RMT, SSP & "Solidarity"?

how's the parliamentary staff "disupte" going btw? Are the SSP MSP's still members and are the IWW still letting themselves be used for politricks?

did the RMT disaffiliate from Labour too?

Unfortunately, yes to both.

Yer honour, I think that's what's known as hearsay. But if you ever get any concrete facts, please do let us know.

There you go again... "an MSP told a friend" is pretty worthless. But like I say, you got any real evidence of any of this, then please contact BIROC and its branches and request that they look carefully at the evidence and, if necessary, investigate the matter. In the meantime, please desist from making further unsubstantiated allegations.

Oi nattydread.

Shut the fuck up. To know some of this stuff you'll be on the IWW Scotland list. I note you haven't posted there. Speak to your comrades in the union before sounding off on libcom first, eh! Frankly your loyalties seem not to lie with the IWW but to people on libcom - I think that's pretty telling as you seem to be as sectarian as the characterisations of others your making.

If you see a problem with the IWW discuss it within the IWW first or shut the fuck up.

If you had a problem with Barbara why didn't you take it up with Barbara?

Or would you rather just play the big man on libcom?

Don't you think you've got a responsibility to your comrades and fellow workers to challenge what you think are crap decisions in your own organisation first before you fuck off to libcom to sound off about it?

Perhaps accountability and internal democracy mean nothing to you, but as you know the IWW Scotland, IWW-UK and IWW Internal lists, along with all the International lists are open for you to make your comments. Two weeks ago as well BIROC met and discussed this very issue - I note your abscence there also.

If you want to discuss it properly and not just play the internet prick you know damn well where to direct your comments.

The same goes to Volin - I didn't see you at BIROC pal. You said nothing about it in the Scottish Assembly in November either, and the list is there for you to post on.

I've made my own views pretty clear internally, and in my GMB. I'm not prepared to let the libcom forums become the unofficial gossip rag for anonymous spectres to fuck with the internal democracy of the IWW. Get a grip guys. We've got more important things to be getting on with (I.e. solidarity with Simclar workers, the Crichton campus struggle, all the IU 620 activity - Strathclyde, Dundee Uni, Greenock College, One Plus etc - , building a job branch at Glasgow Uni, distribution of workplace bulletins, that health workers bulletin, the Unison Health Workers AGM, that coffeeshop in Edinburgh and all the rest. I could go on.) than playing silly buggers here. If youse want to be anything more than a bunch of hobbyists I'd suggest you focus your efforts WITHIN the union and not just post your pish here.

One Big Union
Nick
IWW Central Scotland Organiser
07910627970

hi natty ,don't worry about dundee or the iww they are all hot air,your post brings up how ineffective they are,although the fact they standby waving at the lorrys asset stripping the simclar factory,speaks volumes also.they don't like criticisms,as it must hurt that a union set up on a basis of having nothing in common with the bosses,then lets bosses (ssp msp's) join has to be embrarassing to say the least.

do people not think it strange that odd only ever posts on here when the SSP/Solidarity thing comes up? we all know you're a lackey shoved here from some socialist pressure group so why don't you go infiltrate some other anarchist message boards eh?

no thanks to you though

it all just gets very boring after people mouth off with the same arguments over and over again

the job branch is entirely separate to the general membership branch, and the vast majority of edinburgh branch are not in the SSP

no it's not a case of never criticising the wobblies, it's a case of cooling off until the dispute is over. plenty of wobs (including myself) have openly shared their doubts over the MSPs' membership on here. get your fact right.

the truth i can handle, it's your bullshit that ican't stand.

thanks for the apology.

joseph k thanks for being so level-headed, and i agree with a lot of what you're saying. the problem is, we can have plenty of internal ongoing assessment and critical reflection without airing our dirty laundry in public. essentially, that is what we're doing. i'm sure other unions are far less open about their shortcomings and mistakes than we are. i'd definitely agree that there are more important issues at the moment. to be honest the actual negotiations etc of the SSP dispute has been largely dealt with on a local level, while the rest of us have been off doing other things that we can't proclaim all over the place for fear of organising drives and other projects being thwarted.

ftony; i don't doubt that you/wobs are doing other important stuff which can't be publicised. i also don't doubt there are internal discussions etc. the point is the dirty laundry is already firmly in public - the flagship UK wobbly campaign no less, and the UK's only (?) job branch. the longer this drags on, the more the credibility of the IWW suffers - looking less and less like a nascent proletarian fighting organisation and more and more like a cross-class nostalgia society.

i mean it seems the MSPs are definitely in breach of the membership rules both as officers of political parties and employers (with whom the employed class have nothing in common), and should be expelled. whether the support staff count as 'officers of a political party' is far less clear and i don't know anywhere near enough to speculate. the problem is as long as the IWW includes employers and officers of political parties against it's own rules, it makes a mockery of the organisation in the eyes of non-members and overshadows any good organising work which may be going on.

(i'm obviously saying all this because i think there's merit in the concept of a proletarian fighting organisation/network of militant workers, if i thought otherwise i wouldn't take the time to criticise)

of course, but the comradely thing to do is to point out there are consequences to the status quo, namely loss of reputation etc. i'm not suggesting libcom posters should get to vote to expel the MSPs.