Solidarity MSP and Co-Convenor, Tommy Sheridan, today slammed the Lib Dems and SNP for continuing to con the Scottish public over Council Tax policy.
In the aftermath of the expensive, two year Burt Report into Local Government finance, which has been roundly rubbished by all the mainstream parties, Sheridan highlighted the consistent failure of the Lib Dems and SNP over the last 7 years to publish a bill outlining their detailed alternatives to Council Tax.
Sheridan addressing a Solidarity meeting today, said
“The Council Tax is fundamentally unfair. It takes significantly more from pensioners and low paid workers than the well paid and wealthy. It is a Tory tax and must be replaced by a fairer, income based alternative. Yet despite 7 years of rhetoric from the Lib Dems and SNP no bill to replace the Council Tax has been forthcoming from either of them. Their opposition is empty words. When my Abolition of Council Tax Bill was debated in February this year both parties sided with the New Labour and Tory Party council tax apologists. Their opposition to council tax is exposed as a con. When push came to shove they voted to keep a tax that hammers the poor in favour of the wealthy.”
Sheridan further commented today
“If I am returned as a Solidarity MSP next May I promise to re-introduce my practical and radical bill to replace Council Tax with an income based service tax. Scotland’s army of hard pushed pensioners and low paid workers deserve a better system.”
Solidarity Welcomes RMT Victory
Saturday, 11 November 2006
Solidarity MSP Rosemary Byrne has welcomed the news that RMT members had succesfully negotiated a fair pay increase at the end of ten days of industrial action.
Over 900 North Sea divers and support staff, who had been on strike since November 1, voted overwhelmingly to accept a pay package that will increase current rates by a cumulative 44.7 per cent over the next two years. The MSP for South of Scotland said:
“This is a great victory, and should encourage other trades unionists that strike action can still be an effective negotiating tool.”
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow praised the workers determined campaign:
"By any standard this is a tremendous victory for a group of workers who have displayed grit, determination and complete solidarity in their campaign to win a fair pay increase."Our members in the North Sea came out as one, stood together through ten days of solid strike action, and can return to work proud that their unity has won a significant advance,"
Tommy Sheridan Challenges Powerless Parliament
Friday, 10 November 2006
Tommy Sheridan today challenged the Scottish Parliament's ruling that his Bill to take the railways of Scotland into public ownership is beyond the parliaments powers.
The Solidarity MSP said:
"I will challenge this ruling in parliament today, we are in the crazy situation that the Scottish Executive have been given new powers to run the railways yet the parliament is deemed to be powerless in this area. Taking the railways back into public ownership was Labour party policy when they were last allowed to discuss these issues and SNP policy, yet they both voted against discussing it. The people of Scotland back this bill, the trade union movement support it, yet we can't discuss it. That's why we need a real parliament in an independent Scotland."
Earlier this week Rosemary Byrne's proposed bill on drugs treatment was also the subject of an attempted block by the parliament.
Solidarity at Faslane
Thursday, 09 November 2006
Solidarity activists have been protesting at Faslane most of this week. Stop the War were there on Monday and Tuesday with many Solidarity members present, and today, Scotland's Socialist Movement took our place in the year long protest organised by Faslane 365.
On Friday morning, Solidarity MSPs, Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne will join braches from across the country at the gates of the home of Trident.
Tommy Sheridan, a veteran of several blockades and protests at the site, said:
"The Labour Party are about to spend £76 billion pounds of public money on replacing Trident Missiles. That is the cost, published in the House of Commons, of replacing and maintaing a new generation of weapons of mass destruction. This is money that could be used to pay a decent pension, a decent minimum wage, or free education for students."
Solidarity Statement on Beit Hanoun
Thursday, 09 November 2006
Whilst the world's attention was focused on the results of US Midterm Elections on Wednesday, November 9, Israeli tanks were shelling civilians in the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza, slaughtering 18 and injuring 50 men, women and children. Many of the children involved were just two years of age.
This latest Israeli crime yet again produced no meaningful response from the international community, prompting the following questions:
How long will the long-suffering Palestinian people be forced to stand alone in the face of this wanton slaughter and sustained programme of ethnic cleansing? And how long will such crimes against humanity be able to hide behind a culture of victimhood and exceptionalism?
Further, of the Israeli people, Solidarity asks: Where are the mass demonstrations in response to your government's brutal treatment of the Palestinian people? Where is the outrage at the rivers of innocent blood spilled in your name?
Of the Israeli working class, we ask: Where is the industrial action in solidarity with your Palestinian brothers and sisters? Where is the class consciousness necessary to transcend the poisonous ideology of Zionism which has brought shame on you? The comforts and standard of living you enjoy are being paid for in the blood of a people whose land your ancestors seized, and who continue to exist alongside you as a testament to their heroic defiance.
Undoubtedly, the Holocaust was the greatest crime of the 20th century. Thus far, the greatest crime of the 21st is Israel's occupation of Palestine. As such, the only fitting tribute to the millions who died in the Holocaust is to campaign for Palestinian human rights today.
Along with ever-increasing millions around the world, Solidarity declares, in defiance of the British government's continued support of Israel's ethnic cleansing, in defiance of those who fear the calumny of the label anti-Semite, we declare our complete support for the Palestinian cause.
And just as Nazi Germany was consigned to history, just as apartheid South Africa was consigned to history, we look forward to the day when the apartheid state of Israel is consigned to history where it belongs. This eventuality would be in the interests of all who are interested in peace and universal human rights in the region, whether Jew, Muslim or Christian.
We also take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Israeli 'Refusnik' movement, comprised of those members of the Israeli military who refuse to take part in military operations against the Palestinians. History will rightfully judge them heroes in the service of human solidarity.
Finally, Solidarity, Scotland's Socialist Movement, sends a message back in time to former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, who in 1969 uttered the infamous statement that "there were no Palestinians."
Our message is this:
Today, in 2006, not only are there Palestinians. Today, in 2006, we are all Palestinians.
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