Justice for Carlo. Free the political prisoners in Italy.



Protesters demonstrated outside the Italian Consulate in Edinburgh on Monday 23rd December 2002, in solidarity with the 42 Italian 'no global' activists who have been arrested in a crackdown by the Berlusconi government. We also remembered Carlo Giuliani, the young man shot dead at the Genoa G8 demonstration. Charges against the carbinieri who killed him have been dropped.
The protesters chanted and sang the Italian partisan song Bella Ciao. They handed in a letter to the Consulate along with a wreath for Carlo. Despite telling police they would accept a delegation, they refused to open the door. Demonstrators will instead lay the wreath at the monument to the Scottish volunteers of the International Brigade who fought in the Spanish Civil War.

Sunday Herald - McConnell says no to leadership TV debate

Labour is keen to make sure Scottish Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan is not brought into the previous four-party leader format as a broadcasters' requirement for balance. Labour expects Sheridan has the novelty value to gain attention in next year's campaign, reckoning he could lead the news for up to four days during the final four weeks.

Edinburgh Evening News - Politics - Sheridan claims new MSP pay deal could save £4m a year

A NEW pay structure for MSPs could save nearly £4.2 million a year, according to Scottish Socialist Tommy Sheridan.

He wants backbench wages to be set at the average wage of skilled workers in Scotland.

That would mean MSPs dropping from £48,224 to £25,000.

Edinburgh Evening News - Top Stories - Shooting protest to target city consulate

Hundreds of people are expected to voice their anger at the Italian government’s release of a police officer accused of shooting dead a protester during last year’s Genoa riots.

Carlo Guiliani, 23, was unarmed when he was shot and killed by a police officer during the protests at the G8 summit in the Italian city.

The officer who fired the fatal shot has now been released without charge by the Italian authorities, angering anti-globalisation groups around the world.

The Italian government has also cracked down on activists involved in last year’s riots, arresting some of the country’s leading left-wing activists.

Monday’s protest has been backed by the Scottish Socialist Party and anti-capitalist group Globalise Resistance.

Protest at the Italian Consulate, 32 Melville Street, Edinburgh, Monday 23rd December, 4.30pm

McLeish cleared of code breach

Former First Minister Henry McLeish has been found not guilty of breaching the MSPs' code of conduct.

Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan claimed Mr McLeish had broken a promise not to use his golden handshake to pay off £30,000 he owed to the expenses office at Westminster.

The Scottish Parliament's standards committee ruled that there had been no technical breach of the code.

However, it also described the Central Fife MSP's behaviour as "regrettable" and said it was not within the spirit of the code.

Mail union ballot papers 'lost in post'

The Communication and Workers Union in London refused to count the block vote for Edinburgh branch secretary Derek Durkin as Scotland's regional secretary, claiming it failed to reach the union?s headquarters before last week's deadline.

That was despite the secretary of the Grampian and Shetland branch personally handing in the result to Aberdeen's main Royal Mail delivery depot on November 29 - a week and a half before last Wednesday's voting deadline.

Supporters of Mr Durkin, a member of the Scottish Socialist Party, said he would have been elected to the position, which involves representing about 15,000 postal workers and thousands more telecommunications staff, had the vote been included. Edinburgh Evening News

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Socialists urge minimum wage rise

The Scottish Socialists are calling for a higher minimum wage and a shorter working week.

Party leader Tommy Sheridan said public service workers should be paid at least £7.32 an hour andcalled for the introduction of a maximum 35-hour week.

Mr Sheridan said the changes would help eradicate low pay and create 24,000 jobs.

Edinburgh University SSP Society have a new website at
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/ssss/

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh counts cost of blaze

Fire chiefs have said that the army, who provide cover during the strikes, would have struggled to deal with the blaze had the firefighters been on strike. BBC

Sunday Herald - Analysis of Scottish Polls The main explanation for the trend over the past year towards a closed gap is not that the SNP is doing better but that Labour's support is falling and support for the LibDems and the Scottish Socialist Party is increasing. Sunday Herald

Poverty levels remain high in Scotland despite falling unemployment

Peter Kenway, director of the New Policy Institute and an author of the report, said:
"Of the 34 indicators that we constructed for Scotland, seven, like those for educational attainment, show improvement over five years, while six, including income inequality, have worsened. Disappointingly, the 15 indicators that have held steady include the number of children living in low-income families. As a result, the levels of child poverty in Scotland are now similar to those in England and Wales where they have fallen somewhat since 1999." Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Letter to the Herald - In defence of SSP

Whatever happened to the smiling, happy-clappy New Labourites of a few years ago? Now they talk and write in Sun editorials.

In reply to my letter pointing out New Labour's double standards on the firefighters' dispute, Peter Russell describes the SSP as "barmy", "odious", and "contemptuous of democracy" (December 4). At least we're not "fascist bastards". Well, not quite. Apparently, Tommy Sheridan and I - and our "dupes" - are "adherents of Trotsky who described social democracy as social fascism".

Personally, I'm not an adherent of any individual. The SSP is a new party that unites socialists from a range of different left-wing traditions. We prefer to look to the future, rather than dwell on the past. But if Peter Russell insists on dwelling on the past, he should at least take the time to read a few history books before parading his ignorance.

He asserts that Trotsky described social democracy as "social fascist". Wrong. This phrase was coined by Stalin when refusing to form a bloc with the German Social Democrats against Hitler. Trotsky opposed Stalin's "social fascist" theory and argued for a united front against fascism.

Such a slovenly approach to history seems to be one of the hallmarks of New Labour, exemplified by Richard Simpson's claim that the Fire Brigades Union would have supported Mussolini. The FBU would not have existed under Mussolini, who banned trade unions and jailed their leaders.

Which is exactly what some New Labour politicians would like to do, judging by their recent outbursts.

Alan McCombes, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow

SSP Conference

The 2003 Annual Conference of the Scottish Socialist Party will be held on
Saturday/Sunday 22/23 February at the Mitchell Theatre, Charing Cross, Glasgow.

The conference was rescheduled because of the international day of action against the war in Iraq, that was called by the Assembly of Social Movements, following the European Social Forum in Florence.

Herald Poll reflects anger over firefighters' row

Tommy Sheridan, of the SSP, and Robin Harper, of the Greens, would be joined by two colleagues and by Dennis Canavan, the independent. The Herald

The Electronic Herald - Letters

ISN'T it high time Westminster MPs modernised their working practices? Take, for example, the other PM, Peter Mandelson. On Question Time last Thursday, the New Labour guru taunted the firefighters with allegations that they don't work hard enough, they don't work flexibly enough, they haven't modernised enough. Some of the firefighters even have time for second jobs, for goodness sake.

Really? So how many firefighters have second jobs writing a monthly column for GQ magazine? How many have third jobs delivering lectures for £500 an hour? How many have fourth jobs working as company directors of advertising agencies? How many firefighters found the time to make 14 overseas trips to far-flung destinations, paid for by big business?

In between gallivanting around the world, running a company, writing for a men's magazine, and lecturing investment bankers on how to make money, Mr Mandelson is MP for Hart-lepool, for which he is paid £55,000.

According to the most recent register, half of all MPs have jobs on the side from which they personally pocket the fees. Indeed, Westminster is stuffed full of company directors, consultants, lawyers, journalists, broadcasters, and lecturers who, in between making money, have a little sideline running the country.

Are the taxpayers getting value for money from our MPs? Isn't there an overwhelming case for a thorough review of their working practices? Shouldn't their numbers be reduced? Isn't it high time they modernised?

Alan McCombes, Scottish Socialist Party, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow.

Strike will cost Labour seats, says fire union Tommy Sheridan, leader of the Scottish Socialist party, said old Labour voters were applying to join the SSP in their hundreds since the fire strikes began with a "Niagara-like" torrent of applications not just from disgruntled firefighters but also from ordinary voters disillusioned at the government's tactics.

Pointing to how the GMB and RMT unions had already cut their donations to Labour, the Glasgow MSP added: "Divorce proceedings have begun . . . The unions see Labour as a party that panders to and protects the millionaires instead of the millions."

Sunday Herald

For Scottish Labour, Tony Blair's gamble on this dispute is badly timed, with the election five months away. His MSPs face pressure from the left, with Tommy Sheridan and the Scottish Socialist Party working hard to benefit from the public support for the firefighters.

Stabbing of asylum seeker treated as racially motivated The Herald