New Website now at www.morningstarscotland.org

We've moved! Or rather our website has.

Please find our new website at www.morningstarscotland.org so remember to update your browser favorites/ bookmarks!

All the past material is there, plus so much more new material besides.

As we seek to build our paper and win new regular readers to the best daily paper printed in Britain, we felt a new website for our work in Scotland was needed. So going from a free Blogspot blog we have upgraded to a dedicated website which uses the power of WordPress to build pages & posts. It means that we can do so much more for very little expense.

Thanks for coming to visit, but please note that we wouldn't be updating this blog any more.
Please do visit www.morningstarscotland.org and help spread the word by telling your friends. Share our new website address on social media such as Facebook and Twitter if you use it.

Many thanks for your continued support for the Morning Star,
Scottish Morning Star Campaigns Committee.

2014 SPRING CONFERENCE

SUNDAY 2 MARCH

SCOTLAND: WHAT WAY TO ECONOMIC SELF DETERMINATION ?

Speakers include

Sandra White MSP, Michael Connarty MP, Richard Leonard, Colin Fox, 

Neil Findlay MSP, Alan Mackinnon

Chair: Jane Carolan

Register at door from 10.45 a.m.

STUC, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow

Our Class Our Culture series

DUNDEE

Tuesday 4 February

William McGonagall and the Radical 

Tradition in Scottish Poetry

Alistair Findlay  

Chair Mike Arnot

7 p.m. DVA, 10 Constitution Street

Scottish Morning Star Conference Autumn 2013

ARGUMENTS FOR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

Peter Pinkney President RMT

Agnes Tolmie, past President STUC

Stephen Boyd, Research STUC

Harry Frew STUC President, UCATT

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: Winning the Policy Arguments

Neil Findlay MSP 

Lynn Henderson, PCS Scottish Secretary

Chris Stephens, SNP Trade Union group

Dave Watson, Political Officer Unison Scotland

The Morning Star’s autumn conference will discuss how to oppose the current ConDem drive for further privatisation, of posts, banking, government services and nuclear fuel, and hear the arguments FOR public ownership. Private enterprise in Britain is plainly not working. Business investment has collapsed: lower than at any time since 1945. The mismanagement of the financial system – with banks geared to maximising speculative profits – has brought the worse economic crash since the 1930s. Privatised utilities have proved spectacular failures. Ofgen warns of power black-outs by 2015 as a result of lack of investment in the privatised energy sector. Privatised rail has the highest subsidies in Europe – while the publicly owned East Coast line has delivered almost £1billion in profit. A socially disastrous housing crisis has resulted from the inability of the private sector to provide affordable houses. Yet elsewhere in the world there is economic growth – and it is generally in those countries where there is a significant measure of public ownership and active public support for industry. The conference will examine the policy challenges involved in re-winning a mass consensus in favour of public ownership.

Public Meeting

Jointly sponsored by Institute of Employment Rights and the Scottish Morning Star Campaign Committee

 Campaign for Trade Union Freedom

FREE 

TRADE UNIONS

 POWER 

TO FIGHT INJUSTICE

Carolyn Jones  IER

Pat Stuart  Unite Executive member

Phil McGarry   RMT Scotland Political Officer

Chair Stephen Smellie

Friday 25 October at 7 p.m.

STUC  333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3

MORNING STAR EVENTS AUTUMN 2013

MORNING STAR EVENTS AUTUMN 2013

FALKIRK

Tuesday 5 November

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Mark Lyon  Deputy Chair Unite
Chair: Colin Finlay

7 p.m. Falkirk Football Stadium, Westfield FK2 9DX

PAISLEY

Tuesday 3 December

Helen Macfarlane: the Barrhead revolutionary who made the

first English translation of the Communist Manifesto in 1850

Brenda Aitchison Secretary Paisley TUC: Chair  Colin Mack 

7 p.m. Paisley Town Hall

DUNDEE

Tuesday 4 February

William McGonagall and the Radical Tradition in Scottish Poetry

Alistair Findlay  Chair Mike Arnot

7 p.m. DVA, 10 Constitution Street

EDINBURGH

Tuesday 18 March (in association Edinburgh Irish Festival)

Connolly: Socialism and Nationalism 

Keith Stoddart

7 p.m. Augustine Church Centre, 41 George IV Bridge

CLYDEBANK

Tuesday 1April

Jack London’s Iron Heel - fascism foretold       

Rab O’Donnell         

7 p.m. Venue to be confirmed

BATHGATE 

Tuesday 6 May

The Masque of Anarchy, Peterloo and the People’s Assembly

Stuart Moir

7 p.m. Acredale Centre, 9 Mid Street, EH48 1PS

GLASGOW

Thursday  8 May

Bobby Starret: Making Fun of

the Class Enemy
Appreciation David Betteridge

Chair George Kerr

STUC 333 Woodside Road 

FIFE

Thursday 5 June

1914: Whose War Was it?

Tom Kirby and Brad Oliver

7 p.m. venue to be confirmed

GLASGOW

Tuesday 8 July

Protests against War: 1914 and Keir Hardie

Bob Holman and Richard Leonard

STUC, 333 Woodside Road

 

VIDEO: Building a Strike from Scratch - The Clydebank Singers Factory Strike 1911

Part of the Scottish Morning Star "Our Class, Our Culture" series of Scotland-wide events.
www.morningstaronline.co.uk


Dr Chik Collins takes us through the fascinating history of ordinary working class people in Clydebank organising themselves.
The Singers Factory was a huge employer of local people. They were world renown for their famous sewing machines. But at the turn of last century they treated their workers in an appauling fashion.
How did these workers organise themselves from a position where so few were unionised? What can we learn today from their heroic example?

VIDEO: How Clydeside workers stopped military supplies to the Chilean Junta

Recorded in EAST KILBRIDE Tuesday 3^rd September 2013  
Sponsored by South Lanarks TUC
Chair: Stephen Smellie 

40^th anniversary of the Chilean Coup 

9/11 40th anniversary of the Chilean Coup - Scottish arms workers help Chile by downing tools and refusing to work.

John Keenan (Rolls Royce) 

George Kerr (Yarrows)

Contributions and Discussion

MORNING STAR EVENTS AUTUMN 2013

GLASGOW

Tuesday 1 October: 40^th anniversary of the Chilean Coup

Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Ruben Romero 

Chair Vicky Grandon

7.30 p.m. STUC 333 Woodside Road, Glasgow G3

FALKIRK

Tuesday 5 November

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Mark Lyon  Deputy Chair Unite
Chair: Colin Finlay

7 p.m. Falkirk Football Stadium, Westfield FK2 9DX

PAISLEY

Tuesday 3 December

Helen Macfarlane: the Barrhead revolutionary who made the

first English translation of the Communist Manifesto in 1850

Brenda Aitchison Secretary Paisley TUC: Chair  Colin Mack  

7 p.m. Paisley Town Hall

Report of the 2013 Conference for Morning Star Readers and Supporters Groups in Scotland

Read the PDF report here http://www.scottishcommunists.org.uk/docs/article/270/MorningStarReport2013.pdf .

Chair welcomed the broad attendance from readers and supporters groups and from the trade union movement. The conference was organisational. It was about how to increase the sales and profile of the paper and was the first to have been held. More readers were crucial for the paper’s survival, and even more important, for its development. This task could only be achieved on the ground through local groups, trade union branches and trades union councils all working together. An immediate priority was to promote the Cooperative Stores half price offer for new readers which ended very soon – at the end of June. But the drive for readers must continue afterwards and match the urgency of the political situation. Working people faced a class onslaught. The jobs massacre at RBS was an immediate example - as was tax dodging by the big corporation at the same time as the government was robbing the poorest and most vulnerable. Only the Star exposed the class character of these attacks.

Friday 31 May 

PPPS AGM 

The annual meeting of the co-operative society 

that manages the Morning Star

All shareholders encouraged to attend.

7 p.m. STUC 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow

Followed at 9 p.m.by 

Social

open to all

with Arthur Johnstone 

and Marc Livingstone

Free glass of wine  Bring own bottle.

Scottish Morning Star Spring Conferenece 2013 - Afternoon Session

Scotland's Global Challenges - a Debate

Scottish Morning Star Sping Conference 2013 - MONOPOLIES, WAR & NATO (Morning Session)

MONOPOLIES, WAR & NATO - Alan MacKinnon 

MONOPOLIES, WAR & NATO - Richard Lenoard GMB Union 

MONOPOLIES, WAR & NATO - Jeremy Corbyn MP 

READERS AND SUPPORTERS EVENTS

April-May 2013 Readers and Supporters

Aberdeen
Date to be announced
Meeting on victimisation and blacklisting in offshore oil
sponsored by Aberdeen Trades Union Council


Ayrshire 

Scotland: A Progressive Country?

Speakers

Sarah Collins- Radical Independence Conference

Richard Leonard- GMB Scotland - in a personal capacity

Jim McDaid- North Ayrshire TUC

Bill Ramsay - SNP Trade Union Group

All Welcome

Thursday 11 April at 7.30 pm

Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine, KA12 8PZ

Dundee
Wednesday, 10 April at 7 p.m.
Friends Meeting House
7 Whitehall Cres

Edinburgh
Friday 5 April at 4 p.m.
Founding meeting for Lothians Readers and Supporters Group
Labour Group Rooms
Edinburgh City Council Chambers

Falkirk
Tuesday 2 April 4 p.m.
Meeting for Unison branch members
Municipal Chambers

Fife
Next meeting in May in Kelty
On the Bedroom Tax
Details to be announced

Glasgow
Wednesday 8 May
Music and the Working Class Movement
Professor Bill Sweeney
7 p.m. STUC Building, 333 Woodlands Road, G3
 
Lanarkshire
Wednesday 10 April 7 p.m.
Resisting the attack on public servants
Speaker from PCS
Miners Welfare, Calder Street, Blantyre

Perth
Wednesday, 17 April 12.30 p.m.
STUC Morning Star Fringe
Perth Theatre, High Street
Richard Bagley, Bob Crow, Diana Holland
Chair Phil McGarry  

Conference for all Readers and Supporters Groups
SATURDAY 18 MAY
10.30-1.30 p.m. STUC Glasgow

Star Editor and Scottish Reporter to be present
Stephen Smellie will speak on developing Readers and Supporters Groups

Video: The EU and Austerity - Can the European Union Ever Provide Rights and Democracy for Working People?

Speakers:
Rozanne Foyer Senior Organiser Unite Scotland
Vince Mills Scottish Labour Campaign for Socialism
Alex Smith Former MEP for the South of Scotland

Filmed at STUC Building, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow on Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Readers and Supporters Events 2013

March-May 2013 Readers and Supporters

Aberdeen


Date to be announced
Meeting on victimisation and blacklisting in offshore oil
sponsored by Aberdeen Trades Union Council


Ayrshire 

Scotland: A Progressive Country?

Speakers

Sarah Collins- Radical Independence Conference

Richard Leonard- GMB Scotland - in a personal capacity

Jim McDaid- North Ayrshire TUC

Bill Ramsay - SNP Trade Union Group

All Welcome

Thursday 11 April at 7.30 pm

Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine, KA12 8PZ

Dundee
Wednesday, 10 April at 7 p.m.
Friends Meeting House
7 Whitehall Cres

Edinburgh
Friday 5 April at 4 p.m.
Founding meeting for Lothians Readers and Supporters Group
Labour Group Rooms
Edinburgh City Council Chambers

Falkirk
Tuesday 2 April 4 p.m.
Meeting for Unison branch members
Municipal Chambers

Fife
Next meeting in May in Kelty
On the Bedroom Tax
Details to be announced

Glasgow
Wednesday 8 May
Music and the Working Class Movement
Professor Bill Sweeney
7 p.m. STUC Building, 333 Woodlands Road, G3
 
Lanarkshire
Wednesday 10 April 7 p.m.
Resisting the attack on public servants
Speaker from PCS
Miners Welfare, Calder Street, Blantyre

Perth
Wednesday, 17 April 12.30 p.m.
STUC Morning Star Fringe
Perth Theatre, High Street
Richard Bagley, Bob Crow, Diana Holland
Chair Phil McGarry  

Conference for all Readers and Supporters Groups
SATURDAY 18 MAY
10.30-1.30 p.m. STUC Glasgow

Star Editor and Scottish Reporter to be present
Stephen Smellie will speak on developing Readers and Supporters Groups