ScottishLeft Review Issue 97 January/February 2017 - £2.00

'best re(a)d' LRD TUC Sept15_Layout 1 10/07/2015 14:09 Page 1 FIGHT ANTI-UNION LAWS

www.rmt.org.uk

General Secretary: Mick Cash President President: PSeaneter P iHoylenkney

ASLEF CALLS FOR AN INTEGRATED, PUBLICLY OWNED, ACCOUNTABLE RAILWAY FOR SCOTLAND (which used to be the SNP’s position – before they became the government!)

Mick Whelan Tosh McDonald Kevin Lindsay General Secretary President Scottish O cer ASLEF the train drivers union- www.aslef.org.uk

2 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 feedback

comment

Part 1: Red star rising and dead Russians ne hundred years ago, a red star late 1920s onwards. But it is important to initiated as state policy in 1934. was rising. The spectre haunting hold on to the fact that for a short period of Inspired by the October revolution, Scotland Europe that Marx and Engels talked time, the alternative that many arguments O has made its own small contribution to of in the Communist Manifesto of 1848 was make the case for did exist. It was - and the socialist creed with the likes of John about to come true with a vengeance. The remains - the only successful example of a Maclean, Harry McShane, Mary Barbour, October revolution would spark revolutions new, post-capitalist society being made. reviews Willie Gallacher, Helen Crawfurd, Jimmy around Europe, mostly obviously in Italy To celebrate and commemorate such a Maxton and the like. Their ilk grappled (1919-1920) and Germany (1918-1923). momentous event, we have decided to get with the issues of fomenting revolution in Soviets (workers’ councils) sprung up in in early with our contribution. Our cover an advanced capitalist economy far before Vienna, Limerick and Budapest in these uses the rather ill-tempered retort of ‘what independence became a live issue. years as well. The October revolution was can we learn from dead Russians?’ as the pretty bloodless. Indeed, more were killed We hope the collections of articles will hook. So with Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin as and more damage done re-enacting the help facilitate a discussion about what a the leading examples, John Foster looks at storming of the Winter Palace to arrest the revolution is, what it would look like today, the impact upon Scotland of the October Kerensky Provisional Government for Sergei why do they happen, will it be brought revolution, William Bonnar the roots of Eisenstein’s 1927 filming of the adaptation about by a party or a social movement, the revolution, and Dave Sherry and Pat of John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the can it survive in a single country and why Kelly look at its achievements and legacy. World book on the October revolution than revolution is still necessary for not just Meanwhile, Stephen Collins considers a happened in October 1917. workers but also for humanity and the lesser known, dead Russian, Maxim Gorki, planet we inhabit. To discuss those issues The October revolution was to be the only with regard to an attempt to make culture inevitably brings one to also discuss what successful revolution where workers took reflect the lives of the majority of citizens. is meant by ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’. power – even if that success was turned into This is called social realism and is not to be Without delving any further, we can say something quite different by Stalin from the confused with socialist realism which Stalin at least there are two distinct types of

Cover: ScottishLeftReview Nadia Lucchesi Issue 97 January/February 2017 ([email protected]) Contents Proofing services: Bob Thomson and John Daly Editorial comment ...... 3 Communications and So what does revolution look like? William Bonnar ...... 5 organisational development: From February to October – how revolution unfolded Dave Sherry ...... 7 Carole Ewart By default, the triumph of neo-liberal capitalism? Pat Kelly ...... 9 Editor Email: Red October and communists in Scotland John Foster ...... 11 [email protected] Gorki in Glasgow: Glasgow Unity’s production of The Lower Depths Stephen Collins . 13 Web: www.scottishleftreview.org Putting the politics back into local government Dave Watson ...... 15 Tel: 0141 424 0042 For a people’s local democracy Phil McGarry ...... 17 If democracy is anywhere, it should be local Willie Sullivan...... 18 Address: ‘Viva Fidel’ - without Castro, Cuba would not be ‘libre’ Colin Fox ...... 20 Scottish Left Review, What’s left after Sanders, Clinton, and Trump? Gerry Friedman ...... 21 741 Shields Road, Pollokshields, Music lessons for the movement? Martin Cloonan and John Williamson ...... 23 Glasgow G41 4PL Progressive power of poetry Mike Quille ...... 25 Printed by Poets’ progressive page Adil Bhatti, Gilbert Alomenu & David Betteridge...... 26 Hampden Advertising Ltd, Book reviews – Stephen Smellie and Robin Jones...... 28 70 Stanley St, Glasgow G41 1JB, Vladimir McTavish’s Kick up the Tabloids...... 30 Tel: 0141 429 1010

3 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 conceptions of socialism – one from above interpretation of how socialism comes into the arms of the Soviet Union, with the by parliament, and one from below by about, brought Fidel Castro to power in Cuban Communist Party not established workers. The former approximates to social 1959. But it was a war against US imperialism until 1965. Undoubted advances in living democracy, the latter to socialist revolution. and its puppet, Batista. Castro was part of standards, education and health care have a middle class nationalist resistance and it been made but persecution of minorities In a strangely ironic sense, the death of was a measure of weakness of the Batista Fidel Castro fits well into the theme of regime that Castro’s tiny forces were able to existed and a well-to-do state ruling class this edition on the impact and legacy of bring it down. Reforms were introduced but emerged. Free markets reforms have been the Russian revolution. Guerrilla war, not so was a new authoritarian-inclined state. introduced under the rule of his brother, a working class revolt as per the classic It was the US blockade that drove Cuba Raul. Part 2: Challenging conditions continue he New Year has begun as the their disposal’. Just as there was no Brexit of Momentum supporters who are also old one ended – with challenging bounce for the independence cause, such Labour members suggests two things. The Tconditions for the left at the Scottish, a budget does little either – unless people first is that the level of support for Corbyn British, European and international levels. can see past the SNP to understand that is not as deep seated as it might at first This edition covers a number of these there is a radical independent form of seem. Thus, those that are Momentum aspects but most obviously focusses upon independence. It remains to be seen if supporters are likely to be largely the forthcoming local council elections in the relaunch of the Scottish Independence comprised of those that were registered May. These elections present the SNP with Convention this month has a role to play Labour supporters (so potentially allowing the opportunity to deliver upon the ‘one here. a vote in the election to re-elect Corbyn party state’ that many have accused it of Notwithstanding electoral success in the but nothing more in terms of participating running – the parts being the Holyrood, local elections in May, 2016 may be looked within Labour). Whilst it would be Westminster and European parliaments. back as the year in which the wheels did inappropriate to suggest that they are Glasgow will be a key battleground as the really start to fall on the SNP bandwagon. merely ‘armchair socialists’ or ‘clicktivists’, Labour council there continues to attack the On health, education and transport, the because they may well be involved in many conditions of its own workforce. In a series SNP is weak and on Brexit its strategy of actual, physical campaigns and activities, it of articles, Dave Watson, Willie Sullivan saying much but doing very little other is probably the case that they do not see and Phil McGarry examine a number of the than releasing umpteen press releases the Labour Party as the beginning and salient issues. Dave Watson shows how is beginning to grow a bit wearisome. Its end of their political activities. There are councils could rethink local democracy in political management and strategy is now equal numbers of pros and cons to this order to stop the centralisation carried out being exposed as being unable to paper perspective. by Holyrood, Willie Sullivan asks us to re- over its programmatic cracks. imagine local government and Phil McGarry The second is that the Labour Party may not develops a set of priorities to tackle With the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as constitute the most inviting environment immediate challenges. We shall consider Labour leader last year, the British road to in which to play out their politics. Rules further aspects of local government head socialism remains a serious option. But all, and regulations established by existing of the May elections in the next issue. as we know, is not well here in terms of the members and regimes condition the Parliamentary Labour Party. Documents parameters of what can be done. It may It seems Brexit has paralysed politics in released by Momentum - the group be much easier to remain active within the Britain, with everyone waiting to see associated with the campaigns to elect and forums and milieus in which they already what the Tories will do and what kind deal re-elect Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader - are. All this means that the Corbynistas will they will seek and be able to get. Post- for its National Committee meeting on3 be compelled to play the long game – not Brexit politics have become something December 2016 show the conundrum it just in terms of the next election being in of a phoney war and a diversion from faces. It has a total of 165,157 members 2020 unless the numbers in parliament fighting fights against austerity and neo- and supporters. Of these, it has 145,865 allow for the calling of a snap election by liberalism. Although this has been true supporters and 20,736 members. Yet overturning the fixed term for parliaments, of Scotland too, Scotland still has its own of these only 60,316 are Labour Party but also in terms of the gradually gaining distinctive trajectory. Amongst these was members with just 17,555 being both supremacy within the Labour Party. the SNP Scottish Government’s first budget Momentum and Labour Party members. This issue by far outshadows Dugdale’s under the new fiscal settlement with So when the Corbynistas attempt to promotion of a federal system, essentially Westminster. Did the Scottish Government mobilise against the right within Labour, further devolution including employment blink first? It would seem so as there were they are rather less fulsome in numbers law, for post-Brexit Britain because it is not few found to comment that there would and influence than we might have thought a confederal conception. be more genuinely new and increased they’d be. This might explain why the sums of money for public services and no One final back to Brexit comment – the Corbynistas lost out to the right at the examples of wealth redistribution or no forthcoming general secretaryship election November London Labour Party and tax rises for the rich (with the additional in the Unite union will hopefully kick Labour National Policy Forum meetings. rowing back on use of school money from start a much needed, productive debate In other words, they are not present and rich areas for poor areas). This led the on the free movement of labour within fighting for the delegate positions to Poverty Alliance to question why the SNP Europe because globalisation is often determine policy matters in such forums. wants power its will not use and will not being confused with internationalism. Without winning here, the right in the use to reduce poverty, with its director, Free movement has benefitted capital far Parliamentary Labour Party will not be Peter Kelly, saying: ‘It is disappointing that more than labour so what is the alternative isolated and marginalised. the Scottish Government have decided in order that the hand of labour can be not to make full use of the tax powers at But looked at in another way, the low level strengthened? 4 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 So what does revolution look like? William Bonnar examines what happened in revolutionary Russia

hat is the central objective war, famine and economic collapse shape developments in the Soviet of a revolution? To carry requiring the Bolsheviks to govern Union for the next 20 years. out its programme? To through a ruthless dictatorship. W There are some on the left who transform society? No. Its central Finally, the Bolsheviks believed have a kind of idealised view objective is survival. History is that revolution in Russia could only of revolution. For them, the littered with examples of revolutions be sustained by an international revolutionary process must follow a which did not survive to carry revolution. Their great fear was pre-ordained blueprint. Any change through its programme or transform that the Revolution would perish if from that blueprint represents a society. It is usually a history written left isolated. While a revolutionary deviation and corruption of the in blood and despair. The greatest movement did sweep through revolution itself and will ultimately triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution Europe, by the summer of 1918 it lead to betrayal. This approach is of October 1917 was that, despite had largely dissipated leaving the utopian in the extreme and not colossal obstacles, it did in fact Russian Revolution in the state of based on any kind of reality. survive. isolation the Bolsheviks so feared. In fact, revolutions and post- When the Bolsheviks launched the Given the above, what where the revolutionary societies emerge revolution, they did so on the basis Bolsheviks meant to do? Give up? organically from objective of four assumptions - every one Of course, not. They needed to circumstances and are shaped of which quickly unravelled and survive and do everything necessary by those circumstances. The was proved wrong. The first was to ensure that survival. It is usual, Bolshevik revolution is a classic that the revolution would bring though not very helpful, to define case in point. The Bolsheviks saw an end to the war given that the the Russian Revolution as a single their revolution as part of a wider horrendous Russian experience of event which took place in October European revolution. When that conflict was a driving force in the 1917. failed to materialise, they attempted revolution. In fact, for Russia the In reality, we are dealing with a to create ‘socialism in one country’ end of the Great War flowed into a revolutionary episode which began because there was no alternative. barbaric civil war fuelled by massive with the overthrow of the Tsar in The ideal of a new radical democracy outside intervention - a war which February 1917 and ended with founded on the soviets disintegrated killed millions through conflict the establishment of the Soviet in the face of economic collapse, and famine. The second was that Union in December 1922. It was a famine, war, foreign intervention the economic collapse which had period involving the overthrow of and counter-revolution. engulfed Russia would be halted. two governments, the unilateral In fact, it accelerated. In the period withdrawal of Russia from the Great Faced with this, all that mattered immediately after the revolution, War, economic, social and political was that the Bolsheviks survived in Russia had no functioning economy. collapse; famine and civil war. The power and they could only do this The third was that the collapsing Soviet Union which emerged in thorough the imposition of an iron Tsarist state would be quickly 1922 was a dramatically different dictatorship. For the revolution to replaced with a new form of radical place from the Russia which saw survive they had no choice. Later, democracy based on the system the overthrow of the Tsar almost with the country facing economic of soviets. But this noble ideal five years earlier. And, it was these catastrophe with an economy which quickly disintegrated in the face of objective conditions that would had ceased to function at any real

5 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 level they brought about a partial re- economic system based on universal either occupied by or allied to Nazi introduction of capitalism through state ownership which included Germany. The Chinese revolution the New Economic Policy. They did everything from nuclear power emerged out of thirty years of civil so because they had no choice. stations to local shops (although the war, foreign occupation and general latter were fairly scarce). chaos. Elsewhere, we saw societies One of the great myths perpetuated emerge in the struggle against the by some on the left was that the By the 1980s, the Soviet Union was most violent forms of colonialism revolution was proceeding fine at a crossroads. It could remain and imperialism as in Vietnam. No until Stalin’s so-called ‘revolution more or less as it was with some wonder that the post-revolutionary from above’ in 1927. This had two minor reforms along the way. It societies which emerged were elements; the consolidation of a could make the transformation from deeply scarred. Stalinist dictatorship with its mass an authoritarian model of socialism repression and emerging cult of the to a more democratic and open In modern industrial and post- personality, and a programme of model of the system or it could do industrial society, it would be forced industrialisation. For some neither and collapse paving the way difficult to foresee any of the this represented a kind of counter- for the re-introduction of capitalism. above scenarios. Even in the worst revolution; the final break with the Of course, this was the worst option examples of capitalist economic legacy of 1917. This however, does and unfortunately the one which crisis, the idea that society itself not stand up. Stalin did not create unfolded. would collapse is unimaginable. a ruthless dictatorship and mass Also why would any socialist want repression. That had existed from this with all its resulting human the start. In fact, if Stalin had not suffering? In such societies such as emerged as the main leader how Britain or Scotland there has to be a would things have been different? different road to socialism. The Soviet Union would still have This would involve the election of been governed by a Bolshevik a socialist government carrying a dictatorship whose primary concern programme of radical social and was to remain in power. economic reforms sustained by a As for the economic break with the mass movement outside parliament. NEP and the programme of forced This programme would include industrialisation, what was the extending public ownership, economic situation in the Soviet strengthening democracy and Union in 1927, fully a decade after For all its faults the collapse of engaging in a continuous battle of the revolution? Industrial production the Soviet Union was one of the ideas in the face of what would be was at a level significantly lower greatest geopolitical disasters of the fierce capitalist opposition. The than in 1914. Indeed, the Soviet twentieth century and a hammer overall aim would be to so change Union had a smaller industrial base blow for the international socialist the balance of forces between than Belgium. Almost every other movement. Twenty seven years capitalism and socialism in favour of economic indicator showed similar on the movement is still trying to the latter in a way that would make results. The only parts of the soviet come to terms with this event. It the final transition to socialism much economy which were developing was a disaster for the peoples of more feasible. Such an approach were through the richer peasants Russia and beyond who by almost recognises that this transition, i.e., or kulaks in the countryside and every social and economic indicator revolution, will not be a single act capitalist elements in the cities are still in a much worse place but a process. And, it recognises that thriving under the NEP. The Soviet than then. It allowed capitalism the way we achieve this revolution Union needed to rapidly industrialise to become a truly global system will shape the post-revolutionary or it would perish. If Stalin had for the first time and it created a society which emerges. not been around this would still dangerously unbalanced world in William Bonnar is a founding have been Soviet economic policy which American imperialism could member of the Scottish Socialist because there was no real choice. proceed pretty much unchallenged. Party and was previously a member What emerged from the 1917 What does the Bolshevik revolution of the editorial board of Marxism Revolution was an authoritarian tell us about the nature of revolution Today model of socialism. This developed generally? The experience to date through various phases from the is that such revolutions have come mass terror of the Stalin period to about through social and economic the more benign and stable period collapse and war as in Russia. under Khrushchev and Brezhnev. Socialist transformation came to Yet the authoritarian nature of most of central Europe on the the system remained. It had an backs of Soviet tanks in countries autocratic political system and an 6 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 From February to October – how revolution unfolded Dave Sherry looks at the achievements of the new order n International Women’s European power. Resistance had of the Western Front applied to the Day, 23 February 1917, spread to the trenches. Mutiny, Eastern Front and then some. In the Othousands of angry women desertions and a readiness to first ten months, Russia’s armies workers stormed out of the textile fraternise with ‘the enemy’ meant lost 300,000 men a month- dead, plants in Petrograd, the imperial disruption and class war at the front. wounded or taken prisoner. From capital of Russia and fifth biggest Something had to give and Tsarist then until late 1917, its average city in Europe. Although they did Russia was the weakest link. monthly losses were 40,000 dead, not yet know it, their strikes would War was capital’s response to its 120,000 wounded and 60,000 ignite the second Russian Revolution deepening crisis of profits and missing or taken prisoner. in twelve years. Unlike its 1905 competition. In August 1914, Tsarism was finding the task of predecessor, this uprising would the economic rivalry of the great fighting a full-scale modern war topple the hated Tsarist autocracy imperial powers shifted onto the impossible. The corrupt Romanov and open up the road to the first battlefield. The workers and the regime was cracking under the workers’ government in history - and poor became its cannon fodder. strain. Military incompetence to a Europe-wide revolt that would It lasted four years taking twenty brought humiliation. Unable to topple three other great Empires million lives with another thirty five meet even the minimal needs of and end the First World War. million maimed or wounded. its population and incapable of The women who were about to relinquishing even a modicum of change history- many with husbands power to anyone else, the autocracy conscripted in the Tsarist army on was doomed. the Eastern front - were in a militant In Petrograd, the events begun mood for not just the strikers but on the morning of 23 February also the soldier’s wives forced to triggered mass strikes and queue for hours in cold, wintry demonstrations that brought Petrograd for bread and fuel. the city to a standstill. The Tsar’s Together, they took over the streets, troops, when ordered to fire on defying the Tsar’s Cossack cavalry. the demonstrators, ignored their By noon, 50,000 other workers had commanders and sided with the joined them on an angry protest in protests. Some even shot their the city centre. Earlier that morning, With the exception of the officers. the striking women had marched Bolsheviks, the Serbian and Soldiers stormed the jails releasing through the factory districts, Bulgarian socialists and a few the political prisoners. Regiments targeting the male workers in the brave souls elsewhere, the leaders sent back from the front to restore big engineering plants and calling on of European social democracy order joined the revolution. A similar them to down tools and join them. capitulated to patriotism in pattern followed in Moscow and Most of them did. 1914 - abandoning their talk of other Russian towns and cities. The women went far beyond internationalism to back their own Tsar Nicholas II’s generals told him what the revolutionaries and the ruling classes. Behind the lie of a there was no chance of restoring leaders of the workers’ leaders ‘war for democracy’, Britain, France, order unless he stood down. thought feasible or sensible in the Russia and Italy had colluded on how Revolution was announced to a circumstances. It was the women they would divide the spoils once startled world by radio. who took the lead in approaching they had defeated Germany and her the troops to persuade them not to allies. In 1917 the USA joined in. The casualties in February were fire on the demonstrators. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, considerable. The Tsar’s secret police machine-gunned the crowds and The world was in its the third year mocked their hypocrisy: ‘The some police were beaten or killed in of the greatest mass slaughter ever bourgeoisie of each country claims retaliation. But the new Russia was seen and there was no end in sight. it is out to defeat the enemy not for plunder and the seizure of territory, born in jubilation. The relentless profiteering and the but for the liberation of all other one-sided sacrifices imposed on Ecstatic crowds of citizens and peoples except its own’. the poor brought strikes, riots and soldiers joined marches and demonstrations to every major Everything written about the horrors enormous public meetings to mark 7 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 the change. One socialist newspaper The word for fascism would have October had a tremendous impact outlawed from the start of the come into the world not as an Italian internationally, inspiring the war but now selling widely, wryly word from 1922 but a Russian word oppressed and exploited throughout cautioned: ‘the yellow press now from 1917. But the generals were the world. In every country, men calls itself non-party socialist while defeated and the Soviets, now under and women rallied in support of the the banks try to protect themselves the leadership of the Bolsheviks, revolution that had brought hope by raising the red banner of carried through a second revolution for a brighter future into a world revolution over their buildings’. in October that installed the working brutalised by imperialist war. class in power. The Romanov dynasty that had ruled Ultimate success– as the Bolsheviks Russia since 1613 was blown away in The Revolution in its earliest well knew-depended on the eight days, fallen to a spontaneous, days delivered an amazing social revolution spreading west to popular revolution -but February transformation for the poor and Germany, Austro- Hungary and was only the start. the oppressed: workers’ control Western Europe. It did but the over production; the division of defeat of the German Revolution An unelected Provisional the rich landlords’ property among and Lenin’s death in 1924 meant the government, committed to the poor peasants and agricultural isolation of Russia, which in turn led modernising Russia along the labourers; self-determination for to the triumph of Stalin and the rise lines of Western capitalism, filled the oppressed nationalities of the of state capitalism by the end of the the vacuum at the top of society. old tsarist Empire; and the ending of decade. Dominated by landowners and discrimination against Jews, Muslims That is another story but the industrialists, it was determined to and other persecuted minorities. continue the war but it was forced subsequent isolation and defeat to share power with the workers’, The most impressive achievements of the revolution was a terrible soldiers’ and peasants’ councils - the came from the concerted attempt setback, not only for the left but for soviets that had been set up in the to end women’s oppression. There all humanity. It led to the barbarisms course of the February overthrow. was a flood of social reforms far in of the 1930s and 1940s –the advance of anything in even the swastika, the holocaust, Stalin’s Directly elected by the people and most advanced capitalist countries labour camps, the Second World governed, soviet delegates were of the time. These gave women War, the atom bomb and Hiroshima. unpaid and subject to immediate the vote; legalised divorce and Revolutions that are defeated are recall by their voters - much more established state run crèches, soon forgotten: but not the Russian democratic than any parliament. nurseries, communal laundries and Revolution. No one can make sense Within weeks there was no town in restaurants. Russia without its soviet. Working of our world today without an people were creating the machinery Russia became the first country in understanding of it. Everything that for their own emancipation. the world to legalise abortion and happened since has been shaped make abortion and contraception by it. It remains the biggest social The overthrow of the Tsar alarmed safe and freely available. A whole movement the world has ever the rulers of Britain, France and host of provisions for pregnant and seen; the most successful anti-war Germany – in Britain the royals had nursing mothers was introduced and movement ever built. already been forced to change their made freely available. name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha That is why its centenary matters to Windsor. King George V and his The distinction between legitimate so much. Its lesson of the self- cabinet were worried he would and illegitimate children was emancipation of the working class follow the fate of the Romanovs. abolished. The Tsarist laws against will never be forgotten. 1917 lights gays were ended - an important the present and the future as well as The February revolution did not step in the fight against oppression our past. bring an end to the war. With the and the constraints imposed on Dave Sherry is a long-standing hardships that had produced, the individual by the old state, its member of the SWP and author of it continued and with the poor ‘official’ religion and its false idyll of a forthcoming book on the Russian peasants still denied the land, family life. the Provisional government was Revolution Russia underwent a genuine, if doomed. All that remained in doubt unfinished, sexual revolution. We was whether it would be overthrown can look back to that era with pride Note: Until 1918, Russia used the by a military coup or by a socialist -an example of the gains that can be Julian calendar, 13 days behind the revolution. won for genuine equality and sexual Gregorian calendar in the West. Such a coup was attempted in liberation through class struggle – That is why the two revolutions of August and had it succeeded the gains that far outstripped anything 1917 are referred to as the February working class would have been available to women or LGBT+ people and October revolutions. According drowned in blood with Russia’s large in the ‘advanced states’ of Europe or to the Western calendar, they took Jewish population scapegoated. the USA. place in March and November. . 8 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 By default, the triumph of neo-liberal capitalism? Pat Kelly looks at the impact of the implosion of Soviet socialism

Army that has torn the guts out of the filthy Nazis’. In every European country, Communist Parties were growing rapidly in size and influence. Some had formed governments or were in coalition governments with other parties. By 1947, Greece was one of the few countries in Eastern Europe where Communists were not involved in government, prevented from doing so by the intervention of the British Army. The Chinese revolution had increased the number of states under Marxist leadership to eleven. After a visit to Europe, the US Secretary of State, George Marshall, he triumph of the Russian of the 1930s. However, there was reported back that he believed Revolution nearly a century one other weapon they could now the whole of Europe was about to ago was the first time in use in their fight for social justice T embrace Communism. As a result, history that the working class was – what Neal Lawson, chair of the able to seize and hold power, and pressure group, Compass, describes the European Recovery Programme, to reorganize the economy and as ‘the brooding presence of the which became known as the society on a socialist basis. From Soviet Union’. Marshall Plan, was put into place. being the least developed of the This was a programme of massive New Statesman big European countries at the time Writing in the (12 economic aid given by the United of the revolution, forty years later May 2016), Lawson argued that: States to favoured countries in the Soviet Union was the second ‘Today, it is almost impossible Western Europe for the rebuilding largest economy in the world. to imagine the effect of actually of capitalism. Only those countries There were many factors that existing socialism in rebalancing the which were prepared to line up with contributed to its downfall, but this post war forces in favour of labour the US against the Soviet Union article will look at the legacy of the and against capital. The owners would receive any aid. Soviet Union in terms of a) how it of capital were terrified that a In conjunction with monetary helped social democracy flourish revolution might happen in the West arrangements previously in western capitalist countries; b) as the armed forces returned home established, Marshall Aid was how it assisted the anti-imperialist from the front. Throughout the used systematically to pressure struggle of oppressed nations; and 1960s Soviet planning was felt to be c) how the collapse of an ideological over taking US free markets in terms governments and voters in countries competitor has weakened the of productivity. The whole post like France and Italy into rejecting left and allowed neo-liberalism to war settlement was due, to a large Communism in exchange for aid. triumph. extent, to the existence of the USSR’. As a quid pro quo, the US accepted use of Keynesian economic policies The First World War had led to the The halcyon days of social to provide welfare and jobs for birth of the USSR and the Second democracy in Western capitalist workers. In essence, it encouraged World War turned it into a global countries was the period from 1945- European governments to promote superpower. By 1945, sympathy for 1975, when living standards rose at social democratic policies to ‘buy the USSR and gratitude for the role an unprecedented rate. The working off’ their working class. class was organized and united, and it had played in defeating fascism after the experience of the Second was immense. As Winston Churchill Britain had already moved in that World War, was determined to stated in the House of Commons in direction. There had been economic ensure there would be no return to Oct 1944: ‘I have always believed stagnation in the 1920s, followed the unemployment and conditions and I still believe that it is the Red by a decade of high unemployment 9 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 before the war. The establishment compete with the USSR to retain The collapse of the Soviet Union was terrified of a repetition of the workers loyalties with promises of resulted in the removal of a strong wave of revolutionary struggles that comparable welfare programs and competitor in global affairs and took place after the First World War. greater individual consumption. the only state that could challenge Quintin Hogg, who later became Fear of the USSR, the power of the power of the US militarily. a Tory cabinet minister, warned the communist parties in certain The Gulf war of 1991 and the parliament in 1943: ‘If you don’t European countries, and their subsequent annihilation of Iraq, give the people social reform, they direct and indirect influence on the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, will give you social revolution’. trade-unionism weakened the and the interventions in a range of With the armed forces returning establishment’s resistance to social other countries during the last two decades might have been prevented from the war radicalised, social progress. if not for the collapse of the Soviet democracy became more attractive The Soviet Union was of key Union. to capitalism as a safeguard against significance to the nations which social revolution and the threat of a had been colonized and exploited Of course, the threat of the Soviet global communist movement. by the imperialist powers. The Union’s model of socialism as a serious alternative to capitalism The Labour Government that was national liberation movements disappeared long before the collapse elected in 1945 began an ambitious became established as a major of the USSR in 1989, and it could programme of reforms of welfare, force in the struggle for national be safely ignored when the first education, and nationalisation. self-determination and made huge steps towards neo-liberalism were Many of these policies had been gains across the world following the Second World War. Material taken by Thatcher and Reagan. The discussed during the War by assistance, including the supply ruling class became emboldened politicians of all parties and some of of weapons, military training and and stripped away at workers’ rights them were already outlined before diplomatic support, was provided without fear of the political pressure Labour surprisingly won the 1945 by the Soviet Union. Many students of a socialist example. Without the election. Despite their ideological from the national liberation presence of a socialist alternative differences, the Tories accepted movements received their education there is no longer a requirement most of the reforms and a consensus and military training in Moscow. for capitalism to make the same developed around key features. Most of the new nations which came compromises with social democracy. Labour and Tory Governments from into being after the Second World Although social democratic 1945-1979 accepted a commitment War began their nation-building parties were returned to power to maintain full employment by task with close political, military and subsequently, they did not pursue adopting Keynesian techniques of economic ties to the Soviet Union. social democratic policies, but economic management; acceptance The Soviet Union played vital instead embraced neo-liberalism. of the role of unions including their roles in other international It was the misfortune of a number access to government; a mixed developments. The victory for of them, including the British economy with the state control the left in Cuba was consolidated Labour Party, that the crash of 2008 of some of the key industries; by Soviet support, and after a happened on their watch and they agreement on the welfare state, prolonged struggle the Vietnamese are now paying the price of ignoring in particular the National Health people defeated the United States. their own working class grass roots Service; and many other areas of In Africa, the USSR’s support for during this period in office. ‘The consensus including progressive the MPLA in Angola was critical brooding presence of the Soviet taxation policies. Throughout the in the struggle for the country’s Union’ is no longer there and the advanced capitalist economies independence. When the South Africans invaded Angola, they were removal of an ideological challenge similar policies were pursued. defeated by combined Angolan has weakened the labour movement From the 1930s to the beginning of and Cuban forces, crucial to the and the left internationally. the 1960s, even many non-socialist liberation of not just Angola but Pat Kelly was a Scottish secretary of economists regarded the Soviet Namibia, Zimbabwe and eventually the PCS union and past president of Union as a more dynamic system South Africa. Others countries the STUC than capitalism and a viable global declared themselves as socialist or alternative. Harold McMillan, aiming to be socialist. These states when he was conservative PM in faced the active hostility of the the 1960s, believed the socialist USA, but in the Soviet Union they economies could out-produce had an ally. Since its collapse, many capitalism (see Eric Hobsbawm, of these connections have been How to Change the World, 2012). cut and the result has forced many Therefore, the West had to developing countries to increase their dependency on the west. 10 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 Red October and communists in Scotland John Foster recounts the roots of Red Clydeside and the influence of the October revolution hrough most of the last How then do we account for this the rank-and-file shop stewards century communists were the particular strength in Scotland – defending wages and conditions and Tdominant force on Scotland’s paralleled, indeed, in parts of South resisting the conscription of fellow left. The left-wingers who took their Wales, London’s industrial East workers as well as those in the inspiration from Russia’s October End and some mining areas but Independent Labour Party (ILP) and revolution had a key influence on not consistently across Britain as a elsewhere taking an anti-war and the movement of resistance to whole? How far does this strength anti-conscription stand. stem from a particular conjuncture the First World War. They led the The October Revolution did the between Clydeside’s working class political general strike of January- reverse. The Bolshevik government February 1919, gave leadership in politics and the impact of the ended the war and published the miners’ struggle through the October Revolution – and in this the secret treaties exposing its General Strike and beyond, and in regard what made the October imperialist war aims. And as the the 1920s and 1930s developed the Revolution so different from the treacherous nature of Kerensky’s unemployed workers’ movement. February Revolution in its effects? relationship with the Tsarist officer corps became clear, it discredited In the 1940s and 1950s, it was the Labour and trade union leaders communists who battled on equal who had associated with him. In pay and mobilised apprentices and terms of the ability of the anti-war young workers. The redevelopment stewards to gain a political hearing of the shop stewards movement in the yards and factories, the news as a politically independent force of the revolution seems to have was also led by communists and marked a decisive turning point. was critical for victories in the The Ministry of Munitions Clyde UCS work-in, for the two miners’ Labour Report for 15 December strikes of 1972 and 1974 and 1917 warned that ‘the early months for the defeat of the Industrial of 1918 may reveal industrial action Relations Act 1971. Even in 1984- with a view to the achievement of 1985, it was Communist Party political ends in the termination members who helped maintain of war conditions’. January saw morale and resistance among a massive upsurge of industrial mining communities defending unrest: three quarters of all time their industry against the Thatcher lost in industrial disputes across government. Britain was on Clydeside. When The February Revolution did have Auckland Geddes, Minister for None of this was done by a major impact on Clydeside. Mass National Service, tried to intervene, communists alone. Their ability to do meetings celebrated the overthrow a mass meeting of shop-stewards so lay in the organisational principle, of the Tsar and a new political gave him a riotous hearing and adopted from the Bolsheviks, of order in which social democrats backed Soviet peace policy. By February, Munitions Minister, working collectively in workplaces held leading positions. But it did Winston Churchill, was writing to and communities in alliances with not end the war. On the contrary, the Cabinet that the wage issue was other workers on immediate issues. the right wing social democrats and not the main one on Clydeside: ‘the Victory depended on the ability to ex-Tsarist ministers who composed unrest was due to the activities of mobilise this wider base. And while the Provisional Government the Communist Party was never very a pacifist and revolutionary section were welcomed by their British of the men industriously working successful on the electoral front, counterparts as providing a new on the discontent’. We know that in it did exercise significant political and efficient leadership to the war February a quite disproportionate influence: developing support effort. For the trade union and share of the government’s across the political spectrum for Labour Party leaders who supported propaganda budget was spent on the anti-fascist struggle in Spain, for the war, and acted in Britain as the Clydeside, on pro-war films, leaflets anti-colonialism and opposition to government’s agents in enforcing and the organisation of workplace the Cold War, for the possibility of its requirements in industry, the meetings – followed by the detailed socialism itself and, within the STUC February Revolution provided a arrests (or conscription) of known and the Labour Party, for a Scottish cloak of international respectability. troublemakers, one of the first Parliament. It correspondingly undermined being the recently appointed Soviet 11 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 Consul, John Maclean. future Labour MP John Wheatley time radicalisation had been most attacked the Bolsheviks for opposing intense, support still existed. But neither the repression nor parliamentary democracy. Gallacher the propaganda seems to have But there was probably a more hit back: to end the war you must been successful. Two months later fundamental principle at work. end capitalism. For ILP leaders Glasgow’s illegal May Day strike and The Bolsheviks’ conviction that like Helen Crawfurd and Walton demonstration attracted around socialism depended on the Newbold peace seems to have been 100,000 – passing resolutions in transformation of state power the key issue - as well as for the support of the Soviet Revolution, matched Clydeside’s organisational majority of the Scottish ILP’s rank- the end of the war and the release experience of workers’ committees and-file membership, particularly of Maclean. Another six months on, during the war and after. In 1920, those on industrial Clydeside, who Neil McLean, anti-war socialist, was during the campaign to halt British later voted two years running to join the only successful Labour candidate intervention in Russia, Councils of the Third Communist International. in Glasgow when he won Govan Action, based on Trades and Labour on a ‘Hands off Russia’ ticket. The By 1919-1920 a whole range of Councils, had given this renewed defeated Unionist complained ‘going political leaders across Scotland expression. In the months before round Govan he had found a spirit identified with Bolshevik politics: Red Friday in 1925 and the 1926 he had never expected to find ... Tom Bell, Arthur McManus, Arthur General Strike, the Communists that was light-heartedly prepared to Geddes, Aitken Ferguson, Neil were able to reconstruct much of advocate tomorrow the revolution McLean, John S Clarke, Bob Stewart their industrial base and for ten days they had had in Russia’. Then, in Dundee, Robert Page Arnot, in May 1926 Trades Councils once just a month later, there was the Gallacher, JR Campbell, Crawfurd more transformed themselves into remarkable political general strike – and Newbold. mass organisations of working class initially based among the radicalised democracy. ‘All Power to the Soviets’ The second question then follows younger workers in the shipyards continued to dig itself into the - why, if this was the case, was but which spread very quickly across consciousness of a generation. the actual membership of the industrial Scotland. Communist Party in the early 1920s, John Foster is International Secretary So there are a couple of questions compared to the ILP, apparently of the Communist Party of Britain here. What made at least a so sparse and tenuous? Was it, as significant minority of workers on government propagandists said at Clydeside particularly susceptible the time (echoed by a number of to a Bolshevik perspective and how historians since), that the party itself far was this base for left and then was an alien and divisive communist politics carried forward? creation sustained by Soviet gold? Scottish Left Review Four factors, in combination, may The Scottish Left Review is a non-profit making publication. explain the special responsiveness. It is true that by 1921- Please subscribe or make a donation by going to www. First the vigour of the shop stewards 1922 the Communist’s scottishleftreview.org where you can pay by credit card movement on the Clyde and the industrial base had or by filling in your details in the form below and returning degree to which right-wing union collapsed. Mass to Scottish Left Review, 741 Shields Road, Pollokshields, officers had lost credibility early unemployment, Glasgow G41 4PL in war. Second, the organisational emigration, the detailed and political direction given to this elimination of left shop Name movement by the Clyde Workers’ stewards and the 1921 Committee. Third, the strength miners’ defeat gravely Address of the anti-war movement within weakened its workplace the main party of the left, the ILP. power. Yet a wider base Finally, a wider politicisation across for pro-Bolshevik politics hitherto unorganised sections of the survived. Election Tel: workforce and across working class results show that. In communities as a result of struggles 1922, Walton Newbold E-mail: on housing, conscription and food won Motherwell, Neil rationing. McLean held Govan, Subscription/Donation Geddes came within Within the ILP the issue of peace 600 votes of winning Date: and anti-imperialism seems to 197 Greenock and a few have been critical. In a debate Subscriptions: £18 (waged), £14 (unwaged), £24 (local months later Aitken with one of the leaders of the organisations), £30 (national organisations). Ferguson came within Clyde Workers’ Committee and Donations will be gratefully recieved. Cheques should be a similar number future Communist Party MP, Willie crossed and made payable to: Left Review Scotland Ltd. of votes of winning You can also subscribe/donate online at Gallacher, in December 1917, Anderson. Where war- www.scottishleftreview.org 12 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 Gorki in Glasgow: Glasgow Unity’s production ofThe Lower Depths. Stephen Collins looks at how Russian social realism was adapted for Scotland lasgow Unity Theatre existed is left in no doubt as to where the biased by the controlling interests from 1940-1951. The aim of play is set. As such, as writer John which have so far strangled the Gthe company was to create Hill noted, it seemed a curious professional theatre. ‘a native theatre, something which choice for a company committed to Bill Findlay noted that ‘Real Theatre’ is essentially reflecting the lives of developing ‘a theatre indigenous to would come as a consequence the ordinary people in Scotland’. the people of Glasgow in particular of having a company of actors However, to help them achieve and Scotland in general’. drawn mainly from a working-class a ‘native theatre’ the company’s Glasgow Unity was formed in background ‘who would look to their first professional production was a December 1940, as combination own lives in developing a company Russian play, Maxim Gorki’s (1868- of the Glasgow Corporation of style that was true-to-life, and who 1936), The Lower Depths. The Transport Players, the Jewish would operate as a democratic, focus of this article is to examine Institute Players, the Glasgow co-operative ensemble’. To this how the staging of a play by a man Workers’ Theatre group, the Clarion end, Unity’s personnel were drawn, considered the founder of Russian Players and the Glasgow Players. according to John Hill, ‘from the social realism, resonated with ranks of ordinary working people, Bill Findlay noted that ‘each had left Unity’s desire to reflect the lives of whose background and everyday wing leanings’ and that the Glasgow the Scottish working class. life is identical with the masses Players (formerly The Scottish who form its audience’. Thus, Unity The Lower Depths premiered at Labour College) had been founded the Moscow Art Theatre in 1902 aimed to develop a synergy between in 1915 ‘by the Red Clydeside leader the material presented on stage and with Constantin Stanislavski acting John Maclean’. David Hutchinson, the audience that viewed it. To do and directing. In his autobiography, in A History of Scottish Theatre, so, Robert Mitchell turned to Maxim Stanislavski relates a conversation described Unity as first and foremost Gorki. with Gorki that took place a year ‘committedly proletarian’. The before the play was staged, in which company turned professional in Mitchell’s adaptation of The Lower the playwright described his idea: 1945 with Robert Mitchell, an Depths played at the Athenaeum in Glasgow in April 1945. Clearly, It was to be laid in a poor lodging electrician and union convenor, as house, stuffy atmosphere, wooden their first director. bunks, during a long monotonous Unity’s two major interrelated winter. The people had been aims were to develop Scottish bestialized by the hideousness plays and Scottish actors who, in of their existence, they had lost Mitchell’s words, would not have to patience and hope, and being ‘first spend years of his life getting depleted of patience they nag each the Scots quality knocked out of other. Each one tried to prove the him’, and also to use theatre as a other is still a human being. means of representing the lives of ordinary Glaswegians on stage. In its As Stanislavski alludes to, the 1943 Manifesto, Unity’s members play depicts the lives of several described the aims of the company: characters brought together through poverty into the cellar of a homeless We in Glasgow Unity Theatre are a shelter or lodging house. There, the group of Glasgow workers interested characters move through various in the theatre, who intend to put on bleak interactions until the eventual real plays for the entertainment and suicide of the Actor, which is met education of our fellow workers. Our by ambivalence. The play’s setting, main purpose is to build a people’s characters and lifestyle are clearly theatre in Glasgow. All our activities Russian. In Laurence Irving’s 1911 are centered to this aim, for we translation the characters discuss believe that Glasgow has a great paying for goods in kopyeks, and the need for a Real Theatre, where life character names: Luka, Kvashnya can be presented and interpreted and Vassilisa, ensure that the viewer without prejudice or without being 13 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 its urban setting and lower-class lay in both the themes of the play End actors’ meant CEMA looked characters mirrored Mitchell’s wish and in Mitchell’s choice to have his more favorably on supporting the to present plays about working actors interpret and deliver the lines development of the Citizens and its class, urban experience. Colin in their own dialect. Indeed, Findlay aim, according to Hill, to ‘improve Chambers observed at the time, suggests that there was an attempt the cultural tastes of the nation’, that the production resisted ‘any to ‘Glaswegianize’ the dialogue in rather than reflecting the lives of the attempt … to become ‘Russian’. performance. Thus the performance urban poor. did not simply fail to adopt a Moreover, Findlay suggests that one Finally, to return to the central Russian idiom as suggested by Colin of the most radical elements of the question of why Mitchell turned Chambers, but actively chose to production was its ‘departure from to Gorki in order to express his the convention in Scottish theatre adopt a Glaswegian one, thereby desire to develop a ‘native drama’. of the time to deliver lines in accent enhancing the social realist aesthetic Mitchell’s choice reflects the of the London West End Stage’. and transposing Gorki’s depiction of men’s shared belief in depicting However, this is not immediately a disenfranchised and ‘bestilaized’ life stripped of simple narrative evident in the text. The following is poor to the slums of Glasgow. resolution; a desire to challenge taken from Mitchell’s adaptation: It is worth recalling that Unity was audiences with moral ambiguity and, crucially, to do so using their Mied: All crooks are clever, I know. not the first company in Scotland own voice. All these elements are They couldn’t do a thing without to stage The Lower Depths. The Scottish Repertory Company exemplified in a production that, brains. An honest man is right even staged a performance of Irving’s as Bill Findlay noted, had a ‘special if he is an idiot. But a crook must translation in 1914 at the Royalty significance as an exemplar of the have brains. But speaking about Theatre in Glasgow. This production ‘artistic policy’ of Unity. camels, you’re wrong. You can ride starred the Russian actress, Lydia Steve Collins is lecturer in them. They have no horns or teeth Yavorska, and so the production either. Performance at the University of would have presumably emphasised the West of Scotland. He combines The same section from Laurence the characters and their struggles a background in practice with his Irving’s translation reads as follows: as Russian; as an insight into academic work. As a practitioner, the lives of foreigners far away. Myedvyedyeff: Sharpers… they’re he helped to establish the James Unity’s production, through the Town Community Theatre in Accra all clever … I know! They ‘ave got to ‘Glaswegianised’ delivery, would and has worked as a director and be clever. A good mn he – may be have highlighted to the audience facilitator throughout Scotland. As stupid and good, but a wrong ‘un, that these themes were as present a researcher, he has a particular ‘e’s bound to ‘ave wits. But, that on the streets of Glasgow as they interest in post-colonial theatres were in Moscow. camel, yer know … yer can get me and the legal and cultural status on ‘im … ‘e ‘asn’t no ‘orns, not no The production was a critical of performed heritage. teeth. success; it transferred to London Irving’s translation was first and was revived for the Edinburgh performed in December 1911 at the Festival in 1947. Despite this and References Kingsway Theatre in London and a other successes, Unity folded in Colin Chambers (1989) The Story brief comparison of these passages 1951. Unity’s failure to progress of Unity Theatre, Lawrence and resides in a number of factors. The demonstrates that, if anything, the Wishart. main one was its competition with dialogue written by Irving is more the Citizens’ Theatre for funds from Bill Findlay (1998) (ed.) A History colorful, fuller of colloquialisms and the Council for the Encouragement of Scottish Theatre,Edinburgh local dialect. Mitchell’s version is of Music and the Arts (CEMA). University Press (including chapters not written in Scots or Glaswegian CEMA was the precursor of the Arts by David Hutchinson). dialect and the colloquial energy Council, and in its 1946 charter it Bill Findlay (2008) Scottish People’s evident in Irving’s translation is set down that it was concerned with Theatre, Bell and Bain. absent. Indeed, Findlay goes so far funding the fine arts exclusively. as to call the language in Mitchell’s John Hill (1978) ‘Glasgow Unity Perhaps ironically, its attempts version ‘relatively colourless and … Theatre: The Search for a ‘Scottish to reflect reality contributed to in some respects, lifeless’. People’s Theatre’’, New Edinburgh Unity’s demise. A perceived lack Review, 40. However, what does come through of professionalism in its actors is the relative mundanity of the compared to the Citizens’ company, Konstantin Stanislavski (2015) conversation as the characters fill which John Hill noted, ‘on their Stanislavski’s Legacy, trans. Elizabeth their time without dramatic drive. formation had hired an English Reynolds Hopgood, Routledge. This hints that the impact of the play director ... and a nucleus of West 14 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 Putting the politics back into local government Dave Watson says local democracy is under pressure from Tory austerity and the Scottish Government’s centralising tendencies and failure to act in defence of the communities it serves. hile the overall Scottish suffered more than richer ones. Integrated Joint Boards with Scottish budget is determined by the ministers taking significant powers The numbers are even starker when Barnett formula, the Scottish of direction. Community justice W you look at workforce cuts. Between Government decides where the axe is administered locally, but again the financial crash and the last quarter will fall. They have chosen to cut ministers direct policy from the centre of 2015, 27,000 jobs had been lost local government disproportionately. through a new quango. Since police and fire services were from local government (after transfers) Now ministers are consulting over centralised the Scottish Government’s - that’s 87% of all devolved job cuts. education reform (see Bill Ramsay budget has increased by 3.2% in real In the current financial year, COSLA in SLR 96, November-December terms, while local government has had estimates an additional 7,000 job 2016). This is spun as giving powers a grant cut of 1.9%. losses and the new spending plans are likely to result in more next year. to schools, when in reality ministers The draft budget for 2017/18 was The impact of cuts on the workforce will have effective control and new published on 15 December 2016, and is also clear from UNISON’s monthly regional bodies could take the function this continues this trend with another ‘damage’ series of surveys. Staff doing away from local government. Councils have added to their own demise with £327m cut from the local government large amounts of unpaid overtime, an array of arms length bodies and allocation. After years of the regressive increased levels of stress related illness privatisation, particularly in social care council tax freeze there is at least some and concern for their clients over mitigation through the band changes provision. the corner cutting they are forced to and a capped increase of up to 3%. deliver. They paint a depressing picture With education and social work going But between councils the impact has of a committed, yet demoralised elsewhere, leisure and housing already not been even. A study by the Joseph workforce. largely gone arms-length, you are left Rowntree Foundation found that with rump local authorities. There is a across local council services, more rural The Scottish Government has significant concern that councils could councils have suffered more than more centralised police and fire services. be left to wither on the vine or be urban ones and poorer councils have Most social work has been moved to merged into even larger councils.

15 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 The political response of local and the Scottish Trade Union Labour recommended, and could include non- government to these developments Party (STULP)’s ‘Workforce Agenda’ council services as well. has been muted - not helped by sets out an alternative. Councils should Service design would be done with the split between COSLA and the be making the case for local services, citizens and front line staff adopting Partnership. In fairness, COSLA has at promoting an inspiring and emotional ideas from Systems Thinking, The least mounted something of a fight vision for their local communities – not Enabling State, Participatory Budgeting back. Its Commission on Strengthening making managerial platitudes. and Co-operative councils. These Local Democracy makes a strong case It is not enough for councils to approaches can enable citizens to against centralisation and sets out a complain about SNP centralisation. understand the needs of other areas set of sound principles that should They have to articulate new and individuals as much as there own, underpin Scotland’s democratic future. approaches to public service reform. and to think about how to create a At council level, the political I set out some ideas in a Jimmy Reid better, more inclusive local economy, response has been generally woeful. Foundation paper on public service not just for themselves, but for Proportional representation, while reform (see advert for the launch everyone. right in principle, has resulted in more of this paper on p27 in this issue). A revitalised local government could hung councils, and that inevitably In the paper, I argue the traditional also promote new approaches to militates against political action. Senior way of viewing the organisation of developing local economies using the officials are happy to encourage a public services is to start with central ideas developed by the New Economics technocratic leadership that rarely government and then consider what Foundation (Plugging the Gaps) and shows much grasp of political strategy. powers they should devolve to other CRESC (The Foundational Economy). national and local structures. The scale of cuts in the last two Councils could also rediscover years has inspired some limited and An alternative approach is to start municipal enterprise through welcome campaign action, including with people and communities and community energy and use the re- lobbying the Scottish parliament. consider what powers are granted regulation of buses to operate public Councils have been more willing to up to local government and central transport. complain about grant allocations government. This is a way of applying If local government is to survive in any and there has been greater political the principal of subsidiarity or what meaningful form, it has to radically debate in council chambers. However, the Commission on Local Democracy change. That starts with a new vision few have taken political action in called ‘sovereignty’. In essence, people of local services built on meaningful their own councils. If the Scottish locally agree to share sovereignty with engagement with communities. government’s unwillingness to use local, regional and national structures, Integrated services delivered in the devolved tax powers makes them because that is the most effective real communities, with minimal the ‘administrators of austerity’, then way of achieving our collective public fragmentation. Councils and councillors the same can sadly be said of most service ethos. In the same way we who want to achieve political change, councils. agree, or not, to share sovereignty rather than just administer top This can be illustrated with a tale of within the United Kingdom, the down services. That would be a local two council leaders. Both took UNISON European Union, or other international government worth having. Scotland’s ‘Combating Austerity’ toolkit organisations. Dave Watson is the Head of Policy and back to their councils. One was told Public Affairs at UNISON Scotland by its Chief Executive that none of Councils used to run water, sewerage, the actions could be done and didn’t energy, further education, police, fire, References bother to ask why. The other took it community care and public health – to its management team, saying, ‘This with a lot less central prescription as COSLA (2014) Effective Democracy: looks sensible - why are we not doing well. In large swathes of Europe, local Reconnecting with Communities http:// it?’ That council is now saving more government continues to deliver these www.localdemocracy.info/news/final- than a million pounds, without a job services. report/ being lost or a service cut back. One is But Scottish councils are already Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2015) a genuine council leader. The other is a the largest in Europe, so they have The Cost of the Cuts: The Impact passive administrator. to champion service design and on Local Government and Poorer What councils should be doing delivery in real communities. A Communities https://www.jrf.org. is undertaking local economic number of Scottish local authorities uk/report/cost-cuts-impact-local- impact assessments of the cuts; have developed area structures to government-and-poorer-communities developing needs based budgeting decentralise services and some have UNISON Scotland (2016) Briefing and publishing parallel or citizens’ tried to integrate the delivery of 83 – Draft Scottish Budget 2017- budgets in partnership with unions services in recognisable community 18 http://www.unison-scotland. and community groups; and using the settings. This might point the way org/2016/12/16/briefing-83-draft- purchasing power of the council to to a different approach to reform scottish-budget-2017-18/ drive a fair work agenda and tackle tax based on community hubs, where dodging. Instead, most councils simply most services are physically or, where UNISON Scotland – Damage http:// ‘consult’ the public over which services that is practically difficult, virtually www.unison-scotland.org/campaigns/ they should cut. delivered. This creates real integrated public-works/damage/ delivery, as the Christie Commission UNISON Labour Link’s ‘Keeping it Local’

16 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 For a people’s local democracy Phil McGarry outlines what progressive councils should be doing The People’s Assembly (Scotland) was could face crippling cuts of 10% more tokenistic consultations so there formed in the early part of 2011 after arising out of a combination of a is genuine community engagement the general election in 2010. We now reduction in Scotland’s block grant from and consultation; and stop using the have all the major Unions directly Westminster, together with the cost of language of ‘customers’ and talk instead affiliated, including Trade Union Councils the SNP’s manifesto commitments’. This of citizens, residents, service users and and local campaigning anti-austerity equated to some £700m between next council employees who have needs and groups throughout Scotland. year and 2020. This estimate comes on expectations. top of the £350m reduction of last year. Since our inception, and in accordance We note with despair the Draft Budget with our Constitution and Founding Our next step is to prepare and delivered to the Scottish Parliament Statement, we have campaigned print a People’s Manifesto – Budget by the Finance Minister, Derek Mackay to lobby our governments both at Alternatives to use amongst the MSP. Whilst there may be some merit Westminster and Holyrood to reverse general public, campaigning groups, in tinkering with the Council Tax bands the effects of damaging austerity, and anti-austerity organisations and trade and transferring this money to Head to replace it with a set of policies to union councils. In the main, the set Teachers and the lifting of the freeze provide us with a fair, sustainable and of alternatives we are laying out is on Council Tax, together with further secure future for all. No longer can progressive and is not exhaustive. investment in the NHS Social Care we tolerate politicians looking out The political will needs to be at the budget, it becomes clear to many that for themselves and for the rich and forefront of these aims, and is worthy several of these initiatives are outwith powerful. Our political representatives of serious consideration including: the control of local authorities. must start governing in the interests of meaningful engagement and joint the majority based on the following: working with the recognised unions/ a fairer economy for a fairer Britain, People’s Assemblies to campaign for Mackay’s speech to parliament stated: including Scotland; more and better fairness, justice and against austerity; ‘that an increase in spending power on jobs; high standards of social housing; no compulsory redundancies; no to local government services equates to protecting and improving public externalisation and/or privatisation £240.6m’. This is all smoke and mirrors services; fairness and justice; and a and outsourcing; better utilisation of as councils do not have any say or secure and sustainable future. council reserves; a more coherent and control over such matters. All the extra joined up national campaign against money suggested is to be ring-fenced Throughout our campaigning initiatives Westminster and Scottish government for government priorities. Clearly, the and our various public meetings and austerity; issuing of bonds to raise funds Scottish Government has failed to use conferences, it has become abundantly more cheaply; re-financing of PFI and its income tax powers that it has argued clear to us that the cuts, closures and other debts; signing up to UNISONS’s for consistently. loss of jobs, particularly in Scotland, are Ethical Care Charter; campaigning for a now reaching crisis point. Some 40,000 debt amnesty for historic debt where local government jobs have gone and Unite Scotland’s estimates that 44p Local authorities across Scotland are our public service provisions are at of every £1 collected in Council Tax in still predicting huge budget deficits breaking point. Therefore, we decided Scotland goes towards paying off debt; next year and every year up to 2020. All some months ago that our priority produce parallel or citizens budgets councils need investment and cannot was to concentrate our efforts on local that illustrate the need for services continue to absorb cuts to funding on government and its representatives, and the associated costs, combined the levels they have had to contend including council leaders and individual with local impact statements for both with. Our alternatives could assist local councillors, setting out our arguments budgets; campaign for an amnesty authorities if the political will is there. for budget alternatives. for pre-devolution debt owed to the We will support those councils who give By mid-December 2016, we have Treasury’s Public Works Loan Board these matters serious consideration and received responses from Falkirk, (PWLB) - this could reduce the amount publish their position accordingly. Inverclyde and Inverness, together by around 10p in the £1 thus freeing with a couple of individual councillors. up around £194m per year to invest This has been extremely disappointing, in cut-hit council services; no more Phil McGarry is the Chair of the People’s especially since the Fraser of Allander wage freezes – pay council employees a Assembly (Scotland) Institute said: ‘All local authorities decent cost of living wage increase; no

17 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 If democracy is anywhere, it should be local Willie Sullivan considers what local democracy should look like quarter of Scots in a recent the people but what seems like a relationships and perspectives BMG poll for the Electoral psychological throwback to the divine formed by them have been driven AReform Society (Herald 20 right of kings. by a technological revolution as November 2016) said they would profound as it is rupturing. It is little If the people truly are the source of rather finish the ironing than go out wonder that these institutions now legitimacy, then the why is it that and vote in a council election. While seem unfit for purpose. local democracy - close to where we our commitment to neat clothing is live, the communities, the towns Add to this the realisation that commendable, our disregard for local and villages that we think of as global capital relies less and less democracy is both frightening and ‘our’ places - seems to be even less on democratic states to facilitate understandable. important to us than the faltering trade and markets, we see we are Westminster elections have always British state? This is also where the trying to operate in an environment had the highest levels of voter many of the services that touch our increasingly hostile to democracy. turnout in any elections in Scotland. lives most are said to be run from; The difficulty of siting great power in In council elections, the vote has only planning, education, town centres, institutions that were supposed to ever reached over 50% when it was roads and transport, parks and open reflect our society is that often that coupled with Scottish Parliament spaces, community safety, housing power was used to resist responding elections, peaking in 1999 at 58%, etc. Should this not be where most of to external pressures that might have when they were joined up with the our democratic interest lies? caused evolution. The mechanisms first vote for the new Parliament. that were supposed to make them It would be naïve to attempt to look The last council election in 2012 responsive, most importantly at the problems of the local state was decoupled from the Scottish elections and then measuring public without viewing them in the context Parliament elections and turnout opinion have long ago diminished in of the problems for the state as an fell to 39%. No doubt such a large potency. entire institution. Or, to single out drop was an effect of the elections the state as the only institution that The steady erosion of trust in standing alone but this was also seems insufficient in a changed time. these symbols is deeply harmful to the lowest turnout in Scottish All of them: banks, political parties, democracy as an idea. Thanks to local elections since the wholesale media, financial and economic the freeing up of information people restructuring of local government in system, unions, civil service, even suspect they can now see that they 1974. charities; all designed in a time of are being manipulated. Spin, public While we Scots like to think of ‘Fordism’ have scraped and ground relations and marketing techniques ourselves as different, we are often forward like tectonic plates. While (often taken from sociology and still very ‘British’. Status and power is in contrast, our society although still misused) have sought to tell us built around hierarchy with the most dependent upon them, has moved particular stories about our lives ‘important’ being at the top. Harking at the speed of light. Information, and the world. Public ‘narrative back not to legitimacy awarded from communication and crucially the creation’ has become a sophisticated

18 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 technique of protecting established told it was. Locally it has become representative state democracy power relationships. It is now the too distant from our home towns can rest. This should not be in case that more and more people and too rigid and too ‘system like’ competition with the state or with can feel the difference between to feel human enough. Captured anyone else. The state must evolve to ‘the story’ and the reality. Both the by accountants, ideas of efficiency facilitate and support the rise of this institutions and the mechanisms are only measured on spreadsheets ‘democratic society’. that are supposed to make them while at the same time people are ‘Prefiguration‘ is the sort of word accountable have ever decreasing powerless, often sad and unfulfilled. Ed Miliband might have used. The levels of legitimacy. This disconnect If we believe in the ideal of meaning is sharper than its syllables is throwing up an increasing numbers ‘government of the people, by the of morbid symptoms including eye suggest: it means that if people people, for the people’, it is clearly watering inequality and resultant starting to behave as if they live in a crucial moment to remake it in a populist shocks. the society they want to be part new and better form. This is okay, and of, then it is more likely to come A significant part of the population perhaps that is part of the resilience about. Ghandi captured the idea is struggling, poor or in debt or often of democratic systems - that they more succinctly when he said ‘be the both. Despite the ramping up of state are fluid enough to be remade again change you wish to see in the world’. systems of discipline through the and again. But we must be careful Or, as Alistair Gray said to Scots: ‘Act welfare state and ‘blame shaming’ not to fall into the ‘confidence trap’ as if you live in the early days of a through narrative creation mentioned and believe democracies’ resilience better Nation’. above, people are no longer willing to up until now is wholly a feature of The Electoral Reform Society is accept only individual responsibility the system. It is not, and if we want part of a modest intervention to for their struggles. Many feel to protect ourselves against at worst create several small but significant humiliated, they try so hard yet still demagoguery and despotism and, at acts that might snowball into fail in creating the lives we are all best, apathy and alienation, we need something ambitious enough to told we should have. This humiliation to do something about it. is a powerful sentiment driving save and remake Scottish local disillusion. Einstein said ‘you can’t solve a democracy. Along with many others, problem with the same thinking we have launched a campaign that The local state is part of this. that created it’- expert driven top is encouraging Scots to ‘act as if Developed from a history and culture down solutions without community they own the place’: to organise a of feudalism and peaking in trust support are an erosion of democracy gathering where for a short time they as most of our democracy did at its recreation can only come from the can imagine what it would feel like the heights of equality and social bottom up. and what they would do if they ran mobility in the late 1960s, it has their own town, village, community been in steady decline ever since. It Local government is an old - and then to think about how they was sometimes corrupt and unfair. institution, and seems like one of might make these imaginings more Obvious examples are council house those listed Victorian facades you real. allocation through a ‘kent cooncillor’ occasionally spot on renovation sites. or the buying of the planning system. When you see behind it, there is Simone Weil said that ‘imagination is Local government was also peopled nothing holding it up but metal props. always the fabric of social life and the with committed and caring public If local democracy and the services dynamic of history’. These groups are servants determined to make their that should be within peoples’ control offering help to any community that communities fairer and better. is to flourish, then it must be built on wants to run an ‘Act as if Council’. Often they were fighting rear guard a new foundation. There are seven planned already for actions against the effects of central Not the rigid inflexible girders of past early next year, all over Scotland – government policy or of different empires but something in tune with from Inverness to Dumfries. You could parts of their own organisations. the networked society described even start to ‘act as if you own the Often, they had victories but not by people like Manuel Castells. place’ yourself. Have a look: http:// often enough. Services run by people for people. ourdemocracy.citizensassembly. Whatever we thought democracy Community housing coops, energy co.uk/#section_three was – from voting and representation companies, democratic schools, care Willie Sullivan is Director (Scotland) of to free markets, solidarity, or trust coops, democratic unions helping the Electoral Reform Society in government – our understandings run businesses, clubs and charities now seem grossly insufficient providing services including leisure Reference to deal with a time of growing and sport all making up a Scotland Reid Foundation (2012) The Silent inequality, populist shocks, anger, that is a honeycomb of democratic Crisis Failure and Revival in Local resentment, and information so free spaces. Democracy in Scotland, http:// its meaning is as diffuse as fresh air. Small and local but strong and reidfoundation.org/portfolio/the- Our system of democracy was nationally connected, the most silent-crisis-failure-and-revival-in- probably never as good as we were solid of networks upon which our local-democracy-in-scotland/ 19 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 ‘Viva Fidel’ - without Castro, Cuba would not be ‘libre’ Colin Fox looks at the achievements and legacy of Castro he BBC’s coverage of Fidel mortality and life expectancy. Crime Castro’s death was poor and is lower and racism rarer. Not Tpredictable. It gave more bad for a small Caribbean nation. coverage to his right-wing enemies Remarkable for one subjected to in Miami wildly celebrating the news constant threat from the world’s than to the 11m Cubans proudly most powerful country for sixty commemorating his life. As is so years. Supporting often the case nowadays, it was left For Cuba to have survived is a the Cuban revolution and defending to Channel Four News to strike the miracle. Salvador Allende’s socialist its many achievements earns right balance. It reminded viewers regime in Chile did not survive socialists the right to criticise. Cuba Castro was Mandela’s hero. The US aggression. Neither did the ANC leader was shown speaking did not get everything right. The in Revolution Square in Havana in socialist government in Grenada. country’s political ‘succession’ for 1990 thanking the Cuban people Or Patrice Lumumba in the Congo example has not been successful. for the support they had given the or Mohamed Mossadeq in Iran. The fact Raul Castro at 85 is anti-apartheid struggle. Mandela All were ousted by American President testifies to that. But the revolutionary had made imperialism. ‘Viva Fidel’ and ‘Cuba those in the ‘post -1959’ generation Castro’s Cuba his first port of call libre’ were chanted defiantly identified as future leaders internationally after his release from throughout the world upon news repeatedly fell short in displaying jail. of Castro’s passing. Those simple what was demanded of them. I slogans signify so much including recall Roberto Robaina, the Foreign In 1959, Castro and his small band of that socialist revolutions are not Minister, being talked of as Castro’s revolutionaries – Che Guevara and simple; that Cuba’s has endured putative successor in ‘Granma’, Raul Castro among them – toppled in the face of astonishing odds; the brutal American-backed military the state newspaper, when I was and that liberating the oppressed in Havana in the 1990s. But he dictator, Fulgencio Battista. US was Castro’s legacy in Cuba, fell from favour after accusations companies had owned everything, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, of inappropriate foreign business the sugar plantations and tobacco South Africa, Latin America and relationships were levelled against harvests, the zinc and copper elsewhere. His enemies suggest his him. The same fate befell Vice mines, the banks, hotels and tourist legacy was oppression and tyranny. President, Carlos Lage Davilla, in industry. Millions of Cubans were Well they would, wouldn’t they? pauperised, unemployed, living in 2009 after he argued for capitalist ‘bohios’ or huts without electricity, Cuba’s existence taunts economic measures and Miguel water or sanitation. Half the children Washington still. This tiny island Diaz-Canel in 2013. All were seen as did not go to school. Racism was on America’s is literally on its potential successors to Fidel Castro. rife and so was the influence of the doorstep, with Key West being The Cuban revolution is not alone Mafia. just 90 miles from Havana (and Miami being less than an hour by in facing such challenges. Chris Hani The revolution was popular but not plane from Revolution Square). was seen as Mandela’s successor with the Americans. They imposed George Bush’s infamous ‘Axis of from the next generation of ANC an economic blockade, launched evil’ speech in 2003 identified leaders. But he was assassinated military attacks and plotted Cuba alongside Iran, Iraq and by an ultra-right-wing white assassination attempts - 600 on North Korea as America’s greatest supremacist before stepping up to Castro alone including exploding enemies. It was designed to that role. cigars. These have, until recently, terrify the Cuban people but they Many questions face the Cuban been their hallmark response to were used to such threats. They Cuba’s existence. revolution in this ‘post-Fidel’ era. had after all survived the Bay of Uppermost among them perhaps is Pigs invasion, they had survived But the Cuban people refused to what difference will Donald Trump’s give in and have much to show for the economic blockade, they election make to US/Cuba relations. their defiance. The average Cuban had survived the assassination It probably won’t be good. enjoys a health service as good as attempts and they would survive the average American. The same the military threats of George Bush Colin Fox is the Scottish Socialist can be said about education, infant in the way Iraq did not. Party (SSP) national spokesperson 20 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 What’s left after Sanders, Clinton, and Trump? Gerry Friedman surveys the wreckage and coming battles in the Disunited States of America t should not be like this. After leadership of the Democrats. an overall budget, the Budget nominating a fringe candidate Having captured 13m votes, 43% of Committee has no substantive role Iopposed to much of its own those cast in Democratic primaries, in actual appropriations or revenue party’s programme, one opposed Sanders showed that many raising. The Sanders campaign did by hundreds of the party’s leading Democrats want their party to take leave three legacies. In ascending figures, the Republicans should be in a more progressive stance on issues order of importance, they are ‘Our disarray. On the left, the Democrats ranging from social security and Revolution’, the network of Sanders should be crowing and unified health care to education spending, activists, and the Senator’s own behind a sitting President who foreign policy, and the regulation of newfound media status. enjoys an unusually high approval financial markets. The most visible product of the rating. After a spirited contest, the Sanders campaign has been ‘Our Democrats nominated a candidate Revolution’, an activist group for President who was able to unify powered by left-over campaign the Party around a platform that funds and led by longtime Sanders included progressive proposals on associate, Jeffrey Weaver. While issues ranging from climate change the organization has local affiliates, to the minimum wage, and that it is largely directed from the top. candidate won a solid plurality Sanders himself tapped Weaver in the popular vote, beating her to run the organization, and most Republican opponent by almost of the Sanders staffers quit when 3 million votes, or over 2% of the Weaver was appointed director total. without consulting others. ‘Our So unpopular is the new president Revolution’ may already be that his share of the popular Since Clinton lost states with a large moribund. After supporting a vote (46.1%) barely beat the white working-class vote like variety of candidates and initiatives share received by the defeated Wisconsin and Michigan (two states in the past election, in December Republican presidential candidate where Sanders won the primaries) 2016 it supported Representative in 2008 (McCain received 45.7%) as well as North Carolina, Ohio, and Keith Ellison’s bid to head the and he received a significantly Pennsylvania, Sanders has even Democratic National Committee. smaller share of the vote than more credibility as a national leader While this could hardly be expected did losing candidates in every for the Democratic Party. Many now to excite a popular movement, it other election this century. The argue that he has a programme that is more concerning that as of 18 demographic prospects remain could recapture those voters who December 2016, its website (https:// grim for the Republicans: their abandoned the Democrats because ourrevolution.com/) has not been electoral prospects increasingly the party’s neo-liberal leadership updated since the 8 November depend on overwhelming support neglected the interests of what had election. from declining sections of the been the party’s working-class base. Disappointed with ‘Our Revolution’, population in declining regions; And Sanders’s clout was further many young Sanders campaign the Democrats, on the other hand, magnified by his ability to energize staffers have maintained a national and the almost-successful Sanders millennials, those aged 20-35 whose support network with many of the insurgency in particular, draw votes were an essential part of the campaign’s local supporters and support from expanding parts of the Obama coalition and who did not national convention delegates. electorate: educated, non-whites, turn out quite so heavily for Clinton. Without national leadership or a in economically vibrant urban and Sanders was able to win significant clear political program, their energy coastal areas. concessions in the Party platform and local connections could be Democrats and the left have and, after the election, he was a valuable base for the next set reason to be angry, energized, and elevated to a leadership position of progressive campaigns, but by optimistic. So far, however, their in the Democratic Senate caucus. themselves cannot constitute an anger remains inchoate, without To be sure, his position, Director effective national movement. effective channel or institutional of Outreach, is minor, and he is Regardless of any institutional mechanism. Beginning with no but one of ten senators in the legacy, Sanders now has a voice organization, no name recognition, leadership. And his position as chief in American national politics. and virtually no support, Senator minority member of the Senate With Clinton discredited, and Sanders nearly upset the candidate Budget Committee is only slightly Obama having failed to bring in favoured by virtually the entire more important; while it drafts his designated successor, Sanders 21 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 is the leading national Democrat Street. Republican attacks helped all on the agenda for the new standing. His response to every Obama to hold together this volatile Administration. While these attacks Trump proposal or appointment is alliance; it did not explode under may be met with pushback from front-page news, on the networks, Clinton but it shed just enough votes establishment sources, including and across Twitter. If Sanders is not to elect Trump, and to expose to several state attorney’s general, the face of the Democratic Party, he national Democrats how precarious we might expect popular action is seen by the public and the press their coalition has become. in defense of established rights. as a leading figure within it. Top-down efforts will be vital to There have already been active National Democrats did not expect slow the enactment of the Trump campaigns to establish ‘sanctuary’ to lose this election, and they agenda but neither Sanders nor zones to protect immigrants and have responded to defeat with national Democrats have the for local action to protect access some mixture of denial (facilitated political strength or the programme to reproductive health care and to because Clinton won the popular to stop America’s slide towards resist police brutality. The model vote), anger, and, most of all, a fascism. Fortunately, there are here, of course, is the Black Lives deep depression. Their confidence popular movements building, Matter movement. may have contributed to their movements that contributed to the The rise of popular resistance defeat. The Obama Administration successes of the Sanders campaign movements gives hope that the did not do more about the Russian and have only been invigorated by body of American democracy will interference in the election because Trump. Some of these include: resist the Trump infection. On a they were confident that Clinton Climate Action: The Climate less optimistic note, however, are would win regardless and feared to Action Network, 350.org and the continued fragmentation of act and rock the boat. momscleanairforce.org are examples the American left, and the lack of a Combined with the Democrats’ of decentralised groups that have coordinated national campaign and failure to capture the Senate, defeat attracted a large and militant ideology to fight the right. Going in the Presidential election means membership to protect the planet. back to the 1970s, Republicans have that the Democrats are shut out of The fight against the Dakota Access built a movement seeking to reverse power in Washington as well as in Pipeline, which united progressive economic reforms and civil liberties most state capitals. In addition to groups around the country with expansions dating back to the New anticipating the destruction of many Native American communities and Deal of the 1930s. of the programs that Democrats veteran’s groups, is an example of Despite huge investments have sponsored or protected for the type of spontaneous local action in thinktanks and grassroots decades, many national policy that can help to stop the Trump movements, the right has enjoyed activists are now looking for work climate agenda. There is also some only limited success, advancing with few prospects of employment support among the Democratic elements of a neo-liberal economic in the Federal government or in establishment and business interest programme but doing little beyond. liberal think tanks which expect for protecting the climate. Now, behind Trump, reactionaries to lose their accustomed Federal Economic justice: The Fight for $15 stand poised, if not ‘to make grants. has become a national movement America great’, at least ‘to make More than loss of position depresses for higher wages and fair treatment America like 1925 again’. Those Democrats. Defeat has exposed of fast food and other low wage of us opposed to this reactionary the narrow and unstable base of workers. Without ties to Democratic programme have the support of support behind the national party. politicians, it has grown to involve, a solid majority of Americans, With its support for neo-liberal in its words: ‘1,000s of workers. including many who, ironically, economic policies, the national 100s of cities. 1 movement. $15 and voted for the right-wing Trump party has an agenda attractive to a union’ (http://fightfor15.org/). It in frustration at the Democrat’s Wall Street and export-oriented is now leading popular organizing neo-liberalism. What we need is a American industry (ranging from against ‘[n]ewly-elected politicians social movement and a programme entertainment and high technology and newly empowered corporate to win back voters disenchanted companies to business and financial special interests ... pushing an with the Democrat’s dalliance with services, and higher education). extremist agenda to move the neoliberalism. We need a movement While politicians like the Clintons country to the right’. An immediate and a programme to point the way and Obamas have successfully raised target is Trump’s nominee to head forward to a progressive, inclusive, campaign funds from these sources, the Department of Labor, Andy and democratic America. Without many capitalists in these industries Puzder, head of a fast-food chain that, it will be a long and dark time. naturally prefer low-tax and anti- and opponent of the minimum wage Gerry Friedman is Professor of government Republicans. Even in and labor unions. Economics at the University of defeat, Sanders demonstrated that Civil rights, African-Americans, Massachusetts at Amherst. He is neo-liberals depend on an electorate Immigrants, Women and LGBTQ: the author of Reigniting the Labor considerably more progressive, Attacks on abortion rights, voting Movement: Restoring means to ends more suspicious of trade deals, rights, massive deportations in a democratic labor movement more concerned about global of undocumented immigrants, (Routledge, 2007) and was active in warming, and more hostile to Wall attacks on gays and Muslims are Sander’s campaign. 22 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 Music lessons for the movement? Martin Cloonan and John Williamson say the MU has faced conditions that other unions now do hat lessons can be learned the fabulously wealthy). and campaigns alongside major from studying the working Understanding such patterns employers (and/or sub-contractors) lives of musicians? This W of work leads inexorably to the of musicians at least as often as it question lay at the heart of the conclusion that musicians are takes such employers on. research which underpinned our particular types of worker seeking To note this is not to decry a Union recent book, Players’ Work Time: to work in the ever changing which has throughout its history A History of the British Musicians’ music industries. Importantly, this sought to organise all professional Union. We attempted to use generally involves seeking work musicians including those semi- the Musicians’ Union (MU) as a rather than seeking employment professionals, who form a prism through which to examine in the form of jobs. The dominant considerable bulk of its membership. musicians’ working lives, the mode of employment in music In doing this the Union has had to industries they work in and broader is that of self-employment and counter those who believe that at patterns in Britain’s musical life currently only around 5-10% of least some musicians are better from the founding of the Union as the MU’s 30,000 or so members served by a professional association the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union has a full time, salaried, position - than they are a union. Today, the (AMU) in 1893. primarily within the UK’s orchestras. MU remains clearly a union, if a Underpinning our study was the unique and sometimes idiosyncratic premise that musicians are best one. considered as workers. Within this Our history of the MU spans 120 journal our approach might seem years and as we struggled to do logical enough, but it is one which this history justice in a book, so had previously only rarely been we cannot even scrape the surface adopted. Prior to our research, here. But, cutting a very long story existing studies had seen musicians short, three key areas emerge as readily considered as artists, particularly important. creators, entertainers and much else, but rarely simply as workers. The first is changing technology. However our contention was that In the late 1920s and early 1930s understanding those who make MU membership fell from around music as workers can give us fresh 20,000 to under 7,000 and the insights in to both music making and Union almost went bankrupt. processes of industrial capitalism. The reason was a new form of technology in the form of the Thinking of musicians as primarily ‘talkies’ - films with soundtracks. being workers soon led us to Prior to the introduction of the first consideration of where such people ‘talkie’, ‘The Jazz Singer’ in 1928 work. Here it is salutary to remind (1927 in the US), ‘silent’ cinema ourselves that music is present at had generally been accompanied by all the major moments in people’s The rest are overwhelmingly cinema orchestras, most of whom lives. Not without reason was freelancers. Consequently, in many were made redundant almost a band called Weddings Parties ways, the MU is better conceived of overnight by this new technology. Anything. Musicians perform at an as a federation of small businesses The Union’s unsuccessful attempt to incredibly diverse range of social rather than a traditional union. It battle the ‘talkies’ was its first major occasions from christenings through negotiates terms and conditions for interaction with modern technology to weddings and funerals and in only a small part of its membership, which might replace live musicians. entertainment places such as pubs, albeit one which is vital to the clubs, theatres, cruise ships, holiday union’s psychology and its It would not be its last as camps, music venues and arenas. determination to - in the words of technologies such as recording, They also undertake a range of its longest running campaign - ‘Keep radio, television, synthesizers, drum other activities such as recording, Music Live’. machines emerged and carried appearing on radio and television Today, its orientation is as a service- with them the threat of displacing and teaching. Some compose as focused organisation with members live musicians. However, the well. Some specialise in one genre, more likely to join because of the MU’s defeat in the battle against others work across many. All these benefits it offers (such as cheap the ‘talkies’ led to it adopting a activities attract differing rates of personal and instrument insurance somewhat circumspect attitude remuneration from nothing (far and free legal advice) than they do to subsequent technological too many to mention) to millions in order to take part in the class developments. Often wrongly (including headline shows at struggle. The modern MU sees accused of trying to ‘ban’ the latest stadiums, but also private shows for itself as part of the music industry technological innovation, our history 23 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 suggests that the MU generally opportunities across UK radio have during this period (any more than adopted a more nuanced approach, improved since its demise. it was in wider British society). seeking to either use it to increase The third key area to consider in The ironies of people expressing employment or to militate against the MU’s history was competition xenophobic sentiments while any displacement. in the UK’s notoriously volatile earning living from performing Another key area throughout music market. Here supply of labour music generally composed or the Union’s history concerned its has generally exceeded demand, originating from outside Britain relations with the music industries. resulting in a downward pressure on are obvious enough. It resulted Key here was relationships with the price of musicians’ labour. Over in something of a schizophrenic two organisations, the BBC and the years, the MU’s concern about approach. The MU passed a motion Phonographic Performance Limited competition within this market has against racial discrimination at (PPL) - the collecting society for included bemoaning military and its 1947 conference and in 1958 performers whose recordings are police bands that were deemed not took a landmark case against the being used in public places such as only to be providing competition for La Scala club in Wolverhampton broadcasting and shops, cinemas civilian musicians, but also getting which was operating a colour bar. etc. state support to do so via the It successfully got its members to boycott the club and in 1957 had The BBC is the biggest employer provision of free instruments and uniforms. become the first union to bar its of musicians in human history and members from appearing in the the MU has continually sought However, the most controversial apartheid South Africa. Here it was to impress upon the organisation areas have concerned the MU’s at the forefront of British trade that, as a public body, it has a duty attitude towards foreign musicians unionism. to the music profession. PPL was seeking to work in the UK, generally formed in 1934 and is owned by the via touring or playing residencies. Attempting to understanding and major record companies, another For many years, it adopted a even explain all this took us a key employer/sub-contractor of protectionist stance and tried to considerable time. Our history is musicians. Its relationship with prevent foreign musicians from unreservedly revisionist in the sense the MU is complex, but for many touring, often on the (spurious) that histories of both the British years it resulted in the MU being grounds that anything a foreign music industries and trade unionism able to insist that the licences musician could do, so, given time, had previously either totally ignored which PPL issued to broadcasters so could his – and we do mean his - or - at best -marginalised the MU. allowing them to play recordings in British counterpart. However, this organisation has which PPL held copyright included been at the heart of all the major clauses which limited the amount This approach of ‘British jobs for industrial struggles and agreements of such recordings which could be British workers’ reached its apex in the UK’s music industries for played. These so-called ‘needletime’ between 1935 and 1954 when, over 120 years. Our strong belief is agreements underpinned industrial bowing to longstanding MU that if you want to understand how relations in the recording industry pressure, the Ministry of Labour the music is played, then you need for over fifty years. The premise agreed that it would not issue work to understand both the working here was that use of recorded music permits for touring ‘alien’ without conditions of those who play it – and would result in less employment the MU’s consent, which was very the union which has attempted to for live musicians, something which rarely forthcoming. At this point, represent them. So, take a look at was accepted by all the interested the union’s main concern was visits the work of those who play. parties for a number of years. by US jazz musicians, the majority of whom were, of course, black, Martin Cloonan is Professor of These restrictions on the amount When this system was abandoned in Popular Music Politics at the of music which could be played 1955, it was replaced by a system of University of Glasgow where his under the ‘needletime’ agreements ‘reciprocal exchange’ of musicians research focuses on the political were deemed to be a ‘restraint of across the Atlantic based on ‘man economy of the music industries. trade’ by a Monopolies and Mergers hours’. This system lasted until the John Williamson is Lord Kelvin Commission in 1988 and were late 1980s when, alongside many Adam Smith Fellow in Popular subsequently abandoned. This move measures to protect workers, it was Music Studies at the University of formed part of a broader attempt swept aside by Thatcherism. Glasgow and is currently researching by those in charge of commercial the history of music on Scottish The fact during the ‘ban’ that radio (which began in 1973) to resist television. any restrictions on the amount of the union appeared to target US recorded music which could be jazz musicians for exclusion from Players’ Work Time is published played on the radio - and on any working in Britain and that the by Manchester University Press. requirement to employ musicians. majority of such people were black An exhibition to accompany the While ‘needletime’ was highly while the Union’s membership book, Keeping Music Live, is running controversial, few would argue was overwhelmingly white at the People’s History Museum, that live musicians’ employment understandably led to accusations Manchester, from 22 November to 5 opportunities or their terms and of racism. Certainly xenophobic February 2017. For more see www. conditions of such employment sentiment was not hard to find muhistory.com 24 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 Progressive power of poetry Mike Quille explains what the Culture Matter initiative is about

I shall not cease from mental fight to the cultural struggle. It’s about a Finally, David Betteridge’s poems Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand year old, and we have had a great are lyrical, learned and leftist, Till we have built Jerusalem, response, from writers, academics, infused with a sense of history, In England’s green and pleasant land and artists. Four writers and class struggle, and compassion for artists who responded particularly the suffering of working people. hese words by William Blake – wholeheartedly were Kevin Higgins, Slave Songs and Symphonies is a which, of course, we interpret Bob Starrett, David Betteridge, and beautifully crafted collection of Tto apply not only to Britain, Fred Voss. poems, images and epigraphs, about but the whole world – inspired the politics, progressive art and music, Fred Voss is an American website and publishing collective social justice and peace. One of called Culture Matters. In this article, metalworker and this year’s winner of the Joe Hill Labor Poetry Award. them is featured in the next article I’ll say something about our general in this edition. thinking, and about the three poetry His The Earth and the Stars in the booklets we’ve just published. The Palm of Our Hand is about the dire Like the Voss collection, they are arts and culture – by which we mean situation of the American working inspired by visionary hope, and a wide range of activities, including class, whose health, wealth and a strong belief that our class- sport, religion, eating and drinking etc happiness are being eroded by the divided society and culture can be – are vital parts of human life. They massive deindustrialisation and transformed by radical politics and develop our intellectual, emotional globalisation which is directed by good art – and by radical art and and spiritual faculties, and provide corporate and political elites. Voss good politics. The subtly expressed meaning, pleasure, inspiration and has said this: ‘I want to change the political message of the poems enrichment to our lives. world: I want to strike the spark or is complemented by the skilful kick the pebble that will start the fire draughtsmanship of Bob Starrett, the A capitalist market economy or the avalanche that will change official cartoonist of the UCS work-in creates enormous potential for the world a little’. of 1971-1972. David commented: cultural creation and enjoyment. His poetry combines the precision ‘Bob and I share a liking for strong But at the same time the drive for outlines, both in words and images. profit, the unequal and exploitative and realism born of years of working on the shop floor, with We also share a commitment to property relationships, and the radical politics, as well as cultural resulting ideological drive to a wide-ranging, Whitmanesque lyrical imagination. Len McCluskey, struggle, like the presiding genius generate a culture of acceptance Unite general secretary, provided of Culture Matters, William Blake. and legitimation of capitalism, the Foreword, and bought several The booklet combines our own necessarily shapes and constrains hundred copies for his members. He collaborative work with that of all the quality of cultural creation and said: ‘Fred Voss is like a prophet. He those others who inspire us, the consumption. is warning us of the consequences famous and the unfamous, from At the same time, the arts and of the way we live, and inspiring us olden times to the here and now’. cultural activities can resist, oppose with a positive vision of a possible – All three booklets are superb and overcome constraint, alienation and desirable – socialist future.’ examples of the kind of politically and oppression. They can promote Kevin Higgins writes political poetry progressive, inspiring art which we awareness, arouse indignation, and of the highest order, telling truth to have published to contribute to envision alternatives. This is how power with Swiftian savagery and building a new Jerusalem: a fairer, we interpret Blake’s ‘mental fight’ to satirical humour, dissecting and more equal, socialist and democratic build a New Jerusalem, as a cultural denouncing political doublespeak, society. struggle to transcend and replace pretension and hypocrisy. The The booklets are £5.99 each or £15 capitalism with a better society. It’s Minister for Poetry Has Decreed is for all three and are available from a struggle involving sports clubs, written in a wickedly simple and manifestopress.org.uk churches, supermarkets and pubs, hilariously entertaining style, but as well as art galleries, concerts and Mike Quille is a writer and arts artistically deploys a profoundly poetry readings. editor, and founder and co-editor of moral sense of justice and truth to Culture Matters, Culture Matters is a platform for expose lies, evasions, greed and creative and critical contributions sheer stupidity. www.culturematters.org.uk

25 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 Poets’ progressive page Following the Jimmy Reid annual lecture by Jeremy Corbyn MP in October last year, we publish two poems about Jimmy Reid.

Where have all the shipyards gone? As mentioned in Mike Quille’s article on Culture Matters, Gilbert Alomenu here is an example of one of David Betteridge’s poems: Where have all the shipyards gone? Giving Back Riches The battles which the unions won The graving docks, rich barons David Betteridge And the dreams along the way? I n p r a i s e o f P a u l R o b e s o n ( 1 8 9 8 - 1 9 7 6 ) What happened to the ships we knew ‘But I keep laffin/Instead of cryin/ The Queen Mary, The QE2 I must keep fightin/Until I’m dying ... ‘ The Yarrow Yard in Scotstoun Paul Robeson after Oscar Hammerstein II Fairfields down Govan way? The days are short, the nights are long, Experience showed him a world divided Where have all the shipyards gone? In his song he held it whole C a r r y i n g a d e e p w o u n d , h i s a n d t h e w o r l d ’ s Where have all the apprentices gone D r e a m i n g a g e n e r o u s d r e a m Billy Connolly, Alex Ferguson F o l l o w i n g t h e r a i n b o w a n d t h e d o v e The famous names who played their part He was a giant, serving the people And the skills along the way? F e w n e a r e d t h e s t r e n g t h o f h i s s t a n d i n g What happened to the jobs they knew I n t h e i r m a n y t o n g u e s , h e s p o k e f o r t h e p o o r Welders, steelplaters, loftsmen who Giving back riches Understood that trade would be He was Clyde and Volga, Passed down father to son? M i s s i s s i p p i , G a n g e s , A m a z o n a n d N i l e Work was brutal, hostile, cold He was Vesuvius Offset by the great camaraderie of old A g a i n s t w r o n g , w i t h h i s l i f e , a l l h i s l i f e He waged war; he was unbeaten Where have all the memories gone? H e i s r e m e m b e r e d i n G l a s g o w The UCS Consortium His echo lingers, loud Ted Heath v Red Clydeside For those with souls to hear And the schemes along the way? He sings the world sane What of the tales of times gone past Hope for the future which didn’t last The Jimmies Reid and Airlie The work-in without pay? The times were hard, the battle long Where have all the contracts gone?

Gilbert wrote the poem especially for2016’s Govan Fair Brochure and read it out at the Govan Fair.

Dedication to Mr Jimmy Reid Adil Bhatti

You were so sweet and bright Fought always for the people’s right You were full ideas and thought So determined that you could never be bought Uncompromising, what a brave heart You are a real Scottish lion heart I tried to compare you with others Couldn’t find any of the Scots’ mothers The role you played, the race you have run Always will be remembered by everyone

26 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 www.reidfoundation.org

Read pamphlet online or purchase print copy online at £2.50, TRIDENT AND ITS including p&p, SUCCESSOR for bulk copies email: PROGRAMME [email protected] the case for non-renewal, employment diversification and contributing to peace

£1.50 www.reidfoundation.org PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM IN SCOTLAND A major new policy paper by Dave Watson, UNISON The Paper covers the following areas * The Case for Public Services * Challenges Facing Scotland’s Public Services * Public Service Workforce * Approaches to Public Service Reform * The Third sector * The Christie Commission * Scottish Approaches to Public Service Reform * Financing Public Services * Principles of Public Service Reform * New Approaches to Public Service Reform Available online at www.reidfoundation.org from early January, print copies by mid-January

The Paper will be launched at a seminar on Friday 20 January, Lecture Theatre 2, Appleton Tower, University of Edinburgh, 11 Crichton Street, EH8 9LE http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/maps?building=appleton-tower 10.30am-12.30pm, registration tea/coffee 10.00/30 Chairperson: Professor James Mitchell; Speaker: Dave Watson : Questions and discussion Attendance free, register online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-service-reform-in-scotland- launch-of-new-policy-paper-by-dave-watson-tickets-30926610324

The Foundation gratefully acknowledge the support given by the University Academy of Government in the organisation of the seminar

27 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 feedback

comment

reviews

Stefano Bonino, Great Britain, and across most European countries, makes it difficult to construct Muslims in Scotland: a single ‘Muslim community’ without incurring the risk of homogenising the The Making of experience of individuals who differ Community in a Post- along ethnic, theological, gender and age lines’. Though a degree of 9/11 World, such homogenisation is an inevitable Edinburgh University Press, £19.99, consequence of the book’s declared 9781474408028 aims, Bonino does well to challenge it as frequently as those aims allow. Reviewed by Robin Jones The overall tone of the book is A recent Ipsos-Mori poll revealed the optimistic: for Scottish Muslims, he disparity between public perception and argues, ‘[t]he final balance speaks of reality regarding the Muslim population relatively positive experiences of sharing in Europe. French respondents were a non-Muslim country with the largely the most likely to overestimate – the white Scottish majority’. Edinburgh ‘with average respondent thought that its cosmopolitan nature, economic and 31% of the French population was political power, geographically dispersed Muslim. In reality, the figure is around and integrated minorities, tolerant 7.5%. British respondents also inflated social attitudes and engagement with their estimates, putting the Muslim Though ‘[i]n Great Britain,’ writes diversity’ is singled out for praise and is population of Britain at 15% – more Bonino, ‘scholars have produced described as exemplifying ‘a post-ethnic, than three times the true figure of outstanding analyses of Muslim transcultural society.’ 4.8%. This tendency was further communities living in England … The exaggerated when respondents were Bonino is not suggesting that Scotland is asked to project their estimates into the absence of a scholarly book on Muslims a prejudice-free paradise of integration. qua future. Brits predicted that 22% of the Muslims in Scotland constitutes a Success stories, he argues, ‘should not population would be Muslim by 2020; significant gap in the growing body of overshadow historical problems of research from the Pew Research Centre academic literature’. The main aims of ethno-religious discrimination. Prejudice suggests the figure will be 6.1%. this book, he states, ‘are to address this against migrant labour and Scotland’s omission and to provide an updated active involvement in the British Bobby Duffy, the Managing Director for account of the meanings attached Empire – a major theme in Scottish Ipsos Mori Social Research Institute, to being a Muslim in contemporary historiography in recent times – are London, stated that the reasons for Scotland’. These are high targets. just two key examples’. His chapters on these errors were various and ranged Almost 60% of Muslims living in discrimination are sobering and remind through respondents’ struggles with readers not only of how far Scotland has simple maths, to media coverage Scotland are of Pakistani origin come, but also the distance it still has to of issues, to social psychology. or heritage, the remainder were travel. Whatever the reason, it is an error categorised in the 2011 census as that the far right has been working ‘Arab’ (9.8), ‘African’ (6.2), ‘Other Though primarily an academic work, hard to manipulate with campaigns Asian’ (6.1), ‘Bangladeshi’ (4), ‘Other there is much here for the more of deliberate disinformation and fear White’ (3.3), ‘White Scottish’ (3.3), general reader: the chapter on mongering. The left has a responsibility ‘Indian’ (2.5), ‘Other Ethnicity’ (2.2) historical ‘migration, settlement and to counter that disinformation. Muslims and ‘Mixed or Multiple Ethnicity’ (1.7.) development,’ for example, provides in Scotland: the Making of Community Attaching meaning to such a broad a brief and effective summary of in a Post-9/11 World, by Stefano Bonino grouping is a challenge and, indeed, immigration to Scotland during the is a valuable – and, sadly, rather rare a risk, though it is one that Bonino 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Drawing – resource for those undertaking that acknowledges from the outset: ‘(t)he on the work of Tom Devine, Bonino is task. diversity of the Muslim community in successful in highlighting the different 28 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 ways in which immigrant communities When I spent time on the dole in the over a period of several months reports were established in Scotland and 1970s and1980s, we had to sign on of the encounters with the system are how these differences contributed to at the buroo every two weeks. The recorded. Human stories are told of discrimination, especially in regard to queues were large and you met your misery and resilience. Political ideas are labour market pressures. friends there. We would occasionally presented and practical advice on how visit the Job Centre to see if there were to cope with the system is dispensed. The book is not without flaws – owing any jobs to apply for. We would advise After a while, you realise you are to the breadth of his subject Bonino each other on what you needed to do reading a handbook on the system as has (understandably) spread himself and what you could claim for. There well as a call to arms. quite thinly and there were occasional were unemployed workers centres ambiguities in terminology that this Other sections of the book are essays where you could get advice; sometimes reader found distracting (though it on aspects of the history and theories access some training or just hang about should be noted that the copy being of the welfare state. These sections are with your mates for a while. Whilst reviewed was an uncorrected advance informative but is the details of, on one queuing to sign on you could buy the proof). Despite this, Muslims in hand, the struggle to survive in twenty Militant newspaper from the guy who Scotland is an essential contribution to first century Scotland without a decent was also there to sign on and have a a discussion that demands just the sort job and, on the other, the struggle to political discussion, or wind him up if of extended research and consideration build a resistance to the brutality of that was your mood. It was a kind of that Bonino affords it. This is the level the system that doesn’t care for the collective experience. We knew we were at which we must hope the discussion individual. unemployed because there were no jobs continues. and it was the government’s fault. Throughout the book unpleasant Robin Jones lives in Paris where he experiences are described with staff in This book written by activists in SUWN works as an English teacher. His fiction, the buroo or in the ‘training’ agencies describes a very different experience articles and reviews have appeared or in the medical assessment companies where unemployed people are isolated in the Edinburgh Review, Gutter, who behave in a brutal and uncaring and put through a series of processes Jacobin, the Dark Mountain Project and way towards claimants. Some of these designed to humiliate and make people Huffington Post. claimants have severe health problems, believe that it is their fault that they are mental health conditions and significant not in work. needs and yet all are treated like scum. The mainly Dundee activists responsible The book doesn’t dwell on this but the for the stories and facts within this book resistance that SUWN are seeking to have campaigned against the modern inspire amongst the unemployed needs day benefit system that seeks to force to be matched by a resistance within people into zero-hour minimum wage the system amongst workers whose jobs; which forces people to take part circumstances are not that far removed in bogus training and job experience from the people they are supposed placements for no money; that puts to be serving. An excellent read; an crushing pressure on people who are ill excellent guide to a brutal system; and so that they come off the register and so an excellent call to arms. live on the lowest form of benefit or no Stephen Smellie is the branch secretary benefit at all; and threatens and bullies of UNISON South Lanarkshire people with sanctions, i.e., stopping all financial support, for failing to comply Righting Welfare Wrongs is also with rules, appointments that they available as a free e-book at https:// either are not advised of or are minutes drive.google.com/file/d/0BxdJUjRvYfh_ late for. MlhIcHlUR0c3YlU/view Based on stories heard and lessons gained from standing at stalls outside the Dundee buroo talking to the victims of this system, this book is a record of our times. These are harsh Editorial Committee Scottish Unemployed times and the victims are made to Bill Bonnar Bill Ramsay feel that they are the problem. To Cat Boyd Lilian Macer Workers Network, stand with these people, to support Sarah Collins Gordon Morgan them in meetings with the employees Righting Welfare of the system, be threatened by the Moira Craig Tommy Sheppard Wrongs ‘security’ and the law for doing so takes Carole Ewart Dave Sherry character, determination and a political Gregor Gall Stephen Smellie – dispatches and analysis from the understanding that changing the system Editor Bob Thomson front line of the fight against austerity, takes people to stand against it. Common Print, £10.00. Tommy Kane Convener The book is partly made up of postings Pat Kelly Reviewed by Stephen Smellie on the SUWN Facebook page where Vice Convener.

29 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 VLADIMIR McTAVISH’S Kick up the Tabloids

s we enter 2017, I can never and Ronnie Corbett. And let’s not towards restoring my faith in remember a year where forget the actor who played R2D2, democracy. The way people had I have felt less optimistic former weathrman Iain McAskill and been voting in 2016, I would not A have been at all surprised if Ched about the future. And, although we the bloke who invented the Heimlich may be embarking on a year which Manoeuvre. However, from my Evans had won that award. will culminate in October with the point of view, the real tragedy of However, it is important not to centenary of the Russian Revolution, 2016 was not the people who died view the future too bleakly. It is I cannot recall a more depressing but rather it was the people who vital to look ahead with a degree year from a leftist point of view than didn’t die that made it such a grim of optimism, and a recall of past 2016. year. dark times that we have somehow I am writing this just before It is almost as if politics in the West managed to live through. Because, Christmas, that annual festival of has entered some kind of world let’s face it, many of us of a certain booze-fuelled consumerism that where we are governed by evil age have been here before. I seems to be have been going on cartoons. With the UK governed personally remember the utter for the last six weeks. The reason by an unelected Cruella de Ville despair that was felt when Margaret it seems to have been going on for who has put foreign affairs in the Thatcher was elected, despair that the last six weeks is that it has been hands of Billy Bunter’s half-witted was only matched by the total going on the for the past six weeks. cousin and with events in the USA devastation that was felt when she Christmas pretty much appears to resembling some dystopian episode was re-elected twice afterwards. I start as soon as Hallowe’en finishes, of family guy where Peter Griffin remember the disbelief that met stretched out even further by the somehow is elected President. Add the election of Ronald Regan to festival of capitalism that is Black to this, the presence of a Bond the White House. At the time we Friday. villain in the Kremlin, and it really is thought it utterly incomprehensible difficult to feel at all optimistic about that the USA would vote for an And on this year’s Black Friday, the coming year. intellectually-challenged former in a hugely poignantly ironic co- B-movie actor as its Commander-in- incidence, Fidel Castro died. Most Our Prime Minster may or may Chief. In comparison to this year’s people did not notice at the time, not have an idea of where Britain’s result, it actually now appears a as they were far too busy fighting future and the World may lie in the comparatively wise choice. one another in Curry’s to get the last future. However, with Trump and cheap TV in the shop. Putin already embarking on nuclear I also remember the assassination of escalation, the very future of Europe John F. Kennedy, and as a small child, Castro’s greatest achievement, itself may be very unclear in 2017. have vague memories of the World aside from the Cuban Revolution, There may be no Europe for the UK holding its breath to see who blinked was to live to be as old as ninety, to have a future relationship with. first as the USA and Soviet Union given that the CIA spent the best went head-to-head in the Cuban part of fifty years hatching up Looking back on 2016, it is difficult Missile Crisis. I guess the message bizarre assassination plots, including to recall a more bizarre set of events I am trying to send to younger exploding cigars and booby-trapped unfolding. It was as if Leicester City readers is this. I am getting really clam shells which would blow up winning the English Premier League old, so 2017 may mark the last year when he went scuba-diving. Proof had somehow put the karma of the in which this bi-monthly column of that crazy, deranged right-wing entire planet into reverse gear. Put vaguely comic rambling makes even thinking in the USA had existed long quite simply, the wrong sort of shit the remotest sense. Happy 2017! before the emergence of Donald seemed to keep hitting the fan. Vladimir McTavish will be appearing Trump. In the wake of the Brexit result at Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh Castro was, of course, only one of and the election of Trump, I was on Friday 20 & Saturday 21 January the high-profile deaths of 2016. It beginning to lose all confidence in 2017, at The Stand Comedy in was a year in which we also lost people’s ability to vote in a sensible Glasgow on Wednesday 25 January David Bowie, Mohammed Ali, manner. Thank goodness, Andy and at The Stand Comedy Club in Prince, Victoria Wood, Johann Murray won BBC Sports Personality Edinburgh from Thursday 26 to Cruyff, Alan Rickman, Terry Wogan of the Year. That went some way Sunday 29 January. 30 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 31 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 97 January/February 2017 7000LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Demand fair funding for Scotland’s councils JOBS

We all rely on the services delivered by local government. From childcare to care for our elderly and vulnerable; keeping our LOST THIS YEAR ALONE streets lit to emptying our bins; helping us to stay fit and our THIS YEAR ALONE children to learn – local government is at the heart of Scottish society. So it is vital we ensure councils are properly resourced and capable of meeting the demands placed upon them. £186m This year alone has seen 7,000 jobs lost across local government and further cuts to services will have a devastating effect on our communities and the economy. These cuts are 2010 /20112015 /2016 unsustainable and UNISON is calling for councils to receive fair real terms cut in Scottish funding to deliver the services the people of Scotland rely on. Government funding for councils

www.unison-scotland.org 8.4% - Scottish Review Issue 97 January/February 2017 real terms cut 32 Left 2010/11 Join online at joinunison.org or call free on 0800 171 2193 for councils

5.12.16 Scottish Left Review advert.indd 1 07/12/2016 09:06:13