Grumpy *

Christmas: a time for working people to have a few days off work and to rest and to eat and drink and be quite merry? Wrong! Check out this end-of-year statement which I found in the inbox in work this morning from the horribly misnamed Solidarity - it's a belter (and keep in mind it's their "message of hope"):

Thursday, 21 December, 2006

SOLIDARITY
SCOTLAND'S SOCIALIST MOVEMENT

At this time of year - when our television screens are filled with advertisements that go all out to reinforce the myth that human happiness should be and is equated with consumerism; when overpaid presenters and celebrities, wearing plastic smiles, attempt to paint the fantasy of a perfect world in which everyone is in a happy relationship or family situation, in which everyone has a well paid, fulfilling career, in which everyone has reason to smile and indulge to their hearts content – at this time of year we redouble our resolve to the struggle to end this rotten, corrupt and brutal capitalist system, a system which is based on a lie.

For we do not know or recognise the mythical society portrayed on our television screens at this time of year, populated by happy, smiling people filling their faces with food and drink, driving expensive cars and exchanging expensive gifts. No, the society we know and recognise is one in which huge and increasing poverty exists alongside pockets of extreme wealth, in which asylum seekers, immigrants, Muslims, gays, low paid workers, council tenants, the homeless, human beings all, are maligned and attacked daily, made to feel worthless under a system in which the apotheosis of material success and wealth is shoved in our faces every single day.

We recognise and understand that we live in a world that is currently engaged in an epic struggle for the future of humanity. The front line in this struggle is the Middle East, where after 15 years of bloody and brutal occupation – both economic and military – the entire world has come to understand that money, power, and technology pales in comparison to the human spirit. The Iraqi, Palestinian and Lebanese people have written a new page in the history of that war torn region of the world, and we salute their courage and their determination, while at the same time lamenting the huge loss of life and destruction that has resulted.

We again call upon the troops, the vast majority of whom are economic conscripts, to consider for whom and for what they are killing and dying in Iraq. Due to a lack of prospects and a lack of meaning in your lives, you enlisted in the armed forces, seduced by the promise of excitement, foreign travel and training in the skills necessary to secure employment in the future. You are the victims of a lie and now find yourselves being used as cannon fodder on behalf of the super rich, the corporations and a government that governs on their behalf. Yes, we say to the troops, yes you do have an enemy. But that enemy is here at home, and we call upon you to return home and join our ranks in order to fight this enemy on the side of your class.

We pay tribute to the antiwar movement, both at home and abroad, to the millions around the world who've given their hearts and souls to resisting the onslaught of the free market and its many depredations. We salute the dedication of the countless volunteers who've campaigned here at home against stock transfer, against climate change, against the closure of schools and hospitals all over the country. We salute all those who've stood out in all weathers at Faslane to protest against nuclear weapons, heroes all, warriors in the fight against war and death, and we pledge to stay the course alongside them in the war against war, the war against poverty and racism that still, in the 21st century, ravages the planet.

To the families of the six million children in Africa this year who've died as a result of preventable disease and hunger, we say that their deaths will never be forgotten. The tragedy of that long-exploited and brutalised continent remains in our hearts, filling us with determination during the dark nights and cold days when we are out struggling for a world in which humanity will be the end and not the means to the end.

Just as the front line in the struggle against the free market, against neoliberalism, is currently to be found in the Middle East, a second front continues to offer hope in Latin America. We salute the Cuban Revolution, the courage and fortitude of the Cuban people, who for so long stood alone against US imperialism. Now their example of a society in which social and economic justice for all has replaced extreme wealth and privilege for a few, now this example has spread. To Fidel Castro, seriously ill and perhaps nearing the end, we offer our thanks for services to humanity. The inspiration provided to the poor and oppressed around the world by the Cuban Revolution will never be forgotten.

In Venezuela the Bolivarian Revolution, a process of radical reform that has transformed the lives of the poor in that oil-rich country, continues regardless of the best efforts of oligarchs, media corporations and business leaders to derail it. Backed by Washington, they have tried to remove the redoubtable Hugo Chavez through a coup, electoral fraud and a mass campaign of slander and character assassination. At every turn they have failed, offering another striking example of the fact that history is not changed or shaped by money and power - that it is instead shaped by the people, by the poor and the working class, who when aroused and acting as one are unstoppable and invincible.

Finally, we are Solidarity, Scotland's Socialist Movement. We were formed this year on the understanding that our socialist principles are not and never will be for sale. We go forward into 2007 and the May elections proud to be in a party, proud to be part of a movement, which backed Tommy Sheridan, a class fighter and outstanding comrade, in his historic struggle against the execrable and repugnant Murdoch Press. We salute those comrades who stood by his side, and we claim, rightfully, to be the only ‘socialist’ party in Scotland.

From the ranks of Solidarity, to all of our friends and supporters, to all of those currently suffering under this rotten system, we offer comradely greetings and a message of hope in struggle for 2007.

Avanti!

ENDS.

Press Team:


Jim Monaghan - 07944217938
John Wight - 07738528145
Hugh Kerr - 07713063647

WWW.SOLIDARITYSCOTLAND.ORG

*Buck 65