Scotland Follow

Socialism 2005 The Scottish Socialist Party’s Socialism 2005 got off to a rousing start on Friday of last week with Colin Fox, George Galloway and Gill Hubbard addressing the opening rally. Over 400 people, many young, attended the weekend of discussion. There was lots of enthusiasm for the anti-war movement. There was also a lot of interest in the meetings on Latin America.

Energy unions have vowed to do "all in their power" to avoid compulsory redundancies after Scottish Power’s announcement of 450 job losses.

Over 1,000 people marched through Glasgow last Saturday demanding an end to the detention and deportation of asylum seekers. The Vucaj family from Kosovo were snatched and deported on Thursday of last week. The march was led by Scottish and refugee school students. There were banners from the Fire Brigades Union, the T&G union, the teachers’ EIS union and the Amicus union. MSPs spoke at the rally.

Scottish lorry drivers who deliver cigarettes have voted for strikes in a consultative ballot and are now proceeding to a formal ballot.

Around 600 First Bus workers in the east of Scotland held their second one-day strike over pay on Tuesday of this week.

Staff at Scottish Enterprise were considering a new pay deal as Socialist Worker went to press. If it is not acceptable then 1,000 workers were to strike on Thursday this week.

Robin Cook's death means there will be a by-election — the first since the general election — in the Scottish constituency of Livingston.

Some 3,500 civilian staff working for the police in Scotland took part in a 24 hour strike over pay on Thursday of last week.

A sponsored Cycle for Peace took place in Scotland last Sunday to raise money for a legal case attempting to bring Tony Blair to account for war crimes in Iraq.

August sees the launch of the Festival of Politics at the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. As part of this broad event, billed as being an occasion where "politics meets the people", I will be taking part in a performance titled Them And Us — a workshop exploring Scotland’s radical song tradition and its continuing relevance.

The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is backing the national demonstration against war, racism and occupation in London on 24 September. The party’s executive last week unanimously voted to support the protest.

At the recent G8 protests in Scotland there were some 450 people detained by the police. These are different from arrests, as the police in Scotland have the powers to "detain" for a set length of time.