Scotland

Ukraine: choices before Scottish TUC

The half dozen templated motions on Ukraine submitted to this year’s Scottish TUC congress (17-19 April 2023, Dundee) have been amalgamated into a single composite, to be discussed on the Wednesday morning of the congress. Masquerading as pseudo-pacifist "peace proposals", the composite is riddled with factual inaccuracies, political misrepresentations and empty phrase-mongering. Putin’s 2022 invasion was a continuation of the Soviet-imperialist repression of Ukraine dating back to Stalin. Denying the right of Ukraine to exist as a state and as a nation, Putin’s war aim was, and is, genocidal...

SNP in turmoil: chance for the left?

Peter Murrell — the recently resigned CEO of the Scottish National Party (SNP), and husband of the recently resigned SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon — was arrested on 5 April and questioned by police investigating the SNP’s finances. The family home was searched over the course of two days, as were the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh. Police took away boxloads of documents. Police also visited the home of Murrell’s 92-year-old mother, from where they seized a campervan reported to be worth £110,000. The police investigation concerns the whereabouts of donations amounting to £660...

From the archives: How the STUC ratted on Solidarnosc in 1982

In late 1981 Stalinist Poland's one-party state imposed martial law in an attempt to crush the free trade union Solidarnosc. Mass arrests of its leaders were carried out, the riot police were used to break strikes, and government forces shot and killed demonstrators. The following report from Socialist Organiser (predecessor of Solidarity ) describes the debate on Poland at the 1982 STUC congress and the controversy triggered by motions advocating that the STUC sever links, as an act of solidarity with Solidarnosc, with the fake Stalinist "trade unions" in Eastern Europe. … The need for such...

Ukraine: choices before Scottish TUC

The half dozen templated motions on Ukraine submitted to this year’s Scottish TUC congress (17-19 April 2023, Dundee) have been amalgamated into a single composite, to be discussed on the Wednesday morning of the congress. Masquerading as pseudo-pacifist "peace proposals", the composite is riddled with factual inaccuracies, political misrepresentations and empty phrase-mongering. Putin’s 2022 invasion was a continuation of the Soviet-imperialist repression of Ukraine dating back to Stalin. Denying the right of Ukraine to exist as a state and as a nation, Putin’s war aim was, and is, genocidal...

SNP vote shows its weaknesses

Humza Yousaf was declared winner of the SNP leadership contest on 27 March. After votes cast for Ash Regan were redistributed, Yousaf beat Kate Forbes by 52% to 48% on a 70% turnout. More important than the outcome is what the contest – the first SNP leadership election contest in two decades – revealed about the SNP: • The cultist element to the SNP. In the absence of a cult-leader – first Salmond (2004-14), and then Sturgeon (2014-23) – the long-simmering internal tensions erupted once the election was called. The closeness of the result reflected this. • The demoralisation of broad layers...

Sturgeon step-down unlikely to lead to Scottish Labour revival

Nicola Sturgeon resigned as leader of the SNP and Scotland’s First Minster on 15 February 2023. She has held both posts since 2014. Sturgeon will continue to hold both posts until a successor has been elected – with the process due to be complete by the end of March – and will continue to sit as an MSP until at least the next Holyrood election in 2026. There has been a lot of speculation in the media and social media about the ‘real reason’ for her resignation. But maybe Sturgeon resigned for the same reason that millions of other people jack in their jobs. She’d simply had enough, and there...

Transphobia and the real issues on prisons

The case of the trans prisoner Isla Bryson has led to an outcry from transphobes, as she was initially housed in a female jail. She transitioned during her trial, and was convicted of two rapes. The outcry came shortly after the Scottish government’s reforms to allow for a quicker legal-gender recognition process based on self-identification, and the Tory government’s move to block those reforms; but gender-recognition legal reforms do not shape the decision about where to house Bryson. Prisons in Scotland, as in rest of the UK, have to risk-assess all prisoners when deciding where to house...

Tom Nairn, 1932-2023

I met Tom Nairn, who has died at the age of 90, only once, when I was 17 or 18 and he came to speak at a meeting at my university. I remember wondering how someone even more shy, awkward, and dishevelled than I was could have become such a high-profile influence on the 1960s left. Nairn wrote not awkwardly but exuberantly, floridly, splendidly. The literary-only character of his activity was typical of the New Left Review ( NLR ) editorial group of which he was part. Perry Anderson, its leading figure, had taken over the Review in 1962, at age 24 - he can scarcely have been shy - and though...

Protest for trans rights

Protests for trans rights have swept the UK against the Tories’ veto of Scottish reforms to reduce the extremely high hurdles to trans people obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate. Protests so far in London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Orkney, Bristol, York, and elsewhere.

Women's Fightback: Sunak blocks Scottish gender law

The Tory government has blocked legislation passed by the Scottish parliament that would make Scotland the first part of the UK to introduce a self-identification system for people who want to change legal gender. The Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, is using Section 35 of the devolution law, the Scotland Act 1998, to stop the Gender Recognition Act. This is the first time Westminster has used Section 35. The Scottish government will challenge the decision in the Supreme Court. Lawyers say it has little chance of legal success. However, a high profile case against Westminster denying Holyrood...

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