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Our family loves to cook. We're always trying new recipes. The only problem is that when you try so many recipes, it's hard to keep track of them all! So, we're going to post and share our recipe favorites here--both old and new.
Monday, January 4, 2016
Turkey Time! Part 1
So, perhaps you made a turkey for Christmas and perhaps after also having a turkey for Thanksgiving, you have a lot of leftovers. Or perhaps you just like turkey and want to make something with turkey in it at any time of the year. In my case, I made turkey for Thanksgiving and bought another turkey to make for Christmas, but since I was so sick over Christmas, I did it a little later. It was a big turkey with a lot of leftovers, and for whatever reason, my turkey sandwich loving family wasn't really in the mood for turkey sandwiches. So, I hunted down a few recipes that helped me use up my turkey leftovers. All of these recipes were paired with mushrooms, so if you don't like mushrooms, you probably won't like these recipes. However, since I do, I thought they were quite good. Here's the first recipe.
Turkey Mushroom Tetrazzini
1/2 pound uncooked spaghetti
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 can (12 ounces) fat-free evaporated milk
2 1/2 cups cubed cooked turkey breast
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
Dash pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Cook spaghetti according to package directions; drain.
In a large saucepan, saute onion until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Combine cornstarch and broth until smooth; stir into the onion mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
Reduce heat to low. Add milk; cook and stir for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the spaghetti, turkey, mushrooms, seasoned salt and pepper.
Transfer to an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese and paprika. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through. Yield: 6 servings.
Nutrition information: 1 1/4 cups equals 331 calories, 5 g fat, 51 mg cholesterol, 544 mg sodium, 41 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 28 g protein.
Source: Taste of Home. You can find it here.
Notes: This was good. My boys gobbled it up, which is always a plus for me. I have two different flavors of seasoned salt and I was on the fence as to which one to use. Afterward, I wasn't sure if I had used the right one, but when I had the leftovers, it was fantastic. You could also use a dry Italian dressing seasoning packet in place of the seasoned salt and it would taste great (1/2 a packet for the recipe as is, or a whole packet if you double the recipe).
I doubled this and it made a ton, so I split it in half and shared some with a neighbor who was in need.
Posted by Foodie Family at 9:05 AM
Labels: Pasta, Sources: Taste of Home, Turkey, Using Leftovers
2 comments:
You know, turkey is usually a really strong flavor to me. I don't like turkey noodle soup, for example. But it seem I made this before and liked it. But this recipe didn't come from me, right? Mine was in an old BC pamphlet book.ReplyDelete
I made this because it reminded me of the recipe you had made years ago, but no, it is not the same recipe.ReplyDelete
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WASHINGTON (CNS) — Lawsuits filed by family-owned businesses against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' contraceptive mandate on moral grounds continue to make their way through the courts.
The businesses offer a range of services, from making wooden cabinets to selling car supplies to and running a chain of arts and crafts stores, and the owners include Catholics, evangelical Christians and Mennonites.
What they have in common is the belief that their for-profit businesses should be allowed to seek an exemption from that part of the health law they say violates their religious beliefs.
On May 22 a panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago heard oral arguments in two of those cases.
The judges previously overturned the decision of a lower-court judge and gave the Kortes and the Grote families a temporary injunction in complying with the HHS contraceptive mandate that requires most employers, including religious employers, provide coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge, even if the employer is morally opposed to such services.
Both the Korte and Grote families seek permanent relief from the mandate.
Cyril and Jane Korte, a Catholic couple who own the Illinois-based construction company Korte & Luitjohan Contractors were granted an emergency motion last December by the 7th Circuit while it considered an appeal of a lower court's denial of the preliminary injunction motion.
The Grote family, also Catholic, runs Grote Industries in Madison, Ind., which manufactures vehicle safety products. They filed suit last October against the HHS for the contraception mandate and were granted a preliminary injunction in January.
According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit, public interest law firm, 60 cases have been filed, most by religious entities, objecting to the HHS contraceptive mandate.
On Feb. 1 the federal government issued new proposed rules that exempt organizations that are considered nonprofits under specific sections of the Internal Revenue Code. The proposed rules are to become effective Aug. 1.
No exemption, however, will be given to "for-profit, secular employers" who, on moral grounds, object to providing the coverage.
On May 23, a panel of eight judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver, heard the appeal of the Greens, owners of Hobby Lobby, an Oklahoma-based craft store chain. The owners filed suit against the U.S. government last September over the contraceptive mandate's requirement employers cover emergency contraceptives such as the morning-after pill.
The Greens said they specifically objected to paying for the morning-after pill, saying it violated their belief that life begins at fertilization, but they do not have any moral objection to the HHS requirement to cover "preventive contraceptives."
In December Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied Hobby Lobby's request for an injunction while it challenged part of the mandate in court, leaving the company subject to fines of more than $1 million a day since Jan. 1.
Oral arguments before the 10th Circuit panel of judges focused on whether the contraceptive mandate put an undue burden on the Greens' religious beliefs.
Kyle Duncan, an attorney for Hobby Lobby, argued that the Greens should not have to pay fines for failing to comply with the mandatory contraceptive coverage simply because their business makes a profit.
An attorney representing the U.S. Department of Justice argued that allowing businesses to be exempt from requirements that violate their religious beliefs would essentially allow them to impose their religious beliefs on employees.
Hobby Lobby describes itself as a "biblically founded business." The chain of 500 arts and crafts stores in 41 states was founded in 1972 by David Green. The stores pipe in Christian music through their sound systems and are closed on Sundays.
Other court hearings of businesses challenging the HHS mandate include Conestoga Wood Specialties, a Mennonite-owned company based in Lancaster County, Pa., before the 3rd Circuit May 30; and Autocam, a manufacturing company based in Grand Rapids, Mich., will be argued before the 6th Circuit June 11.
The current appeals for exemption from the HHS contraceptive mandate focus on the First Amendment guarantee of free exercise of religion and on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibits the federal government from imposing a "substantial burden" on a person's exercise of religion unless there is a "compelling governmental interest" and the measure is the least restrictive method of achieving the interest.
In recent cases involving family-owned businesses and the HHS regulations the courts have been divided. Some courts have denied business owners' requests for temporary injunctions while others have granted temporary injunctions. Those on both sides of the issue say the U.S. Supreme Court may have to ultimately settle the cases.
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"Our team does not write code, we build solutions. We have a team of people who would throw out the best piece of code ever written in favour of building the best solution to meet the needs of our customers." – Lungisa Matshoba, CTO and co-founder.
This quote from Lungisa perfectly sums up how we look at product development. We're pretty obsessed with customer-centricity and making sure we put entrepreneurs first in every decision we make.
This means, as a Product Developer at Yoco, you speak to our customers, our support and operations teams, and even run support yourself from time to time. It also means we build tools and choose technologies that scale as our business and our customers' businesses grow. We're not bound by one way of doing things – we're flexible and adaptable.
It's this thinking that drives us to undergo extensive Beta testing with every new product we launch. This allows us to refine and improve our offering using constant feedback from the people who will be using Yoco in their businesses. SME South Africa dug deeper into our beta testing process – check out the article here.
Our team of product heros has grown quite rapidly in number in the past few months, and we've had many new awesome additions. Get to know the new and old faces below.
If you're interested in being part of the Product team, have a look at our current job openings here.
Lungisa aka Dennis
"Being a part of building a product that has a direct impact on people's ability to grow their own wealth and drive their own success is very rewarding."
One of our four fearless founders, Lungisa's job is to support the people who make our products (the Product team), champion innovation and make sure that our product development and design is always done with the customer's needs at the forefront.
"As a single individual, I can never accomplish as much as a team that is well supported."
Lungisa previously co-founded a VoIP startup called Yeigo where he "built lots of cool stuff, learnt stuff about business that no business degree can teach, and had a lot of fun". Along with Katlego, Carl and Bradley, he founded Yoco in 2013. His favourite thing about being part of Yoco is that he finds himself surrounded by people who surprise him every day. In his spare time he enjoys running because he loves being on the road while most of the country is still asleep.
Andrew aka Snowdog
"We are constantly trying to improve how we work and really go the extra mile to make sure that our products are amazing to use."
Before Yoco, Andrew ran Yeigo along with co-founder Lungisa, before Lungisa convinced him to leave and start a payments company. Andrew loves that his job is all about building software that is used by so many amazing small businesses.
"I love the idea of giving small businesses access to tools and technology that were too expensive or unavailable to them before."
The most important thing he's learnt along his journey is not to avoid complicated problems by only working on things that are easy and within your comfort zone. Outside of the office, Andrew enjoys running, hiking and taking his puppy, Abby, for walks. He is also a big fan of Mexican food, no matter what shape or form it's in.
Altus aka Lunchmaster
"Making the lives of small business owners easier has become a passion. Every time we build something new we get to engage with that on a deeper level."
Altus is one of the original Yocos and has been with us since 2014. Before Yoco he was one of the first team members of a mobile apps startup, but now Altus looks after building new products and features for the team and our customers. His favourite thing about his job is getting to create awesome things that make an impact.
"Working on something that adds benefit to the world is important to me. Making something like a credit card machine might not seem like it does, but when you spend time with the businesses we support, and see the communities built around small businesses, you realise it adds so much value."
Because he's often pushed outside his comfort zone in many ways, Altus has learned more at Yoco than any other time in his life (his exact words, we swear we're not making this up). Outside of the office Altus loves to run and hike, is an avid boardgamer, and is quite the craftsman – he made a chicken hat especially for AfrikaBurn.
Mandisa aka Panda
"I'm learning EVERY DAY. I surprise myself EVERY DAY. And more importantly, I see the value of what I'm doing every time I meet one of our merchants."
Understanding the needs of the people using your product is one of the key things Mandisa has taken away from her time working at Yoco. She's learning that starting and running a business can be made easier if you have the right tools and resources. Mandisa also has quite a creative side and loves to create art in her spare time.
"We say it all the time. We're customer-centric. We handle all the complexities of the code ourselves, so that the customer experience can be easy and simple."
Karabo aka Dada
"I enjoy learning about new things, and applying what I have learned."
New to the team, Karabo joined at the beginning of June. Some of the things he loves about his new job are: snacks (always readily available in the office), working on mobile software and the wide scope to learn. He also likes the fact that he has, and will continue to, gain insight into payments and small businesses – something he calls "the payment dance".
"Every line of code I write is critical. For example, a bad bug could be a headache for the Marketing team as it could have implications for the brand. A new feature could help the Operations team carry out their work more effectively and make their lives much easier. Every new feature we write could also potentially make life so much better for our merchants."
Nathan aka Nate Dogg
"Creating high quality products – it's exhilarating!"
Nathan is very involved with our Beta initiatives and using customer feedback to refine and improve our offering.
"The small decisions that we make can have a big impact on the day-to-day running of someone's business. This means it's a big responsibility, but also an honour to have a positive impact."
We asked Nathan about the biggest thing he's learned so far in his short time at Yoco. His answer? "There's no such thing as a stupid question". In his spare time, Nathan enjoys a good glass of Chenin Blanc, spending quality time with the Mrs and watching MasterChef Australia (although in his past life he was a wannabe rockstar).
Steven aka Steve aka Stevovo
"I love knowing that the work I do is making a difference to thousands of entrepreneurs in the country."
Steven's job involves a lot of problem solving – thinking about the challenges that entrepreneurs and small businesses in South Africa face on a day-to-day basis and designing solutions. His work gives him exposure across a lot of business functions, both with colleagues as well as small business owners. When he's not solving problems, Steven is a self-proclaimed gin connoisseur, hip-hop head and loves to teach others to code.
"The way we do things at Yoco means that I have a big say in the products that we're building. Because we are a customer-centric company, we have implemented that into our product development process, which makes our solutions that much better."
Thabang aka Bang aka LL Cool J
"Building a world class organisation starts with building a family."
When we asked Thabang what his day-to-day job consists of, he replied, "Deep work, learning, learning, learning, help and collaboration, and some more learning."
"I get to see my impact on a company and its employees. That feeling of adding value to other people's lives feels more like a calling than a job."
He likes that he has a license to try (and fail) at new things – what better way to learn! When he's not at work, Thabang dabbles in a bit of photography and illustrations, enjoys staying fit and would like to remind us that "Netflix is life".
Kirk aka Kermit
"Everyone is on the same page and extremely supportive and motivated. The snacks aren't bad either."
Kirk's favourite thing about working at Yoco is, without a doubt, waking up everyday knowing he's making a difference and working with like-minded people. Our customers are our driving force and Kirk loves that we are collectively making a difference in the small business space.
He's always excited to hear small business success stories because it really drives home that what we are doing is something special.
"You don't need a title to be a leader. The best ideas at a company come from all different roles. Have a good idea? Speak up. You have a voice. Make it heard!"
Richard aka Lionel Richie
"I love the teamwork, collaboration and being able to work in and understand the space of a leading tech startup."
Richard recently joined us after founding and running his own ad-tech startup called 8Bit. He's passionate about solving problems and building new features for our products. Key learnings for Richard include how effective working in "sprint cycles" can be and the fact that muffins are Altus' food of choice.
"The product team connects with a lot of the different parts of the business. We create solutions for customers as well as solutions to help the whole of the Yoco family to work together."
Fun fact: he's also been kitesurfing for 16 years and used to be qualified instructor who taught over 200 people.
Nick aka Nick doesn't do Nicknames
"There's a lot of encouragement to experiment."
Another one of the Yoco originals, Nick describes his work as "coding cool stuff for Yoco so that we can handle all the complicated, messy, and ultimately boring work for our customers". He joined Yoco from a position in investment banking, and asks us to please not blame him for the Lehman Brothers meltdown that almost lead to a worldwide recession (we got you, Nick).
"I greatly enjoy the opportunity to work on projects where I know that what I'm doing has an impact on my company's customers."
"On time delivery and quality come first."
Coming from a background as a Developer at an international payments company, Nkokhelo is another one of our new additions to the Yoco Family. His favourite thing about coming to work is to learning more about financial and software technology every day. Since joining Yoco he's gained insight into how important it is to our economy to empower SMEs.
"I get to contribute to the platform that is empowering South Africa."
Walter aka Walter White
"Software development is always evolving and there are always more things to learn."
Walter loves that Yoco aims to be at the cutting edge of tech and that the team is always encouraged to test out new tools that could simplify their work. He has a background in software development for RFID systems and is another recent addition to our Product team. Since joining he's hit the ground running and has learnt loads.
"Helping other teams in the company become more streamlined and efficient, and seeing the effects of that, is pretty rewarding."
Interested in joining the Product Team? Have a look at our current career openings here.


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Contra o imperialismo e a monarquia britânica e pelo controle operário dos recursos energéticos escoceses!
Liga Comunista - Brasil
Tendencia Militante Bolchevique - Argentina
8 de setembro de 2014
Tendencia Militante Bolchevique - Argentina
8 de setembro de 2014
As organizações do Comitê de Ligação pela IV Internacional não chegaram a um acordo comum sobre que tática adotar diante do plebiscito acerca da independência da Escócia. A Liga Comunista, do Brasil, e a Tendência Militante Bolchevique, da Argentina, defendem o voto "SIM". O Socialist Fight, da Grã Bretanha, defende o voto "NÃO". Nossa jovem proto-internacional, que aspira se construir como um partido centralizado internacional, ainda não possui estrutura interna desenvolvida o suficiente para deliberar por votação interna a posição majoritária do CLFI diante desta questão. Não escondemos nossas divergências internas sobre essa tática e acreditamos que a publicação das duas posições seja a forma mais honesta de tratar o tema diante da classe operária, dos oprimidos e de sua vanguarda classista mundial.
Nós, portanto, publicaremos as duas declarações em seus idiomas originais. Abaixo está a declaração do SF em inglês. Em breve publicaremos a declaração da LC e TMB em inglês e a declaração do SF, em português.
No próximo 18 de setembro, ocorrerá um plebiscito na Escócia para decidir se o país se separa ou não do Reino Unido. Uma das questões econômicas importantes que estão por trás desta decisão jurídica-política, é a questão do petróleo do mar do norte.
"O mar territorial adjacente no Atlântico Norte e no Mar do Norte contém as maiores reservas de petróleo da União Europeia" [ 1 ].
Esta parte do oceano é, hoje, propriedade pessoal da coroa britânica. Não é por acaso que a Rainha anda "assustada" como as pesquisas que dão vitória para o SIM no plebiscito [ 2 ].
"O mar territorial adjacente no Atlântico Norte e no Mar do Norte contém as maiores reservas de petróleo da União Europeia" [ 1 ].
Esta parte do oceano é, hoje, propriedade pessoal da coroa britânica. Não é por acaso que a Rainha anda "assustada" como as pesquisas que dão vitória para o SIM no plebiscito [ 2 ].
Independente dos interesses burgueses e aspirações imperialistas dos dirigentes da campanha pela independência, mesmo que o Partido Nacional Escocês (SNP) seja um partido burguês de centro-direita, que agora tenta seduzir a UE e aos EUA para ganhar simpatias para romper com seu atual amo imperialista, não se pode de modo algum descartar o fato fundamental de que esta ruptura poderá provocar sérios problemas energéticos para o imperialismo britânico.
"O governo escocês, liderado pelo primeiro-ministro Alex Salmond, disse que os 300 anos de união não servem mais e defende que se a Escócia for independente, com sua riqueza petrolífera, seria um dos países mais ricos do mundo. Ele diz que é o momento para o país assumir o controle de seu próprio destino, ser livre do que ele descreve como os 'grilhões' de um parlamento do Reino Unido, que tem sede em Londres. No lado oposto do debate, o governo do Reino Unido, liderado pelo primeiro-ministro David Cameron, diz que a Grã-Bretanha é umas das união sociais e políticas mais bem sucedidas do mundo. Questões relacionadas aos ganhos com petróleo estão entre as principais divergências sobre a permanência da Escócia no Reino Unido. As reservas de petróleo e gás do Mar do Norte (ou, mais precisamente, a carga tributária que a Escócia divide) são vitais para entender que o governo escocês defenda a independência do país. Alex Salmond afirma que, se guardassem um décimo da receita proveniente do petróleo - cerca de £ 1 bilhão por ano (cerca de R$ 3,8 bilhões) -, poderiam formar um fundo semelhante ao utilizado na Noruega, criando um pote de riqueza soberana de £ 30 bilhões (cerca de R$ 114 bilhões) ao longo de uma geração" [ 3 ].
Mesmo supondo que as receitas com o petróleo do Mar do Norte venham a diminuir nos próximos anos, como todos os poços em exploração no mundo hoje, o que torna o imperialismo britânico mais "assustado" diante do risco de perder a Escócia é o fato de que já nas condições atuais, tendo a Escócia e o mar do norte sob seu completo domínio, o capital financeiro britânico Unido tende a enfrentar sérios problemas energéticos:
"O Departamento de Energia e Mudanças Climáticas avalia que a produção de petróleo do Reino Unido vai diminuir de 43 milhões de toneladas este ano, para 23 milhões por ano até 2030." [ 4 ].
"O Departamento de Energia e Mudanças Climáticas avalia que a produção de petróleo do Reino Unido vai diminuir de 43 milhões de toneladas este ano, para 23 milhões por ano até 2030." [ 4 ].
A Escócia não é um pequeno país imperialista, no sentido marxista desta caracterização. Para os marxistas, o imperialismo é a política expansionista do capital financeiro. O déficit comercial da Escócia com o Reino Unido e a crise dos bancos da Escócia demonstram que a Escócia é financeiramente dependente do imperialismo do Reino Unido. No mundo não existem apenas países imperialistas e país oprimidos. Nós acreditamos que a categoria de "país dependente", utilizada por Lenin para definir a dependência de Portugal e Argentina em relação ao capital britânico, se aplica hoje a Escócia.
"As exportações da Escócia para o resto do Reino Unido (Ruk) correspondem a 70% de suas exportações. Por sua vez, a Escócia recebe apenas 11% das exportações do Reino Unido. Assim o capitalismo escocês é fortemente integrado no capitalismo britânico, mais do que Canadá para os EUA. Em 2012, as exportações escocês para Ruk somaram R $ 48 bilhões, enquanto as exportações Ruk para a Escócia foram R $ 59 bilhões. Então uma Escócia independente poderia executar um déficit comercial com seu principal parceiro comercial, o Ruk, exigindo, portanto, de investimento ou de crédito de fundos "no estrangeiro" para preencher a lacuna. A Escócia seria um pequeno Estado capitalista dependente do comércio com Ruk e pouca possibilidade de reduzir essa dependência... A Escócia como uma pequena economia, dependente de multinacionais para o investimento, ainda dominado por bancos britânicos e da City de Londres e sem controle de suas próprias taxas de câmbio ou de juros, poderia enfrentar um sucesso muito maior do que em outros lugares, em termos de rendimentos e desemprego." [ 5 ].
A Escócia é um país economicamente dependente do Reino Unido e a burguesia escocesa limita-se a desejar uma maior independência política para ficar com uma parte maior das riquezas nacionais para si (recursos naturais, mais valia, ...). Obviamente, em sua luta pela autodeterminação da Escócia, o proletariado não pode se contentar com uma mera mudança de amo. Nesse processo, assim como na Ucrânia no final de 2013, os planos limitados da burguesia escocesa podem ir pelos ares.
A independência da Escócia seria uma vantagem para o proletariado internacional e os oprimidos de todo o mundo não pela política burguesa e pró-imperialista do SNP mas porque debilitaria:
1) o Reino Unido, o principal aliado do Estado imperialista hegemônico, os EUA, na Europa e em todo o planeta;
2) o principal centro do capital financeiro europeu;
3) a monarquia britânica, componente fundamental de coesão do Reino Unido e parte importante do próprio capital financeiro britânico e europeu;
Assim como proclama a frase atribuída ao herói guerrilheiro escocês, William Wallace, "todos os homens morrem, mas nem todos vivem", todas as demandas nacionais são pela independência, mas só existem uma verdadeira libertação nacional, quando estas demandas nacionais impulsionam tarefas progressistas para os oprimidos.
É necessário deixar claro que a autodeterminação da Escócia, assim com a autodeterminação de Donbass e da Crimênia, na Ucrânia, debilitam o imperialismo. Em oposição a esta situação, existem "auto-determinações" que fortalecem o imperialismo:
a) a "independência" do Tibet, na China, visa debilitar a um Estado capitalista não imperialista, que hoje disputa a hegemonia mundial contra o imperialismo;
b) a "independência" das Malvinas em relação a Argentina, tem por objetivo dar uma fachada legal de "soberania" a um enclave imperialista britânico no Atlântico Sul;
c) em seu momento, a "independência" do Kosovo frente a Sérvia, para tornar-se uma colônia mafiosa e narco-traficante do imperialismo e rota comercial da heroína afegã;
d) por fim, a política de divisão de qualquer Estado operário, em nome da luta pela "autodeterminação" como foram os processos da Lituânia, Letônia e Estônia, são processos contrarrevolucionários, uma vez que apontam para uma regressão do caráter de classe do Estado em questão para um retorno ao capitalismo.
Várias organizações advogam que a independência da Escócia romperia a unidade da classe operaria britânica. Nós, ao contrário, concordamos com Lenin acerca da autodeterminação nacional e consideramos que se os operários ingleses apoiam a independência da Escócia, ganhará a unidade do proletariado britânico. Porque, neste caso, os operários escoceses se identificarão mais fortemente com os operários ingleses como seus irmãos de classe, para além da divisão dos Estados capitalistas.
"O nacionalismo avança nas classes populares mas gera aversão entre as altas, que vêem a independencia como um fator de inestabilidade e risco financeiro." [ 6 ].
Lenin afirmava que a socialdemocracia sueca trairia ao proletariado se não houvesse apoiado a independência da Noruega. Em relação a independência da Noruega da Suécia, o fundador do bolchevismo, se posicionava assim:
"Qual foi e devia ser a posição do proletariado norueguês e sueco no conflito provocado pela separação? Os operários conscientes da Noruega teriam votado, naturalmente, após a separação, pela república(8*), e se houve socialistas que votaram de outro modo, isso apenas demonstra quanto oportunismo estúpido e filisteu há por vezes no socialismo europeu. Acerca disso não pode haver duas opiniões, e nós referimos este ponto somente porque Rosa Luxemburg tenta dissimular o fundo da questão com conversas fora do tema...
Não resta a menor dúvida de que a social-democrada sueca teria traído a causa do socialismo e a causa da democracia se não tivesse lutado com todas as forças contra a ideologia e a política tanto latifundiária como «kokochkinista», se não tivesse defendido,além da igualdade de direitos das nações em geral (reconhecida também pelos Kokóchkine), o direito das nações à autodeterminação, a liberdade de separação da Noruega.
A estreita aliança dos operários noruegos e suecos, a sua plena solidariedade fraternal de classe GANHOU com esse reconhecimento, pelos operários suecos, do direito dos noruegueses a separação. Porque os operários noruegueses se convenceram que os operários suecos não estavam contaminados pelo nacionalismo sueco, de que a fraternidade com os proletários noruegueses estava, para eles, acima dos privilégios da burguesia e da aristocracia sueca... Os operários suecos... saberão conservar e defender a plena igualdade de direitos e a solidariedade de classe dos operários de ambas as nações em luta tanto contra a burguesia sueca como contra a burguesia norueguesa." (V. I. Lenin, Sobre os direitos das nações a autodeterminação, cap. 6; A separação da Noruega da Suécia, abril-junho/1914). [ 7 ]
De tudo que foi dito acima, concluímos que a autodeterminação da Escócia não deve ser vista como uma questão insular, mas como um assunto ligado diretamente aos interesses dos povos oprimidos do conjunto do planeta, porque a independência da Escócia debilitaria a ala britânica do imperialismo que hoje oprime ao conjunto dos povos oprimidos da Terra. Por sua vez, em função dos que expusemos anteriormente sobre os interesses históricos do proletariado britânico e internacional, é evidente que a acusação de "terceiro mundistas" aos que defendem a autodeterminação da Escócia para debilitar ao Estado imperialista britânico, é um cretinismo comparável a acusação de "antisemitismo", lançada pelo sionismo contra seus críticos.
Os principais partidos imperialistas britânicos, Conservador, Liberal-Democrata, Laborista, são herdeiros do grande inimigo da independência da Escócia das últimas décadas, o tatcherismo.
"Os progressos do independentismo se viram freados quando o Partido Nacional Escocés apoiou uma moção de censura contra o governo e forçou eleições gerais en 1979 que resultaram na vitoria da grande adversaria da independencia, Margaret Thatcher." [ 8 ].
A burocracia trade-unista pró-imperialista, segue a posição política destes partidos, na questão escocesa. Por fim, o centrismo claudicante segue a burocracia trade-unista. Todos estes agentes do imperialismo britânico se declaram em franca oposição a independência da Escócia.
A população trabalhadora, dos cinco milhões de habitantes da Escócia é mais propensa a votar pelo sim, em contrapartida, o empresariado se opõe a independência do país:
"O Scottish Social Attitudes fez um estudo identificando uma forte correlação entre o apoio à independência e a classe social. 40% das famílias que ganham sob £ 14.300 são propensas a votar sim, enquanto os escoceses ricos são decididamente hostis, e 72% dos líderes empresariais são hostis à independência." [ 9 ]..
Mas se restasse alguma dúvida do quão pode ser progressiva, a independência da Escócia em relação ao Reino Unido, para os povos oprimidos do planeta, o ex-secretário da OTAN e secretário de Defesa entre 1997 e 199, durante o governo trabalhista de Tony Blair, Lord (George) Robertson tratou de dissipar:
|Uma exigência ao Partido Nacional Escocês/SNP:
"SNP, nós queremos a Escócia livre da OTAN
|Torcedores do Celtic levam cartazes e faixas com os líderes
da luta pela libertação nacional na Irlanda e na Escócia,
Bob Sands e William Wallace, respectivamente
Mesmo que de forma oportunista, o Partido Nacional Escocês tenha recuado para concordar com uma adesão da Escócia a OTAN, a fim de ganhar os votos dos setores de direita da nação, Lord Robertson, trata de esclarecer que isso não passa de uma manobra não funcional ao imperialismo
"Lord Robertson também sugeriu postura pró-Nato de Alex Salmond foi uma 'retificação eleitoral', em contradição com a oposição do SNP às armas nucleares. Ele disse que os 28 membros da OTAN não permitirão que um país deseje se juntar a aliança ao mesmo tempo em que proíba a entrada em suas águas de navios da OTAN que transporte armas nucleares, como defende atualmente o SNP." (idem).
"Lord Robertson também sugeriu postura pró-Nato de Alex Salmond foi uma 'retificação eleitoral', em contradição com a oposição do SNP às armas nucleares. Ele disse que os 28 membros da OTAN não permitirão que um país deseje se juntar a aliança ao mesmo tempo em que proíba a entrada em suas águas de navios da OTAN que transporte armas nucleares, como defende atualmente o SNP." (idem).
Os revolucionários se delimitam do nacionalismo escocês que busca a separação do Reino Unido para integrar-se aos Estados imperialistas continentais da Europa, sob o slogan "independencia dentro da Europa", mas, simultaneamente acredita que é dever de todo bolchevique lutar pela independência da Escócia.
Mas em tudo isso há um porém:
"Se a Escócia se junta a UE como um membro independente, ele estará sujeito às severas metas de austeridade fiscal agora a ser impostas aos gostos de Grécia, Portugal, Espanha e outros pela UE ao abrigo seus pactos fiscais." [ 11 ].
Neste caso, a Escócia saltaria da forca, o Reino Unido, para a guilhotina, a UE, e o SNP pode não chegar a cumprir o que está prometendo para a UE, assim como o burguês oligarca Yanokovich declinou, na última hora, de assinar os acordos com a UE, o que gerou todo o conflito atual na Ucrânia.
"Se a Escócia se junta a UE como um membro independente, ele estará sujeito às severas metas de austeridade fiscal agora a ser impostas aos gostos de Grécia, Portugal, Espanha e outros pela UE ao abrigo seus pactos fiscais." [ 11 ].
Neste caso, a Escócia saltaria da forca, o Reino Unido, para a guilhotina, a UE, e o SNP pode não chegar a cumprir o que está prometendo para a UE, assim como o burguês oligarca Yanokovich declinou, na última hora, de assinar os acordos com a UE, o que gerou todo o conflito atual na Ucrânia.
Hoje, o mais firme defensor da independência escocesa, o proletariado escocês, deve preparar-se para a luta que se avizinha. Deve fazer de sua causa, a causa do proletariado internacional e dos povos oprimidos de todo o mundo.
Uma Escócia capitalista independente seguirá explorando os trabalhadores em favor da concentração de capitais e dos meios de produção. "O SNP tem como concepção de uma Escócia independente aquela em que os bancos e as grandes empresas continuam a acumular lucros e capital; e onde a propriedade da terra é a mais concentrado nos países desenvolvidos (metade das terras da Escócia é de propriedade de apenas 500 pessoas). 'Estamos agora com seis anos em um governo SNP que não fez absolutamente nada legislativamente sobre o mais concentrado, mais desigual, mais sistema não reformado e mais antidemocrático propriedade da terra em todo o mundo desenvolvido', Jim Hunter, Land Reform Review Group." [ 12 ].
Lutamos para que o voto pelo "SIM" pela independência escocesa, que faz parte de um programa democrático e nacional, seja combinado com reivindicações de um programa transitório que transformem esta luta, em uma luta antiimperialista, socialista e revolucionária.
> Pela autodeterminação nacional da Escócia!
> Pelo fim da monarquia britânica!
> Nacionalização com controle operário dos recursos energéticos da Escócia!
> Pela revolução agrária e por um banco único estatal contralado pelos bancários e usuários!
> Nenhuma confiança no nacionalismo escocês, que sob o slogan "independência dentro da Europa" busca integrar a Escócia a União Europeia e flerta com o imperialismo estadunidenese!
> Pela federação socialista das ilhas britânicas, como parte da unidade proletária e socialista da Europa!
Liga Comunista
Tendencia Militante Bolchevique
1. http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esc%C3%B3cia
2. http://actualidad.rt.com/ultima_hora/view/139529-reina-isabel-susto-sondeos-escocia-independencia
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/noticias/2014/08/140807_artistas_referendo_reino_unido_kb.shtml
4. http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/scotland-yes-or-no/
5. http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/scotland-yes-or-no/
6. http://www.elcorreo.com/bizkaia/internacional/201408/24/imposible-batalla-contra-crono-20140822171301-rc.html
7. https://www.marxists.org/portugues/lenin/1914/auto/cap03.htm#i6 -
8. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independentismo_escoc%C3%A9s
9. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/23/scotland-labour-traditions-yes-vote-independence
10. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/10751728/Scottish-independence-would-be-cataclysmic-for-the-world-ex-Nato-head-warns.html
11. http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/scotland-yes-or-no/
12. http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/scotland-yes-or-no/
Vote NO
Socialist Fight statement on the Scottish referendum on 18 September:
8 September 2014
Lenin, Critical Remarks on the National Question:
"The demand for a "yes" or "no" reply to the question of secession in the case of every nation may seem a very "practical" one. In reality it is absurd; it is metaphysical in theory, while in practice it leads to subordinating the proletariat to the bourgeoisie's policy. The bourgeoisie always places its national demands in the forefront, and does so in categorical fashion. With the proletariat, however, these demands are subordinated to the interests of the class struggle. Theoretically, you cannot say in advance whether the bourgeois-democratic revolution will end in a given nation seceding from another nation, or in its equality with the latter; in either case, the important thing for the proletariat is to ensure the development of its class. For the bourgeoisie it is important to hamper this development by pushing the aims of its "own" nation before those of the proletariat. That is why the proletariat confines itself, so to speak, to the negative demand for recognition of the right to self-determination, without giving guarantees to any nation, and without undertaking to give anything at the expense of another nation… Insofar as the bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation fights the oppressor, we are always, in every case, and more strongly than anyone else, in favour, for we are the staunchest and the most consistent enemies of oppression. But insofar as the bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation stands for its own bourgeois nationalism, we stand against. We fight against the privileges and violence of the oppressor nation, and do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the part of the oppressed nation." [1]
The Break-up of Empires: Austria-Hungary was a polyglot chaos in which even Austrians did not profess to see more than a half light…The Czechs wanted the reestablishment of the kingdom of Bohemia, and finally the union with Russia, The Routhenians, oppressed by the Poles and differing in language and religion from them, looked longingly forward to an incorporation into the empire of the Czar. The Poles proclaimed secretly, if not openly, the restoration of the kingdom of Poland. Italia irredenta was ever alive in the Trentina and Trieste, no matter how hard the Slavs, officials, and gendarmes tried to suppress it. The southern Slavs of the coastlands, Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia clamoured for a unification, and their ultimate aim was the reestablishment of the old Serbian kingdom, embracing also Serbia. Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The Rumanians wished their annexation by the co-national young and vigorous kingdom. And lastly, not least, the Germans of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Lower Austria, Styria, and the most advanced and politically educated inhabitants of the Alps, desired a union of the German provinces with Germany in some shape or form.
In the light of the Lenin quote we must pose and answer certain questions to decide on a "yes" or "no" vote.
Is Scotland a nation? We say yes.
Is Scotland an oppressed nation? We say no, it is an imperialist nation.
Does it have the right to self-determination? We say yes but we are opposed to it exercising that right.
Is separation in the interests of the Scottish, British or international working class? We say no.
What is driving modern national separation movements in Imperialist countries?
Since the defeat of Argentina in the Malvinas war of 1982, the defeat of the US air traffic controllers and the breakup of their union (PATCO) by Ronald Regan (in 1982 also), the defeat of the miners' strike in Britain in 1985 the neo-liberal agenda of global finance capital has been in the ascendant. This offensive resulted in the overthrow of Eastern Europe, Russia and China as degenerate and deformed workers' states in 1989-92. Following on from that the breakup of Yugoslavia from 1990 (the dissolution of the Yugoslav Communist Party) it has been increasingly the case that Imperialists have sponsored the break-up of states in the semi-colonial world in order to bring the smaller states that emerge closer and more firmly into the obit of global finance capital; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, other former USSR republics, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro etc. In all these cases the IMF and World Bank have forced privatisations, sell off of state assets, wage cuts, destruction of health care, education and pensions for the elderly. The wolves of the global transnationals hoover up the wealth generated from all this plunder.
In the Yugoslav breakup and in some others the method was to appeal to the national bourgeoisie of the more prosperous republics to cut loose from subsidising the poorest republics and form direct relations with imperialism, to the extreme detriment of the working class in these countries – life expectancy almost always fell dramatically as a consequence of these "liberations" – the former USSR and Yugoslavia are extreme examples. Tibet and the Uyghurs who live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China are prime targets for the CIA intervention to break up China.
As a consequence the national question began to re-emerge in Imperialist nations themselves, as the advance of neo-liberal ideology encouraged the local bourgeois in regions of states that were historic nations to seek direct relations with imperialism, largely but not exclusively with US imperialism and its transnationals. The foremost regions that have begun to press fresh demands for self-determination are Catalonia in Spain and The Basque Country in Spain and France, the Veneto (Venetian) region of northern Italy the Flemish region of Belgium and Scotland. The motivation of the bourgeoisie who lead all these movements is the same, to enrich themselves by establishing closer relations with Imperialist finance capital, to increase the super-exploitation of their own working class and to cease to subsidise the poorer regions.
The four on the European continent are obviously motivated by bourgeois contempt for the poor of the southern Mezzogiorno and of Andalusia and Extremadura and rest of Belgium which is poorer in general. The Scottish referendum is fought out on "what's best for Scotland", extolling the virtues of North Sea oil and Scotland's relationship with Wall Street. Salmond has floundered from one "national vision" policy to another. Before the 2008 crisis, it was that Scotland was going to be part of a "Ring of Prosperity" on the NW of Europe that included Norway, Iceland and Ireland. You don't hear much of that notion now except from his opponents. However the Flemish and Italian movement are led by far right forces in distinction to the Spanish and Scottish movement which do represent historic nations and are led by centre right and even more liberal bourgeois forces. The militant Scottish working class of the mid 1980s would not have accepted this at all and no substantial or even small far left group in Britain, the WRP, the SWP or Militant advocated it at that time.
When the first rumblings of the RBS crisis were heard, Salmond dismissed the rumours as the activities of "a few spivs and speculators". He was perhaps the last person standing to grasp that Scotland's banks were imploding and does not admit even now that Scotland would have been bankrupt if they had not been bailed out by Westminster, i.e. English taxpayers in the main. (It later emerged out that. See e.g. London Review of Books:
That the primary cause of this disaster, in the UK's case, was the total recklessness of the two main Scottish banks, RBS and HBOS, is an inconvenient truth that we could never expect the current SNP leader to confront, especially as he was previously employed as an economist by one of those now zombified institutions. Even more inconveniently for Alex Salmond, the twin pillars of the once proud Scottish banking sector are now being propped up by the British state (i.e. largely English taxpayers). Salmond's response to this economic earthquake has been to blame a pair of Anglo-Scottish traitors, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, for failing to regulate the financial sector properly. This skates over the most inconvenient truth of all for the SNP: up until the crash occurred, Salmond was calling for even lighter financial regulation than that imposed by New Labour. In an interview with the Times on 7 April 2007, he stated: 'We are pledging a light-touch regulation suitable to a Scottish financial sector with its outstanding reputation for probity.' The reality is that Salmond was the king of the 'spivs and speculators' he has been denouncing of late and, were they living in Salmondistan rather than Broonland today, his compatriots would be in even direr straits than the citizens of Iceland or Greece. [2]
The next "vision" was that Scotland would be part of the European dream as it would get automatic membership of the EU. Challenged, Salmond said he had taken robust legal advice on the issue. It turned out that was a bare-faced lie to the Hollyrood Parliament which he got away with only because the Labourites didn't press the advantage. He not only hadn't taken advice, no-one had even properly researched the issue. The EU issued a flurry of statements to the effect that Scotland would have to apply in the same manner as any other state and that membership wouldn't be granted in a hurry. The pertinent Member State is the UK, of which Scotland is a region. If Scotland leaves the UK, it obviously ceases to be a part of a Member State. It was at that point that the Spanish government said (for Catalonically obvious reasons) that it would be minded to veto any Scottish application.
The entitlement and privilege which have driven this way of life in Scotland have been built on a system that has survived almost intact since the Scottish Reformation in 1560. The lands which bear these hunting estates belong to the most exclusive cadre of landowners in the developed world. More than half of Scotland is owned by fewer than 500 people. According to the academic and land reformer, Jim Hunter, this equates to "the most concentrated pattern of land ownership in the developed world".
Scotland is a minor Imperialist Nation unlike Ireland
Lenin wrote in 1913:
"Marxists are, of course, opposed to federation and decentralisation, for the simple reason that capitalism requires for its development the largest and most centralised possible states. Other conditions being equal, the class-conscious proletariat will always stand for the larger state. It will always fight against medieval particularism, and will always welcome the closest possible economic amalgamation of large territories in which the proletariat's struggle against the bourgeoisie can develop on a broad basis.
Capitalism's broad and rapid development of the productive forces calls for large, politically compact and united territories, since only here can the bourgeois class—together with its inevitable antipode, the proletarian class—unite and sweep away all the old, medieval, caste, parochial, petty-national, religious and other barriers.
The right of nations to self-determination, i. e., the right to secede and form independent national states, will be dealt with elsewhere. But while, and insofar as, different nations constitute a single state, Marxists will never, under any circumstances, advocate either the federal principle or decentralisation. The great centralised state is a tremendous historical step forward from medieval disunity to the future socialist unity of the whole world, and only via such a state (inseparably connected with capitalism), can there be any road to socialism." [3]
As this quote has often been used by the Socialist Party CWI and others to oppose the legitimate rights of oppressed nations to self-determination it first behoves us to show that Scotland is an Imperialist nation, now in alliance with English and Welsh imperialism in the British state. If Scotland secured independence it would be a minor Imperialist state, like Belgium or Holland. Comparisons with Ireland, which is an oppressed nation and whose six north eastern counties are still a colony of British imperialism, are invalid. Let us see the historical difference:
"The Protestant Ascendancy: 18th century
The Protestants of Ireland, triumphant in the aftermath of the battle of the Boyne (1690), soon take steps to procure lasting advantages over their Catholic enemies… Meanwhile penal laws severely restrict Catholic liberties in other fields. It becomes illegal for a Catholic to sit in the Dublin parliament, to hold public office, to keep a school, even to own a decent horse (one worth more than £5).
In spite of the advantages thus secured for Ireland's Protestants, they too find cause for resentment during the 18th century. Increasingly the Protestant Ascendancy means the ascendancy of English Protestants. The best posts, in church or government, are given to newcomers from the other side of the Irish Sea. Irish commerce suffers harmful tariffs and restrictions. Scotland, now in political union with England, enjoys free trade; by contrast the Irish market is controlled from Westminster (which forbids, for example, the export of Irish wool).
The Irish find much to sympathize with in the complaints of the American colonies. Irish demands become vociferous in the years after the American Revolution." [4]
Taking advantage of this international upsurge of bourgeois revolution which culminated in the French Revolution (1889-94) in Ireland Grattan's Parliament gained a large measure of independence. Its sway lasted from 1782 to 1800 ("I sat by its cradle and followed its hearse" said Grattan, mourning its passing, in 1801) and it exercised relative economic independence, the only such period Ireland experienced between Poynings' Act of 1495 and 1922. Ireland's great bourgeois revolution was crushed with utmost barbarism by Britain in 1798. Scotland's story was entirely different; she had her successful bourgeois revolution in the 1640s contemporaneously with England and Wales but nonetheless significantly separately and different to establish her as a nation in her own right. She now enjoyed free trade, Wiki:
"(Scotland enjoyed) seven centuries as an independent state and following Union with England, three centuries as a country of the United Kingdom… After 1800 the economy took off, and industrialized rapidly, with textile, coal, iron, railroads, and most famously shipbuilding and banking. Glasgow was the centre of the Scottish economy… The economy, long based on agriculture, began to industrialize after 1790. At first the leading industry, based in the west, was the spinning and weaving of cotton. In 1861 the American Civil War suddenly cut off the supplies of raw cotton and the industry never recovered. Thanks to its many entrepreneurs and engineers, and its large stock of easily mined coal, Scotland became a world centre for engineering, shipbuilding, and locomotive construction, with steel replacing iron after 1870." [5]
Or as a friend on Facebook summed it up more succinctly:
"Though Scotland's first attempt to join the slave economies (the Darien Disaster) was a spectacular flop, it was a bulwark of the British imperial dream from at least the mid-eighteenth century when Glasgow's so-called "Tobacco Lords" began to acquire their fabulous wealth. That wealth was of course based on that cheerful little threesome, drug trading, smuggling and slavery. As the industrial revolution got under way, the Scottish bourgeoisie continued to back the imperial venture to the hilt, basing its manufacturing wealth on the lure of captive markets on the one hand and the intense exploitation of the local working class on the other."
This is the political and economic story of an Imperialist nation, participating in the Empire as a full partner. Ireland, on the other, hand, rapidly deteriorated economically after its forced union with Britain in 1801 to its low point, the Great Famine of 1845-48 which saw 2 million disappear from its census of 1841, half dead and half emigrated. Dublin was the second city of the Empire in 1801 but by the 1913 General Strike/Lockout the poverty and appalling housing conditions of its workers, its life expectancy and its child mortality rates were unparalleled in Europe on a par with Calcutta. From a population of 8.5 million in 1841 Ireland as a whole declined to approximately 4.5 in the 20th century and began to climb again in the 60s to its present level of 6.4 million.
Despite the efforts of Irish nationalists to excuse the Scottish and Welsh components of the Empire for its crimes in Ireland in the "Troubles" of 1918-21 by constantly referring to Britain as "England" or "Perfidious Albion" the King's Own Scottish Borderers were identified by IRA leaders as particularly brutal. In July 1914 it was the Borderers' Regiment that carried out the Bachelors Walk massacre in Dublin following the Howth Gunrunning, still commemorated to this day. In west Cork as recorded by Tom Barry in Guerrilla Days in Ireland there was no quarter asked or given; together with the Essex and the Auxiliaries the order was kill on sight, the IRA man was lucky if he was killed and not captured by these. The IRA allowed other regiments to surrender; they were disarmed and allowed to return to barracks. The Borderers were no less vicious in the latest "Troubles" from 1968-98 in the north of Ireland. [6]
The two origins of the modern SNP: Scottish Unionist and left nationalist; truly "tartan Tories".
It is a contradictory but very revealing fact that the political origins of the SNP are in the Scottish Unionist tradition which had successfully appealed to working class protestant voters in the main that defence of Empire was defence of industrial jobs in the West of Scotland in particular. It took a left, social democratic turn from 1973 to 1982, from the election of Margo MacDonald to the expulsion of the Socialist 79 Group, which counted Alex Salmond as a member. Salmond has been shifting the party rightwards back to its Tory roots since becoming leader in 1990. Most remaining left members departed to join Tommy Sheridan's ill-fated Scottish Socialist party in 1998.
Not for nothing were the SNP dubbed the "Tartan Tories", only now the SNP looks slightly more to the US imperialism than to British Imperialism. The Scottish Unionist Party was a wing of the Conservative party until 1965, like the Ulster Unionists until 1973. It was the main centre right political party in Scotland between 1912 and 1965, when the Conservatives began standing in their own name. It won between 25 and 42 percent of the votes for the Conservative establishment in those years. As the Wikipedia article explains:
"Popular imperial unity was the central thread of the Scottish Unionist Party's belief system. While it was the prospect of Irish Home Rule that set the circumstances for the party's creation, it was not the principle of autonomy they opposed, but the belief that Irish independence would lead to the break-up of the British Empire. This was demonstrated by their acceptance and support of Dominion status for colonies such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Newfoundland. This seam in the Scottish Unionist Party's belief system was demonstrated when members of the party left to establish the Scottish Party, which eventually merged with the National Party of Scotland to form the Scottish National Party." [7]
Scottish millionaire and founder of the giant Stagecoach transport group Brian Souter has been a long time supporter of the SNP. In 2000, when the Scottish Executive were planning to abolish the homophobic Section 28 laws introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1988, which forbade local authorities from "intentionally promoting homosexuality", Souter led the openly homophobic Keep the Clause campaign. Alex Salmond was criticised for "pandering to homophobia" in 2007 when he accepted £500,000 from Souter. He denied any link but then the party opposed the right for gay couples to be given equal treatment by Catholic adoption agencies. Salmond thanked Souter for his support, calling him "one of the outstanding entrepreneurs of his generation". In April 2007 the SNP dropped its commitment to re-regulate the bus network which they had made at the previous year's conference. Salmond implausibly denied the £500,000 donation had any link with this decision. Again in 2011 Souter gave financial support for the SNP of up to £500,000. He obviously expects more paybacks.
How does the Scottish and English/Welsh working class see the referendum?
But it is not just an economic question but how this economic reality is understood by the mass of the working class that is important for Marxists. This is how Lenin judges the matter in the quote at the beginning of the piece. We must severely differentiate ourselves from the bourgeois nationalist Alex Salmond. Salmond dictates the political content of the "yes" referendum campaign with the likes of former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan dancing to his tune to the extent that WSWS writers Steve James and Jordan Shilton on 5 July 2014 speculated, somewhat fancifully, that he may be about to join the SNP.
"At a recent meeting in East Kilbride, Sheridan began his speech with a reference to Mel Gibson's ludicrous and ahistorical Braveheart, declaring that the referendum was about "Freedom." Tyranny "comes in many forms," he said, noting that "since 1951 Scotland has had to endure 35 years of Tory government that we never voted for"—something that could be said for many other regions of the UK and about most British workers.
In one speech posted on the Internet, Sheridan complained bitterly that Scotland had been paying more to the UK for the past 32 years than it had been getting back. This showed that people in Scotland were not beggars, "but self-sufficient."
In a newspaper interview Sheridan was more explicit, declaring, "We're constantly told how Scotland is stronger and better together as part of the United Kingdom. But if you look at Scotland's resources, our potential, our talent and what we have achieved as a nation, there is absolutely no argument that can convincingly say Scotland is better off not being an independent country."… his is an argument routinely employed by Italy's Liga Nord or Belgium's Vlams Belang. These right wing separatist parties complain that they are subsidising poorer regions of the country and should be free to enjoy their own prosperity." [8]
As Sandy McBurney observed against ex SWP member (now RS21) Neil Davidson in his Weekly Worker interview:
"Alex Salmond might have been against the war on Iraq, but he supported the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the bombing of Libya. He's a great friend of American imperialism and the dominant role of the USA in world politics. The SNP have always made a big fuss about supporting Scottish regiments in the British army. They might want to get rid of Trident, but they want to remain in Nato [9] and have proposed a policy of 'don't ask and don't tell' in respect of the presence of nuclear-armed Nato ships in Scottish waters. The idea that an independent Scotland would be anti-imperialist is just ridiculous.
…The whole process of splitting our forces into two different countries will seriously weaken the solidarity that exists. It is already happening. It is quite common now for socialists not to support the founding of a Britain-wide socialist party – instead they advocate a separate party for Scotland with its own separate programme. They reject the prospect and perspective of a government in Britain controlled by the working class.
Davidson also underestimates the real danger that a 'yes' vote could lead to an increase in nationalism on both sides of the border due to disputes on the exact terms of the 'divorce'. If the SNP win the referendum they propose an optimistic timetable of 18 months of negotiation with Westminster leading up to actual independence in March 2016. This process could get very messy, with chauvinists on both sides of the border stirring up nationalist resentment in respect of the division of assets and liabilities. In such a situation politics on both sides of the border could move sharply to the right and independence would weaken the only social force that is capable of defeating imperialism: the working class. In this context we could see what is left of the UK becoming even more aggressively militaristic after independence than Britain currently is.
But capital is organised at the level of the state and by splitting up our forces many on the left are effectively giving up this fight against capitalism as a system. I really cannot see how you can take on internationally organised capital by dividing our forces into ever smaller entities. Why help build a new national prison for the working class? The fact that this increase in nationalism is visible not just in Britain, but also in many other countries, shows that the traditional reformist left is continuing to disintegrate and degenerate. We need an international Marxist alternative to the old politics that still dominate the workers' movement." [10]
We must stress that there is no serious Republican campaign for a yes vote of any size or principle, no suggestion that the Queen is to be replaced. As John Wight points out in his blog:
"The contents of the SNP/Yes campaign's white paper, to date the only prospectus for independence that exists, make this inarguable, confirming that the SNP does not constitute a departure from the status quo but rather stands for its continuation under a different flag. Despite its historic importance, never has such a divisive political campaign been fought on such narrow political terrain. Consider the evidence. If the result is No in September it will mean that the existing head of state — the monarchy — will remain the head of state, while if the result is yes the existing head of state — the same monarchy — will become the new head of state." [11]
The issue of the Scottish currency after a "yes" vote contains all the problems of Scottish Independence. The SNP seems never to have given serious thought as to what currency Scotland might use, a fact brought out by Alistair Darling in the first Television debate. Nobody seems to have consulted anybody, or discussed with civil servants or the Bank of England and the like. Both sides are coy on the fact that, as a new EU member (always assuming that the Spanish don't veto membership), Scotland would in the midterm be softened up for euro membership. This would have immediate effects on public ownership in Scotland. It is reasonable to assume that ScottishWater would be quickly sold off and that the remaining publicly owned transport would be put out to tender. The viability of Prestwick Airport, taken over by the state in November 2013, would be at risk of closure because it lacks proper transport links to Glasgow.
Finance minister John Swinney and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond during First Minister's Questions
Finance Minister John Swinney promises that the new government would borrow to fund welfare payments but from where? Salmond says that they will repudiate Scotland's share of the UK's debt if Scotland cannot use Sterling but that would mean a default which would destroy its financial standing in the world markets. They would have to pay prohibitive rates for any borrowing as the southern European countries and Ireland had to a few years ago. Swinney has no intention of borrowing to fund welfare payments and almost certainly couldn't even if he had. It's only cheap propaganda designed to fool the poor; disgracefully the middle class of press and politics connives in the deceit.
Sterling is the British currency. The government of capitalist Britain is not obliged to put its resources at risk simply to humour capitalist Scotland. The choice seems to be between Sterling (making "independence" a sham as Scotland would inevitably have to bow to Bank of England rules) or the euro. The latter would make Sterling seem like very Heaven itself. The viability of a Scottish currency is too much of an unknown to take seriously. In short, the one question few on the left seem willing to ask is "Is an independent, capitalist Scotland economically viable?". If there is doubt on that score, what might be the consequences for society as a whole, let alone the working class?
Is or is not Scotland a post-industrial country? To ask that question is to answer it. Does it have a viable financial sector? The collapse of its two major banks, the HBOS and the taking of RBS, into British ownership (its management has already said it will move south in the event of a "yes" vote) suggest that there are serious issues there. So there is little industry and only little banks. There are lots of lawyers, though.
Lastly on this there it is very light minded to take a "yes" position because the British capitalist establishment take a "no" position. You must make a concrete analysis in each case. Trotsky opposed the separation of Catalonia from Spain, so did the Spanish bourgeoisie and the dictator Francisco Franco. [12]
This is part of Trotsky's message on Spain in 1931:
Once more on the subject of the timely questions of the Spanish revolution.
1) …To permit petty-bourgeois nationalism to disguise itself under the banner of Communism means, at the same time, to deliver a treacherous blow to the proletarian vanguard and to destroy the progressive significance of petty- bourgeois nationalism.
2) What does the program of separatism mean? – the economic and political dismemberment of Spain, or in other words, the transformation of the Iberian Peninsula into a sort of Balkan Peninsula, with independent states divided by customs barriers, and with independent armies conducting independent Hispanic wars. Of course, the sage Maurín will say that he does not want this. But programs have their own logic, something Maurín doesn't have.
3) Are the workers and peasants of the various parties of Spain interested in the economic dismemberment of Spain? Not at all. That is why to identify the decisive struggle for the right to self-determination with propaganda for separatism means to accomplish a fatal task. Our program is for Hispanic federation with the indispensable maintenance of economic unity. We have no intention of imposing this program upon the oppressed nationalities of Spain with the aid of the arms of the bourgeoisie. In this sense, we are sincerely for the right to self-determination. If Catalonia separates, the Communist minority of Catalonia, as well as of Spain, will have to conduct a struggle for federation.
4) In the Balkans, the old pre-war Social Democracy already put forward the slogan of the democratic Balkan federation as the way out of the madhouse created by the separated states. Today, the Communist slogan in the Balkans is the Balkan Soviet Federation (by the way, the Comintern adopted the slogan of the Balkan Soviet Federation, but at the same time it rejected this slogan for Europe!). How can we, under these conditions, adopt the slogan of the Balkanization of the Spanish peninsula? Isn't it monstrous? [13]
Trotsky' Learn to Think makes this point against my enemy's enemy argument:
"Let us assume that rebellion breaks out tomorrow in the French colony of Algeria under the banner of national independence and that the Italian government, motivated by its own imperialist interests, prepares to send weapons to the rebels. What should the attitude of the Italian workers be in this case? I have purposely taken an example of rebellion against a democratic imperialism with intervention on the side of the rebels from a fascist imperialism. Should the Italian workers prevent the shipping of arms to the Algerians? Let any ultra-leftists dare answer this question in the affirmative. Every revolutionist, together with the Italian workers and the rebellious Algerians, would spurn such an answer with indignation. Even if a general maritime strike broke out in fascist Italy at the same time, even in this case the strikers should make an exception in favour of those ships carrying aid to the colonial slaves in revolt; otherwise they would be no more than wretched trade unionists – not proletarian revolutionists." [14]
In the event of a "yes" vote we would argue for a Socialist Federation of Britain and a Socialist United Ireland.
The History of the Scottish Vanguard of the British Working Class
The first great working class movement was the Chartist in Britain (1838-48) and the Scottish working class was in its forefront. True many of the foremost leaders like Fergus O'Connor and Bronterre O'Brien were Irish but it had little effect in Ireland although the Irish workers in Britain participated as part of the British working class:
"The depression of 1842 led to a wave of strikes, as workers responded to the wage cuts imposed by employers. Calls for the implementation of the Charter were soon included alongside demands for the restoration of wages to previous levels. Working people went on strike in 14 English and 8 Scottish counties, principally in the Midlands, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Typically strikers resolved to cease work until wages were increased 'until the People's charter becomes the Law of the Land'."
Scotland participated in the forefront of the Great Unrest from 1911-1914; one of its most important actions was the strike of 11,000 women workers at the Singer Sewing Machine factory in Clydebank in 1911. This laid the basis for the Red Clydeside movement and rise of syndicalist trade union militancy post war up to the 1930s. The whole greater Glasgow area, along the banks of the Clyde from Clydebank to Greenock, Paisley and other towns participated. This is a very important part of the history of the whole British working class. In contrast the Great Dublin Lockout and General Strike of 1913 was betrayed by the British TUC and the left syndicalist Benn Tillett in particular on a defence-of-the-Empire basis, making the bloody fight for Irish self-determination in 1916 and after inevitably. [15]
Trust was lost between the Irish working class represented by its organisations and the British labour movement, whose leaders had put defence of the Empire before working class solidarity. That solidarity could now only be established through separation and on the grounds of full national sovereignty, which makes equality its first premise. British trade union problems between Scotland and England/Wales never acquired that character, because that was not the objective situation. Scotland's bourgeoisie were not a "semi-oppressed, semi-oppressing class" as Trotsky described the colonial and semi-colonial bourgeoisie; they were and are an Imperialist bourgeoisie.
The history of the Scottish working class since has been as the leaders of the whole British working class. They fought in the general strike of 1926, in the great industrial battles of the early 70s that brought down the Heath Government in 1974 and in the great miners' strike of 1984-5. The specifically Scottish trade unions have all but disappeared. National strikes are always fought on a British basis and the Scottish working class has long been the vanguard of the British working-class.
Jimmy Reid, on the right below the famous mixup – "It cannae be Lenin- he's deid". Educated by Stalinism he took the first treacherous steps to turn the Scottish working class away from their class brother and sisters south of the border. The US ruling class were so grateful to him that when Reid accepted the Rectorship of the Caledonian University of Glasgow the New York Times printed his famous 1972 Rat Race speech.speech in full and described it as "the greatest speech since President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address".
Scottish nationalism first got its toe-hold in the Scottish working class as a consequence of the Upper Clyde Shipyard's dispute (1971-2) where Jimmy Reid's work-in abandoned the national (let alone international) solidarity of labour in favour of a defence of capitalism in Scotland. Betrayals by a right-moving Scottish Labour party [16] and a bogus left turn based on the economic nationalism of the aristocracy of labour championed by the Communist Party via Jimmy Reid got its reflection in the SNP's reactionary "It's Scotland's oil" campaign. This won 7 seats in the first and 11 in the second general election in 1974 for the SNP. This 30.4% was their highest ever vote in a Westminster election; the next highest was 19.9% in the 2010 election.
Significantly all the forces that now advocate a "yes" vote supported this fundamental betrayal by Reid who afterwards became a scab opponent of the miners' strike of 1984-5 on behalf of the Scottish and British capitalist class. Genuine Trotskyist like Socialist Fight assessed him far differently in our article on of the outcome of the Grangemouth dispute:
"What was wrong with Jimmy's Reid's UCS work-in?
The Socialist Appeal, the Socialist party and the SWP put forward Jimmy Reid as the model trade union leader. Rob Sewell says, "The example of UCS in 1971, where the workers organised a "work-in", became a cause celebre and an inspiration to all those workers fighting closures and attacks". The Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party similarly point to this work-in as the way to go. That work-in was, in fact, a political defence of capitalism as was analysed in SF No 5, Jimmy Reid: "It cannae be Lenin — he's deid". [17] Reid accepted the Rectorship of the Caledonian University of Glasgow in the famous 1972 Rat Race speech. The New York Times printed the speech in full and described it as "the greatest speech since President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address".
"Reject the values and false morality that underlie these attitudes. A rat race is for rats. We're not rats. We're human beings. Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement. This is how it starts and before you know where you are, you're a fully paid-up member of the rat-pack. The price is too high. It entails the loss of your dignity and human spirit. Or as Christ put it, "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?"
As Tony Fox commented on this:
"His message to the Presbyterian students of Glasgow Caledonian University, worried by a radicalising working class, was the rat-race can be overcome by cleansing our souls of greed and evil and he will then guarantee their privileges against the threat of socialist revolution. This is why Reid's moral humbuggery went down so well with the capitalist establishment and its defenders. It had its origins in the crashing banalities of Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount, delivered (or later invented to gut the message of the messianic Essenes, Christ's sect, of all oppositional, egalitarian content) to protect the Roman Empire against the impending Great Jewish Revolt led by the revolutionary Zealots (66-70 AD). Its function was to ward off threats of revolution articulated in the main in those days, if not seriously practiced, by the Trotskyist zealots of Gerry Healy's SLL".
The article finished with the following observation:
"Lastly we will sum up by examining the remark of the ship yard worker who misheard John Lennon's name when it was announced that he had given a £5,000 cheque to the work-in and said "It cannae be Lenin — he's deid". That worker clearly knew who Lenin was, he knew his spirit would be on his side in the class struggle and he had discussed Lenin with fellow workers, no doubt as a result of attending or taking to those who had attended CPGB meetings.
Lenin was indeed 'deid' for the CPGB even if they still used his name, with a history of some forty years of class betrayal behind them by then and he is clearly 'deid' for those leaders without enough class consciousness to recognise what was wrong with what Jimmy Reid did and said back in 1971-2. But we are confident there are enough who still understand the revolutionary heritage of Lenin and Trotsky to forge a genuine Leninist-Trotskyist revolutionary party by learning those lessons today"." [18]
We concluded our article on the betrayal of the Grangemouth workers and the Royal Mail postal workers by Len McCluskey of Unite and Billy Hayes of the Communication Workers Union by a rejection of economic nationalism and that is a fitting conclusion to this article too:
Grangemouth dispute sold out by Unite's Len McCluskey to defend "Scottish jobs for Scottish workers" and betray the workers of the whole island.
"Clearly far more concessions will need to be made at Grangemouth to protect "British" jobs and, once the full capacity of the "new wave of giant refineries in Asia and the Middle East" come on stream in 2017 the plant will probably close anyway. Bob Crow's economic nationalism and Europhobia is a pressing threat to the entire working class movements and those who are revolutionary internationalists must conduct a sharp political struggle against it. McCluskey at Grangemouth and Billy Hayes at the Royal Mail in conjunction with Ed Miliband have struck a treacherous blow at the only force that can solve this crisis; the organised strength of the international working class led by a reforged Fourth International. As Trotskyists we do not therefore collapse before this global crisis but turn towards that class with renewed and urgent struggles to build that leadership that will take forward the struggle to build the rank and file Grass Roots movement in Unite and every other union to oust this treacherous bureaucracy and replace them with more militant and revolutionary leaders who will face up to the central task of overturning capitalist property relations themselves on a global scale." [19]
[1] V. I. Lenin, The Right of Nations to Self-Determination, February-May 1914 http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/ch04.htm
[2] Letter by Rob Brown in London Review of Books, May 2010: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n09/letters
[3] V. I. Lenin, Critical Remarks on the National Question, 1913, https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/crnq/6.htm
[5] Economic history of Scotland – Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Scotland
[6] Green Left Weekly, British army terrorises Irish town, July 1, 1992, https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/3539
[7] Unionist Party (Scotland), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unionist_Party_%28Scotland%29
[8] Former Scottish Socialist Party leader promotes nationalism in referendum campaign, By Steve James and Jordan Shilton, 5 July 2014, http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07/05/sher-j05.html. This does not mean we endorse the WSWS/SEP position on self-determination in general which denies this right, even to oppressed nations like the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
[9] In fact they changed from anti-NATO to pro-NATO. "No Nukes, No NATO" was a 30 year-old central plank of SNP policy from its CND leftist past but the defeat of the Margo MacDonald left wing signified a right turn to the SNP middle-of-the-road support. Salmond and his deputy John Swinney managed to rail-road through a change of line at the 2012 party conference leaving much of the rank and file furious at what they (rightly) saw as a betrayal.
[10] Interview: Don't march with nationalists, http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1011/interview-dont-march-with-nationalists/
[11] John Wight, Scottish Independence Obscures the Real Divide In Society, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/john-wight/scottish-independence-obscures-real-divide-_b_5714057.html
[12] Leon Trotsky, The National Question in Catalonia, (July 1931), http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/07/spain01.htm
[13] Leon Trotsky: The national question in Catalonia, July 13, 1931: http://socialistfight.com/2013/04/24/leon-trotsky-the-national-question-in-catalonia/
[14] Leon Trotsky, Learn To Think, A Friendly Suggestion to Certain Ultra-Leftists, (May 1938), ttp://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/05/think.htm
[15] Socialist Fight, The North of Ireland and the Socialist Party; "Ben Tillett, the dockers' leader who Larkin had considered a fellow supporter, "wielded the knife that struck the fatal blow". This final decision not to support the Dublin workers led to defeat and intimidation with the full weight of the state used against the ITGWU's members." http://socialistfight.com/tag/dublin/
[16] Scottish Labour holds 37 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, 41 of 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons and 2 of 6 Scottish seats in the European Parliament. The SNP currently holds 69 seats in the Scottish Parliament, 6 of 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons and 2 of 6 Scottish seats in the European Parliament.
[17] Socialist Fight No 5. P. 9 Jimmy Reid: It cannae be Lenin — he's deid, http://socialistfight.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/socialist-fight-no-5.pdf
[18] Socialist Fight: Revolutionary leadership, Grangemouth and the CWU, http://socialistfight.com/tag/rob-sewell/


text: Martin Ulbricht Born in 1948, Martin Ulbricht has painted all his life and is largely self taught. An early inclination to pursue a career as an artist gave way to one in aviation. His years in aviation allowed him to develop his technique and style and this period of his life provided a multiplicity of inspirations on a variety of themes. Almost from the outset, portraiture has been his abiding passion, although in more recent times his contemporary landscapes, cityscapes, beach scenes and sunsets etc. have become much sought after. Having become a professional artist, Ulbricht likes to remain flexible regarding style and subject. He always stays true to his premise that, whatever the painting it must give its owner constant pleasur


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Electrical transport properties of individual Ag nanowires are studied from room temperature down to low temperatures of a few Kelvin. The results show that surface scattering effects alone cannot account for the temperature-dependence of the nanowire resistivity and its unusually high residual resistivity compared to bulk Ag, whereas scattering at longitudinal twin planes and contributions due to phonon softening have to be considered. The impact of the twinning is observed in the marked reduction of the Debye temperature with respect to bulk silver. The findings also indicate that at low temperatures the scattering at the twin boundaries is more prominent than surface and electron–phonon scattering.
Hinweis: Dieses Forschungsportal enthält nur Inhalte, welche für die Veröffentlichung freigegeben sind.


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Assault And Battery
Assault and Battery
A "battery" is simply using "force" on another person where that force results in a harmful or offensive touching. (For example, pushing or striking someone) A battery is defined in Penal Code section 242. An "assault" is an attempted battery. (For example, trying to strike someone but missing.) This is defined in Penal Code section 240.
Simple assault and battery are misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in the county jail. If the assault or battery is committed with force likely to cause great bodily injury or with a weapon, (Penal Code Section 245), it becomes chargeable as a felony and is punishable by up to four years in the state prison. If the assault with a deadly weapon is committed with a firearm, it is punishable by up to nine years in prison, with a five-year mandatory minimum. Conviction of an "aggravated" assault or battery can be a "strike" on your record.
If the assault or battery is committed with force likely to cause great bodily injury or with a weapon, it becomes chargeable as a felony and is punishable by up to four years in prison. If it is committed with a firearm, it is punishable by up to nine years in prison, with a five-year mandatory minimum. Conviction of an "aggravated" assault or battery can be a "strike" on your record. If facing these charges you must talk with an Orange County assault attorney.
Assault and Battery are general intent crimes. This means that the District Attorney doesn't need to show that you intended to injure or hurt the victim. They need only show that you intended to do an act which by its nature would probably result in the application of force to another person. For example, if you throw a stone into a crowd, you may have no actual intent to hit anyone. But the only intent that the prosecutor must show is that you intended to throw the stone. Because the crimes of assault and battery are general intent crimes, the defense of voluntary intoxication is unavailable. However, the defense of involuntary intoxication can still be raised by your Orange County criminal defense lawyer.
Types of Assault
There are many assault laws to address different types of assault, like assault with a deadly weapon, assault with a firearm, assault with force likely to cause serious bodily injury, assault with chemicals, or assault with a stun gun or taser. Assaults are also treated differently depending on where they are committed, such as a school, public park or on public transportation.
Moreover, an assault against certain classes of victims are punished more harshly, such as assault on a peace officer (Penal Code section 243(b)), emergency service personnel, a doctor or nurse giving aid, or an animal control or parking control officer. Likewise, there are numerous categories of sexual assaults depending on the age of the victim and the intent of the defendant. Speak to an Orange County criminal defense attorney to better understand an assault charge.
Assault And Battery Court Process
First Court Appearance (Arraignment)
When you were released from custody you were given either a citation or a promise-to-appear. Both of these will have the date, time and location of your mandatory court appearance. If you have only been charged with a misdemeanor your criminal defense lawyer in Orange County can appear on your behalf.
At your arraignment, the judge will inform you and your criminal defense lawyer exactly what you are being charged with. The judge will also review your bail situation and decide if your bail should be increased. Your assault lawyer will get the police report and serve a written request on the DA for other important evidence such as video tapes, audio tapes, medical records, and witness statements. Usually, we enter a plea of "not guilty" at the arraignment and set another court date, either a preliminary hearing or a pretrial conference.
Preliminary Hearing
If you are facing felony assault and battery charges you have the right to a "preliminary hearing" at which the DA must produce enough evidence against you to justify prosecuting you. This hearing offers your criminal defense lawyer a great opportunity to cross-examine the police witnesses in your case. It is also an opportunity to present evidence of any possible defenses. Also, if you have been charged with a felony but the case really isn't too serious, your criminal defense attorney can petition the judge to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 17(b).
Pretrial Conferences
During a series of pretrial conferences your criminal defense attorney in Orange County will review all the evidence the DA intends to use against you, interview witnesses, visit the scene of the alleged assault, and conduct legal research on any of the various legal issues and defenses that may arise in your case. Hiring an Orange County criminal defense lawyer with the intelligence and skill to spot these legal issues can make all the difference in the result of our case.
After moving to exclude inadmissible evidence, your attorney must then determine if the DA can convict you with the evidence they have. He must also determine if you have a defense. Were you defending yourself or someone else? Were you protecting your property? Or did the police arrest the wrong person just because the real aggressor was the first one to call 911 or had a more convincing story when the police arrived?
Other defenses include consent, (this occurs where the "victim" actually invited, welcomed or allowed the touching), provocation, and lack of intent. "Mutual combat" is not a defense. If both parties agree to fight in public, both can be charged with criminal battery. However, if your Orange County criminal attorney can convince the DA that it was mutual combat, the DA might dismiss the case since there is no real "victim".
Negotiating A Settlement In An Assault Case
If the evidence against you is strong and you don't have a defense, it falls on your assault and battery attorney to negotiate the best possible deal for you. A skilled assault and battery lawyer must be prepared to highlight the strengths of your case so that the DA would rather avoid a trial than wasting valuable time and scarce resources prosecuting a losing case. Your Orange County defense attorney must also present you to the judge and DA in the most favorable light. He must make sure the judge and DA are aware of any mitigating circumstances in your case. Often, the only window for the judge and District Attorney into your personal life is through your defense attorney. If your Orange County assault lawyer is effective at doing these things, you're likely to get the best possible offer from the DA or the Judge.
Alternatives To Jail
Finally, if jail time is unavoidable, a capable assault attorney will present sentencing options to keep you out of jail. These alternatives may include home confinement where you serve your jail sentence at home with an electronic bracelet, leaving only for work or for necessities of life. Other options include community service or doing labor for Caltrans. If actual jail confinement is unavoidable an assault lawyer may be able to convince a judge to allow you to serve your time in a "private" jail, ("pay and stay"), where you are released for 12 hours a day to go to work or school. Another option is to serve your jail time on the weekends–checking in Friday night and being released Sunday night. A competent Orange County criminal defense attorney will zealously push to get you an alternative sentencing option.
If you do have a defense or if the District Attorney's evidence is not very strong, and if you are do not wish to accept the prosecutor's offer, your case will go to trial. Few assault cases make it to trial; maybe one in twelve or so. At trial, the District Attorney presents whatever admissible evidence they have against you to twelve ordinary jurors. In order to convict you, the District Atttorney must prove every element of every charge against you by proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest evidentiary burden in law. Your Orange County criminal defense attorney must persuasively point out the weaknesses of the DA's case and skillfully present your defense, if you have one.
In order to convict you, all twelve jurors must agree that the District Attorney has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. If even one juror finds that the DA hasn't met this heavy burden, then you can't be convicted. (Hung jury) If all twelve jurors agree that the District Attorney didn't meet their burden of proof, then they must return a verdict of not guilty.
What you must do now
Don't talk to anyone about what happened without talking to an experienced criminal defense attorney in Orange County first. Also, if you have been served with a protective order (restraining order) ordering you to stay away from the "victim", make sure you comply with its terms. Failure to do so can result in the judge revoking your bail or own recognizance release and ordering you to be jailed.
Free Telephonic Consultation With An Orange County Criminal Defense Lawyer
At The Law Office of EJ Stopyro we offer a free and confidential consultation with an experienced orange county criminal defense lawyer. EJ is happy to help you explore your options and better understand your position. Call us today at (949) 559-5500.


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Remember how, when you were a kid, you were asked the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The world was upon you and anything you wanted to be and do was possible. No limits. No fear. Thirty years later, you may wonder what happened to that little girl who knew what she wanted to do and who she wanted to be. Somewhere between triumph and failure, hope and discouragement, you decided to put away what you now may call your "childish" dream. And because of a regular inability to reach the ideal, you have become quite content with the practical.
Instead of having a passionate marriage, you settled for an occasional night on the couch in front of the TV. Instead of a close-knit family that prays and adventures together, you settled for one that speaks to one another only in times of crisis. Instead of being building and investing in true friendships, you settled for superficial ones.
Many of us live in a place of paralyzing drabness, forgetting that God desires that you have a fulfilling life, one with adventure and passion that brings us joy as well as challenges our spirit, mind, and body. In the same way that Christ was willing to heal the blind man, he is also willing to heal your life, bringing back what you may think you've lost.
God wants you to have a passionate marriage, a praying family, and deep friendships. It's all yours on one condition: pray and believe it. Simple, right?
Unfortunately, most of the time we quit before we receive what we desire. We convince ourselves that our dreams have been replaced with what we think is reality shoving hope and faith aside. Lies!
Action: In what areas of your life is your faith failing?
Pray and believe. God wants you to rediscover who you are meant to be and have the life that you are meant to have.