Scottish Socialist Party campaign statement

This forthcoming by-election offers us the chance to send out a strong message that the policies of Labour: of cutbacks in our local services, of low pay, of privatisation, of inequality and poverty and of war, are abhorrent and unacceptable.

It also offers the chance to vote for a party, the SSP, which unashamedly proposes to redistribute wealth from rich to poor. The SSP, unlike all the other main parties, urge an alternative to the free-market economy that results in one third of our pensioners and one quarter of our children living in poverty.

We don’t just talk of change. Our anger at the injustices that exist in the world energises us to fight for change.

This energy has seen the SSP at the forefront of local campaigns:

Against the cuts at St John’s (pushed through by a Labour appointed quango)

Against the very dangerous proposals to cut fire cover in Livingston: both of which will lead to fatalities!

We are also taking action in the Scottish Parliament to fight for:

Free Nutritious School Meals

Scrapping the unfair Council Tax and replacing it with a Scottish service tax aimed at making the rich pay their share

The abolition of prescription charges.

We have also campaigned against the Iraq war. A war, based on lies, that has saw death and destruction in Iraq, and made the world a more dangerous place.

Like our six MSPs, I reject the fatcat salary of an MP and pledge to be a worker’s MP on a worker’s wage.