BY JIM MCILROY
GLASGOW Six weeks after the Scottish Socialist Party increased its representation in the Scottish Parliament from one to six MSPs, the SSP's network for young people Scottish Socialist Youth (SSY) held its second national conference on June 14.
"The impact of the SSP across Scotland has shown young people that there is an alternative to the society which discriminates so freely against them", wrote Keef Tomkinson, coordinator of the SSY, in the June 13 issue of the SSP's weekly newspaper Scottish Socialist Voice. According to Tomkinson, prior to the May 1 Scottish election, the SSY had around 300 members.
The SSY conference had a special focus on confronting the rising attacks on young people by the Scottish political and media establishment, and on building the ongoing movement against international capitalism's War on Terror.
The Scottish Executive (SE), the ruling coalition of Labour and other parties responsible for Scottish government, "has proposed an Anti-Social Behaviour bill aimed against alleged high levels of youth crime", Nick Tarlton, who is currently acting coordinator of SSY, told Green Left Weekly. "Yet this is largely a myth, based on anti-youth hysteria whipped up by the major parties during the recent Scottish elections.
"The SE is not addressing the real issues facing youth, such as lack of leisure facilities. The SSY conference resolved to launch a campaign 'from the streets' to oppose this discriminatory legislation, including public meetings, stalls and culminating in a national demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament when the bill is presented, linked to a school strike."
The SSY conference also decided to work with SSP MSPs to put forward an alternative to the executive's anti-crime bill, defending the rights of youth in particular around the key issue of changing current draconian anti-drug laws.
The conference passed a resolution opposing the continued drive to war against the Third World by the US and its allies under the guise of fighting terrorism. The SSY is determined "to oppose the occupation of Iraq and Palestine and to argue for socialist solutions to the wars which capitalism creates".
It resolved to increase coordination between the SSY, the SSP and the Scottish Coalition for Justice Not War, the main anti-war organising group. The conference decided that the SSY would increase its efforts to get out the truth about war and social justice, and seek to "deepen links with young people across the world through events such as the European Social Forum in order to maximise opposition to capitalism and war".
"The conference was important because people who had been drawn toward SSY through anti-war activities were now looking at socialist politics in the wider sense", said Tarlton.
The SSY conference elected a new national committee, with a view to developing a written constitution and building SSY branches on the regional and then local levels.
[SSY coordinator Keef Tomkinson will be a key international guest speaker at the Resistance national conference in Australia, being held in Sydney from July 11-13. See ad on page 10 for details.]
From Green Left Weekly, July 2, 2003.
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