22 July 2005

Keep Calmac Public

The Campaign for Socialism is inviting all Scottish Labour Party MSPs and MPs to join a campaign to stop the tendering of Calmac’s services. This follows the announcement that Jacques Barot, EU Transport Commissioner has expressed a view that the tendering of Calmac’s lifeline ferry services must proceed.

The CfS does not believe that the Scottish Executive should accept this advice, especially in light of the clearly expressed wishes of the Scottish Parliament that Calmac should not be put out to tender. The CfS believes that if the European Commission proceeds with this undemocratic diktat it should be challenged firstly in the European Court of Justice. According to the DTI:

"Any Member State or interested party can challenge a Commission decision in the European Court of Justice. (Article 230 of the EC Treaty). Member States have an automatic right to bring such cases to the Court, or to intervene in a case before the Court."

But the Campaign should not start or stop there. We have to develop a mass campaign designed to retain our public services despite the neo-liberal tendencies of the European Union Commission.

Vince Mills secretary of CfS said:

"This case brings into sharp relief claims by Tony Blair, at the very start of the UK presidency, that he wants a ‘social’ Europe. What could be more ‘social’ than lifeline services delivered by a publicly owned service? The reality is that unless there is a serious campaign of resistance in which we expect of Labour public representatives to play their part, no publicly owned service will be safe from private asset strippers"

Contact Vince Mills on 0781 461 5224