**The assistant general secretary of the Scottish TUC, Stephen Boyd, said this week he was “absolutely sure that a strong case could be argued with the European Commission that these are lifeline service which do not need to go out to tender”.**

http://www.whfp.com/2015/02/08/trade-union-warns-of-agenda-to-privatise-calmac/

As a instinctual internationalist I struggle with the very idea of nationalism as a political movement. My mind is open I just don't understand the argument or what the appeal is beyond tribalism and an arbitrary and wholly nostalgic sense of what constitutes a nation state.

Should we turn the clock back to 1708 for everyone in Europe and return Greece to Venetian rule, turn a chunk of Holland over to Spain and send the rest of the Balkans into the arms of Turkey? 300 years on is there really any difference?

RMT responds to SNP Trade Union Group statement on the RMT CalMac dispute.

See SNP TUG statement below. RMT responds.

General Secretary Mick Cash said;

"This statement from a group claiming to represent trade unionists makes not a single mention of support for fellow trade unionists battling to defend jobs and services and instead hides behind a barrage of EU anti-worker legislation that has no relevance at all to this dispute and which could be challenged anyway with a united campaign.

"RMT would appeal to rank and file SNP members and supporters to reject this defeatist line and stand by a workforce fighting to defend jobs, conditions, safety and lifeline ferry services against this attack. You can't claim to be anti-austerity, pro working class and pro public services and then duck the issue when jobs and services are under all out attack like on CalMac. The question to the SNP TU Goup is which side are you o?n?"

Ends