Matthew Crighton reviewed the Jimmy Reid Foundation’s edited collection called A New Scotland: Building an Equal, Fair and Sustainable Society in the Jul/Aug 2022 issue. The review was a legitimate if narrowly-based one but it did not take into account several issues germane to the project of producing such an edited work. Prime amongst these […]
By the time this column goes to press, the UK will have a new Prime Minister. Whoever that person may be, they will have been elected under a system which makes China look like a democracy. As we all know, the only people with a say in choosing the next leader of the Government will […]
Asking an awkward question and needing an honest answer: What’s left of the left? The May 2022 local elections were an important staging post for politics, especially those of a radical nature, in Scotland. On the one hand, they took the temperature of the voting populace on important matters, both local and national. On the […]
George Kerevan surveys the scene, suggesting the SNP’s dominance results from a lack of choices. How often have you heard someone say: ‘The Scottish left has never been so weak or divided’? But how true is this in actuality? Indeed, what does the question mean? And, who counts as left-wing these days? We might look […]
Joe Cullinane explains why Labour lost but is proud of its achievements in North Ayrshire. For five and half a years, we were Scotland’s municipal socialists, putting together one of the most ambitious political programmes in Britain with a large expansion in council housing, delivering council-owned renewable energy and democratising our economy through Community Wealth […]
Gordon Munro looks back on missed opportunities to advance local democracy and delivery. The left in Scotland has been a useful prophylactic for the SNP. While the SNP continues its independence fetish, UNISON called out the ‘silent slaughter’ in local government. The Fraser of Allander Institute put the job losses at 30,000. The Convention of […]
Having taken the fightback to London, Roz Foyer says we’ve also building it in our workplaces and communities. We’re now experiencing a cost-of-living emergency and one that will only get worse. It is an emergency particularly for those on low pay and on benefits and is about how we provide ourselves with affordable (warm) housing, […]
Kate Ramsden casts her eye over the health of the union movement as it gears up for an almighty battle. I attended the TUC ‘We demand better’ march and rally on 18 June in London. It was uplifting. 100,000 people on the streets to protest the cost-of-living crisis that is impacting so badly upon working […]
Here we reprint the speech of Rab Noakes from the Musicians’ Union moving Motion 64 at the 2022 STUC congress in Aberdeen. The sexual harassment of women is a scourge in many workplaces. It’s severe bullying, with a sharp contaminated edge. It’s perpetrated by men. It’s witnessed by men. It’s excused and covered up by […]
Scots folk singer and union activist, Iona Fyfe, wins the STUC Equality Award. One of Scotland’s leading folk singers has been recognised in her campaign for equality within the music industry by scooping a top trade union prize. Iona Fyfe of the Musicians’ Union received the Equality Award at the 2022 STUC Annual Congress in […]