Richard Leonard says when the people speak, political parties must listen The election result was grave for Labour. Though we tried to break through the din of Brexit and the issue of a second independence referendum, we failed. And while we tried to be positive and set out what we were for and what a […]
Kenny MacAskill offers suggestions on how to build a united anti-Tory, democratic alliance The elections over and the debacle has come to pass. The country now faces a Tory Government that the Scottish people loathe and fear. Parties need time to grieve and to have their celebrations and it’s inevitable that there’ll be reflections and […]
Grahame Smith says resolving constitutional matters can unlock progress on social and economic issues After such a momentous election result, almost everybody will have an opinion on why it turned out as it did. Was it simply a Brexit election? Was there a Corbyn factor? Was Labour too radical and its spending promises too unconvincing? […]
Michael Keating says choppy waters lie ahead for both defending and defeating the Union Once again, Scotland and England have diverged sharply in their electoral choices. Campaigns in both countries focused on Brexit but in Scotland equal prominence was given to the prospect of a second referendum on independence. In 2014, Scots voted by 55% […]
Mike Cowley reviews ‘Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, the Party and Public Belief’ (Pluto, September 2019) In conducting their research with such forensic rigour, Greg Philo, Mike Berry, Justin Schlosberg, Antony Lerman and David Miller have done Labour, the movement and the anti-fascist struggle a considerable service. Their research asks our media, a minority of […]
We asked a further range of left activists and commentators to provide their assessments of what happened and what we should do now: Chris Stephens MP, Neil Findlay MSP, George Kerevan, Bryan Quinn, Siobhan McCready, Gavin Lundy, Jim Sillars, Stella Rooney, Róisín McLaren, Maggie Chetty, Vince Mills, Morgan Horn, and Myshele Haywood. Chris Stephens, SNP […]
Mary Church argues COP26 in Glasgow in 2020 must be a rallying point for people and planet The outcomes of the longest ever meeting in the history of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – the COP25 negotiations in Madrid – have failed to reflect the urgency of the crisis or any grasp of […]
Oscar Mendoza explains the roots of the revolt and the emergence of new progressive forces A social explosion started on Friday 18 October 2019 in Chile, triggered by mass fares avoidance by mainly students in the Santiago subway, rejecting an increase of 30 Pesos (a few pence) in the peak time one-way ticket. It baffled […]
The word, pacifism, was coined in Scotland in the early twentieth century. Tim Gee asks if is it time to broaden its scope. In 2011, after a racial slur was used on a women’s rights march, writer Flavia Dzodan wrote a blog called, ‘My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit’. The framing […]
Albert Brenchat Aguilar recounts the unseen and forgotten workers that make conference happen and their fightback I dish nibbles and pour wine at events in University College London (UCL). I serve water at the start. I put chairs and tables in place and move them across venues. I pick up coffee cups from the floor. […]