Scotland after socialism?

Beneath the EU’s affront to democracy in Greece there is still the debate about whether Syriza reflects a shift to the left or whether it is just a singular reaction to a single issue which unites elements of left, right, middle and non-aligned. There is a mirror of this in Scotland as the debate around austerity always seems to end up as a debate about the constitution or national identity, as opposed to politics.
    The contradictions couldn't be more obvious. The words say: 'fight austerity, stop privatisation' and the actions bring privatisation upon privatisation and decimation of local government. Many are willing to excuse that as the result of failing to 'grasp independence' or because 'Labour did it before'. More worrying are those who actually support the service cuts, privatisations, tax freezes and business tax cuts as legitimate while still trumpeting an anti-austerity front.
   It makes for a difficult job for trade unions challenging these issues. Elements - sadly sometimes on the left - continue to try to characterise trade unions as part of the problem (the 'old order' or 'red tories') rather than the only realistic resistance we have to a mainstream political consensus that backs at least some level of austerity.
    In light of this, our attention was recently brought to a three paragraph blog from writer Ken Mcleod  which deserves wider distribution and will no doubt provoke some controversy but hopefully an interesting debate:

People’s Assembly Scotland: Greens top pledge against austerity followed by Labour then SNP

#GE2015 Most of Scotland’s election candidates who responded to the People’s Assembly Scotland’s petition against austerity have also signed up to it, pledging “to commit themselves to oppose all Austerity Cuts.”
   Top pledgers were the Greens (14), next came Labour (11) and surprisingly in third place was the SNP with only 9 of its 22 responders agreeing to sign up to oppose all austerity cuts while the others issued a statement which included “We believe we can manage the deficit down, but without destroying the social fabric that holds us together.”
   Phil McGarry, Chair of the People’s Assembly Scotland, said: “With austerity right at the front of so many parties’ election campaign, we are surprised more candidates didn’t take the chance to publicly confirm their opposition to austerity. Given the public campaigning, we are even more surprised at how few SNP candidates were willing to actually pledge to oppose all austerity.”

Giving Scotland a reason to back Labour for social justice

As the dust still swirls after the referendum, the challenge is to bring the focus back to the Scotland we want to see now. Of course the ‘neverendum’ campaign will continue but at some point we will have to address what we do with the powers we have now and will gain soon.

If, as advertised, it has all been about getting the powers to deliver on social justice, some have raised the question as to whether it really matters which party is in power in Scotland so long as it uses those powers to deliver.

People's Assembly calls on Scotland to unite for more powers to defeat austerity

The People's Assembly has called for the energy both sides put into the referendum campaign to be channelled into ensuring that powers are delivered for Scotland that can be used to "reverse the austerity agenda".

The call was made as community activists, trade unions, trade union councils, politicians and other campaigning groups met for the People's Assembly Scotland AGM in Glasgow on Saturday 4 October 2014.

UNISON will continue to press for a just and fairer Scotland

UNISON's Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby has issued a post-referendum statement calling for the union to play its part in bringing Scotland together and campaigning for a just and fairer society. The first step is on 15 and 18 October when UNISON will join the STUC and Poverty Alliance conference and rally as part the Challenge Poverty Week.

Mike says UNISON will expect promises on powers to be honoured but warned about the debate getting bogged down in that alone: "...as we stated at the beginning of the referendum campaign the real question is how new or indeed existing powers are to be used for the benefit of working people." The full statement is below:

Asking difficult referendum questions is essential

Despite some recent press coverage, UNISON's position on the referendum remains one of challenging both sides of the referendum debate on how their plans will create social justice, bring an end to austerity, poverty and health inequality. We want to know what they will do about building social cohesion, a more equal society and a world without nuclear weapons.

The referendum differs from the devolution campaign of the 1990s. There is no 'settled will of the Scottish people'. There is a divide. So, more important that taking positions of Yes or No, is pushing home the difficult questions for both camps and getting answers for our members.

Avoiding a stooshie becoming a stramash

From a Scottish Correspondent: There's a referendum going on in these parts and it's caused in UNISON what we call a stooshie.

A leading UNISON figure has come out for independence (big surprise) in 'a personal capacity' and 40 Scotland national conference goers (out of 281 - big news) have signed one of those petition things for independence - also in collective personal capacities (if that is not a contradiction).

All this has precipitated a message on the UNISON Scotland website reminding activists that:

Police Scotland staff to hold a ballot on strike action

Police staff in Scotland are to ballot on strike action after relations between the force and trade unions have broken down. On top of existing job losses, members have been hit by plans to close four 999 centres, cuts in redundancy terms and and annual leave restrictions due to the Commonwealth Games. UNISON has long warned that the Scottish Government claim of 1,000 extra police is a sham as staff jobs are cut and police officers are used to backfill them.

STUC independence study everyone should read

The Herald newspaper has, well, heralded the STUC's 'A Just Scotland' comprehensive analysis of the key referendum issues. http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/union-study-on-union-everyone-should-read.23486896
    "It bypasses the entrenched positions, debunks the overblown rhetoric and provides a realistic assessment of various possible outcomes following a Yes or No vote", writes political editor Magnus Gardham. "Refreshingly, it comes at the whole question of independence with a genuinely open mind."
   On social justice, currency, Europe and economic policy, the Herald says the report "doesn't make entirely happy reading for either side. That alone should be enough to commend it to all open-minded, undecided or downright confused voters."
See the full report at http://www.stuc.org.uk/news/1053/stuc-publish-second-just-scotland-report

Where are the unions in the independence debate?

As the Scottish TUC publishes its second 'A Just Scotland' report today, the Scotsman newspaper queries why both sides of the independence debate seem so far to have failed to woo the unions on their social justice agenda. http://www.scotsman.com/news/andrew-whitaker-the-referendum-and-the-union-vote-1-3312820
   While it is the case that public pronouncements from both camps have been thin on the ground, there is no doubt that there is behind the scenes nudging and winking about how each settlement would best serve workers' interests. Nevertheless, the article is right in its main thrust that most of the effort seems to be going into getting big business and celebrities on board.

UNISON survey reveals Scotland’s care crisis

Workers tell the human stories behind the cuts as a UNISON survey exposes the shocking reality of Scotland's care services.
   “It’s getting worse. I don't know where its going to end, no one cares about the patient or client anymore”, one worker told the 'Scotland: It’s Time to Care' survey which was published today.
  Another warned: "“Clients are losing out, care is not given properly, clients are missed out or forgotten about, no one cares or listens to staff or clients.”
  Poignantly one worker said “I feel worthless.” If that is how they feel, what about the people they are desperately trying to care for?

Fair demands for a fair society – Launch of the People’s Assembly Scotland

There was standing room only as Shrewsbury 24 campaigner Ricky Tomlinson joined trade unionists and community activists in Glasgow on Saturday to launch The People’s Assembly Scotland.
   Building on the National People’s assembly, launched in London in 2010, the People’s Assembly Scotland will bring together unions, trade union councils and local and national campaigning groups to fight the austerity driven policies of the UK Government.

Scotland’s Future - Can We Have a Rational Debate?

“Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.” Bertholt Brecht
Even the most southerly reader of UNISONActive can hardly have escaped the recent pronouncements from the Scottish Government with regard to independence.

Another world is possible

This was the theme of a joint UNISON Scotland and North West international seminar in Glasgow yesterday. Delegates heard the optimism of young Cuban trade unionists, the ongoing struggle against the continuing human disaster of Bhopal, the human cost of the sweatshops that make our clothes and the arguments against austerity across Europe. "It's a robbery not a recession", delegates were told.
   Whatever the independence referendum result, the seminar underlined that working people in Scotland, the North West of England and indeed across the world have far more in common with each other than with the rich exploiters in their home countries or regions. The real division is between rich and poor, the powerful and the dispossessed, with the need to fight the inequality that transcends borders. See report on UNISON Scotland blog http://unison-scotland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/unison-scotland-and-north-west-join-for.html

Getting members ready for action on pay

Why did a decisive ballot 3-2 rejection of the Scottish Local Government pay offer slide to a narrow 0.44% majority against taking action to do something about it? At times like these we remember the Michael McGahey quote when he was faced with a ballot going down. “They aren’t ready yet. It’s up to us to get them ready”.

UNISON calls on councillors to back Fair Pay as strike ballot opens

As the Scotland Local Government pay ballot opens today, UNISON has emailed councillors asking them to support Fair Pay for council workers. Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby said: “We have asked every councillor in Scotland whether they think it is fair that their employees have been offered a miserly 1%, when the value of staff pay has fallen by more than 10% in the last three years.”

Unions and Scottish Independence

'With over 650,000 members in Scotland, the unions may become an important battleground for the Yes and No camps. What will make this more interesting is the unions will not be passive, for as the referendum nears, they are likely to put conditions on the price for any support they give to either side'. Gregor Gall analyses at the constitution debate in Scotland's unions. http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/opinion/comment/gregor-gall-you-won-t-get-me-as-part-of-the-union-1-2961519 - See more on the independence debate at http://unisonactive.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Independence

Scotland ballots on pay action

Local government workers across Scotland will be balloted on strike action after rejecting a 1% pay offer. The ballot, covering 75,000 UNISON members, will start on 3 July, giving time to build the momentum with two Fair Pay Days of Action in council workplaces around the country on June 11 and 25.

The June 25 Fair Pay Day will also form part of the STUC’s 'Austerity Uncovered -There is A Better Way' nine days of action across Scotland, focusing on the effects of cuts to services and benefits.

Council Tax freeze 'benefits the wealthy'

The main pitch of Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of today's local elections in England's shire counties, was to stress that more Conservative run councils had taken advantage of Whitehall subsidies to freeze council tax in the past three years than councils controlled by other parties. This populist appeal to self interest is echoed by Scotland's governing Scottish National Party. UNISON Scotland has published important research demonstrating the socially regressive and unfair impact of a council tax freeze at a time of massive central government cuts:
http://www.ukwirednews.com/news.php/1481753-Unison-claims-council-tax-freeze-benefits-the-wealthy

Unions must focus on social justice in constitution debate

It is a bit of a leap to extrapolate that less intense opposition means Scottish trade unions are ‘shifting in favour of independence’. Nevertheless James Maxwell’s New Statesman article does, perhaps inadvertantly, put a finger on the difficulty trade unions face in getting their issues across when both referendum camps might be happier with a more simplistic debate.