Solidarity beat the Liberal Democrats and once again emeged as Scotland's biggest socialist party. However, the number of left candidates and the performance of the far right BNP gives us much to think about.
See STV News “Tommy Sheridan – A sad night for democracy.” here
Read The Glasss Half Full or Half Empty by Tommy Sheridan
"The turnout marked a new low in Scottish by-election history. The previous low of 36% was surpassed. For the first time 2 out of every 3 voters decided to ignore the election and stay at home in protest at the sorry state politics has been dragged down to by a New Labour government in particular whose members have gorged themselves with illegitimate expense clams while lying to justify wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and presiding over an obscene growth in inequality across society."
Catch up on the Solidarity Glasgow North East campaign blog by clicking here
Nae to G20
Friday, 06 November 2009
On the first weekend in November, the financial leaders of the world’s twenty richest countries will be hosting closed door meetings in order to decide how our world should be run. The Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers have chosen to host these meetings in the town of St. Andrews, Scotland, and in response groups of residents and students have paved the way to make our voices heard.
We the residents and students of this community are coming into the streets to say loud and clear, “The G20 is not welcome in our town,” or as the Scots say, “Nae tae G-20!” We are joining together to say that the neo-liberal development, trade and environmental policies furthered by the G20 will not solve the global financial crisis, not solve the global ecological crisis and do not address the ever-increasing wealth gap. We are resisting the G20 because it is a mechanism of the global ruling elite that seeks to enrich the “1st world” at the expense of increasing poverty for the “underdeveloped” and “developing” world.
The CWU has today announced that the postal strikes planned for Friday 6th November and Monday 9th November have been called off.
CWU and Royal Mail have reached an interim agreement that was unanimously agreed by the union's Postal Executive today.
The interim agreement will provide a period of calm for the CWU and Royal Mail to reach a full and final agreement. The interim agreement guarantees that modernisation will be introduced with agreed job security and improved terms and conditions for postal workers. It also addresses all the issues included in the long running local disputes.
The strike ballot remains in place.
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "There needs to be exceptional efforts to improve trust and relationships between CWU and Royal Mail. As a result both TUC and ACAS will have a continuing role to keep the discussions and agreement on track."
Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign
Friday, 06 November 2009
The trial of 5 Scottish Paleatinian Solidarity Campaign activists has been adjourned until January.
The 5 were charged following a non-violent protest during a performance by the Jesrusalem Quartet in Edinburgh in August 2008.
Unbelievably the 5 were charged with “racism” for their actions.At the trial in Edinburgh this week, the Sherriff heard evidence from the defence that criticism of Israel is not racist, and that the charge is not competent.
The trial was adjourned until January after the BBC refused to hand over their audio recording of the concert (and the activists interventions) without a court order.
Events Calendar
On the first weekend in November, the financial leaders of the world’s twenty richest countries will be hosting closed door meetings in order to decide how our world should be run. The Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers have chosen to host these meetings in the town of St. Andrews, Scotland, and in response groups of residents and students have paved the way to make our voices heard.
The CWU has today announced that the postal strikes planned for Friday 6th November and Monday 9th November have been called off. 
The trial of 5 Scottish Paleatinian Solidarity Campaign activists has been adjourned until January.
