Roz Foyer introduces the Scottish Trades Union Congress’s response to the COVID calamity. We face the biggest economic crisis in living memory. The immediate cause may have been Covid-19, but the virus drew its strength from a generation of injustices. Coronavirus may not technically discriminate on class lines – but its effects are clearly exacerbated […]
Last issue, we featured two poems from history teacher, David McKinstry, who had been engaged in home schooling and dealing with the effects of COVID-19 on family and work. Here, we bring you several more. Love and Lockdown People love and are shrill By accident of proximity Fulfilling Napoleon’s observation That emotions like politics Are […]
Lilian Macer excoriates the Scottish Government’s approach as inadequate to deal with pandemic we are facing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) in early March told us the best way to combat the COVID-19 outbreak was through testing. ‘TEST, TEST, TEST’ was the clear message from the WHO. It was clear that diagnostic testing for COVID-19 […]
Andrew Watterson, Rory O’Neill, Janet Newsham and Hilda Palmer critique the carelessness and incompetence of government policy and practice The two-metre (2m) ‘social distance’ guidance during the pandemic lockdown soon became entangled in politics and economics rather than the science. It was weakened and then ditched in England on 4 July. It was ‘relaxed’ with […]
Kate Ramsden argues we must take political advantage of the pandemic to rebuild our local public services Covid-19 has highlighted two fundamental things about council services. The first is that these services and the workers who provide them have been absolutely critical to managing the pandemic. Council workers – many of them low paid women […]
Pat Rafferty looks at the case of ADL to argue that only government action can secure green jobs and help gain a green and just transition Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) is a Scottish and UK success story. A global player in the manufacture of bus and coach, with recognised expertise in double-deckers. To put it […]
Ellie Harrison makes the case for getting Glasgow to go green and free in its transport system September 2020 sees Get Glasgow Moving joining forces with unions, climate movement and community campaigns to launch the ‘Free Our City’ coalition in Glasgow. Inspired by hundreds of forward-thinking cities across the world – from Kansas to Calais […]
Molly Scott-Cato assesses the pros and cons of efforts in Europe to make a green just transition The mantra ‘Build Back Better’ is reverberating around European Parliaments as the principle that should guide Covid-19 recovery plans and the response to the unprecedented economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. It is vital to measure the gap […]
Dave Sherry recounts previous examples of campaigns to mobilise the unemployed as part of a wider labour movement struggle The Bank of England predicts Britain will suffer its sharpest contraction since the industrial revolution. Such is the scale of the crisis that unions have to be prepared to organise strikes amongst their members. But what […]
Culture and creativity during Covid: teaching and learning at home David McKinstry is a teacher – see his biographical details below – who has also been engaged in home schooling of his son, Gabriel, during lock down. Gabriel, like many pupils, was finding it hard to adjust to the new style of learning. In attempt […]