ScottishLeft Review Issue 114 November/December 2019 - £2.00 { 'best re(a)d' 'best

1 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 feedback

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Hoping and dreaming of a red Xmas ritain has had a tradition of khaki Many believe that the combination of new kid on the block’ as he was and who elections – like those in 1900, Corbyn, the groundswell for Corbyinism talked about doing a new and gentler 1918, 1945 and 1983. Khaki and the obligation within election form of politics. Labour will find it hard elections are those where the guidelines for radio and television to give to get traction for its non-Brexit agenda Binfluence of wars to come, ongoing wars Labour more of a fair airing explained reviewson austerity and inequality. Although it or wars just finished is the determining why Labour did so well in 2017 when now has a pitch of ‘improve the terms of factor in deciding the outcome. this was not expected. In that sense, any Brexit deal and then put this to the Sometimes it can represent a shift to no polling can predict what will happen people in a referendum’, this position the right like 1983 or a shift to the left in an election period based upon data has taken such a long time to get to - like 1945. It would not be out of place to collected in a non-election period. as it tried to straddle the divide of its suggest that the 2019 general election ‘remain’ and ‘leave’ supporters – that it So, the left must not just hope for could be seen as something similar has left many of its disillusioned ‘remain’ but also work for either a Labour because Brexit has been like a multi- and ‘leaver’ supporters considering government in its own right or one faceted civil war without guns, whether voting SNP or LibDem or Conservative where the SNP supports Labour on a this be within Britain as a whole, within respectively. confidence and supply basis. This is the political parties or amongst the left and reason for the dream of a red Christmas. Yet, we should also not totally the unions. The reasons are fairly self-evident in discount the possibility though that The outcome of this general election terms of what further wreckage the the political paralysis could continue, could be critical and catastrophic for Tories would wreak on working people whereby the division over Brexit is many years to come if the Tories are and the working poor by increasing an equally balanced one and which returned with a working majority (which economic and social inequality and by leads to another hung parliament. This could be as high as 50). Under this contrast what amelioration of existing would severely test the standing of scenario, Johnson’s Brexit deal will be economic and social inequality Labour parliamentary democracy in Britain. passed and Britain’s exit from the EU will could bring about. Though Johnson Returning to Brexit proper for the take place on 31 January 2020 or shortly promises more spending on the NHS, moment, whatever type of Brexit we’ll before. Polling for since the summer has it is clear this investment it is not get under the Tories, it will be one suggested this is a probable or more substantial enough in the NHS to meet for further deregulation and more than likely outcome – and where the the scale of its underfunding and nor is neo-liberalism, especially if the basis votes of the DUP would no longer give it available to other parts of the public of Brexit is World Trade Organisation it leverage it had before and especially services. Amongst other things, Labour (WTO) rules. It is a terrible indictment now that it is angered by Johnson’s is promising to end austerity, invest of the overall current state of politics proposed Brexit. in public services and infrastructure that anybody remotely on the left and provide workers with the means Polls involve asking hypothetical could succumb to Brexit frustration so to reduce the imbalance of power in questions about voting intentions at that they support the ‘get Brexit done’ workplace. particular points in time. On this basis, mantra of Johnson and the Tories. This they are not the best indicators of how But sober analysis of the situation in is because it is clear that Johnson’s voters will vote come an actual election, 2019 does not make it look likely that renegotiated deal opens the way to a especially where the campaign itself may it will be a re-run of 2017 or anything much looser relationship with the EU have a bearing on how people decide similar for some obvious reasons. First, than envisaged by May, and allows for to cast their vote. Polling for the 2015 the frustration about not ‘getting Brexit more ‘divergence’ with EU regulations. and 2017 general elections was badly done’ is palpable – this was not the case As the Financial Times (26 October wrong, first suggesting Labour would win in 2017. Second, Johnson is a far better 2019) reported, you only have to see a working majority and then suggesting political operator and campaigner than that with the issue of the protection of the Tories would win a working majority. May. And third, Corbyn is no longer the’ workers’ rights and the environment All articles in this issue bar the editorial and the Brexit election tracker were written before the decision of parliament to dissolve itself in preparation for a 12 December general election.

2 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 having been moved from the legal text in Edinburgh or Scotland or Barcelona its own version of the ‘feeble fifty’ like of the withdrawal agreement and being or Catalonia is necessary but at the Labour had the in the 1980s. put instead into the political declaration same time wholly insufficient. Better Extinction Rebellion (XR) scored (which has no legal force). Thus, there is to do so in London or Madrid. Without something of a rather spectacular own no longer any assurance on these ‘level suggesting that such mass mobilisations goal at Canning Town tube station playing field’ commitments. In practice, can easily constitute the magic panacea, in London on 17 October. Stopping it will be up to the government that putting millions on the streets in those commuters getting to work on public negotiates the free trade deal to decide capitals would send a far stronger transport seemed to be very badly how strong a commitment to EU rules it message. Demonstrating in Edinburgh misjudged. But what was intriguing is prepared to make. or Barcelona can more easily be ignored about this was that this type of action Brexit is, of course, not the only issue by the powers that be. That should be a lesson for the new radical group in has happened before in the April 2019 for the left. The death of 39 migrants XR mobilisations but without the same in a cold storage truck is a barbaric Catalonia called ‘Tsunami Democràtic’ or ‘All Under One Banner’ in Scotland. reaction from commuters. It was that condemnation of the neo-liberal type of angry reaction that facilitated the world we now live in – desperate people Indeed, this tactic would seem to be needed no matter what happens in the media’s attack on XR following the took desperate measures to pursue a smear from Johnson that they were better life, thousands of miles away forthcoming general election. If the ‘crusties’. XR’s leadership – called its from their families and friends. A better Tories win, gaining a Section 30 order to political circle – will need to be a lot world would not see people compelled hold a lawful independence referendum more streetwise in future if it is to not to do such things nor allow others – will not be forthcoming. If Labour was only keep the momentum on the issue the traffickers – to profit from their to win (albeit as a minority government pushing forwards but also stop it from desperation and misery. The free flow of reliant upon SNP support), the speed falling backwards. labour – better put as people’s right and at which a Section 30 order would be ability to move freely as they wish – is granted and for when would be granted In this issue of Scottish Left Review, we something that neither the proposed for will be the main issues. have articles on Brexit, independence Tory Brexit nor the EU look favourably The SNP as the primary political and climate change plus a host of other upon. It heartbreakingly remains the party of independence has a problem issues. As we did not know whether safe preserve of the rich. here. It has never organised such a general election would be agreed The jailing of the Catalan independence extra-parliamentary action and to be held to when we decided upon leaders is another barbaric act. But we barely supports those that do. The the theme for this issue, we choose cannot just condemn this. Unless and independence rally organised by the not to make our theme for that issue until independence movements take SNP in George Square in Glasgow on and instead around these other the struggle directly to the source of 2 November 2019 was very much the aforementioned issues. When we have the respective problem – the power exception and not the rule. Yet if, as our first issue published in 2020, we will structures and vested interests based in predicated, it has a replay of its 2015 be able to reflect upon the outcome of the capitals of London and Madrid for success, the SNP leadership strategy of the first winter election since 1923 and our purposes here – it will remain the pleading for a Section 30 order will be what this means for the left – as well as case that demonstrating (and striking) shown to be ineffectual. It will then have what the left should then do now.

Cover: Nadia Lucchesi ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Hoping and dreaming of a red Xmas - editorial ...... 2 ([email protected]) Brexit election tracker Matthew Goodwin ...... 4 Socialism in Scotland for the 21st century Richard Leonard ...... 6 Proofing services: Time to stuff the Tory turkey Tommy Sheppard ...... 7 John Wood and John Daly Daunting challenges posed by global capitalism Colin Fox ...... 8 Desperately seeking democratic solutionrevolution Maggie Chapman ...... 9 Communications and organisational Realigning the left Kenny MacAskill ...... 10 development: Carole Ewart Time for transformation is now – we must fix our broken constitution Lynn Henderson ...... 11 Taking back the power: forcing the EU’s hand Gregor Gall ...... 12 Editor Email: Gregor Gall Striking out for our future against a dead planet Dylan Hamilton ...... 13 [email protected] Combining climate justice and social justice Pete Cannell ...... 14 Jimmy Reid – remembering a political giant ...... 15 Web: www.scottishleftreview.org Extract from Aamer Anwar’s 2019 Jimmy Reid Foundation annual lecture ...... 16 Tel: 0141 424 0042 Aamer Anwar’s call to arms Catriona Reid and Elizabeth Reid Boulter ...... 17 Step forward sister! Mary Senior ...... 18 Address: Work to end domestic abuse far from finished Megan Gordon ...... 19 Scottish Left Review, Making Freedom of Information fit for the job Carole Ewart ...... 20 Not cracking up in Caracas Bill Bonnar ...... 21 14 West Campbell Street, Glasgow Solidarity with the Kurds of North East Syria Sarah Glynn ...... 22 G2 6RX Missed opportunities? Stagnant statutory powers in Scottish legislation Jonathon Deans ...... 24 Pushing back against Pret - making headway against malevolent management ‘Late Night Girl’...... 26 Printed by Cryptocurrency: the end of human supremacy? Mhairi McAlpine ...... 27 Hampden Advertising Ltd, Racing against the race for profit Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor ...... 28 Film review Jackie Bergson ...... 30 403 Hillington Road, G52 4BL, Vladimir McTavish’s Kick up the Tabloids ...... 31 Tel: 0141 429 1010

3 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Brexit election tracker – at long last, the election is on! Matthew Goodwin reveals the major trends trajectories to look out for in the run up to 12 December

ritain is now set for what will who want a second referendum, and the putting workers on company boards and almost certainly be the most Liberal Democrats, who want to revoke. increasing taxes for high-earners, are Bconsequential general election A divided ‘remain’ vote in constituencies also very popular. We hear much about in its entire post-war history. The fate is a massive help to Johnson. A useful this being a ‘Brexit election’ but do not of Brexit, a second referendum, Boris comparison is 1983, when internecine forget one of the key lessons of 2017: Johnson’s embryonic premiership and warfare between Labour and the SDP- the left-right divide still packs a hard Jeremy Corbyn’s radical Labour project Alliance helped Margaret Thatcher and punch. all hang in the balance. This is why - the Conservatives increase their number amid the Brexit turmoil and a deeply of seats despite winning a lower share One irony is that ever since Britain polarised electorate - the 2019 general of the vote than had been won in 1979. voted to leave the European Union, our election offers something to everybody. But here’s one small thing to keep in politics have looked more and more As Richard Nixon once said: ‘There’s mind. There remain a large number of European. A once stable two-party nothing wrong with this country which a undecided voters. In fact, around 25 system has basically imploded into a good election can’t fix!’ per cent of Labour’s 2017 electorate, four-party race. Fragmentation and a and 14 per cent of 2017 LibDems, do resurgent populism are the specials of The election on December 12 will not currently know how they will vote, the day. But the parties have changed be Britain’s 22nd general election refuse to answer or says that they too. This election is interesting because since 1945. But it will also be the fifth won’t vote at all. This, combined with it will most likely define the legacy of nationwide election to be held in only a bit more exposure to left-right issues, two recent political projects: Jeremy four years. After the 2015 general including a clear pitch to the LibDems Corbyn’s more radical left-wing project election, 2016 referendum, 2017 and a squeeze on the Greens, is why I and Boris Johnson’s attempt to revive general election and 2019 European am expecting the Labour vote to rally and rewire one-nation conservatism. elections, the British people would during the campaign. Let’s see. Only one of these can emerge perhaps be forgiven for boycotting victorious. Corbyn needs to reassemble this one altogether. This remarkable Voters are more volatile than ever. his 2017 Labour electorate which we turbulence reflects not only the Research recently confirmed what can see he is already trying to do by immense volatility that is sweeping we basically already knew -that more turning up the volume on environmental through British politics but also the people are switching their votes than protection, warning about the alleged extent to which the ‘Europe question’ ever before (or at least since the 1960s). ‘privatisation’ of the NHS, detailing has cut across traditional parties, In fact, data from the British Election backroom discussions between ‘the pushed parliament into gridlock and Study reveals that across the three Tories’ and big pharma, and underlining turned one of the world’s most stable elections that were held between 2010 Labour’s commitment to hold a second two-party systems into a state of and 2017 nearly 50% of the overall referendum. Johnson, meanwhile, continual flux. So, to try and make electorate did not vote for the same faces a different challenge; he needs sense of the election let’s take a quick party. Tribally loyal voters are not facing to hold on to the existing Conservative look at the polls, the voters, the parties the threat of extinction but they are territory while ideally breaking new and the seats. increasingly rare. ‘My father voted ground in ‘Leaveland’ by talking about Labour and his father voted Labour’ is regional inequality, the NHS, rebooting Treat polls with a pinch of salt. But right moving into the history books as we the northern powerhouse and speaking now, at the start of the campaign, they continue to move into what political ever more loudly to blue-collar Britain. tell a pretty clear story. Average public boffins call the era of ‘dealignment’ Corbyn knows that he needs to find support for the Conservatives is 38%, -much weaker relationships between a way of holding up the Labour vote Labour 24%, the LibDems 17%, the the main parties and voters. This is one in ‘Leaveland’ while reaching further Brexit Party 12% and the Greens 4%. of several big macro-trends that points into ‘Remainia’. Johnson knows that he If these numbers hold then we will be to the wider phenomenon of geo- needs to fend off these challengers in looking at a comfortable Conservative political volatility. With the most recent ‘Remainia’ while also marching much majority. The Conservative Party’s two elections, 2015 and 2017, being the further into ‘Leaveland’ than Theresa relatively strong position reflects their most volatile in modern times, it is also May who, in the end, only captured six increased support among ‘leavers’ and, a reminder for why only a fool would pro-Brexit seats from Labour. in particular, voters who had previously make a confident prediction about what decamped to Farage’s Brexit Party. In will happen in December. British voters With the seats, there is a clearly the latest polls by YouGov, for example, are increasingly ‘up for grabs’, shopping identifiable path to a majority for Boris only 15% of the Conservative Party’s around the political marketplace like Johnson. But it is not as easy as some 2017 electorate now plan to vote for consumers. And they are not just think. The SNP continues to control Farage, which is down from nearly 40% thinking about Brexit. They want to much of Scotland, Labour holds big earlier this year. Johnson is also helped talk about the NHS and crime and are majorities in the North, is dominant by the fact that while 60% of ‘leavers’ deeply pessimistic about the direction in London and has been spreading plan to vote Conservative, ‘remainers’ of the economy. Many aspects of further into the southeast. The Liberal are fairly evenly split between Labour, ‘Corbynomics’, such as nationalisation, Democrats are resurgent, bearing down 4 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 on Tory MPs in nearly 30 seats where A different dynamic will be playing out in come under threat. And then come SNP- they are second. And, the Brexit Party ‘Remainia’ where Conservatives will need Conservative battlegrounds. Two years could still cause problems. This is why so to implement a defensive strategy to ago, more than half of all seats that were many in the Johnson camp are looking stop Labour from taking too many seats. gained by the Conservatives came at the squarely at Labour seats that voted for There are nearly 40 Conservative seats expense of the SNP. But today it looks Brexit. If Johnson’s planned invasion of that voted ‘remain’ in the referendum, likely that some of these will be lost. Labour Brexit territory can go as far as or are very marginal ‘leave’ seats, where Eight seats, such as Stirling or Gordon, seats like Wolverhampton North East, incumbent MPs have a majority of less could easily fall to the SNP on a swing of which last went Tory in 1987, or Stoke- than 10 points. Johnson simply has to less than 5 points. For this reason alone, on-Trent North, which has never been stop the ‘Revenge of Remainers’ from Johnson will be well advised to think held by the Conservatives in the post- crashing through these seats, from about how to revive his offer to unionists war era, then a wave of other pro-Brexit Pudsey and Chipping Barnet to Milton and ‘leavers’ north of the border. In Labour seats will likely turn blue, from Keynes and Watford. Others, like Hastings short, Prime Minister Johnson’s path to Dudley North to Barrow and Furness, and Rye, or East Worthing and Shoreham, a majority is clearly visible but it is also from Ashfield to Bishop Auckland. A have probably moved clearly to ‘remain’ one that is littered with obstacles and strong majority would likely follow. due to population churn. Then come the potential pitfalls. Can he pull it off? Time LibDems. Remember, one key reason why will tell and we won’t have long to wait. But what if this does not happen? Throw David Cameron won a surprise majority Matthew Goodwin is Professor of in a decent Labour Party campaign and in 2015 was because he captured nearly Politics and International Relations at a strong challenge from the Brexit Party 30 seats at Nick Clegg’s expense. But this the University of Kent and is the lead and it is not hard to see how seats that time around, it is the LibDems who are organiser of the Brexit Election Tracker the Conservatives won only two years looking for revenge in seats like St Albans, (see http://www.matthewjgoodwin.org/ ago - like Mansfield, Copeland, Walsall Richmond Park, Cheltenham, Lewes and brexitelectiontracker.html). This article North and Stoke-on-Trent South – could Cheadle. Johnson has to fend off this is a version of the Brexit Election Tracker flip back into the red column while other challenge and shore up his ‘Blue Wall’ in bulletin released on 31 October 2019. highly marginal seats, like Thurrock or the southwest where ‘leave’ seats like Southampton Itchen, fall the same way. Cornwall North and Devon North will also John Kay, communist stalwart School but left at 14 to take up an of long standing caused John much apprenticeship as a draughtsman. He sadness. Dapper, well read, good emigrated to New Zealand in the early conversationalist, fine singer, concert 1950s. Back home by the late 1950s, he and theatre goer, he lived life to the full became Scottish Industrial Organiser of and his mind was still active to the end. the Communist Party of Great Britain He and his wife Helen, another stalwart (CPGB) for which he worked until 1989. of the movement had just celebrated In this role he was an election agent and their 65th wedding anniversary. They also the Communist candidate in the had two adopted children, Jackie and Queen’s Park by-election in 1982. At the Maxwell. Jackie is a well-known poet CPGB Congress in 1991 which led to a and author who until recently was split, he supported the Eurocommunists Scotland’s Makar – a chip of the old to change the organisation’s name block! The labour movement has lost a to the Democratic Left in which he fine comrade and a lovely human being. was active for a number of years. This split and fall out with many comrades Bob Thomson

t is with sadness that we note the death of John Kay, aged 94. He was Ione of the founders of the Scottish Left Review. With a wide range of contacts, he was instrumental in getting us subscribers, many of whom are still reading the magazine today. He served on the Editorial Committee for over 10 years where his wise advice and particular knowledge of the trade union movement were invaluable. From a working-class family in Glasgow he gained a scholarship to Allan Glen’s

5 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Socialism in Scotland for the 21st century Richard Leonard believes the case for an economic and environmental transformation can be won here is widespread discontent And our history tells us that basic society - a caring society in which the and it is growing, with school inequalities will not be tackled, and whole economy is a social economy and Tpupils striking and young people, economic, social and environmental every job is a green job. some of whom have no vote but who justice cannot be won, unless we have a voice that demands to be heard construct a society on the values Economic and industrial planning and listened to, taking to the streets. of democracy and on the enduring is required to transform Scotland’s Across all generations, there is a rising principles of socialism. A critical step economic performance. If we are determination, which our representative on this road is the election of a radical to make the change that is so badly democracy needs to better reflect, on transformative Labour Government led needed, it cannot be done according the need for a new urgency of action by Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister. to the central tenets of neo-liberal and a renewed vitality in our thinking The Labour Government’s programme economics, namely, the old ideas of on the need for real change. People will radically transform Scotland with a privatisation, austerity and rolling back are tired of a status quo where the idle £70bn investment plan and a new £10 the state. It cannot be done, either, rich get richer and the working poor get per hour minimum wage - regardless of through a continued overreliance on poorer. This is not just the view from age. It will act to boost rights for workers imported goods and services, on foreign Scotland. It is the view from right across in the economy and the workplace. these shared islands. direct investment or on multinational financial and corporate The challenge presented by interests. the climate emergency can only be met by putting unions Instead, we need an and communities at the centre innovative state. That of a ‘just transition’ which means – at a Scottish level is part of a wider industrial – using the powers that the strategy built upon a national Scottish Government has economic plan. It has long been in procurement, planning, my view that - above all else - licensing and investment. democratic socialism is about the creation of an economy run It means establishing a properly for the many not simply for the capitalised national investment few at the top. It is about the bank in order to secure through establishment of democracy public investment and equity stakes in the economy and the building of an • We are the only political party now the economic rebalancing that we equal society. So, now more than ever promising to put the choice back to need including growing the size of our it is time for democratic renewal and a the people on Brexit. redistribution of wealth and power. manufacturing base, and stimulating • We are the only political party locally-owned and worker-owned Exactly twenty years on from the promising investment in place of businesses. It also means investing in enactment of devolution, we still have austerity, cuts and wage freezes. new forms of common ownership— a centralised state and an imbalanced co-operative ownership, municipal economy. When I became Leader of the • We are the only political party ownership and public ownership. Scottish Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn committed to public ownership of and I agreed that there was a need for public services: including public I remain optimistic that we can make renewed and serious consideration transport, mail, energy and ending the leap and the transformative about Scotland’s future constitutional the PFI/PPP/NPD failed experiment. change that we need with a planned options. This work is underpinned by our transition - a democratic transition shared socialist analysis of the pivotal • We are the only political party and a just transition - so that the nature of the distribution of power as offering fundamental economic very economic foundations of society change so that the economy is run well as wealth, and our shared values of become much more democratic, much democratically and sustainably the fundamental importance of power more accountable and much more being exercised at the most appropriate in order that that inequality and sustainable. Because the struggle that level. Three years of Brexit have brought poverty are seriously tackled. We are we face to halt climate change and save this into ever sharper relief. challenging the existing economic model which channels all the wealth the planet is, in the end, a struggle for The Scottish Labour Party wants the to the top. social, economic and environmental UK to stay in the European Union and justice. It is a struggle that not only can Scotland to stay in the UK. So, we are And we will campaign to win the be won it is a struggle that must be won. the only party in Scotland offering both 2021 Scottish Parliament elections the prospectus of remain and reform in with a commitment to reinstate full Richard Leonard is the leader of the both. I want to see fewer borders not employment as a goal of public policy, Scottish Labour Party and an MSP for more. We want to bring people together and a commitment to bring about real Central Scotland. He was previously a rather than tear them apart. economic change and a new kind of union officer for the GMB union and STUC. 6 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Time to stuff the Tory turkey Tommy Sheppard believes Scotland will answer the call but is hesitant about calling the result elsewhere y the time you read this we may be obvious alternative - no Brexit. for moving it on. Brexit not being done in the middle of a general election means the end is still in doubt and campaign - or not. If not, there’ll So, we need a new parliament with Johnson will be attacked by Farage. B fresh mandates capable of resolving be one along soon. Either way, it’s worth Frankly, in many parts of provincial reflecting on how this early election Brexit. More importantly, it is surely England, this it pretty much Labour’s came about and the opportunity it time the people of Britain are allowed only route to victory. If Brexit gets done, presents for the left in Scotland. a say again. And that’s why the SNP has Corbyn is f**ked. We shouldn’t be having an election, insisted that there must be an election of course. The Fixed Term Parliaments before anyone ‘gets Brexit done’. Labour is behind in the polls, but it was Act 2011 was meant to avoid just After all what is the point of having the last time too. The public do seem that. It was supposed to be five-year an election occasioned for the most to have a problem with the Labour parliaments so everybody knew were part because the parliament cannot leadership, but it is what it is. It’s not they stood, and the advantage of decide between versions of the Brexit plausible for Labour MPs to argue to incumbency removed. But that was end game, but then closing down the postpone an election because they are before the British ruling class started concerned about their leader. And it’s eating itself alive over Brexit and this not fair on the rest of us. most enduring of crises drove a ‘coach and horses’ through previous party One of the more bizarre arguments coming from the right wing of Labour is loyalties. A populist campaign to leave that by calling for an election the SNP the European Union galvanised multiple will somehow be responsible if Labour discontents and created an abyss where loses it. Come on! The logic of that is once there was certainty. And when that we should spend our time propping parliament stared into the abyss, it up a minority Tory government. How is didn’t like what it saw. anyone taking this seriously? The promise of Brexit was a lie. It isn’t The SNP will take care of the Tories in possible to leave and for things to Scotland - it is not our responsibility get better. Sure, the UK can take back to defeat them in England. Which its borders and be done with Johnny brings me back to what this election Foreigner, but only by making people is all about. For in Scotland, the whole worse off. This realisation combined constitutional crisis of Brexit is overlaid with the steadfast decision of the Tory with a longer running argument about government to consult no-one but itself Scotland’s place within Britain. We have on how to get Brexit done has created a a chance not just to stop Brexit, not stalemate with parliament simply unable just to oust Johnson and the Tories, but debate before the first vote is cast. to move forward. also to support the proposition that The new parliament should decide people here have the right to choose an The hard right has taken advantage the final chapter of Brexit - whether alternative future. We shall be putting of this inertia. Driven by the fuel of agreeing the deal or asking people to that front and centre in the coming frustration, it sees an opportunity to rethink the whole thing through another campaign. And if we win, it will mandate get through the hardest of Brexits. This referendum. SNP representatives to advance that is the Johnson project - a withdrawal argument in the Palace of Westminster agreement that paves the way in 14 The left should seize upon the chance making it a red line in any discussions months for the emergence of a free to rid Britain of the most right-wing about what support we might give to a trade agreement aligned with the government since the Second World non-Tory British government. US rather than the EU. Gone will be War. And yet the reticence of some in the frameworks which oblige capital the Labour Party is astonishing. It is Tommy Sheppard is the (SNP) MP for to accept social and environmental not a good look for those who argue Edinburgh East restraints - to be replaced by for change not to want to contest an deregulation and the greater freedom election. Once we are clear the Tories EDITORIAL COMMITTEE to exploit. are blocked from using the calling of an election to railroad through a hard Bill Bonnar Bill Ramsay This is dangerous, and it needs to be Brexit, we should be all systems go. Moira Craig Lilian Macer stopped. But this parliament cannot Sean Duffy Gordon Morgan do it. There are too many - mainly I can appreciate how some Labour MPs Carole Ewart Carolyn Scott Labour - MPs constrained by out of in leave seats will be seduced by the Roz Foyer Dave Sherry date mandates which promised to argument ‘let’s get Brexit done’ - they Gregor Gall Stephen Smellie implement Brexit without knowing would rather fight on anything other Editor Chris Stephens the cost. Some are already voting with than the issue which has split their Pat Kelly Maggie Chapman Johnson, arguing any deal is better electorate down the middle. But it is a Convener Bob Thomson than no deal. They have neither the mistake. If Brexit gets done, the right Vice Convener inclination nor the courage to argue the will unite and Johnson will take credit

7 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Daunting challenges posed by global capitalism Colin Fox surveys the landscape and get prepared to batten down the hatches voted to remain in 2016 as ‘The lesser Antonio Gramsci never flinched from i.e. the working class majority who see of two evils’ but I’ve changed my facing unpalatable truths head on. His in independence a rejection of the neo- mind. Reading Costas Lapavitsas’s The ‘pessimism of the intellect, optimism liberal status-quo not its reinforcement. ILeft case against the EU on holiday in of the will’ philosophy was imbedded Bilbao recently caused me to reflect on in the need to face the facts as he If the political picture has one positive, my choice and on the issues Scottish saw them, in his case those posed however, it is surely the widespread, if Left Review has asked us to comment by Mussolini’s fascism in the 1930s. inchoate, popular resistance to global upon. In my revised view, the EU is Gramsci’s trademark prescription is warming. As one participant in our an organisation beyond progressive necessary today as the prospect of recent Scottish Socialist Voice Forum on reform. Whilst I acknowledge the 2016 another Tory Government undermines climate change in Edinburgh declared: referendum was not driven by the left, the likelihood of another legally binding ‘Whatever else may be said about the past three years have also shown referendum on independence. I regret ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and their political how malevolent a force the EU is today. that because independence offers the confusion they have certainly made Its neo-liberal practices reach far and only chance of democratic advance and protest fashionable again’. wide and its political spokesmen have social progress north of the Border I can And yet ‘protest’ will not be enough. I worked non-stop to thwart their biggest see any time soon. defeat in 70 years. was struck by a comment made by an Whilst Nicola Sturgeon was right to analyst at UBS in the Financial Times I never doubted Brexit would happen insist at SNP conference last month recently who held that attempting to however. The implications of the vote restrict global warming to 2 degrees were too profound for it not to. The above pre-industrial levels is already a majority voted to leave and their lost cause. The best we can hope for, instruction had to be adhered to. And he insisted, is to manage a 4 degree the ‘no’ vote in 2014 kept Scotland rise with all that entails. Since low lying locked into that reality. countries such as Bangladesh may be under water by 2050, mankind faces EU sycophants like Nicola Sturgeon, stark, existential challenges; how to Keir Starmer, Tom Watson and save large portions of humanity from Jo Swinson had no intention of drowning, disease and premature accepting the result, happy to death when the predominant pedal myths of all kinds as Brussels political ideology rejects universal directed them. They argued for access to limited resources in favour example the 2016 vote itself would of rewarding wealthy elites still further. lead to economic catastrophe. It As the dominant political philosophy didn’t. Further predictions of looming today rejects the idea of saving the lives economic Armageddon followed. Each of billions, it is surely the system itself proved just as inaccurate. They even that must be replaced. blamed the collapse in car sales on Again, readers looking for easy solutions Brexit when it had nothing to do with it. that independence will only be secured The fall in UK diesel exports for example must find them elsewhere! The labour democratically, it was perhaps the only was driven by global concern over C02 movement in Scotland and beyond faces thing she has been right about these emissions and lethal particulates. profound challenges. Brexit is going past 4 years. She was wrong for example to happen. Boris Johnson looks set to As a consequence of the UK to pretend Scotland could stay in the win a sizeable Parliamentary majority, establishment’s Brexit skulduggery, I EU when the UK left. And wrong to strengthening both the Tories and fear Boris Johnson is going to win the argue the 2016 vote, where Scotland global capitalism, preventing another forthcoming election, painting himself opted to ‘Remain’, somehow made the independence referendum and those as ‘The people’s champion’! ‘Leave’ case for ‘yes’ on its own. It didn’t. If democratic solutions to the dangers voters and the ‘scunnered middle’ sick she had put even 1% of the effort she posed by global warming. Socialist and tired of Brexit make up the majority dedicated to pedalling ludicrous myths solutions, including a Green New Deal of the electorate. The contest will, I fear, about the EU into making the case and a break with the private ownership see millions of lifelong Labour voters for independence we would be much of capital, have never been more hold their noses and opt for Johnson nearer the majority we need today. necessary nor face a more daunting because they feel betrayed and think Furthermore, she has done nothing challenge. Corbyn incompetent. to advance the crucial economic case for independence. Her endorsement Colin Fox is the national spokesperson If all this sounds too pessimistic you of the lamentable Sustainable Growth of the Scottish Socialist Party. He sat on can seek more comforting conclusions Commission, for example, has made the YES Scotland Advisory Board 2012- elsewhere. But that would be the wrong that task more difficult because it repels 14 and was SSP MSP for The Lothians thing to do. The great Italian Marxist the very people we need to win over 2003-2007 8 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Desperately seeking democratic solutionrevolution Maggie Chapman says a democratic transformation must underlie economic and social transformation ur politics is in crisis. It is not - has never been - good enough. crofters have the power to buy their utterly broken. The farce that is crofting estates. We should ensure that Westminster cannot be taken My vision for Scotland’s future is a country such powers are delivered to every O that is fairer and more equal, a country in community in Scotland. We must embed seriously. That the British Prime Minister faces no consequences despite having which citizens are well educated and well participatory processes in our budget- been found by the highest court in the supported to be active citizens: a country setting arrangements, going far beyond land to have misled the head of state and where all voices are heard, and all voices the participatory budgeting projects we lied to the people, after having broken matter. To create such a country, we need see at the moment. Mainstreaming such electoral law in a referendum campaign to revolutionise our democracy, enriching approaches for deciding major elements shows just how broken our politics is. it, transforming it, creating new structures, of public spending will ensure we have We, the people, deserve better. So much processes and cultures that enable, nationwide understanding of the need better. encourage and support active citizenship. for increased funding for public services as well as securing the need to protect Scotland faces a constitutional and We must find ways to increase minorities. And, we can support our political crisis: Brexit, Scotland’s vote to engagement in issues of national (and children to become natural decision- ‘remain’, the call for an independence international) importance. The Republic makers by encouraging collaboration and referendum, the democratic deficit, the of Ireland, who used to do referendums co-production of curriculums at schools, erosion of local democracy, and more. badly, managed to transform their colleges and universities. This is all about Scotland also faces a climate crisis: an democratic processes by using citizens’ making it utterly normal and expected for economy over-reliant on an industry that assemblies to navigate the stormy waters people to have a say about every aspect of will destroy the planet. And Scotland faces of equal marriage and abortion. These their lives. a social justice crisis: increasing inequality, assemblies brought together individuals increasing employment precarity, from a cross-section of society - balanced In addition to changing structures and increasingly unmet demands for health by gender, age, location and social class processes to redistribute power, we and social care provision. These crises - chosen at random like a jury, and led must catalyse a culture change too. At have, at their heart, one single cause: an them through a well-facilitated process the heart of many of the technocratic or economic system designed to alienate, that allowed them to understand the neo-liberal arguments is an assumption disenfranchise and disempower. And that details of the issue, and to deliver a that disagreement is bad, that politics economic system can only be dismantled recommendation to be put through the is necessarily unpleasant, and that we if we, as a society - a country - come legislative process or to a referendum should avoid discussion and disagreement together and demand a different kind of where a constitutional change was wherever possible. Rather, we need to democracy. needed. Such richer engagement with ensure that debate and discussion are the issue gives much more faith to the nurtured, and that people understand how to disagree with each other, argue That neoliberalism has such a stranglehold public that the proposed way forward with each other, and so learn from on our lives is both a cause and a is not a political stitch-up, and resulted each other. And, we need to transform consequence of a broken democracy. in extremely successful votes to legalise our understanding of negotiation and There is a serious dialectic at play equal marriage and abortion. between democracy and its enemies. concessions, so that we appreciate how Those who oppose democracy tend And I say successful not just because I decisions can be made collectively. toward one of two positions. First, the agree with the outcomes, but because In order to do all of this, we need to act technocratic position, which sees people those outcomes have not been subject to in cooperative ways: individual action will as the problem: the general public do the same rancour and disagreement that not succeed. We must build and sustain not know what’s good for them and will referendums done badly often are: they make the wrong decisions. Therefore, social movements of radical democracy to have losers’ consent. I want these sorts confront and transform the constraining those decisions should be taken by elites of deliberative processes at the heart of in positions of power and allowed to structures and systems that neo-liberalism Scottish democracy, with a (permanent) has imposed on us. Social movements are get on with it. Second, the conflation of citizens’ assembly acting like a second democracy with the market: the idea that the agents of change in this era of political chamber to the Parliament. Such an government and state interference with brokenness and approach could be very usefully deployed the market is wrong, and deregulation farce. on questions like: identifying taxes that and the removal of collective power and move with the shifts in retail on the high endeavour is the answer. Maggie street to retail online, dealing with air Chapman is Our response to these enemies of pollution, questions of social care, and the rector democracy must be to find ways to replacing much of the prison system. at the deepen and broaden our democracy University and democratic practice. Our current We must also democratise our everyday of democratic architecture has not changed lives and workplaces. Finding ways to Aberdeen much in the last century: we might make democracy more real for citizens in and a have more devolution and less local their schools, colleges, workplaces and leading government, but we still run things by communities will normalise decision- Scottish Green electing people once every 4-5 years and making. We need to give workers the Party activist expecting them to get on with it. That is power to buy their workplaces, just as

9 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Realigning the left Kenny MacAskill argues for a form of left cooperation and consensus as the new way forward atred between Labour and the nightmare scenario for SNP and Change has also to be mirrored in the SNP has been visceral for Labour voters, ground down by years SNP. It has been remiss in its relationship Hgenerations, long predating the of enforced austerity. Stopping them with the wider labour movement. For independence referendum. Ostensibly whether at the border or in Westminster sure good relations have been forged the constitution’s the divide but it’s also has been the desire for both sets of with the STUC but the SNP needs that the parties, whatever they may say, supporters and it has seen voters to go much beyond that. Organised compete on the same political terrain stampede to one or other depending on labour needs a much bigger role within with similar social democratic policies. who they see as best placed to defend the SNP and given more respect too. them at that particular point in time. Cooperation needs to take place there The dislike and disdain, in the main, is as in Parliament. not shared by voters who tend to be But if another Tory victory comes about, fluid between the two parties. Just as then co-operation both in Westminster For the overarching issue here is not Tory and LibDem voters are likewise and Scotland becomes essential. People simply the defence of our people’s the other set of Scotland’s two inter- are entitled to no less as this will be the interests but also the promotion of the connected political camps. This Labour- most right-wing administration in living wider social democratic cause. Either SNP antagonism has not served either memory, hell bent on rolling back the independence or federalism might well and certainly not the country. gains of social democracy enjoyed by well come quickly from Johnson’s Instead, it’s been debilitating and sterile generations. abandonment of unionism. Ensuring – a case of political sectarianism limiting that the benefits in the new land, new thinking and co-operative actions. however its constituted, for working people is essential. It has to stop as the only winners are the Tories. There’s much more that The ruling elite in Scotland who serve unites than divides and the price of Tory interests will be the same as their failure to co-operate is paid by the most counterparts in every other land that’s vulnerable, who both parties claim to achieved sovereignty, in whatever shape have foremost in their minds. It doesn’t or form. They’ll shamelessly jump up to mean a pact or even an electoral truce. preserve their interests and proclaim An election is coming and both will go undying loyalty to the new regime as head to head. Let the contest take place they had the old. but thereafter let co-operation begin for the stakes are too high to do otherwise. A ‘new’ Scotland must avoid simply mirroring the old ‘North Britain’ with The electoral permutations will also a tartan ribbon put around vested Of course, it will require change by the likely facilitate or demand it. The easiest interests. Progress has been made in parties themselves. Neither party is outcome for it would be the scenario Scottish public life with gender balanced blameless, each have things to be both of SNP support at Westminster for a boards but it’s been horizontal not proud of or to regret. But it will not be Corbyn administration. Whilst it may vertical in class terms. That needs the time for continued recriminations put some Scottish Labour leadership to change and cooperation is again but for a realignment to protect Scottish noses out of joint it would be welcomed required. working people’s interests. by many rank and file and also by both A century ago, the Glasgow May Day parties’ electorate. Getting this current Labour will require to cease being so Rally in 1919 saw Constance Markievicz Tory administration out is the earnest irredentist on the constitution. Support as the principal speaker, joining others plea of both parties’ supporters. for independence is not required but including the great John McLean and an end to unflinching and dogmatic Whilst hard for many in the leadership his namesake Neil Mclean ILP MP for unionism is a necessity. It has been at the outset, it would be the basis for Govan. She had been appointed Minister an electoral disaster for them and will a political realignment, protecting the for Labour in the newly established Dail continue to be especially if a further integrity of both parties and allowing Eireann just months before. Supporters Tory Government is returned. But there for continued deviation on the final of independence and of socialism came are signs that many grassroots members constitutional settlement. That debate together then and must do so again. Let on federalism or independence could are less intransigent and much more a realignment on the left begin. continue and a resolution through a open to new thinking. That has also Kenny MacAskill is a former SNP further referendum could be agreed. been signalled by the London Labour leadership and will be forced upon the MSP and Justice Secretary. He is now An outright Labour victory seems Scottish group if the first scenario comes a columnist (with the Scotsman) inconceivable but an outright Tory to pass. Rather than being truculent, and writer (with books published majority on a low vote remains a distinct it would be better for them to mirror on ‘Glasgow 1919: The Rise of Red possibility. As in 1983, a rise in LibDem cooperation that will be taking place Clydeside’ and ‘Jimmy Reid: A Scottish support at the expense of Labour at Westminster, irrespective of the Political Journey’). simply sees the Tory’s returned. That’s election’s outcome. 10 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Time for transformation is now – we must fix our broken constitution Lynn Henderson says that out of crisis comes opportunity 200 years on from Peterloo ou don’t have to look far to see in desperate need of radical reform. chamber where Scotland, alongside the Westminster political system We need to fight with the same passion the other nations and regions are Yis in crisis. Brexit has polarised today for a better democracy. This is represented and the voices of their our politics more than ever before. not merely an ‘English’ problem or people are heard - a chamber elected by PR like the one used here in Scotland The current British government, with one that we Scots can attribute to where everyone is represented and no no majority and no popular mandate, ‘Down South’. Whatever our position votes are wasted. seems determined to implement a on Scotland’s future, progressive Scots damaging no-deal Brexit. The recent must be at the forefront of the fight In the past few months we’ve seen Queen’s speech set out a raft of for democracy across these islands. progress. Labour committed to an reforms that would create further Of course, since Scottish devolution overhaul of the archaic house of Lords inequality and make the poorest in in 1999, the creaking constitution of and, speaking at our conference Jon society poorer. the UK’s political system has barely Trickett, Shadow Minister for the And when faced with scrutiny and changed. Cabinet Office, called for a democratic resistance from MPs, Johnson shuts revolution and demanded that Labour The Brexit deadlock shows just how go deeper and be bolder on reform. down Parliament until prorogation broken that political system is. Parties was struck down by the courts. Even At Labour’s recent conference and The refuse to work together, voters are World Transformed festival there was now, when faced with scrutiny over its left on the side-lines and the view of Brexit Bill, the government threatens a strong feeling that things needed to Scotland is all but ignored. Now more to go on ‘strike’ to prevent the work of change and democratic reform should than ever the need for comprehensive parliament from taking place. This is be at the centre of a radical socialist reform of Britain’s centralised not the way democracy should work, programme. Westminster system is being seriously with voices silenced and the executive discussed and debated across the left. Reform should not be seen as a luxury is free to act with few constraints. or afterthought. It is part and parcel of Back in August, Politics for the Many the radical and transformative agenda held its ‘This is What Democracy we need to improve people’s lives. Looks Like’ one-day conference in The movement for political equality is Manchester, bringing together trade central to the movement for economic unionists, campaigners and progressive equality. It is the rotten system that activists to make the left-wing case for leaves millions voiceless and excluded a new constitutional settlement. from politics that has put us where we are today. Together we, as trade Our event marked 200 years since unionists, activists and campaigners can the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester The biggest affront to democratic lead the fight for a better democracy. when in 1819, over 60,000 working accountability remains the House people gathered to demand political of Lords. Packed to the rafters with We find ourselves in a political crisis and pivotal moment in our history. We’re at representation and the chance for political appointees and still-existing a fork in the road: between democracy their voices to be heard and their city hereditary peers, it is more akin to a or Etonian despotism. This crisis can be be represented in Parliament. Local private members’ club than a legislative the start of a new movement democracy magistrates tried to shut down the chamber. Meanwhile, Westminster’s – and the protests we’ve seen over meeting, sending in cavalry to disperse winner-takes all electoral system prorogation should give us hope. Let’s the crowd in brutal attack that left 18 continues to shut out the voices people step it up: our labour movement should people dead and over 600 injured. as votes pile up in safe seats leaving commit to giving working people the millions of people unrepresented. And, Peterloo is recognised as a key moment voice they’ve for so long felt they the Tories plan to exclude even more in the history of the reform movement, haven’t had. one that changed public opinion, people through their US-style voter shifted support towards the suffrage suppression plans. If you agree, join us: politicsforthemany. movement and helped an increasingly Throughout our history, it has been co.uk and join Politics for the Many on politicised working class find their down to ordinary working people to Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/ voice. fight for democratic rights. It is not TradeUnionistsforPoliticalReform, pass a motion supporting Politics for the One of Peterloo’s legacies is that enough to await Scottish independence as the means to a radical socialist Many in your union branch or CLP, democracy is never settled. It will write a letter to your paper or union always be challenged and those in future. Scotland is still split 50-50 on the issue. magazine backing an overhaul or get in control will always attempt to seize touch: [email protected] more power for themselves. And We need a more equal, fairer politics so, the last few months have seen now. And there is work to be done Lynn Henderson is the chair of ‘Politics Johnson’s government move to do just in the system that we are in, starting for the Many’ and a national officer of that so that it is clear our constitution is with a democratically elected second the PCS union

11 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Taking back the power: forcing the EU’s hand Though a little late in the day, Gregor Gall suggests a way out of the ‘leave’/’remain’ stasis for the left or anyone on the left to have urged some on the left hold out as a more classes of other EU countries, leading a vote for ‘leave’ in 2016 was a palatable option. Rather, what it means to the destruction of the EU. This is the Fstrategic mistake. For anyone on the is that the left should consider the real ‘third way’ of our present times. It left to support ’leave’ now is another strategy of building the political forces means we would not be bystanders on strategic mistake. Why? Simply because to use the state to tame capitalism. Brexit. with the retreat of the radical left – That would mean doing things that the despite the rise of Corbynism – and the EU would no doubt block like bringing This argument is quite different from ascendency of the populist hard right, considerable parts of the economy the ‘remain and rebel’ of the ‘Labour it was always going to be the case that under public ownership and restricting for a Socialist Europe’ and ‘Another the latter was going to determine the the right of capital to move freely. Only Europe Is Possible’ campaigns because nature of any Brexit – whether ‘hard’, at the point of having built mass support this argument does not believe as they ‘soft’ or ‘no deal’. And, whatever type of for defying the EU would the issue of a do that the EU can be transformed into Brexit we’ll get under the Tories – this left Brexit become realistic and credible. a socialist federation of countries like a being the most likely political scenario, United States of Europe. The EU needs it will be one for further deregulation Specifically, it would mean not choosing to be destroyed and abolished because and even more neo-liberalism. You to leave the EU but essentially being it is irreformable in terms of the scale only have to see that with the issue of expelled by the EU for breaking its own of economic and social change that is the protection of workers’ rights and rules on regulating capitalism. The left necessary and being sought. the environment having been moved might then be in a position to determine Gregor Gall is a visiting professor at from the legal text of the withdrawal the nature of a Brexit because the left the University of Leeds and an affiliate agreement and being put instead into could then pose the issue like this – we research associate at the University of the political declaration (which has no want to use the state to tame capitalism Glasgow. legal force). and the EU does not and will not allow us to do that within the EU. To the So, the point here is that the timing for public, the left would then say: ‘If you leaving the EU is all wrong given the support what we balance of political forces. Does that are doing, you must mean that leaving the EU is wrong per show this support by Scottish Left Review se? Does all that mean that the EU is taking part in mass The Scottish Left Review is a non-profit making publication. progressive and something the left mobilisations to say Please subscribe or make a donation by going to www. should defend? The simple answer to we will defy the EU scottishleftreview.org where you can pay by credit card these questions is ‘no’. The EU has in diktats and we will or by filling in your details in the form below and returning not back down’. If the most cases been a powerful engine to Scottish Left Review, 14 West Campbell Street, for neo-liberalism and turbo-charged EU chooses to expel Glasgow G2 6RX capitalism more generally. Does that Britain, then so be it. In mean that ‘remain’ must become doing so, the political the default option now and into the forces to determine Name future? Well, not exactly because that a left Brexit will have would mean to accept another ‘devil’ been secured, this Address – ‘better the devil you know’ is not a being the opposite to great option. There is very little in the the Brexit we currently way of a positive case for the EU. State face. The left would intervention is not altogether ruled also have to create out within the EU as the existence of a series of equitable Tel: transport being under public ownership economic and in a number of countries on the trading relationships continent shows. But the scope for an reminiscent of what E-mail: active, progressive state is highly limited the likes of Venezuela within the EU. and Bolivia have tried Subscription/Donation to do in Latin America So, what does that mean for a possible in order that Britain did Date: new left strategy? Noting that the not become isolated 214 likes of John McDonnell seem to be and weakened by Subscriptions: £18 (waged), £14 (unwaged), £24 (local moving towards ‘remain’, it might mean taking this path of organisations), £30 (national organisations). suggesting ‘remain and rebel’ but not as resistance on its own. Donations will be gratefully recieved. Cheques should be some empty slogan which actually really Hopefully such a revolt crossed and made payable to: Left Review Scotland Ltd. means meekly accepting our fate within in Britain would also You can also subscribe/donate online at the present EU. It might not even mean stimulate a revolt www.scottishleftreview.org trying to reform the EU from within as amongst the working 12 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Striking out for our future against a dead planet Dylan Hamilton reflects on what was achieved in the September climate action n Friday 20 September, the week segments we didn’t know happened. of climate action started with a global strike for climate. So, what’s next? There’s been a O lot happening and coming up Around the world, people took to the streets to protest against in the climate movement at the destruction of our the moment. The Amazon climate with an incredible rainforest is still on fire, and total of 7.5m. There we’ve seen hurricanes was a strike on every breaking records yet single continent, again. Extinction including Antarctica, Rebellion (XR) spent with school strikers two weeks in calling for adults to London, as well as across the world, join with them for fighting for the the first time. In future through civil Scotland, we had disobedience. While a total of 40,000 we do not endorse strikers which is all the actions taken equivalent to 1 by XR, it has been out of 125 people. extremely helpful in Edinburgh had a aiding our movement large march with over with resources and 20,000, as did Glasgow have gotten lots of with 15,000. We even had people talking. XR was met strikes as far north as Lerwick with a horrendous police and on Iona, as well as Ullapool response - with people being and Elgin. What followed this arrested simply travelling in taxis was a jampacked week of events and and illegal ID checks being performed. demonstrations. This response reminds me of a terrifying increased the target statistic for climate activists - that three Throughout the week we had events from reducing emissions by 70% by of us are killed every single week, such as the ‘Day of Death,’ where 2030 to 75%, which is a large step in the particularly indigenous activists. We Scottish Youth Climate Strike (SYCS) right direction. However, it needs to be constantly call for climate justice, but organised die-ins, a ‘Day of Discussion’ more as this does not guarantee a safe things only seem to be worsening, in which we created a document called world for the next generations to grow so we’ll fight even harder. We have the Scottish People’s Climate Action up in. The Scottish Government still says our next global strike date tying in Declaration, which was presented to it is doing enough, yet it is spending with Black Friday, as we know that some MSPs later in the week on the ‘Do £6bn on upgrading two roads to dual consumerism has large effects on our What’s Necessary’ day, and received carriageways, with a measly £80m for planet. This strike will be in solidarity support from every party. We had a ‘Day public transport and cycling. So, it is very with COP25 in Chile, a United Nations of Education,’ as one of our demands clear to us that we have to keep up the summit on climate change which will is to teach about the severity of the pressure. be hosted in Santiago de Chile the climate crisis in our schools. Since we’ve week after. This event is a large deal, had lots of support from EIS, the largest Our organisation skills have improved especially since Glasgow will be hosting teaching union, this day was a massive massively since the first global climate it next year and so we are already success. It was an incredible week, and strike on 15 March 2019: we have strong beginning organisation for this. The at the end we had 20 pages of sign-ups! outreach plans and large followings school strikers are determined, and we on social medias, just to name a few. most certainly will not be going away for After the week, it has been a mix of We’ve expanded from only having a few a very long time. down-time and figuring out what SYCS strike locations to multiple ones in every will do next. Internationally, discussions nook and cranny of Scotland. We’ve Dylan Hamilton is fifteen years old and started about the date of the next also grown relationships with media, active in Scottish Youth Climate Strike global climate strike which has now which has helped spread awareness of (SYCS) – see https://www.sycs.org.uk/ been decided as Friday 29 November. the climate crisis and encouraged more Despite the massive protests, we know people to come out and protest with we can’t go away as the government us. The media attention we received still is not doing enough. On the 25 was insane, and we were on the BBC September, there was a vote in the multiple times throughout the day and Scottish Parliament on the climate bill. It we’re still finding articles and television

13 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Combining climate justice and social justice Pete Cannell reports on the ScotE3 campaign to make climate action and social justice go hand-in-hand within the ‘just transition’ n 11 October 2015, I was one to the Scottish Government’s energy go broader and deeper. The skills and among several thousand linking consultation, we began by producing knowledge of those currently working Oarms across the Forth Road briefing documents that aimed to in the oil and gas and defence sector Bridge. This action organised by ‘Hands frame the politics and practice of are critical to the rapid transition that Over Our Forth’ (HOOF) was meant to transition in ways that related to trade is required. The new climate jobs need be the latest stage in a mass campaign unionists. The lived experience of our to be on decent terms and conditions to stop underground coal gasification class is that change usually means – not the short-term agency contracts (UCG) by burning the coal seams paying the price for the problems of the that are more and more prevalent in under the Forth. However, just before rich and powerful. The havoc wreaked these sectors. An effective transition the event the Scottish Government by pit closures and the end of coal still needs to work for the bulk of the announced that UCG would not scars communities across Scotland. The population and not just for the rich go ahead. So, the demo became message we want to get across is that and powerful. So, it needs to tackle a celebration. It was an assembly a ‘just transition’, based on the million the gross inequality that has been like no other environmental protest climate jobs strategy, must mean more a feature of the last few decades of I’ve ever been on. Diverse, militant employment not less, better transport, neoliberalism. Moreover, it also needs and embedded in the working class more comfortable homes and a future to encompass free movement given communities of Fife and the Lothians. for our children and grandchildren. that the impact of climate change is, When we formed my local group in and will be, experienced most rapidly Portobello, ‘Our Forth Against and in its most extreme form in Unconventional Gas’, no one the global south. knew about UCG, but a whole host of local people, including In November 2018, we held ex-miners (appalled at the our first conference at which stupidity of setting fire to coal the participants spent the day seams) quickly spread the working on a practical manifesto word and through imaginative for ‘just transition’. A diverse set campaigning and direct action of participants found common we won. cause about what needs to be done. The harder question, A great deal has happened which we return to at this year in the four years since HOOF, conference, is how to make ‘just much of it in the last year; transition’ actually real. Not XR has injected urgency into just because a ‘just transition’ climate campaigning and is the right thing to do; it’s the the school student strikes only way to build the kind of have been inspirational, both mass campaign that’s needed. putting the idea of collective Reliance on market solutions action back on the agenda. Yet has led to a world teetering all of this has been against the on the edge of catastrophe. backdrop of accelerating rates The alternative requires us of carbon emissions and new to take the spirit of rebellion evidence of the severity of the climate It’s a big step forward that issues of into every aspect of our lives, health, crisis. social justice have become prominent transport, housing and to demand in the climate movement and reference action and to not take no for an answer. ScotE3 (Employment, Energy and to ‘just transition’ is now routine in Find out more about ScotE3 and our Environment) was initiated by a small the climate movement. The challenge, 16 November 2019 conference in group of rank-and-file union activists however, is to articulate the ideas Edinburgh at our website (see below). (mainly working in construction and implicit in ‘just transition’ in ways that defence) and activists like myself keen can engage working class people who Pete Cannell is a founding member of to find a way of taking climate action are rightly cynical about the promises Scot.E3, a part-time teacher, member into workplaces and working class of politicians and expect that they of the UCU and activist in rs21. The communities. We were inspired by the will be asked to pay the price for website of ScotE3 is https://scote3. Million Climate Jobs programme for transition. ‘Just transition’ is usually wordpress.com/, its Twitter is @ a transition to a sustainable economy framed in terms of ensuring that the scot_e3 and facebook is https://www. and by the struggles for just transition lives and livelihoods of those currently facebook.com/e3.scot/ taking place in working class and dependent on work in the hydrocarbon indigenous communities in the US and sector are protected as we transition to elsewhere. zero carbon. This is absolutely correct but in our view the definition needs to After working together on a submission

14 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Jimmy Reid – remembering a political giant Academics Bill Knox and Alan McKinlay published their biography of Jimmy Reid called Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-built man (Liverpool University Press, 2019). t is the result of many year’s What did you unearth about him that is painstaking original work. On the not known or well known about him? occasion of its publication, Scottish I Jimmy started his working life not in a Left Review interviewed both of the authors to ask them about why they shipyard or engineering works but in choose to study Reid, what they found a stockbroker’s office in Glasgow. He and what conclusions they drew. was the youngest transfer clerk in the Glasgow Stock Exchange. Coming from Nearly 50 years after the high point of a macho culture of hard men in the his political influence, that being the shipyards, it was rather surprising that successful UCS work-in he helped lead, Jimmy was a tremendous enthusiast for what is Jimmy Reid’s overall political the novels of Jane Austen - chronicler significance? of the loves and lives of the south- supported east squirearchy. Also, as a prominent the demand for Home Rule for His overall political significance is the supporter of the Scottish national Scotland stopping short of calling for continuing need to make well paid football team and a man from an independence. The progressive left and meaningful work a requirement impoverished background, it was an influenced such policies and the civic of the state and society and not just eyeopener to find that one of his great nationalism of the party appealed to the responsibility of the individual. In a sporting loves was English cricket! Jimmy and in 2005 he joined them. period of rising inequality, of low wages, of food banks, Jimmy’s fight against Can you briefly explain the key political What do you think he would have made poverty is something that should inspire transitions in his life from Communist to of Corbynism, Brexit and the rise of right-wing populism - would he have the current generation to emulate him Labour to the SNP? and make poverty history. Because returned to Labour or kept supporting Jimmy not only experienced poverty first To be a communist involved completely the SNP? immersing one’s self in a political culture hand but he fought all his life to end it. There are many things Jimmy would whose ties went way beyond the factory have found attractive in Corbynism. What made you want to study him? floor or the conference hall. However, Firstly, the determination to reduce after UCS and his failure to get elected inequalities - taxing the rich to feed There are personal and political reasons. to Westminster in the 1974 general the poor. Secondly, the democratic Personally, as young men, we were election, his doubts about continuing procedures of the re-selection process. inspired by the audacity of the UCS work- this membership began to surface and in and those that led it – not just Reid but Finally, as a passionate supporter of led him to leave in 1976. This was not an green incentives, the Labour Party also Jimmy Airlie. The defiance showed easy decision as to relinquish your party by workers against the supposedly action on climate change would have card was much more than a political act: been welcome. Jimmy had always unanswerable forces of the market gave it was to become an apostate, a break a lead to many in the same position. argued that union officials, MPs and with friends - it was a ‘gut- wrenching government ministers were not there Politically, it was the ability of the UCS moment’. As a Labour Party member, for life and that they had to be open stewards to turn what was a local dispute he identified with the centre-left group to re-selection particularly if they into a national one, and given the attached to Tribune and became a close failed to represent their members support from abroad, an international ally of Neil Kinnock in his struggles or constituents. But what he would one as well. The progressive, outward with the miners’ strike and Trotskyists. have opposed was the creation of a looking perspective of Reid and his fellow However, it became clear that as Labour leadership cult, something which could stewards inspired us and the Scottish began to take a softer approach to the also apply to those leading Brexit - that nation. The mobilisation of a cross- distribution of income and wealth under is, Farage and Johnson. He was like section of society, including Tories, was the leadership of Blair and Brown, he many on the left in Britain hostile to the at once a lesson in building alliances, and began to distance himself from what European Economic Community (EEC) a full-frontal attack on market forces, became known as the ‘new’ Labour which was renamed the European Union making a social or moral case that put project. Indeed, he became one of its (EU) because he saw it as a rich men’s community at the heart of economic fiercest critics as his Herald columns club. Yet as a result of serving on a planning. From another point. There was attest to. He also attacked the control committee which led to the declaration Jimmy’s presence as a player in all the freakery of ‘new’ Labour and the ways of human rights in the 1970s, he would main industrial and political struggles that dissent was crushed in the party. have - we think - favoured to ‘remain’. of the post Second World War decades. For him, there was little difference We don’t think he would have rejoined His life illuminates our understanding of between Blair and Thatcher. The growing Labour as he had become convinced of forms of political and social change by disillusionment with Labour led Jimmy the need of Scotland to go its own way showing how they were interpreted and towards the SNP. With justification as the best solution to the country’s negotiated by an individual. he could claim that he had always economic and social problems.

15 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Does Jimmy just represent a moment in past history or does he have a continuing contemporary relevance for left activists Extract from Aamer today? If anything, Jimmy represented for most Anwar’s 2019 Jimmy Reid of his political life an affirmative morality in politics - there was no titles, no sir, no lord, but there was a determination to Foundation annual lecture bestow the riches generated by working- class blood, sweat and tears, to all won the occupation, making history those in the community, particularly the worldwide. vulnerable. If his life was a message, then it would be for morality rather economics In 1972, in this hall, wearing the same to be the bedrock of political thinking and robes as I, he gave a rectorial address policy-making. He made the social case which has stood the test of time. for the right to work, that community The rest of Jimmy’s life informed us, comes first, that when industries are and we are all grateful to the Jimmy destroyed then lives are also destroyed. Reid Foundation, for ensuring his The young today are concerned about memories sustain us in the battles inequality, about climate change and that lie ahead. At his funeral at Govan so on. In Jimmy, they would find the Old Parish Church, I remember seeing inspiration that battles can be won. the great and the good, politicians from across the divide, the First You end the book with a tribute to the Minister, comedians, trade unionists, Jimmy Reid Foundation as being the sporting heroes and the Shipyard continuation of Jimmy’s radical political workers of Govan who lined the route thinking. Could you expand on that a as his coffin was escorted. There little? was a great deal said that day about immy Reid is often described as Jimmy but the memory of his friend, a One of the criticisms that is made ‘the best MP that Scotland has former shipyard welder, Billy Connolly of the left for some time is level of never had’, but I believe that is what stayed with me: ‘Jimmy put sectarianism, the constant bickering and J things simply. I remember him saying Jimmy was so much more. Sometimes arguing over points of political dogma. it is easy to forget the scale of events that if you look at these housing The Jimmy Reid Foundation was set which Jimmy led and took part in, estates and high-rise flats - look at up not only to honour the memory of especially when there was no social all the windows. Behind every one Jimmy Reid but also to campaign for media. In June 1971, when the Tory of these windows is somebody who radical changes in society. It exists to Government announced that it might be a horse-jumping champion, provide spaces for people to think and intended to liquidate the shipyards a formula one racing champion, a argue on a non-sectarian basis. Jimmy on the Clyde, 800 shop stewards in yachtsman of great degree, but he’ll Reid was a mobiliser, an advocate of a matter of days organised a mass never know because he’ll never step cross-cooperation across the political rally with a stoppage called for the 24 on a yacht or formula one car – he’ll divides, and the Jimmy Reid Foundation June, 100,000 people stopped work never get the chance.’ Sadly, for many carries on this work. As you say, the final and 50,000 marched on Glasgow young people behind those windows paragraph of the biography reads: Green. In July, Jimmy’s suggestion of today, things have not changed very much. Dr W.W.J. Knox is Honorary Senior a ‘work-in’ captured the imagination Lecturer in Scottish History at the of workers world-wide. On the 18 We pay tribute to Jimmy Reid a University of St Andrews. Professor August, 200,000 workers put down self-taught intellectual, philosopher, Alan McKinlay is Professor of Human their tools in support of the UCS trade-unionist, husband and father, Resource Management at Newcastle occupation and 80,000 marched on who never sold his soul for high University Business School. George Square. Jimmy gave rousing office, never seduced by the offer of a speech in which he said: ‘Today lordship, he always remained rooted • For those wishing to purchase the Scotland speaks. Not the Scotland in the community from which he biography, please find the enclosed of Edward Heath, Gordon Campbell, came, never scared to tell the truth, flyer with details of how to order with Sir Alex Douglas Home - of the often at great cost to himself. Jimmy a discount. Alternatively go tohttps:// lairds and their lackeys. They have warned us about alienation, the rat www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/ never represented Scotland, the race and capitalism’s race to the books/id/51544/ real Scotland, the Scotland of the bottom. working people. No title, no rank, no • The Jimmy Red Foundation wishes establishment honour can compare The video of Aamer’s lecture can to thank UNITE Scotland for hosting with the privilege of belonging to be found at http://reidfoundation. a launch of the biography at its the Scottish working class … Edwards org/2019/10/video-of-aamer-anwars- Glasgow offices on 25 October 2019 Heath, I tell you this. We are going to 2019-jimmy-reid-foundation-lecture/ at which UNITE’s general secretary, fight and we are not going to change. Len McCluskey was a speaker Either you will change or we will alongside the two authors. change the Government.’ The workers

16 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Aamer Anwar’s call to arms to campaign for truth and justice Catriona Reid and Elizabeth Reid Boulter share their experience of the inspirational annual lecture can only think there must have been a lot of use of ‘snail’ mail, leaflets being handed out and landline phonecalls made!

Large scale mobilisations are making a comeback today through the likes of youth for action against climate change as well as by all ages against Brexit and for Scottish independence. That is a good thing. It would be good if we also led the way to challenge poverty, inequality and racism. We were so impressed with the work Aamer does to fight against racism, his work for justice for young people who have died or committed suicide in our terrible prisons, and his fight for the Catalans against the Spanish government. Young people should have the historical knowledge about forms of protesting (particularly the UCS work in) to help inspire them to continue leading the way for change. Our Grandpa was only in his thirties when he led the UCS with the other men.

We would like to help make the Reid e are always excited about the could do for the Reid Foundation to help Foundation more relevant to the annual Jimmy Reid memorial engage our friends and peers. youth of today by discussing the issues lecture. As we were not born happening today that are relevant to W One of the things we talked to Aamer during our Grandpa’s active life, it is us. Aamer showed the way by using always interesting to hear about him, about was his description at the the appropriate language that we particularly his famous rectorial address. beginning of his lecture about the mass understood and his passion with which Some years ago (2015), Nicola Sturgeon demonstrations for the UCS work-in that he spoke to us. Both of these things gave the lecture in Grandpa’s name in took place in the 1970s. He said that made what he said relatable to us and the Bute Hall of Glasgow University. We sometimes it is easy to forget the scale made the ideas easier to understand. don’t remember much of the content, of events which Jimmy led and took part but we were so proud that this woman in. Especially when there was no social The form of communication that appeals who we love as our role model was media around at the time. to young people today, Facebook and Instagram would be ideal ways to spread giving it. This year, it was Aamer Anwar, Aamer said that in June 1971 when the Rector of Glasgow University, in the Grandpa’s and Aamer’s messages of the Tory Government announced that passion and anger, but also of hope. same hall as Grandpa’s was. We didn’t it intended to liquidate the shipyards know what to expect. But he had us on Young people could write articles on the Clyde, 800 shop stewards in a themselves as we are doing now, the edge of our seats and on the edge matter of days organized a mass rally daunting as that can feel. We’re not of tears. His delivery was emotionally with a union stoppage called for the sure what a think tank actually does, driven whilst still providing hard and 24 June: 100,000 people stopped work but we’d like very much to be actively difficult facts about our world today. He and 50,000 marched on Glasgow Green. involved following Aamer’s speech. had our full attention for the entirety of In July, he said Jimmy’s suggestion of a Hopefully that would encourage other his speech, which is an achievement in ‘work-in’ captured the imagination of young people to participate. Thank you

our book! It was so poignant for people workers world-wide. On the 18 August Aamer Anwar and the Reid Foundation. our age and we were lucky enough to 200,000 workers put down their tools We were so proud. Unity across the meet and talk afterwards to Aamer in support of the UCS occupation and generations creates strength! himself about how much we enjoyed 80,000 marched on George Square. his speech and how proud we were We didn’t know that and were amazed Catriona Reid and Elizabeth Reid Boulter of him giving the lecture in honour of about how huge demonstrations were are the granddaughters of Jimmy Reid, Granpa and what he stood for. We also achieved prior to social media. How did being in their late teens and early talked about our sadness that so few they do that? Our Grandpa was indeed a twenties and engaged in further and young people were there and what we motivational and inspirational man. We higher education

17 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Step forward sister! Mary Senior highlights how the campaign for equal representation in unions can be moved forward y comrade and sister, Lynn Women put the issues on our agenda negotiation meetings on her non- Henderson of the PCS union, that matter to workers and families. working day. is leading a crucial initiative to We all benefit from greater equality M Unions need to explore new models for advance women’s representation within at work – tackling gender and race unions - from the shopfloor to the pay gaps, delivering better work-life reps, including job-shares. UCU’s Queen leadership. Given the continued under- balance, or addressing mental health at Margaret University branch has female representation of half of citizens within work. The STUC Women’s Conference joint branch presidents who, with the upper echelons of unions, this is a agenda underlined this, with its focus branch colleagues, successfully opposed vital initiative. So, with the 92nd STUC on child poverty, menopause, and compulsory redundancies this year. It’s Women’s Conference having taken place mental health. It’s in all of our interests not easy job-sharing a union rep role; in late October 2019, it’s a good time to to have diversity amongst our union there’s always a need to keep in touch, promote the ‘step aside brother – step negotiators. However, as one comrade report back, and ensure consistency forward sister’ campaign. said exasperatedly to me recently of in the union approach, particularly in her union: ‘why is our executive full of difficult disputes. But it’s not impossible, and sharing union roles enables part- It’s just over 20 years since I was a fresh- straight white men?’ faced union officer in a general union. time workers – predominantly women I’d got through the first 25 years of my – to have an important voice in the life without facing any real barriers, or workplace, sharing the responsibilities, discrimination. Then I began working so a position is less daunting or in our movement. One of my earlier unmanageable. encounters was being greeted by a male It goes without saying that we need visitor to the union’s Scottish HQ with to ensure our activities and training ‘… and whose secretary are you?’ Of sessions are inclusive. Union course, a young female employee meetings over a pint are off-putting couldn’t be a full-time union official! to people uncomfortable doing Fortunately, the movement has business this way. Embracing new made progress. My current union technology opens up our movement – the University and College Union to more people. Video conferencing, – was ably led by the indomitable online surveys and webinars can Sally Hunt, and this year elected bring union learning and activities to industrial relations academic, Jo Grady, people who’ve felt excluded in the past. with a massive landslide on one of the With more people working remotely highest turn outs - an election where and precariously, often the best way to two of the three candidates were organise is with new technology. women. UCU’s officer elections have Finally, we need to shift the tenor of led to strong young women – Vicky Too many hurdles still remain, in the the debate: in workplaces, on social Blake and Lena Wånggren - taking form of traditional male dominated media and in society at large - and the on the vice president positions at cultures, and the lack of time and voices of women are key. You don’t have UK and Scottish levels, and next year support for women and other under- to shout the loudest to get your point Nita Sanghera becomes our first Black represented groups to come forward. across, or to be effective. Kinder debate president. With some tremendous roles Facility time is fundamental. The Tory isn’t about backing down, or failing to models in past presidents including Trade Union Act, with its facility time tackle challenges. It’s about approaching Vicky Knight and Ann Gow, all should reporting requirements, aims to attack issues in an inclusive, reasoned way, be looking bright shouldn’t it? Well, workers regardless of their gender, targeting the oppressors rather than the a UCU Scotland Executive meeting in ethnicity or other attributes. oppressed. May, where female reps were thin on the ground, underlined that we cannot For women to step forward into union Given the divisive times we live in, the be complacent, and Lynn’s initiative is positions, we need facility time to prevailing narrative has become too needed just as much in UCU as in the be effective in the role. Unions and aggressive and bitter. You only need to wider movement. employers should be creative where see the abuse politicians and others part-timers step up to take on union receive online. All too often women are Years of Tory austerity haves hammered duties. Facility time has to fit with at the sharp end, potentially putting our public services, economy and variable working patterns, and, crucially, them off from taking on representative environment. Inequality is increasing. flexibility is needed so workplace positions. Our role is to unite working Unions are leading the fight back, and meetings can be scheduled on the people, to show our common humanity must draw on the experiences of the days when reps are around. My union and equality. Women’s voices are central breadth of our movement to be effective. has a number of part-time women in to doing so. Workers, whether, women, BME, young, leading branch officer roles, but we face disabled workers or LGBT all strengthen constant frustration with one employer Mary Senior is the Scotland Official of our resistance, and empower us to tackle who – in full knowledge of our rep’s the University and College Union (UCU) inequality and oppression. working pattern - insists on holding and Vice President of the STUC. 18 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Work to end domestic abuse far from finished Megan Gordon says the 16 Days of Activism campaign is making progress but much remains to be done We have campaigned loudly on the need to change this picture and we recently took over 100 messages from the public about this to the First Minister. Following this meeting, and campaigning from us and others over a number of years, the First Minister announced that new legislation will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament that will give courts and police new powers to remove abusers from the home, rather than victims having to leave. This Bill, if passed, would be an immediate and significant improvement. We are keen to keep this high on the political agenda and we will be engaging with the Scottish Government on the detail of the Bill, as well as calling for support from voices from across the political spectrum. s we approach the period of Violence against women is both a cause the 16 Days of Activism Against and consequence of women’s inequality We will continue to call for protection AGender-Based Violence (25 and to end one we must end the other. and justice for women and children November to 10 December), Scotland Interventions need to be early and and we will keep stressing the need for is in the middle of our first year of effective and our society must actively appropriate responses to perpetrators implementing a world-leading new reject all forms of violence against – responses that do not minimise or domestic abuse law. At Scottish women and girls. It is vital that women excuse their behaviour, but rather Women’s Aid, we exist to work for a have the opportunity to thrive as equal hold them to account for the insidious Scotland free of domestic abuse; a citizens socially, culturally, economically patterns of abuse that they carry out. future where women, children and and politically. We will keep pushing for equality in all young people enjoy all of their human spheres and working to break down the rights and have equal opportunity We know that women start out poorer barriers that hold women and girls back. to explore all of their ambitions and and are less likely to have job security aspirations. Scotland’s ground-breaking or own their home. They’re doing The words and experiences of tens new law on domestic abuse, which came most of Scotland’s unpaid caring work of thousands of Scottish women and into force on the 1 April 2019 was a and they’re desperate for affordable children are echoed in those words from significant step in the right direction. childcare. In the context of domestic the aforementioned woman saying, ‘It’s abuse, where financial control is often just agony, agony, agony’. Scotland can Coercive and controlling behaviours a tactic, the prospect of financial and must be better than this. 16 Days are now criminalised meaning that the independence is even further restricted. is a chance to highlight the need, but emotional and psychological abuse that All of this combines to create a scenario the efforts must continue year-round. women and children have been telling where, for many women, ‘leaving’ abuse Roughly 60,000 domestic abuse police us for decades is the most traumatic will mean poverty, homelessness and calls a year are an indicator of women’s and the hardest to recover from is now destitution for them and their children. inequality. When we work on tackling reflected as such in the law. It’s a course Indeed, domestic abuse is the leading both, we change Scotland for everyone. of conduct offence, reflecting the fact cause of women’s homelessness in that abuse is made up of many tactics Scotland. • Change, Justice, Fairness was a over time. This law is also the first to research report on homelessness put children on the face of domestic One woman who participated in our as a result of domestic or sexual abuse legislation, allowing the judiciary Change, Justice, Fairness research on abuse, produced in collaboration to impose harsher sentences when this topic said: ‘You’re destroyed. I mean between Scottish Women’s Aid and children are involved. All of this is great yeah, you eat, you drink, you sleep, you a Community Research Team in Fife. news for those experiencing domestic talk but you’re dead inside and you can http://womensaid.scot/wp-content/ abuse. However, implementation of our feel it. You feel so down, so low, you uploads/2017/07/Change-Justice- new law is not the end of the work to wish the floorboards would open up and Fairness.pdf stop domestic abuse. With 1 in 4 women swallow you. It’s so embarrassing. Yeah, in Scotland experiencing domestic abuse you just think, oh gosh, I should have Megan Gordon is the External Affairs in her lifetime we cannot afford to let him kill me because that would have Officer at Scottish Women’s Aid (https:// consider the work completed. ended it. It’s just agony, agony, agony.’ womensaid.scot/)

19 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Making Freedom of Information fit for the job The law must be revised to reflect how publicly funded services are now delivered argues Carole Ewart The consultation also seeks to gather opinions/invite speculation on the consequences such as ‘Do you have any comments on whether extending FOISA to organisations providing services on behalf of the public sector is likely to impact on those organisations’ ability to provide services in this way?’ It is vital that a balanced range of views is provided so that the proposals see the statute book.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFoIS) has always argued that the right to know should follow the spend of the public pound. It is immaterial whether the n October 2019, the UN General FoI law in Scotland has several layers: service is delivered by the private Assembly adopted a Resolution the Freedom of Information (Scotland) sector, a voluntary organisation or a Iproclaiming 28 September as the Act in 2002 (FoISA) covers devolved local authority as people should be able International Day for Universal Access to functions and is now the subject of to make an enforceable request for Information. This high-level platform will overdue evaluation by the Public Audit information about the service simply publicise the right to seek and receive and Post Legislative Scrutiny Committee because it is funded by the public information which enables people to of the Scottish Parliament; the UK purse. Many organisations will have a form an opinion which they can express FoI Act 2000 which covers reserved view and CFoIS wants to build support freely. The Government of Liberia led functions such as the DWP; and the to extend FoISA and to ensure greater the way following a campaign beginning Environmental Information (Scotland) transparency and accountability in the at a historic meeting in Sofia on 28 Regulations 2004. In regard of the latter, delivery of publicly funded services. September 2002 which also founded the the escalation of its importance in FOIAnet, a global network of activists, the minds of the public and therefore More broadly ‘public access to academics and professionals pushing to politicians will create opportunities for information and fundamental freedoms’ get greater transparency in law, culture increasing the range of information is one of the specified targets in the 17 and practice. This network has been available in communities as well as Sustainable Development Goals which invaluable to activists in Scotland as we Scotland wide. are designed to change the world. For have immediate access to a vast pool that to happen requires transparency of knowledge and expertise unified A very good development is also and accountability in the public, private in the purpose of securing, extending underway. Currently, there is a Scottish and voluntary sectors so it is fitting that and being ambitious about laws which Government consultation on a topic the general right to access information enforce the public’s right to know about that may update our FoI law and make covers all sectors too when public how they are governed and how public it particularly useful for unions and money is being spent. Of course, there money is spent. communities. It fulfils the commitment is a huge discussion about whether it is in the 2018-19 Programme for a public service or a service of a public Freedom of Information (FoI) means Government to seek views on extending nature and no doubt these semantics different things to people around FOISA - for example, to companies will keep us busy over the coming the world but its impact on our lives providing services on behalf of the months. However, the first hurdle is to and on our democratic structures public sector. Views are invited on engage with the process of consultation is immense – especially in terms of a range of issues including: i) which in Scotland, so the challenge is to counterbalancing official flows of services provided on behalf of the respond by 22 November and make your information designed to mislead, distort public sector by organisations should be voice count. and lie. Ambassador Kemanyah, who covered by FoISA? And ii) which type of Carole Ewart is Convener of CFoIS – see delivered the presentation at the UN, organisations that receive public money https://www.cfoi.org.uk/scotland/ - and emphasised how important FoI rights to deliver public services or services of a member of the Scottish Left Review are as ‘the lack of information can mean a public nature should be covered by editorial committee. The aforementioned the difference between life and death’. FoISA? Unions, activists, community groups all consultation can be found at https:// recognise that information is critical to Therefore, the remit of the consultation www.gov.scot/publications/freedom- being able to make informed decisions will potentially impact upon the public information-extension-coverage- about the safety of our workplaces and as well as on ‘third sector’ organisations consultation/ the performance of essential services and private bodies that deliver public such as health and social care. services or services of a public nature. 20 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Not cracking up in Caracas In August 2019, the SSP sent Bill Bonnar to visit the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. Here is his report Any visitor to Caracas will be immediately struck by the extent of the current economic crisis. It is obvious from the crumbling infrastructure, the half empty shops and the queues outside banks. While the origins of this crisis are in the collapse of world oil prices and before that the international banking crisis, what is driving it now are draconian American sanctions and domestic economic sabotage and speculation from the country’s still predominant private sector. There is a war being waged against the he picture of Caracas which It has never recognised any PSUV Venezuelan people. It is not a war fought appears in most of the media election victory, has been calling for the by guns and invading foreign troops. Tproved to be deeply misleading. overthrow of the elected government It’s an economic war and it remains This was of a city racked by political since 1999, has glorified in some of the principle weapon of the opposition violence, crime and a government the past right-wing dictatorships which and their American backers. The aim clinging to power through the brutal ruled Venezuela and is completely in is to make the Venezuelan people so use of the army. What I witnessed the pay of the United States. Its aim desperate that they will support any was a city and its people going about is clear - to turn the clock back to the kind of change just to get back to some its normal business. I saw no obvious point immediately before the Bolivarian normality. Students of Latin American conflicts or particularly repressive army Revolution when it treated the country history will instantly recognise a strategy presence. At a meeting with officials as its own personal property and when of de-stabilisation. It was applied to Chile from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government was composed of in the seventies and Nicaragua in the it was explained that most of what people exactly like it. eighties and is being applied to Venezuela appeared in the western media was today. simply propaganda put out by the right- Support for the government remains wing opposition and the United States. strong. You see it in the numbers of Yet the impression I had was the Instead they invited me to travel across people wearing PSUV emblems, in the government was riding out the the city both with guides and on my own political activity in the city and in the economic storm. It was beginning and report on what I witnessed. large numbers of Venezuelan flags been to bring the currency under control, flown; a strident symbol of Venezuelan deal with hyper-inflation and through My first impression was that the resistance closely associated with the increasing links with China and Russia Bolivarian Revolution remains strong government. I saw no evidence of any was significantly undermining the with significant levels of support. kind of widespread resistance to the sanctions. It is a government which It appears a heady mixture of government in the city; in stark contrast appears strong, resolute and confident revolutionary socialism, Venezuelan to the kinds of stories regularly told in about the future. With the opposition nationalism and social Catholicism; the western media. The army, in the apparently in complete disarray and encapsulated in the form of former form of the National Guard, has a strong the American Government scratching leader, Hugo Chavez, whose presence presence and is strongly linked to the its head with what to do next, the is everywhere. His successor, Nicola PSUV. All the military commanders Venezuelan Government remains firmly Madoro is described in the West as a appear to be leading political figures in control and is setting the agenda. dictator but this is simply not true. He in their own right and project a is the elected President of an elected very definite image as defenders What struck me more than anything else government; a government which has of Venezuelan sovereignty and the was the way the Venezuelan Government won 23 out of the last 25 regional, Bolivarian Revolution. It is interesting to frame its struggle in terms of national national and presidential elections. watch a pro-government mass rally on self-determination and sovereignty. He also appears to be part of a strong television; addressed by a leading army Venezuela first emerged through a collective leadership. general who uses words like socialism, campaign against Spanish colonialism imperialism and solidarity. and for independence and in modern The right-wing opposition has little or times against US aggression. From one no presence within the capital; it is One obvious example of government small country fighting to achieve its own overwhelmingly located in the wealthy support was the National Petition against sovereignty to one fighting to defend its white suburbs stretching along the American Aggression; NO MAS TRUMP. existing sovereignty, it is a struggle we Caribbean coast. It struggles to influence Launched on the first day I arrived, I in Scotland should be proud to identify events in Caracas because it is not in proudly signed it on behalf of the Scottish with. the capital. Early on a picture of the Socialist Party. In the main squares and opposition emerged. Overwhelming streets large numbers of stalls had been Bill Bonnar is the International Secretary white and middle class, it called for the set up for people to sign, queues quickly of the Scottish Socialist Party and a ‘restoration of democracy’ although it gathering and within a week it had member of the Scottish Left Review lacked any real democratic credentials. totalled 7m signatures and counting. editorial committee. 21 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Solidarity with the peoples of North East Syria Sarah Glynn explains the roots of the current crisis and suggests a way out of it hundred years ago, the imperial back in defence of their homes and As a doubly oppressed group, powers reneged on their their existence, and their committed, Kurds were active in the Turkish A promises and left the Kurds at disciplined, resistance turned the tide left movements of the 1960s and the mercy of states that have attacked against ISIS. What ultimately proved 1970s, but they found that many of Kurdish culture, and threatened crucial to their success was the US their comrades were blinded by an Kurdish existence. Instead of decision to provide air support. The inflexible economism that prevented controlling their own lives, the Kurds Kurds knew that the US was only them seeing the racism of the society found their lands divided up between acting in their own interests, but in which they had all been raised, and Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria - and in for now, US and Kurdish interests the importance of cultural oppression. each of these places they have faced coincided. Without US help, the Kurds So, Ocalan, and a small group of discrimination and persecution. The faced death, or worse. friends, established the Kurdistan world has learnt nothing from history. Workers’ Party (PKK). Kurds and their allies, backed by After 100 years of persecution and US air power, continued the fight Turkish state control has been quick struggle, the power vacuum at the beyond the predominantly Kurdish to supress the many attempts by beginning of the Syrian civil war regions to liberate one third of the Kurdish activists to pursue their cause provided an opportunity for the Syrian land area from ISIS. In each through political routes, and the PKK Kurds there to begin to take control place they liberated, they helped took the path of guerrilla struggle. of their own lives. By this time, the establish groups that would create the The response by the state has been Kurdish freedom movement led framework for grassroots democracy, brutal, leading to the death of around by Abdullah Ocalan had moved on and they encouraged the involvement 40,000 people. Most were Kurds killed from Marxist-Leninist independence of women and of people from all by government forces – a fact that struggle to propagate a vision of non- ethnic groups. Their formidable Syrian generally gets omitted. Ocalan himself state autonomy. This new alternative Defence Forces (SDF) undertook the has spent the last 20 years in a Turkish to capitalism is based on a radical fighting on the ground, at the loss of prison. grassroots democracy that is feminist, 11,000 comrades; but they have no ecological and multicultural. The air-force and had to rely on US air Ocalan’s societal vision has reached Kurds attempted to implement these cover. way beyond the PKK. It is the ideas in the predominantly Kurdish inspiration for the Democratic areas of South-East Turkey, but were When the SDF liberated the last part of Autonomous Authority in Syria, and brutally crushed by the Turkish army. Syria controlled by ISIS, we knew, even as for the pro-Kurdish, leftist People’s In their Democratic Autonomous we celebrated, that the struggle was far Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey, Area of North East Syria, they could from over. The very fact of that victory whose activists and elected members make them a reality. The Kurdish opened new dangers, with the Kurds face constant harassment, arrests freedom struggle became a struggle perceived to have fulfilled their purpose and imprisonment. It has supporters for the freedom of everyone in the – and, clearly, world powers had no among the Kurds of Iran, and in the region, and it pervaded every area of interest in helping preserve an evolving Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. life, as people learnt to take control, alternative to capitalism. A resurgent But Kurds, like any other group, don’t together, of the running of their President Assad, backed by his Russian all share the same politics, and the neighbourhoods. masters, wanted control over the whole Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq is country - and then there was Turkey. feudal, corrupt, and neo-liberal in its The Kurds have a saying, Berxwedan economics. Jiyane, meaning resistance is Life. The Turkish Republic has ethnic This resistance is not just the negative nationalism at its foundations. The At the same time as imagining a resistance of the struggle against words of its first prime minister, new society, the imprisoned Kurdish repression; it is also the positive written in 1925, still define official leader has been persistent in the struggle for a better society. Its ability attitudes: ‘We must Turkify the pursuit of a peaceful solution to the to give life meaning is evident in the inhabitants of our land at any price ‘Kurdish Question’ that would allow pleasure with which women and and we will annihilate those who Kurds to live in Turkey in dignity. At men have committed themselves oppose the Turks or ‘le Turquism’.’ time, hopes have been raised, but to the challenge of running their Rules banning Kurdish language former Prime Minister, and now communities. and culture aimed to eliminate the President, Erdoğan seems to have identity of the large Kurdish minority. decided his political ambitions were The autonomous area had been At the same time, Kurdish areas were better served by taking a hard line. established less than two years when deprived of investment, in what has The cause of peace has not been they came under attack from the self- been described as a form of internal helped by the US and Europe siding declared ‘Islamic State’. Kurds fought colonialism. with Turkey in designating the PKK a 22 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 terrorist organisation, despite a recent eliminating Kurdish control, and many Kurds as citizens. Assad’s forces Belgian court conclusion that the PKK ultimately Kurdish existence, in are of only limited help, as Russia should properly be considered ‘party Northern Syria. The first ensured that controls the airspace and does not to an armed conflict’. But terrorist the Kurds were unable to link Afrin, want to clash with Turkey. designations are guided by realpolitik in the west, with the rest of the land rather than the court logic. that they controlled. The second, Meanwhile, European countries are early last year, occupied Afrin, making reluctant to do more than criticise. Across the world, the decline of left over 100,000 people refugees, and Turkey is not just a trade partner, and opposition has allowed space for turning the province into a playground customer for European weaponry. It rightwing and religious groups to for warring ‘jihadi’ gangs. Having got is a border guard keeping immigrants win support through a smattering away with this, Erdoğan effectively and refugees out of fortress Europe, of populist actions and efficient announced to the UN his intention for which Europe pays billions of organisation, and Erdoğan’s Justice to invade the whole border area and Euros. The 3.6m Syrian refugees and Development Party (AKP) fits clear out the Kurdish population. All who have found an uneasy shelter in Turkey, and have added to the Turkish this pattern. Its neoliberal economic that was preventing him launching his government’s domestic pressures, policies also ensured a welcome from attack was the presence of US troops. world leaders, but its crony capitalism have become pawns in Turkeys’ has been combined with a growing While Turkey is a member of NATO, imperial game. They will be used authoritarianism. A brutal crackdown it has also been flirting with Russia. to displace the Kurds. And any time on minorities, especially Kurds and The US doesn’t want to find itself Europe protests, Erdoğan threatens to critics of the government, is backed up fighting a NATO member, and nor does send the refugees into Europe instead. it want to drive Turkey into Russian by rigid censorship and the deliberate Horror at what is happening has led arms. Before Trump’s announcement stoking of ethnic prejudice and to various suggestions for external of troop withdrawal, it had agreed religious hatred. The failed coup of intervention. If this is primarily driven major concessions to Turkey, including 2016 provided Erdoğan with an excuse by fear of losing political influence, making the SDF dismantle its border for an even more brutal clampdown. and if it is not prepared to stand up fortifications. What persuaded Trump Although he put the blame for the to Turkish aggression, then it could to pull out is harder to say. No one coup on his former ally, Fethullah inflame the situation and make it deems this to be in US interests, Gülen, this clampdown extended to all even more dangerous. The UN never which is why the Kurds were taken by his critics and perceived enemies. manages to rise beyond the interests surprise. Trump seems easily swayed of its constituent parts and fulfil the The current Turkish government is a by his admiration for autocrats. hopes invested in it - and they have coalition of Erdogan’s AKP with a more not even included the SDF in their consciously far-right group, but it is As soon as the US stood back, Turkey deliberations on Syria’s future. Yet, no longer an exaggeration to describe was free to invade, which it did an internationally enforced no-fly the whole of the Turkish government with all the violence the Kurds had zone and peacekeeping force are as fascist. Fascist is not a term to use come to expect. Air attacks from the desperately needed. lightly, but this repressive, dictatorial second biggest military force in NATO regime, uniting – and also dividing have been targeted at civilians and As activists, we still continue to call – the country through an aggressive vital infrastructure, and evidence is for such peacekeeping international ethnic nationalism fits every definition being collected of the use of white intervention, and for meaningful of it. As a regional power with imperial phosphorus. Meanwhile, Turkey is sanctions on Turkey, and a full ban on ambitions, Turkey was quick to paying militants who fought with Al arms exports. Governments will only intervene in Syria. The government Qaeda and ISIS to fight as frontline act if we push them. We also call for is driven by expansionist dreams of a troops and terrorise the population. a boycott of Turkey, and especially of new Ottoman empire with Turkey at ISIS prisoners have been able to the Turkish tourist industry, because the centre of the Muslim world; by a escape and join sleeper cells that can a weak economy is Erdogan’s Achilles visceral hatred of the Kurds, who have attack at any time. heel. We show our solidarity with dared to resist assimilation; and by the people of North East Syria, and, All this is possible because it suits political pressures at home - including crucially, we call on everyone to help Russia to let Turkey attack. In a weak economy, that can be pushed keep alive and strengthen the vision supporting Turkey, it is weakening into the background by uniting against for a better world that the Kurds NATO. Russia is also content to see a common external ‘enemy’. and their neighbours were making a Kurdish power cut back and the Kurds reality. This should be central to our forced to seek help from the Assad Turkey has been the main sponsor of ideas and our practice. Berxwedan regime. That Assad is recognised as Islamist groups opposed to the Syrian Jiyane! regime, who have been responsible the lesser evil, is a measure of the for extreme brutality and repression, extreme nature of Turkish-sponsored Sarah Glynn is co-convenor of Scottish and there is a wealth of evidence from violence. Assad’s Syria is another Solidarity with Kurdistan those on the ground proving Turkey’s autocratic regime with no tolerance active support of ISIS fighters. of dissent or free speech. It previously clamped down on Syria’s Kurdish Turkey has also carried out three minority, banning Kurdish schools and unprovoked invasions targeted at festivals and refusing to recognise

23 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Missed opportunities? Stagnant statutory powers in Scottish legislation Jonathon Deans examines the extent of the Scottish Government’s unused powers and explains their existence hen an act of legislation The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 created Government announced a consultation passes parliament, whether at a duty for local authorities in Scotland to on regulations to bring Part 5 into force. WWestminster or Holyrood, it investigate whether a person applying This has created the absurd situation will contain a commencement provision for emergency accommodation had where the Government is consulting which states when the act comes into become homeless ‘intentionally’, on regulations to bring into force force as law. Usually, instead of setting a mirroring the position in England and statutory provisions which it passed date, the legislation will state something Wales. Examples of conduct which can three years previously. Ordinarily, a like ‘the provisions of this Act come be considered to result in ‘intentional government would consult on plans it into force on such day as the Secretary homelessness’ include failure to pay envisages legislating on, not on whether of State [or Scottish Ministers] may rent, defaulting on a mortgage, and loss to bring into force existing legislation. appoint’. This creates a situation where, of accommodation due to spending If the Scottish Government did not even though parliament has enacted time in custody. The result of a finding intend to use these land reform or dog the legislation, the government has the of ‘intentional homelessness’ is that control powers without carrying out power to significantly delay it becoming the local authority does not have a consultations first, then it arguably law by deferring the commencement legal obligation to secure that person should not have conferred them until date. accommodation. Section 4 of the after holding the consultations. Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 In a House of Lords (now Supreme changed this duty to investigate, making The Scottish Government’s Programme Court of the United Kingdom) case it discretionary instead of mandatory. for Government for 2018-2019 includes of 1995, R v Secretary of State for For over 16 years, this change has not many ambitious and laudable ideas the Home Department, ex parte Fire been brought into effect. It is on the such as a Scottish National Investment Brigades Union, it was declared that the statute books but legally it is a non- Bank and a bill to extend the electoral government cannot refuse to exercise entity. The result of this delay is that franchise to all citizens who are legally this power by stating that it will never for over 16 years, homeless people resident in Scotland. It is intended for bring a statutory provision into force. applying for accommodation have the Scottish National Investment Bank to However, the government still retains faced an intrusive barrier to receiving be operational by 2020. However, it was significant discretion on when to support. This barrier specifically creates also intended for one million acres of Scottish Land to be community owned commence legislation. difficulties for people with mental health issues or who were made homeless by 2020. Currently, only around 600,000 Much has been made of the delay due to an abrupt change in financial acres are in community ownership as regarding the powers created by the circumstances. we near the end of 2019. The delay in Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 for implementing key community right to the Scottish Government to create a Kevin Stewart, Housing and Planning buy powers has likely contributed to this devolved benefits system. Originally Minister for Scotland, has declared shortfall. planned for 2021, use of these powers that this will now come into effect in November 2019. It is difficult to It may appear to some that the Scottish has now been delayed until at least Government’s pattern is to announce 2024. Similarly, the Scotland Act 2016 envisage who, in an administration controlled by a purportedly centre-left new legislative powers, celebrate the conferred new tax powers to the new powers it has awarded itself, and Scottish Government. The Scottish party, was opposing this and why they were opposing it. then fail to use them. Some critics on Parliament then quickly passed the Air the left have argued that the Scottish Departure Tax (Scotland) Act 2017, to The same problem is apparent on less Government ‘talks left and walks right’ replace Air Passenger Tax in Scotland politically charged topics. The Control and that the reality is that the Scottish with a new devolved tax. However, of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 gave the Government appeals to left-wing and bringing this tax into force has now Scottish Government the power to working class voters with its rhetoric but been delayed past 2020. Changes that create a ‘Scottish dog control database’ ultimately is still beholden to corporate were envisaged to income tax bands for the retention of data on all dog interests and powerful Scottish to create a fairer and more progressive control notices throughout Scotland. landowners. This is a predictable left- tax code for Scotland have also failed to For a long time, there was apparently wing criticism for any government materialise. no movement towards this. Now, the and may be true to an extent. There Scottish Government has announced are, however, two more generous It could be argued that, due to the that a consultation will be held in interpretations. importance of issues such as benefits January 2020 on whether to should and taxes, the Scottish Government establish such a database. The Scottish Nationalist Party is often could be given the benefit of the doubt. described as centre-left in ideology but It may be better to proceed with caution A similar situation has arisen with it is more accurately described as a ‘big rather than hastily implementing a poor Part 5 of the Land Reform (Scotland) tent’ party, which seeks to attract voters system. However, other, presumably less 2016, which laid down a process for from across the majority of the political controversial, statutory powers have communities to seek to acquire rights to spectrum. The party’s rhetoric may be stagnated as well. buy land. On 26 June 2019, the Scottish driven leftwards to appeal to working 24 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 class and young adult supporters. A there are two factors which make it very When the government is complacent, charitable comparison would be to the difficult for other parties to ‘convert’ there is much less pressure for it to Indian National Congress, which united supporters of the Scottish Nationalist enact positive change or diligently Indians of varying class, caste, religion, Party. Many of their supporters are conduct the affairs of state. This would and ideology, in its opposition to the intensely passionate about Scottish explain the sixteen year delay in ending British Empire’s rule of India. It has been independence and would not vote or mandatory inquiries into intentional noted that the backgrounds of SNP MPs support any party which does not also homelessness and the current nine year range from investment bankers and hold that aim, regardless of how they delay in setting up a Scottish dog control oil executives to trade unionists and feel about the particular policies of database. socialists. The issue may not be that that party. Parallels can be drawn with the Scottish Government is embracing the Brexit Party and other groups of Moving forward, the Scottish populism by announcing policies that it ‘single issue voters’ such as gun rights Government should commit to laying has no intention of implementing. The activists in the United States of America. out clear plans in advance for how they issue is that the elected members of Secondly, the unique constitutional intend to use the powers that they the Scottish Nationalist Party all agree arrangements that have created are pushing for, along with timescales that they want Scotland to have these Scotland’s devolved legislature mean for implementation. The introduction new powers, but once these powers that the Scottish Government is mostly of a ‘sunset clause’ in the Planning are granted, they disagree on how they shielded from usual levels of discontent (Scotland) Act 2019, providing that the should be used, leading to a political and criticism of the status quo. In most power to create regulations expires quagmire. This would explain the delay countries, general unhappiness or a if no regulations have been made in implementing fairer tax bands and poor economy lead to the government within seven years, also provides a a devolved welfare system. This would being voted out in favour of their main way for the Scottish legislature to force also explain why consultations need to competitor, with the democratic process the hand of the Scottish executive. be held in order to implement statutory holding the government to account It is to be hoped that 2026 does not provisions passed years earlier. for its actions in office. In Scotland, bring embarrassment to a Scottish the Scottish Government can shift Government that has failed to create Another factor is the Scottish much antimony onto the government these regulations. Nationalist’s Party lack of a serious in Westminster, by claiming that their opposition in Holyrood. The SNP powers to address the pressing issues Jonathan Deans is a trainee solicitor, has been in office in the Scottish of the time are not sufficient. This community councillor, and a member Government for 12 years so far and also has the added effect of further of the Scottish Labour Party. He lives currently holds twice as many seats strengthening their case for Scottish in Glasgow. He has studied Public in the Scottish Parliament as the next independence. Law and Public Administration at biggest party, the Scottish Conservative undergraduate and postgraduate Party. It seems likely that the Scottish This lack of an opposition means that levels and has previously had articles Nationalist Party will be able to retain, they do not have to fight hard for votes published on abortion rights, hospital at minimum, a minority government for to ensure re-election, which can lead smoking bans, and the use of children as the foreseeable future. Furthermore, to significant levels of complacency. covert intelligence sources. Pushing back against Pret - making headway against malevolent management ‘Late Night Girl’ reports on her continuing campaign for fairness and justice at Pret-A-Manger s I continue to recuperate Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, died from People are astonished and surprised and come to terms with unlabelled allergen in a baguette, and to learn about Pret, as Pret has been everything that happened in the second person, mother of five successful in putting on a happy and A ethical front for years. my personal life and from work since Celia Marsh, died from dairy traces in my last article (‘On the frontline: a non-dairy product. I have uploaded to my website crushed by corporate capitalist Apart from getting some normal reviews of staff working at Pret that culture’, Scottish Left Review, May/ and much expected criticism, I are to be found on Glassdoor, Indeed, June 2019), a lot has happened in also receive a lot of public positive and other social media. I have also Pret. I continue to write blog posts feedback from customers/readers kept an eye on Pret worldwide about my Pret experience, other on Twitter as well as encouraging developments including lawsuits, in staff continue to contact me telling messages in private. Every single particular two over wages which Pret me of their experiences, and on day at least one person is new to my settled in New York, repaying 4,000 Twitter customers still complain writings which still astonishes me workers. This has shown that it is about ongoing mislabelling of food, after writing for over a year! I can also much harder for workers in Britain even after two customers have see the statistics on my website and to obtain justice through the courts died. The first customer, 15-year old how it has increased since last year. compared to in the US, where Pret is 25 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 constantly sued by staff, customers for a potential court case after I confronting Pret and Schlee, the and other organisations on various withdrew my tribunal claim when negative staff reviews that I collated issues. my dad died and I went deeper into and posted, and the various lawsuits trauma and was not able to finance have not somehow tipped the scales I’m also of the opinion that I’m a lawyer. It was notable that there against him. continually disappointed by the were very few tweet responses, ‘likes’ ongoing unprofessional conduct of and retweets for this announcement After what Pret put me through Pret and its leadership. On 30 June compared to the previous year. in bullying and gaslighting me, I 2019, I checked casually on Pret CEO, still struggle with anger and post- Clive Schlee’s Twitter feed and found Why, you might ask, is all of this traumatic behaviour so that I have a tweet by a person to Schlee wishing necessary and important? It is to difficulties trusting people when I him well on his retirement. But no show how arrogant, insensitive and am contacted by former and current official announcement had been unprofessional the leadership of Pret staff and others. I have written made on this issue. Schlee responded Pret appears to be when it does not the most comprehensive website on to the well-wisher on the same day even officially announce Schlee’s Pret-A-Manger from a behind the yet did not respond to two tweets retirement (at 60) and while he scenes look on various subjects on by a customer on 29 June 2019 remains as a non-executive director which the company falls short. The regarding hellish work conditions in a in the background. There is also the disappointment and anger I feel is shop, where the air conditioning was clumsiness of Schlee’s responding heightened by that fact that Pret is broken for a prolonged time. neither responding to me nor On 1 July 2019 after I wrote a confronting me legally after all blog entry on Schlee’s ‘legacy’ the fear management, threats, given that on Glassdoor only bullying, tricks and traps they put 44% of staff recommended me through. working at Pret and only This shows what impact one very 50% of staff endorsed him, I active and dedicated person on tweeted to the press about social media can have. If this was Schlee’s retirement. After to be replicated many times over, my tweet, the first tweets I believe that ‘impact’ could turn started to flood in about his into ‘influence’. Pret certainly retirement after Pret’s HQ will not change from the inside was contacted and confirmed and from the top for the better the news. Also, Pret and by its own volition. The hope is then Schlee circulated the that this outside pressure and official announcements of his Pret being the perfect example retirement set for September of striving for ever increasing 2019. Within an hour a person profits backfiring in the long tweeted a response to Pret run will create a ‘perfect storm’. that the new CEO, Pano Christou, has his work cut out for to a well-wisher before giving an Sure, Schlee, Christou and the other him, as Pret and Schlee have poor official retirement announcement top leaders will have rich retirements Glassdoor reviews. and the seeming indifference, and enjoy the fruits of the low-wage portrayed in the lack of action, after workers’ labour they employed. But In mid-July, Christou was placed on two customers died and before that the legacy they leave behind is not Glassdoor, even though Schlee’s news became ‘public’. Overall, I something I would want to swap for - official retirement was set for believe, this story shows how when and not for any amount of money. September. On 20 September 2019, private equity takes over and with Pret then tweeted a last Tweet ‘Late Night Girl’ also tweets at bidding farewell to Schlee , who is Pret expanding into having a huge https://twitter.com/LateNightGirlMe still present (at the time of writing in high street presence, the company and has a website at https://expret. mid-October) on Twitter as the CEO shows no ethical understanding of org. One of her most recent blog of Pret. Also on 1 July 2019, Christou its responsibility to customers and posts look at the quote of Clive deleted his Twitter account after I employees alike. Schlee’s wife where she said that ‘any made a link to it on my blog entry god damn fool can run Pret’ (https:// I can only speculate on why Schlee on Schlee’s legacy. I was blocked expret.org/2019/09/21/pret-a- finally stepped down. But it is hard by Christou though I am not being manger-has-a-new-fool/) blocked by Pret and Schlee as I not to think that the poor handling believe they both keep my Tweets of customer deaths, my blog 26 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Cryptocurrency: the end of human supremacy? Mhairi McAlpine argues that cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence offer the prospect of fully automated luxury communism decade on from its low-key birth, future behaviour most people have now heard by competing for Aof Bitcoin and other associated our attention. cryptocurrencies. An alternative Cryptocurrencies monetary system to state based work by currency, the primary political interest consensus, where in this new technology has come from a ledger, called the libertarian right, with the left a blockchain, alternatively ignoring or denouncing. It’s records all time for this to change. the agreed transactions that Currently money is issued by central have been made, banks, its value derived from the right back to its stability of the issuing government and inception. This immutable ledger is a and our arrogance that thinking that its predicted ability to raise revenue powerful authority in a world where only labour performed by humans is of from its citizens. It is deposited in institutions are crumbing and trust is in value has led us to the perilous situation commercial banks who then lend low supply. we are now in. out on the basis of these deposits, perpetually increasing the money Statements and documents can We must accept that as artificial supply. By contrast, bitcoins are ‘mined’ be recorded on the blockchain. Its intelligence grows stronger by the day, by computers finding the solutions to distributed nature means that there our time as the dominant species on hard sums. Once a solution is found, is no possibility of sneaky editing or earth is coming to an end. We have only new bitcoins are issued as a reward on a deletion. The blockchain has been a few generations left, simultaneously decreasing scale to a final supply of 21m agreed by every single node and hurtling towards mass extinction. bitcoins. This difference is not academic is recorded by them in perpetuity, There is no guarantee that humanity but has fundamental implications for the providing an ultimate source of will survive, only that whatever follows role of the state and its influence. consensus-based truth. As well as will take its lead from our values. The recording the past, a blockchain can transition to a decentralised economy The primary commodity in the world also be used to shape the future. Code, allows us to carefully consider those today is oil, which can be converted into in the form of smart contracts, can be values as a guide to our descendants. the energy that is required to power written into the ledger and used to Only a decentralised economy which the modern world. As oil is traded in enforce future actions. acknowledges the finite nature of dollars, anyone wishing to purchase resources can allow these values to be oil must have a ready supply at hand, Ultimately, the clash between fully expressed. ensuring dollar dominance and US government issued currencies and hegemony. The release of this fossilised cryptocurrencies comes down to a clash Bitcoin affords the opportunity to exit energy has drastically accelerated over values. Under capitalism, the only capitalism, to build a world where climate change. Although Bitcoin is thing that is valued is human labour and value is predicated not on the dead highly energy intensive to mine, in a the surplus that can be extracted from labour of previous generations fuelled direct reversal of the petro-dollar, where it, but technology is advancing to a stage by the fossilised remnants of long unlimited money is printed and is issued where there is little that a human could dead creatures, but on ongoing energy to secure finite energy; the bitcoin do better or faster than a machine. We capture and the distribution of that algorithm encourages the development are heading towards a world where energy according to a continually of sustainable energy streams to secure emerging consensus reality and the the marginal utility of human labour finite money. values that we actively choose to is approaching zero. Late capitalism encode. A society of fully automated squares this circle through insecure The advantages of cryptocurrencies, luxury communism overseen by jobs, creating busy work to occupy the however, go beyond merely the intrinsic machines of loving grace is within our masses, manufacturing desires and encouragement of renewable energy grasp - if only we would reach out and generating credit to facilitate purchase. development. The erosion of trust is embrace the means of reproduction. a defining feature of the twenty first century, information saturation has left The past folly of humanity is becoming Mhairi McAlpine is an educational us vulnerable to being duped by bad obvious and the future is closing in fast. theorist, writer and blogger. Though actors with dishonourable intentions Marx only interpreted capitalism; the active in many different left groups and and simultaneously the means to point is to change it. We cannot return campaigns, she has grown somewhat uncover their deception. Well-funded to a state of primitive communism disillusioned with ability of radical lies circulate widely as truth is buried and attempts by nation states to enact movements in Scotland and Britain to under the mass of information; communist values failed in the face of think and act strategically in search of a corporations shape our views by what the power that global capitalism wields. socialist society. they allow us to see, influencing our Our failure to value non-human labour 27 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 Racing against the race for profit Aidan Beatty spoke to Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on her writing on racism in housing in the US ince the publication of her first of Reagan, but with a book, From #BlackLivesMatter to particular focus on the SBlack Liberation, in 2016, Keeanga- Nixon era. The result Yamahtta Taylor (KYL) has emerged as is a brilliantly written one of the most incisive commentators and incisive analysis on the politics of race and class in of not just a particular the contemporary United States. Her moment in the history new work, Race For Profit, studies the of American racism various abortive attempts to expand and capitalism but of home-ownership to include African one whose legacy is Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. very much still alive Citizenship and national belonging today. In August 2019, I are practically synonymous with carried out an interview home ownership in the US. The semi- with KYL, to discuss utopian visions of American suburbia the book. I began by that dominated popular culture in asking her about her the 1950s served as a kind of return motivations for writing to social order after the war. But the Race for Profit, and to government-funded building boom what degree it was a that led to suburbanisation infamously reaction to the crash excluded African-Americans, who were of 2008. almost totally barred from the generous mortgages underwritten by the Federal KYL: It might in some Housing Administration. ways be influenced by contemporary By the 1960s, this systemic questions around discrimination had resulted in a drastic what has happened lack of housing for Black families across to the housing the United States. Pressure from the market - Black African-American Civil Rights Movement homeownership in certainly added to the need for action particular - but really I was interested on this. Though Taylor also notes the of in this pivotal moment in US policies key determining role played by the even anti-poverty politics and regarding low-income housing when real estate industry, which identified a policies in the US that certainly take there was a concerted effort to shift new untapped market in single-parent much more form in the 20th century away from state-based provision to Black families who had previously when the scaffolding of a welfare state market-based solutions that emphasised been shut out from buying their own begins to come together. The US has a homeownership and personal property homes. Under the newly-founded reluctant welfare state that is always federal agency HUD (Housing and Urban as both an anti-poverty program but positioned as preserving aspects of Development), real estate speculators also as a means of creating stability the dominant economic system while received government funding to sell in the aftermath of the 1960s. There creating the means for some kind of houses to non-white customers. But this is a connection to the current crisis. I social provision that is necessary to inclusion was simultaneously a form think of it less as a preview than more preserve the political system overall. of exploitation; government-backed of a pattern. This was one iteration. And so you get different hybrids of mortgages were issued to sell poor And there are multiple iterations; quality and notoriously rat-infested there are iterations in the 1990s. They public-private partnership. The ‘New housing, often to single mothers. When appear again with the discourse of an Deal’ certainly had those types of these buyers failed to keep up mortgage ownership society in the 1990s and characteristics. The Johnson welfare payments (which they invariably did, early 2000s and then obviously they state also had at its core those features not least because they also had to appear again in the crisis in 2008. of public-private partnership. I think that cover the ballooning costs of repairing there are many different explanations AB: Welfare provision in the US does the houses), the homes would go into that you could point to. It has to do with foreclosure, ending up in the hands of always seem to have this incredibly an ethos of small government when the same real estate agents who could strong free-market element to it. Why it comes to social welfare. It has to do sell them to the next unwitting buyer do you think that is? with the influence of business and the (again receiving federally-covered private sector in shaping the political mortgages). KYT: There’s an ideological aspect to programme of the US state, especially it. And then there is a ‘way in which when it comes to social welfare. This Taylor traces this bleak narrative from politics functions’ aspect to it. I think is probably most pronounced when it the last days of the Lyndon Johnson ideologically there is a kind of pattern to comes to housing policy. The priorities administration through the earliest days a hostility to the poor that is at the core of business are always embedded in the 28 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 American welfare state. Public housing a new idea when it was introduced people who were living in a working has always been underfunded, with the in the early 1970s. So, I do think that class suburb, right outside of the city, idea that it should not compete with the there is something specific about the who think that they have escaped the private market. Conversely, the private neo-liberal turn. It happens at a pivotal city to preserve their property values housing market has always been the time of the onset of economic crisis. and add black people to those very recipient of robust public subsidies and That crisis creates an opportunity for suburbs; it creates a kind of hysteria other types of public money and public the elite to re-establish social priorities, and panic. And this panic is driven by guarantees to make sure that it always to move away from the idea of state this larger framework of your house, was in the predominant position when it provision of welfare and instead see and whether or not it accrues in value comes to the social provision of housing. that as purely the domain of the market. over time, which will determine your That is certainly a core aspect of housing Then we get the introduction of the free family’s quality of life. In that context - policy from the 1930s to the 1950s. The market discourse as really the institution and the added context of the onset of 1968 Housing and Urban Development that has the capacity to free society economic slowdown in the early 1970s (HUD) Act is the ultimate cumulative completely and that also is new. - it’s very difficult to locate examples expression of this, where the provision of solidarity. There are some. There of low-income housing is seen almost AB: I want to move away from this and is a very inspiring story of multi-racial exclusively as the domain of the private talk about the story you tell in your solidarity and the refusal, on the part sector where public influence only is book about Beecher, a suburb of Flint, of ordinary white people, to take the involved insofar as subsidies and money Michigan. Here, newly arrived black bait, in a neighbourhood called Mount are concerned.’ homeowners were set against white Airy, Philadelphia. Another is Oak Park lower-middle class and working-class outside Chicago, where was a multiracial AB: This ‘privatised’ language, and the homeowners. Was there any possibility organising and multi-racial struggle kind of practices that you’re talking of an anti-racist politics at this point or among white homeowners and black about, seem very much like what we what would it have looked like or how homeowners to defend their homes would later call neo-liberalism. Yet this could anyone have surmounted those against the real estate industry which is all happening before the 1970s. Is this anxieties of white homeowners (many was feverishly trying to get white people neoliberalism before it was called that? of whom are not incredibly wealthy)? to divest from the neighborhood. These few fleeting examples are important KYT: I think that neo-liberalism has KYT: One thing that I’m trying to do in insofar as they stand out as what was become one of these catchphrases that the discussion of Beecher is to say the possible and what could have happened. means lots of different things. I try not suburban experience even for white to actually use the term. I think I do people is varied. It is easy to reduce this But then you have political actors who end up using it in the last chapter of to binaries: city/suburb and black/white. are framing this in such a way as to tap the book when talking about the early I try to show that there is not a universal into and exacerbate racial tensions. This 1970s. I don’t think neo-liberalism is just suburban experience any more than was a key component of Nixon’s politics, about privatisation or just about public- there is a universal white experience. particularly in the 1972 presidential private partnerships. There’s something And so even as whiteness is confining election. He spoke about the work ethic versus the welfare ethic. This was part more specific to neoliberalism, not and constraining it’s also capacious and of the shaping of the so-called ‘silent just the question of privatisation. it is differentiated by class as well. And majority’, which was conceived and Starting in the early 1970s there is a this becomes a point of tension in the conceptualised as ‘white people’. This all dogged ideological intervention around early 1970s when there was a debate helped to create a narrative of reprisal personal responsibility, individualism about where all this low income housing and it assigned blame for any future and the necessity for individuals to rise should be placed. The 1968 HUD Act instability that ordinary white people above the vicissitudes of late-twentieth mandates Congress to create 26m new may incur. So, it’s the combination of century life. As part of that, there is the and used rehabilitated units of housing multiple factors which created this degradation of the notion of a welfare within ten years. Everyone knows that impression that was quite deep and, in state. In an earlier period, there was the cities are too expensive to build in many ways, real about the intractability an acceptance that a welfare state of because of land costs and because of of racial discord in this period. some sort was necessary but it should insurance (because of the riots that have have business characteristics. Neo- been going on throughout the mid- liberalism is different. Now, there is an 1960s). So, if the low-income housing Aidan Beatty (@AidanJBeatty) is a attack on the notion of a welfare state is placed in the suburbs, will that mean historian from Ireland, now living in in general. I talk in the book about the poor black people are coming to the Pittsburgh. He has written extensively on way that the crises pervading these suburbs? And, there was a weak welfare the history of Irish nationalism. His latest low-income housing programmes are state in the US, your individual ability work is an essay on Karl Marx, Friedrich used as a cudgel by conservatives to to accumulate wealth and assets is Engels, race and Ireland, published in undermine the very notion that there ultimately what determines quality of the December 2019 issue of the Journal should be a social provision to housing. life. It determines whether or not you of Modern History.’ Instead, the narrative becomes that can send your kids to college, can have government itself needs to be extracted a retirement, or weather a healthcare from the distribution of social welfare emergency. And ‘the home’ is for most and that is something that should be Americans their largest investment. left to the private sector itself. That’s If you then have working class white

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Sorry We Missed You (2019), The grossness of Ricky’s zero-hours which is revealed to have coincided Ken Loach (director) and Paul Laverty contract and the arrogance of the unjust with the Turner family’s failed bid for management scheme he complies with - (screenwriter) home ownership; Abby’s elderly care Reviewed by Jackie Bergson because he has no choice - are patently client’s 1990’s photographs of her coal obvious from the start to the end of the miner husband, a ‘union man’ and his ossibly excepting The Angels’ Share, film. Alternately despotic and criminal friends in the ‘colliery club’; regretful Ken Loach’s audiences have come means moreover transpire, effectively explanations by Abby to her client about filching money from his hard-working to expect earthy, human storylines her managers’ instructions ‘not to get P pockets as events beyond his control that end unhappily. Sorry We Missed You friendly with clients’, which clearly progress from bad to worse. His steadfast proves to be no exception, although signs conflicts with her own values concerning of potential optimism within this latest self-perspective as a ‘grafter’ eventually how she would like her mum to have feature film appeared to be overlooked dissipates, while his family show been treated. by some audience members at its British extraordinary resolve throughout his ordeal. Their unity is deeply moving yet premiere in Glasgow. Evidently therefore, Helpful, bright Lisa Jane Turner (Katie empty, because it fundamentally conflicts the downward spiral of its characters’ Proctor) is too young to fully understand with what Ricky feels forced to do to lives reflects the ominous presence over the merciless pressure of her parents’ the power of their hopes and dreams. keep working and keep the family out of debt and free of the benefits system. work conditions when she innocently Sorry We Missed You is another masterful pleads for things to be the same as they dramatisation of what screenwriter Paul In typical Loach style, violent conflict were in happier family times. Meanwhile, Laverty terms as ‘systematic exploitation’ delivers sudden, emotional shocks when the manifest catalyst when a young of Britain’s working class population. escalating schisms of interaction erupt. police officer delivers a tough love pep- Framed through two male protagonists, We learn enough about Ricky to realise talk to creatively defiant, Seb, ensures Ricky Turner (Kris Hitchen) and Gavin that, whilst genuinely striving to be that the teenager will understand good reasonable, his main flaw is resorting Maloney (Ross Brewster), this idea forms reasons for not pursuing the wrong to anger at home when over-pressured a realistic context within which events route. These admirable efforts lead to by impossible work obligations. As unfold. The film, thus, opens while some positive changes; nevertheless, Maloney, Ricky’s prospective employer, it becomes clearer to him that he is wrong to attribute his teenage son’s unbearably demanding work obligations congratulates their proud aversions to rebellious behaviour as the cause of and corporate tyranny versus claiming benefits. family conflict, we nevertheless connect autonomously productive purpose seems Ricky’s family is, however the focus of with his apologetic re-acceptance of his to win out depressingly in the end. the film’s emotional journey. Powerless son, Seb (Rhys Stone), as an intelligent, Ultimately, brutality of circumstance and to change cynical management communicative youngster whose true painfully unfair financial penalisation cultures which take hold of their potential to become a responsible and stack up against Ricky until he is time, their lives and ultimately their mature adult has begun to emerge. completely broken. hopes and aims to work profitably The most ironically satisfying moment in and satisfyingly, their story sits at Sorry We Missed You provokes its Sorry We Missed You arrives when Ricky the film’s heart. The film is similar audience to think about how working and his wife, Abby (Debbie Honeywell) to I, Daniel Blake (which concerned class should be defined and sustained. are seen to deal very differently with inhumane policies and practices that Tremendous performances, particularly Maloney’s punitive callousness on the place sanctioning, divisionism and from Hitchen, command our fullest phone while the couple wait in a hospital pre-ordained number-crunching above attention. A film with plenty to say to the queue. Her enraged lecture cleverly empathy, respect and solidarity) in that divides reactions of in-film onlookers, socialist milieu: this is a must-see. it reveals the devastating impacts of who are appalled at her outburst, and In Sorry Jackie Bergson has worked in the these management practices. film audiences themselves, who applaud We Missed You voluntary sector and commercial , the delusion of self- Abby’s uncharacteristically blasphemous business development in technology and employment which renders workers as response: brilliant stuff. easy, disposable currency is exposed creative sectors. Educated in and living as being particularly gruesome and Arcs of political and social reference in Glasgow, her political and social views onerous. include the collapse of Northern Rock, chime left-of-centre. 30 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 2019 VLADIMIR McTAVISH’S Kick up the Tabloids

he content of this article moment and one that pulled the ‘Why can’t these guys run a service may be utterly irrelevant by whole country together. We may like this in Scotland?’ I kept asking Tthe time it appears in print. not have had any Andrex, but we myself. Until the Sunday I flew Writing this column in 2019 has were still able to buy the Daily Mail, home, when all the trains back proved has been a bit of a matter of which was a more than adequate to Schiphol were cancelled and guesswork. Nobody knows what will substitute, as were the government we were provided instead with a happen to the Brexit process in the leaflets advising us to ‘Get ready to replacement bus service. For which period between my copy deadline leave the EU on 31 October’. we had to queue outside the station and this magazine’s publication. in the pouring rain. So, it would Boris is constantly banging on seem that, rather than the other We may get an election, although about ‘taking back control’, but it way around, the Dutch are getting on what date is still not certain, we is uncertain how we will be able ideas from Scotland about running may get a second referendum, we to control wiping our arses this a railway service. may get both or neither. Nobody time next year. Doubtless some knows. One thing is absolutely government adverts will appear in Here in the UK, there are still far certain, namely that Britain will still the Daily Mail advising us all how to too many cars on the road. I still be part of the European Union after wipe our elbows after 31 January, drive a car, but I take great pride 31 October. Boris Johnson has, of or after the next extension date, or in the fact that I am now seventy- course, stated that he would rather the after that. five per cent carbon-neutral. It die in a ditch than postpone Brexit. has not happened overnight, but Perhaps a question about getting As we approach the end of 2019, it has proved surprisingly easy to him to follow through on that the one certainty on the horizon do. ‘Seventy-five per cent carbon- should also be on the ballot paper is climate change, and leaving the neutral? How have you managed to for the second referendum too. EU will not help Britain reduce do that?’ I hear you ask. Simple. I’ve its carbon footprint, quite the run up nine points on my driving I was gigging in London in mid- opposite in fact. At present, not license, which means I am now October, and was one of the only are many of our environmental three-quarters of the way towards million people taking part in the regulations the subject of EU being one-hundred per cent March for the People’s Vote. legislation, but we also have carbon-neutral. OK, I do concede Over the years, I have marched much to learn from our European that when I finally become fully in protest against the Iraq War, neighbours. carbon-neutral, it is likely to only against the Poll Tax, against the last for six month or so. But when BNP, in support of the miners, in I was gigging in The Netherlands the future of the planet is at stake, favour of Scottish independence, earlier this autumn, and was every little bit helps. the list goes on. However, I think impressed by how the Dutch I can say that the People’s Vote are much less dependent on the rally was without doubt the most car than we are, doing the daily middle-class demo I’ve ever taken commute by bike or tram. Of part in. I reckon Waitrose’s profits course, cycling is much easier in a must have taken quite a dent that flat part of the world like Holland weekend. However, it is the more but another reason the Dutch leave economically- disadvantaged who their cars at home is that their stand to be hit worst by the effects railways are unbelievably efficient. of Brexit. Their network runs like clockwork. I travelled by train from Schiphol To add to all the uncertainty, Airport to The Hague, from The the British government has no Hague to Rotterdam and from there contingency plans to guarantee to Leiden. On each journey, the continued supplies of toilet paper carriages were spotlessly clean and will be available in the event of ‘no there was a one-hundred per cent deal’. When future historians come punctuality rate. Despite the fact to write about the times we live that Dutch trains are run by the in now, ‘The Great Bog Roll Crisis’ same company that is currently in may well be seen as a watershed change of Scotrail. 31 - ScottishLeftReview Issue 114 November/December 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 114 November/DecemberGeneral Se c2019retary: Mick Cash President: Michelle Rodgers