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 […]
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 […]
Roz Foyer, STUC general secretary, gave the eight Jimmy Reid Foundation lecture on Thursday 7 October 2021 in Glasgow. Here we print an edited version of her lecture. As a lifelong union activist and organiser, I’m deeply honoured to be invited to deliver the lecture this year because it has particular resonance following the recent […]
Helen McFarlane welcomes the election of the new UNITE leader and looks forward better times I am delighted Sharon Graham won the election to be General Secretary of UNITE. She stood on setting out her vision for UNITE as a union refocusing efforts and resources on ‘doing what it says on the tin’ and fight […]
Ewan Kerr critiques current offerings and argues for a socialist strategy to prevent planetary collapse COP26 has now arrived in Glasgow. These two November weeks will be remembered as a critical moment for the future of the planet, and we should be in no doubt what is at stake. Heatwaves, wildfires, flash flooding and biodiversity […]
Below is an excerpt of a speech by Annie Morgan, speaking to the Climate Justice rally during COP26 This decade is the crucial time, possibly in the entire history of human existence of planet earth, for radical change in how our species exists in relation to the natural world. We face a ‘metabolic rift’ in […]
Colin Fox looks at some practical steps socialists in Scotland can take to counter the climate emergency ‘The COP26 summit in Glasgow is a defining moment in the struggle to keep the planet from climate catastrophe’ warned the Financial Times editorial on the eve of the event on 29 October 2021. Yet it is fair […]