Solidarity: A new movement for socialism in Scotland

[Red Dawn]

Tommy and George Galloway

pic by Duncan BrownRespect MP and lifelong socialist George Galloway will spend Tuesday 10th November in Glasgow North-East constituency addressing four public meetings in support of Solidarity candidate, Tommy Sheridan.

Galloway comes to Glasgow as Solidarity announce their intention to form a new socialist group in Westminster if Tommy is elected next Thursday. The new Solidarity MP will join with George in Parliament to form a powerful anti-war and pro-socialist group that could attract dissident Labour members disgusted with New Labour warmongering and their inability to prevent growing inequality during their 12 years in power.

While in Glasgow this coming Tuesday George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan will speak at four separate meetings across the constituency in Springburn, Sighthill, Royston and Dennistoun...

http://www.solidarityscotland.org/content/view/687/

[Red Dawn]

Are people really going to vote for New Labour/Tory/Lib Dems/SNP when ALL over the many YEARS have done this to them...

"Glasgow north-east is crawling with politicians and their supporters for Thursday's by-election. But, in the heart of the constituency, there is a place uncanvassed and forgotten. The few remaining occupants of the Fountainwell Road flats have no security, no protection, and sometimes no water. Why is anyone still living there?"...

http://www.scottishreview.net/IMcLeod166.html

Elect a socialist MP on a workers wage
Make the bosses pay for the economic crisis
Defend our public services

[Editor]

http://www.spiderednews.com/GeorgeGallo ... 5812402.jp

George Galloway: Labour voters blind and unthinking
SCOTSMAN 11 Nov 2009

LABOUR's success in Scotland has been based on the "uncritical, blind-thinking" support of people in low-income seats like Glasgow North East, George Galloway has claimed. In comments which Labour described as "an insult" to Glaswegians, the Respect MP said victory for his former party in tomorrow's by-election would see "the waters close" back over the largely poor part of the city.

Campaigning for Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan, Mr Galloway also attacked Labour candidate Willie Bain, claiming the party chose a "Mr Nobody" to stand and mocking Mr Bain for still living with his parents..

Pointing to Scottish Labour MPs, Mr Galloway declared: "They have got fat on the unthinking, uncritical, blind-thinking of people in constituencies like this."

[Red Dawn]

Tommy and George Galloway.

Respect MP and lifelong socialist George Galloway will spend Tuesday 10th November in Glasgow North-East constituency addressing four public meetings in support of Solidarity candidate, Tommy Sheridan.

Galloway comes to Glasgow as Solidarity announce their intention to form a new socialist group in Westminster if Tommy is elected next Thursday. The new Solidarity MP will join with George in Parliament to form a powerful anti-war and pro-socialist group that could attract dissident Labour members disgusted with New Labour warmongering and their inability to prevent growing inequality during their 12 years in power.

While in Glasgow this coming Tuesday George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan will speak at four separate meetings across the constituency in Springburn, Sighthill, Royston and Dennistoun.

pic by Duncan Brown.

Tommy Sheridan - George Galloway Press Conference





Interviewed by John Harris in Sighthill
John Harris of the Guardian interviewed both Tommy and George Galloway prior to a public meeting in the estates KATS Centre.

You can view the footage, (and see the BNP getting chased out of Springburn) Here...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... byelection




All smiles in Saracen Street



Saracen St Stall



Vote for him! Saracen Street



Nationalise the Banks!




Stop MP's Expense Sleaze




Tommy in Springburn




Support the Posties - Duke Street




Tommy at the posties picket line Springburn (pic by Duncan Brown)




Our Campaign Bus...eh...truck!

[Red Dawn]

Solidarity Party Election Broadcast

The Party Election Broadcast for the May 3rd 2007 election...

[Red Dawn]

2009 Glasgow North East by-election...RESULT...

Willie Bain (Lab) 8,111
David Kerr (SNP) 4,120
Ruth Davidson (Con) 1,075 votes
Charlie Baillie (BNP) 1,013
Tommy Sheridan (Solidarity) 794;
Eileen Baxendale (LibDem) 474;
David Doherty (Green) 332;
John Smeaton (Jury Team) 258;
Kevin McVey (Scottish Socialist) 152;
Mikey Hughes (Ind)) 54;
Louise McDaid (Socialist Lab) 47;
Mev Brown (Ind) 32;
Colin Campbell (Ind) 13.

Voter turnout, at 33.2%, was a record low for a Scottish by-election.

This tells me that people have given up hope of change and that nothing they do will change their lives. How depressing even when you add up the votes of the left in this by-election we can`t beat the BNP in a place like Glasgow North East. Large unemployment and grinding poverty are the order of the day and have been for many a year under the Tories and the Labour party. STILL they vote for them and not us

[desertson]

These are the official figures:

GLASGOW NORTH EAST BY-ELECTION RESULTS


Labour - 12,231 votes (59.39%)
SNP - 4,120 votes (20%)
Tory - 1,075 votes (5.22%)
BNP - 1,013 votes (4.92%)
Solidarity - 794 votes (3.86%)
Lib Dems - 474 votes (2.30%)
Total votes cast - 20,595
Voter turnout - 32.97%
Rejected ballots - 43

I wouldn't be too downhearted. Solidarity did well to beat the supposedly third force in British politics (LibDems). The very low turnout is disappointing, and the fragmentation of the vote by the "minnows" hasn't helped. The BNP support is alarming, but is redolent of the disaffection with all politics, that Red Dawn refers to. But beating the LibDems is to be congratulated, and gives a good grounding to build upon. Unfortunately, this by-election tells us that there are still plenty of "safe" NuLabour seats, despite the party's betrayal of their traditional core voters. I don't think Blair or Mandelson dared show their faces in Glasgow during this campaign, and more recent events have overshadowed the eclipsing of the party's abandonment of Clause 4, the wooing of millionaire donors and the fraternising with billionaires on luxury yachts in the Med. The spriit of Jimmy Maxton lives on in Glasgow, and probably always will.

[Editor]

So we have a first past the post system with the winner getting around 19% of the potential vote. Didn't the west support a coup in Algeria because the winner got the majority of the actual vote, but just under 50% of the potential vote?

[desertson]

Good point, and underlines the sickening hypocrisy of NuLabour. Lads are recruited, trained and sent to fight and die in "backward" countries, to show them how wonderful it is to be democratic. Pot and kettle methinks. Not to mention half the UK Cabinet being unelected, the promised referendums that never materialise and the announcement or leaking of major legislation to the media, before Parliament ever hears about it. The erosion of British democracy under NuLabour willl be a PHd subject for the next generation. Justice is going the same way, only faster.

[Red Dawn]

desertson

Thanks for putting the right numbers up. I was looking at the margin of New Labours win and was in shock at the time and feeling very, VERY SICK.



13 November 2009

"Tommy Sheridan: It’s a sad night for democracy"

"Tommy Sheridan says the poor voting turnout at the Glasgow North East by-election has made it a sad night for democracy."...

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-centra ... democracy/