ScottishLeft Review Issue 112 July/August 2019 - £2.00 'best re(a)d' 'best

1 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 feedback

comment Dark, dismal days for democracy

he politics of Scotland and Britain in Britain and what kind of democracy situation when deducing the current state are about to enter dark days for we might wish to have. This is the theme of democracy. democracy. A white, ageing and of this issue of Scottish Left Review, and T One of the newer and better ideas to disproportionately male group of citizens, is kicked off by Willie Sullivan and his emerge into the mainstream this year has numbering just 160,000 and nearly all from colleagues. Other articles by the likes of been that of the citizens’ assembly (see the middle class, are about to effectively Tommy Sheppard, Neil Davidson, Kenny Ian Patterson’s article in our March/April determine who is the next prime minister. MacAskill, George Kerevan and Chris 2019 issue but also their propounding by The concept of democracy has its origins in Hegarty begin to contextualise these types reviewsGordon Brown, Nicola Sturgeon and Rory the Greek language, combining the whole of of broader considerations in the Scottish Stewart as well as Extinction Rebellion). It a citizenship (‘demos’) with ‘kratos’ meaning and British situations. And, in the light of looks like a much more inviting prospect for power or rule. Unless and until this selected comments by former First Ministers, Henry popular participation that any politician or person submits to a popular vote, namely, McLeish and Jack McConnell about creating party launching a ‘national conversation’. holding a general election, democracy will a second chamber at Holyrood and using So-called ‘national conversations’ are, in be a shadow of its former self. That may proportional representation to elect all effect, spurious and vacuous because there sound like historical amnesia given that MSPs, Paul Cairney looks at what type of are no rules, structures or processes put Theresa May was selected without any vote democracy our Parliament legitimates. in place, leaving politicians and parties to at all and then did at least try (but failed) to Democracy can take direct and indirect make what they want of the musings of gain a popular mandate. The key difference forms, both parliamentary and non- the commentariat on both mainstream and now though is that there is an impasse in parliamentary. It used to be the case that social media. Might citizens’ assemblies not the political system which may be about to the extent of membership of political have these failings? be broken by a result – a no-deal Brexit – parties was part of the calculation here. which even those that voted for Brexit did There are many virtue of citizens’ For instance, the Tories had an individual not quite envisage. Part of this paradox is assemblies as a quasi-direct form of membership of around three million in the that the party that won most seats in Britain democracy – like being like an informed 1950s while Labour’s, excluding affiliated for the European elections in May was a gathering of lay jurors - but there are membership, was around one million at this party without a manifesto and which there still issues to be resolved over whether time. Tory membership dipped to nearly is no party membership. the method of selection is genuinely 100,000 in the early 2010s. Labour party random, what happens if they still result Before this storm arrives from late July membership is around 540,000 and the in polarisation of opinion as a result of onwards, there is some time to pause to SNP’s is around 125,000. Such declines are reflecting what is going on outside their reflect on what kind of democracy we have lamentable but only one part of the overall confines, and what obligation – legal or moral - governments have act upon the ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 outcome of their deliberations. And, there Editorial comment: dark dismal days for democracy...... 2 is the danger, like with referenda, that Democracy is on-going and never finished Willie Sullivan, Jess Garland & Michela Palese....3 government set them up, determining their Scottish Parliament: essential to Scottish democracy but what kind of democracy? Paul business, to suit their ends. On citizens’ Cairney...... 6 assemblies, we did repeatedly ask both Benefitting from the Brexit benefit of broken Britain Tommy Sheppard ...... 8 Gordon Brown and Nicola Sturgeon to make The hard-right today: Fascists and non-fascists Neil Davidson ...... 10 their case for citizens’ assemblies for this Can populism ever be principled? George Kerevan ...... 12 issue of Scottish Left Reviewbut neither SNP EU election success: a case of the emperor’s new clothes? Kenny MacAskill ...... 13 even responded, let alone declined. Pushing up popular participation Chris Hegarty...... 14 There are also other methods we should Lessons for the West from the East: the Kurdish democratic experiment Sarah Glynn...... 15 consider as aids to extending and deepening Where now for Corbyn on Brexit? George Reid ...... 17 democracy. Among these are allowing Scottish Labour: hope after adversity Siobhan McCready ...... 18 recall petitions to replace MPs (and MSPs, Revisiting funding local government and local services Mike Danson and Geoff Whittam . 19 councillors etc as well) on the basis on more Fighting and winning in FE Pam Currie ...... 21 than just criminal convictions, and primaries Governance, marketization and Scotland’s universities Jeremy Valentine ...... 22 – as in the United States - to widen the Green revolt on our streets Niamh McNulty ...... 24 franchise for the selection of candidates Poverty and people Lynn Williams ...... 25 for political office. Of course, these means China: red star still rising at seventy? Bill Bonnar ...... 26 in themselves would not prevent the new Jimmy Reid’s words still echo on education David Watt ...... 27 ‘alt-right’ and populist right subversion of From national service to civic service? Moira Craig ...... 28 democracy where they pose as defenders of Film and book reviews Jackie Bergson, Sean Sheehan ...... 29 democracy. That requires a political strategy Kick up the Tabloids Vladimir McTavish...... 31 based upon progressive political ideologies. 2 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Democracy is on-going and never finished Willie Sullivan, Jess Garland and Michela Palese on how to fix our broken political system ost commentators seem our interests and particularly the Our society stood at a fork in to buy in to the idea that interests of future generations. the road in the 1980s and 1990s Mwe are largely governed And, if it has failed to do this most and rushed towards the banks, by consent in Britain. Up until now, fundamental of tasks, then what competition and conspicuous it has seemed to matter only a must we do to make sure that we consumption, conspiring in the little that this consent is positively find new systems and institutions defeat of the National Union of granted through the clumsy and that can do the job better? We can Miners, the wider movement and cumbersome method of winner look back and say the British state the repurposing of the Labour takes all elections held around and structures of class hierarchy Party. The road splits again now and every five years. This is probably and patriarchy have always been it splits around the dual meaning because we trusted our institutions, about privilege and oppressed of representation. Do we need the rule of law, the operation of people here and overseas. This is advocates, educated in particular parliament, the freedom of the true, but the big difference now is ways and, at the extreme, bred to press, the impartiality of public that many more people can see it rule? Or do we want people ‘like service broadcasting and the idea and care about it, whether through us’, the many different ‘us’ that that those that who governed us a sense of injustice or because they there are? In looking at the rise of shared or represented our interests. feel humiliated and angry as they populism, it might be important to The neo-liberal project both look in the mirror and see their own understand the need some people captured and then degraded alienation reflected back. have for ‘false fathers’ in a scary world were the ‘hard men’ are democratic cultures. In the whirl of This raises the question of affirming their power by frightening late twentieth century capitalism, legitimacy, which is the key to being us. Just as it is also important to it was hard to find our bearings - governed by consent. We have to understand what is the counter to even when we saw undemocratic believe and to trust that the state is that - a politics of transformation, interests begin to infiltrate and largely operating in our interests by where collectively we need to grow manipulate our institutions such whatever mechanism. Otherwise, as the finance sector and property up, to look after ourselves and each put crudely, we will need to un- other, to see that the only real development lobbies. We let it elect some of its heads if it doesn’t. go as we seemed to share their threat are the ‘hard men’ and what Elections alone are a clunky manner they do to our capacity to care well interests: banks got richer, we all in which to transfer power from get richer; houses prices keep going for each and for the very place we the people to our governors and exist. up, lots of us felt more secure. while deeply insufficient they are This, of course, was partly true also the essential base on which Democracy in most people minds but mostly an illusion. The crash everything else rests. They are begins with elections but elections of 2008 and a social revolution not only the trapdoor on which are meaningless without other driven by technology have created any would be leaders stand; they legitimate institutions. The only a paradigm shift that means that are the banner behind which we states in the world that don’t claim story of a shared stake in economic march in our history and shared to be democratic are Saudi Arabia growth has been exposed as a story of democracy. The fight for and the Vatican and their rulers historical Ponzi scheme. It’s sad to the franchise was so important claim their legitimacy directly from say that we have, inadvertently, that it needs to hold that place. god. Interestingly, North Korea conspired in a massive fraud against Let’s hope that in the future that, holds regular elections, showing it our own children. The more recent as participative and deliberative is easier to hold down a population Brexit paralysis in parliament is methods become embedded in the when there is even a sliver of a symptom, not a cause, of our way we run ourselves, people will legitimacy. political crisis. It can be argued that have many more and much richer Our problem here is that not the call for Scottish independence experiences of democratic actions. enough people now believe in the is an older symptom of the same Even with those methods in place, legitimacy of the British state. If problem. however, the act of voting will our objective was to restore an The economics of these issues can remain the point at which people autocratic monarchy, then our task be discussed elsewhere. We are feel they are flexing the larger would be to revive belief in the interested here in unpacking and muscles of democratic power. This divine rights of kings (and maybe understanding the growing failure means that the ballot box needs to queens). As our aim is to restore of our democracy to represent be reclaimed. and remake democracy fit for the 3 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 twenty first century, our task is to and constitutional flexibility. It Reforming our second chamber revive a belief not only in voting has already exposed the British can improve the health of our but in the idea that government of state’s hyper-centralising and democracy by allowing for the the people, by the people, for the power-hoarding tendencies. fair and equal representation of people, is really possible. • An unrepresentative and Britain’s nations and localities, particularly in this post-Brexit era. Britain’s broken Westminster weak second chamber: the A second chamber elected on a system, so easily co-opted to the House of Lords starts from territorial basis could serve as a interests of the few, lies at the a place of maintaining class- forum in which the four nations root of many of the problems based hierarchy rather than (including English localities, highlighted above. The Brexit vote enfranchisement. No amount depending on how they choose could be Britain’s long-awaited of tweaking its size can cover to be represented at the national constitutional moment, serving as for the fact that it fails on level) can work together in the the impetus for thorough review almost all democratic principles. twenty first century. and reform of our constitutional Its reform has been on the structures. It may well be far too political agenda for over 100 An elected second chamber could late to save the Union, but who years and engagement with this be the place where Britain-wide, would want to save it in this current issue has been long-standing sub-national, and cross-border form anyway? If anything credible is and cross-partisan. Twenty issues are discussed, where sub- to be offered to people in Scotland years on from the House of national interests and concerns can and to all the peoples of Britain, it Lords Act 1999, reforming be raised and given a fair hearing can be nothing less than a complete the House of Lords remains away from the more politicised and transformation. To dictate what firmly unfinished business. In short-term ethos of the House of might be at the end of such a the past 20 years, there have Commons. Key considerations for journey would be anti-democratic, been around nine attempts at reforming the second chamber are: but the Electoral Reform Society has reforming the House of Lords, if i) composition of the chamber; ii) been thinking about what the first we only consider white papers, election of members; iii) specific few miles of this journey might look commissions, Bills and Acts. powers over territorial issues; like. Political reform will require Since the most recent attempt iv) relationship with the House a top down and a bottom up at large-scale reform, the of Commons; and v) further approach where we i) need to see House of Lords Reform Bill, was devolution to the nations and leadership from the top acting to withdrawn in 2012, Britain has localities of the UK – including to break the dysfunctional, executive- been through unprecedented and within England dominated Westminster model, constitutional change making Politics has become increasingly which has remained unreformed reform even more pressing. distant – institutions do not reflect for so long; but we also need to • Lack of voice for Britain’s identities and political choices and ii) bring politics closer to people, nations and localities: the the majority of Britain has not had a to engage and to give meaning to current mechanisms for cross- say in its constitutional future. This political participation. border working in Britain do has led to: Constitutional reform has occurred not appear to be working as • Disengagement: our research outside Westminster, but the centre well as they could. While there have been more formal and shows that almost half (47%) remains largely unchanged from its regular meetings of ministers of people do not feel at all or original model. This has led to: from Britain’s constituent parts very represented by parties • Executive dominance: the since the EU referendum, the at Westminster and that two- system underpinning our devolved governments have thirds (67%) feel like they have politics hands almost had little influence in shaping no or very few opportunities unrestrained power to the the British government’s to inform and influence leader of the government, Brexit position and have been decisions made by their elected however few citizens voted effectively excluded from EU representatives. Recent for it. When it comes to negotiations. England lacks polls also show a historically the distribution of power any distinct representation in low combined vote share – in the Westminster system, these cross-border forums, around 50% or less – for the the possibility of ‘elected with Westminster government, Conservatives and Labour, dictatorship’ is not far away. parliament and ministers which indicates that voters are The Brexit process has so far expected to take on a ‘dual hat’ not only less closely aligned been, for the most part, an role, representing both Britain with the two ‘main’ parties, but exercise in executive power as a whole and England. also wish to support a wider 4 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 range of parties. This year’s should be established to way of doing politics that Britain Audit of Political Engagement address devolution to and can be proud of. Our five key found 47% of people feel they within England. A Britain-wide recommendations are: constitutional convention have no influence at all over 1. Britain should shift away from should also be set up to national decision-making – a the centralised ‘Westminster consider the democratic high for the Audit series. model’ of governance, towards future of the union in a holistic • Political polarisation and a consensus model. People can manner. The work of the other geographical inequality: the and should be given the power sub-national conventions and dominance of two-party to shape the future of politics assemblies could feed into politics has excluded a range in a more active and consistent the Britain-wide convention, of voices from political way so the public should be which would then focus on the discussion, pushing locality- involved in shaping the big broader constitutional questions specific concerns to the constitutional questions of our such as the relationship margins as parties chase time and the public should be between the constituent parts involved in politics throughout their national median voter. of Britain. England in particular remains the decision-making process, highly centralised and is still • People should be involved not just at election time in politics throughout the primarily ruled through Britain- 2. The next government must decision-making process, not wide institutions – it is the reform the House of Lords as a just at election time. Multiple ‘gaping hole in the devolution priority. No more reviews: it is entry points for democratic settlement’. So far, devolution time for manifest action. within England has been a top- participation should be created down project. Within England, at different levels to address 3. An elected second chamber citizens have not had a chance local policy issues. must serve as the forum in which the four nations – and to discuss their constitutional To save our democracy, we need England’s localities – can future or to consider whether to reform it. We need to give our work together. This reformed an institutional change might be second chamber legitimacy to do chamber would be where desirable. its job, we need to create a political Britain-wide, sub-national, culture that contains the full range Fundamental constitutional change and cross-border issues are of political tools – including those of and a recalibration of how we discussed practise our democracy cannot negotiation and compromise – and 4. An English Constitutional be imposed from Westminster. we need to find a space to bring Convention – led by citizens Bottom-up citizen involvement is together our nations in their shared – should consider devolution necessary to ensure the legitimacy interests, rather than allow the within England, building of, and trust in, our institutional set- centre to dominate and override. upon the work of local up, new governing arrangements, We must deal with the toxic citizens’ assemblies and and democracy more broadly. This polarisation of our politics by other deliberative democratic will require a shift in culture which building mechanisms to bring processes to give people a say people together to hear each views citizens and local government on how they are represented and councillors as co-creators of other’s views as well as expressing policy and collaborators in shaping their own and we have to create 5. Citizens’ assemblies should the future of the country. Thus, opportunities for citizens to be used at the local level in people can and should be given influence politics, both at the a systematic and embedded the power to shape the future national level and closer to home, manner to deal with complex of politics in a more active and giving people a voice in shaping the and contested issues. consistent way. This would take two future of their communities. Willie Sullivan is a Senior Director primary forms: Reform needs to be both top-down at the Electoral Reform Society, Dr • People should be involved in and bottom-up. It is essential that Jess Garland is its Research Director shaping the big constitutional citizens are brought into the debate and Michela Palese is its Research questions of our time, about their constitutional future, and Policy Officer. For more, see supplementing the piecemeal but this will only have meaning if their ‘Beyond Brexit’ report https:// and incremental work that there is a commitment at the top www.electoral-reform.org.uk/ has so far been undertaken, to change – a bold vision of a new wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ primarily – if not solely – democracy which breaks with the Westminster-beyond-Brexit-Ending- by politicians. An English past power-hoarding of the centre the-politics-of-Division.pdf constitutional convention and paves the way for a fresh new 5 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Scottish Parliament: essential to Scottish democracy but what kind of democracy? Paul Cairney argues the Scottish Parliament is fundamental to Scottish democracy but legitimises pluralist rather than participatory democracy well-functioning and effective two very different models. The date. parliamentary system underpins first was summed up by the vague The second model was a much more a well-functioning democratic phrase, ‘new politics’. The Scottish A traditional and enduring form of system. However, there is no point Parliament would foster participation representative democracy coupled in pretending that a single body by coordinating a petitions process, with the assumption that the can foster every kind of democracy. sponsoring the Scottish Civic Forum government would govern. In this Instead, we make choices about the (SCF) and, perhaps, experimenting model, the Scottish Parliament plays type of democracy we would like with initiatives - such as mini-publics two profoundly important roles. First, to see. More realistically still, we and citizen juries - to explore the it provides a forum for representation. need to reflect on the type of system extent to which the deliberations of In particular, there were explicitly high that already exists, why it endures, a small group of people could inform – and partly fulfilled - hopes that the and if there is a realistic chance of wider public and parliamentary Scottish Parliament would be more reforming it. To my mind, Scottish debate. representative of women, coupled devolution reinforced representative with far vaguer and unfulfilled hopes and pluralist forms of democracy, with minimal scope for more participatory for representation according to race or deliberative innovations. Further, or ethnicity, class, age, and disability. the Scottish Parliament represents a Second, it legitimises Scottish profoundly important legitimising role Government policy. To all intents and even though, in practice, its members purposes, it delegates policymaking cannot pay attention to more than responsibility to the Scottish a tiny proportion of government Government then holds minsters to decisions made ostensibly with its account for the ways in which they blessing. Here, I use this framework to carry that responsibility. In many cases, Neil McGarvey and I devoted a whole provide context for future debates on the policy is humdrum and routine, chapter to such topics in the first parliamentary and democratic reforms. with little partisan competition or edition of our Scottish Politics: An committee interest. In some, the policy From the establishment of Scottish Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, is high salience, with party competition devolution, a key problem with 2008). We wrote largely about the gaps infusing committee attention. the idea of a Scottish Parliament between some people’s expectations has been that it represents all and actual practices. The SCF closed Focusing on the second model allows things to all people without a clear after receiving minimal Scottish us to highlight the ways, and extent, to sense of the trade-offs or tensions Parliament and Scottish Government which the Scottish Parliament matters. between different aims. New support (and interest groups preferred Consider two descriptions that appear Scottish Parliament elections foster to approach those bodies directly). to highlight minimal versus maximal representative democracy and the The petitions process encouraged importance. The first is the classic hope for a more representative body self-selecting participation – and the ‘policy communities’ description of MSPs. A petitions process, and chance for small groups of people to of pluralist democracy, inspired by experimentation with a civic forum and set the agenda of a committee for a Grant Jordan and Jeremy Richardson’s mini-publics, fosters participatory and brief period - but offered little hope highly provocative description of a deliberative democracy. New styles for influencing government policy. policy process in a post-parliamentary of consultation and cooperation with Further, almost no other initiatives democracy in their 1979 book, Governing under pressure policy participants, such as interest got off the ground. In the second . In many or third sector groups, foster pluralist edition of our Scottish Politics: An ways, this description highlights the limited role of Parliament by describing democracy. Yet, these activities do not Introduction in 2013, we removed this the limited role of ministers: simply come together to produce a chapter altogether, simply because marvellous harmony of voices. Rather, there was nothing new to say. The • The size and scope of the state is democracy is frequently – if not idea of democratic innovations so large that it is always in danger primarily - about people competing to had a new lease of life when the of becoming unmanageable. There be heard at the others’ expense. Or, Commission on Parliamentary Reform is a highly crowded policy-making one forum competes with another to (https://parliamentaryreform.scot/) environment, in which huge represent the main hub for democratic recommended their greater use, but numbers of actors seek policy expression. we should manage our expectations influence. Consequently, ministers For me, the main tension is between based on the Scottish experience to manage complexity by breaking 6 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 the state’s component parts into looking body. The Scottish Parliament interesting, but they describe a tiny policy sectors and sub-sectors, is a powerful body at the heart of proportion of government business. with power spread across many accountability on paper, but not in Rather, representative and pluralist parts of government. practice. democracy is where the action is. So, some of its recommendations • Elected policymakers can only The second description comes from describe the prospect of a more pay attention to a tiny proportion another classic study, namely, David organised process for scrutiny of issues for which they are Judge’s The Parliamentary State of ministers. However, other responsible. So, they pay attention from 1993. In it, he argues that the recommendations recognise the need to a small number and ignore importance of Parliament is not found to enhance meaningful relationships the rest. In effect, they delegate in the observance of its ‘powers’ as policymaking responsibility to with other parts of the policy process, such, but rather in the examination including local government and other actors such as civil servants, of, ‘the very process of representation often at low levels of government. government agencies. This latter and the legitimation of governmental suggestion is crucial to the ways • At this level of government and outputs flowing from that process’. Any in which Scottish Government has specialisation, civil servants exercise of power by a government is changed over the last decade, in rely on specialist organisations dependent upon Parliament granting terms of setting out a broad strategy for information and advice. its consent and legitimacy. Otherwise, and inviting a large number of public Those organisations trade that policy communities would suffer bodies to carry it out, often aided by information/advice and other from a legitimation gap and would be long-term outcomes measures rather resources for access to, and unable to operate to describe their than the kinds of short-term targets influence within, the government. outputs as ‘authoritative’ or ‘binding’. more conducive to straightforward Thus, for example, government bill • Most public policy is conducted parliamentary scrutiny. The Scottish teams take great care to anticipate primarily through small and Government makes these reforms parliamentary reaction, and produce specialist policy communities partly via the choice to share that process issues at a level of draft legislation accordingly. If so, power across the public sector, and government not particularly visible parliamentary influence exists in the partly because it lacks the capacity to the public, and with minimal minds and practices of ministers and to control, coordinate, or even senior policymaker involvement. civil servants, and is not as visible as, understand most of the decisions say, First Minister’s Questions. made in its name. The ‘policy This description of ‘policy For me, these arguments essentially communities’ argument now extends communities’ suggests that senior to the public sector as a whole, elected politicians are less important represent two sides of the same coin. On one side is intense parliamentary rather than central government than people think, their impact on departments. policy is questionable, and elections activity that matters. In some cases, and changes of government may not MSPs become engaged intensely in If so, the most important democratic provide the changes in policy that plenary and committee discussions, reform would be to shift parliamentary many expect. and ministers and civil servants build attention (somewhat) from high their expectation of this response into salience set piece debates towards Further, it calls into question the their policy design. Meantime, on the the more routine and humdrum importance of MSPs questioning other side is the logical consequence monitoring of the public sector as a ministers in plenary and committee: to this activity: if MSPs are paying whole. This would be in keeping with they will receive often-minimal attention to those issues, they have the acknowledgement that most information about a small proportion to ignore the rest. The scope of state decisions made in the name of Scottish of government business. This intervention in our lives, and size of ministers, and legitimised by the description reinforces practical the public sector, is immense, and the Scottish Parliament, take place despite concerns about the feasibility of Scottish Parliament only has the ability minimal ministerial and parliamentary parliamentary scrutiny. Scottish to pay attention to a tiny proportion of attention. Parliament committees have limited that activity. The anticipated reactions Paul Cairney is Professor of Politics resources to scrutinise policy and argument can only take us so far when question ministers effectively; they and Public Policy at the University there is so much policy activity that is rarely engage in meaningful or direct of Stirling. His work can be found at legitimised by the Scottish Parliament contact with civil servants; they https://paulcairney.wordpress.com/ He without their awareness. struggle to gather information on also tweets regularly @Cairneypaul the work of public bodies; and, local These insights should inform debates authorities generally argue that they on how we might reform the Scottish are accountable to their electorates, Parliament. In this context, other not Parliament. Periods of coalition recommendations by the Commission majority (1999-2007), minority on Parliamentary Reform seem more (2007-11; 2016-) and single party relevant to Scottish democracy. majority (2011-6) government have Discussions of participatory reinforced this image of a peripheral- and deliberative democracy are

7 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Benefitting from the Brexit benefit of broken Britain Tommy Sheppard argues only an independent Scotland can be the crucible for citizens’ control emocracy means the right to to regard the referendum as having As things stand now a no-deal Brexit change your mind. Collectively, settled the matter is something of an is the most likely outcome. It may not Dpeople can decide to do understatement given a majority of happen and, of course, we will fight something, and if it doesn’t work, or its members are committed to having against it but you don’t wait until they don’t like it, they can do something another one. So that leaves public the worst happens before planning else. That much shouldn’t be in doubt opinion. Has there been a decisive shift for it. That’s why legislation is being for the left – or any democrat. There’s in how people would vote? In truth, not introduced in the Scottish parliament to no argument in principle against having yet. Nine out of ten opinion polls since allow people in Scotland to say if they a second referendum – on anything – if the last referendum put the ‘yes’ vote at want to take control of their own affairs that is what people want. Then again, the same as it was or very slightly higher. or stay in the Brexit Britain of Boris. you can’t go changing your mind every The needle has seemed stuck in the Now, it’s a statement of the obvious week, or even year, or nothing would mid-forties for a long time. But these net that things might happen in the next six ever be settled. So, when is it right to figures mask a churn in opinion, caused months that will force a recalibration have a second vote? principally by the fallout of Brexit. Five of the timetable. A second Brexit to ten percent of the electorate say that referendum or a general election could I’d argue three things need to be what has happened with Brexit means produce a result that would require a considered. First, has the information they would now support independence. tactical rethink. This, by the way, doesn’t on which the first decision was based And pretty much the same number necessarily mean a delay – indeed, there changed or proven to be have been now say they will no longer support are potential election outcomes that wrong? Second, have opinions changed independence because of the pro EU might suggest an acceleration of plans to – at least enough to suggest a different stance of the SNP and ‘yes’ supporters. hold the next indyref. It is, though, more result? Finally, is the legislature charged likely than not that Scotland will get the with implementing the decision But when we get to a second indyref, chance to vote again on becoming an unwilling, or unable, to do so? Any Brexit won’t be on the ballot. The independent country before the end one of these factors might of itself choice will simply be whether people in of 2020. I confess that is sooner than I be justification to have a second vote Scotland should have control over their would have expected a few years ago. on something, but when all three of own affairs, including whether to be in But then no one could fully appreciate these conditions are met the case the EU and on what terms. If that case the shitshow that Brexit has turned into is unanswerable. This is why Britain is made clearly even the most ardent and the way it has redefined Britain. So, should have another vote on Brexit. independence supporting Brexiter could the next twelve months will be a time The information that people were given be persuaded. Moreover, for many for building the case for independence. in 2016 was flawed to put it mildly. people their current decision to say Opinion has clearly changed - by more ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to Scotland’s independence A lot of that will be about policy. than a 10% margin. And parliament – is nuanced and very much conditional Pro-independence supporters have, well, I rest my case. Only a people’s vote on what happens next. When pollsters for instance, been aiming to fill the has any hope of resolving the current ask whether people would prefer void of economic and fiscal policy that political crisis in Britain. independence to being part of Brexit was cruelly exposed last time round. for Britain, suddenly there’s a majority Indeed, the SNP’s economic policies These same principles can inform for the former. And it seems the harder have been the subject of critical debate our judgment about whether, and the Brexit, the larger the majority for in this journal (see July/August 2018, when, to have a second referendum independence. issue 106). Despite concerns on the on independence too. For sure, two left, it looks as if the economic case out of three conditions are met. The It is in this context that we need to for independence this time round will information on which people voted in understand the decision by the SNP look much more like a traditional social 2014 has changed dramatically. Not to rachet up the plans for a further democratic mixed economy model than just the actuality of Brexit but the independence referendum. We are, the pro-business prospectus of the way in which it has been executed of course, still in the throes of Brexit 2013 White Paper. Frankly though, as I has exposed the true relationship of and we do not know for sure what the argued in the aforementioned issue of Scotland within Britain. Remember ‘lead outcome will be. But it is beginning to this journal, none of this is a priority. not leave’ [Britain] anyone? So much feel that we are now in the endgame. Of course, it is important to prove in for the promise of Scottish views being You have to plan on what you know, general terms that Scotland could afford respected. not what you hope for. And we know, to be independent and illustrate how it for sure, that unless Westminster policy It’s also clear there’s a huge disjuncture could be based on a fairer economy. But is changed, we will leave the EU at between the decision in the referendum in truth the main point of independence Halloween. Even if parliament votes in 2014 and the views of the parliament is that people get the government they against leaving without a deal, it will people elected just two years later. To vote for. An independent Scotland could happen unless the whole process is say the Scottish parliament is unwilling pursue low tax, low investment policies revoked.

8 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 – or the reverse. So, the time when Nothing could be further from the truth. liberal democrat or right wing Labour these arguments really matter is when Scotland isn’t going anywhere. We will persuasion – in a way which suggests parties are preparing their manifestoes still occupy the northern part of the they have exposed a fatal inconsistency for the first election to an independent British Isles as an independent country. in the independence argument. But Scottish parliament. The difference is our voice will be heard again, this is nonsense and the question and we will be in control of how we put has a quite simple answer. They are It is because I believe we can build work with others. Political independence two completely different things. The majority support for the case for a more is not only a means to empower people EU is a confederation of independent equal, fair and publicly accountable to have more control over their own sovereign states which have decided society that I argue for political lives, it will also allow them to be better to come together to do things they independence in Scotland. It offers represented in Britain, Europe and the cannot get done by themselves. Britain a better means for radical social and world. It is a means of engagement is a single state where the interests and economic change than remaining in and not isolation. It is also a means by aspirations of four countries are fused the outdated polity of Britain. But which we can express our solidarity in a single polity and all power resides unless and until people achieve that with people elsewhere in Britain and at Westminster. To suggest that just political power the rest is just wishful beyond. Independence offers the left because they share the word ‘union’, thinking. So, it is important to galvanise the opportunity to implement radical the EU and Britain are similar political progressive forces around the demand policies at home and project them on a structures is willful misrepresentation for independent control of our own wider platform to the rest of Britain. It at best, crass ignorance at worst. affairs in Scotland. That means there can be the catalyst and the roadmap for Comparing the way in which the largest are more important debates to be had change well beyond Scotland. It is also a EU countries have supported Ireland in now before we construct the policy way in which the people of Scotland can the current Brexit debate with the way manual for a new country. These are exercise practical international solidarity Westminster has ignored Scotland has debates about political philosophy and by pursuing policies as an independent been instructive for many people. strategy and they involve attending to state. some unfinished business from last time Independence means being in charge round. of our own affairs, not going it alone. Independence allows us to make The first of these concerns the nature of alliances, treaties, even unions, with contemporary Scottish nationalism. In other countries. But on terms we agree the sense that I believe Scotland should on and with the power to change be a nation state, I am a nationalist. But those structures should we wish to. A I am also a socialist, an internationalist, second independence referendum is a democrat, a republican and many coming. Maybe next year. Possibly a other things besides. Those who few years after that. But soon. In getting oppose Scottish independence have for there, we will not put down our fellow decades dishonestly caricatured those The unionist argument goes on to ask citizens who take a contrary view but who espouse it. They have tried to why should we want a hard border with engage them in the debate. This will be associate the term nationalist with its England. We don’t – and we wouldn’t formalized at a national level through a most negative and repulsive variants, need to if both countries were members Citizens Assembly and replicated locally subtly implying that even if we don’t of the EU trading bloc. It is Brexit that by ‘yes’ groups across the land. The advocate authoritarian xenophobia forces a hard border, not independence. context will be different. The prospectus that’s the inevitable trajectory should If Britain goes through with Brexit then will be different. But the central we vote for control over our own affairs. the border with a future independent question remains the same. This is nonsense. Most opponents of Scotland would also be a border with independence don’t argue against the EU. Even if we can’t stop it, we can And when the question is put it will be nation states they just argue that work out a way to make sure there’s about whether we have the right to Scotland should be part of the British no hard border at Carlisle. It is in both choose how to organise our society and nation state rather than one by itself. Scotland and England’s interests to use our resources. The ‘Better Together’ Scottish nationalism is an inclusive civic make this as permeable as possible campaign promised last time round movement led by people who want and any discussion an independent that devolution within Britain offered open borders and more immigration. Scotland has about its relationship with Scotland that control within the security It is a progressive force for change to a the EU will have to include getting the and influence of Britain. Neither of these more equal and diverse society. It is built latter’s support for special relationship claims survive cursory inspection. From on looking to the future not dwelling in with England and Wales. It is worth Brexit to climate change, our power is the past. noting though that even the hardest of non-existent or severely constrained. Brexiters claim that it can be achieved And far from offering a comfort blanket, We need to address some of the without a hard border on Ireland – so a post-Brexit British state is looking like nonsense critiques of Scotland being an one wonders why that couldn’t also be a very insecure and dangerous place to independent nation state head on. Let’s the case in Scotland. be. start with separation. Our opponents pretend that having political control over We are then asked why anyone would Tommy Sheppard is the (SNP) MP for our own affairs will isolate Scotland, want to leave Britain but stay in the Edinburgh East and they portray independence as a EU. This question is glibly posed by barrier keeping us apart from others. unionists – particularly those of the

9 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 The hard-right today: Fascists and non- fascists Neil Davidson says knowing fascists from hard right populists is essential in fighting them both he left always risks making There are, nevertheless, three main One might then say that fascism is two errors when faced with differences between the respective revolutionary and the non-fascist Ta threat from forces on the methods and goals associated with hard-right is reformist; but what do hard-right. One, most disastrously actual fascists and their non-fascist these terms mean in this context? realised in Germany during the 1930s, cousins. Many Marxists are reluctant to use is complacency, ignoring or at least First, is their attitude to the working the term ‘revolution’ in relation to any downplaying the genuine threat of class. One defining characteristic modern political movement not of fascism. The other, far more common of fascist movements is to seek the left, with the possible exception today, involves misrecognition, or the destruction of working class of nationalisms in the Global South. even deliberate misrepresentation, organizations; this not the case with But if we consider fascist seizures of by extending the term ‘fascist’ to other sections of the hard-right. power as political revolutions – in other right-wing movements which, Indeed, after the Argentinian coup of other words as those actions which however odious they may be, have 1943, the Peronists found that they change the nature and personnel of different objectives and deploy had to rely on unions in order for the the political regime without changing different methods. Golden Dawn in regime to survive. This is why not only the mode of production – then there Greece is a classic fascist formation Peronism, but a movement like Ulster is no reason why the term should not in a way that the Northern League in Loyalism, based as it was on the skilled be applicable to them. Revolution and Italy is not. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon Protestant working class, is not fascist, reform do not involve different roads (aka ‘Tommy Robinson’) is a fascist, however reactionary and divisive as it to the same place but – as in Rosa but Nigel Farage is not and neither is may otherwise be. Luxemburg’s formulation concerning Donald Trump and the latter two are the left–different destinations. currently more dangerous than the Second, is that, while fascists may former. stand for election, they primarily This leads to the third major rely on paramilitary organization and difference. Fascism is not defined Establishing the distinction between violence to attain power. The two simply by its recourse to extra- the fascist and non-fascist hard-right main fascist regimes, the Italian and parliamentary or illegal activity, inevitably involves ‘ideal types’. German, installed themselves through but by their purpose: a project of In the real world, of course, these a combination of paramilitary violence transformation which seeks the blur and overlap at the edges, but and elections, but it was success of creation of a ‘new’ society, the final the distinctions are nevertheless the former that gave credibility to realisation of a national destiny which necessary, not to indulge in academic the latter. Once in power, of course, had hitherto been denied. But to hair-splitting over definitions, but fascists will dispense with, not only achieve this the people – inevitably because it determines the different elections, but every manifestation of conceived in racial terms – themselves tactics which need to be deployed democracy and every institution which must be purified, must prove by the left if it to successfully oppose might challenge their power – which themselves worthy of the world which them both, above all in relation to the is why unions and worker’s parties the fascists hope to bring into being. use of physical force. cannot be permitted to exist in the Fascism is never uncomplicatedly The hard-right always occupies a fascist state. the ‘tool of monopoly capitalism’: spectrum of positions, but all points This one of the reasons why fascism is it is rather that the goals of fascism on this continuum tend to share the last, rather than the first resort for overlap at certain points with that of two main characteristics. One is a any capitalist ruling class; in addition capital, notably in the crushing of a primary social base of membership to being inherently disruptive and perceived working-class threat and and support in one or more fractions unstable, it removes the mechanism pursuance of imperialist goals. But of the middle-class, above all the for changing regimes without the Holocaust was not ‘necessary’ for self-employed petty bourgeoisie, but recourse to civil war or invasion. The German capitalism; rather, it was fatal also among traditional middle-class non-fascist hard-right are, however, for Jewish members of the capitalist professionals and the technical- primarily electoral and seek to attain class and diverted resources which managerial new middle class. The office through the normal working of could have been deployed in fighting other is an ideology of extreme bourgeois democracy at local, national the Allies. The non-fascist hard-right, nationalism, in which the nation is and European levels. If defeated in however, insists that the people are usually under double threat from 2020, Trump almost certainly will already the repository of homogeneity above and inside by treacherous claim electoral fraud, but will not and virtue, but that these qualities elites and from below and outside attempt to cling to power through a are under threat. This is a project of by disruptive external intruders. coup. restoration: ‘Make America Great 10 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Again’. Its political goal is always to conservatism is fear of the passions down play formerly reactionary push popular attitudes and legal rights of the ‘mob’ which, once unleashed, positions in relation to gender and back to some lost Golden Age, a time cannot easily be contained. This was sexual orientation – although even before the homogeneity of the people one of the reasons why even those this is linked to ethno-cultural racism, was polluted by immigration and its Conservatives who agreed with Enoch particularly in its Islamophobic virtues compromised by decadent Powell about migration were appalled form: hard-right politicians in the elites. by his pandering to popular racism. Netherlands, for example, rhetorically Contemporary right-wing populists invoked the relative freedoms of Are these historical differences have no such inhibitions. What this women or gays in the West as way of ceasing to exist, or have they perhaps means is that right-wing populism denouncing the supposedly oppressive already done so? The implication engage in forms of political activity beliefs of Muslims. This is not a reason of some of the more hysterical which were once the preserve of which fascists are likely to give for assessments of the contemporary the left or the fascist right. It is also opposing Islam. hard-right is that they have and that the case that fascists have started to the beneficiaries are its fascist wing. All variants of the hard-right obviously practice ‘entryism’ into the populist In fact, the opposite is nearer to the have to be fought, but it is important hard right parties, although usually truth. In France, for example, the to retain a sense of perspective: at at an individual rather than at an transformation of the Front National the moment the right-wing populism organisational level. But on social into the more mainstream hard-right is the more immediate danger, if media particularly, this can give the National Rally led to a revival of its only because it is proving to be the impression that, say, UKIP is ‘really’ electoral fortunes. But in so far as most successful. But opposing it also fascist because of tweets by members there has been a blurring of the lines involves understanding why it exists. who are also in the BNP. between the fascist and non-fascist The conditions for the emergence right, it has been the result of two The other development has occurred of the populist hard-right were set main developments. on the fascist wing of the hard-right by forty years of neo-liberalism, and is a new emphasis on democracy. compounded by the more recent One is the virtual disappearance of the Previously, fascists have argued that imposition of brutal austerity regimes, traditional conservative component democracy is an impediment to the to which the populists provide false of the hard right and its replacement pure expression of the people’s will to solutions. The social neo-liberals by forces which share most of its which their party or leader has direct responsible for much of this since the positions, but whose style and rhetoric access, and no doubt if installed in 1990s – Blair and Brown, the Clintons – usually referred to as ‘populism’– is power contemporary fascists would and Obama, the post-Maastricht very different. Most members of the also attempt to suppress democracy. EU and so on – exist in a symbiotic British Conservative and Unionist In Britain in particular, however, ‘elite’ relationship with the populist hard- Party are either outright reactionaries, attempts to negate or minimise the right. In other words, the latter cannot or neoliberals, or unprincipled EU referendum result have enabled be fought by simply returning to the opportunists willing to pander to both. fascists like Yaxley-Lennon and non- policies of the former. That will simply (In philosophical terms, Rory Stewart fascist right-wingers like Farage to lead to further disillusion with politics, was the only genuine conservative both claim that they are upholding leading to a situation in which actual candidate in the recent Tory democratic outcomes ignored by a fascism may appear to be an answer, leadership election.) For our purposes, corrupt establishment. the significance of this shift has been Neil Davidson lectures in politics and that conservatives were historically Nevertheless, important new social science at the University of loath to mobilise their supporters for differences have also opened up Glasgow and is author of numerous demonstrations, marches or other between sections of the hard-right. books including ‘How Revolutionary mass manifestations – unsurprisingly, The non-fascist wing have been Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?’ since one of the founding tenets of prepared to abandon or at least (2017), ‘Nation-States: Consciousness and Competition’ (2016), ‘We Cannot Escape History: States and Revolutions; (2015) and ‘Holding Fast to an Image of the Past: Explorations on Marxism and History’ (2014). All were published by Haymarket Books.

11 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Can populism ever be principled? George Kerevan traces the roots of populism to discern its progressive potential ow do we build a realistic This is not to decry the strategic need But modern progressive populisms also alternative to BoJo, Farage, Trump for class alliances between workers, possess inherent weaknesses. They have Het al.? Let’s start by demystifying farmers and intermediate social layers a tendency to substitute bureaucratic the term ‘populism’. It was first coined (e.g. students, technicians, pensioners) control for popular democracy, when the in the early 1890s in reference to the US for such an alliance is central, not just to social revolution encounters problems. Populist Party, formed to defend poor defeating right-wing, populist reaction, In Latin America, the Bolivarian populist farmers against big business and the but to winning a parliamentary majority movement is in retreat, squeezed Republican and Democrat duopoly. At and installing an anti-system government externally by US sanctions and internally this point, farming families composed a in the first place. But the lesson of by botched land redistribution, rampant third of the US population. Prompted by original, progressive populism is you corruption and drift from participatory the 1893 economic crash, the separate cannot defeat the right with some vague democracy into ‘strongman’ leadership. political mobilisation of this group took project based on the lowest common A similar betrayal of left populism’s a radical turn with demands for public denominator of demands. As seen in democratic pretentions is control over the railways and banks. every multi-class rising – from 1848 seen in the transformation of The Populists captured governorships in against Absolutism to the 1930s’ Popular the Podemos movement into a creature nine states. But its underlying political Fronts against fascism – you cannot stop of its titular leader, Pablo Iglesias. Here, weakness was exposed in the 1896 half-way with a ‘reformed’ capitalism membership consultation via internet presidential election, when it gave away without strangling the progressive polls has become a tool for Iglesias to its independence by endorsing William movement itself. Jennings Bryan, a left-wing Democrat rule by plebiscite and exclude alterative and borderline demagogue. America’s In recent decades, progressive populism ideological platforms. Iglesias’ conscious poor farmers (like peasant movements has developed new forms, by seeking appeal to vague, catch-all demands everywhere) were too ideologically to identify a stronger ideological bond was supposed to open the movement fragmented and lacking in economic to hold the multi-class social ensemble to mass appeal. Instead, it resulted in leverage to challenge the capitalist together. Chávez’s Bolivarism reinvented ideological obscurantism and leadership system by themselves. They needed populism by branding it with a new, opportunism. Witness Iglesias’ open- allies. But instead of cementing a proto-nationalist identity – reinforced ended support for the right-wing strategic, anti-system pact with the urban by mobilising indigenous peasant people ‘socialist’ government of Pedro Sánchez, working class, the Populists opted to ally on an ethnic as well as class basis. In which led to Podemos losing a third of its with the existing Democratic political this new ideological prism, indigenous vote in this year’s parliamentary election. peasants and urban poor were united as machine – behind which hid the racist, Here in Scotland, the SNP government the dispossessed of a mythical Bolivarian Southern landed oligarchy. stands on the brink of a new, post-Brexit state. This catastrophic mistake was facilitated independence referendum. The party by the Populist’ inadequate programme. In similar vein, contemporary Scotland secured 37.7% of the Scottish poll in the This was cast in crude terms of ‘us and Catalonia have seen the rise of a 2019 European elections – amazingly the against the elite’, with no clear plan to progressive nationalism that blends third highest party share anywhere, and dismantle the rule of finance capital and a (mild) social democracy with a re- comfortably beating both Farage’s Brexit replace it with something else. At its invented national identity based on Party (32%) and Salvini’s Italian League most ideological, US Populists espoused opposition to metropolitan-imposed (3%). Clearly, the SNP’s left populist- a classless Jeffersonian utopia that was austerity. While the Scottish and nationalist model still works. Catalan movements are tagged as ‘civic’ already redundant in an era where US However, the SNP leadership recently nationalisms, it is just as plausible to imperialism was stealing Cuba and the pulled out all the stops in a bid to quash categorise them as a variant of multi- Philippines from Spain. The Achilles Heel a grassroots membership demand class, progressive populism. In Scotland, of ‘progressive’ populism is its propensity for a separate Scottish currency after the preponderant social weight of the to fudge class divisions, in a vain hope of independence – code for imposing urban working class in this popular uniting ‘all the people’ against a vaguely an anti-system control over foreign alliance has driven the SNP leftwards defined ‘elite’. banks. The leadership’s strident pro- from its petty bourgeois roots. During the twentieth century, progressive NATO stance has also caused internal populism came to describe any radical, Such modern progressive populisms have murmurings. Independence will bring inter-class alliance consisting of (mainly) proved more capable of sustaining multi- these divisions to a head. In which case, peasants, urban liberal intellectuals class support and so winning greater left populism becomes either a path to and workers, the latter usually in the degrees of power than before. This is due a final rupture with capitalism or else an minority. This model of populism was not just to promoting national identity as ideological device to defuse any anti- dominant in dependent capitalist a unifying factor, but to prioritising the system struggle. Time will tell. countries, particularly in Latin America. explicit democratic demands that follow George Kerevan is the National Convenor Save Cuba, such revolutionary populist on from this. In Latin America, it meant of the SNP Socialists group and a former struggles proved abortive because defending the rights of indigenous ethnic SNP MP they were ideologically confused and, groups for the first time. In Scotland, it therefore, open to opportunism. meant demanding a parliament. 12 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 SNP EU election success: a case of the emperor’s new clothes? Kenny MacAskill says behind the apparent advance lie deep-rooted problems of policy and participation he EU elections were a good result what the strategy is for independence, Instead a tightly knit group, indicative for the SNP but not a great one. never mind just what the policy of Nicola Sturgeon’s closed inner circle, TFor sure winning’s what matters in narrative is for the party more generally. took years to return with a policy every electoral contest and it achieved EU elections do tend to see an increase position that was hugely unpopular with that comfortably which offers profile in the differential turnout between many and has left the party’s position and momentum. However, this was a more affluent and poorer parts. That’s arguably even less clear than before. poll where it faced virtually no contest understandable given the distance Added to that, it was a growth agenda with Labour and Tory imploding and the and perceived lack of relevance of the that they’ve done nothing with and yet Brexit Party and Lib Dems challenging EU. That was heightened by an SNP is now being openly questioned, indeed from a far lower base north of the campaign which focussed on aspects of even arguably superseded, as climate border. the EU that would be lost and yet most change becomes all too manifest. benefit the better off, rather than wider In many ways, the SNP’s now all dressed The ‘new’ SNP has moved the party’s social and economic consequences. Free up but with nowhere to go. Whilst it’s broadly social democratic position to movement and issues in academia are clarified the party stance on Brexit, it one of mirroring, if not exceeding, other of more concern to those at a senior opened-up questions on where it goes leading European centre left parties, level in the education sector or those on independence. As the new (post- thus, focusing on identity inequality that have the means to enjoy regular Salmond/Robertson) SNP leadership rather than wealth and land disparity. travel abroad than they are to those comes under more general review, Winning hearts and minds on the already marginalised in Scotland and for questions on direction and policy are doorstep of housing schemes is now whom access to university never mind also only going to increase. supplanted by professional focus groups city breaks to Europe are but a distant and opinion polls. The former hasn’t Setting itself out as the ‘Remainer’ party dream. worked on the continent as EU elections in the European elections hasn’t caused Direct correlations from EU polls to showed and the latter won’t work here any major issues internally. As support further elections are always hard to as the votes to be won over are ignored for Brexit has shrunk in Scotland, so it make and SNP leadership focus has or abjured. Moreover, inequality and has within the SNP. Many who used it returned to indyref2. The challenge climate change are increasing social as a protest vote against Cameron or now is different and votes won in an tensions and the need for more radical immigration in 2016 have learned the EU poll cannot be assured. Whilst the action is now required. true cost, as the hard right has been legislation now announced may be empowered and racism along with other A debate on SNP policy and strategy better than the proverbial poke in the prejudices have been unleashed. is, therefore, urgently needed – not eye with a sharp stick, its most certainly sound bites and piecemeal actions. The Others who were more ideologically not confirmation of a referendum next British state is in political meltdown driven, with opposition to the institution year as portrayed by some. It’s simply and may never be weaker, yet those of the European Union on issues such about being seen to be doing something who challenge party orthodoxy like as the common fisheries policy, have even though there’s neither required Joanna Cherry and Chris McEleny are seen that life outside is not so rosy or consent from Westminster nor a traduced and side lined. Let the abuse that fishing was always discarded by the strategy to get around that impediment. of centralised power cease and debate British rather than being snatched by More importantly, the electoral timing begin for time is short. the Europeans. Perhaps, the only saving with both Westminster and Holyrood Kenny MacAskill is a former SNP grace of Brexit is that it’s exposed where elections looming mitigates against MSP and Justice Secretary. He is now the fault for the demise of the Scottish much of that. a columnist (with the Scotsman) fishing fleet lay, and allowed for the So, the SNP is now at a crossroads in and writer (with books published industry leaders to be shown to be the terms of where’s it going and what’s it on ‘Glasgow 1919: The Rise of Red handful of oligarchs that they really are. for. More than four years into Nicola Clydeside’ and ‘Jimmy Reid: A Scottish The ‘lend us your vote’ strategy for the Sturgeon’s tenure and the constitutional Political Journey’). EU poll was successful, with some, if cause is no further advanced and the not many, supporting SNP who would political narrative has been blurred. be opposed to indyref2, let alone The Growth Commission perhaps best independence. That’s no crime as all encapsulates her reign. What was parties do it to some extent and SNP has required were arguments and options; done it before, albeit with different calls confirmation that keeping the pound at previous elections. There’s always was perfectly credible, suggestions that time and hope to convert them and joining the euro was not the end of life voting is habit forming. as we know it, and that an independent But it does raise questions about just currency was also perfectly feasible.

13 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Pushing up popular participation Chris Hegarty says Voices for Scotland can re-invigorate the vitality of civic Scotland in its independence campaign uch is being written about some would characterise Scottish Scotland has another, much more the crisis of democracy, politics as polarised, arguably those optimistic path open to it can inspire Mthe rise in populism and ‘poles’ are situated either side of and act as something of an antidote to increasing political polarisation. As a Scotland’s constitutional fault line rather any voter fatigue that might exist. new, civic, grassroots pro-independence than reflecting increasing left-right or Disillusionment with politics, especially campaign that seeks to effect change populist-liberal democratic divergence. with Westminster and Brexit, is both via democratic engagement, Voices Equally, Scotland’s levels of political a challenge and an opportunity. What for Scotland has a vested interest in engagement can be high. The SNP now Voices for Scotland needs to do is understanding, and helping to tackle, has roughly as many members as the highlight Scotland’s positive alternative democratic challenges that currently Tories do across the whole of Britain, the and demonstrate that the benefits of exist in Scotland. But the first thing to Scottish Greens’ membership multiplied independence will more than repay any do is test the suggestion of a crisis of several times over after indyref, and investment of time and energy. democracy, and examine the extent grassroots ‘Yes’ groups continue to to which it applies across the board, In order to open up conversations thrive nationwide. Scotland’s electoral including here in Scotland. in which the case for independence systems (at Holyrood and local can be made, we need to start from So, in September last year, the government levels) mean many people where people are. For example, international media circus rolled still feel that their votes count. Voices for Scotland’s website features into Stockholm, predicting with as many voices in favour of the excitement that Sweden’s long-held union as it does those who favour social democratic tolerance would be independence. Coming from a clearly the next domino to fall to populism’s pro-independence campaign, that takes gravitational pull. Once the general a bit of getting used to for some people, election results came in, many stuck but it’s about listening to those who doggedly to the prepared script. The voted ‘no’, to their concerns, to their Times, for example, reported ‘Right questions, and being willing to open up wing radicals make big gains’ and that conversations on their terms, from their ‘Sweden’s open-door migration policy starting points. has upended the political system’. Yet the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats In terms of identifying democratic We also recognise that personality- were supported by 17.6% of voters. As challenges and polarisation, Scotland driven and slightly tribal party political was the case with other small parties, might therefore have some similarities debate can be off-putting to some. they increased their share of the to, but also many differences from, This is where Voices for Scotland, vote – in their case by 4.7%. In other other parts of Britain, the US and as a grassroots organisation, can words, after a period in which Sweden elsewhere. Three particular challenges offer something different. The pro- had experienced unprecedented from Voices for Scotland’s perspective independence parties are members of immigration and acceptance of asylum are: i) voter fatigue; ii) disillusionment the Scottish Independence Convention seekers, 82.4% still chose to vote with politics, especially Westminster/ but there are 23 members in all, so our for other parties that did not share Brexit; and iii) the need to open up campaign is not party political and does the Sweden Democrats’ hostility to conversations with people who voted not promote one particular vision of immigration. ‘no’ or are undecided. independence. The more accurate headline here – There are clearly mixed views across More generally, we also need to get though one that very few chose to run Scotland on whether, and if so when, away from the perception – in some – might have been ‘Swedes emphatically we should have another independence media, and held by some members reject anti-immigration party’. But that referendum. Given how dysfunctional of the public – that independence is didn’t fit the narrative. Perhaps, we and exhausting British politics has been driven by one individual or one party. need to be careful in making sweeping in recent times, it’s no surprise that It was obvious to everyone involved in generalisations. In Scotland, clearly, we some people aren’t as enthusiastic the 2014 ‘yes’ campaign how inclusive, face democratic challenges, and politics about another big political event as broad and diverse the campaign was. is in some ways polarised. But we others. But the case for independence Voices for Scotland has a role to play should examine those challenges, and is a wholly positive one, based on taking in demonstrating that Scotland’s the nature of that polarisation, before responsibility for our own choices, independence is something that, suggesting what we might do about on making the most of the enormous ultimately, will be led and owned by them. natural and human resources that Scotland’s people – and that would be Scotland has, and on the democratic and the opposite of a crisis of democracy. Unlike in some other places, Scotland social benefits of being a normal, self- has not yet seen a substantial rise in Chris Hegarty is Coordinator for Voices governing country. With the backdrop right-wing populism. Nigel Farage’s UKIP for Scotland (www.voicesforscotland. of British politics being so despairing, or Brexit parties have polled below 15% scot) a positive campaign that highlights in every election in Scotland. While 14 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Lessons for the West from the East: the Kurdish democratic experiment Back from a women’s delegation to northern Syria in 2018, Sarah Glynn reports on her visit common defence of liberal the organised Kurdish movement based our hosts commented: ‘Kurdishness is democracy is that other systems around his ideas. In Syria, this largely no longer an ethnicity, it’s defence of are worse. Most people’s takes the form of the Democratic Union humanity’. A Party, or PYD. When I interviewed Saleh engagement in the political process is In the original cantons of Rojava (West limited to putting a cross in a box every Muslim, then co-chair of the PYD, in Kurdistan), and in the areas liberated few years, but inability to affect the 2016, he stressed that he saw the main from Daesh (ISIS), care is taken to forces that shape our lives has come to role of his party as political education. ensure that all ethnic groups participate be seen as inevitable. At the same time, PYD cadres work hard at all levels, in the new organisational structures. isolation is accepted as the twenty first spreading both ideas and organisational In a region long accustomed to ethnic century normality. So, when we learn methods. discrimination, and recently subject of a system that enables people to take Ocalan has moved a long way from to brutal violence carried out in the control of their lives and work together the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)’s name of religion, this inclusiveness to build up their communities, we founding position as a Marxist-Leninist naturally look for lessons. is hugely valued. Its importance was liberation movement. Since his CIA- demonstrated on our visit to Manbij, The mainstream media isn’t very good aided capture in 1999, and incarceration where we met women from four at publicising alternative systems, but on a Turkish island, he has studied a different ethnic groups working together events have made the autonomous variety of political theorists, and he to build cultural bridges and to widen Kurdish-dominated region of Syria hard has drawn on their ideas – including, the outlook and prospects of their to ignore. And so, increasing numbers notably, Murray Bookchin’s ideas on sisters from all backgrounds. However, of people are hearing about democratic communalism - to develop the political just as with liberal multiculturalism in confederalism, the system of bottom- philosophy that we can see being put Britain, care needs to be taken to avoid up democracy being established by into practice in northern Syria. Ocalan’s this welcoming of cultural difference those who follow the political ideas of political philosophy has inspired a becoming a means for strengthening imprisoned Kurdish leader, Abdullah millions-strong Kurdish movement that ethnic boundaries and traditional ethnic Ocalan. This is a system that expects the stretches from the PKK guerrillas in the leaders. mechanisms of daily life to be run as Iraqi mountains to the parliamentarians Perhaps, the most remarkable locally as possible. At its foundation are of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) achievement of the Kurdish movement communes consisting of a village or a in Turkey, from the PYD in Syria to the has been the change in women’s lives few streets. These send representatives Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) in Iran. to neighbourhood committees that and mobilisation. The liberation of make decisions that affect larger areas, Like Bookchin, Ocalan argues that this woman has become pivotal to Ocalan’s and so on and so on up a chain. At each system of bottom-up autonomy should, writings, and his ideas on ‘jineology’, level, committees focus on different ultimately, supersede the oppressive or the science of women, are a subject aspects, such as economics and justice. structures of the state. Pragmatically, of popular and academic study; but Requests for resources are transmitted this allows Kurdish leaders to claim that this ideological shift is ‘a result of a upwards and funds are distributed down they pose no immediate threat to the dialectical process between women’s from the level of the cantons that make integrity of the states in which they live. struggles within the movement and the up the Autonomous Administration The PYD argues for radical change within support of Ocalan’ according to writers of North East Syria. (While there is no Syria – though many Kurds have not Nadje Al-ali and Latif Tas. It is not a personal taxation, the system is funded given up on the idea of an independent paradox of women being liberated by by income from public enterprises and Kurdish state. a man, but an example of genuinely responsive leadership (though Ocalan by fees for development and services.) The contradictions posed by the national is often given all the credit, even by question have proved remarkably Two objective factors have facilitated the women themselves). development of this community-based productive. The PKK was established system. Kurdish culture still retains because the Turkish left failed to At issue is not simply the acceptance strong community ties and memories understand the additional oppression of women as fighters and campaigners of clan-based organisation; and the lack suffered by the Kurds, or to value their for Kurdish freedom. The nature of the of other resources and expectations of desire for cultural expression, but the battle itself has changed to incorporate help make communal self-sufficiency nurturing of Kurdish cultural freedom the fight against patriarchy as a something of a necessity. Indeed, the has been extended to encompass the foundational force. Attitudes remain civil war also saw a flowering of local freedom of all ethnic groups. For the hard to shift – even among otherwise- councils in other parts of Syria, though Kurdish movement following Ocalan’s progressive activists – but new freedoms without the wider organisational philosophy, that philosophy has even are clear to see. Every important network. However, the thinking behind become a new form of Kurdish identity organisation has both a female and the system was firmly set out by Ocalan, that can be shared with the whole male co-chair, and there are quotas and the main subjective factor has been world. On our first day in Syria, one of for female representation, as well as

15 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 a comprehensive system of separate philosophy is ecology. With the economy are passed up the chain. women’s organisations. Our delegation focussed on defence and reconstruction, A sketch of systems, as given here, met women active at all political this is currently more talked about than cannot portray the liberational, life- levels, from the co-chair of the Syrian acted on, but the wider rejection of the affirming, community-strengthening insatiable demands of capitalism is the Democratic Council, which oversees the impact of it all; but it was this that best hope for a more sustainable future. whole federation, to the feisty women stood out in everyone we met. They in long dresses and headscarves who are It would be hard to overestimate were taking an active part in building taking control of their own lives through the difficulties of establishing a new a better world for their families and their neighbourhood commune in the organisational system, even without the neighbourhood, for North-East Syria, backstreets of Kobane. added pressures of war and boycott. and - they hoped - beyond; and they Among the Syrian Kurds, these ideas It helped that the Kurdish movement were part of a system that, despite have long been nurtured in secret, already had strong underground huge external difficulties, was there to but, as we saw in Manbij, the drive for networks, but all involved accept that support them. In the places we visited, women’s rights is also being brought this structure is a work in progress, political activism wasn’t something to to other communities. A Kurdish friend and not without compromises and be fitted in, if and when there was time, told me of his pleasure at seeing an contradictions. These include the but an integral part of life that gave it Arab woman in Raqqa lose her fear of establishment of, more conventional, purpose. speaking up for herself, and then arguing top-down authorities at the level of Could we build a similarly inspiring back at him. The attack on patriarchy the cantons and to oversee the whole system here in Scotland? In Syria, new affects all of society, and we were federation. This was felt necessary structures were established in the able to observe relaxed and mutually in order to interact in a world of vacuum created by the civil war. In respectful relations between male and nation states and as a way of bringing eastern Turkey, Kurdish organisations female activists. in other parties and ethnic groups. attempted to set up their own structures They are formed of representatives parallel to the state, and found While achievements for women’s from different organisations and are rights have been remarkable, some of themselves repeatedly and brutally bound by a progressive social contract crushed. While Scotland should provide the ideas encompassed in ‘jineology’ (or constitution) that itself was the risk ossifying gender distinctions and a safer environment, we can’t afford product of extensive discussions. to forget that existing powers will be burdening women with impossible These authorities work closely with expectations. Ideas that have been vital just as reluctant to give up control, the councils, but they have introduced and especially to concede to anything in encouraging freedom could end up potential for conflicting power centres. constraining thought within new limits. that would restrict the ‘freedom’ of I am assured that this is a political Although the PYD are keen to increase capital. People are reluctant to take on problems they feel should be sorted movement that welcomes constructive democratic participation and legitimacy by government, but there are still criticism, but there is a tendency to by encouraging different groups to plenty of Scottish examples of what accept Ocalan’s ideas without question get involved at all levels, some don’t can be achieved when communities do – just as some Marxists treat Marx as accept the new political formations: come together and organise. Most are gospel. Ocalan is undoubtedly a hugely most notably, the Syrian branch of the isolated, determinedly ‘apolitical’, and inspirational leader, but the level of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the not linked to processes of wider change. devotion shown towards him sits rather feudal, neoliberal, ruling party in Iraqi But if we are serious about transforming oddly within grassroots democracy. Kurdistan. With their support of the embargo on Rojava, of Kurdish fifth society, we can’t leave the politics to An underlying logic to this system is columnists in Turkish-occupied Afrin, others. The Kurds have shown us how to opposition to ‘capitalist modernity’. This and of Turkey generally, the KDP are build a politics by - and for - the people. doesn’t disrupt the busy bazaars, but regarded by the PYD as ‘saboteurs’. Sarah Glynn is an activist, academic and suggests economic decisions should be Reaction to KDP leaders can extend architect, and a committee member made in the interests of the community. beyond the political, but I would be very of Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan A lot of hopes have been invested in the wary of taking KDP complaints about (www.sskonline.org.uk). For another establishment of co-ops, though this mistreatment at face value. Maintaining report on her visit to Northern Syria, sector is still very small, and its most judicial standards is important, so it see https://www.commonspace.scot/ significant impact has been to help was encouraging to discover that a articles/13202/women-life-freedom- women gain economic independence. fellow guest at the official guest house what-i-found-my-visit-womens- However, I was told that some attempts in Amude was a consultant advising revolution-northern-syria by foreign capital to establish large- the administration on the Geneva scale businesses have been rebuffed. Convention. Disappointingly, there has been In fact, a total rethinking of the systems no land reform – disproportionate of justice and law and order has been landownership by Arabs makes this an central to the democratic project. ethnically sensitive issue – but there are Disputes of all kinds are dealt with controls on house prices and rents, and by assemblies of local people, where a lot of agricultural land was already in the emphasis is on reconciliation and public ownership. rehabilitation, and prison is a last resort. The other core thread in Ocalan’s Only cases that can’t be resolved locally 16 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Where now for Corbyn on Brexit? George Reid wonders whether Corbyn is hamstrung by his attachment to the ‘left analysis’ of the EU limey, that was us!’ I spluttered, Corbyn’s dilemma is never about how he Corbyn’s instinctive anti-EU position nearly choking on my Sangria. sees the EU. His position and record are (originating often before they were ‘BMy holiday reading in Spain had crystal clear. It’s a neo-liberal capitalist born) as something of a mystery, coming been The Alan Clark Diaries, penned by club which fundamentally obstructs as it does from a hero in every other the eponymous enigma who combined socialist policies. Delivering us from that respect. ultra right-wing politics, philandering would be glory enough, were it not that You have to hand it to someone who’s and class snobbery with – perhaps the Tories are driving the bus. Even so, boosted Labour’s membership so somewhat surprisingly – passionate Corbyn’s hardly going to let this one incredibly. He even has his own song for environmental concern. About 25 escape easily. goodness sake. But many fans are now years ago, Pat Kelly, Bill Speirs, and I singing another chorus: ‘Love Corbyn, had spotted Clark waiting grumpily for Hate Brexit’. Maybe they’ll set that one his lift in the Station Hotel, Inverness to music too. For Jezza, this must now – venue for the STUC’s Highlands & be an uncomfortably frequent refrain Islands Conference the next day. Back from young supporters who instinctively then a Ceilidh was held on the eve of see themselves as European. Corbyn Conference. Always game to have a may soften if he feels he must, and there light-hearted poke at the enemy, a spur- are some faint hints of that. But no-one of-the-moment invitation was extended should take that to mean he sees the EU to Clark to join the festivities for a wee any differently. jig and a dram, given we were all ‘off duty’. Obviously taken aback, Clark There are many reasons to admire gushed how terribly kind we were, but Corbyn, even if it’s too much to hope he was waiting to be picked up [heading that he might one day support change to to his massive estate in Sutherland] Labour’s suicidal (in Scotland) position and therefore must decline. Happy with on the constitutional issue. Maybe the our display of magnanimity, we waved difficulty in weighing him up, overall, him off, proceeded with the evening’s is my own dilemma. Eyes firmly on a general election, Jezza will tough out his hooley, and thought no more of it. But own Brexit position as long as he can, to our astonishment, his published even among those who surely must tell diary went on to record the incident him daily that you can’t make progress in unexpectedly glowing terms: ‘These No, the real dilemma for Corbyn is wearing lead boots. Because if you’ve were trade unionists, they knew I was a how he deals with three different waited this long for a go at the second- Tory, wasn’t this just typical of Scottish types of internal strife. First, there’s biggest prize of all, nothing must get in hospitality, etc, etc.’ the predictable onslaught from the the way. Even if that amounts to shoe- Clark’s diaries, elsewhere, make equally right of the party, seething and licking horning your own vision of Brexit into gracious references to encounters and their wounds since day one of Corbyn’s the type of country gent’s brogues more conversations with the likes of left impertinent elevation. ‘Use any weapon suited to Alan Clark. Labour MPs, Ian Mikardo and Dennis at your disposal’ isn’t just the battle George Reid worked for the Scottish Skinner. Further confirmation that those cry of the bar-room rammy. Brexit, Government and was a PCS Branch you face in politics are your opponents, accusations of anti-semitism, anything secretary and chair for thirty years. He whereas it’s within your own party that will do as a proxy in the Labour right’s is no relation to – but was frequently you find your real enemies. Labour and media-supported quest to snuff out its and sometimes hilariously confused with Tories still vie to see who can keep this elected leader. This is an embattled and – his namesake, the former Presiding particular fire burning brightest. embittered Labour right, in a party of Officer of the Parliament. permanently locked horns. In the blue Brexit is awash with dilemmas: for corner are those who tell us, endlessly, Corbyn himself; for the new and that policies without power mean the young (often naturally strong nothing, versus those in the red corner Europeans) that Corbyn has attracted who claim power without radical change to Labour; and for the likes of me too, is pointless. Cue permanent war. who consider there’s plenty wrong with the EU, but it’s crazy to unleash Boris to Second, and more worrying for Corbyn, rampage all over our future, wielding his are the increasing departures from gleaming Brexit scimitar in the interests the script by Thornberry, Starmer, of the class he represents. It’s always Gardiner and even McDonnell. Outward seemed bizarre to represent this ultra- ripples which are bound to signify right funded Brexit nirvana as being, more rumbustious disagreements simultaneously, a progressive step when the doors are closed. And third towards socialism and internationalism. – and this is where Corbyn should be We, I think, can be guided by an analysis most concerned – many of his new, without being imprisoned by it. enthusiastic support seem to regard

17 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Scottish Labour: hope after adversity Siobhan McCready says it’s time for Leonard’s leadership to be supported not supplanted hen Richard Leonard won the at annual conference seemed a hoping for a change in wind direction Scottish Labour leadership distant memory. Things had moved on whilst shuffling chairs isn’t enough. race in 2017, many saw it politically, whilst arguably we seemed W Our message absolutely resonates as a signal we were now firmly on a stuck in neutral. It was a salutary with the electorate, and young different path. New activists, enthused lesson on the dangers of trying to people get it. Many in the union by the messages coming from British keep everyone happy. In the end, no movement now give us a hearing and Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, saw this one really was. Richard for his part, a fair few are returning. People in as a defining moment: we had left the followed the policy as agreed by the the community are talking about us bruising experience of 2014 behind membership, but it was a difficult again, not in a negative way. I know - I and were back on track. There was so sell in the face of a hostile media, hear it daily. There’s lots of work to much positive energy around Richard’s confused electorate and, frankly, our be done but it’s not hopeless by any campaign for the leadership that you’d own malcontents seemingly happy to means. The message isn’t the issue, be forgiven for assuming that energy capitalise on this for whatever their nor is the leader. It’s us. To make that would carry on and we’d now be in a agendas are. It was always going to breakthrough people need to park much stronger position. But this is the be bad, but even the dire predictions egos and personal ambitions. It’s time Labour Party. were better than the eventual to stop the games and manoeuvring. outcome. It was as bad as it gets. The near wipe-out of Labour in It’s time to pull as one and it’s time Scotland has been a sobering Inevitable and predictable call for to get behind Richard and show him experience. We are in uncharted heads to roll follow - for Richard support. If we do, things will change waters, it’s unsettling, scary at times. to step aside and for the next and we will start winning again. Is that How did it come to this? Who is to victim, sorry leader, to take their not what we all want? blame? Why do the electorate not rightful place. We are running out Siobhan McCready is secretary of the hear/understand/believe/trust our of contenders so time to waken Campaign for Socialism (http://www. message? Why do others in the Party up. Changing leader won’t resolve campaignforsocialism.org.uk/), Chair not get the message? What is that anything but changing our collective of Unite Scotland Political Committee message? No matter what wing of the attitude will. This is not the time for and a member of Scottish Labour’s Party you identify with, the questions another public airing of dirty washing: Executive. She writes in a personal tend to be the same. Only the people it’s a time to have honest discussions, capacity. to blame change. It’s frankly a clear the air and move on. That’s what waste of energy and just says to the the electorate expect from us, a party electorate that we are a squabbling fit to lead in uncertain times and it rabble, unfit to govern. At times, they was heartening to see Richard showing are entirely right to hold that view! that leadership at our Scottish Executive Committee meeting post- Richard sits in the midst of this. A Cover: election. We need more of this: less decent principled man with a track Nadia Lucchesi about what Labour did in the past and record of delivering for workers before ([email protected]) more what it offers now. Yes, we have entering Holyrood. He brings real a proud history but the electorate life experience and a passion for the Proofing services: want to hear what an invigorated history of the labour movement that John Wood and John Daly Labour Party will do for them now. defines him, a good Labour man. His Communications and first act as leader was a quick exit One lesson from history though organisational development: from his celebration party straight was the importance of organising to the BiFab plant in Methil showing communities. We need to spend less Carole Ewart solidarity with the workers fighting time at Holyrood, where we simply Editor Email: to save their jobs. Exactly where the aren’t getting a hearing, and much Gregor Gall Scottish Labour Party leader should more time out in our communities [email protected] be. If we are to once again be the talking about our vision, highlighting party of labour, of working men and SNP failures and offering fresh ideas. Web: www.scottishleftreview.org women, that’s where we all need to There’s nothing to lose right now. Tel: 0141 424 0042 be. We should be standing shoulder It’s possibly the time to rethink other to shoulder with workers everywhere Address: things too. We have a diminished right now struggling under austerity parliamentary presence but no lack of Scottish Left Review, politics: council workers, health and talent across the party. A recent article 14 West Campbell Street, social care workers, teachers, those in in Labour List had several comments Glasgow G2 6RX retail, hospitality … I’d take issue with but maybe now So where are we? The Euro elections is indeed the time to draft in others Printed by were a disaster, the message didn’t from the ranks of union affiliates, Hampden Advertising Ltd, cut through, nobody really knew councillors and senior activists to help 403 Hillington Road, G52 4BL, what we stood for in the end - not sharpen the message. It’s time to Tel: 0141 429 1010 even ourselves. The policies agreed do things differently, holding on and 18 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Revisiting funding local government and local services Mike Danson and Geoff Whittam summarise their research on where new local government funding can come from ocal government has had economy in particular. Although In that context, and given the time the largest cut in Scottish health and education have been and planning needed to make any Lgovernment funding allocations largely insulated from the damaging radical changes to fiscal measures in recent years, bearing the brunt of effects of overall austerity cuts, and instruments, it is wise to austerity. UNISON, along with others, key areas of creativity, culture and learn from the series of inquiries, has been highlighting the overall cuts leisure, planning and environmental commissions and other rigorous and in their ‘damage’ report series services have seen disproportionately proposals on alternatives for local have set out their members’ views high reductions in spending. After finance. These offer a consensus of the impact on individual services. decades of efficiency strategies around moving to progressive local Our various previous reports to of ‘best value’, ‘public sector property taxes, with several arguing UNISON (see, for example, Scottish management’, followed by PPP/PFI that land value taxation should Left ReviewNov/Dec 2017) have schemes, housing stock transfer and also be introduced in due course argued for a more interventionist moves of employment and activities developing these initial moves role for local government in areas out to ALEOs (arms-length external away from Council Tax. As Professor like procurement, the environment organisations), austerity cuts have Richard Kerley of Queen Margaret and municipal energy in order to left few areas for further reductions University has argued, a key contribute to reversing cuts to local without damaging the economic challenge is to restore accountability government activities, to allow local and social life of local communities. in local democracy. An important government to play a fuller role Further rounds of restructuring, element in this is the need to link in promoting local economies and reductions of back office ‘support’ taxation with services; this is a communities, and to protect public functions, management ‘de-layering’, recurrent theme in the literature and services; all these initiatives and reduction in estate costs and changes public discourse, with a widespread strategies mean securing greater to commissioning and procurement, desire for local government to regain revenues. therefore, are unlikely to offer any greater controls over its funding. However, there have been significant savings for redeployment Despite the spurious claims by Tory progressive cuts to the core budgets in local government budgets. With politicians that taxes overall are for local authorities for over a critical further expenditure falls higher in Scotland than elsewhere, decade with detrimental effects in the pipeline, it is vital to the this is neither true for those on for the provision of public services. health and wellbeing of citizens, the average or lower incomes, while Facing more years of uncertainty workforce and local communities and Council taxpayers in the Scottish and austerity, the demand for economies that new funding streams Borders, for instance, pay £508 local government services and for local services are identified. less than their close neighbour employment will become ever more This puts the focus onto identifying counterparts in Northumbria. This pressing but with continuing severe opportunities to increase local suggests there is an argument for pressures on budgets and priorities. authority revenues. Looking at raising more from local taxpayers to Within the constraints of the powers recent Scottish Budgets, there has recognise that they receive better available to the Scottish Parliament, been some divergence at Holyrood services at lower costs than those there is a need to identify possible from the Westminster approach to in the rest of Britain. Resurrecting new sources of funding and finance tax and spend policies, but there is the Burt and other tax commissions, to meet these needs. Our research little further room for making the tax there will be cross-party talks about for UNISON on these issues was system more progressive. Varying the ways of replacing the Council Tax in launched in April 2019 and this Scottish Rate of Income Tax (SRIT) the next Scottish Parliament (2021- summary offers the opportunity to and income tax thresholds have 2026). Despite this further delay carry forward the debate. made some contribution to making in significant change, there is the manifesto promise of a progressive Analyses by the Improvement the system less regressive, but SRIT property tax being introduced within Service, the Accounts Commission, is limited to ‘non-dividend, non- the next five years. Such a radical Audit Scotland and others have savings’ incomes. Meanwhile, local change should be aiming to usher recognised how local government authorities are heavily dependent in higher revenues than the current delivers efficient and effective public on the Scottish Government and Council Tax and in a progressive and services and could make greater the Council Tax for funding; the inclusive approach. As the cross contributions to inclusive growth first does not underpin democratic party 2015 Commission on Local Tax and quality public services. These accountability at the local level and Reform argued: analyses highlight the important Council Tax is regressive. New and contribution local government makes different forms of local government Our analysis therefore indicates to our communities and to the local funding are, therefore, required. that a more proportionate property 19 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 tax, implemented alongside a be an expectation that all involved contributing to public services by more progressive system of income will seek to identify where current uneven treatment of earned and and need based reliefs, would practices and priorities are not fit unearned incomes, and wealth in be much fairer than the present for purpose. The critiques of such different forms. Having the means to council tax and connect better to instruments as the Small Business levy taxes on all equally will require both the income and the wealth Bonus Scheme and other Non- transfer of powers and this may take interpretations of ‘ability to pay’.This Domestic Rate reliefs suggest there further time. Some resource-based is consistent with the conclusions are areas of public subsidy that may taxes require such devolution while of the Burt Review that: a new not be the optimal approach to others, for example on land values, progressive Local Property Tax (LPT) supporting new and small enterprises should start to be explored now be introduced, based on the capital and so an inclusive and competitive but will need time for subsequent value of individual properties and economy. Some of these policies cost implementation. payable by households occupying local government many hundreds A final recommendation concerned properties (whether as owner- of millions of pounds every year a radical proposal for a new move to occupiers or as tenants) and by and so deliberations should lead to re-municipalisation, following many owners of second homes and proposals for better targeting in the successful examples in Europe in unoccupied properties. following budget. recent times. In an early change in Complementing the normal property Such initiatives for local government this direction, amendments to the tax, we argue for a ‘wealth or funding as the Work Place Levy, Transport Bill from Scottish Labour heritable property tax’ to capture Tourism taxes, Charges for Disposable and the Scottish Government will those who avoid paying income Cups and other packaging require allow councils to run bus services and tax in Scotland but own substantial legislation to be passed by the set up arm’s-length bus companies. assets. Such a fiscal innovation Scottish Parliament and so their With the success of Lothian Buses, could generate significant revenues introduction will be in the medium this would present opportunities and presage and subsequently term. More significantly, moves to generate revenues that have work alongside a land value tax. As to replace the Council Tax with been lost from cuts and enforced Scotland is one of the most unequal a progressive Property Tax will deregulation of buses, housing stock countries in the world as it suffers require a more extensive period transfers etc. Also, it could both from gross inequities embedded in of design and planning, valuations support local authorities to maintain the political economic structures and of properties, establishment of the levels of services needed by processes of Britain, radical means processes and appeals mechanisms their citizens and to meet societal to reverse the growth of inequality is before implementation. challenges in the future, for example essential. in terms of the climate emergency, Improving the degree of subsidiarity social care and recycling. Our analysis supported a number of and local accountability which lies recommendations which we have at the heart of successful economies With the approach of the next been discussing with trade unionists, and societies has ongoing and long- Scottish Parliament elections on academics and others over recent term implications. Promoting the 6 May 2021, we hope that these months. These recommendations can empowerment of local communities ideas will be taken up by the be summarised in four key points: and workforces, building a progressive parties in the Scottish first and in the short term, the foundational economy and reducing Parliament when they begin to draft Scottish Government, COSLA, local the historical and globally high levels their manifestos for fighting those government and professional bodies of inequality and poverty cannot elections. working together to identify where be separated from the need for Mike Danson is Professor of loopholes, avoidance and coverage alternative sources for funding local Enterprise Policy at Heriot-Watt have allowed some to escape public services and government; they University and Geoff Whittam is making their fair contribution to the will be addressed more effectively a Reader in Entrepreneurship at collection of tax revenues. This would and efficiently in an integrated Glasgow Caledonian University. suggest recruitment of additional manner, again as recommended by The report was launched at the staff to ensure that registration, the Budget Process Review Group. STUC congress and was the main regulation and collection of revenues Third, some of the changes required media story of that congress. It is is undertaken, and this could be to make the tax system progressive available at http://reidfoundation. achieved cost effectively so adding to and inclusive require further org/2019/04/unison-scotland- total funds in net terms. constitutional changes. To capture commissioned-report-on-alternative- Second, with adoption of the all those who have the opportunities sources-of-funding-for-local- recommendations from the to gain from their income, wealth government/ See also the STUC’s Budget Process Review Group for and spending in Scotland will mean 2018 Briefing: 2018/19 Scottish the Committees of the Scottish devolution of new fiscal and other Budget, http://www.stuc.org.uk/ Parliament to adopt longer horizons powers to the Scottish Parliament. files/budget%20final.pdf in the scrutiny and planning of Ability to tax fairly should be Scottish Government and Parliament facilitated equitably across all groups strategies and policies, there should so that the wealthy cannot escape 20 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Fighting and winning in FE Pam Currie reflects on the successes of the further education lecturers’ campaign for better conditions cottish further education member-led organising and social intervene. The Scottish Funding lecturers settled a pay dispute media ensured picket lines across Council even accepted and validated Sin June 2019 after six days of the country and management folded management figures which strike action – the only part of the the next day, agreeing a transition to inaccurately portrayed our pay claim Scottish public sector to take strike equal pay across a three-year period. as costing double that of the support action in pursuit of a cost of living staff – in fact, the difference was The struggle for equal pay was never pay rise this year. For those EIS- marginal. going to be an easy win. In the FELA members, this bitter dispute months that followed the first victory EIS-FELA members have responded was always about more than pay. in 2016, management regrouped and by standing strong and united on Further education (FE) colleges were started to resist, insistent that they the picket lines and in our branches. semi-privatised in 1993 when they would not pay out without swingeing While there was a danger that were removed from local authority attacks on terms and conditions. the teachers’ pay campaign – control and placed under business- with 50,000 EIS members to our dominated, Boards of Management. Further strike action followed in 5,000 – would overshadow us, The years that followed saw an 2017 with the ‘Honour the Deal’ the campaigns have created an explosion in management posts and campaign. Lay officials visited organising energy in the union and salaries while local bargaining led staffrooms the length and breadth have fed into and inspired one to huge divergence in lecturer pay of the country and a high-profile another, with more cross-sector and terms and conditions across social media campaign delivered the union work as a result. In the next the sector – the strongest branches necessary statutory ballot turnout – session, this will be taken forward holding firm on conditions and by now, we had active branches even through the lecturer professionalism increasing pay while the weakest fell in colleges that had not signed up to agenda, where we are fighting further behind. national bargaining. After six days of strike action management conceded, against attempts to introduce As Cabinet Secretary for Education paying the equal pay settlements ‘instructor’ and ‘assessor’ roles to in the SNP government of 2011, won in 2016 and agreeing to new deliver the curriculum to learners – Mike Russell made few friends in national terms and conditions. damaging the quality of learning and further education, forcing large scale National bargaining was now teaching and undermining national mergers and reducing Scotland’s established across the country. conditions in a way that would not 41 colleges to just 26. As part of even be conceived of in Scottish this programme of reforms, Russell Equal pay for lecturers was not a pay schools. brought a national bargaining rise, but an equal pay settlement to In the past four years, we have structure into existence, but his ensure lecturers were paid the same fought and we have won – equal successor, Angela Constance, had rate for the job across the country pay for lecturers, national terms taken office before negotiations - it took no account of the cost of and conditions, a national transfer stalled and the first national living. After two years of fruitless to permanence agreement which industrial action took place in March negotiations, we took a further six will drastically reduce the number 2016. days of strike action from January 2019, supported by a withdrawal of staff on zero hours and fixed term The one-day strike in March 2016 of goodwill and resulting boycott, contracts, and a cost of living pay had a simple demand – equal pay in pursuit of a cost of living pay rise – and these apply to lecturers for lecturers, closing a sector-wide claim. In contrast to the teachers’ across the entire sector. salary gap of £14,000. After a restorative pay claim, our demands Pam Currie is the president of the quarter century of local bargaining, were modest – a rise in line with Educational Institute of Scotland- building a national union in FE was public sector pay policy and the Further Education Lecturers’ no easy task – we represent 5,000 award already made to support staff Association (EIS-FELA) (see https:// members spread from Stranraer unions in the sector for the same www.eis.org.uk/FELA/FELAStrike). to Shetland, with lecturers often period. entering FE as a second career after a lifetime in non-union industries. The attitude of Colleges Scotland National bargaining met with fierce and the Scottish Government to this management opposition from the dispute and to the further education outset. In March 2016, none of sector more widely stands in stark the Glasgow colleges and only four contrast to the approach adopted UHI colleges had signed up, and in the teachers’ dispute. Despite principals openly doubted the ability increasingly wild press releases and of the union to reach beyond the parliamentary briefings containing large central belt colleges. They apparent factual inaccuracies, got a fright – a combination of lay the Scottish Government failed to

21 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Governance, marketization and Scotland’s universities Jeremy Valentine dissects the destruction of our public universities and suggests what changes are needed to re-invigorate them as ‘public goods’ institutions ven though Scotland’s universities to as ‘neo-liberalism’ by its critics. World Trade Organisation, the OECD are currently a devolved matter, Despite its breadth, and a welcome and regional alliances such as the EU, Ethey are not unaffected by political attempt to address the underfunding these developments are promoted developments at the British level. of further and vocational education, and organised at a global level. An For example, following the recent the main focus of Augur was upon the unaccountable ‘global executive class’, Westminster government commissioned relationship between cost, price and which includes university managers, is 2019 Augur report on post-18 education, the labour market value of university interested in the ‘value capture’ of the Alastair Sim, Director of the Scottish qualifications. Accounting for university broad knowledge wealth and assets Principals’ pressure group, Universities finances turned out to be more of a produced by university workers and Scotland, was quick to point out that challenge than anticipated and Augur students. Within Britain, resistance to Scottish universities have been doing had to employ the international that became visible during the 2018 many of the report’s ‘best’ proposals consultancy firm KPMG to try and UCU strike in defence of pensions which prior to publication. But Sim also warned work it out. Even then no one really grew to confront university managers that the report’s proposed reduction of knows if teaching subsidises research, over their betrayal and perversion of fees for students attending universities or the other way around, or if science the public university function under in England, Wales and Northern Ireland subjects subsidies humanities and social the slogan ‘we are the university’, not would have a negative impact on the sciences, or the other way around, or least because of the work that academic Scottish governments’ no-fees policy if lucrative international student fees workers are required to do in support of for Scottish and EU students attending subsidise everything. Despite that, the marketization which elbows out time for Scottish universities. That is because: drive towards marketization has been teaching and research. ‘When the Scottish government decided supported by the creation of the Office Within Scotland, there is an opportunity to make undergraduate education free for Students (OfS) and the 2017 Higher to make opposition to marketization for Scottish and EU-domiciled students Education Reform Act HERA)( which a structural feature of universities as in 2011, one pillar of the funding model encourages private providers. a consequence of the 2016 Higher to support free higher education was Although formally outside of the reach Education Governance (Scotland) Act the new revenue stream that would of these developments, with its own introduced by the SNP government. come in to Scotland from fees paid equally complicated administrative Compliance with the act requires that by students from the rest-of-UK’. In structures, Scotland’s universities are the governing bodies of universities the event of a fee reduction, Scottish not immune to these marketization (‘courts’) become socially representative universities would be faced with an pressures. For example, Scottish and include union participation. Despite annual shortfall of £30m because there universities participate in the Britain- the fact that failure to implement would be no advantage if Scottish wide Research Excellence Framework the act entails negative financial universities charged rest-of-UK students (REF), a funding competition that consequences, the managements of with higher fees than rest-of-UK allocates money on the basis of many Scottish universities are using all universities. published research and ranks the tactics of delay and fudge they can Sim took the opportunity to ask for competitors on the basis of who won muster to neutralise it. funding to replace any lost fee income most, and some participate in the Management opposition to the act from the Scottish Government, because Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), might indicate that it’s a good thing as without it the financial decline of a deeply flawed exercise which ranks far as the democratic accountability Scottish universities would get worse. universities on the basis of teaching and social responsibility of universities Confirmation of that decline can be quality and graduate earnings. The is concerned. It is, but it only goes so as found in Audit Scotland’s 2016 report idea behind these exercises is that the far as the top end of formal university on Scotland’s universities. This shows a rankings they produce will determine structures of power and rule. It is pattern similar to that found in the rest student choice of both university and not able to drill down to the political of Britain, with a few relatively secure subject of study, with the consequence reality of how universities are run, big hitters, a lot more struggling to get that the losers will be eliminated the level at which market supporting by, and some on the verge of going through competition and demands on decisions are made and implemented. under. taxation reduced, which would happen The characteristics of that reality were irrespective of whether fees are charged The Augur report is one of the latest indicated in a previous Jimmy Reid or not. The survivors would be left attempts by successive Westminster Foundation publication in 2013 called to their own devices to obtain other governments since the Thatcher reforms The Democratic University in which financial resources. of the 1980s to drive the development the authors identified and opposed of universities in the direction of These developments are not confined the emergence of Senior Management marketization and privatisation, a to Britain. Through international Teams (SMTs) composed of academic policy framework often referred agencies such as the World Bank, the and non-academic managers as the 22 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 unaccountable shadow executives of compliance with government, and to maintain the democratic and public universities that govern through the especially marketing departments character of universities and halt the rubber stamping of decisions. These which represent universities in uniform invasion of marketization then they SMTs have arisen because managers marketing terms. In turn, the distinction need to address the following issues. have seized the idea of university between academics, government and Managers have created a ‘them-and- autonomy and used it as a justification the private sector becomes porous and us’ antagonism with rank-and-file for the old school Thatcherite assertion elastic. academics which is supported by of ‘the right of managers to manage’. the excessive salaries they reward One consequence of that has been themselves with and the precarious Empowered in that way, SMTs the increase of reports of bullying, status many of the latter are reduced resist scrutiny and accountability harassment and intimidation and the to. If salary differences are narrowed, and determine the conduct of the deterioration of physical and mental to a ratio of 6:1 say, then managers bewildering variety of academic health as rank-and-file academic workers would have less incentive to implement structures and procedures through struggle with the rising demands of marketization, and more to support the which the conduct of universities is teaching and research and orders to academic rank-and-file in a stewardship established. Consequently, the value of support the direction of marketization in role, and help restore academic freedom academic freedom is perverted as the a context in which collegiality has been and autonomy. Perhaps above all, the privilege of managerial authority and replaced by pathological command and ambiguity around the ownership of the freedom of academics to criticise control-freakery. universities needs to be resolved in and oppose that is denied. Through order to destroy the illusion that it direct and indirect monitoring and One of the main ways that governments belongs to managers who enjoy the surveillance academics are accountable have shaped the activity of universities narcissistic claim that they ‘own’ the to SMTs, but not the other way around. as economic actors has been through actions that they undertake. It would In that way, and supported by the the expectation that they would also set a limit to the commercial disciplinary sticks of employment law, contribute to the so-called ‘knowledge encroachment of university governance. academic conduct is driven to support economy’. Because the results of that For that reason, proposals for the SMT interests and the allocation of have been unreliable and disappointing creation of commonly owned co- resources required to establish them. in relation to the money universities received to do it, the emphasis has operative universities have become The authors of the Jimmy Reid switched to the direct commodification prominent. The bottom line is that Foundation report call SMT domination of education itself. The upshot of knowledge is a public asset and as the ‘corporate hegemony model’ that has been a variety of attempts such the conditions for its production, (CHM). Derived from the writings to increase the exchange value of distribution and consumption should be of the Italian Marxist theorist and qualifications in labour markets, which shared as widely as possible in order to Communist politician imprisoned by in turn has distorted curricula without support social individuals in the creation Mussolini, Antonio Gramsci, the notion providing any guarantees that the work of a knowledge society. of hegemony refers to the balance actually exists. JV was formerly a lecturer at Queen of coercion and consent required to Margaret University, Edinburgh. Similarly, in order to reduce academic establish leadership. Extending the His recent paper for the Jimmy Reid labour costs curricula are being report’s analysis, it is important to recall Foundation called ‘Neo-liberalism standardised in order to be converted that Gramsci argued that consent, in and the new institutional politics of into correspondence courses delivered his case to Fascism, was achieved by universities’, which he draws upon here, through the internet. Again, although the actions of subalterns, the so-called can be found at http://reidfoundation. the results of so-called Massive Open ‘NCOs’ of hegemony. Subalterns occupy org/2019/05/neo-liberalism-and-the- Online Courses (MOOCS) have been a place in the command structure new-institutional-politics-of-universities- pathetic and the push for their adoption between the higher-ups (managers) and paper-now-available/ the rank-and-file (academics). SMTs are has intensified, not least because the able to implement that through a divide global flows of speculative financial and rule strategy in which academics are capital that run through IT and internet placed in decisive positions in return for firms that seek to expand into the supporting their policies. Not only does ‘edu-tech’ sector. As well as rents from that replicate corporate ‘greasy pole’ intellectual properties, universities will politics and turf wars but universities also provide data that can be used to also become less autonomous in relation control academics and students and to the environment which government commodified in Ponzi-scheme markets. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE shapes in order to manage them. Consequently, the price of a normal Bill Bonnar Bill Ramsay university education will rise, instituting Moira Craig Lilian Macer Changes in the internal authority of a ‘bricks for the rich, clicks for the poor’ Sean Duffy Gordon Morgan universities to reflect that are driven divide. University education will be Carole Ewart Dave Sherry by managers who justify their actions ‘unbundled’ and ‘re-bundled’ in the Gregor Gall Stephen Smellie as obedience to the rapid turnover of same way as communication and utility Editor Chris Stephens government policies and initiatives. services, with the same deliberately Pat Kelly Maggie Chapman SMTs recruit non-academic corporate confusing tariff rates. Convener Bob Thomson managers to informal governance Vice Convener structures in order to demonstrate If changes to governance are intended

23 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Green revolt on our streets Niamh McNulty explains why XR Scotland has done what it’s done and what it will still do n April 2019, Extinction Rebellion reports but, crucially, at the moment police sat around the corners in (XR) launched a week of civil swathes of people taking on acts anticipation of rowdiness we’ve Idisobedience. It saw roads in of civil disobedience made the never given them any reason to major cities closed to motorists headlines. Both, one natural and one expect. They made every attempt and turned into sites of defiance political, inspired a sense of urgency to intimidate, from following and community, operating as that brought the issue to the fore of rebels between meeting points to stages for the anger, grief and hope collective consciousness. The actions attempting to kettle protesters. This of thousands of people. Arrests that XR Scotland has taken recently only became more apparent at the reached the thousands. In Scotland, alongside XR internationally show time of writing as we attempted on 16 April, we blocked North Bridge how strategic points in the transport multiple roadblocks in the city in Edinburgh from traffic for five system can be used. It is about centre on 17 June when horses hours, contributing 29 arrests to the bringing the action to people. People and riot vans were deployed in count. do not hang out around parliament, a disproportionate response to actions and other meetings of XR North Bridge is a main route in business parks or oil rigs but, they folk. Somebody is feeling tetchy; Edinburgh, connecting the old to are walking through town, where somebody wants to silence us. When new town, therefore serving as a they work and live. They see us, the we put our bodies, reputations and strategic point in the fight that XR state, the issue. Their reactions vary, livelihoods on the line during the takes on. Targeted actions can seem from folk enthused that something legal process, we reveal the true more obvious and more likely to is finally happening to those who, colours of the state. We bring the engage decision-makers. Why did we unfortunately, really could not afford state, not just ourselves, to court not target government buildings or a delay. We never took this action rooms in the face of government oil companies? Why disrupt ordinary lightly but with heavy hearts. In the inaction as nothing short of ecocide. people? The answer is two-fold. First, end, whatever people think, they We ask: who is really breaching the other actions, such as occupying the have thought about it. As more peace? debating chamber of the Scottish disruption is caused the more the parliament on 25 January, and government is forced to acquiesce XR Scotland want leaders to tell the disrupting the Scottish Oil Club’s to our demands. Aside from that, truth about the climate emergency annual dinner took on these tasks. an action on your doorstep is an and act as if it’s real by setting a There is no intention of slowing up accessible way of demonstrating 2025 target for net-zero carbon or leaving it at that, as demonstrated your discontent publicly. emissions. To oversee this, and to by the parliament lock-ons on 4 June It is essential to make clear that rapidly transform Scottish society, and the Holyrood Rebel camp set the success of placing the climate we wish to see the establishment up outside parliament from where emergency into the national agenda of a Climate Citizens’ Assembly. this is written. Second, the fight is a preliminary one. It is crucial but, We are on our way to achieving for climate justice does not exist declarations of climate emergency this – our success always treads the solely at the doors of the powers aren’t enough. As the first XR wire between falling into obscurity that be. Rousing people into action demand goes: ‘Tell the truth and or disrepute and heading onward and mobilizing a critical component act as though the truth is real’. The to the ever more palpable goal of of the population needs to happen latter isn’t happening yet but, now a decarbonized Scotland with a because we win when we can’t we have their words to hold them democracy fit for purpose. If we are be ignored and our interests are to, the atmosphere of urgency and to push through, we must not ease given greater credence than that of the people to create pressure. This is up the pressure. We must continue corporates. What this means, is that where the strategy of arrest comes to bring the issue to the streets and power, or rather agency, is ours for into play. It highlights the hypocrisy crucially, we must always work to the taking. That the powerful act between the state’s rhetoric and make our actions more accessible, when the people lead. its actions. While ministers and safer and dig deeper down into issues of intersectionality to shape a A graph, recently published by government officials nurture the truly just transition. YouGov, showed the varying levels line that Scotland is a world leader, of environmental concern in committed to radical change, their Niamh McNulty is part of the Britain, tracing people’s reactions response at North Bridge revealed Actions Working Group of Extinction and relationships to the natural their discomfort with truly adopting Rebellion Scotland. and political events surrounding meaningful policy and desire to them. There were two key peaks curb our relentlessness. Police were of concern: the 2014 floods and sent in from across Scotland in a the start of 2019 – not after the display of strength as hundreds of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate police officers stood off with 29 Change or World Wildlife Fund sitting protestors; van loads of riot 24 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Poverty and people The UN Special Rapporteur Report on Extreme Poverty in Britain illustrates the impact of austerity and a hostile policy environment. But what, Lynn Williams asks, does it mean for Scotland? he Glasgow Council for the Economic and fiscal management is a to see increasing child poverty and Voluntary Sector (GCVS) recently constant mantra of all political parties. the shameful gender inequalities and Theld a ‘Community Event’ There is no doubt that this current and disability employment gap that we with Mark Carney, governor of the previous Westminster governments know exist in Scotland are likely to Bank of England (BoE), providing an have used this mantra as a screen continue without concerted action. opportunity to consider the impact for policies which have ‘gutted’ and Third sector organisations involved of economic policy on people and ‘eliminated’ key public services. We in the GCVS Human Rights Defenders communities. Given its reach, impact see deep levels of destitution as any Network talk often about a gap and influence, the BoE request to previous safety nets are torn apart. between ‘rights rhetoric’ and ‘rights meet and speak with charities and There is no doubt that this ideological reality’. community groups was too good drive to push people towards self- That is not to say that actions of the an opportunity to miss. Carney and reliance is in fact inflicting harm Scottish Government, like the newly his team spent a great deal of time on people. In some cases, like the announced human rights taskforce talking with groups working with reduction of Universal Credit Working or idea of citizens’ assemblies or work women who have experienced Allowances, that harm is intentional. delivery of Best Start grants, are not sexual abuse, with unpaid carers, Disabled people are increasingly welcome. Of course, there is still isolated or institutionalized and with children, amongst others. potential for Scotland to take bigger millions cannot afford the most basic These organisations represent our steps towards the creation of a fairer things required to survive. That’s the fellow citizens and were able to lay country. However, Alston’s report – message from Alston’s report. out in stark terms the ways in which and the work of the Scottish Poverty families and communities have been Now, I turn to the Rapporteur’s view and Inequality Commission – provide deeply affected by years of austerity, of Scotland. The Scottish Government a clear call to arms. These key reports structural barriers and deliberate gets off relatively lightly – there is provide the context in which national political decisions which have a critique on transparency in policy and local government and a whole exacerbated existing inequalities. making and a need to ensure that plethora of public bodies must take Too often, the economy and economic social security claimants in the stock and be honest about what is performance in political and public fledgling Scottish system have clear being achieved - and what we have so discourse are discussed in the abstract routes to redress. Yet, civil society far failed to do. – as ‘things’ which sit outside the is actively campaigning for more For the sake of the 1 in 4 children in reality of our everyday lives. So, the immediate use of new social security poverty, families facing destitution, Bank’s community events provide an powers to tackle child poverty in disabled people increasingly isolated important reality check for officials Scotland; people with disabilities and as local services are cut further and who can influence the highest levels. carers are finding it harder to access for carers forced to give up work But what charities told Carney and key services such as social care - this because social care is impossible to his team was not new – the impact reality is masked by a political focus on access, action is needed. The people of policy on people’s lives is out there free personal care. The work done by factor is critical – we cannot lose sight and in various reports and analyses. the Scottish campaign on the Care Tax of the human costs here. To miss the Not least of these is the stunningly shows inflation busting increases in opportunity currently in our grasp heart-breaking report by Professor care charging are still present and that would be to fail tens of thousands of Philip Alston on extreme poverty disabled people are often no better off our fellow citizens. in the UK (https://undocs.org/A/ with the expansion of free personal HRC/41/39/Add.1). care. Lynn Williams (@Carer49) is Social Policy Coordinator for GCVS – Glasgow Alston paints a disturbing picture of Alston’s report does not cover Council for the Voluntary Sector. She what happens when ideology drives these issues. Whilst he argues that is also a full-time, unpaid carer for economic and social policy. We see the Westminster Government has her husband and has facilitated the millions left behind by a myriad of cuts chosen to completely ignore his work, #realcarersweek campaign to highlight to social support and a labour market some might argue that the Scottish the reality of unpaid care. GCVS (www. which cannot guarantee decent jobs. Government has its head in the sand gcvs.org.uk; @GlasgowCVS) has been He commented: ‘It is hard to imagine about the reality of poverty here. the main development agency for a recipe better designed to exacerbate Scotland faces its own poverty and Glasgow’s Third Sector over the last 45 inequality and poverty and to human rights challenges, even though years. undermine the life prospects of many political intention is not malign. We millions’. His report is a stark and see the poor implementation of ‘no holds barred’ assessment of the important policies and legislation. Westminster Government’s austerity Alongside the devastating changes programme. He described this as brought into being by the Westminster social re-engineering and he is right. Government, Scotland will continue

25 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 China: red star still rising at seventy? Bill Bonnar explains the path China is on and the challenges it faces he People’s Republic of China capitalism. For them pre-revolutionary The issues are, rather, of democracy (PRC) celebrates its seventieth China was not capitalist and, therefore, and civil rights. China is not and never Tbirthday this year. It’s moved China needed to go through a period has been a democracy and has little from being a war-ravaged vassal of of capitalist style development to tradition of human rights (individual, western imperialism to the world’s transform the country into a modern community, workers). Bringing about second largest economy. What are state. The key measure would be the a civil rights-based political system is socialists to make of this? Analysis is change from a predominately rural to a its greatest political challenge. When often like this. From 1949-1978, the predominately urban society; something China was primarily a rural society, this Chinese Communist Party (CCP) oversaw achieved in the past decade. was difficult with a largely traditional, the greatest socialist revolution in socially conservative population. Most history. Since 1978, it has overseen the This division convulsed Chinese politics, Chinese now are better educated, have greatest capitalist revolution in history. reaching its peak during the Cultural more of a world outlook, live in an In the latter, if China has undergone a Revolution from 1966-1970. However, urban setting and are now more likely to capitalist transformation, it is like no by 1976 the Capitalist Roaders had demand greater civil rights. other such transformation we have ever triumphed and set about their plans. In 1978, they launched the ‘Four Great By any definition, China is a success witnessed. A ‘socialist market economy’ story. In a single generation, there overwhelmingly owned and controlled Modernisations’; which is what we have witnessed in China for the past 40 years. has been a transformation on a by the state, an economy where scale unparalleled in human history, centralised planning still predominates Today, it is the world’s largest transforming the lives of the Chinese over the market and where the state manufacturing economy. It is people for the better. The present remains the principal driving force in an economy with the outward course is set to continue for the economic development. All overseen appearance of capitalism. Yet, all indefinite future. There will, of course, by the CCP which states the process large manufacturing companies are, be many challenges which include the currently being taken is part of the to a greater or lesser extent, state- following. overall aim of building socialism. owned and controlled with the profits What will be the future balance To understand PRC history, one has to mostly going to the state. The private between an increasingly diverse and understand the CCP’s history. When sector, in the conventional sense, is complex economy and centralised it emerged victorious from the civil relatively small and is overwhelmingly state? What will be the state’s response war in 1949, it was not a conventional located in small businesses and in the to the growing demands for more civil political party. In fact, it was more rural economy. Foreign investment rights and how will it respond if these like a broad-based national liberation is marginal and tightly restricted and campaigns take on an organised and movement. Interestingly, the first PRC controlled through the system of mass form? Can China maintain the constitution stated the CPC was the joint-stock companies partly owned growth rates of the last few decades leading force in society at the head of by the government. Some western and should it? How will it deal with an alliance of workers, peasants and economists had believed that all this the consequences of rapid economic domestic bourgeoisie. Once the PRC would eventually lead to the rise of a development on climate change? How was established, an immense division more recognisable capitalist economy will it exercise its increasing role as a opened up about the way forward and yet there is little evidence of this. In global super power? fact, as the economy has grown and would engulf Chinese politics for the For socialists, does this represent a become more diverse, the main thrust next 30 years. model for the transition to socialism of government policy appears to one of and at what stage, if ever, does this The party split into two factions often consolidating state control. referred to as the ‘Maoists’ and the transition period end and socialism be ‘Capitalist Roaders’. For the Maoists, China is governed by a centralised established? This is all debatable but things were simple. The 1949 revolution one-party state. This has led some what is clear is that we will debating was socialist and quickly established western commentators to argue for China for years to come. As Martin a socialist system. Which meant that the overthrow of the CPC and that Jacques said in his When China Rules the th China could now move forward to the China must move towards some World: ‘if the 19 century belonged to th establishment of a more communist kind of western style multi-party Britain and the 20 century belonged st system although one based primarily democracy. This demonstrates an to America then the 21 century will on a rural society. For the Capitalist ignorance of Chinese politics, culture belong to China’. Roaders, around Deng Yiaping, this was and society bordering on stupidity. For Bill Bonnar is a member of the editorial nonsense. For them the 1949 revolution most Chinese, the CPC is the current committee of Scottish Left Review was simply the completion of the earlier incarnation of the Chinese state - more revolution of 1911 whose aims were like a civil service than a political party. the establishment of a modern republic In China, the state is revered as the and to reverse the defeats suffered at foundation stone of Chinese culture and the hands of western imperialism. The civilisation, the guarantor of stability and 1949 revolution by definition could the defence against chaos. For most, not be socialist because socialism is a the idea of overthrowing the CPC means system created by the overthrow of overthrowing the state. 26 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 Jimmy Reid’s words still echo on education David Watt explains the work of the Socialist Educational Association Scotland immy Reid’s rectorial speech of of education? Is Scottish Education against. The failure to provide adequate nearly fifty years ago continues educating people for life and the benefit staffing, resources and planning has Jto challenge the role of Scottish of society, or is it still heading down strengthened the argument against the education. He spoke of the challenge the cul de sac of passing exams for presumption of mainstreaming. Inclusive of eradicating poverty, the place personal benefit?’ education is a vital part of educational of communities and the negative A new form of municipal socialism change. It will need to be planned for, centralising nature of national must position councils at the heart resourced and implemented much more governments. He set an agenda not yet proactively. attained. In terms of the purpose of of a social justice agenda working education, he nailed it: ‘If automation cooperatively throughout local Embedding equality education has and technology is accompanied as it communities. The SEAS recognises the allegedly been a priority since 2014, but must be with full employment, then the potential of more curricular decisions tackling stereotyping and challenging leisure time available to humanity will at schools level and the development discrimination through equality be enormously increased. If that is so, of good practice arising from flexibility education is still not embedded in CfE. then our whole concept of education in CfE. A school’s autonomy needs to SEAS argues for equality issues to be in must change. The whole object must be be accountable within its community the mainstream topics of every subject to educate people for life, not solely for but also through the democratically area as with gender stereotyping but work or a profession’. elected local authority. Holyrood has also across characteristics of belief, to avoid bureaucratic and centralised social class, disability, ethnicity and Part of the role of the Socialist approaches. Jimmy Reid’s view, sexual orientation. Educational Association Scotland (SEAS) even decades ago was: ‘The power is to attempt to persuade the Scottish of local authorities has been and is Finally, the SEAS is keen to see the end Labour Party to adopt education policies being systematically undermined. of private schooling. The promotion that will respond to that ongoing The justification I can see for local of inequality and social injustice is challenge. Reid used the language government is as a counter-balance to buttressed by selective schooling based of social justice and applied human the centralised character of national on social status and money. Private rights terms to education, saying; ‘I government’. It is just as bad today. schools have been requesting and am convinced that the great mass of The SEAS argues for education to receiving support from public bodies, our people go through life without but the SNP Government refuses to own a glimmer of what they could have provide a platform for change, becoming up to the extent of support. The SEAS contributed to their fellow human ‘lifelong learning towards the inclusive resolution carried by Scottish Labour’s beings. This is a personal tragedy. It is society based on values of social justice 2019 conference demands the end of a social crime. The flowering of each and challenging disadvantage’, in direct subsidy by taxpayers and an end individual’s personality and talents contrast to a stagnating and struggling is the precondition for everyone’s education system under the present to indirect support by various resources development’. Scottish Government which is fixated of public bodies and government. on testing children and attempting to In 2000, the Scottish Parliament placed For the SEAS, education is more than marginalise democratically elected local school, college or university attainment. into Scots law the human rights version authorities. of Reid’s words with the purpose of We have to provide better than simply education provided by local authorities SEAS calls for early investment a personal meritocratic approach. to be for ‘the development of the throughout Scotland in high-quality child Education has a role in tackling all forms personality, talents and mental and development provision to match that of inequality but the cause of increasing physical abilities of the child or young already provided in many local authority numbers of children living in poverty person to their fullest potential’. The nursery schools and early years is obviously not primarily educational. SEAS argues that the human rights centres. Early childhood development Rebuilding a fair society can only be agenda can now go further and not just experiences would benefit from disputes carried out by coordinated action at the individual must benefit through around staff structures, education, national and local government level education. Social justice demands that training and experience being resolved focused through community action. realising the potential of the individual by focusing on the creation of the best However, education has a vital role in must also be measured by the potential provision to meet children’s wrap- the changes that society needs and for the benefit to all. around learning needs and care. In the the SEAS regrets that promoting social early years, focus should be on learning Recently, the SEAS has been active justice and tackling inequality is not yet through play rather than schooling and in contributing to Scottish Labour’s at the centre of the educational purpose readiness for school. policy consultation arguing for better for Scottish Labour. outcomes for all involved in education The SEAS argues that the social justice David Watt is the Secretary of the and for achieving a more socially just agenda must focus on inclusiveness Socialist Educational Association and inclusive society in Scotland. This and equality in education. If Scotland Scotland (. https://seascotland.blog), requires collaborative and collective is serious about incorporating human the educational affiliate of the Scottish work within communities. Labour rights for children, then children or Labour Party. must ask: ‘Is Curriculum for Excellence young people with disabilities or in care (CfE) changing the whole concept cannot continue to be discriminated

27 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019

MoiraFrom Craig says experiencenational of public services forservice the young would pay todemocratic civic dividends service?

ne of the most important than Westminster MPs. Unfortunately, the different needs of the various decisions which we make as the debating chamber still allows them populations within their country Owe approach adult life is which to spend much time on cross party and enable them to make a more job we would like to have or which insults which they feel is necessary if intelligent estimation of government profession we would like to join. No they are to keep their jobs. practice than has been possible for matter which it is, we will expect past generations. Scotland is a small country but that it will be preceded by a spell of has many widely different physical Parents and grandparents who have training and, indeed, that it might aspects and communities which do been asked about their views on require us to obtain a professional not regularly travel from their home this proposal for an extension of the qualification before we are accepted environment to learn about the variety educational experience into the wider or even considered for a post. There in life experiences of their fellow society have been enthusiastic in their are no professions and, indeed, few Scots. Geography and History classes approval, and the general view which occupations where people do not have within our schools do not necessarily they have expressed was that young to provide proof that they have the spend much time on Scotland and, people would appreciate and enjoy ability and the training to be accepted. indeed, many Scots also seem this process as it would give them Unfortunately, this does not apply to unaware that we have a distinctive a clearer insight into how society is those who wish to be Members of legal system. If we understand the run and how it might be improved. Parliament for MPs are not trained need to have both those elected to The impression was also given that for the job - despite the fact that parliament, and those who elected the parents and grandparents would they have the salaries and expenses them, to have an understanding of rather like to have had this experience which give them an upper middle- their country and how it is run and themselves. Over time, it might class income. Sadly, although some in should be run we must ensure that our well be possible, therefore, to have Labour have for many years argued present education system is sensibly a volunteer scheme to allow older against this form of crony capitalism, revised to ensure that children are voters to participate. Labour has done little to correct this made aware of the widely different phenomenon and have not stopped Moira Craig is a former educational geography, history and lifestyles which psychologist their own Westminster MPs from exist in their country. frequently employing relatives and from misusing the expenses system. So, we should introduce the following as essential civic While British MPs are not trained for education. Starting in the their job, voters are not trained for third year of secondary Scottish Left Review their task and tend to cast their votes school, individual pupils for the party whose policy appeals but The Scottish Left Review is a non-profit making publication. should spend one day Please subscribe or make a donation by going to www. without understanding the tasks which per month working for scottishleftreview.org where you can pay by credit card are involved and the judgements the national and local or by filling in your details in the form below and returning which MPs must make and, indeed, government services of to Scottish Left Review, 14 West Campbell Street, without having a clear knowledge of the areas in which they Glasgow G2 6RX the effects which their decisions will live - education, health, have on society as a whole. This lack of transport, emergency understanding probably explains why services etc. They should Name such a large percentage of registered continue to work one day voters do not vote - a fact which is not per month throughout Address presently included in election results. their schooldays and any If we show how many of the registered post-school education in voters did not vote as well as those colleges or universities who did we have a clearer version of but also throughout their electors wishes. Thus, in 2015 General working lives when they Tel: Election, 34% of registered voters did would begin to have not vote. The Tories won with votes experience of other areas E-mail: from 24% of registered voters, 20% in their country. voted Labour, 8.3% voted UKIP, 5.2% Subscription/Donation voted Liberal Democrat, 3.1% voted As the voting age in SNP and 2.5% Green. Scotland has been reduced from 18 years to Date: The Scottish Parliament is, of course, 16 years, it is singularly 211 Subscriptions: £18 (waged), £14 (unwaged), £24 (local more democratic mainly because appropriate that we organisations), £30 (national organisations). all MSPs have the opportunity to should ensure that these participate in the committee system in young voters should Donations will be gratefully recieved. Cheques should be which they can have a certain amount have the opportunity crossed and made payable to: Left Review Scotland Ltd. You can also subscribe/donate online at of cross-party cooperation and a to develop a clearer www.scottishleftreview.org clearer understanding of public needs understanding of 28 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 feedback

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The Public (2019), morality; mental health; physical Anderson (Jeffrey Wright), become writer and director: Emilio Estevez needs; institutional needs – somehow surprising allies and brothers in arms Reviewed by Jackie Bergson it manages to brightly reflect what to the beleaguered Goodson. With an endearing central could more or less be viewed as the Estevez was inspired to make this performance by Emilio Estevez, depressing subject of a good man film after he read a news article who also wrote and directed this on the verge of being pushed back about a real-life event: ‘… I read a independent drama film and with a towards a homeless state under threat Los Angeles Times article that was Hollywood cast including Alec Baldwin, of losing his job. Homeless women are written by a former librarian about Jena Malone, Taylor Schilling, Jeffrey not in particular focus, for reasons not how the libraries have become de Wright and Christian Slater, The Public strained by explanation in the film. facto homeless shelters and how is bound to reach a broad audience A brief oration about climate change librarians had become social workers demographic. The film tackles the to library manager, Stuart Goodson … on a daily basis, they would have subjects of homelessness and civil (Estevez), delivered by his colleague to call emergency services about rights within society - corpus debates Myra (Jena Malone) under the watch people who collapsed or had an held in micro-cosmic focus. of a giant, stuffed polar bear in the overdose or diabetic comas … it’s the A modern fable without didactic background, and also the presence of last bastion of democracy in action. I conclusions, The Public makes current national versus interactive broadcast was so moved by the article and what and historical references to John media, afford a now-and-happening I saw, having spent so much time at Steinbeck and Wall Street. In an feel to The Public. Its central subject the public library, I decided to start intelligent nod to Roman civilisation matter is news about the library’s researching for a new movie’. BC, private-seeming news about a invasion by homeless people, which His central character, Goodson, is an recently deceased homeless man initially carries as much skewed unquestionably decent and lovable named Caesar is grandly discussed significance as the glamorous on-the- good guy who possesses flaws by his compatriots while they wash scene TV reporter (Gabrielle Union) and heart-breaking reasons for his and brush up in the men’s room of affords it. She begins by hyping the tolerant, good-humoured kinship Cincinnati Public Library. Ironic use idea that Goodson is unbalanced due with the homeless revolutionaries of the Roman colossus’s name in to his unstable background and that in his film. The fact that his building this context is fascinating, because he is holding homeless people hostage manager at home (Taylor Schilling) in his time, Julius Caesar proposed in the library where he works. As the is evidently thrilled by him whatever a law to redistribute public lands to film progresses, her critical discourse his circumstances adds a deservingly the poor. This subtext suggests to changes to admiration, as Goodson romantic touch. By contrasting us that the term ‘homeless’ neither takes instinctive control of her Goodson’s actions with those equates to nor implies uncharitable or channel’s audience by using his mobile of Detective Bill Ramstead (Alec uninformed. phone to truthfully film events as they Baldwin), we bear witness to More glitzy than Ken Loach’s unfold inside the library. Adding examination of Britain’s welfare state an even in both the seminal drama Kathy sweeter Come Home (1966) and three decades note to later, I, Daniel Blake (2016), Estevez’s the story, The Public avoids the welfare debate homeless completely. Instead, it conveys ideas street orator, about how society and individuals Jackson act and strive to resolve the toxic (Michael reality of homelessness. This film is Kenneth deceptively simple in its portrayal Williams), of civilisation in conflict: policing, and library rules and regulations; family ties; boss, 29 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 individual components involved within would recreate the strewn ramparts of he moved to Paris, and tells the story the thorny subject of homelessness. Jericho’. Walls in the mind, stabilizing of Joe, a disengaged young itinerant, Undiluted cynicism, represented in boundaries between the self and the who is working on a barge connecting the form of prosecution attorney, Josh world, have been blown down, not Edinburgh and Glasgow. He helps Les, Davis (Christian Slater), who on behalf by trumpets of rams’ horns but by whose wife Ella owns the barge, and of the Library Board attempts to form an unendurable ennui and unfulfilled one day the two men find the corpse a legal case against Goodson, adds need that becomes overwhelming. of an undressed woman drifting in the edgy intrigue to the film’s plot and When the effect of a fix wears water. The tone of the novel’s prose – subtext. off, what is said of a fellow addict explicit and disquieting – is apparent in the opening paragraph: ‘These are The Public is clear on the cynical use becomes a self-description: ‘all grace times when what is to be said looks of poverty as an industry for lawyers dies within him. He becomes a dead out of the past at you – looks out like Davis to feed from. Through thing. For him, ordinary consciousness like someone at a window and you diverse perspectives of authority, is like a slow desert at the centre of his in the street as you walk along. Past individualism and solidarity, the film’s being’. Heroin is ‘a murmured orgasm hours, past acts, take on an uncanny overarching, political stand becomes in the bloodstream’ but the habit, he isolation; between them and you who evident. This is a gem of a film and notes, is a religion where the believer look back on them now there is no well worth seeing. is the only member of the church. continuity’. Jackie Bergson has worked in the In The Holy Man and Other Stories, the characters in the four stories The discovery of the dead woman voluntary sector and commercial is followed by Joe’s awakening of business development in technology are not addicts but they are marginalized people with lives private sexual interest in Ella and his furtive and creative sectors. Educated in and seduction is initiated under the table living in Glasgow, her political and to themselves, beyond the ken of others and probably outside their in the cramped barge as the husband social views chime left-of-centre. own understanding as well. In one of reads a paper in front of them over them, ‘Peter Pierce’, a man needs a breakfast. A conjunction of sex and Alexander Trocchi: temporary hideaway from the police death threads its way through the novel, mostly through the optic of An intriguing writer and takes lodging in a house where he befriends a tramp-like rag picker called Joe’s free-ranging libido and his Sean Sheehan reviews a number of Peter. Like a character from Beckett, disturbing dispassionateness. Trocchi’s key works Peter obsesses over the trivial, in this It is the way Joe, as much an outsider case pen nibs (these stories were as the characters in his other novel written in the 1950s) and his strange and short stories, recounts his existence is the story’s point of experience that makes Young Adam an interest. intriguing read. This is lost in the 2003 film version, with Ewan McGregor Even stranger is the lodger in the playing Joe, though Tilda Swinton as collection’s titular story, a recluse Ella adds a woman’s perspective that is who mystifies the other inhabitants not always obvious in Trocchi’s writing. in a shabby Paris dwelling house above a disused bar. Never leaving Alexander Trocchi’s work stands on its his darkened room on the top floor, own ground. The new publication of fed and minimally cared for by his two novels and four short stories two women who live below him, is to be welcomed, offering a fresh opportunity for readers to discover Glasgow-born Alexander Trocchi was he acquires an aura more usually the writing of one of Scotland’s best a fiery figure in the British literary associated with anchorites. His fellow writers of the twentieth century.Cain’s world – an editor in Paris, an avant- lodgers wait, as if for a theophany. Book has an interesting forward by garde novelist with an internationalist The central character in another one Tom McCarthy and Man at Leisure, a mindset – before he parked himself of the stories, ‘The Meeting’, does at collection of his lesser-known writing, in a desolate London siding labelled least have dreams of a more fulfilling includes an introduction by William ‘obscure heroin-addicted ex-writer’. life than the one offered by his current Burroughs. All books mentioned are With new editions of his writing now predicament. Working in an office in published by Alma Books (https:// published, the time is ripe to look post-WW2 Britain – ‘I thought it would almabooks.com/alma-author/ again at this iconoclastic Scotsman be different after the war. But it’s not, alexander-trocchi/). who died in 1984. it’s the same. Worse, if anything.’ – Sean Sheehan is author of ‘Žiżek: A something beckons as a possibility of Cain’s Book (1963) brings to mind Guide for the Perplexed’ (Continuum, escape from his demeaning existence William Burrough’s Naked Lunch, 2012) and’ A Guide to Herodotus’ when he goes for an after work drink sharing an unashamed depiction Histories’ (Bloomsbury, 2018). of their similar subject matter. The with female colleague, Miss Lanelly. narrator, cooking up some heroin, Young Adam was Trocchi’s first novel, thinks to himself: ‘a small fix, I feel, first published in 1954, two years after 30 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 VLADIMIR McTAVISH’S Kick up the Tabloids

eldom in recent memory has who, when he was questioned about revelation pretty much explains there been a bigger disconnect recreational drug use, admitted to everything else about Rory Stewart, between voters and their elected sniffing something but was not sure in particular his eccentricity which at S times bordered on outright lunacy. To politicians than the current contest what it was. Indeed, he even have said to elect the next Prime Minister of ‘it may have been icing sugar’. How be honest, I’m not sure that the guy is Britain. Like the most uninspiring final can anyone claim to be competent to actually real. He does not look entirely of X-Factor ever, the Tory leadership lead the country if that are unable to like a normal human being. His mouth race has been whittled down to just tell the difference between class-A has far too many teeth for a start and two contestants. I never thought this drugs and bakers’ confectionary? is too big for his face. None of his suits country would ever have a worse On the other hand, he might make seem to fit properly. He puts me in a Prime Minister than Theresa May. In a rather entertaining guest on a mind of a ventriloquist’s dummy. terms of incompetence, and lack of celebrity version of ‘The Great British For decades now, successive charisma, she is a tough act to follow. Bake-Off’, particularly if he were to governments have been running However, looking at the remaining make the same mistake the other way campaigns trying to get the youth candidates, the next episode of around. of the country not to take drugs. ‘Nightmare on Downing Street’ may be Who would have thought that the Every one of these has been a failure. even more horrific. However, if there were any better The choice the voters have is clear. competition to elect the next leader of the Conservative Party would evidence that drugs aren’t cool, it’s It’s either the pathological liar or the the fact these guys took them. They complete non-entity. By ‘voters’, I accidentally have turned into the most effective anti-drugs campaign in should maybe all feature in the next mean members of the Conservative public service broadcast. ‘Don’t do Party. Therefore, the number of history? In particular, the drug-taking past of two of the failed candidates cocaine, kids. Do you really want up to people in Scotland having a say in the end up like Michael Gove?’ However, election of our next Prime Minister exercised the minds of public and media alike. if Boris wins, I reckon just about would struggle to fill the top deck everyone, Tories included, will soon of a bus. North Korea and China are First, we had Michael Gove admitting be reaching for the strongest drugs absolute beacons of democracy by that he had taken cocaine on a available. comparison. number of occasions twenty-odd Tickets for Vladimir McTavish’s 2019 years. At the very time, he was writing Of course, the short-listing process Edinburgh Fringe show ‘60 Minutes to articles denouncing drug use in The was decided by a total of 313 Tory Save The World’ are on sale now on Times. Put aside the man’s obvious MPs, who needed two prime-time TV www.thestand.co.uk leadership debates, broadcast on BBC hypocrisy for a minute, if you will. The and Channel 4, to help them decide revelation he took cocaine conjures up where to place their cross. The fact some deeply disturbing images. One every single person in Britain could of the worst aspects of that particular watch these debates only served to drug, aside from its potential health rub in the fact that the average person risks, is that it turns the sweetest of in the street had no say whatsoever people into absolute monsters. I have in the matter. The producers of ‘I’m A known very self-effacing wallflowers Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ would turn into loud-mouthed egocentric never dare insult their viewers quite in bores after a very small amount of the that manner. stuff. So are who are this year’s finalists? I find Michael Gove to be a particularly First up, we have current Foreign loathsome, individual at the best of Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Last year, on a times. He has a face no-one would trip abroad, Jeremy famously got his ever tire of punching. [Editor’s wife’s nationality wrong. He claimed in comment after Jo Brand’s joke about a speech that she is Japanese. She is, throwing battery acid not milkshakes: in fact, Chinese. Anyone want to guess take that as you wish]. I dread to think which country he was in at the time? what an insufferable piece of shit he Japan? No, that would be bad enough. became after snorting a couple of lines Worse than that, he was actually of Colombian marching powder. making the speech in China. Finally, we had Rory Stewart, who Next up, we have former foreign claimed to have smoked opium when secretary, Boris Johnson. He is a man he was in Afghanistan. The opium

31 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/August 2019 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 STUC 2018_Layout 1 09/01/2019 10:04 Page 1 Britain’s specialist transport union Campaigning for workers in the rail, maritime, offshore/energy, bus and road freight sectors

NATIONALISE SCOTRAIL

www.rmt.org.uk

32 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 112 July/AugustGe 2019neral Secretary: Mick Cash President: Michelle Rodgers