Phil Fairlie says staying in touch has meant doing things differently in order to provide representation. Working out how best to stay in touch with your members during a global pandemic has been testing. Finding ways of keeping them informed at a time when they are desperate for information, on matters that are a bit […]
Paul Flynn records the success of a young union for pharmacists. This year the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) celebrates its 125th anniversary: 125 years of Scotland’s workers standing united to support one another to achieve improvements in their lives and livelihoods. This has seen more sectors being organised and new unions created, bringing more […]
James Mitchell decries the lack of local power in local government and advocates radical reform. Somewhere along the way, debate on how Scotland should be governed splintered and narrowed. Perhaps, the roots of the splintering lay in separate Royal Commissions on local government and the constitution in the 1960s. There was certainly overlap in the […]
Ellie Harrison outlines how progress is possible. This year’s local elections are set to become the battle for our buses. New powers – which we fought for and won in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 – will become available later this year. These include the power to re-regulate private bus companies for the first time […]
With the local government election on 5 May 2022, we asked a number of left candidates from different parties to tell us why they are standing and what they hope to gain from doing so. Each party was given 600 words to do so. Alba was given its opportunity in the Jan/Feb 2022 issue. Scottish […]
Stella Rooney critically assesses what the parliamentary pact is about and what is has delivered and not delivered. Following last year’s Scottish Parliament elections, a green and yellow alliance between the SNP and Scottish Greens was forged. Working towards the aim of a ‘Greener, Fairer Independent Scotland’, the shared programme for government contained significant gains […]
On the road to hellfire, damnation and floods: the great COP-out With BoJo’s leadership of the Tories and the Tories themselves both in freefall, it may seem odd to lead this issue on COP. Anyone on the left craved such a Christmas present for 2021 – or to start the new year of 2022 with […]
Stephen Smellie argues COP26 delivered on the low expectations of it but progress was made in building a bigger and more powerful environmental movement COP26 was Glasgow’s fortnight in the international spotlight as the nations of the world gathered to discuss the challenge of the climate crisis facing the planet, its governments, and its people. […]
Mary Church argues it’s hard to view COP26 as anything other than a resounding failure but the summit’s legacy is a movement fit for the fight for humanity and the planet Despite the IPCC’s ‘code red’ warning and the grim reality that without deep, systemic changes, we will hit the critical 1.5o Celsius threshold within […]
Dave Sherry reviews a recent contribution to union campaign to stop climate change Climate Jobs: Building a workforce for the climate was written and published by the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group (CACCTU) to coincide with COP26. It is a response to the urgency of the climate crisis and lays out the type […]