Leave or remain, our goal must be a socialist government

(First appeared in the Morning Star 22 Jan 2019) In the topsy-turvy world that is Scottish politics we have a left that wants to leave the EU and stay in the UK, one that wants to leave the UK and stay in the EU, one that wants Brexit and independence, and another that wants to stay in both Europe and the UK.

Strangely, elements of the right have many of these positions too, albeit for different reasons.

Celebrate the legacy of Nelson Mandela

(Morning Star 28 Aug 2018) The new confidence of the racist right, emboldened and legitimised by mainstream political demagogues, has added energy to a Scottish campaign to celebrate Nelson Mandela and ensure the lessons of the anti-apartheid struggle are not forgotten.

The campaign stepped up a gear on Saturday with a fundraising dinner graced by a virtuoso performance from Marah Louw, the South African singer and actor who famously sang and danced on stage with Mandela at the 1993 rally in Glasgow’s George Square. She even wore the same dress that she wore that day.

The Great May Day Cabaret - A night for Chris Bartter

My contribution at tonight's event. Thanks to Stephen Wright, Dave Anderson, Rab Noakes, Fraser Speirs, Maeve Mackinnon, Susan Morrison, Jim Monaghan and Richard Leonard for making it a great night.

It’s a great honour for UNISON to be part of this fantastic event as a celebration of our comrade Chris Bartter.

This tribute in many ways is no surprise given the massive contribution Chris made to the arts and the labour and trade union movement.

A £1 tourist tax could help mitigate the cuts

First published in the Morning Star 9/1/18. Despite all the campaigning, it can still be hard to convince people of just how savage local government cuts have been in Scotland.

You can try giving them the figures. Nine out of ten austerity job losses have been in councils. Despite Holyrood getting a £180 million budget increase from Westminster, councils in Scotland will get nothing this year.

Even a 3% increase in the council tax is a £135 million real terms cut even with the lowest inflation projection. Councils estimate they need an extra £545 million to stand still without even starting to repair the damage done by the years of silent slaughter of local services.

Yet many people remain unconvinced. That is, unless they have had a personal experience of the cuts.

Chris Bartter

For comrades who were unable to attend, here is my contribution delivered at Chris's funeral on 13 November.

This is the speech I didn’t want to have to make.

Mind you, Chris and Doreen and I had a history of speeches. Many years ago, when I used to get up to speak at NALGO’s Scottish District in front of 300 people, Chris would be behind me on the platform and Doreen would be sitting in the front row with the Glasgow District delegation – a row of faces with all the welcoming look of a Friday night audience at the Glasgow Empire.

Doreen would nod supportively throughout the speech but at a random moment she’d suddenly shake her head – totally throwing me and leaving me wondering where the hec I’d got the line wrong.

Not today, Doreen, please.

We must strive to reach beyond our fellow activists

First published in the Morning Star on 15/8/17: The value of many public service workers’ pay has plummeted by £4,000 since 2010. Tens of thousands of jobs have gone from public services in Scotland. The need for services hasn’t gone away but the jobs that provide them have.

Those left behind struggle to carry on with fewer resources. It is sad to see workers who used to pride themselves in their service looking increasingly demoralised. No wonder there is a queue when it comes to voluntary redundancies.

So why aren’t public service workers furious? Why did not enough members even vote in Unison’s Scottish local government pay ballot to reach the Tories’ cynical 50% threshold?

End of an era as Jane steps down after 30 years at the top

Scotland’s Jane Carolan, chair of UNISON’s key National Policy Committee, is standing down at the end of Conference after 30 years in the leadership of the union.

The journey to UNISON NEC member and member of the TUC General Council and its ruling Executive Committee, started in the 1980s in the Glasgow District branch of Nalgo.

As an Equalities Housing Adviser and young activist, her qualities were soon spotted by the political giants of the union at the time.

'Don't judge - We're no different from you' - powerful message from care experienced young people

Nothing beats getting the story direct from those who have lived it. And that’s what we got in a moving and revealing presentation from a group of care experienced young people at the Scottish Parliament today as they launched their “Don't Judge - We're no different from you” campaign.

The campaign booklet and DVD was produced by Aberdeenshire’s Young People’s Organising and Campaigning (YPOC) Group of young people working alongside the council’s children’s rights staff. It follows a previous campaign on corporate parenting.

Managing cuts or fighting for local services?

First published in the Morning Star on 21/2/17:
It’s budget season for Scotland’s local authorities, the time when councils tell us how good they are at managing cuts — or not as the case may be.

In the real world, jobs have gone in their thousands with remaining workers facing overwhelming workloads.

They are insulted by the government and media spin that cuts are “transformation,” closures are “estate rationalisation” and redundancies are “workforce planning.”

Is local government ready to fight back?

We have just seen another huge cut in funding for councils on top of massive cut after cut in the last 10 years. (UNISON Edinburgh Annual Report)

We now know that 87% of all the job losses in services under the control of Holyrood have come in local government.

The Scottish Government has unashamedly piled the worst pain of austerity onto local services while increasing its own share of the overall financial pot.

People's Assembly Scotland: Unite to defend local services

Speech seconding Tom Morrison's motion at the People's Assembly Scotland conference 17 September 2016. Motion below...

With the last of the Edinburgh Labour councillors who won power in 1984 about to stand down, I’m reminded of their slogan at the time proudly painted on the side of council vehicles: “Improving Services, Creating Jobs”. That seems like a hundred years ago now.

Tens of thousands of jobs have been cut in Scottish local government. We have not lost a vast army of bureaucrats, we have lost people.

More power for the people of Scotland? Don’t hold your breath

With a £15 billion deficit revealed in the Scottish government’s own figures last week, it may seem a bit odd to argue that the problems public services face are not just about money.

Funding is of course critical but so is accountability.

Does anyone remember subsidiarity? Those of us campaigning for a Scottish Parliament in the 1990s certainly do.

We campaigned for a subsidiarity that would see services organised and governed as close to the people as possible because we feared a sucking up of locally controlled services — no matter which party won power in the first parliament — into a central monolith.

We wanted a real parliament, not a pan-Scotland local authority taking over local functions. We clearly didn’t succeed.

Social work on the brink

This first appeared in the Morning Star on 15/3/16: My name is John and I’m a social worker. There I’ve said it. After all it is World Social Work Day (15 March).

It used to be that when you were asked about your job, you would say ‘I work for the council’. It’s perhaps a reaction to the false media portrayal of council staff as a pile of lazy pen-pushers that more colleagues are now proudly confessing their social work identity.

That’s the problem when you are trying to defend local services. People don’t always know the range of essential services councils provide. When they actually need one of those services, they find resources are cut to the bone.

 

 

Unionist and Nationalist labels stifling Left or Right debate in Scotland

I am bravely going to carry on eating the occasional Tunnocks tea cake. I know. I have no moral fibre. On the other hand I have tried to avoid using Stagecoach buses because of their predatory practices and their homophobic founder (and SNP bankroller), and I have had some success.

But I have failed miserably in refusing to watch the fitba on Sky despite Alex Salmond’s cosiness with Rupert Murdoch (oh, and Murdoch’s dislike for unions, democracy and all that namby-pamby liberal nonsense). I still recklessly watch Bond movies despite the fact that Shir Sean was born just along the road from me and backs independence for a country he doesn’t want to live in. I even speak to (and occasionally accept drinks from) my mates who unfathomably voted Yes in the referendum.

Austerity and Social Work

Presentation to Edinburgh Local Practitioner Forum 26 November 2015.
I want to focus on three main challenges that austerity brings to social work and social workers.
1. Poverty and demonisation of the poor.
2. The role and effect of social work, especially in local government
3. Resources - facing the reality. How do we do the best with what we've got?

1. Poverty /demonisation of the poor

There is a deliberate strategy to portray those in need as less deserving so services are not needed - or they become punitive rather than enabling.
Austerity - who is really affected?

Even Leaner Times To Come For Poor Scots

First published in the Morning Star: Unions and community groups are gearing up for twin demonstrations in Edinburgh and Glasgow on October 29 against another savage round of council cuts.

Glasgow faces cuts of £103 million and 3,000 jobs over two years. This follows cuts of £250m and 4,000 jobs lost since 2010, hitting learning disability and mental health services, home care, supported education for children, community work, cleaning, library services and voluntary organisations.

Job lost is service lost to Edinburgh's citizens

First published in the Evening News 21/9/15: It would be a shame to be in conflict with the Edinburgh councillors who spoke out passionately last week against the government’s vindictive attack on individual freedoms and trade union rights.

But conflict looks inevitable as thousands of staff face losing their livelihoods with all that means for their families. As a union we have one key power to defend them – the strength of people standing together. If it comes to compulsory redundancies, we will urge our members to use that strength.

The council’s Labour/SNP coalition has to decide whether it stands by its pledges against compulsory redundancies and privatisation. We are not sure all their officials get those pledges otherwise redundancy and privatisation might not be on the agenda. We detect a culture that all too often imposes failed private sector solutions on public sector functions, making service delivery worse. Ask anyone who has had to phone some council services recently.

Why I'll probably vote for Corbyn

For what it’s worth, I am (probably) voting for Corbyn. I suppose, because I agree with (almost) all he has said, that shouldn’t have been a hard decision. But it was.

I’m anxious about how the party can organise with someone who has voted against it in parliament so often. You might well argue that the majority voted against the party when it came to welfare debate - and so Corbyn and the other ‘rebels’ were actually voting with the party. Nevertheless discipline is so important to organisation.

The discipline (no matter how overdone) that brought the SNP to power. The discipline that held Bevan in a broad cabinet that delivered the NHS. The discipline that delivers action in unions.