit-in in the closed Kilwinning factory.
Solidarity used the party debating time in the Scottish Parliament yesterday to call for full support for workers in struggle and for the Scottish Parliament to send a message of support for MP John McDonnell’s Trade Union Freedom Bill to Westminster.
Sheridan Calls on Scottish Parliament to Boycott Hilton Hotels
Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan has tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for a boycott of the Hilton hotel group. In the motion, he calls for the Parliament to withdraw any support or business with the hotel group while it continues to discriminate against Cuban citizens.
The move follows the confirmation from the Hilton Group last week, that they will refuse guests who are Cuban citizens in support of the US embargo against the country. The embargo is voted for each year at the UN, last time round 183 UN members voted against the embargo with only the USA, Israel and the tiny Marshall Islands and Palau in favour.
Events Calendar
