Solidarity Scotland’s Socialist Movement have selected their list for the Lothians region in this year’s Scottish election.
Leading Anti-War campaigner Pat Smith tops the list, confirmed tonight at an all members meeting of Lothians Solidarity. Pat has been active in socialist politics for 25 years and is on the National Steering Committee of the Stop the War Coalition.
Pat Smith said, after the meeting:
“I am proud to be selected to stand as a candidate under the banner of Solidarity, the only principled socialist alternative in Scotland.”
Leading Trade Unionist Willie Black is second on the list. A senior shop steward at Scottish Power, he is also on the National Management Committee of AMICUS. Willie, is also an anti-war activist and last year was part of the organising committee for the G8 protests. Respected activist in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Vanessa Fuertes, is third.
Tommy Sheridan MSP, Co-Convenor of Solidarity, welcomed the news of the list selection:
“ Solidarity are presenting the public with a clear choice of respected activists with a track record. Pat Smith will make an excellent Solidarity MSP in May. Solidarity’s electoral lists are bringing together some of the most principled, experienced campaigners and trade unionists in the country.”
Last month, FBU official Jim Malone was selected top of Solidarity’s list for the North East region. The other regions are still to decide on their lists of candidates.
Solidarity MSPs Join Faslane Protest
Solidarity Co-Convenors Tommy Sheridan MSP and Rosemary Byrne MSP will join elected representatives from across the UK and Europe in protesting at the Faslane Nuclear Base today.
As part of the Faslane 365 year-long protest, MSPs, MPs, AMs from the Welsh assembly and representatives from Netherlands and Italy will come together to blockade the site of illegal weapons of mass destruction.
Sheridan and Byrne will be at the base from 10.00 a.m. and hope that the protest by elected representatives will encourage others to get along throughout the year.South of Scotland MSP Rosemary Byrne said:
“Faslane is an affront to Scotland while we preach to other countries about the dangers of having nuclear weapons we have one the world’s most dangerous nuclear arsenals within a few miles our largest city.Faslane 365 runs until the end of September, everyone who opposes these brutal weapons should get along at least once for a day.”
Tommy Sheridan, Solidarity MSP for Glasgow, declared the trident missiles held at Faslane and Coulport “illegal” and questioned the reported costs of the planned Trident replacement:
“We are breaking international law and breaching the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by, not only having these weapons, but actively seeking to upgrade them and continue to threaten the world with them.The true cost of decommissioning the current missiles, replacing them, and maintaining them for 30 years is £76 billion.This money would be better spent on pensions, student grants and a decent minimum wage for hard pressed families.”
Tommy Sheridan Calls for Yes Vote in PCS Ballot
Solidarity Co-Convenor Tommy Sheridan MSP is calling for all members of the Public and Commercial Sevices Union (PCS) to back industrial action and vote yes on both questions in the ballot.
The go ahead to ballot over 280,000 members in over 200 government departments, agencies and non departmental public bodies comes as key services continue to suffer as a result of the government’s drive to cut 100,000 civil and public service jobs, the use of consultants spirals out of control and staff face below inflation pay offers. With the first compulsory redundancies already announced in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) the union fears that more compulsory redundancies in greater numbers will occur elsewhere in the civil service.
The ballot also follows plans drawn up by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which signal sweeping office closures and up to a further 12,500 job cuts, on top of a drive already aimed at cutting 12,500 jobs. The union believes additional job cuts above those already planned in other departments could follow as a number of government departments have their budgets cuts by 15% over the period 2008 to 2011.
The Glasgow MSP will make the call during his weekly radio show Sunday Morning with Citizen Tommy on Talk107 where he will be joined in the studio by PCS President Janice Godrich.
Tommy Sheridan said:
"Janice is appearing on the show to make the case for industrial action. Recently we have seen how a united workforce can force this government to rethink their plans. However, the drive towards privatisation and cutbacks from Gordon Brown and New Labour is relentless and industrial action is necessary at this stage, in my opinion. The recent compulsory redundancies leave the union members with no option other than to fight back."
Solidarity, Scotland's Socialist Movement are fully behind the yes vote and play a key role, among other left comrades, in the PCS union. PCS President Janice Godrich is a member of Solidarity as are NEC members Alan Brown, Cheryl Gedling and Danny Williamson.
The PCS Ballot, Trident and other issues will be discussed on the show which is broadcast to Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife from 10.00am on Sunday mornings. Those outside this area can listen live at www.talk107.co.uk listeners can call into contribute to the show on 08454 107 107 email to
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
or text to 8181 and start your text message with the word "talk"
Detainee "Q" in Britain's Guantanamo" Speaks Out
The ban on publishing the name of detainee Reda Dendani - formerly know as "detainee Q" has been lifted at his own request. Reda will attend his hearing on 12 January at SIAC (the Special Immigration Appeals Commission) where he would appreciate support.
We urge all Solidarity members and supporters to get in touch with their MP to ask for Justice for Reda. Further Details of how to get involved at www.sacc.org.uk
Here's Reda's story, in his own words.
Reda Dendani
HMP Long Lartin
24.12.06
I shall start this letter by announcing that I refuse to be called "Q" any more. I am Reda Dendani, 31, Algerian national, married and have a step daughter of 7. I’ve been living in the UK since 1998 as an asylum seeker. Calling me "Q" was not designed by the Home Office to protect me from the public. It was the opposite in fact. Labelling me like an object concealed the human being I am and facilitated the grip of allegations from the Home Office in the media.
The Home Office issued me with a deportation order 16 months ago on 11.8.05. This was after I had spent two and a half years in Woodhill and Belmarsh prisons, then freed on control orders after the House of Lords made my detention illegal under the Anti Terrorism Act 2001 on December 2004.
Basically the Home Office regards me as a suspected terrorist, a threat to national security, a dangerous man - my presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good……. These are big words, very shocking and frightening – well designed for the media but not supported by any proof or evidence – just allegations! This has destroyed my life. I would have been prosecuted if a fraction of what was alleged was true, as I was for a far lesser offence on which I pleaded guilty. This is to say there are enough laws to face any criminal in the UK but if you cannot prosecute someone it is simply because he is innocent and as such must be free to go.
Thursday 11 January is the 5th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. At least 430 people of more than 35 nationalities continue to be held there: without charge, and with little hope of obtaining a fair trial. At least 10 of them are from Britain - refugees who have been living in Britain but don't have British passports. The British government won't help them, but for most of them there is no one else to turn to. Enough is enough! Guantanamo detainees must be released immediately unless they are to be charged and given a fair trial.
Public meeting in Glasgow - Wednesday 10th January - Speakers include Victoria Britain, Tommy Sheridan MSP and Aamer Anwar
7:00 PM-9:30 PMPollockshields Primary School, 241 Albert Drive, Glasgow Will include a screening of the film Outlawed - torture, extraordinary rendition and disappearances in the war on terror.
5th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo. 10.30am-12.30pm protest in Edinburgh.
10.30am Assemble for vigil outside US Consulate, 3 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh. Orange boiler suits available for supporters. Letter to be handed in at 11.00am. Then move on to vigil outside the Scottish Parliament
12.30pm - 1.30pm Guantanamo - the tip of the iceberg -
meeting in the Scottish Parliament hosted by Solidarity MSP, Tommy Sheridan.
Solidarity, Scotland’s Socialist Movement have called for PCS members to vote YES to both questions in the industrial action ballot.
National action in November 2004 forced the government to abandon plans to introduce draconian limitations on paid sick leave and led to an agreement which compelled all departments to take measures to avoid compulsory redundancies.
But the announcement of 27 compulsory redundancies in DEFRA and the DTI in October 2006 shows that the time is right to move to a further national ballot. There have been a number of Departmental campaigns such as in DWP - where eleven days of strike action were taken against job cuts and efficiency measures - and in the HMRC against “lean processing” an attempt to bring so called total quality management techniques into the department. Every workplace is feeling the pressure. These measures are not about making the service more efficient - 21 million calls to DWP contact centres are going unanswered and only 50% of calls to Jobcentre Plus are being returned within 24 hours. Meanwhile, the estimated official error overpayment amounts on state pension payments have trebled in the last two years since 20,000 DWP jobs were cut – on route to reducing that to 30,000 . HMRC have announced that hundreds of its local offices are to be closed and a further 12,500 jobs axed on top of those that have already gone. Yet the Department, seeking to save £105 million through staff cuts, has spent £106 million on management consultants.
As we go into 2007, Solidarity, Scotland's Socialist Movement, looks ahead with confidence and optimism.
We continue to grow and become stronger in every region, city, town and village in Scotland, establishing ourselves as the only principled party of the left in Scotland. Offering solidarity with all those in struggle as we move towards what will be an historic election in May, we aim to return an MSP in every region of Scotland and a councillor in every local authority.
Campaigning for a break up of the British state after 300 years of union, we will do so alongside serious political activists and trade unionists. We will never engage in immature stunts, such as dressing up in Robin Hood suits, but will instead continue to focus and engage on the issues that impact on the lives of working class people with all the seriousness that those issues demand.
We will fight on the picket lines with the workers of Scotland and the UK, joining them in taking on the government’s agenda of privatisation, closures, cut backs and redundancies. We will stand arm in arm with anti-war protesters here and across the world. We will continue to stand in solidarity with resistance to ethnic cleansing and colonial occupation in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tommy Sheridan Brings in the New Year with a Toast to Cuba
Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan will celebrate the bells with a toast to the 48th anniversary of the Cuban people’s revolution. Almost half a century after the historic day when Fidel Castro and Che Guevara led the march into Havana, the Solidarity Co-Convenor will make it a feature of his New Year radio show on Hogmanay:
“The Cuban Revolution has been an inspiration to socialists across the world. They have shown what is possible, despite blockades by the USA and a hostile capitalist world, Cuba has improved the lives of working class people year after year. It is a testament to the revolution that such a small country sends more medical staff to assist in third world countries than the USA.”
The Glasgow MSP will be joined on his show by Scots folk singer Gilly Hewitt, who will sing a couple of songs including “Auld Lang Syne”. She has been a regular on the UK folk circuit for years and is best known for her classic 1996 album of Burns songs “An Honest Lass”.
Tommy will also use the show to call for his listeners, and Solidarity members, to give blood in 2007:
“Blood donor levels are at the lowest point for twenty years. I would urge anyone who can, to make sure that they give blood at some point in the New Year.”
Cuba, blood donors, New Year celebrations and resolutions will be among the topics for discussion on Sunday Morning With Citizen Tommy on Talk107 this Sunday from 10.00 a.m. The show is broadcast live across the east of Scotland and on the internet at www.talk107.co.uk.
Solidarity condemns, unreservedly, the execution of Saddam Hussein.
Despite the attempt of the Bush administration to depict this event as justice, we join the vast majority of people around the world, and in Iraq, in denouncing Saddam's execution as no better than a lynching organised and carried out by the US government. The so-called Iraqi court which tried Saddam and his co-accused was in fact an American court. The judges presiding over the proceedings were selected by the US, the laws governing its process were prescribed by the US, and the farcical nature of the trial itself - defence lawyers denied access to key pieces of evidence, denied access to their clients, the testimony of defence witnesses suppressed, the selection and replacement of judges - this was all engineered at the behest of a US government intent on rushing through a guilty verdict and execution.
That Saddam was not tried at a universally recognised and legitimate international court in the Hague is significant, serving to emphasis the illegal nature not only of his trial but of the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. The fact that his trial was curtailed before he could face charges relating to the deaths of men, women and children in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 was also significant, as by their very nature former US and British governments would have been implicated for their role in funding and arming Saddam when such atrocities were taking place.
Solidarity MSP Claims Executive Cold Turkey Plan Could Kill Heroin Addicts
Solidarity MSP Rosemary Byrne has claimed that the Scottish Executive plan to focus on “cold turkey” methods to combat heroin addiction could lead to more deaths and accused the Labour-Lib Dem coalition of “playing to the galleries” on the issue. Speaking from her constituency office in Irvine, the South of Scotland MSP said:
“I have seen heroin addicts who do benefit from going away to a centre to dry out, but when the treatment is over they return to the same environment in their towns and villages with limited support in the community. The result is often a return to heroin which can cause overdoses due to their bodies re-adjusting. Cold turkey on it’s own is simply not enough and might even be worse.”
The Co-Convenor of Scotland’s fastest growing political party has a bill in parliament that would see heroin treated as a social and health problem rather than a criminal one. The proposed bill is being delayed by the Parliament but will be considered at a crucial meeting of the Health Committee early in 2007. Ms. Byrne’s bill proposes a guaranteed, full, holistic care package for heroin addicts within seven days of seeking help and heroin on prescription for addicts in some cases:
“It is time for the Executive to stop playing to the galleries on heroin and recognise that this is people’s lives that we are dealing with and the lives of their children and families.”
Events Calendar
