Turning out to the annual STUC march – held yesterday in Glasgow – I witnessed thousands of people marching in the pouring rain (and it really was monsoon level) for over three hours, and rallying at the end of it. Watching everyone come into the park at the end, and then watching them keep coming and keep coming and keep coming, til even I got bored and went to find somewhere handy to stand, was immense. I got a bit sentimental.
Something is happening in this country at the moment. Ever since the Sheridan debacle everyone who is casually in favour of the Scottish left has dissed us for not being united, and I think this is pish. I’d rather have honest difference than tactical, artificial unity. But at this point in time there is an honest unity, because people are uniting in the face of a common enemy. This enemy isn’t as simple as David Cameron, it’s the threat that he and his ilk represent – the immense threat to the welfare state and the end of a certain way of life, a certain kind of society: a kind of society which many had started to take for granted, and are now turning out to fight for its continued existence. People in Scotland are no longer deciding what kind of country they want to live in; now they know what kind of country they want to live in.
Independence is broadly being discussed as part of the process of achieving this country, but not the way the SNP talk about independence. For us independence is one possible means to a much more important end – not just the right to choose who runs the country without having to vote tactically against the Tories, but the right to choose what kind of a country we live in, what its priorities are, who it values.
The Scottish left have despaired of finding one party behind which to rally, and instead have banded together without one, building coalitions of resistance, new working groups, community groups, and policy-making units as they went. People have organised sporadically and multifariously, have started taking things into their own hands, have started taking responsibility for what is being imposed on their neighbourhoods (Save the Accord Centre campaign, the Save Otago Lane campaign, the Free Hetherington, earlier the Tripping Up Trump campaign). In the face of an overwhelming, despairing feeling that we cannot do anything in the face of the political power that rains down on us, we have decided we’re damn well going to do something anyway.
And I guess that this is the reason that for the first time in my life really I genuinely feel proud to be part of this entity we call Scotland. Here the nation’s history is being rewritten – people are invoking Red Clydeside, the poll tax riots, the shipbuilder work-in and are relating these things to the current uprising in Scotland, in order to construct an alternative historical narrative. This narrative which is the true story of a people who did not need a political party in order to do something. It is a minor narrative – none of these things changed the world, none of these things stopped the onset of neo-liberal capitalism, and we cannot expect the incredible efforts being expended at the moment to stop neo-liberal capitalism. But these efforts are aimed at slowing the imposition on a people of something it did not vote for, of a way of life to which it does not subscribe – a way of life where the only value is monetary, and where only those who have money are entitled to the support and protection of the state.
Something is happening in this country that hasn’t come from nowhere, and that – if this radical history is any indication – isn’t going away. Scotland, no longer proud of its part in the British Empire, of its stake in British wealth and oil, no longer necessarily proud of its industries (although still of its workers) is creating something else to be proud of: a refusal to sit back and watch while the subaltern suffer.
It’s now less than a month until the return of SSY’s annual summer camp, Camp Secret Squirrel. Over the weekend of Friday 5 – Monday 8 August, we’ll be returning to a scenic hidden location in deepest darkest Galloway for three nights and two days of sunshine, socialism, camping and partying. And, if you’re 26 or under, we want you to come along too!
How much is it? Despite runaway inflation and rising costs everywhere else, we’re keeping the price the same as last year! It’s the best value weekend you’ll get all summer – £10 unwaged, £15 waged. And that covers nearly everything – travel there and back, the camp activities and workshops, and all your meals! It’s a good idea to bring some extra money though.
How are we getting there? Most of us will be getting a coach from Glasgow city centre, leaving at 6pm on Friday, which will then return from the camp at 11.30am on the Monday morning. If you live more locally, we should be able to arrange to pick you up in Castle Douglas and get you to the site.
What’s happening at the camp? Over the course of the weekend, there’ll be lots of different workshops and activities happening on all sorts of topics. Expect workshops on subjects including the situation internationally and the economic crisis, climate change, feminism, football, drugs, direct action and much more! The full itinerary has still to be finalised though, so if there’s something you think should be covered, or even a workshop you’d like to run yourself, then get in touch via the comments below or send us an email. After a day of workshops and hanging about and maybe even swimming, each night we then throw the legendary CSS party. If you’ve ever camped at a music festival it’s a wee bit like that, but with less arseholes, better tunes and a big campfire!
Hopefully reading this has got you as excited as we are for this year’s camp, and by now you’re surely desperate to attend. Keep checking the blog and the CSS facebook event over the next few weeks for further details, and in the meantime keep the 5-8 August free, or live to regret it for a whole year until the next CSS!
As SSY has already covered, the student demonstrations against cuts and fees have already brought French style occupations and protest to the streets of the UK – a long overdue development as far as we’re concerned. Despite the attacks on the Millbank occupation by the Tory media and the NUS Labour career ladder the reality is that last weeks demo was a well timed opening blow from the anti-cuts movement to a Coalition which has so far not ran into significant trouble. The occupation itself has in fact garnered sympathy from folk who you wouldn’t normally associate wi anti-capitalist rioting – Paul O’Grady advocated the use of fire extinguishers as battering rams to a cheering audience!
Let’s ensure the pressure is kept on these chancers next week, on the National Day of action, on Wednesday the 24th. Next Wednesday there’s gonna be action up and down the UK in defence of Free Education, available on the basis of academic merit and not the ability to pay. We think the movement should unite with school students as well, demanding no to cuts in schools and that we save EMA. There’s a variety of activities planned within the Glasgow area next week (post if there’s stuff happening near universities, ie Edinburgh!) which you can get involved in below,
- Students at colleges and universities will call for mass walk-outs at 11.45am next Wednesday 24 November.
These have already been called at Strathclyde & Glasgow Unis, where students will rally at 12 noon. Students can then march from their campuses past schools and colleges, picking up people on the way to come together in town.
- There will be a Glasgow-wide call out for students, from colleges, schools and unis, to meet at 3pm at the steps by the Royal Concert Hall on Buchanan St, Wed 24 November. There will then be the potential for direct action. United in one place, Glasgow’s students and school students will make their voice heard. Download the leaflet and print some out for your college/school/uni/friends here.
- The NUS & various student unions & trade unions have called a rally against education cuts at 5pm in George Sq, with a number of different speakers.
This weekend people are coming out again to protest against the tax dodging greedy megacorp Vodafone. At 10am at St Enoch’s subway, Glasgow (if there’s going to be anything happening elsewhere in Scotland this weekend, get in touch and let us know!) the people’s debt collectors will be meeting again to try and recover some of the estimated £6 billion in unpaid tax that Vodafone owes us all.
You might remember last weekend we were part of a group of activists that had a 9 hour picket of Vodafone on Buchanan Street, shutting them down all day. The reason for this is that it’s emerged Vodafone were hiding profits in a subsidiary in Luxembourg, and therefore managing to dodge paying tax on the huge amounts they’ve had rolling in.
When this multi-billion effort to defraud the people was found out by the government was discovered, the government took the generous decision that, despite their claims that the country is “broke”, that they didn’t need to bother recovering the full amount, and let them off with a derisory settlement.
A common question that people asked on the streets last week was simply, “Why?” This week, in preparation for more direct action, we took a look at why it is Vodafone was allowed by the government to get away with such blatant bastardry.
Vodafone are the 4th largest company in the FTSE 100 index, and is one of the most powerful British companies. But their tax dodging is just the tip of the iceberg, with all the UK’s biggest businesses in on the act of cheating us out of what we deserve. The problem didn’t come about overnight, and it’s not just the Tories fault. In fact, the Labour government was just as bad as the Tories at letting their pals in big business away with incredibly bad behaviour.
As Chancellor, Gordon Brown loved letting big time tax dodgers get away with murder, boasting to the CBI that they were using “not just a light touch, but a limited touch”. In 2001, he commissioned Dave Hartnett (who’s now the Revenue and Customs Permanent Secretary for tax, and ultimately responsible for the Vodafone decision) to review the procedures of the government staff responsible for catching corporate tax dodgers.
Dave Hartnett, the tax dodgers' best friend
The result was a “new, faster approach, focusing only on the most important issues”, a “collaborative approach”, based on “mutual trust.” Translation: we’re going to stop bothering our arses about pretending to enforce the law when it comes to big business.
The result was a string of bad news for those of us unfortunate enough to be forced to pay our taxes. Cable and Wireless got away with paying just £380 million for a bill which they’d set aside £1.8 billion for. Then, rubbing salt in the wound, the HMRC sold their own offices to Mapeley, a tax avoiding company which was registered in Bermuda!
The HMRC were forced by this bad publicity to tighten up a bit, but pretty soon bosses club the CBI was screaming that it was all so unfair. So in 2006, Gordon Brown asked the then head of tax, David Varney (who himself had been responsible for a major tax avoidance as head of 02) to set up another review to see how else they could give them everything they wanted on a plate. Part of the team coming up with new tax plans were Ken Hanna of Cadbury Schweppes (up in court at the time for hiding profits in Ireland), Jon Symonds of AstraZeneca (who had been caught out using transfer pricing to hide profits) and Richard Lapthorne of Cable and Wireless who we already mentioned. Unsurprisingly, the results were not tough on tax dodging!
They agreed there was need for more “mutual trust and respect” (a bit like how cops need to get on with gangsters?), and so they halved the time they would work on investigations on tax dodging overseas, many tax inspectors saw their jobs rebranded as “customer relationship managers” charged with giving “low risk status” to the “well behaved”, and Dave Hartnett promised to intervene personally, (which many staff felt would make them lose credibility in doing there job if Hartnett could go over their head, as he was to do with Vodafone).
The truth is that the HMRC is fighting a war against a nuclear power with swords and muskets. Big business snap up the best and brightest financial minds to execute the most complex and incomprehensible dodging schemes to hide their profits from us, and those out to catch them have just 600 staff to cope with over 700 dodgy organisations. When you take it into account these staff are fighting with one hand tied behind their back by successive Labour and ConDem governments, it’s not hard to see why some are tempted by the up to £40 grand a year more they can make if they defect from the gamekeepers to the poachers, and start working for tax dodgers instead.
That’s exactly what the director of the large businesses unit at HMRC, John Connors, did in 2007, jumping ship to become head of tax at Vodafone, with those he left behind to try and claw back some of the profit they’d been hiding abroad feeling “betrayed”. Not Dave Hartnett, who by this time was in charge, though. Dave kept working closely with John, culminating in the settlement that was reached that has so outraged anti-cuts protesters over the last couple of weeks. Connors brought intimate knowledge of the way HMRC was dealing with big tax dodgers to his new job, along with personal contacts there, that will have proved invaluable for those fighting the good fight for Vodafone to hang on to money they owe us.
Gideon hawking Vodafone in India
But was there more to the story of how Vodafone got away with it than just a culture of acting as yes men for big business? Just days after the announcement of the settlement, Chancellor Gideon ‘George’ Osborne was in India hawking Vodafone. Over there, Vodafone has another set of tax problems, where it’s been ordered to pay back $2.5 billion it dodged from another offshore deal. It surely wouldn’t look good to have people at the top of the UK government essentially acting as Vodafone salesman when they had two outstanding massive tax deals, and so many are suggesting that the government encouraged their end of the process along by letting Vodafone get away with it.
In the meantime, the government has cut the rate of tax for big businesses to 21%, which in real terms works out more like 17%, meaning that big businesses are paying less of a tax rate than you are in VAT or income tax, and less than small businesses as well. Decisions like the one made for Vodafone only encourage them to try and get away with even this ridiculously low rate – only 33 of the companies in the FTSE 100 publish where all their subsidiaries are, even though the law says they have to.
Indeed, for the heads of big companies, there is a personal incentive to dodge corporate tax. Company directors often pocket bonuses based on earnings per share, meaning that every pound they save in tax is more money for them. This shows why a “relationship of trust and respect” is never going to work with these daylight robbers – there is no amount of nice chat that is going to be more persuasive than the prospect of massive bonuses and billion in extra revenue.
It’s time to get tough with the tax dodgers, and if the only way we can make that happen is with direct action then so be it. The government claim they have no choice but to implement cuts, but they’ve made a cut with their approach to corporate tax, and that choice is to leave billions of pounds in private hands instead of what it should be used for – the benefit of society. It’s time to get out on the streets to show we’re not accepting that.
Meet 10am, St Enoch’s Subway, Glasgow, Sat Nov 6th.
THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. ACTION WILL COMMENCE WITHOUT FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE.
Despite being given ample opportunity to pay what you owe to the people of the UK, you have still made no attempt to repay the outstanding balance of tax which you hid in a Luxembourg based subsidiary.
Unless full payment is received by close of business today, Friday 29/10/10, then further action will have to be taken.
This may include direct action against your outlets, negative publicity and a total loss of standing in the eyes of the public.
Our Glasgow Department is prepared for action, and will be meeting at Saturday 30th October,8.30 am, OUTSIDE BORDERS (NOW ALL SAINTS) ON BUCHANAN STREET in order to pursue this matter further.
Yours sincerely,
The peoples debt collectors,
pp. welfare claimants, children at school, public transport passengers, the homeless, older people, students and everyone else getting fucked over by the same government that lets you away with not paying your taxes.
'Zombie marcher' Andy Bowden is capable of showing his opposition to cuts EVEN WHILE ASLEEP!
. . .at least on Saturday we did for a bit. While opposition to the cuts hasn’t got as cool in Scotland as it is in France yet, this weekend saw an important beginning for a mass movement to defeat the Tories and Lib Dems with an all-Scotland march organised by the Scottish Trade Unions Congress.
Over 20,000 people through the centre of Edinburgh the weekend after Gideon ‘George’ Osborne announced the government’s comprehensive plan for ruining your life. We were proud to take our place alongside all Scotland’s trade unions, as well as angry people facing cuts to services on which their whole lives depend.
Our materials for the day went down well, with socialist meerkats calling on marchers to Compare the Council Tax. With council tax set to become a big issue in the election campaign (the SNP want to continue their useless policy of freezing the level of it, Labour want it to go up, using the cuts as an excuse), the SSP’s policy of taxing the rich according to their income, so that most people pay less for local services but at the same time we raise an extra £1.6 billion to pay for them, is the only one that can deal with both cuts and poverty. Simples!
Welcome fool, you have come of your own free will to the appoined place. . .
Edinburgh also got completely plastered with our ‘Hey Tories, Gonnae no dae that’ stickers as well, which you can expect to see everywhere soon. Apart from these and some pretty homemade placards, perhaps one of our main political contributions was to popularise the chant, “Maggie Maggie Maggie, Die Die Die!” This brought a smile to the faces of everyone who was old enough to remember why it is all the forces of good in the Universe hate Thatcher.
Ending up in Princes Street gardens, the huge size of the crowd at the bandstand showed just how angry people are already, and the real grounds for a fightback there is. But when we all dispersed from the march, that wasn’t the end of the day of politics for SSY, not by a long shot, because we still had AN EFFIGY OF DAVID CAMERON TO DEAL WITH.
After some detailed tactical discussion in our political nerve centre Wetherspooons, it was ascertained that there were in fact some nearby Tory offices which would make the best place for the sacrificial victim to prove that we really are all in this together by burning for our amusement.
This being the posh heart of the centre of Edinburgh, we made our way past all the caviar and top hat shops to the bunker of the Tory occupation forces in Scotland, where Dave was to meet his ignominious end. Or so we thought -- but that was before a wormhole to the 1920s opened up across the street, and a very posh and disgruntled woman (with an amazing hat that made her look like a cockerel) popped out to put an end to the socialist ruffians daring to stand up against the fine gentlemen of Her Majesty’s Government.
YE SHALL BURN ME ONCE AGAIN?!?!
As the flames began to lick at Dave’s bin bag suit, she angrily demanded to know what we were doing, which surely was fairly obvious. She then intervened to bring the sacrifice to an end, but chose the method of blowing on the flame to put it out (we hate to break it to you, but that’s how you make flames get BIGGER). Realising this had failed, she then chose to KICK DAVE THROUGH THE RAILINGS into the front court of whoever is unlucky enough to occupy the premises below the Tory office. Assuming these are not just more Tories, then we can only apologise for the bizarre sight that must have greeted you of a half burned David Cameron on a stick, and assure you that we didn’t put it there!
More photos from the day:
Working class dogs hungry for a socialist message
. . . and he does!
Style and panache: decisive contributions of youth to the anti-cuts movement
Of course, Saturday’s march was only the beginning of the fightback against the Tory blitzkrieg, so keep checking back here for all the latest news about the resistance to the Tory occupation of Scotland.
MEEP – Treasury Secretary and Beaker lookalike Danny Alexander has let the cat out of the bag. 500,000 jobs in the public services are to go; that’s a brutal cut of 1 in every 10 public sector jobs.
This massive cull in the public sector won’t be the end of increased unemployment – any cuts in public service jobs have a knock on effect in the private sector, as public service workers who are unemployed obviously won’t be able to spend as much in private industries.
Price WaterhouseCoopers estimates 500,000 jobs could be lost in the private sector due to cuts – this means a combined total of 1,000,000 unemployed due to cuts by the Condems. Approximately 2.5 million people are unemployed just now – so these cuts will increase the unemployment rate by over a third.
These cuts will hit Scotland especially hard, where the public sector is one of the major pillars of the economy. Expecting the private sector to create jobs for people cut from the public sector is fantasy – if they didn’t create them during capitalism’s boom, there’s no chance now that its on it’s knees.
Fightback against the Condem muppets – make sure you come to the There is a Better Way Rallythis Saturday, at 11am assembling at East Market Street in Edinburgh.
Billionaire vandal and all round dick Donald Trump has controversially been awarded an honorary degree by Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
Trump wants to kick people out of their homes (with a little help from his minions in the local council) in the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire, destroying the important local dunes ecosystem in the process. This is all in order to build a multi million pound playground for fellow rich bastards -- a golf course, luxury hotel and various other things completely useless, unlike the home for people and wildlife it is currently.
Not surprisingly this has pissed a lot of people off. So the news that an Aberdeen based uni has decided to honour him has folk up in arms.
RGU have said the degree is for his exceptional wrecking people’s lives for his own amusement skills “business acumen” and “the future his company is planning for the North East of Scotland” -- a future of ordinary people kicked and a beautiful place reduced to an ecological deadzone for those with more money than sense to hit balls around with sticks.
The Trump Mafia Organisation has been subjecting local people to some pretty serious intimidation. And now he’s not only getting away with his unbelievably behaviour, he’s being given an award for it!
One man who was particularly unhappy was the former principal of RGU, Dr David Kennedy, who was a key figure at the uni from 1987-97. He’s handed back his own honorary degree in protest. He said (not mincing his words):
“It’s an insult to decent people everywhere. Mr Trump is simply not a suitable person to be given an honorary
Former RGU Principal Dr David Kennedy hands back his own degree in disgust
degree and he should not be held up as an example of how to conduct business. Mr Trump’s behaviour in north-east Scotland has been deplorable from the first, particularly in how he has treated his neighbours.
“The university needs to realise how strongly people feel about this issue. I can think of no better way to express my anger at the decision to honour Mr Trump than to return my own honorary doctorate to the university.
“I would not want to hold the award after Mr Trump has received his.”
This Saturday the Tripping Up Trump campaign is organising the March of Menie to protest about the decision, and Trump’s outrageous actions. It’s a great chance to come down and show your support for the people that live there. The march is meeting at the Balmedie visitor centre at 12, and marching to The Bunker, a plot of land bought up Tripping Up Trump. (See their ace wee film below).
In the words of the campaign:
The Fremen warriors are very upset about the threat to the Dunes
“Bring, friends, family, flags and noise for what is going to be an excellent fun way to show Trump that we will stand up to him. At The Bunker there will games, bagpipes and we’ll take a giant photo.
After the March we’re holding an exhibition to showcase the unique and picturesque dunes at the The Whitehorse from 2-5pm. Refreshments and snacks will be available.”
If you’re in Glasgow and fancy a wee day out, Tripping Up Trump have really generously put on a bus up to Aberdeenshire. It’s all paid for, so although they could do with donations towards the cost, if you’re really skint you can still have a nice trip to a lovely place on Saturday, and show your solidarity while you’re at it. Loads of SSY members are going, so it should be a good laugh. The bus is leaving from Glasgow at about 8am (early I know, but Aberdeenshire is a long way away, and it’ll be totally worth it.) Why not come along? Places are limited, so if you’d like a place leave your contact details in the comments and we’ll be in touch!
Last Saturday the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country played host to a major demonstration in favour of civil and political rights for the Basque people.
Thousands of trade unionists, activists and Basque nationalist politicians took part in the march, which was called after Spanish courts banned pro-independence marches last month, claiming they would have demonstrated “support” and “justified” the Basque armed group ETA (which in any case has declared a ceasefire). The second march which was banned was aimed at protesting this blatant violation of the right to assemble and organise for Basque people.
The march took on new significance this week though with another wave of arrests of Basque activists for purely political reasons. The marchers carried banners proclaiming “Yes to human, civil and political rights,” and “No to the ban on demonstrations.” You can see footage of the march here.
Here in Scotland we’re planning some action to demonstrate how angry we are about the state repression of the Spanish “democracy” against peaceful activists of the Basque pro-independence left. We’ll be taking part in a Basque Solidarity Campaign action at the Spain vs. Scotland Euro qualifier game next Tuesday (12th). We’ll be meeting at 6pm at Mount Florida train station to leaflet fans going into the game, and let them know some of the facts about what’s been going on in the Spanish state. Will be bringing banners and flags as well, so come down to give us a hand.
While Glasgow’s unlikely to have all the same problems Dehli has had with the Games, it’s worthwhile for Socialists to look at what’s happened with the Commonwealth Games in India. This years Commonwealth Games have had a bit more controversy than usual, and some of the criticisms of the Games in Dehli are applicable in Glasgow too.
Most of the controversy surrounding the games has been due to the possibility of terror attacks on athletes or spectators at the events, with some sportsmen calling for a boycott of the event on security grounds. There have been other calls for a boycott however, for very different reasons that haven’t been as widely reported in the media -- probably because they are less “glamorous” than terror threats.
Organisations of India’s poor and working class have formed a coalition called the “Anti Commonwealth Games Front”, opposing the way the devastating effect the games have had on thousands of India’s poorest citizens, which are outlined below,
1. In the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, the city has seen the most blatant violation of human rights of the urban poor.
• Around 200,000 – 250,000 people have been rendered homeless and had their homes demolished due to the Games.
• Destitute persons (‘beggars’) have been rounded up from the streets. Additional police force has been sought to “catch them all.” Many ‘beggars’ have been sent back to their home states after serving prison sentences. They are being hidden away in parks because the Delhi government does not want foreigners to see Delhi’s poor. The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act 1959 has been used to arbitrarily arrest and detain the homeless.
• Migrant workers have been threatened and terrorised to leave the city. Domestic workers, drivers, plumbers and other workers are being packed off to railway stations in an attempt to ‘clean-up’ the city.
• 300,000 street vendors have already lost their livelihoods to the Games. Cart-pullers, waste-pickers, head-loaders, balloon sellers, cobblers, street-food vendors and other informal sector workers are being denied their right to work and livelihood. Since they are not able to earn their daily wage, they are starving as they have no money to buy food. All dhabas (eateries) on the Games routes have been closed for security reasons. Weekly markets in the vicinity of stadiums have been banned for the duration of the Games.
• Workers at the Commonwealth Games construction sites have seen some of the most widespread violation of human rights. The relentless toil of starving labourers has created the new infrastructure in Delhi. But workers have been forced to work day and night, and yet minimum wages and overtime wages have not been paid to them. Some labourers have lost their lives due to the hazardous working conditions. Child labour has also been involved in some Games projects.
• Women and young girls have been trafficked from other states into Delhi for sex work during the Commonwealth Games.
2. The government has completely lost its sense of priorities. While Rs. 70,000 to 100,000 crore (US$ 15 – 21 billion) are being spent on hosting a twelve day sporting extravaganza,
• The budgetary allocation for Indira Awas Yojna (2010-11) is a mere Rs. 10,000 crore [1 crore = 10 million]; for Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana (2010-2011) it is only Rs. 1,270 crore; and for ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) it is Rs. 8,700 crore. • The annual budget of Department of Revenue, Government of Delhi for shelters for the homeless has been Rs. 60 lakh for the last 10 years, while crores are being spent on resurfacing and beautification of streets of Delhi. Rs. 24.42 crore are being spent on beautification of Mehrauli Badarpur Road and the per kilometre cost of beautifying Subramania Bharti Marg is Rs. 1.28 crore.
3. India is a poor country and cannot afford this kind of wastage of precious resources.
• 40% of the world’s starvation-affected people live in India.
• More than 320 million people in India are unable to manage three square meals a day.
• More than 5,000 children die every day from malnourishment.
• 5.6 crore children either don’t go to school or drop out due to poverty.
4. The claim that by hosting the Commonwealth Games, India’s performance in sports will improve, is completely false. For many schools across India a playground is a distant dream for the children. Moreover the plight of most Indian athletes is dismal if not pathetic. India has spent at least Rs. 4500 crore on renovating stadiums for the Games. This money could have been more wisely spent to improve facilities for sportspersons across the country.
5. Residents of Delhi have had to put up with a lot of inconveniences to host an event they were not consulted about and did not ask for. The city residents will eventually pay for this sporting event. The Delhi Government has gone bankrupt because of wanton spending in the name of the Games. The city has become much more expensive and taxes have increased.
6. It has been reported that CWG is being counted as one of the biggest corruption scandals in the country. The government instead of providing accountability for the financial irregularities is focusing its attention on the success of the Games under the garb of ‘national pride.’ However twisted the understanding of ‘national pride’ may be, how can Indians support or be enthused about a sporting event that is making a selected few richer?
7. Rs. 744 crore meant for Scheduled Castes in Delhi has been diverted to meet the Games related costs, in complete violation of the Special Component Plan and the 2006 Planning Commission Guidelines.
8. Every decision relating to the Commonwealth Games has been taken in secrecy and in violation of the democratic norms of the country. The permission to bid for the Games was taken under Rule 12 (one line); the decision to hand over the Commonwealth Games Village to Delhi University to be used as a hostel was secretly reversed; the decision to evict students from hostels; the decision to reserve special lanes for CWG participants, was not the result of any democratic procedures.
They’ve protested with calls to “Boycott the poverty games”, and demands for “Schools not Stadiums”. Theres also criticisms of the treatment of workers at the Commonwealth Games sites, with 2 workers still in a coma after a footbridge collapsed.
Alongside these criticisms of the excessive money spent on the games and mass evictions, there have been protests against the CEO of the Games, Mike Hooper.
Effigies of Hooper have been burned by protesters calling him a racist, for attacking Delhi’s “population hazard” after officials refused to shut down roads and use them exclusively for the Games -- causing more disruption for ordinary citizens of Delhi and isolating them even more from the games. Hooper’s also been criticised for the money he’s alleged to be making out of the games -- reported to be up to $600,000.
It’s unlikely Glasgow will see the same levels of strife as Dehli when the Games come here in 2014. But there are similar practices to Delhi being enacted, with one resident of Dalmarnock being threatened with eviction. Margaret Jaconelli, a resident in the cities east end is being threatened with a compulsory purchase order that would seize her house, which she has lived in for 34 years.
You may have heard of compulsory purchase orders before -- they’re what Aberdeenshire Council and Donald Trump would like to use to seize folks houses in Aberdeenshire so that they can build a golf course there.
Mrs Jaconelli has been offered a paltry 30k for her house, which is in sharp contrast to how Glasgow City Council dealt with multimillionaire property developer Mayfair. Mayfair’s property developer Charles Price was able to negotiate with the Council and sell his land for a whopping £20 million quid (with the tab picked up by the taxpayer). This is despite Price buying the land for only £8 million, and the fact that the Council could have used a Compulsory Purchase Order on his land as they have done to Mrs Jaconelli. Glasgow City Council’s eviction has been backed by the First Minister, Alex Salmond leaving Mrs Jaconelli to face the oppositon of both a Labour run city council and a national SNP government.
The facts are that the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and Glasgow are not being carried out in the wishes and for the benefit of the majority of the local population, but in the interests of prestige and “soft power” by different forces. Soft power is when countries or institutions try to garner influence and standing in ways other than outright warfare or sabotage -- for example, space projects, international aid, and in this case, sporting events.
The best example of this in recent times was the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, which China’s leadership used to grandstand their position as a major superpower. Like Delhi, these games went alongside evictions of the poor with little if any compensation. China’s continuing to display soft power by expanding it’s space programme -- despite the abysmal safety records in many Chinese industries.
India wants to use the Commonwealth Games to boost it’s soft power the same way China used the Olympics. India is already growing in influence across Asia, and is one of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) a group of four nations with growing economies that want to expand their own influence regionally and globally, the same way the US and the EU does.
Obviously Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games are a bit different to Delhi’s but it’s likely that the virtual one party state that is Glasgow City Council want to use the games to promote their own gentrified, shiny, shopping friendly version of the city -- regardless of the effects it has on folk like Mrs Jaconelli.
The Games itself is also a display of soft power by the UK -- the Commonwealth is a collection of countries almost all of whom were at one point part of the British Empire. Having the Commonwealth allows the UK to maintain soft power over it’s former colonies in international relations, conflict and trade etc.
Very few of the athletes at these games will be concerned about a lot of the international and social issues in Dehli and Glasgow the Games have brought up and caused -- most will be focused on trying to win their own personal battles in their own events. But if sporting events are going to be made accessible and attractive to the majority of people in the world, they need to ditch the practice of putting the prestige of different countries at the expense of their poorest citizens and workers.
The Popular Olympiad, an alternative to the 1936 Olympics hosted in fascist Germany.
Turning out to the annual STUC march – held yesterday in Glasgow – I witnessed thousands of people marching in the pouring rain (and it really was monsoon level) for over three hours, and rallying at the end of it. Watching everyone come into the park at the end, and then watching them keep coming and keep coming and keep coming, til even I got bored and went to find somewhere handy to stand, was immense. I got a bit sentimental.
These have already been called at Strathclyde & 
This weekend people are coming out again to protest against the tax dodging greedy megacorp Vodafone. At 10am at St Enoch’s subway, Glasgow (if there’s going to be anything happening elsewhere in Scotland this weekend, get in touch and let us know!) the people’s debt collectors will be meeting again to try and recover some of the estimated £6 billion in unpaid tax that Vodafone owes us all.
Dear Vodafone,
Billionaire vandal and all round dick Donald Trump has controversially been awarded an honorary degree by Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
Last Saturday the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country played host to a major demonstration in favour of civil and political rights for the Basque people.
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