Greece’s Fire Sale Proves That Neoliberalism Survived It’s Own Collapse.

The 2008 financial crash was seen by many as another example of capitalism’s self-destructive nature. Deregulation and the limitless pursuit of growth caused our interconnected economy to crumble. Again. There are no excuses- this boom and bust has happened before.

How the Scottish Parliament Voting System Works

There is a lot of confusion about how the voting system works and MSPs are allocated in the Scottish Parliament, particularly because of the regional list. The purpose of this article is not to tell you who to vote for, but just to explain how the Additional Member System works in allocating seats to MSPs in the Scottish Parliament. Another issue this will clear up that is thrown about that says to maximize the number of Independence supporting MSPs, you have to vote SNP twice. When you understand how the Additional Member System works and allocates MSPs you will see that this is not the case at all.

RE: Red Tories, Austerity Lite, New labour

SSP activist and student, Hugh Cullen, responds to an article supporting Corbyn for Labour leader. 

Having idols is dangerous, especially when they are still alive. Declaring yourself for an individual can lead to dissolution, or the heartbreak that comes with the realisation that they are not what you thought they were. The best examples of this come in the Labour Party. While I have enormous respect for what remains of the 'Labour left', I reserve the right to criticise Dennis Skinner, Owen Jones and Jeremy Corbyn and more for their continued affiliation with a party that has continuously abandoned the working class and socialism. 

While I share many of the beliefs of Corbyn and admire him as a principled and hard working MP, his attempts to revive the labour party are akin to drawing blood from stone.

Red Tories, Austerity Lite, New labour

Stirling Uni student and SSP activist Robbie Young argues his support for Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest. 

Why I've decided to rejoin the Labour Party -

As a SSP member and activist, you may think rejoining the Tory party in red paint is a strange thing to do but I have good reasons.

As many a young socialist does, when I awoke my political consciousness I immediately threw myself at the Labour Party. Keir Hardie. Tony Benn. Nye Bevan. Michael Foot. George Galloway. Dennis Skinner. Those were the people I thought the Labour Party was all about. I attended party meetings. I delivered leaflets. I tried to get my local candidate elected in 2010.

Scottish Socialist Party: 2016 and Beyond

SSP activist and student Dave Mundt gives his opinion on the year ahead for the Scottish Socialist Party and the proposed Scottish Left Project. 

The backdrop of the campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum provided the Scottish Socialist Party with a platform they haven’t enjoyed since their electoral success in the 2003 Scottish General Election. Healed are the wounds inflicted by the split, as a younger generation inject enthusiasm and hope into a resurgent party. Post-referendum, the SSP now boasts thirty branches across the country, with membership visible and active within their local communities. Our party carries a message of hope for the working class who has been long abandoned by a now depleted Scottish Labour Party. We are now maneuvering ourselves into a position from where can fight, and we have a lot to fight for.

Impending ‘New New Labour’ Forces The Scottish Labour Party To Go It Alone or Risk Complete Extinction

Decade long infighting has come to the boil, and Murphy’s refusal to resign in Scotland serves to further crucify their electability. Blairite murmurs south of the border can be used as a marker for things to come, further solidifying the need for a united left alternative in Scotland, past the SNP.

Over the weekend Peter Mandelson expressed an opinion shared by many prominent figures south of the border in the wake of Labours semi-
catastrophic performance on Thursday. The party had moved ‘too far to the left' under Ed Milliband. This analysis appears to be at complete odds with that proposed by many in Scotland, academic or otherwise right throughout the last decade.

Cameron’s Looming EU Referendum Threatens Everything We Believe In And More

The dust has just about settled on a bitter-sweet election night for progressives in Scotland. On the one hand, we smugly watched the Blairite, austerity-light, Scottish Labour party implode in a fireball of their own making. Beaten by an anti-austerity message that inspired over a million Scots to send a message to Westminster demanding change. Those who stayed up until the early hours, popcorn out, were even treated to the result coming in live from South Thanet, where Al Murray gleefully reacted to the news that the man beside him, Nigel Farage, hadn’t managed to make it to the House of Commons either. However, South Thanet was one of the marginal seats that the Tories needed to secure to get a majority, and they did. The Conservatives thumped labour in a masterful move on the chess board of British politics. David Cameron managed to keep enough to the right to bandage up the bleed of voters to UKIP while painting an apocalyptic vision of a Labour Government being controlled by Alex Salmond behind the curtain, pulling all the levers of our economy until we had borrowed and taxed ourselves to an early grave. The fact that that this worked so well in England, and the remarkable shape of Scottish politics today, shows the distance between these two countries is longer than the yellow brick road.

Not In My Name – The Struggle For Nuclear Disarmament

When the first nuclear bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, Robert J. Oppenheimer, one of the minds behind the construction of the atomic bomb, quoted Hindu scripture from the Bhagavad Gita; “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” It was in that moment that Oppenheimer saw that he had gifted humanity with the means to destroy itself. 70 years later, nuclear weapons, the destroyers of worlds, remain situated in various countries across the globe. Today, in 2015, there are around 16,000 nuclear weapons across the planet, each poised to launch at any moment, ready to be deployed 24 hours a day. We sit upon a perpetual knife edge, moments away from death, moments away from total destruction.

Statement on Stirling University Staff Redundancies

Stirling University SSP Society and SSP Stirling Branch welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision to back the University and College Union over Stirling University’s dispute with staff.  This has been a lengthy legal battle between University management and staff, and we look forward to a final decision in favour of the employees who were made redundant in 2009. This is a victory not only for the staff involved at Stirling, but for university and college staff across the country, particularly those employed under limited-term contracts.

Capitalism, Socialism and the Environment

An introduction to the economics that threaten our future.

Growth is how neoliberalism measures its own success. Every government, every bank, every supermarket and every cafe wants to grow their profits from last year and more importantly- out grow their competitors. This is Darwinist capitalism; where the profitable survive and the rest fail. Free market economists argue that this leads to ‘efficiency’- what it really leads to is low wages, corner-cutting and the exploitation of natural resources to maximise profits for the shareholders. As the Indian proverb goes, “Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money”.

Coffee Without Caffeine, Change Without Change: A Socialist Critique of The SNP

Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek  makes the point that in today’s neo-liberal society contradiction is the norm, people are increasingly offered “products deprived of their malignant property: coffee without caffeine, cream without fat, beer without alcohol”. Zizek argues that this combination of ‘pleasure with restraint’ is a fundamental part of the ideological framework that shapes our everyday lives;  and I contend in this article that the SNP’s policies equate to a similar ‘beer without alcohol’, change without change approach that we on the left must remain critical of.

The SSP boycotted the Queen's opening of Holyrood and took a republican oath in parliament.

Nicola Sturgeon told the SNP conference at the weekend that the SNP opposed the anti-democratic House of Lords, she also outlined their commitment to oppose the renewal of Trident Nuclear Weapons and said that the SNP wants to challenge the austerity politics of Westminster. As a socialist, I welcome all of this and indeed support all of these measures, however that is not the full picture. While the SNP are happy to slam the anti-democratic House of Lords, they paradoxically support the divine right of kings and believe the Monarchy has an important role to play in society, according to the First Minster the Monarchy operates as "a model that has many merits". With Trident too, the SNP have made it clear that they are against the immoral weapons of mass destruction and will always vote against any renewal; and yet they support NATO, a nuclear military alliance designed to assist US imperial interests across the world. The SNP have tried to position themselves as an economically ‘progressive’ party offering a different solution to the austerity agenda of Westminster, however at a local level the SNP have, like all the other main parties, slashed budgets of local authorities. The SNP’s economics in particular highlight their attempts to appeal to all, to offer the ‘coffee without caffeine’ seeking approval of folk like Bryan Souter while concurrently trying to appeal to the working class voters who are sick of Westminster austerity.  The SNP suggest that Scotland can both have a ‘competitive’ market-led economy and simultaneously have a Scandinavian-style social democracy with a generous welfare state supporting all in need. Research by Michael Keating and Malcolm Harvey in 2014 suggested that there would be two, distinct paths an Independent Scotland could follow: either follow the neo-liberal market economy (the Celtic tiger’ the SNP favoured until the crash) or the social democratic model with high taxation, a strong welfare system and state intervention. While Keating and Harvey never considered socialism as an alternative their point was very much valid- there can be no socially just neo-liberal economy, it’s against the very nature of the system. The SNP’s plans for the economy in an independent Scotland was one of their weakest arguments during the referendum campaign. They tried to appeal to the relatively affluent ‘Tartan Tory’ SNP heartlands while reaching out to the working class majority, (aided by RIC and the SSP) in the traditionally Labour heartlands of Glasgow, Dundee and much of the central belt. The result of the referendum was clear, the working class were much more likely to vote for Independence with the better off most likely to oppose it. Yet too much of the SNP’s effort went into appeasing the well off with ‘change without change’, ‘beer without alcohol’ pledges- Yes we want Independence but we’ll keep the pound, we’ll keep the Queen, we’ll lower taxes and so on- only to meet with failure. Despite the attempts to win over and entice the Tartan Tory demographic they overwhelmingly voted no (including Alex Salmond’s own constituents), while many working class areas voted in favour of self-determination.

Another recent contradiction in the SNP message has been their approach to the UK General Elections. The SNP, now with over one hundred thousand members are set to do very well in Scotland as working class voters rile against the long declining Labour Party that toxically stood shoulder to shoulder with the Conservatives during the referendum campaign. Current polls predict the SNP are to win at least 30 seats, some polls suggesting as many as 53. The SNP are pledging to be a voice for Scotland in Westminster and make sure the Westminster establishment deliver on their ‘vow’ of more powers for the 

Scottish Parliament. This is a reasonable position, however their approach to the Labour Party has again been a contradictory one. Sturgeon has recommended voters back the progressive choice: the SNP in Scotland, Plaid in Wales and the Greens in England. However the SNP know that there will be only two parties seeking to form a government, the Tories or Labour. The SNP as expected have completely ruled out any deal with the Conservatives but have remained open to some sort of ‘confidence and supply’ deal with the Labour Party. So while the SNP, quite rightly, attack Labour in Scotland, at a UK level they are willing to prop up a neo-liberal Labour government which has pledged to have ‘iron discipline’ when it comes to deficit reduction. The SNP of course pledge to put the ‘backbone’ into a Labour government and have committed to force Labour away from austerity. Yet the message is another coffee without caffeine solution: we want the Labour Party wiped out in Scotland but we want to see a Labour-led government in Britain. They want to play a part in a government led by a party they are apparently vastly different from, in a state they committed to dismantling. This really is taking the change without change message to the extreme, May will tell how many Scots buy this message.

So while we on the critical left welcome the demise of the Labour Party’s hegemony in Scotland, we must be equally critical of the currently buoyant SNP. We want a better Scotland, a fairer Scotland, with social justice, democracy, internationalism and ultimately socialism at its heart. The SNP like to think they offer this with their ‘beer without alcohol, coffee without caffeine’ solutions, but the message we need to tell people is it just doesn’t taste the same- change without change  is not enough, we want the real thing. Another Scotland is Possible, and we can’t leave it up to the SNP to deliver.

By Andrew Kinnell, Stirling SSP Organizer and Executive Committee Member. 

Holyrood Shouldn’t Wait on Breadcrumbs From The Smith Commission; They Should Pass The Legislation That We Need To Create a Fairer Country

Stirling University SSP Co-Convenor, Hugh Cullen, critiques the current UK bourgeois democracy that is set up against the working class. 

The racist former Tory MP, Enoch Powell, once said; “power devolved is power retained”. While we should ignore most of what is said by the man who once delivered his now infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech, this couldn’t be more true.

London fought off the creation of a Scottish Parliament for years and then only eventually allowed it because they thought that it would kill the possibility of independence “stone dead”; feeding the pesky Scots breadcrumbs to stop us stealing the loaf. Little did they know that they would put Scotland on the brink of a democratic revolution that would take the might of the British establishment to quell.

A quick analysis of the referendum results paints a depressing picture. The 45% that voted Yes were the poorest in our society, only defeated by a big turnout from the comfortable middle class and the elderly who were duped into fearing change. The 45% were inspired by the glimmer of hope that independence gave us; ready to take on the responsibility of running our own affairs and determining our own future.

The Yes vote was a cry for help. A cry from Scots who have been plunged into poverty by austerity they didn’t vote for, a cry from Scots who have been let down by Westminster for generations, a cry from Scots who don’t have a working class voice in politics.

While I am a democrat, I do not support the bourgeois representative democracy that Westminster allows us. I will not choose between one millionaire or another, in a first past the post race to fly down to London to claim expenses. I will not allow corporations to manipulate politicians into a race to the bottom over market deregulation and tax. I will not support the privatization of our national assets. I will not sit down and be quiet while our immigration policy is dictated by fear and xenophobia. I will not let our environment be destroyed in the name of private profit.

The inconvenient truth is that this kind of pseudo-democracy, propped up by the monopolised media, fails the working class. It allows those who have power to tighten their grip and discourages public debate outside the allowed spectrum. As Jim Sillars reminded us, on the day of the referendum the Scottish people had full sovereignty in their hands – they had to choose whether to keep that sovereignty, or hand it back to politicos in Westminster.

We were deceived. Lied to by the British establishment in their in their last great act to defend a declining empire. They have failed on almost every count of the promises that they made and we won’t let them get away with it.

When the SNP had the chance to nationalise the railways and abolish the bedroom tax, they didn’t. They told us that they didn’t have the power. Is this the same SNP who claim to ‘stand up for Scotland’? As the parliament of Scotland, Holyrood has the mandate to execute the will of the Scottish people. Real democracy is the working class taking what they need, and who’s going to stop us?

We don’t need a second Edinburgh agreement to have another referendum. We should call another referendum as soon as public opinion suggests that a majority supports independence; an inevitability after we get another government that Scots didn’t vote for and see the UKIP epidemic sweep across England while we continue to reject racism.

Now, the UK mainstream media are hounding the SNP at the thought of them being a junior member of a government coalition and government figures are howling that the union is still at risk despite "the question being settled for a generation". A far cry from the coverage during the referendum where Scots were encouraged to engage in national politics, it seems we can only participate via 'establishment approved', unionist parties. Independence is deferred, not defeated. But will the 2016 Holyrood parliament get it done? It might involve breaking the rules and I don't think that the SNP are up for it. 

By Hugh Cullen

Nae Passing! The Scots at The Battle of Jarama

SSP's Wullie Cunningham pays tribute to the Scots who faught in the Spanish Civil War.

International Brigade members captured after the battle of Jarama.

Friday 27^th of January marked the 78^th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Jarama. For almost a month, the forces of Republican Spain held the route to the Madrid-Valencia road the Nationalists sought to capture, though they were unable to stop the fascists from crossing the river the battle is named after.

Among those fighting were 549 Scottish volunteers (proporitonally more than any other nation who had men join the International Brigades) who were posted alongside the rest of the British Battalion. The International Brigades were used as shock troops fighting the brunt of the Nationalist advance. The Scots were among those to take and hold a hill, named “Suicide Hill” due to the sheer number of losses felt by those fighting there.

Among their numbers were men from North Lanarkshire, most notably Jock Cunningham, a miner from Coatbridge, who along with Frank Ryan, a founder of the Irish Republican Congress, rallied the remaining members of the British Battalion to hold the line against Franco's troops. In all, 11 men from North Lanarkshire laid down their lives in the fight against fascism.

It is important that we never forget these men in a world today where fascism is once again on the rise. Its normalisation in many nations, including the rapid growth of UKIP (who while not outright fascist, have attracted the support of many in the far right and have some quasi-fascist policies) in the UK, would sicken those who fought over seventy years ago to stop the same thing. As long as there is one fascist left on Earth, we must stay vigilant against them and never allow another like Franco, Hitler or Mussolini to rise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORP5-017gKM

As Woody Guthrie sang, we must all remember the valley Jarama and the men who fought to protect democracy in it, and continue their legacy in the fight to end fascism and totalitarianism.

By Wullie Cunningham

Young Working People and Activism

Stirling Uni Student and SSP Activist, Greg Brown, on young people engaging in politics in a post-referendum Scotland. 

It is perhaps the single greatest element of an inspiring referendum campaign; Scotland’s young people are engaging with formal politics like never before, and it’s wonderful.

But, whilst universities and colleges provide an accessible means to activism and involvement, what is being done to further enfranchise those who chose not to go on to higher education?  What can we do to make sure those young people working full-time, part-time, undertaking apprenticeship schemes, or still looking for work are at the forefront of our revitalised democracy?

Those from backgrounds where higher education isn’t as emphasised and encouraged are also the most likely to feel alienated from the political system and its inherently elitist institutions and practices. The existence of a political class, made up disproportionately of the privately educated, is something that creates an ‘us and them’ situation in what should be the most transparent and accountable of public relationships, that between a constituent and their elected representative. Certainly, qualified university graduates are both needed and warranted within the political system, but we must ensure that those from differing backgrounds – the vast majority of the electorate – are not left isolated from the political process as a result.

Working full-time, dealing with the stresses and strains that come with that can act as a means to inaction. Many young men and women working straight out of school know all too well the demoralising and debilitating nature of zero hour contracts and poverty pay. Many work 40 hours a week to still not be able to make ends meet. These are the people we need on the streets, in the housing estates and on the shop floors, letting their employers and fellow employees know that something needs to change. Whilst trade union prevalence and membership is extremely low in associated industries, and traditional avenues to organised action are stunted, the Yes campaign paved the way to utilise other means.

It is not enough to simply show up in May of any given election year, chap a few doors and hope that the same people you haven’t given a monkey’s about since they last voted for you, will do the same again this time. This is part of the political culture we must dismantle, prevalent within a certain party that are about to feel the wrath of Scottish communities who are sick and tired of being taken for granted.

Weekly public meetings and stalls allow people to hear and interact with issues both specific to their community and the nation at large, a simple, yet invaluable tool in keeping democratic fervour alive and well. The SSP for example, hold weekly stalls in town centres across the country campaigning for a living wage and workers’ rights. Beyond this, and more tailored to the elusive demographic this article speaks to, is schemes and programmes which have an emphasis on out-reach, not waiting to catch them on their way to work or from the shops, but going into communities, knocking on doors and asking them what they want to see change, empowering them to change it. It is through such programmes that footholds are created, one activist turns into two, and then a plethora of dedicated, young workers are indelibly involved with the politics they are passionate about, rolling out these ideas across the communities they live in, and in the spaces they work. This encapsulates the importance of activism within disenfranchised communities, there can be no preaching to, but discussion within, and young workers are the most effective means to sparking these much needed debates.

Most university campuses have societies affiliated to all three Yes parties, why can’t we give young workers a similar means to political engagement? Party youth wings must be at centre of how young workers cut their political teeth, providing them with a safe platform from which to learn about the workings of the political arena, where they can voice opinions and organise without fear of delegation from senior party members. The move from no political involvement to trying to have your voice heard amongst experienced and influential party officials can be a jarring one, and will put off many. Youth wings offer not only entry to organised politics for formerly disengaged young working people, but they also provide parties with fresh and invaluable insight, something which can go a long way to ending the old male, pale and stale politics practiced at Westminster and beyond.

Groups like Generation Yes and The Radical Independence campaign made it a priority to reach out to those in the poorest areas, to make sure they were registered and brought into the debate in any capacity they wished. This must remain a priority moving forward. The explosion of talented young political activists from working class backgrounds during the referendum can’t be a flash in the pan, and efforts must be made to secure this as a main stay of Scottish politics.

The Yes movement was at times the perfect hybrid between grassroots activism and formal political campaigning. It was innovative and vibrant, something that can’t be said for the way things were before. How we shape our society must not be an exclusive debate between ‘intellectuals’ and members of the formal political class, but instead include and emphasise the input of ordinary working people up and down the country; those who need a platform and means to find their voices. If we are to move forward in the spirit of the referendums democratic revolution we must ensure that those formerly forgotten know what politics can do for them. It is theirs to grasp and sculpt, with a power to enable and empower their communities more effectively than any elected official; there’s no better way of breaking the cycle of political dormancy than by helping our young working population lead the charge.

By Greg Brown