David Betteridge recalls how men and women were made on the Clyde into fighting fortresses. Where did the statesmen and women of the yards come from? Where did they acquire the necessary skills, values and knowledge? These are questions worth finding answers to, and adapting to our own times, because these were the statesmen and […]
Adam Charlton recalls a genocidal episode of internal colonialism from Britain’s past. When we think of the British Empire, we think of distant territories separated from the British mainland by vast expanses of sea. As such, we think of Britain’s colonial policies as directed at people in far off regions like Bengal and Kenya. In […]
Kailash Kutwaroo says independence opens up progressive policy positions for Scotland on the world stage. Should an independent Scotland leave the NATO military alliance? It’s possibly not the most pressing issue for the Scottish independence movement at present, when compared to the more demanding issues such as how Independence can be achieved, the timing of […]
Chris Sutherland makes an impassioned plea to develop a radical agenda for independence. On the eve of the 1916 Easter Rising, Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, the wife of the pacifist, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, asked James Connolly: ‘Tell me, Jim, have you ever any hope of anything on the other side?’ Both her husband and Connolly were to lose […]
Nigel Flanagan calls for a radical shake-up in how unions mobilise to gain collective bargaining rights from employers. Whilst union decline continues, the chances of organising a union recovery in membership and density appears to get worse. In the wake of the catastrophic failure to gain union recognition at US Amazon plant in Alabama in […]
Nadine Labaki, director, Capernaum (2018) Reviewed by Jackie Bergson Capernaum is a devastatingly captivating drama which overflows with ingenuity and social realism. From the outset, in casting non-actor, Zain Al Rafeea, to play the main role of Zain El Hajj, the filmmakers gifted their audiences with an outstanding, heart-and-soul character. Real-life Syrian child refugee, Zain, […]
David Bleiman, This Kilt of Many Colours, Dempsey and Windle, 2021, 9781913329457, £8.00, pp50. Reviewed by David McKinstry This Kilt of Many Colours is a poetry pamphlet which explores cultural identity, memory and the tensions between alienation and assimilation and how they shape individual and group identity. It is written from the perspective of a […]
Fotheringham, B., Sherry, D. and Bryce, C. (eds.) Breaking up the British State: Scotland, Independence & Socialism (Bookmarks, 2021, 436pp, £12) and Stott. P. and Taaffe, P. Scotland & the National Question: A Marxist Approach (SPS Publications, 2020, 145pp, £8) Reviewed by Murray Armstrong Two books address the same two questions: why should socialists support […]
Berkowitz, E. Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West from the Ancients to Fake News, Westbourne Press, 2021, pp384, £20 (hb), 978-1908906427. Reviewed by Sean Sheehan A history of censorship is a history of the world and the author of Dangerous Ideas wisely adds the word ‘brief’ to his book’s subtitle. That […]
Two political poems by David Bleiman Get Brexit, Donne? The grass grew green again over the rust and richer dust, where leaders’ lies congealed. That turf was turned for further use, a people buried in the mass, ashen, making their piece of the continent. The grass grew tall and this time would be tended well, […]