Trident, NATO and the Drive to War
2016: CRUNCH YEAR FOR TRIDENT
Communist Party Scottish Election Manifesto 2015
ZOE HENESSY
for Glasgow North West
FOR WORKING CLASS UNITY AND A FEDERAL REPUBLIC
Trident - Britain’s nuclear weapon system - is a relic of the last Cold War. It is dangerous, unaffordable and militarily useless in today’s world. And opinion polls show that it is extremely unpopular. Over the next decade it will consume over one third of Britain’s defence procurement budget and divert resources away from spending to meet social need. 2016 will be the crunch year for Trident - the UK parliament will decide whether to go ahead with the Trident replacement programme. After that date the main contracts will be signed and it will be harder to stop. Just 18 months ago the UK parliament voted down a ConDem motion to take us into war against Syria - preventing a new Middle East war and for the first time breaking ranks with the US. This happened after a decade of anti-war campaigning. We can do the same with the Trident programme.
NATO and the new Cold War
There is a growing threat of war in Europe. It is a crisis triggered by the aggressive expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). When the Cold War ended, instead of being wound up, NATO was expanded from 16 members to 28, moving into eastern and southern Europe and posing a new threat to Russia. The real purpose of the alliance is to provide a cover for the spread of US power - binding other countries into support for US foreign policy and US-led overseas military intervention. And now NATO is using the crisis in Ukraine - a crisis largely created by the US-inspired coup in that country - to ratchet up the military stakes: a new NATO Spearhead force of 5,000 troops ready to attack Russia within 48 hours backed up by a larger force of 25,000 troops to be deployed within 4 weeks
Communists say: Scrap Trident and spend the money on health, education and welfare
Support the campaign for a global ban on nuclear new NATO bases and weapons as advocated by command centres in 6 coun140 countries across the tries of Eastern Europe world all adding to the military encirclement of Russia.
Break the ‘special relationship’ that binds us to US policy and support for USled wars around the world.
The Cold War plays into the hands of military hawks - those Get out of NATO - an determined to push ahead with a aggressive military alliance new generation of nuclear weapcontrolled by the United ons and increase UK defence States spending.
Zoe Hennessy, leader of the Young Communist League, lives in Anniesland and has a degree from the Glasgow University. Active in her trade union, she is 24 years old and works in a supermar-
I am proud to stand as a candidate for the Communist Party. Our party has a long tradition of campaigning and organising in the trade union movement and in Scottish communities to fight for a better standard of life for working people. In the last five years the Con-Dem government has waged a relentless war on working people and their families in an attempt to claw back all the gains we have won since the Second World War. Their austerity agenda is not about fixing a deficit, it is about maximising profits for the super rich whilst ordinary people are made to suffer. Yet the Labour Party leadership has failed to stand on the side of working people and is pledged to continue austerity. The SNP have pandered to big business, and not working people. They have voted down the living wage, they want tax breaks for big business and have pushed local councils into making massive cuts in spending. I am standing in order to challenge both the SNP and Labour on their commitment to stand up for working people and end austerity.
For a Federal Republic Communists call for a Federal Republic that provides Home Rule for Scotland and Wales and also enables working class unity to be developed across the nations of Britain. The Federal Parliament would exercise control over currency, banking, interest rates, taxes on wealth and capital, foreign policy and defence. All other powers would be devolved to national parliaments – including taxes on income and consumption and the power to intervene industrially and develop public ownership of infrastructure and production. The Federal Parliament would be constitutionally required to redistribute income derived from taxes on wealth and profits in light of social need across the nations and regions of Britain.
Challenging Big Business Power The power of big business is concentrated at British level. Most of the big companies that own the Scottish economy are based in London. They depend on the British state to support them – as when the British Treasury bailed out the banks in 2008. They use the British state against working people – in terms of anti-trade union laws and a
labour force policed by penal policies against the unemployed. And the wealth they accumulate is concentrated in the south-east and invested overseas through the City of London. This is why the independence called for by the SNP would leave all the key levers of big business power over Scotland still in their hands. The currency, interest rates and government borrowing would be all controlled from London; the European Union would continue to enforce neo-liberal market control – outlawing public ownership and state aid to industry. But working people in Scotland would have no democratic way of contesting that power. Communists do not believe that constitutions by themselves can resolve problems of class power and exploitation. Only political action by working people and their allies can do that. But constitutions can help or hinder this process. Independence on SNP terms would directly prevent working people in Scotland from joining with their fellow workers in Wales and England in challenging big business power at British level. A Federal state would enable working people across Britain to do so – to demand greater taxation on wealth, greater redistribution across Britain and the dismantling of the anti-trade union laws that restrict organisation by the great majority of us who have
to work for a living.
Why class unity is essential The ConDem Coalition launched an unprecedented attack on working people. They claimed the budget deficit was caused by undue spending on social services. It wasn’t. It was caused by bailing out the bankers. They demanded cuts on a scale not seen since the 1930s. They allowed wages to be forced down by over 10 per cent and at the same cut taxes on wealth and profits – with the richest 1,000 doubling their wealth to over £530 billion (equivalent to almost two-thirds of the National Debt). Now they propose further attacks on trade unions, further attacks on the poorest and further tax cuts for the wealthy. Only organisation by working people can reverse this assault – trade unions, communities, all those who are vulnerable and need support. The Communist Party backs the People’s Assembly as the first step in creating an alliance that can in turn transform politics from below and, in particular, ensure the Labour Party returns to the socialist objectives set by its founders.
Devo Max is a Trap Making Scotland solely reliant on taxes raised in Scotland stops the redistribution of wealth across Britain. The proceeds from Scottish revenues, including oil and gas, will be far too small to make up the current deficit. Depending on whether oil prices recover and how fast oil extraction declines, Scotland could be poorer by anything between £4 billion and £10 billion – more than the Tories have already cut. The SNP case for Devo Max is that by controlling all taxes they could grow the economy by attracting more investment – especially external. But that will mean cutting taxes on big business even further.
Democracy and Scotland’s Economy tries require public support. Scotland’s infrastructure, also mainly externally controlled, lacks investment. Profits flow externally. Little comes back. The Scottish Parliament has powers for industrial and economic intervention. It has not used them mainly because of the EU ban on state aid and insistence on competition. Its ability to raise funds for public sector investment is also limited by EU restrictions on public debt. EU neo-liberal dogma defends big business control. This is why combined campaigning is required, along with the other nations of Britain, to lift the anti-democratic grip exercised by the EU on behalf of British big business.
Winning Economic Democracy The role of a Scottish Parliament should be first and foremost to advance economic democracy by developing the public sector, enhancing local democracy, supporting the co-operative sector and creating steady, well-paid employment. Scotland’s economy is very vulnerable despite its skills and its first rate universities and colleges. Without public sector intervention the oil industry is set for decline - very fast unless oil prices recover substantially. Chemicals, food, drink and IT are all under external ownership and mostly contracting. New areas such as the creative indus-
Expanding public sector employment, including locallycontrolled services in local government, is the most effective way of ensuring steady, well paid employment with trade union rights. Parliament also has the power to insist on trade union recognition, collective bargaining and a living wage across virtually all sectors of the economy if public control is expanded. Trade union bargaining power has always been the most effective way of addressing inequality – not partnership on terms set by employers.
Democratic rights and local communities The Communist Party calls for a local income tax to fund local government on the basis of an ability to pay – within
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Manifesto for Youth Printed by Forward Graphics, Unit 39, Elderpark Workspace, 100 Elderpark Street, G51 3TR
YOUNG PEOPLE - PAYING A HIGH PRICE FOR AUSTERITY
Promoted by George Kirkpatrick, Unity Office, 72 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 7DA
Attack on Education Young Scots in education have also felt attacks from the ConDem government and the SNP administration which has passed on the cuts without pause. Primary school budgets have been slashed and the SNP government has broken its flagship promise on class sizes. Under the SNP college places have been cut by over 100,000. Scottish Government cuts to University budgets have led to course closures and reductions in staffing.
On behalf of Zoe Hennessy, Communist Candidate for Glasgow North West, Unity Office, 72 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 7DA boundaries that fully capture rich and poor areas. This will enable voters to decide on what services they want, borrow for investment and to end centrally imposed cuts. We believe that properly-democratic locally-accountable government is the best way of building people’s confidence that society can be changed for the better, that the appalling problems of homelessness, poor housing and high rents can be overcome, that the elderly can get the care they need and that properly staffed education can be provided from the nursery onwards. Democratic local government provides a key platform for advancing a green agenda – through radically enhanced public transport and locally-owned renewable heat and light provision. This has been achieved in other countries. It has been killed here by privatisation and austerity cuts. Renewing local democracy also provides the best avenue for addressing social rights and ending discrimination. Women have been disproportionately hit by the cuts in local government where 65 per cent of employees were women. So have the young and black and minority ethnic communities. Providing security for all remains the best antidote to discrimination and the rise of racism and hate crime. A full outline of Communist Party policies is provided by the Manifesto on the British website www.communist-party. org.uk and the party’s programme Britain’s Road to Socialism.
every year can't be allowed to circumvent holiday and sick pay. Workers deserve security and protection. The Young Communist League demands the introduction of a living wage now - not in 2020 - which keeps above the rate of inflation.
Young People have paid a heavy price for the ConDem governments austerity. Cameron and the Tory party might try to boast about falling unemployment, but youth unemployment figures paint quite another picture. In 2014 youth unemployment sky-rocketed to 14.4%, or half a million, with 16-24 year old being 3 times more likely to be unemployed than people over 24. If re-elected the Tories have promised fresh attacks on Britain's unemployed youth. Young people will be forced to work full-time in order to receive benefits – at the same time as being expected to find work. The cruel and unfair use of benefit sanctions to attack the vulnerable and deter people from claiming benefits they're entitled to will continue.
End Benefit Sanctions The Young Communist League calls for an end to benefit sanctions and an end to the involvement of private companies in our welfare system, Young people should be offered the opportunity of meaningful work, apprenticeships and vocational education or free university education. The working class youth of Scotland shouldn't stand to be punished because Capitalism as a system cannot provide full employment.
Those young people who are 'lucky enough' to be in work face a grim reality. 80% of jobs created pay less than £8 an hour. Super-exploitative working practices have grown massively under this Tory government. The number of people on zero-hours contracts has grown massively to over 1 million. Not only do these workers have no job security or guarantee of work, they also receive no sick or holiday pay. Low hours contracts - contracts where workers are contracted for less than 16 hours a week - have also become more widespread. Again this allows bosses to dodge holiday and sick pay and at the same time claim Job Seekers Allowance. In effect the British Government is subsidising the pay of some of Britain biggest employers – supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsburys, and fast-food chains like MacDonalds. The SNP government have done nothing to combat these practices and have voted down living-wage legislation in Holyrood.
Ban Zero Hour Contracts The Young Communist League calls for zero-hours contracts to be banned in all sectors of the economy. Companies which reap millions of pounds of profit
The Young Communist League demands a properly funded and comprehensive education system for Scotland's youth. Student loans should be replaced by free bursaries. This would make further education free not just in name but in practice and stop Scottish students being saddled with thousands of pounds of debt after going to university. A 'living rent' should be enforced and free university living accommodation should be expanded. There should be no barriers to working class students pursuing their education. Only unity between young workers, trade unions and students can deliver these gains. Without change the future for young working class people in Scotland is bleak – starting in underfunded education, with restricted access to university and further education and ending in low paid precarious work. A strong vote for the Communist Party will show that young people demand change now.