Come to the All Scotland Protest against The Tories!

...red sky thinking for an open and diverse left

Come to the All Scotland Protest against The Tories!

Claire Thain of the action group Scottish Militant Ninja Turtles explains why SMNT are calling for a mass protest against the Tories the first week in March, and why you should come along, and bring your friends and your banners.

The North British Tory Conference will take place on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th of March at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), Exhibition Way, Glasgow.

We are calling on ALL those who support Scottish independence and ALL those who oppose Tory ideology to join us as we say unequivocally, “TORIES, TORIES, TORIES, OUT OUT OUT” on Saturday the 4th of March.

Reasons to stand in direct opposition to the Tories in the YES city of Glasgow are varied and plentiful. Just some of those reasons are outlined below:

Brexit

Whether you voted Leave or Remain in the Brexit referendum, the Tories at Westminster and in their northern outpost stand against the express will of the majority of the Scottish people.

Theresa May has made no commitment to work with the Scottish Government to respect the wishes of the people of Scotland, whilst Ruth Davidson and her red tory allies here in Scotland have made it clear that chauvinistic British Nationalism, and preserving British interests in Scotland, is preferable to serving the interests of those they have been elected to represent.

Welfare

A commitment by the Tories to continue cutting tax credits is driven by a desire to crush the low-paid. Their heinous commitment more widely to “austerity” is making the lives of those struggling to get by even more difficult and with the “Bedroom Tax 2” on the horizon the trajectory of punishing the poor against a backdrop of the rich getting richer is clear for all to see.

Westminster’s plans for a fresh round of highly punitive welfare cuts threatens to undermine housebuilding projects, increase homelessness and weaken the resolve, power, and cohesiveness of working class communities.

Standing with Workers

During the recent waves of strikes by thousands of rail, post and airline workers, Theresa May despicably attempted to turn worker against worker by accusing those striking for fair pay and conditions as having “contempt” for ordinary people. We say it is Theresa May, Ruth Davidson and extreme right wing Tory ideology that displays the most vicious contempt for ordinary people.

We must not let them gain any sort of foothold in Scotland and we must show solidarity to our neighbours in England who are suffering.

NHS

The privatisation of the NHS in England and the knock on effect that will have in Scotland is a scary prospect. NHS services are missing targets for life-threatening emergencies and recently The British Red Cross declared a humanitarian crisis in the NHS in England.

The return of the Red Cross to Europe recently is the first time since the Second World War and is the extreme and ugly face of Tory austerity.

Trident Renewal

Theresa May has said she would be willing to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill 100,000 people and was part of the vote to replace Britain’s expensive and immoral Trident programme.

The scandal is backed by the North British Tories and based only miles down the river Clyde from where they intend to host their conference. The question is, if we do not unite and fight NOW then when?

Our Rally Cry?

Freedom from Westminster and Holyrood Tories!

For those that think turning up to resist Tories in the flesh is a pointless exercise or who prefer to submerge themselves in electoral politics or centrist tinkering, I give to you Nye Bevan, the Welsh Labour Party politician and Minister for Health in the post-war Attlee government from 1945 to 1951 who famously and aptly said,

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down".

Don’t get run down!