The vigil this evening

The Unity Centre banner

Over the past couple of days, Glasgow’s famous Red Road flats  - situated in Springburn, one of the most deprived areas of the city – have been the focus of huge media attention following the deaths of three asylum seekers, who took their own lives early on Sunday morning. The three family members, believed to be Russian nationals, were said to have been facing deportation after having their asylum application rejected. Much remains unexplained about the case, and rumours abound that immigration officials were at the door directly before the three took the decision to jump.  This remains impossible to verify though, and the Home Office have issued a stringent denial that any UK Border Agency officials were in the vicinity at the time of the tragedy.

What is certain to anyone even vaguely familiar with the subject, however, is that the UK continues to have a deeply inhumane and flawed asylum system. The three tragic deaths at the weekend are not an isolated incident and are only one example among many cases of the desperate measures which those facing deportation can be driven to. As a recent report from Swansea University showed, the vast majority of those seeking refugee status in the UK are not, in fact, here to steal our benefits, our jobs or our taxes, but because they’re genuinely fleeing persecution in their home country. But these er, facts are all a little bit too inconvenient for the government, who’d rather hammer out again and again that they’re the TOUGHEST on immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers… the lot o’ them, in a pathetic bid to appease the right-wing press.

Indeed, the fact is that asylum seekers are usually given the very worst of the stock when it comes to housing – the Red Road flats are used to house dozens of families seeking aslylum, through a lease to the YMCA, yet are so dilapidated that demolition is scheduled to begin in a few weeks. Not to mention that asylum seekers aren’t even allowed to work and forced to survive on £35 a week – which was cut from £42 last November, which pretty much sums up the attitude of the government on this issue.

Recently, we’ve reported on the ongoing hunger strike at the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in the south of England, and the lies that the government have scandalously been spreading about it. Meanwhile in Scotland, it was reported only last week that children as young as five continue to be held at the Dungavel Detention Centre in South Lanarkshire. A few years ago, when the dawn raids on refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland were at their height, Dungavel became the focus for huge demonstrations against the horrific treatment of people seeking sanctuary from war and persecution. It’s time that we once again stepped up the campaign against ridiculous asylum laws that see some of the most vulnerable people in society constantly abused and let-down by the system, as the tragic events of Sunday morning only too graphically display.

A protest outside Dungavel in 2003

Earlier this evening, around 150 local residents, community campaigners and those wishing to show their solidarity from across Glasgow held a vigil for the Russian family outside the Red Road flats.  The mood at the rally, where several asylum seekers spoke and told us their own experiences, was sombre, but beneath this grief lay a huge amount of anger at the dreadful way in which they are  treated by the system, and the politicians who do  nothing to help their desperate situation. On Saturday, the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, and the Unity Centre - who do loads of really good work helping asylum seekers on a day to day basis, through their centre in Govan – have called a demonstration in support of asylum seekers, and as a memorial to the Russian family who took their lives at the weekend.

NO DEPORTATIONS – SUPPORT ASYLUM SEEKERS! Meet this Saturday 13 March, 11.00am outside the Red Road flats, 63 Petershill Drive (nearest station: Barnhill), before marching into the city centre, with a rally at George Square. Facebook event page here.

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PCS in Glasgow [photo: john lanigan

 Thirty thousand civil servants (people who work in places like the Scottish Parliament, job centres, courts and tax offices) are on strike in Scotland today.
The action is being taken by members of the PCS trade union, over changes to redundancy entitlement which mean that if staff lose their job, they could also lose up to a third of what they would’ve previously been paid as compensation. The government is hoping to save £500,000 through this scheme.
What makes this so important at the current time, is that both Labour and the Tories are intent on pushing through massive cuts in the public sector, including job losses  - and now they don’t even want workers taking redundancy to even get decent compensation!

Meanwhile at the Student Loans Company – where workers are also represented by the PCS union – management are looking to lay off around around 150 staff in Glasgow – 20% of the total workforce!
Now, if you’re a student, you’re probably already pretty familiar with the SLC – last year, the issuing of loans was left in chaos, with tens of thousands of students starting the year with no money whatsoever. And these are the loans that have to be paid back, with interest, remember – no student grants for us! Predictably enough, it soon emerged that at the same time as students weren’t receiving their loans, senior executives in the SLC were getting massive bonuses – in some cases, up to five figures. And now, the same management have unveiled their plan to slash nearly 200 jobs across the country, which will presumably make the whole loans thing be even more efficient this year than it was last year, while hundreds of workers are thrown onto the scrapheap at the same time. Logic!

Mairi Cranie, an SSY member who works at the SLC in Glasgow, explained: “The Student Loans Company is cutting almost 200 jobs, the majority of which are in Glasgow. Forty-five of these jobs are moving from Hillington to Darlington at no saving to the tax payer. This will impact families across the west of Scotland and the service for both current students and people in the process of repaying their loans.”

You can sign a petition against the cuts at the SLC here: http://www.gopetition.com/online/34078.html
The PCS strike continues tomorrow, so get down yr local picket line and offer them some support!

Anti-fascists & local yoof block the route of the NF: Lewisham 1977

The dieing days of a Labour government, discontent bubbling away in the trade unions, a resurgent Conservative party, mass unemployment, cuts – everywhere – cuts!, the far-right gaining limited electoral success, the SWP falling apart .. fuck me, haven’t we been here before?
Well, um not strictly, seeing as SSY are all under-the-age-of-26 and that, but you get the picture. We seem to be heading towards a bad re-run of the late 70s, but this time, the economic crisis is that bit worse and we’re going to see the biggest erosion of the welfare state and attacks on the working class since like um… Thatcher as it happens.

And now, to top it all off, the National Front are back. Allegedly. They’ve been trying for a while to play on the back of discontent with the direction Fuhrer Nick Griffin is taking the BNP (not enough hitler worshiping, too many jews) with some limited success. But, I mean, it’s hardly like we’re about to see a resurgent threat of the far-right marching on our streets, victimising minorities, and taking over OUR chain-pubs though, is it?
OH NO WAIT, we already are -  it’s just being done under the, ahem, respectable guise of the English/Scottish Defence League, that’s all.

Now the Scottish section of the NF have announced that they’re having a wee get-together this Saturday, in Glasgow. All five of them, presumably, but it’s good to know that they’ve advertised it on the internet just in case they get a few keen new members. Do the fash never learn? Posting details of yr gatherings on the internet = a silly idea.

Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance are mobilising to oppose the National Front. They will be assembling at 12 noon at Borders on Buchanan  Street, Saturday 13 February.

Next Saturday, 20th February, is the date of the Scottish Defence League’s planned second outing  – this time in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance are calling a counter-demo to confront the SDL, assembling at 9.30am on Princes Street, outside Princes Mall.
There’ll also be some pish Scotland United ‘let’s listen to speeches by boring mainstream politicians about why teh racists are bad ‘ one, but you’re nae missing much with that.

Update: The PDF of the new issue is now available on the Leftfield page, spam it to all your friends!

The wait is over. The new Leftfield ‘zine from SSY is here and ready to go. For now, we’ve got a sneak preview, but check back in a couple of days and we should have a PDF up for download under the Leftfield page of the site.
The new issue is jam packed full of exciting features and articles, including an interview with the director of Palestinian hip hop documentary Slingshot Hip Hop, the launch of our new Sex Drugs & On The Dole campaign, a report from the frontline of the battle against Donald Trump’s golf course plans in Aberdeenshire, film reviews, islamogeddon, the shadowy figure behind the English Defence League, Nick Griffin being creepy, mephedrone, electoral turmoil, positive solutions for a socialist future… AND SO MUCH MORE!!! Get it from SSY members now for a very small sum. Like fifty pence will do.

It seems that Fearne ‘talent vacuum’ Cotton got herself into a little bit of bother yesterday morning, with a slightly careless reference to cotton pickin’ in an interview with Morgan Freeman, who as The Sun helpfully reminded us, is a ‘black actor’.
Now, in a Leftfield exclusive, we can reveal Freeman’s quick-fire response which listeners to the show may’ve missed, since, attempting to cover up any awkwardness her remark may’ve created, Fearne quickly bursting into a fit of giggles, before cracking a joke about lynch mobs.

The Tories new advertising campaign.
What the fuck were they thinking? It hardly takes a genius to figure out that an election poster consisting of a) masses of white space b) a heavily airbrushed portrait of the country’s biggest tosser & c) the words ‘I’ll cut’ is just ASKING to be modified. And modified it shall be, and I’m not talking about yr crazy internet phenonemon. Oh no, this is the real thing… so now, after the roaring success that was Leftfield’s Top Fifteen Placards of 2009, we’re very excited to present the… TOP FIVE DAVID CAMERON DEFACED BILLBOARDS IN REAL LIFE!!!111

Award for ingenuity.
 
Let’s hope so.

Whitechapel Anarchist Group, guilty as charged. video here!

Simple, but effective.

So what’re you waiting for… get out there and join in with this most exciting of new national sports!!!

Since June of last year, environmental activists have been occupying the site of a proposed new open-cast coal mine in Mainshill, Lanarkshire.
Despite vehement opposition to the mine from the local community, and the devastating environmental impact of open-cast mining  locally, not to mention the impact on climate change globally, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Coal and wealthy landowner Lord Home have pressed on with their plans to tear up Mainshill wood and proceed with the mine. Now… a conglomeration of big business, local government bureaucrats and a Conservative peer putting their own interests before that of the local community and environment… who’d have thought it?!

This video shows the hypocrisy and corruption of some of the politicians involved in the decision making process, and exposes the cosy relationship many of them enjoy with Scottish Coal, who operate on numerous sites across Lanarkshire.

Over the past seven months, those occupying the site have been resisting any attempt to begin work at the site. This has involved the sabotage and destruction of machinery, lock-ons and blockades, as well as maintaining a sizeable human presence in the wood. However, this morning (Monday 25 January), bailliffs acting under the instruction of Lord Home moved into to begin the eviction of the Solidarity Camp, assisted by police. This morning saw the arrest of several activists, with many more still dug into tunnels and in treehouses, and the eviction is expected to last several days, if not longer.
The camp have had full community support throughout, who know the devastating effects that open-cast mining can have first hand, with the landscape around the village of Douglas scarred by them.
As the utter failure of the Copenhagen talks to reach any worthwhile deal on carbon emissions demonstrated, capitalism cannot, and will not, sacrifice profit for the sake of environmental or human concerns. It’s now up to us to halt the potential environmental catastrophe that climate change will bring, fighting alongside local communties who’re facing the brunt of the system that pits profit above all else.
There’s regular updates from Mainshill Solidarity Camp on Indymedia Scotland & on their twitter at https://twitter.com/MainshillCamp.

Harry ‘the only wizard of the fourth international’ Trotter’s last adventure saw him face off capitalism at Hogwarts. Now, with the Christmas holidays, he’s headed north to find some seasonal festive employment…

CAN SOCIALISM SAVE CHRISTMAS? WILL THE PLANNED ECONOMY AND WORKER’S CONTROL TRIUMPH? Find out tomorrow! (if christmas happens, that means socialism won, btw)
happy christmas from leftfield x

You might’ve heard. Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name Of is the Christmas number one. Yes! It’s finally happened: we got a bunch of politckul rap-rockin’ revolutionary Maoists from LA to the top o’ the pop charts. ‘We’ being the disgruntled social-networking masses, fed up of the contrived, tedious pish that is the X Factor and it’s commidified, profit-driven attitude to music. And Simon Cowell. Cunt.
So what did it prove? That a lot of people don’t like reality television karaoke contests, enjoyed the idea of participating in a mass social media led prank, and were prepared to spend 79p to prove it.
Much else? The two days since Rage were declared number one have seen various proclamations of this being ‘the birth of people power’, the beginning of a new mass movement, the beginning of the end for shit music. Probably, mostly, bollocks?

#ratm4xmas may not herald the revolution. But it undoubtedly has been an eye-opener for tens of thousands of people: that huge numbers of people, acting together on an issue, can bring about ‘change’, however superficial in this case it may be. As socialists, we should surely encourage this mindset!

A quick look at the facebook group confirms this, and indeed, bluntly displays  that there’s vast numbers of, largely young, people desperate to rebel against something, anything, amid the chaos of capitalist crisis, mass unemployment and a corrupt ruling class. And in this state of utter confusion, the fightback against ‘the system’ has formulated itself in a battle against the monotony culture of commercialised, pre-packaged, throwaway pop music – in many ways, emblematic of the consumer capitalist society we inhabit.

This rage now needs to be channelled through more effective channels. Not by getting the Sex Pistols to number one for the Queen’s birthday, or NWA’s ‘Fuck The Police’ to Xmas No. 1 next year (awesome as that might be), but by translating anger against um, the ‘machine’ itself: capitalism. As Tom Morello of Rage himself stated:  “whether it’s a small matter like who’s the top of the charts, or bigger matters like war and peace and economic inequality, when people band together and make their voices heard they can completely overturn the system as it is.”

Yeah we all know that, as every wanky broadsheet columnist has been gleely pointing out at any opportunity, that Sony Records were the ‘main beneficiaries’ and made lots of money out of it. But that’s really besides the point… it was fun! And it’s probs the first number one single for insurrectionary-workers-peasant-movement supporting lefties since the Manics in 2000! And it may, just may, have raised that first inkling of class consciousness among scores of young people – of the ability to fight, and win. Venceremos!

“What you need is what they’re selling, makes you feel like buying is rebelling”
‘No Shelter’, Rage Against The Machine

By Andy McPake
Aberdeen SSP

The strike by Unite trade union members of  British Airways cabin crew – a strike that received 92.5% of the vote in a ballot of members - has been declared “illegal” by the courts.

The High Court called a halt to the strike as members who had taken redundancy were able to vote. This technicality is a relic of Britain’s draconian anti-Trade Union laws. Designed in the Thatcher era, the laws are intended to prevent a union from taking quick and decisive action, or, as today’s ruling would seem to indicate, any effective action at all.

This ruling will severely curtail the right of workers to strike.

In a gross understatement, Unite General Secretary Derek Simpson called the cancellation “a disgraceful day for democracy”. Even if all of the members who had taken redundancy had voted AGAINST the strike, there would still have been an overwhelming majority in favour of it.
The implications of this ruling are terrifying. Every time that a group of managers are facing a dispute in future, they will turn to their reliable friends in the courts to declare the strike illegal.

If they can do this to Unite, they can do it to ANY union.  Virtually all union ballots include a few people who have already resigned as the union receives no automatic notice of this; members need to do it themselves. As a former member of Unite, I was receiving ballot papers for elections three months after I left my job.

If this logic was applied to the rich and powerful we would not have a Parliament! Our electoral register is full of people who are not legally entitled to vote; from foreign students and people who have moved, to those who are dead. However, I do not anticipate the High Court will be declaring our expenses guzzling MPs  “illegal” anytime soon!

Any person reading the British press over the past week is likely to regard BA Cabin Crew as a collection of airborne grinches, determined to steal Christmas from Britain’s travellers. Absolutely no consideration is given to the fact that BA management’s job cuts, caused by BA management’s errors, are going to steal every Christmas for the foreseeable future from BA Staff and their dependants.

The vitriol that has been directed against the union members is awful. These workers are not ‘selfish’, as so many have called them. These are ordinary people trying to defend their livelihoods. You may ask if they could not hold their strike after Christmas; but what leverage would they have against management except at the busiest times? Would you rather they disrupted your summer holidays?

Perhaps you are even thinking that they should not strike at all. If you are, I ask you what you would do if your job was at stake? If your wages were to be slashed? Roll over like some supine fool in worship of your boss?  Or fight to defend yourself? The union used the only option that was left after all other forms of negotiation failed.

Let’s make one thing clear: British Airways Management are responsible for this strike, not the workers.