Of course theoretically such protection exists, the private rented sector is supposed to be regulated via numerous systems such as compulsory landlord registration. Somewhat predictably however Scottish councils have opted for “light-touch” regulation, generally translating as no regulation at all.

The benefits of this “light-touch” can be seen in Edinburgh, where no Landlord has ever been deregisted, in spite of some carrying criminal convictions for offences against tenants. Letting agents are also taking advantage of the system, many are charging illegal fees to tenants, a practice that has become so widespread that most don’t even question them.

So what can we do about it? Whilst activists in Glasgow have taken direct action against illegal fees, tenants in Edinburgh are also getting organised. Edinburgh Private Tenants Action Group (EPTAG) is preparing to launch a campaign to pressure the council into deregistering criminal landlords, sending a signal out to the rest of the industry that they need to raise their game.

The situation for young tenants today is bad, but if we stand together and fight for better, we can change this.

Come along to EPTAG’s campaign launch meeting on March 8th at 7 PM at Old Saint Paul’s Church, Jeffrey St, near Waverley.

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.

Check out the facebook event page here, and if you’d like to come you can confirm your place by emailling scottishsocialistyouth@gmail.com

All your CSS questions answered:

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.

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.

Re- Unpaid overdue taxes totalling £6 billion.

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0uQmzVJrPA

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.

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 Rally this Saturday, at 11am assembling at East Market Street in Edinburgh.

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roF3Xg7Kk8I

RGU former principal voices his displeasure

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.