Saturday 24 November 2007

Assembles 10.30am Blythswood Square, Glasgow, March off 11.00am

Rally 12 noon Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street, Glasgow

Speakers include:

Aamer Anwar, Anas Sarwar, Kainde Manji (GARA), Phil McGarry (STUC President)

Chair: Georgia Cruickshank

Solidarity, Scotland's Socialist Movement are campaigning across Scotland this week and every other week on the issues that effect Scotland's working class communities. 

In Dundee, Solidarity members are fighting the City Council by-election in Lochee. The Solidarity candidate is Neil Bell, a public sector worker and trade unionist who is active in the Lochee community. Polling takes place on Thursday 22 November. 

Thur 22 Nov Solidarity Public Meetings

Civil Liberties Under Attack - Why we should support Aamer Anwar.
7.30pm Augustine United Church George 1V Bridge, Edinburgh

Defend Public Services, Defend Public Sector Workers
7pm - 9pm, Grand Hall, Kilmarnock

In Glasgow, Solidarity members will be out in numbers at the "Don't Attack Iran" vigil and rally, taking place in George Square in Glasgow at 5.30pm on Thursday 22 November. The event is organised by the Stop the War Coalition.

Solidarity are on the move.  Our members are taking up many causes across the country and internationally, joining with hundreds of activists from other campaigns, and building a party that represents a chance to build a left challenge to New Labour in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood.

Vote Solidarity in Lochee! Build Solidarity in Scotland!

Members of the Celtic Trust slammed Dr John Reid as a "war criminal" at today's Celtic PLC AGM (19 November). 

The trust represents supporters who are pushing for a people's representative on the board of directors rather than the continued dominance of what they refer to as a "narrow pool of candidates of business people and politicians from which the boards of all large football clubs are populated".

They recommended that their members vote against Reid's appointment as the new Chairman of Celtic, and also voted against the club's major shareholder Dermott Desmond, over his opposition to a fan's representative on the board.

Part of the reason given for the trust opposing Reid's appointment was "his position as Minister for Defence during the war in Iraq".

The Scottish Government's first budget has set out what they have described as a "growth agenda" for Scotland. In truth what this amounts to is an attack on the most vulnerable and economically weak members of society as the SNP's progressive cloak is pulled back to reveal their neoliberal heart.  
 
Solidarity rejects the idea that creating an entrepreneur-friendly country, with slimmer public services, will lead to prosperity for the people of Scotland. 

Rally in Support of the Daycare Workers

Saturday 17 Nov at 11am
St.Enoch's Square, Glasgow 

Now in their fifth week of indefinite industrial action, Glasgow’s Daycare workers will join supporters in Glasgow city centre this weekend. The strike remains solid with all drop-in centres closed and the vast majority of service users and carers fully supporting the workers.

Scotland’s foremost fighter for justice and human rights, Aamer Anwar, will deliver a speech at the start of Solidarity’s conference in Glasgow on Saturday 10 November. Aamer will address Solidarity members on the current fight against “terror” legislation and the ongoing attack on civil rights in the UK. This will be his first public speech since he was accused of contempt of court by a judge, for reading a statement from the Siddique family following the sentencing of Atif Sidddique.

Solidarity Co-Convenor Tommy Sheridan will introduce Anwar on Saturday morning:

“Aamer Anwar is being targeted by the state for his political views and his unquestionable ability to express those views. Solidarity fully support Aamer and the Siddique family’s right to question the judgement of that recent case. We cannot allow the courts and judiciary to be used by the state as political tools to silence opposition.”

Solidarity Scotland's Socialist Movement 

Annual All-Members two-day Conference 2007

Sat 10th & Sun 11th November

Shettleston Halls, Glasgow

One year on from our first conference, Solidarity members and supporters will gather in Glasgow this weekend for a two-day, all-members conference.  All aspects of the party, from internal organisation to party policy will be on the agenda.  Solidarity Co-Convenor Rosemary Byrne looked forward to the event:

"It has been a whirlwind first year with an election coming just months after starting Solidarity, but we are building a powerful movement that is taking up the baton of the left in Scotland.  Solidarity members are at the forefront of campaigns and industrial action across Scotland.  Our party membership is growing week on week and we have become the natural home for socialists who want to challenge Brown's New labour.

"The conferences give us a chance to bring together all-members, not just a select few, to help shape the development of Solidarity into a real alternative for voters in Scotland, a party that is anti-war, anti-capitalist and pro-independence."

Writer Alasdair Gray and lawyer Aamer Anwar will be amongst those speaking at a public meeting on civil liberties being held at 7.30pm in Glasgow's Mitchell Theatre on Tuesday evening (13 November).

The meeting will bring together key figures from Scotland's cultural, community and political life to challenge the proposals for draconian new anti-terrorism measures outlined in the Queen's speech last week. The new measures include a bid to greatly extend the length of time that police can hold terrorism suspects before charging them - a move widely regarded as internment by the back door. The government has previously said that it wants to give police the power to hold terrorism suspects for up to 56 days - twice the current limit.

Trade Union members from across Glasgow and the surrounding area gathered last night (01 Nov) at St Stephens Church Hall in Glasgow. Members of UNISON, PCS, TGWU and CWU came together to discuss the ongoing fight for public service workers jobs, pay and conditions.

Fiona MacDonald of West of Scotland Solidarity chaired the meeting, she said:

“New Labour no longer represent the trade union movement and Solidarity are rapidly emerging as the voice for active trade unionists across Scotland. This was a positive meeting, well attended and with a shared attitude that this fight against Brown’s New labour is there to be won.”

Coming Soon:

NATIONAL SHOP STEWARDS NETWORK CONFERENCE

Saturday 01 December, Central Hotel, Glasgow 11am

Speakers include: Bob Crow (RMT General Secretary) Janice Godrich (PCS National President)

For Jock Penman’s report on the meeting click below