BUILD MASS DEFIANCE OF TORY CUTS

The thousands who join the Scotland United Against Austerity rally this Saturday, 20 June, in Glasgow's George Square will be united in sending a simple, stark message to the Tories: you have no mandate to rule and ruin Scotland, and we're not going to lie down and accept your butchery!
Only 10 per cent of Scotland's voters backed the Tories. Yet Cameron, Osborne and their Old-Etonian bootboys plan an assault on our lives that surpasses even the Dark Ages of Maggie Thatcher. 

SHOCK AND AWE
They plan a 100-day blitzkrieg on benefits, public spending and workers' rights. Virtually every day they declare another attack on yet another section of the working class, including the poorest and most vulnerable. 

details of the STUC rally HERE

They clearly hope to imitate the methods of George W Bush - who infamously deployed his 'shock and awe' military onslaught on Iraq - seeking to overwhelm resistance to their savagery by its sheer scale and speed.

Tory plans include £30billion cuts to public spending, £12billion of it from welfare.
An estimated £5billion slashed off in-work Tax Credits, hammering the lowest-paid, part-time workers, whilst making stomach-churning claims to being "one-nation Tories, party of the blue-collar worker".
Abolition of young people's housing benefit. A 40 per cent reduction of those getting Carers' Allowance. Cuts to child benefits.
The list marches on, mercilessly.

WORKPLACE DICTATORSHIP
The same government that only gained a derisory 24 per cent of all UK voters is hellbent on wiping out workers' rights, imposing near-impossible thresholds of a 50 per cent turnout, plus at least 40 per cent of all actual union members voting for industrial action, before it's legal.
Plus they plan to rip up facility time for elected union reps - to make them impotent in the face of escalating employers' attacks on workers - and to remove the ban on conscripting Agency workers to scab on strikes.
They want to impose workplace dictatorship, in pursuit of even bigger profits, lower wages and fewer jobs.



UNIONS HOLD THE KEY
With such brutality coming down the track at us, the STUC and the unions that together organise 630,000 Scottish workers have a pivotal part to play in resisting the Tory onslaught.
The 20 June rally must not be a mere token gesture, but the launchpad for a concerted, determined course of further action, building an alliance of trade unionists, people on benefits, communities, and socialists prepared to defy and defeat the Tories. 

No time should be wasted over the summer months; as the Tory blitzkrieg unfolds, the unions should prepare the grounds for united, militant action to halt Cameron's juggernaut.

BUDGET DAY
On Tory Emergency Budget day - 8 July - the SSP plans protests to highlight opposition to the butchery that Osborne will announce. How much more significant it would be if the STUC coordinated events across Scotland that day to give notice of the resistance that will be built over the next few weeks and months.

Potentially the STUC has unique power to spearhead a movement to stop austerity, raising concrete alternative policies at the same time as coordinating militant action.
Embracing 630,000 worker-members, it also has the advantage of not being officially tied to either the sinking ship of Labour, nor the SNP - which won a landslide by claiming to be anti-austerity, but has a real-life track record of passing on Westminster cuts at both Holyrood and council levels over the past four years. 

MAKE HOLYROOD DEFY CUTS!

The STUC and its affiliated unions need to call further mass events to bombard the Scottish government with demands to implement the mandate the SNP won for being anti-austerity, by refusing to implement a single penny of the budget cuts Scotland faces from Westminster.
They should demand the Scottish government set out spending plans this Autumn that, as a bare minimum, save all jobs and public services, and boost workers' pay - and build a mass Scots rebellion demanding the funds off Westminster for these plans, rather than devolve Tory cuts to councils, FE colleges, schools and other vital services.

ANOTHER £2-3billion IN CUTS
This is critical given the eye-watering scale of cuts forecast in new Scottish government spending projections. They expect a further cut of £2billion to Scotland's budget over the next 3 years; maybe even £3billion. At least half of that will hit councils.
As Professor John McLaren of Fiscal Affairs Scotland wrote, "Scotland, like the UK, is only about half way through the cuts to public services initiated by the UK government. Unlike earlier years it's expected to be day-to-day budgets, rather than capital budgets, that take the hit. At over 5 per cent in each of the next two years, the cuts could be more than double the average seen in the past four years."
Others have calculated the councils' share will mean the equivalent of losing 9,700 secondary teachers, plus 8,900 senior social workers, plus 16,000 cleansing department workers.

DEFY - OR DO TORIES' DIRTY WORK
So not only Holyrood, but local councillors, face a stark choice: stand up and defy the Tory cuts, building a mass movement of workers and communities to win back the stolen £billions off Westminster - or be forever condemned for carrying out the Tories' dirty work.

The STUC needs to launch a plan of action to push politicians into resistance, to make it politically unviable for the Tories to impose their plans. A whole nation in rebellion couldn't be ignored.

More "Defy the Tories" Demo pics here

At the first sign of any group of workers being blocked by anti-union laws, the STUC should build support for defiance of these laws. It's better to break bad laws that allow the Tories to break workers' backs!

WORKERS IN ACTION
Several sections of workers are courageously taking action already: Dundee hospital porters; Glasgow homeless caseworkers; Calmac ferry crews against attacks on pensions, conditions and the threat of privatisation. 

How much less painful would these workers' struggles be if the laws were scrapped that ban solidarity action by fellow-workers?
And neither Labour nor the SNP can lay claim to being on these workers' sides.
Glasgow city council is Labour, but has kept strikers out on picket lines for 12 weeks, as well as refusing to reinstate sacked UNISON rep Robert O'Donnell at the SECC, which the Labour council owns 91 per cent of!
The SNP government is heading towards privatisation of the Clyde and Hebrides ferries, as they did the Northern Isles ferries back in 2012.
The unions need to spearhead an independent political alternative that defends workers' rights and incomes. They should stop funding Labour's anti-working class lost cause; they should instead stand on the socialist principles of labour movement pioneers.

SCRAP THE COUNCIL TAX & DOUBLE THE MONEY!
The SSP has pioneered proposals that the STUC should take up and popularise; a fully-costed alternative way of funding councils, scrapping the unfair Council Tax, replacing it with an income-based Scottish Service Tax that would make 77 per cent of Scots better off, and literally double the funds for local jobs, wages and services. 

This proposal has the potential to help shield Scotland from austerity, especially as councils employ 247,000 workers and provide vital services.
Councillors - Labour, SNP or Green - face the stark choice of helping to build centres of resistance to the Tory austerity plans, building alliances of workers and communities to win the necessary funding, or they will be cursed for being central to the savagery of job losses and service decimation.

POWERS TO PROTECT WORKERS
But the issue of austerity cuts goes far beyond the boundaries of councils. The SSP appeals to trade unionists, community activists and their organisations - including the STUC - to join our campaign for powers to protect the Scottish working class to be devolved to the Scottish parliament. 

In facing the cataclysmic Tory attacks on jobs, wages, benefits and workers' rights, we demand devolution of the powers to reverse all welfare and benefits cuts; to defy pay cuts by implementing a Scottish £10 minimum wage for all aged 16 and over; to repeal all the anti-union laws and establish full workplace rights; to take all services, banks, energy and big industries into democratic public ownership, so as to create well-paid, secure jobs and begin to build a society that matches the needs of the millions, instead of the millionaires.

Join the SSP; help commit your trade union, your community group and your family to defiance of the Tories, and to the pursuit of socialist measures that could eradicate any and all excuses for cuts.
We live in an immensely rich nation: demand use of that wealth for the working-class majority population, not for the profits, perks and privileges of the stinking rich and their Tory henchmen.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES! NOT ANOTHER WASTED GENERATION!

Those who fought for Scottish independence - the tireless campaigners, the newly politicized mass army of Yes activists, and indeed the Yes voters - have every right to feel gutted at the result. "Gutted" is the word I've had most commonly used by workmates, in text messages and conversations with campaigners on the streest, in the days immediately after the 55% vote against self-rule. "Angry" is another common adjective: anger at the lies and scare stories deployed for over two years to preserve the profits and prestige of the British ruling class and their hired politicians.
But it's important to stand back a pace, ponder the reasons behind the vote, look at what we actually achieved, put it in historical perspective, and above all look at what prospects Scottish independence and socialism face.

FROM 7,229 to 1.6 MILLION!
Back in the 1951 Westminster general election an enormous 81% of Scots voted. But that time round they voted the same direction as the rest of the UK, electing the Tories despite Labour having introduced the NHS and welfare state in the previous term of office. Those advocating Scottish  independence won a grand total of 7,299 votes in the whole of Scotland!
This weekend marks the 16th birthday of the SSP. At the meeting to found this new socialist party to challenge the big business agenda of not only the usual suspects but also Labour and the SNP leadership, we adopted policies on decent wages, reversal of privatisation, extension of public ownehership, equality, against war and Trident, etc - but crowned by the demand for an independent socialist Scotland. Back then this was still very much a minority viewpoint in society.

Fast forward to the Referendum result: not only did the percentage voting for independence far surpass the polls of two years ago, hovering round 25% or so, to reach a magnificent 45% for YES, but more impressive still is the fact 1.6 million voted for democratic self-determination, self-government, a Scottish government with full powers to shape Scotland's future. 

More than the entire poulation on my native N Ireland. An incredible result, considering the mountain of lies, filth and scaremongering these men and women had to climb to see a vision of a better future.
Post-Referendum analyses are a cottage industry, keeping some people in well paid jobs! And the detailed statistics are disputed between various polling organisations and psephologists. But some patterns of the Yes/No vote are indisputable, and confirm the fundamental factors behind the outcome, thereby also setting the context for what we now face and what we should do about it.

CLASS KEY FACTOR
Most fundamental of all truths: class was the key determining factor in the vote. Big working class centre like Glasgow, Dundee, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire all voted Yes majorities. Inverclyde almost did too, and North Ayrshire wasn't far off. 
This point is underlined in red by the central paradox: with the partial exception of Dundee, those areas voting Yes are Labour strongholds, whilst big SNP-voting areas voted NO. 

It's an incredible fact that all eight Glasgow constituencies, every one of them with Labour MPs, voted by clear margins for independence. One estimate put it at 37% of Labour voters nationally voting Yes.
Working class conurbations decided they'd had enough of Tory dictatorship via Westminster, enough of their brutal assaults on workers' lives and livelihoods, and voted for a better society. This was not a nationalist movement, but a movement for independence, with progressive social and economic aims at its heart. Something the Labour leadership either never understood, or chose to set their faces against in their devotion to the UK, its imperial pretensions, its capitalist system, and the personal stake the tops of Labour have in its continuation. 

They lack any ideological vision of a different kind of society, having abandoned all pretence of socialism a couple of decades ago, and therefore got into bed with the Tories to defend the capitalist status quo. Labour was the chief obstacle to a Yes vote, but they will also be the chief losers from the No vote!
All those who queued up to register to vote did not do so to keep things as they are! They voted alongside other working class (and many middle class) people to radically improve their lives, for a more equal, less poverty-stricken Scotland.

In stark contrast, the better-heeled middle classes of rural Scotland, Edinburgh, and the leafier suburbs turned out in their multitudes to vote against such change, with over 90% turnouts in many such districts. That included many SNP voters in the likes of the rural North. Many of them swallowed the fear-mongering about loss of security under independence, fearing for their relative personal security. Some are small c- conservatives, resistant to radical change. An exception to this pattern is the Glasgow west end middle classes, more radicalized, aspiring to a fairer society, many of them active in the Yes movement, including the likes of National Collective or even Business for Scotland.

AGE DIFFERENTIAL
Another feature of the voting patterns is age. Whilst exit polls argue over the detailed figures, everyone agrees that younger people voted overwhelmingly Yes, those over 65 overwhelmingly NO. One survey put it at 72% Yes among the youngest voters and 71% No for over-65s. 

It's widely accepted that there was actually a Yes majority among all voters under 55! A remarkable harbinger of the future. 

In the passing I have to condemn scurrilous comments I've seen and heard about "coffin dodgers". It's totally unacceptable to insult older citizens for voting No in their droves, including in the record-breaking numbers of Postal Votes. We need to understand why. At its heart, many pensioners, working class ones in particular, voted No in fear and dread of losing their pensions. With 30% of Scots still having no access to the Internet and therefore social media, they were subjected to a ruthless terror campaign of lies about their pensions being at risk. The fact the Coalition government's own DWP department issued statements as far back as January 2013 saying pensions would be safe and secure under independence - subsequently confirmed by the Coalition's Pensions Minister in May 2014 - didn't stop the Better Together lie machine pounding some of society's most vulnerable with hair-raising threats to the contrary. 

SCARE TACTICS PAID OFF
And the scare tactics were central to winning the No majority, not only amongst pensioners, but also sections of younger workers (as well as the points already made regarding the middle class). Better Together director Blair McDougall has blurted out what we all knew at a Labour party fringe meeting. Scare tactics were necessary to winning, he confessed. 

And one post-Referendum survey, by Brian Ashcroft, identifies three overwhelming reasons why No voters voted No: 47% out of fear and insecurity, 27% due to strong attachment to the UK, and 25% because of the last minute 'Vow' by Labour, Tories and LibDems of 'extra powers' for a devolved Holyrood parliament.
Workers in Defence-related industries were subjected to a Niagra of lies about mass loss of jobs in the event of independence. Workers in all manner of jobs, such as finance, banks, engineering, even sections of the civil service, we subjected to tales of Armageddon by their own chief executives. Or to be more accurate, that was the impression given to them after the mainstream media bosses had turned vague hints of relocating their legal HQs into headlines about the potential slaughter of jobs, something few if any of the bosses had actually threatened.

CAPITALIST TERRORISM
To win 1.6 million votes for independence in the face of ruthless opposition from all the forces of the old, reactionary, corrupt capitalist society is an incredible achievement, and a powerful platform to continue the struggle from. 

Bankers were in cahoots with BBC bosses; supermarket chief executives willingly took orders from Cameron to spread panic; international capitalist politicians like Barack Obama added their tuppence worth; and every single arm of the mainstream print and broadcast media - with the honorable exception of the Sunday Herald in the latter months of the campaign - were enlisted to protect a terrified British ruling class from the loss of Scotland, and all that would signify in loss of profits, natural resources, a parking lot for Trident nuclear weapons and imperialist prestige. 

No wonder Cameron went from panic to smug gloating and childish gossip about the Queen "purring down the phone" when he told her the result. No wonder the FTSE stock market share prices rose after the No vote. Class interests were at the heart of this Referendum.

LABOUR CHIEF OBSTACLE

But as we've written over the past year or more, Labour was the chief obstacle to the Scottish working class majority winning the democratic right to elect our own future governments. Who in the Scottish working class would listen to Cameron and his endangered political species after all? Or to Clegg's Mini Me Tory collaborators? 

The ruling class of the UK desperately needed Labour leaders to exploit their residual roots in the working class to defend the rich from a movement that threatened to go far beyond changing flags or government headquarters to demanding a change to the entire economic amd social system. And the Labour leaders obliged, betraying the working class they have exploited for votes and political office for a century.

One central aspect of this betrayal was the last ditch intervention of Gordon Brown for 'substantial extra powers' provided we voted No. This came on the back of months of pleas to vote No in 2014, vote Labour in 2015, and proceed to a land of milk, honey and 'justice with Labour'.
This then became the infamous VOW, plastered over the front page of the mass readership Daily Record, with Cameon, Clegg and Miliband vowing far more powers for Holyrood provided the Scottish people answered their cooing 'Please don't go' message.
And that ploy played a substantial part in swinging it for NO. The aforementioned Ashcroft survey of No voters identified 'extra powers' as the main persuader for 25% of No voters: that's a massive half a million voters!

THE 'VOW' OF MORE POWERS
But what of the Vow? That is a major short term issue in deliberations on what we need to do in the wake of the Referendum.
The actual pledges from Brown and then all three unionist parties - the Vow - were a mixture of very vague and downright deceitful. 

It promised the permanent existence of the Scottish parliament - which of course Westminster still has the power to defend or disband! 

It promised to defend the Barnett Formula whereby Scotland gets funded above-average per head of population - from taxes the Scots conduct net exports of to Whitehall by £billions every one of the past 35 years! But five days after the No vote the London Times carried a front page announcement of plans to slash the Barnett Formula!

The Vow refers to additional income tax raising powers, control of some welfare (Housing Benefit is most frequently named) and the ability to defend the Scottish NHS from privatisation.

How do they propose to give control of Housing Benefits (HB) to Holyrood if Westminster still has control over rolling out its discredited Universal Credit (UC) which plans to include HB as one element of UC payments? As we wrote many times during the campaign, power over HB was only raised because of the mass revolt over the Bedroom Tax, as a sop from Labour which their partners in unionism and capitalism have now also adopted.

A CUNNING PLOY

The NHS aspect of the Vow was a blatant attempt to neuter the massive impact of the case for voting Yes to defend the NHS from the consequences of cuts and privatisation of the NHS in England. But what is still missing - as far as anyone can tell what is actually, concretely included!-  in these last-minute promises is control over the fundamental purse strings - for instance Corporation Tax on very big businesses. 

Without the ability to raise adeqaute funds for the public purse in Scotland, a Scottish government could soon face the Hobsons Choice of either resorting to some form of privatisation/private investment to shore up the NHS, or use whatever powers over Income Tax granted to then levy higher taxes on the working class and lower middle class. 

In that respect I think the whole scheme behind the Vow is not only a late concession to mass pressure from a panicky ruling class - and in particular their Labour lieutenants - but also a cunning trap. To ensnare Scottish governments into passing on cuts and austerity dictated by Westminster, a devolved government taking the blame for measures they don't have the economic levers to fully combat. A cunning plan, as Baldrick might say!

NO VOTERS' REGRETS - ALREADY!

And within an hour of the Referendum result, Cameron announced a master stroke in his efforts to appease the Tory backwoodsmen, UKIP and the baying mobs of middle class Middle England against any concessions to further Scottish devolution: linking it to English Votes for English Laws (EVEL!). 

In fact this is a powerful democratic argument for Scottish independence! 

But Cameron's ploy forced his Labour bedfellows to get up in arms - in cynical attempts at self preservation. To avoid Labour losing even more working class Scottish voters if their promises are exposed as utterly hollow and false; and to avoid the scenario that even if Labour won in the 2015 Westminster elections (with the help of Scottish votes) they could end up totally undermined and defeated by a Tory majority on English issues. Claim and counterclaim on 'the Vow' has followed, causing hordes of people who voted No to say "I think I did the wrong thing". 

THE POWERS TO TRANSFORM OUR LIVES

So what should we do about it?

There is no doubt the 45% Yes voters are joined by hordes of No voters in expecting and demanding the untrustworthy Westminster politicians carry out their Vow of extra powers for Holyrood. A period of consultation is supposed to happen. As part of helping to sustain the mighty coalition of forces that made up Yes Scotland, RIC, Women for Indy, Trade Unionsists for Indy and numerous other formations, I think we should actively demand something that goes beyond the vague half-promises of the unionist parties - whilst taking account of the fact we've just lost a vote for full independence. 

For example, demand and campaign in the streets, workplaces, colleges, and cyberspace for 'The Powers to Transform our Lives'. Powers including the ability to implement a £10 national minimum wage, as agreed unanimously at the recent TUC conference. Powers to reverse all attacks on welfare and benefits - not just the Bedroom Tax. The powers to tax the very rich and big business precisely to defend our NHS and other services. Amd the power to take the energy companies into public ownership, to combat fuel poverty and pollution. 

Powers that fall short of independence, but would avoid the trap being set by Westminster for Holyrood to implement and take the blame for cuts dictated by Westminster and the class they represent.

PUNISH LABOUR

Labour deserves to be punished for their central role in denying the Scottish people democracy. 

In the trade unions we should help stem the tide of resignations from trade union membership in disgust at union leaders who told members to vote NO, and used members' fees to help finance Better Together and/or United with Labour - without any proper prior debate and vote amongst the members at branch meetings and conferences of Scottish members. 

Instead of leaving the union, leaving yourself defenceless at work and leaving even more control in the hands of undemocratic national officials, we should organise mass withdrawal from payment of members' fees to Labour in those unions affiliated to Labour. Demanding instead that the unions make the break from Labour and help build a mass, working class socialist party.

A YES ALLIANCE FOR 2015

In the 2015 Westminster elections, I personally would support the idea of a Yes Alliance, a pro-independence slate of candidates (whatever the exact name), embracing the three parties that were in Yes Scotland - SNP, SSP and Greens - and others who were part of that coalition. 

I would not endorse the SNP by saying we should all punish Labour by voting SNP - that would be a hostage to fortune, given the track record of the SNP implementing cuts in councils they control, not to mention their policies on cutting big business taxation, or membership of NATO, etc. and the likelihood they will now implement austerity cuts imposed by Westminster cuts in the block grant, stockpiled and deferred rather that defied and defeated by the SNP government.

But just as the SSP played a totally constructive but independent role as the socialist wing of Yes Scotland - uniting in the fight for independence, but retaining the right to put across our own distinctive socialist case for it - so too a continuation of that successful alliance into next May's general election would be one important strand to sustaining the crusade for outright independence, as well as hammering Labour for their treacherous role. And such a multi party alliance could reach voters that the SNP on its own would never win over, given the tribalism of SNP-Labour loyalties.

MAKE 2016 THE ELECTIONS FOR INDY

An even greater prize in the staging posts we can envisage for continuing the struggle for independence and socialism is the 2016 Scottish parliament elections. And they are a mere 18 months away!

All those tens of thousands who fought for a Yes vote could fix their sights on winning an absolute majority of pro-independence MSPs in 2016. 

The SSP, for its part, is not about to disappear! Alongside others we want to make 2016 an independence election, a mandate for self-government. Those, including several SNP leaders, who speak of independence being off the agenda for another generation, or in some cases a lifetime (70 years!), are lowering our expectations unnecessarily. Referenda are but one means of winning independence. The democratic election of a majority of MSPs who favour independence in 2016 - SNP, SSP, Greens, Independents - would surely be equally a mandate for Scottish independence?

That is a quite short term opportunity that can't be spurned by talk of "waiting another generation" in the wake of 18 September 2014. 

MASS POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

And none of these suggestions are thrown out onto a vacuum. We've commented many a time that the Referendum campaign has been an exercise in mass political education, at an incredible pace, to an incredible level of understanding amongst tens of thousands, in the public meeting halls and workplaces of Scotland. 

An unprecedented number of people are signing up to the three parties that fought for a Yes vote. 

But even on that the mainstream media just can't bring itself round to telling the full story, the truth. They systematically exclude mention of the 2,200 (at time of writing, over a mere five days!) who have applied to join the SSP. The capitalist politicians, and even the faint hearts and wiseacres who wrote the obituaries of the SSP in recent years, have a lot of explaining to do! This is an unprecedented growth rate for any socialist party anywhere in the UK, let alone amongst the smaller nation of Scotland. And these people are politically savvy, whatever age they each are, finding their natural home in the one and only party to have consistently campaigned for an independent socialist Scotland since our birth 16 years ago.

BE PROUD - AND ORGANISED

We should all be immensely proud of the 1.6 million who conquered mountainous obstacles to vote Yes, and also wide open to the hordes of No voters already bitterly regretting having listened to the lie machine. We should be proud and confident of the tens of thousands who will keep up the fight to win self rule - not in 70 years or even 'a generation', but in the foreseeable future. And we should celebrate and embrace the thousands who have said 'The time has come to be an organised socialist, I'm joining the SSP!"

The struggle continues - and our day will come!

NAIL LABOUR'S LIES TO WORKERS

The working class holds the key to the Referendum vote. And the outcome of the Referendum is key to the prospects of better lives for the working class majority population.
So as 18 September looms, all of us who favour the democratic right to self government for the Scottish people, as opposed to Tory dictatorship from Westminster governments effectively elected by the middle class 'swing voters' of so-called Middle England, need to demolish the mountain of lies pouring down from the No camp and mainstream media.
And the most dangerous liars of all are Labour politicians; who in the Scottish working class listens to the Tories and their Mini Me LibDems, after all?

 

LIE: voting No means the security and stability of the status quo
Their central lie is that we have a choice between the stability and security of the status quo by voting No, and the scary insecurities - nay Armageddon - of independence.
Leave the scaremongering to Better Together, Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown, Johann Lamont and their likes: the harsh truth of life under Westminster rule already for working class people smashes their lies to smithereens. And a glance of what a No vote will lead to should be enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone who is not a banker, billionaire or over-paid Labour MP.
LIE: pensions safe with Westminster
They tell us workers' pensions are threatened by independence. But a string of No politicians - Labour's Ian Davidson, Coalition Pensions Minister Steven Webb included - have previously blurted out in parliamnet that state pensions would be perfectly safe and secure after independence. So too has the DWP, as far back as January 2013. Which hasn't stopped the lies from pairing out since, of course.
Many public sector workers are in pension schemes totally unconnected to the UK anyway. Strathclyde Pensions is a large example. 

And in other countries affected by independence, such as Ireland, private sector company pensions have been protected by agreement between governments.
So a Yes vote is absolutely no threat to workers' pensions. On the contrary, a No vote is a dire threat to us all: Westminster is rapidly raising retirement age to 70 for men and women, imposing increased contributions from workers, and slashing back the value of the state pension for those who manage to live long enough to receive it.
A No vote would leave a devolved government with absolutely no say over the criminal poverty level of the UK state pension. On average across 25 European countries, the state pension is worth 57 per cent of the average wage; the UK is the worst in the EU, with a state pension only worth 17 per cent of the average UK wage!
A Yes vote would give powers to Holyrood to banish that abominable treatment of older people, and the SSP will be at the fore of a battle to base state pensions on the level of a decent living minimum wage (at least £9 an hour in current figures), with voluntary retirement at 60. 

LIE: get more powers for Scotland by voting No to all powers!
The Labour liars tell us they and their Tory allies will concede more powers if we vote No to winning all powers of government to Scotland! You couldn't make it up. Nor can you afford to believe it. These promises are from parties that have a track record of serialized broken promises. On top of which Boris Johnson, arch Tory rightwing reactionary masquerading as a lovable buffoon, has entered the ring as future contender for Tory Prime Minister, telling the press "we don't need to give extra powers to Scotland".
But imagine these untrustworthy bunch DID grant a few extra powers in the wake of a No vote, under threat of a growing clamour for self-rule; what would these powers amount to? In essence, the power to choose which public services in Scotland are slashed, which privatized, which jobs cut, which set of workers to suffer a pay freeze, as Westmister still holds the purse strings and cuts Scotland's pocket money.

 

 

LIE: Scotland's NHS is safe under Westminster
Take the case of the NHS. Devolution up to now has shielded the Scottish health service from the worst excesses of its demolition in England. But the wrecking ball is swinging faster every day down south. 

The last Labour government doubled the amount of NHS privatisation in its last four years in office. 

The Tories' 2012 Health and Social Care Act has literally abolished government responsibity for health provision!  It transferred £80billion of NHS assets from public health bodies to 'Clinical Commissioning Groups' who then advertise services for privateers to take over. Right now £5.8billion of England's NHS is being advertised to the private sector, on top of the £10bn sold off last year.
As night follows day, a No vote would mean the privatisations and cutbacks in England's NHS spreading the same cancer to Scotland's devolved NHS. Why? The Scottish budget from Westminster is calculated as a percentage of government spending in England. Right now England's £100bn NHS budget triggers £10.2bn payment to Scotland through the Barnett Formula. That's £10.2bn compared to a total Scottish NHS budget of £12bn, and a total Scottish government budget of £30bn. 

 

A No vote is bad for your health

These cold figures merely back up the horrendous prospects of cutbacks and NHS privatsiations, here in Scotland, that a No vote would lead to. And that hellish future is made more sure after the deal struck between the US and EU countries, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, whereby US corporations can sue any government or health authority that blocks their takeover of the NHS (and other services) through privatisation!
A Yes vote would give Scotland not only power over NHS decisions, but over the funding and budgets that underpin those decisions. And the SSP will be at the forefront of a battle to build and invest in a modern, publicly owned NHS - including integration of pharmaceutical supplies to a public NHS - funded by taxation of big business and the stinking rich minority who today can afford the private health care unavailable to the rest of us.

 

LIE: independence threatens shipyard and defence workers' jobs

Another Labour lie is that independence equals job insecurity, particularly for shipyard and defence industry workers. Just glance at how secure these workers are under Westminster rule! After 111 years in business, Port Glasgow's Ferguson shipyard has been shut. The last remaining commercial yard on the Clyde has shed it's 77 workers - under the glorious advantages of the UK! 

One of the reasons is the chronic dependency of Britain's remaining shipyards on warships, aircraft carriers (with no aircrafts affordable!) and the entire war machine, rather than a well planned commercial and socially useful plan of production in areas like new ferries to replace Scotland's aging fleet, or the potential Klondike of research, development and construction of marine engineering equipment for the offshore energy industry. 

 

Jobs not bombs 

A Yes vote would give us the powers to implement - and the SSP would have the political will to demand - public ownership of the shipyards, to secure and expand jobs, diversifying these workers' skills into such socially useful, peaceful production. 

Likewise with those dependent on Trident weapons of mass destruction for an income: leaving aside the £100bn cost of Trident replacement, just the upkeep of the current monster will cost Scotland £1bn for the next decade, which independent research (by the Holyrood search unit) has shown could instead pay for 2,700 teachers, or 3,300 nurses, or 125 new primary schools, or 40 secondaries, or 40 community hospitals! And Trident only accounts for 520 jobs anyway, which could easily be protected doing other work.

 

TRUTH: vote Yes or suffer the consequences 

The choices are stark. The horrible insecurities and cataclysmic assaults on the working class that a No vote would usher in. Or the unique opportunity for radical and socialist change that a Yes vote would empower the working class with. 

Life never offers guarantees. But provided working people - including those engaged in political campaigning for the first time in their lives through the Yes campaign - get and stay organised to battle for decent jobs, a living minimum wage, increased pensions and benefits, expansion of the NHS and other public services, and demand the public ownership and taxation of the rich to fund these, then Scotland can become a beacon, a model of equality that workers in other countries will aspire to imitate.

That's the real choices - not the serialized lies of Labour and their Tory allies. 

And the SSP will continue to build for an independent socialist Scotland where these dreams become reality.