Paul Malgrati, Villars-sur-Ollon, March 2023 France is being stirred by the most significant general strike since the beginning of the twenty-first century. On 7th March, French syndicats claimed more than 3.5 million protesters nationwide, with between 30 percent and 50 percent of striking workers in the education, energy, civil service, and transport sectors. This was […]
Stuart Fairweather surveys three groups campaigning for social transformation in Scotland: ‘In between the action of the unions, largely but not exclusively focused on wages, and the ideologically contoured world of ‘self-help’, a new political space is emerging.’ How do we build momentum for change? How do we create the conditions for meaningful action on […]
Clare Peden reports on one union’s campaign for an economy in the hands of workers not profiteers. In September last year, hundreds of trade unionists and campaigners gathered to stage a protest at the Glasgow headquarters of Scottish Power, one of the UK’s energy giants. Spearheaded by Unite’s ‘Unite for a Workers’ Economy’ campaign, it […]
There are better answers to the national question than ‘class versus nation’, argues Frances Curran At the end of November 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that only Westminster can grant a referendum. By mid-December, six successive polls showed majority support for Scottish independence. These polls were unprecedented; did the court ruling act as a catalyst […]
John Dennis asks: can socialist supporters of independence take the initiative to develop radical policies that allow it to make the most of a 2024 election? As a socialist and an independence supporter, I was not disappointed that the UK Supreme Court ruled against a referendum called by Holyrood. I can see that putting forward […]
Simon Barrow considers the politics of independence after the Supreme Court verdict and describes a strategy for the SNP to grow support for independence. The UK Supreme Court decided in November that the Scottish Government does not have the legal competence to hold an advisory referendum on independence under the Scotland Act 1998. The decision […]
James Mitchell argues that the focus on what would constitute a democratic mandate to negotiate independence has led us to lose sight of wider democratic deficiencies in Scotland. Democracy? It is a dream to suppose that we already know what it is, whether out of satisfaction with our present state or to attack its misery. […]
Chris Holligan considers what the Registration of Interests by Scottish MSPs reveal about influence as a strategic tool serving political and corporate elites. It is a questionable assumption that financially modest provisions of hospitality are necessarily not a potential source of influence. The economist Kevin Young and his colleagues argue the financial system is governed […]
Tommy Sheppard lays out the case against the monarchy. I’m not sure which is the more depressing: that the UK has just reaffirmed the hereditary right of kings or that a majority of its citizens demonstrably agree with that situation. Despite this, as we begin the new Caroline era, a grown-up debate about the future […]
Bill Bonnar examines the feting of the monarchs but sees the prospect of change ahead. As socialists, we were dreading it. Not the passing of the queen but rather how it would be marked and we were not disappointed. Ten days of carefully manufactured mass hysteria; not only to mark the passing of the queen […]