Issue 109
Jan - Feb 2019
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Happy New Year to all our subscribers, readers and supporters. And, with the pleasantries now done, let’s get back to the matters at hand – of hard politics. Over the last few months, day-in-and-day-out in the pages of the Guardian, its parliamentary sketch writer, John Crace, has lambasted Theresa May as an automaton, a robot […]
Stephen Smellie lays out what is meant by Just Transition and what role unions have to play. The concept of the ‘Just Transition’ to a low carbon economy has become policy over the past few years with the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), Trades Union Congress (TUC) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) all having […]
Francis Stuart argues unions are central to creating the Just Transition At STUC’s most recent annual congress, a number of resolutions were discussed which showed that energy and climate change policy are of enormous industrial and political significance to unions. A General Council statement committed the STUC to a body of work around energy and […]
Matthew Crighton outlines the Just Transition Partnership between the STUC and Friends of the Earth Setting up a Just Transition Commission which will advise ministers on the development of ‘a carbon-neutral economy that is fair for all’ appears to be a bold move by the Scottish Government. Initiatives or commissions in other countries have so […]
With no jobs or life on a dead planet, Douglas Rogers explains what Extinction Rebellion is about The science is clear: either we make radical changes to our relationship with the environment, or hundreds of millions – potentially far more than this – will die. Whether by rising seas, expanding deserts or eroding soil, billions […]
Simon Barrow argues the SNP must more fully commit to the Just Transition Climate change is the all-embracing challenge of our civilisation. At stake is the survival of the planet itself. Intertwined with the central causes global warming are the multiple failures of free-market capitalism, inequality, poverty, forced human migrations on an unprecedented scale, and […]
Bill Bonnar argues Africa, as the poorest continent, needs special attention and resources There is no doubt that the issue of radical climate change has rocketed up the political agenda both in Britain and on a global scale. It seems the dramatic warnings contained in the now endless reports are hitting home and the world […]
Gordon Morgan says the Scottish Government has several opportunities to help make the transition. The Scottish Government boasts that it is a world leader in reducing climate emissions and to a certain extent that is true. However, most of the actual emission reductions have come from the fortuitous circumstance that we have the best climate […]
Dave Sherry says the systemic roots of the crisis lie in the economic system we live under To a great media fanfare, the UN climate change conference drew to a close in December with nothing agreed that could even pretend to avert climate catastrophe. Representatives from 200 countries gathered in Katowice, Poland, for two weeks […]
Chris Stephens says the real scandal of this Tory government is its welfare policy not Brexit It’s all too easy for MPs to be consumed by all matters Brexit at Westminster given the bulk of debate is devoted to scrutinising the Tories’ mishandling of negotiations and the increasingly frantic attempts by May to box everyone […]
Aamer Anwar explains why his death must be the subject of a public inquiry Sheku Ahmed Tejan Bayoh was a well-liked, hard-working young man, with no previous history of violence, when he died age 31. He was a loving partner and proud father of 4 month old, Isaac, and 3 year old, Tyler. Sheku moved […]
Talat Ahmed calls upon the left to mobilise on 2 February in a show of strength It is five years since Greek anti-fascists called for international solidarity for their struggle against the fascist party, Golden Dawn, and for a response to the growth of racism and the far right. Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) Scotland […]
Larry Flanagan explains the magnificent mobilisation of teachers so far The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) launched its Value Education, Value Teachers (VEVT) campaign last January. The aim of the campaign was simple: to seek to reverse the decade-long decline in the value of teachers’ salaries by achieving a significant pay rise for Scotland’s teaching […]
Sean Duffy argues that the beneficiaries of May’s meltdown are like to be Rees Mogg and his cohorts The Conservative Party’s 40 year war over Europe was once a political curiosity fit only for the most nerdish of democratic spectators. Yet as the winter grows cold, this conflict has come to define not only the […]
Mike Cowley says under Richard Leonard Scottish Labour is back on its way to influence In November 2017, Scottish Labour elected their first leader from the explicitly socialist wing of the party since the advent of devolution. On the left, it was a moment of jubilation and vindication of a long march spent largely in […]
Róisín McLaren argues Scottish Labour’s star cannot rise until it changes course on independence A YouGov opinion poll published on 16 December showed the Tories with 40% support at the UK level, up 2% from a fortnight earlier, Labour was on 36%, down 1%, and the Lib-Dems on 10%. If accurate, these figures are both […]
Drawing on her Leith experience, Linda Somerville argues there are new and effective ways of organising The good citizens of Leith are currently in uproar at plans to demolish a two-storey art deco sandstone building at the bottom of Leith Walk. Until recently, the proposed development site contained much loved local businesses and social enterprises […]
Angi Lamb recounts her experience of managing Ann Henderson’s successful rectorial campaign My participation began with an email to Ann Henderson a week before rectorial nominations closed on 26 January 2018. I’d just retired the previous year, after 27 years working at the university and serving as an active trade unionist. A former colleague had […]
Joseph McAleer recounts that power pacts have killed the dream of freedom in Nicaragua Eight months after students first took to the streets in Managua in April 2018 to protest against unjust social security reforms, Nicaraguans are living a de facto state of exception whereby newly introduced draconian laws brand any individual or organisation involved […]
George Kerevan argues what the international left does will influence the cause of Catalonian independence In 2018, the political crisis triggered by the Catalan independence referendum of October 2017 became a generalised crisis of the whole, corrupt neo-Francoist Spanish state that has existed since the death of the Caudillo. 2018 has seen mass public protests […]
Bill Johnston argues the left needs to start taking ageism seriously and act accordingly Part one (Scottish Left Review issue 108, November/December 2018) of this series of three articles discussed demographic ageing in terms of neo-liberalism and current developments in Scottish Government policy. That article also urged the left to incorporate an analysis of ageing […]
Mark Brown argues Modernism is the motor of Scotland’s belated and celebrated theatrical renaissance If 1968 was a year of political revolution, from Prague to Paris, the aesthetic revolution in Scottish theatre started the following year. In 1969, the board of the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow appointed a young Scot by the name of Giles […]
Outlaw King (2018), director: David Mackenzie Reviewed by Jackie Bergson Hailing from Scotland, David Mackenzie contextualises his film about Robert the Bruce’s rise to becoming the chief successful figure in Scotland’s fiercest battles for independence with backdrops of medieval turmoil and political savagery. Outlaw King – possibly unavoidably comparable with multiple award-winning Braveheart (1995) – […]
Tom Devine, The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900, Allen Lane, 2018, 9780241304105 Reviewed by Sean Sheehan The dispossession of people from the Highlands and rural Lowlands of Scotland cannot be dissociated from the emergence of the country as a modern nation. This is the baseline for the importance invested by Devine in […]
Greg Albo, Leo Panitch and Alan Zuege (eds.) Class, Party, Revolution: A Socialist Register Reader, Haymarket Books, 1608469190, £20.99 Reviewed by Robin Jones Current events invariably colour one’s interpretation of political texts but, for this reader, recent months of both British and world politics have not only coloured my reading, but invaded, confused and frustrated […]
Happy New Year. The start of January is always a relief to me, as it signals that the sheer living Hell of Christmas is out of the way for at least eleven months. The December party season is without doubt the worst time of year to earn one’s living as a stand-up comedian. Playing to […]