Issue 107
Sept – Oct 2018
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Issue 107 Editorial. It is a pleasure and an honour for Scottish Left Review to play its small part in helping to celebrate the centenary of the Fire Brigades’ Union (FBU). We are grateful for the cooperation and support of the FBU in Scotland and Britain in order that we could do this. There have […]
From a perspective of understanding the past, Denise Christie assesses the present and future of the union and service in Scotland. When all is said and done, firefighting comes down to this: that a small number of people will go into a darkened, smoke-logged building, not knowing what they are going to meet, having faith […]
Ian Murray outlines the struggles the FBU is undertaking for its members and for the general public. This is an historic year for the FBU – our centenary as a union of firefighters, for firefighters and run by firefighters across Britain. I am proud to be the union’s senior elected lay official in this year […]
Matt Wrack looks back on the past, analyses the present and examines the future. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is relatively small compared to the big general unions but to have lasted a hundred years as an industry-specific organisation is some achievement, especially in light of the long history of union mergers. We have much […]
In Focus Productions for the FBU The Firefighters’ Story: 100 years of the FBU, 2018 Reviewed by Bob Thomson This is an interesting and, at times poignant, short film, reminding us of the courage and sacrifices shown by firefighters. It traces the history of the FBU since its inception at the end of the First […]
Lindsey McDowell explains the big perspective that lies behind the FBU’s educational work. There’s an old adage that ‘education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire’. It speaks wisely. Learning should make us full of energy and change us in a way there’s no going back from, not leave […]
Chris McGlone reflects on his working life as a firefighter and the changes he has witnessed. Certain events and times in your life demand you take stock and reflect. 2018 is just such a time. It marks the centenary of our great organisation, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). It also represents a landmark in my […]
From Dundee to Nablus, Jim Malone shows what solidarity, not sympathy, looks like. In 1982, at the TUC Congress, Ken Cameron, FBU General Secretary and a member of the Trade Union Friends of Palestine, tabled an emergency motion which condemned Israel’s brutal invasion of its neighbour Lebanon and recognised ‘the national rights of the Palestinian […]
David Adams outlines how and why fire engines have developed over the years. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Heritage Trust, which is affiliated to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SF&RS), and is a registered Scottish Charity (SCO43929), operates a preservation through operation policy, whereby our fleet of historical fire engines is kept in […]
Scottish Left Review interviews Bob Thomson as he steps down at the age of 75 from the leading role he has played for the magazine for the last 18 years. Bob retired in 1999 as Associate Scottish Secretary of UNISON and since then he has taken on an almost full-time and never paid role as […]
Carol Jess says to the left if that’s where you want to get to don’t start from here. Over the years, New Zealand (NZ) has often been taken as a good example in many progressive political and economic debates. This September, New Zealand will celebrate the 125th anniversary of (almost) universal suffrage, while our third […]
Neil Findlay says those looking for radical social change should join and support Labour. This year corporate lobbyist and former RBS banker, Andrew Wilson, delivered his long awaited Growth Commission Report (GCR) on the prospects for an independent Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon’s reaction since, and the reaction of the SNP’s rank and file, has been muted […]
Pauline Bryan excoriates the SNP’s attempt to gain mainstream support for independence. The Growth Commission Report (GCR) has many flaws but the most glaring is that woven into its fabric is a belief that global capitalism with its free markets and neo-liberal policies is the only possible economic structure for a future Scotland. It seems […]
John Foster unearths some disturbing characteristics of the SNP Growth Commission Report. The SNP’s Growth Commission Report (GCR) bears some similarities to the Westminster Government’s EU White Paper issued a few weeks later. Both accept neo-liberal, pro-market assumptions. Both seek, though in different ways, to maintain a relationship with the EU law that will perpetuate […]
David Byrne argues that Tartan Toryism is back on the cards. In 2015, Nicola Sturgeon established a Sustainable Growth Commission chaired by the former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, generally identified with the right and pro-market wing of her party. The Commission’s membership included no trade unionist. Evidently the SNP’s Trade Union Group was not considered […]
Sean Ballie argues only a movement from within football lads and lasses can fight successfully. Recent mobilisations and demonstrations by groups such as the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) have shocked many but should have surprised few. It is widely accepted that these newer organisations are just the reincarnation of loosely held together far right […]
Henry Maitles outlines the dangers of anti-semitism being conflated with anti-Zionism. Anti-semitism, like all racism, is reactionary and can permeate all sections of society. Rooting it out is essential no matter where. Not only is it morally unacceptable, but it makes it harder to develop unity and radical alternatives if these ideas take hold. But […]
Vince Mills looks behind the headlines to see what is really going on. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the ‘debate’ on anti-semitism in Labour has been how it has been degraded by those whose central concern is to ditch Corbyn. Of course, not everyone arguing for the unamended International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition and […]
Mick Rice makes the case for the Scottish Parliament to improve the treatment of its own staff. The Scottish Parliament can show a degree of ‘independence’ from the diktats of the Tory Westminster government by adopting its own Fair Wages Resolution (FWR). A suggested wording is: This Scottish Parliament agrees that from (insert date) all […]
The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018), written and directed by Mark Cousins Reviewed by Jackie Bergson. Mark Cousins’ personally spoken, second-person narrative throughout The Eyes of Orson Welles casts a conversational spell which conjoins his audience and subject. A full-screen-sized black and white photograph of Welles in repose is intermittently shown, evidently to suggest that […]
Simon Hannah A Party with Socialists in it – a history of the Labour Left, Pluto, 2018, £12.99, 9780745337470 Reviewed by Dave Sherry. Popular among younger voters and older Labour stalwarts alike, Jeremy Corbyn has proved hugely controversial and threatening to both the British establishment and Labour’s Blairite faction. Together they are ganging up on […]
Lesley Riddoch, Blossom – what Scotland needs to flourish (Post Indyref Post EUref edition), 2018, Luath, £11.99, 1912147521 Reviewed by Stephen Smellie. First published in 2013 amidst the independence referendum campaign, Blossom is a mixture of journalism and an optimistic vision that Scotland could be a much better place if the kind of efforts reported […]
Rebecca Solnit, Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays), Haymarket Books, £11.99, 978-1-60846-329-9 Around the corner from where I sit in Edinburgh, a number of shop fronts are covered in chipboard. Stuck to those boards are posters displaying the slogan save leith walk, a protest against an application from Drum Property Group […]
The start of September has traditionally signalled the end of the ‘Silly Season’. Nobody appears to have told Theresa May, Jeremy Hunt or Phillip Hammond about this though. May’s embarrassing trip to Africa is but the latest in a series of desperate moves to try to re-position the Britain on the world stage post-Brexit. The […]