Issue 126
Nov – Dec 2021
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COP26 ≠ much cop On the face of it, there may not seem to be a much of a theme to the articles that make up the front half of the content of this issue of Scottish Left Review. However, they all do gather around the crux of ‘power shifts’. Power shifts has several meanings […]
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 […]
Launch of Reid Foundation paper, ‘Beyond Just Transition’, 7pm, Thurs 2 December 2021 After the COP26 circus has left town, we invite you to engage in thinking through how union and environmental movements can work together by learning from each other in a way that requires going beyond ‘Just Transition’. This is to lay out […]
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 […]
Victor Grossman looks beyond Merkel’s party’s defeat to see how the left still lost out When the German election result became known on 26 September, there were cheers and tears. But the outcome in Europe’s strongest economy was no humdrum matter. The end of Angela Merkel’s 16-year-long premiership added a special twist. So, who raised […]
On the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Irish republic, Bill Bonnar asks questions about Scotland’s future It’s November 1921 in Inverness Town Hall. The British Cabinet are in the Highlands for a weekend of grouse shooting and have taken some time out to agree the final draft of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. […]
Gregor Gall says taking Scotrail into public ownership will test the SNP’s left credentials Industrial relations at Scotrail have been at their worst for many, many years, culminating in the proposed two-week strike by RMT union members during COP26. While this dispute was resolved and the strike did not go ahead, the underlying issues of […]
Though Raphael De Santos argues that while there’s no way to be a new Norway, there is still much scope for social advance Many in the Scottish independence movement point to Norway as a model of what an independent Scotland could become. Is this possible or desirable? Both countries are in northern Europe with large […]
Marsha Scott says strategic, resourced action tackling causes and symptoms is the only way forward Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) has welcomed the recent attention to violence against women and girls (VAWG) in media, criminal justice, and political spheres, but that welcome has been accompanied by a slightly jaundiced eye. We have been here before, as […]
Binoy Kampmark looks behind the stramash over selling nuclear subs to see a new cold war developing The formation on 15 September 2021 of a new security relationship, AUKUS, by Australia, UK and US sent ripples of shock through the Indo-Pacific. It ruffled the feathers of the French security establishment, who felt it appropriate to […]
Henry Maitles argues that Priti Patel’s ‘hostile environment’ is lamentably nothing new Current debates on refugees and attempts by Western governments to restrict asylum seekers are deeply depressing. Deaths in the Mediterranean and the Channel of the ‘boat people’ have become common while ever more ludicrous schemes – from wave machines to deserted oil rigs […]
Wilma Brown reports on her experience of an overstretched and under-resourced NHS in Scotland We know staff in the NHS are suffering from years of being underpaid and overworked, even before COVID. Despite this, we have seen a huge effort from NHS staff over the past 19 months to meet the needs of the public […]
Dave Watson identifies the dangerous attack on democracy and inadequate resourcing found in the Scottish Government’s proposals The Scottish Government published a consultation paper in August 2021 on creating a National Care Service (NCS) in Scotland. This followed from the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, known as the Feeley Review, which published its findings […]
Shaka King (director) and Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas (writers), Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Reviewed by Jackie Bergson In late 1960s Chicago, socialist revolutionary Fred Hampton led the Illinois Black Panthers. As their popularity and power strengthened and grew, they attracted the attention of the highest USA government officials, […]
Leeanne Elizabeth Clark, My Journey Through Life: The Real Me, 2021, self-published, 9781913632069 Reviewed by Carole Ewart This autobiography is an intriguing story from an author that would usually be overlooked. It is a route map on how to thrive despite her parents and going on to family-based care. It explains the impact of parents […]
Colin Turbett The Anglo-Soviet Alliance: Comrades and Allies during WW2, 2021, Pen & Sword Military, pp216, 1526776588 Reviewed by Michael A MacLeod As a schoolboy, I interviewed an uncle for a school project regarding WW2. There, I heard first hand of the Arctic Convoys where my uncle had served as bosun on a Merchant Navy […]
Eve Livingston Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions, 2021, Pluto, pp160, 0745341624 Reviewed by John Wood For some, there is a rare feeling of positivity in the union movement at the moment, as unions prepare to take strike action in Glasgow and beyond, and with a wave of encouraging personnel changes in the senior […]
Jane Holgate Arise: Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence, 2021, Pluto, pp272, 074534402X Reviewed by Michael MacNeil Holgate charts the historical rise and fall of union power but this is no dry or dreary account of the past. The book is structured to build bridges between the new unionisms of the 1880s and the situation facing […]
James McEnaney Class Rules: The truth about Scottish schools, 2021, Luath, pp240, 1910022608 Reviewed by David Watt Class Rules is an engaging tour through Scotland’s contemporary education landscape. It maps out some of key issues in Scottish schools in the early twenty-first century and is recommended for those who wish an up-to-the-minute, broadly-based critique of […]
Rob Gibson Reclaiming our Land, 2020, self-published, pp324, 9781527281813 Reviewed by Magnus Davidson This is a book about land reform, providing through it a valuable resource for those looking to better understand the history of the SNP and those interested in parliamentary process. Gibson, with a long history in the SNP, was MSP for the […]
Neil Findlay (ed.) If You Don’t Run, They Can’t Chase You: Stories from the frontline of the fight for social justice, 2021, Luath, pp184, 1910022438 Reviewed by Iain Ferguson October 2021 marked the third anniversary of the historic 48-hour strike for equal pay by 8,000, mainly female, Glasgow council workers, members of UNISON and the […]
Who knows what the fight the UK will have started in Europe by the time this appears in print. After noising up the Irish and trying to stir things up with France, who knows which country the UK will have decided to take on next. Furthermore, as the country lurches from crisis to crisis like […]