Demonstration Calls for Troops to Come Home

BBC NEWS

Four hundred people attended an anti-war march in Glasgow to back calls for the withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq by Christmas.

Those addressing the protest in Pollok included Rose Gentle, 40, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra in June.

She attacked First Minister Jack McConnell for not attending the rally.

When challenged over that decision at Holyrood on Thursday, he said it would not be in the interests of the Iraqi people for British troops to pull out.

'I think the work of the Black Watch and other British soldiers in Iraq should be supported by everybody in this parliament,' he said.

Mrs Gentle, who watched first minister's questions from the public gallery, condemned Mr McConnell's decision to refuse the invitation.

On Saturday, she told protesters that she would continue her campaign until she got to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair face to face.

She said: 'He sent my son to get murdered and I don't want him to murder any more of the boys.'

Private Gentle was serving with the Royal Highland Fusiliers when he was killed in Iraq just weeks after completing his training.

Pte Gentle was killed while on patrol in Basra
The 19-year-old died after a roadside bomb was detonated while he was on patrol.

The rally in Lockhar Park, Pollok, also heard from Reg Keys, whose 20-year-old son Thomas was killed by a mob in Iraq last year.

The 52-year-old, who now lives in Bala, Wales, said: 'Like most of the nation I believed the hype and lies of weapons of mass destruction, I was told my son was going to war to defend us from the immediate threat of WMD.

'My son was lied to, the nation was lied to and I resent this because it cost me my son's life.

'These Black Watch boys are out there fighting for the biggest lie of the century. Iraq had no WMD.'

Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan said the UK Government should follow Spain's example.

'We have no place in Iraq, and if the Spanish government can pull out its troops in 28 days then our message to Tony Blair is to bring back our troops by Christmas, bring them out now,' he said. "

Sheridan: working class kids slaughtered for the bravery of politicians

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit Press Release: 28/10/04

Sheridan: working class kids slaughtered for the bravery of politicians

Trade Union General Secretary to address Pollok rally.

Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Tommy Sheridan today attacked Scottish Executive First Minister Jack McConnell for his refusal to accept the invitation from Rose Gentle to attend the demonstration in Pollok, Glasgow this Saturday 30th October.

Rose Gentle had written to McConnell asking him to attend the demonstration even if he did not agree with the call to bring home British troops so that he could justify his support for the continued occupation of Iraq. Rose Gentle was present in the public gallery of the parliament during First Ministers questions and gave a press conference afterwards.

The Justice for Gordon Gentle Campaign have revealed that Communication Workers Union (CWU) General Secretary Billy Hayes will address the rally in Pollok on Saturday 30th October along with the Church of Scotland minister John Mann who sparked controversy with his outspoken attack on Bush and Blair at Gordon Gentle's funeral.

On hearing that Jack McConnell will be in Glasgow on Saturday attending the 'Great Scot' awards, Rose Gentle expressed her disbelief saying; "Jack McConnell is willing to come to Glasgow to feed his face but can't spare the time to look me in the face."

Tommy Sheridan said after First Ministers Questions; "Jack McConnell has proved today that his courage is of the Tony Blair variety. "He is willing to fight to the last drop of everyone else's blood but he is not willing to come to Pollok to justify his support for the illegal occupation of Iraq. "Why is it that the kids of the working class must be slaughtered for the bravery of politicians?" [ends]

Bring the Troops Home for Christmas demonstration, Saturday 30th October Assemble - Pollok Shopping Centre, 12 noon (march off at 12.30 pm) Rally - Lockhar Park, Linthaugh Road, Pollok at 1pm

Outlawing Homophobic Hate Crimes

Sunday Herald

Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan said the objections raised by church groups were “disgraceful”. He said: “The idea that any group has a right to be hateful towards members of the gay community is utterly abhorrent. There is plenty of evidence to show that gays and lesbians are victims of hate-related crime, and they are deserving of respect.”

Group acts to help save city hospital

Evening News: "Lothians MSP Colin Fox is also supporting the campaign. The Scottish Socialist MSP today said: 'The case for keeping the Royal Victoria open is overwhelming. Literally thousands of psycho-geriatric beds have been lost in the NHS and the patients were sent to private nursing homes.

'Now there is no space there and the patients are being sent to general hospitals such as the ERI and being known as bed-blockers.'"

Corporate Tax Cheats

Talk on evasion of corporate tax - Evening Times

ACADEMICS and politicians were meeting in Glasgow today to discuss corporate tax evasion.
Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan is joining professors from across Britain to discuss the extent of the problem and possible solutions.
The meeting is being addressed by Prem Sikka, Professor of Accountancy at Essex University and an expert on corporate tax evasion.
Mr Sheridan said the Government needed to take radical action to deal with the problem, which costs the Treasury millions of pounds a year.
He said: "Professor Sikka estimates that corporate tax avoidance across the UK costs £85billion a year.
"Not only are big companies getting away with massive profiteering, but they are not even paying up the taxes due on their profits.
"It is time that those companies, many of which receive massive subsidies from the public purse, were taken into public ownership and the profits used for the benefit of the whole of society."

Sheridan: PCS strikers will get our help, assistance and solidarity

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 22/10/04

Sheridan: PCS strikers will get our help, assistance and solidarity

Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Tommy Sheridan tonight pledged the full support of the SSP and its parliamentary representatives to the civil service union PCS after its members voted to strike in defence of jobs.
PCS union members voted two to one in favour of a strike on November 5th against government plans to cut 100,000 jobs.
Tommy said;
“Yet again trade unionists are under attack from a Labour government, a Labour government now intent on throwing 100,000 PCS union members on the dole.
“In decades past it would have been Labour Party members organising solidarity with the strikers but now that task will be taken up by Scottish Socialist Party members and our parliamentary representatives.
“We will be doing everything we can to organise help, assistance and solidarity for these workers who deliver vital services and who are being treated outrageously by the new Thatcherites in the Treasury.
“Make no mistake about it, if Gordon Brown thinks he can treat these workers in the same way that Margaret Thatcher treated the miners he has got another thing coming.”
[ends]

Scots face shock rise in council tax

Evening Times

Tommy Sheridan, a Glasgow MSP and leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, said: "Instead of living in a fantasy world in which the council tax is magically set according to Jack's dreams, the executive should admit the game is up and scrap it."

Black Watch to Back Up US Troops

The Independent: "Tommy Sheridan, the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, was also outspoken in his criticism of the decision.

'It's bad enough young men from Scotland's housing schemes and towns are sent to Iraq to kill and be killed for Tony Blair and the Union Jack but they are being sent into even greater danger for the disastrous incompetence of George Bush who is pulling the world into catastrophe.'

Marchers demand Iraq withdrawal

Picture from Indymedia UK

BBC News

Thousands of protesters, including the grieving parents of killed soldiers, have marched in London to demand the removal of British troops from Iraq.

Up to 100,000 people joined in the rally at Trafalgar Square, organisers the Stop The War Coalition said.

Police estimated about 20,000 people took part.

Rose Gentle, whose soldier son Gordon was killed in Iraq, said: "It's time for Tony Blair to pull the troops out, innocent people are getting killed."

She added: "I believe that the government is to blame for my son's death for sending him to Iraq without enough training - he had only done six months."

Mother of soldier killed in Iraq protests after MoD blocks pension

The Independent

The mother of a teenage soldier killed in Iraq has condemned the Ministry of Defence after it ruled that he did not qualify for a pension.

Rose Gentle also called on the Prime Minister to withdraw British troops from Iraq and bring them home for Christmas as she announced an anti-war demonstration would be held later this month.

Private Gordon Gentle, 19, from the Pollok area of Glasgow, was serving with the Royal Highland Fusiliers when he was killed in a roadside blast in Basra on 28 June. But Mrs Gentle, 40, said she could not believe her son sacrificed his life but did not qualify for a pension.

'We got a pamphlet a few weeks ago about Gordon's insurance and it said that because he had only been in so long he was not entitled to a pension,' she said. 'If he was not entitled to a pension, why was he sent to war? It is not about money ? it is the principle. I don't understand why he can get killed in a war but he does not qualify for a pension.'

Mrs Gentle said she now intended to pursue the matter with the MoD.

Looking ahead to the demonstration to be held in Pollok on 30 October, she said: 'We are hoping for a big turn-out. We have got to get the troops home for Christmas. They should all be brought home. The boys do not want to be there.'

Mrs Gentle was joined at the press conference by her 14-year-old daughter Maxine, the leader of the Scottish Socialists, Tommy Sheridan, and the North Pollok community council leader George McNeilage.

Mrs Gentle invited the Prime Minister to attend the demonstration in Pollok to listen to the views of the community. 'He is getting a chance to send more innocent people to be killed. The people who back him, none of them have sons or daughters in the forces.

'Tony Blair can come to Pollok for the demonstration but he thinks we are just working-class people who should shut up.'

A spokesman for the MoD said: 'Private Gentle did not qualify for a pension because he was single and did not have any dependants. As such, his estate was entitled to a lump sum.'"

Rose Gentle: 'Bring troops home by Christmas'

The Scotsman

The mother of a soldier killed in Basra today launched an appeal for all British troops be brought home from Iraq by Christmas.

Private Gordon Gentle, 19, from Pollok, Glasgow, was serving with the Royal Highland Fusiliers when he was killed in a roadside blast on June 28.

His mother, Rose, hopes hundreds of people will march through Pollok this month to demand the return of soldiers from Iraq by 25 December.

Mrs Gentle said: “My son should never have been sent to Iraq in the first place. Tony Blair lied to justify an illegal invasion.

“He has the blood of Gordon and thousands of others on his hands. I don’t want another mother to go through my heartbreak.”

Backing her plans for a rally in Pollok on Saturday 30 October, Scottish Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan said: “Tony Blair talks of a blood price being paid in Iraq.

“But it’s not his blood or his family who paid the price. It’s working class boys from schemes like Pollok who end up losing their lives and limbs for Bush’s oil war.

“Iraq was illegally invaded and is now illegally occupied. I am backing Rose Gentle’s call to bring home all the troops by Christmas.”

Mrs Gentle met Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in August after travelling to Downing Street to deliver a letter protesting against the war to Tony Blair.

However just minutes into the meeting Mrs Gentle stormed out, accusing Mr Prescott of “talking rubbish”.

BBC NEWS

The Call goes out from Calton Hill

See more photographs from Saturday's Calton Hill rally for a Republic at the main SSP website here.

‘Parasites’ ridiculed at protests for independence

Scots Republic Urged in 'Alternative' Holyrood Ceremony

Rallying for a Republic

Republicans Gather on the Hill - BBC

Holyrood poet Morgan signs up with the rebels of Calton Hill

The Herald

THE poet laureate has backed calls for an independent republican Scotland just hours before one of his poems is read out as a centrepiece of the Queen's opening of Holyrood.
In a major embarrassment before the £400,000 ceremony, Edwin Morgan has signed the Declaration of Calton Hill, which has been drafted by the Scottish Socialist party as part of a rival celebration to the royal opening.
It calls for Scotland to be freed from the "hierarchical and anti-democratic institutions of the British state", and declares: "We believe the right to self-determination is an inherent right, and not a favour to be granted . . . by the Crown."
The 450-word credo, which has already been translated into Gaelic and Urdu, is the main plank of a party being organised by the Socialists on Calton Hill this Saturday at the same time as the Queen opens the Scottish Parliament in the valley below. The event has already attracted support from as many Scots artists as the official version.
Mr Morgan, 84, who was yesterday given a £5000-a-year stipend for being the national poet, or makar, said his sympathies were very much with the republicans.
"The poem I was asked to write was for the opening of the parliament, and it's about the building and the people who will work in it," he said.
"I'm not really bothered by the Queen liking it or not. It's not really for her, it's for Scotland in general."
The 50-line poem, which is still a mystery, will be read out in the new parliament's chamber by Liz Lochhead, the playwright, because its author is unwell.
Mr Morgan's ambivalence to the royal presence comes just days after another key performer said she was drawn to Calton Hill.
Eddi Reader, who will sing Wild Mountainside immediately after Mr Morgan's poem, said: "I am of the left. I really like Tommy Sheridan and I'll be sorry not to see him. Maybe I could sing at both events."
Although the royal opening will include Sir Sean Connery, artists Elizabeth Blackadder and John Bellany, and authors Christopher Brookmyre and Alexander McCall Smith, the rest of the artistic contingent has been filled out by TV comedians Fred MacAulay and Karen Dunbar.
However, the rival Calton Hill party has secured the support of authors Iain Banks, Alasdair Gray, Jim Kelman and Irvine Welsh, as well as actors Peter Mullan, Bill Paterson and Tony Roper.
Not all of them will be present in person. Mr Gray, who does intend to appear, said: "We do not want an independent Scotland because we dislike the English, but because we want separation from that union of military, financial and monarchic establishments calling itself Great Britain."
Mr Banks added: "I don't believe in going to anything that involves the royals; all that bowing and scraping just encourages the blighters."
A parliament spokesman said: "The makar has penned a splendid poem for the official opening ceremony. Like everyone else in Scotland, he's entitled to his own opinion."

BBC - Alternative Ceremony Mapped Out

Socialists targeting council tax

BBC NEWS

A bill aimed at abolishing the council tax has been lodged by Scottish Socialist Party Leader Tommy Sheridan.

The SSP said it wants to replace it in Scotland with a personal income-based service tax.

Mr Sheridan said the wealthiest 14% would pay considerably more while 80% of Scots would pay less.

He said the radical and progressive measure would cover existing council spending and also allow domestic water rates to be scrapped.

Mr Sheridan said: "The council tax is an unfair Tory tax which penalises the pensioner and average worker but pampers the well paid and wealthy.

"The Scottish service tax replacement raises more money than council tax but in a fairer way."

He added: "This bill is great news for pensioners and low paid workers in particular.

"It is a radical measure which will significantly redistribute income from those with most to those with least."

People were urged in May to give their views over the following four months on the Socialists' alternative to the council tax.

Party leaders argue it would see many low-income households saving up to £30 a week.

Labour said the proposals were "not credible" and that those on low incomes were protected by council benefits.

Mr Sheridan replied that research suggested 77% of people in Scotland were in favour of abolishing the charge.

Anyone earning up to £30,000 would pay less than they are at the moment, Mr Sheridan calculated.

All those earning under £10,000 a year would be automatically exempt from the proposed tax.

The Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats want the council charge replaced with an income-based alternative.

Rallying Against Health Cuts

Scotland on Sunday: "Addressing the rally, Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan said the 'patchwork quilt cuts' had to stop and called for more patient and public involvement in decisions affecting the NHS.

'We need a moratorium on any further cuts until we have a national plan about how services are going to be delivered,' he said."

Cultural backing for alternative to Royal opening of Parliament

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit Press Release: 03/10/04

Scotland's cultural community have turned their back on the official opening of the new parliament building and are rallying to the alternative event on Calton Hill organised by a broad range of Scottish republicans and the Scottish Socialist Party. Writers Iain Banks, Alasdair Gray, Jim Kelman and Irvine Welsh have joined with actor and director Peter Mullan and other leading members of the arts community to back the `Declaration of Calton Hill' which will be signed in a public ceremony at the same time the Queen is opening the controversial new parliament building. The extent of the backing for the alternative event was shown when the singer Eddi Reader, who will be at the official opening, expressed a wish to attend the Calton Hill event, saying; "I am of the left… maybe I could sing at both events."

Although organised by the Scottish Socialist Party group in the Scottish Parliament, the Declaration of Calton Hill is a non-party political event and the declaration has been worded as a basic statement of the democratic right of Scotland to self determination.

Best selling author Iain Banks said; "I don't believe in going to anything that involves the royals; all that bowing and scraping just encourages the blighters. I'm a citizen of Scotland, thanks, and deeply resent the imposition of being termed a "subject" of anything or anybody. "As for the Declaration, it has my full support. I rarely read anything that long - especially originating from politicians - without wanting to disagree with or edit something, but frankly I don't think I'd change a word. Well said. Actually implementing it all will be the hard bit, obviously, but then nothing that worthwhile comes without a struggle."

Irvine Welsh wrote in support of the declaration; "'It's time we got it together and started doing things ourselves rather than blaming London or Brussels or even the current toytown parliament, which is set up for failure, every time things go wrong. "It's my view that until we gain the sort of political maturity that can only come from sovereignty, we'll keep on making daft mistakes like the Holyrood fiasco. It's time to be a nation once again.'

Alasdair Gray added; "We do not want an independent Scotland because we dislike the English, but because we want separation from that union of military, financial and monarchic establishments calling itself Great Britain!"

Expelled SNP MSP Campbell Martin is also backing the Declaration of Calton Hill, he said; "I think this is highly significant and it highlights the new reality of politics in Scotland – while the SNP are in Holyrood bending the knee to the British Queen, I will be out on Calton Hill celebrating a different vision of Scotland."

Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Tommy Sheridan explained why the SSP Group organised the event; "We have no wish to parade behind a feudal figurehead who symbolises elitism, privilege and deference. "The basic principles that Scottish republicans believe in can never be put into practise while Scotland remains subordinate to the hierarchical and anti-democratic institutions of the British State."

The Declaration of Calton Hill is a 450 word document that commits its signatories to campaigning for an Independent Scottish Republic "built on the principles of liberty, equality, diversity and solidarity".

The Declaration of Calton Hill event will run from 11am – 1pm on Saturday 9th October with a signing ceremony at 12 noon. The full wording of the Declaration of Calton Hill is available via the SSP website; http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/

G8 to meet in Scotland

BBC NEWS: "Earlier this week plans were set in motion for a peaceful protest at next year's event.

A meeting was held in Glasgow by the G8 Alternatives, a coalition of organisations and individuals who are also planning a counter-summit.

'What unites us is our belief that another world is possible and that we need to have a massive mobilisation that brings together anti-capitalists, international development campaigners, trade unionists, peace activists, environmentalists, human rights campaigners and more to discuss, debate and demonstrate,' said a spokeswoman.

Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan, who attended the meeting, said that the G8 leaders had 'failed miserably' so far.
"