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STUC Conference ’18 MPs slammed making ‘ill-informed comments on Venezuela’

Delegates overwhelmingly endorse a motion urging the Scottish government to condemn US interference in the country

MPS WERE slammed for “foaming at the mouth with ill-informed comments on Venezuela” at the Scottish TUC Congress today where delegates overwhelmingly endorsed a motion urging the Scottish government to condemn US interference in the Latin-American country.

Clydebank TUC delegate Tam Morrison said there were Blairite, Tory and SNP MPs who had referred to Venezuela in “terms straight from the Pentagon think tank.”

He told the hall that “MPs who have shown zero interest in that country” had been “foaming at the mouth with ill-informed comments on Venezuela.”

Mr Morrison continued: “We must be vigilant and act when we see these assaults on democracy and the international working class.”

South Lanarkshire Trades Council delegate Phil McGarry called on “pro and anti-government protesters” to join forces to condemn US sanctions that would hit Venezuelan citizens.

“Let’s send a message to the Trump administration that they should keep their nose out of countries where they have no business poking it in,” he said.

The congress also heard two further emergency motions condemning the bombing of Syria.

UCU delegate Marion Hersh said: “Bombing just devastates, as we’ve seen in Iraq, and we want to say ‘not again’.”

One motion described the bombings as a “violation of international law.”

Delegates also endorsed a call for the “immediate release and acquittal of all political prisoners” charged or jailed over Catalonia’s recent bid for independence.

Former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati handed herself into the Scottish police last month after Spain reissued an arrest warrant. She had returned to a teaching post at St Andrews University after the Catalan government was dismissed last autumn.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith called for “ongoing solidarity with our sister trade union centres” in Catalonia and said the Spanish government “has a responsibility” to respect democracy and justice in the region.

The motion, moved by Glasgow TUC, also called on unions and trades councils to “be in a position to respond to calls from Catalonia with real and practical measures” to anti-democratic moves in the region.

An emergency motion from Unison Scotland blasted President Erdogan’s threats to “extend Turkey’s military campaign eastwards into the Kurdish region of Syria.”

Congress endorsed the motion’s call for a cessation of arms sales to Turkey.

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