Press Releases

SSP WELCOMES COMMISSION CONCLUSION THAT COUNCIL TAX IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE

THE Scottish Socialist Party today welcomed the conclusion reached by the Commission on Local Tax Reform that the council tax is unfair and ‘’must end”.

The Commission report, to which the SSP contributed, outlined three alternatives, one based on income, the others on land and property. The cross-party body believed any new system should continue to be one of “general tax” rather than a “system of charges for specific services”.

The Scottish Socialist Party has advocated an income based alternative for nearly 20 years now and favours a graduated income tax which rises as a person’s income rises.

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Colin Fox: closing speech to the RISE Conference

Comrades, RISE is the most important left unity project Scotland has seen in a generation.

Last weekend we reached another milestone in RISE’s development when we conducted simultaneous interventions into the Climate Change march in Edinburgh & the STUC Anti-Racism celebrations in Glasgow. Whilst the weather was foul the fact RISE was actively involved in both mass movements augurs well for the future and will not have been lost on our ‘dreich’ political opponents. This is the shape of things to come for Scotland’s Left Alliance.

The progress we have made should be a source of encouragement to us all. The programme we have agreed today represents the biggest challenge there is to neo-liberalism, warmongers, climate change deniers and unscrupulous employers everywhere.

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LABOUR REBELS HAND TORY WARMONGERS GREEN LIGHT FOR AIR STRIKES IN SYRIA

Last night’s vote at Westminster, where 67 Labour MPs defied their leader and backed David Cameron’s case for air strikes in Syria, occurred without the support of virtually all Scottish MPs.

The result however will not make Britain a safer place nor will it help bring the barbaric Syrian Civil war to an end. Scottish Socialist Party national spokesman Colin Fox watched much of the Parliamentary debate on TV:

Co-spokesperson Colin Fox speaking at an anti-racism rally

“David Cameron may have persuaded a majority of MPs to vote in favour of bombing Daesh in Syria but he did not persuade Scotland. His case was a poor one. He essentially argued that Britain needed to act now because the French Government had asked us to and because the Russians are helping Assad to triumph in what’s left of the Syrian civil war.

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CAMERON’S CASE FOR AIR STRIKES NO BETTER THAN TWO YEARS AGO

Scottish Socialist Party national spokesperson Colin Fox today rejected David Cameron’s plan to bomb ISIS in Syria describing the Prime Minister’s proposals as no better than the case comprehensively rejected two years ago.

colin_foxColin Fox said: “Two years ago David Cameron made a similar ill-thought out and dangerous case for launching air strikes on Syria. That time it was to help the self-styled ‘Free Syrian Army’ oust Bashir al-Assad. Today he argues for bombing Assad’s jihadist enemies the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIS]”

“The current bombing campaign which Cameron is desperate to join, Operation Inherent Resolve, has launched 8,289 air strikes so far and flown some 57,301 sorties. Yet none of this ordinance has halted the atrocities in the region or in the streets of Paris and beaches of Tunisia.

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FOX WARNS CAMERON AND STURGEON AGAINST SLIDING INTO WAR IN SYRIA

The Scottish Socialist Party today warned of the dangers of Britain “sliding into war in Syria” following reports Prime Minister David Cameron’s is preparing another case for airstrikes and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is preparing an SNP U-turn on military action in the region.

colin_foxSSP National spokesman Colin Fox said:

“While condemning the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people in Paris last weekend, the SSP does not see the indiscriminate slaughter of Syrian civilians as the appropriate response. It is not what the people of France or anywhere else are after. But that is what the urban airstrikes in Syria are principally achieving.

The knee-jerk conclusion that ‘something must be done’ is dangerous and foolish.

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SCOTTISH SOCIALISTS CONDEMN PARIS ATTACKS, WARN MORE WAR NO ANSWER

The Scottish Socialist Party condemns the vile acts of terrorism which have taken the lives of so many in Paris.

We also note that, flowing from the criminal war launched a decade ago by Bush and Blair, similar atrocities are commonplace across the Middle East and beyond.

Attempts to link the Paris attacks to the mass influx of refugees this summer is to blame the victims of Western policies for the consequences that they have visited on those who launched military interventions in the region fanning the flames of groups such as ISIS.

glasgow_vigil

The SSP stands four square with the thousands of people fleeing war and terror and repeats without reservation refugees are welcome here.

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Scottish Socialists Stand in Blantyre – SAVE OUR SERVICES

Sean Baillie is to stand as the Scottish Socialist Party’s candidate for the Blantyre council by-election on 10th December, the party has announced. Sean is an electrician who was born and brought up in the old mining town where rich working class pride still thrives to this day.

On current politics and his reasons for standing, Sean said: “We are in the middle of an all-out assault on the working class driven by the Tories. Public services are being slaughtered and workers rights hammered while unemployed and low paid workers are being squeezed further. People on social security, migrant workers and refugees are set up as scapegoats in an attempt to split us while money is diverted to failing economic policy and tax cuts for the wealthiest.

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SSP CONDEMNS ‘ENGLISH VOTES FOR ENGLISH LAWS’

The Scottish Socialist Party today condemned David Cameron’s ‘English Votes for English Laws’ Bill and reminded him Westminster is not the English Parliament.

Colin Fox, National co-spokesperson of the Scottish Socialist Party, reminded David Cameron that Westminster is not the English Parliament saying: “English Votes for English Laws is the Tories revenge on the independence movement. It is the prize Tory backwoodsmen in the Shires demanded following their victory in last years referendum.

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