Riddoch’s – : God appears before the House of No man is an island page 9 Commons select committee page 24 radical feminist green

No 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / £2

AT LANTIC DEPRESSION

HOW CAN WE AVOID ANOTHER GREAT RECESSION?

PLUS PRETTY NASTY: THE COSMETIC COVER-UP ISSN 2041-3629 THE PENSIONS DISPUTE: WHAT NEXT? THE JIMMY 01 REID FOUNDATION SKETCHES FROM A SMALL WORLD THE FERAL SUPERCLASS REVIEWS DIARY 9772041362003 MAGAZINE OF SCOTLAND’S DEMOCRATIC LEFT EDITORIAL Contents I Perspectives No 31, winter 2011-12 ECONOMICS AND INDEPENDENCE Sketches from a small world here are two great issues that that might avert lengthy and debil - 3Eurig Scandrett are likely to dominate Scottish itating recession. Tpolitics over the next few The dark cloud cast by the Atlantic depression years: the continuing financial financial crisis is picked up by David Purdy crisis and the run-up to the SNP other contributors: Stuart 5 Scottish government’s promised Fairweather on the (at the time of referendum on independence, now writing) unresolved public sector No man is an island pencilled in by for pensions issue, following the huge Lesley Riddoch autumn 2014. strike in November; and Erik 9 Taking the latter first, it is clear The whole Cramb writes about the feral from the UK coalition govern - debate has superclass who appear to owe loy - Pretty Nasty ment’s recent intervention, seeking alty to no-one – apart from them - Morag Parnell to lay down the law as to how and the power to selves. 13 when this referendum will be con - generate far 2011 marked the 40th anniver - ducted, that the whole debate over more heat sary of the UCS work-in. The role The independence has the power to of Jimmy Reid, who died eighteen Foundation generate far more heat than light if than light. months ago, in this landmark 16 Robin McAlpine the political parties have their way. industrial action has been the Given its momentous nature, this inspiration for a new organisation The pensions issue requires a rational and wide- that aims to bring fresh thinking to dispute ranging debate, involving all the left-wing politics in Scotland. 17 Stuart Fairweather people of Scotland and the many director and varied organisations to which Robin McAlpine explains. The feral they belong. Elsewhere, Morag Parnell looks superclass Indeed, Jenny Marra MSP, in her at the politics of personal beauty 19 Erik Cramb diary column (page 26), argues that and Lesley Riddoch continues her the big question of independence series on Scotland by examining Book review: deserves big answers and they will the island community of Eigg, and 1707 and all that need to be explained and debated what it might teach the rest of the 20 Alf Young over the next two and a half years. country. Perspectives intends to be there, Book-wise, Alf Young reviews an Book review: raising the questions and teasing updated volume on Scotland’s The roots of New out answers, so, if you don’t have a constitutional future and Eric 21 Labour subscription already, please com - I Letters and Shaw examines a study of the poli - Eric Shaw plete the form on the back cover contributions tics of . and be with us for the debate of a (which we may And finally, a big thank-you to God appears lifetime. edit) are regular contributor Tim Haigh for before the House On the economic front, with the welcome and recording another conversation 24 of Commons euro in seeming interminable should be sent the rest of us might so easily have select committee crisis, David Purdy asks if we can to the editor – missed. Tim Haigh avoid another Great Depression, contact details Sean Feeny and maps out a three plank policy below. Editor Diary Jenny Marra MSP is Perspectives is published four times a year by 26 The Hat Democratic Left Scotland, Number Ten, 10 Constitution Road, DD1 1LL Tel: 01382 819641 / e: [email protected] / www.democraticleftscotland.org.uk ISSN 2041-3629 Editor: Sean Feeny / Depute editor: Davie Laing / Circulation and promotions manager: David Purdy Articles in Perspectives are copyright. Requests to reproduce any part of the magazine should be addressed to the editor. Copy deadline for issue 32 is Friday 27th January 2012. For further information on Perspectives or to submit articles or letters, contact: The Editor, Perspectives, Democratic Left Scotland, Number Ten, 10 Constitution Road, Dundee DD1 1LL e: [email protected] Printed by Hampden Advertising Ltd, 70 Stanley Street, G41 1JB.

2 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 EURIG SCANDRETT SKETCHES FROM A SMALL W RLD

early 20 years ago, apartheid in South Africa We led a There have been regular protests against the was brought down by a combination of disruption of supermarket Tesco for consistently breaking the Ncommunity protest, violent uprising, boycott of Israel by stocking Israeli products. In international boycott and skilled negotiation by the IPO September, a “flash mob” entered Tesco in Nelson Mandela and the other leaders of the ANC. concert at Cannonmills, Edinburgh where Israeli products are In Scotland at the time, after more than a decade of the Royal on sale. A choir amongst the protesters burst into centralised British Thatcherism which the Scots song close to the checkouts, singing (to the tune of consistently and increasingly rejected, a head of Albert Hall Bye Bye Love ) “don’t buy dates / don’t buy Jaffa fruit steam was building to challenge this democratic by singing an / don’t buy Israeli goods / there’s a boycott going deficit. A group of activists from Scottish Education adaptation on …” before being hustled out by over-zealous and Action for Development (SEAD) visited the security staff. newly democratic South Africa, and met with fellow of The Scottish Low Carbon Investment conference, activists for mutual learning on protest, democracy, Beethoven’s held in Edinburgh, was sponsored by RBS, which popular education and appropriate development. Ode to Joy. bankrolls many high carbon emitting industries, Amongst the many insights which the SEAD activists including the Alberta tar-sands extraction, in which came back with was the role which political song had large areas of fragile ecosystem on First Nation played in mobilising, educating and inspiring protest Canadian lands are destroyed to extract the oil during the years of resistance to apartheid. residues. Friends of the Earth Scotland drew Song has played an important role in protest in delegates’ attention to this greenwash with their “girl Scotland, and in recent years seems to have band” performing outside. Watch it on developed new roles in the politics of dissent here http://youtu.be/V26AyA8ZKGI. and across Britain. The Edinburgh-based political The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) was choir Protest in Harmony formed after the invasion invited to perform during the Proms concert season. of Iraq. Amongst the thousands who angrily This constitutes a breach of the cultural boycott of protested against this act of criminal aggression, Israel, with the IPO actively representing themselves which Tony Blair had led ostensibly in our name, as ambassadors for the state of Israel, defenders of its were many who felt frustrated that megaphone policies of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and chanting and slogan shouting were the only forms of apartheid conditions of segregation and differential protest. It seemed like the only way in which the rights of Jewish and non-Jewish citizens. Attempts voice of dissent could be made was in the same were made to have the invitation to the IPO language of belligerent and somewhat masculine cancelled, to no avail – on the contrary, London aggression that many of us wanted to challenge. Philharmonic Orchestra musicians who had signed Music on the march was a missing component. A letters to the press were disciplined for their action! group of activists gathered to form a group which A group of London-based anti-Zionist Jewish would acquire a repertoire of protest songs, old and activists (Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods), new, to be sung on demonstrations in addition to the including professional musicians, mobilised a protest shouted chants (www.protestinharmony.org.uk). “choir”, which I joined. We led a disruption of the Now well established, with its monthly rehearsals IPO concert at the Royal Albert Hall by singing – regularly attracting more than 50 people, Protest in during a quiet section of Webern’s Passacaglia – an Harmony has become a regular feature on marches adaptation of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy with these in Scotland such as October’s People First march of words (try it at home): “Israel end your occupation / trades unions, faith groups, anti-poverty and welfare Palestine must now be free / ethnic cleansing and campaigners protesting against the cuts. Protest in apartheid / should belong to history”. This Harmony also joined a number of other political disruption, plus later interruptions by activists choirs throughout Britain for a massed singing chanting slogans, led the BBC to stop its on the TUC March For The Alternative in live coverage of the Prom. The March. disgraceful action of the Proms and Imaginative use of song is also finding its BBC of breaking the cultural boycott way into other forms of protest, extending led to the first interruption of a what the sociologist Charles Tilly called concert in the Proms’ history. The the repertoire of contention. Here are full story and links to the protest just a few examples from September on facebook from that I’m aware of. http://jews4big.wordpress.com/

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 3 People and politics In Scotland, as in the rest of Britain, there is widespread disillusionment with politics. The re’s The mainstream parties have lost touch with ordinary people and issues are trivialised and distorted by the media. We are continually told that “there is no alternative” to global capitalism. Yet this is mo re doing untold damage to our environment, our communities and the quality of our to lives, while millions of people remain poor and powerless because the market polit ics dominates our society and we do too little to protect and empower them. Democratic Left Scotland is a non-party political organisation that works for than progressive social change through activity in civil society – in community groups, social movements and single-issue campaigns – seeking at all times to promote parties discussion and alliances across the lines of party, position and identity. Political parties remain important, but they need to reconnect with the citizens they claim to represent, reject the copycat politics that stifles genuine debate and recognise ¡ that no single group or standpoint holds all the answers to the problems facing our society. Joining and supporting We are trying to develop a new kind of politics, one that Democratic Left Scotland starts from popular activity – in workplaces, localities and voluntary associations – and builds bridges to the world of I support the aims and values of Democratic Left Scotland parties and government, on the one hand, and the world and have decided to join and/or to support the of ideas and culture, on the other. organisation. (Please tick as appropriate)

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E-mail ...... Democratic Left Scotland Please return this form to Democratic Left Scotland, na Deamocrataich Chli an Alba 10 Constitution Road, Dundee DD1 1LL P31 AT LANTIC DEPRESSION The neo-liberal version of global integration is in crisis. David Purdy argues that the best hope for saving the euro – and avoiding another Great Depression – is international agreement on a plan to invest and rebalance the global economy on a sustainable basis.

hree years after a finan - very existence of the eurozone cial seizure triggered itself. Tthe deepest and As fiscal stimulus gave way to longest global reces - fiscal austerity, economic growth sion since the 1930s, ground to a halt. In the UK, for the world again stands example, over the twelve on the brink of a second months to June 2011, GDP Great Depression. In 2008–9, grew by only 0.7% and will though slow off the mark, the struggle to exceed 1% this year, G20 governments managed to put leaving it still almost four per - a floor under the down - centage points short of its pre- turn by bailing out banks, recession peak. Even Germany, loosening monetary which regained its pre-reces - policy and stimulating sion peak in 2010, is now at spending on goods and services. a standstill, reliant as it is on Of course, these measures export-led growth. And the entailed increased public bor - prospect of a generalised rowing, but the alternative was slowdown combined with the to allow banks to fail and let crisis in the eurozone has the real economy plunge unnerved global stock markets. into the abyss. By late Between July and September, the 2009, in most rich coun - FTSE-100 index of leading UK tries, the recession had bot - company shares lost 14 per cent of tomed out, though the pace of the its value, the fourth-worst quarter - subsequent recovery was slow by ly fall since the index was formed comparison with the recovery The world porarily thrown off balance in 1983. European stock markets phase of previous recessions. again stands by the crisis, began to gain the fell by around 25 per cent over the Indeed, it soon became clear that upper hand in policy debate, argu - same period, with bank shares further stimulus packages would on the brink ing that a sustained period of fiscal down by 50 per cent. be needed to keep recovery going of a second tightening was the only way to The outlook is only marginally and restore business confidence to Great avert a full-scale sovereign debt less gloomy in the US where the the point where private investment crisis, a fate which, between Obama administration has allowed could take over from fiscal deficits Depression. January 2010 and May 2011, suc - itself to be boxed in by its know- as the driver of expansion, allow - cessively overwhelmed the govern - nothing, state-hating opponents in ing governments to set about ments of Greece, Ireland and Congress. Ben Bernanke, repairing public finances. At this Portugal, and has since spread to Chairman of the Federal Reserve, point, fiscal conservatives, tem - Spain and Italy, threatening the can shrug off Tea Party charges of

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 5 ATLANTIC DEPRESSION

“treason”, but he too is any adjustment in the bal - involves a long-term commitment running out of policy ance between spending extending over an indefinite and options. Having kept cuts and tax rises, while uncertain future. In the aftermath the official rate of simultaneously promul - of a severe financial crisis and on interest close to zero for gating supply-side the brink of another one, business the past two and a half “growth programmes” pessimism about the long-term years and having designed to lower busi - prospects for sales and profits acts pumped up the money ness taxes, cut “red as a powerful drag on recovery. In supply by buying up gov - tape”, curtail employ - these conditions, attempting to ernment bonds from the ment rights and stimulate private spending by run - banks, the Fed is resorting weaken environmental ning a loose monetary policy is, as to ever more unortho - protection. At a time when Keynes pointed out in the 1930s, dox methods of getting private business investment like trying to push on a string. banks to lend and busi - and household consumer spending nesses and households to borrow, are falling and UK exports have PUBLIC FINANCE IN WAR AND as if recovery were held back by stalled because governments in the PEACE the cost and availability of credit Fiscal eurozone are also cutting budgets Meanwhile, fiscal austerity robs rather than by the private sector’s contraction in order to appease the bond mar - policymakers of a powerful anti - inability or reluctance to spend as kets, fiscal contraction simply dote to a slump: simultaneous it strives to pay down debt accu - simply intensifies the deflationary forces fiscal and monetary expansion. mulated during the bubble years. intensifies pressing down on the production This combination was used to fight Across the Pacific, the Japanese the of goods and services and the over - World War Two. The US federal economy is back in recession, all level of employment. government financed spending on though post-tsunami reconstruc - deflationary Can this circle be squared? Is an the war by issuing new bonds, tion may finally provide a forces expansionary fiscal contraction increasing its debt from 44% of “Keynesian” way out of the pressing possible? Coalition spokesman GDP to 106% and instructing the “underemployed equilibrium” in argue that unbending fiscal auster - Federal Reserve to buy as much which it has languished for almost down on the ity is a necessary condition for government debt as necessary to twenty years. For despite having production of keeping monetary policy loose, keep both short- and long-term the largest public debt in the devel - goods and which in turn holds down the cost interest rates below prescribed oped world – at $11,500 billion, of borrowing for businesses and ceilings. Unemployment fell from equivalent to almost 200% of services and households. Any deviation from 15% in 1940 to 2% in 1944 and GDP – since the late 1990s the rate the overall the path of fiscal rectitude, it is by 1945 real GDP was 75% higher of interest which the Japanese gov - level of claimed, would provoke a sover - than in 1940, a compound growth ernment pays its bondholders has eign debt crisis: witness the fate rate of 12% a year. Wage and price been stable at between 1% and employment. that has befallen debt-stricken controls were used to contain 2%, belying the widespread belief states in the eurozone. Once inflation, which surged when the that once the ratio of public debt investors lose confidence in a gov - controls were removed at the end to GDP exceeds 90%, financial ernment’s debt and start selling of the war. Broadly similar policies nemesis looms. The Chinese gov - their bond-holdings en masse, the were pursued in Britain, where in ernment, by contrast, is damping rate of interest at which that gov - 1945, the ratio of public debt to down growth in a bid to control ernment can borrow is forced up, GDP stood at 250% (compared inflation and deflate a property raising the floor for interest rates with about 70% today). price bubble before it bursts, while generally. Conversely, if non-finan - Why can this achievement not growth in other emerging cial firms can be confident that be emulated today? One obvious economies remains heavily money will remain cheap for the reason is that in conditions of total dependent on exports of food - next two or three years, they will war, public policy is governed by stuffs, fuel and raw materials to eventually start investing in new the principle salus populi suprema China and on sales of manufac - plant and equipment or launching lex : let nothing stand in the way of tured goods to North America and new products, initiating a sus - national survival, not even the size Europe. tained recovery in aggregate of the public borrowing require - spending and hence in output and ment. In a “people’s war”, no one EXPANSIONARY FISCAL employment. would dream of laying down arms CONTRACTION? The word “will” in the last sen - and suing for peace simply because There is an evident tension, not to tence expresses more of a prayer the ratio of public debt to GDP say contradiction, in the fiscal con - than a prediction. Privately owned threatened to exceed some prede - servative case. In the UK, for banks cannot be forced to lend, termined threshold. The time to example, the chancellor refuses to any more than privately owned worry about public debt is after the contemplate any easing in the scale businesses can be forced to war when, to the extent that it or timetable of deficit reduction or borrow. Investment in fixed capital needs to be shrunk relative to GDP,

6 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 some combination of economic nature of the relationship between surpluses took the lead, those growth, price inflation and higher a government and its creditors. states which currently stand no taxes should take care of the prob - Even in a closed capitalist econo - chance of redeeming their debt, lem. my, private asset-holders would reducing their trade deficits, escap - Could not similar reasoning be still be able to switch funds from ing from recession and avoiding applied to a peace-time crisis one kind of asset to another: real social breakdown could follow in which, according to the final estate, basic commodities, precious their wake. I do not underestimate report of the Independent metals, equity shares, commercial the difficulty of winning assent to Commission on Banking (ICB) bills, government bonds and such a plan, especially when we are chaired by Sir John Vickers, could money. Thus, all governments at starting from so far back. My point end up imposing a cumulative loss all times, whatever their political is simply that governments, in this on the UK economy equivalent to hue and whoever holds their debt, case acting together, can steer 63% of annual GDP, with all the must keep a weather eye on the market behaviour and avoid blighted lives and unnecessary suf - bond markets and retain the confi - becoming victims of “bond vigilan - fering that that entails? Good dence of investors if they are to tism”. The crucial questions are question, but not one that formed preserve their freedom of action. what course to set and what ideas part of the Commission’s brief, frame debate about policy. As which was to recommend reforms COLLECTIVE ACTION AND THE Keynes (1936, p 383) put it: to the banking system with a view NEO-LIBERAL PARADIGM “The ideas of economists and to preventing another But taking market reac - political philosophers, both when financial collapse, not to tions into account need they are right and when they are prescribe remedies for not mean supine acqui - wrong, are more powerful than are the worst slump in escence in prevailing commonly understood. Practical living memory. Indeed, market sentiment. For men, who believe themselves to be the ICB was careful to stick one thing, bondhold - quite exempt from any intellectual with conventional ers, like the rest of us, influences, are usually the slaves of wisdom, stating on page sometimes hold incon - some defunct economist.” one of its report that it is sistent views, espe - This remark, penned in the not for the state, but for the cially when gripped midst of the last great depression, “private sector disciplined by panic. In the past points to the central problem we by market forces” to make two years, for example, face in avoiding another. investment decisions. they have shunned the Collective, state-sponsored action, And just as states make bonds of governments whether within or across state war, while capitalists make whose deficit-reduction pro - boundaries, remains anathema to money, so “the past is another grammes are judged to be insuffi - the neo-liberal world-view, which country: they do things differently ciently prompt and deep, while continues to dominate political there.” The finance of the Second Any investor, simultaneously fretting that falling discourse and is even now con - World War was largely contained domestic or output and rising unemployment quering fresh fields as private capi - within national boundaries, gov - are driving up budget deficits, as if tal and market forces make further ernment bonds being held almost foreign, who fiscal retrenchment had no effect inroads into public services, while entirely by nationals of the issuing is worried on the overall level of economic European governments scramble state. Bond markets today are about the activity and the buoyancy of tax to enact constitutional amend - globally integrated. To varying revenue. In this respect, however, ments making balanced budgets degrees in different countries, sig - finances of a bondholders are merely taking legally binding. nificant portions of government given state, their cue from those economists debt are held by foreign investors: can and political leaders who would FISCAL UNION AND THE FATE OF other governments, private banks have us believe that fiscal contrac - THE EURO and non-bank financial institutions nowadays tion is the royal road to economic It might make sense for national such as pensions and insurance shift his expansion. governments to adopt balanced companies. And any investor, wealth to Suppose the governments of the budget rules as part of a move domestic or foreign, who is wor - G20 group of countries were to towards a European fiscal union ried about the finances of a given safer havens agree on a co-ordinated deficit- on the US model. The US federal state, can nowadays shift his at little cost. reduction plan based on immedi - government not only issues cur - wealth to safer havens at little cost ate fiscal and monetary expansion, rency and conducts monetary and at a speed that leaves even the to be followed, once business con - policy, but also has extensive most streamlined national finance fidence and investment have powers to tax, borrow and spend. ministry standing. revived, by a switch to budget sur - The importance of fiscal union to Globalisation certainly compli - pluses and falling debt ratios. If individual states, many of which cates the problems of public those governments with triple-A are legally obliged to balance their finance, but it does not alter the credit ratings and/or strong trade budgets, is not to be scorned. In

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 7 ATLANTIC DEPRESSION the state of Virginia, for economy”, threatened where the fate of the euro and the example, over the during the 1990s by the fate of the global economy are past twenty years, the emergence of high intertwined. If the eurozone cumulative difference unemployment, breaks up amidst a fresh wave of between federal funds Germany has done well bank failures, the real economy spent and federal taxes since the launch of the on both sides of the Atlantic will raised was equivalent euro, at any rate by con - sink back into recession, further to 145% of Virginia’s ventional standards. depressing business confidence GDP in 2009, comparable With wage growth and heightening the risk of cur - to the debt-GDP ratio in lagging behind the rency wars, protectionism and Greece. The cumulative growth of productivity, international tension. But impos - deficit of New Mexico, German firms have out - ing ever more stringent fiscal aus - the most “indebted” of classed their rivals, leading terity on debt-stricken states and America’s states, to a large and persistent German their citizens offers no way out amounted to 260% of its GDP. trade surplus within the euro area. either. And these calculations exclude Given Germany’s low propensity The best hope of saving the euro interest payments on federal debt, If the to consume and high propensity to and escaping from depression lies which add up to some $4,000 bil - eurozone save, relative to its neighbours, the in a G20 agreement comprising lion since 1990. If these were surplus not only underpins domes - three main planks: co-ordinated made by “debtor” states in propor - breaks up tic prosperity, but also nurtures a fiscal and monetary expansion, led tion to their cumulative deficits, amidst a sense of national virtue, confirm - by those governments which still New Mexico’s debt-GDP ratio fresh wave of ing the ingrained popular belief command the confidence of the would exceed 500%. “Debtor” that industry, thrift and prudence bond markets – Germany, Japan, states enjoy enormous fiscal trans - bank failures, will and deserve to be rewarded. the US and the UK – and based on fers, backed by taxes raised else - the real (It is surely significant that the investment in infrastructure and where and by bonds the whole economy on German word Schuld means both renewable energy; a stronger union must repay. “debt” and “guilt” or “sin”). system for regulating international Fiscal union would be one solu - both sides of From the standpoint of the finance, including a global finan - tion to the problems of the euro - the Atlantic wider world, especially in the cur - cial transactions tax; and action to zone, though even if the idea were will sink back rent conjuncture, the notion that correct imbalances in world trade. acceptable to Germany, which it all would be well if only other China for example, should let the most emphatically is not, it would into countries would emulate the yuan appreciate against the dollar take years to negotiate and ratify recession. German model is illogical, futile and the euro. It should also start to the requisite treaty changes. and dangerous. Illogical because if build a decent welfare state, Another solution would be to split one country has a persistent trade enabling its citizens to save less and the eurozone into two or more surplus, others must necessarily spend more, and making the blocs, with a northern group cen - be in deficit; futile because Chinese economy less dependent tred on Germany retaining the national cultures change at a slow, on export-led growth. single currency, while those states evolutionary pace, not at the The neo-liberal version of global on the Mediterranean and Atlantic speed required to deal with an integration is in crisis. An interna - rim which have large public debts emergency; and dangerous tional agreement along these lines and chronic trade deficits either because an international order in would not bring the neo-liberal era revert to their old national curren - which the burden of adjustment to an end, but it would be a signifi - cies, each depreciating separately to persistent trade imbalances cant step towards a global econo - against the euro, or adopt a new falls entirely on deficit states, my of a different kind, holding out “soft” currency union, linked to imposing no obligations on those the hope that if the world’s leading the “hard” euro by an adjustable with surpluses, contains a built-in states can steer clear of depression, peg. deflationary bias. they can go on to tackle the even Such an outcome, echoing the Germany’s refusal either to more formidable challenge of piecemeal demise of the gold stan - embrace fiscal union or to aban - global warming. dard in the 1930s, is equally unac - don monetary union explains why ceptable to Germany, partly at each stage of the long-running I David Purdy is a regular contrib - because it would be difficult to eurozone crisis, the principal utor to Perspectives and a member bring about a controlled and actors have done just enough to of Democratic Left Scotland’s orderly break-up of the euro area, avoid imminent disaster, offering national council. but more especially because optimistic rhetoric, but never Germans dislike currency appreci - taking decisive steps towards a REFERENCE ation. Having struggled to absorb lasting solution. This approach Keynes JM (1936), The General the former GDR and restore the cannot survive much longer. Nor Theory of Employment, Interest reputation of its “social market should it. We have reached a point and Money , London: Macmillan

8 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

One small island community offers an example of the Scotland that might be. Lesley Riddoch continues her series with a look at Eigg and the co-operative spirit.

Who possesses this landscape? – Which means Maruma landed at 11am 30th April The man who bought it or 1995. I who am possessed by it? No lesser event in the Eigg social calendar would Norman MacCaig (1910 –1996), A Man in Assynt have extracted me from sleep at 6am into the pitch darkness and torrential rain beating against my y memory is no calendar. But there are ways window in rural Perthshire. to calculate when Maruma landed on Eigg. MThe mysterious “fire artist” from Stuttgart ut I’d made the trip dozens of times since I first became the last private landlord of the tiny Inner Bencountered the Eiggachs in 1992 and became a Hebridean isle after he persuaded Keith Schellenberg RIDDOCH’S Trustee of the Isle of Eigg Trust. The trick was to get – the controversial laird of 20 years – to sell up. SCOTLAND up and jump straight into the car before the mind had Eigg came complete with beaches, houses, sheep, a chance to assess the epic scale of the journey ahead. broken-down tractors, diesel generators … and 65 The crossing was good – Maggie’s party even better. curious but landowner-weary people. The relation - Songs were sung, dozens of cans of McEwan’s beer ship between islanders and “Keith” had broken down were emptied, whisky measures carefully shared completely. He complained they incinerated his vin - round, tales recited about the previous owner’s igno - tage Rolls Royce. They complained he had virtually minious exit from the island and strategies vaguely abandoned the island. formulated about the next stage of the island story. No wonder “Professor Marlin Eckhart” didn’t want At 6am I walked back across the single track road to the media on Eigg for his first visit. Kildonan where I always stayed with the large and So he announced a press conference in Edinburgh, boisterous Carr family. I found my way to the attic then cancelled it by phone. No-one would be bedroom in the dark – once the diesel generators were able to race five hours to Mallaig, board shut off they didn’t come on again until daylight. The a ferry and catch him in situ. He was wind had got up, so I tied a walking boot to the loop safe. At that very minute however, I at the base of the skylight. That way the window was on board the ferry from wouldn’t clank or break. Mallaig heading for Maggie Fyffe’s birthday party.

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 9 NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

Within minutes I was asleep – and within a few Eventually run the place. And thanks to political etiquette other more minutes (it seemed) I was awake again. It sound - we all to Lib Dem MPs would not get involved. Thankfully Lib ed like a helicopter. Dem Highland Council Leader Michael Foxley paid I turned over to go back to sleep. And suddenly it verbs at the no attention to the veto and was a constant presence hit me. A helicopter. Maruma. end of during the buyout years. Vocal support came from sentences then Labour MP Brian Wilson though the rest of he household sprang into action. Colin Carr was Labour failed to engage. The strangely biddable Tory Tfirst to surface – father of five, reserve policeman, accustomed Scots Secretary Michael Forsyth did visit Eigg a year farmer, part-time coastguard and full-time cynic. got. before the buyout and said he was “rather appalled” Wellies on, decent shirt, old jacket and a trip to the because the situation was “pretty shocking and not pier to top up petrol in the Land Rover. Then boldly sustainable.” up to the Lodge through the front gate – though we But he came up with no solutions and no cash. then hesitated, parked at the back door and knocked The heritage bodies and culture police were not so on the servant’s entrance at the kitchen. A young much absent as feart. woman answered, dressed almost as casually as our - I’d suggested the National Lottery Heritage selves. Maruma’s girlfriend Marianne led us through Memorial Fund help the people’s purchase of Eigg at a an utterly denuded house to the kitchen where meeting in Glasgow presided over by heid bummer Maruma sat. He was one of the oddest looking men Lord Jacob Rothschild in the wake of the Churchill I’ve ever seen. Tall, bulky, inflated and puffy looking. papers row (bought for the nation at a knockdown His hair was long and lank beneath a black beret he £12 million.) The Fund looked like a bunch of toffs never removed. His eyes appeared slitty and assessing buying the accoutrements of toffs from other toffs for and his skin was pock marked and drawn so tightly the viewing pleasure of more toffs. over his wrists he looked like a human haggis. There They’d taken a lot of flak over this and needed to were duty free cartons of Marlboro cigarettes, evapo - fund a “people’s purchase” to offset the hostile head - rated milk, coffee and sugar sachets a few sleeping lines. bags – and that was it. Land was the only asset that fitted the bill. He played for the sympathy vote. “Hey, tonight you will sleep in a bed, but Maruma o my amazement Eigg got a case study number. will on the floor sleep. That man has the kitchen sink TJemimas and Jeremys from the Lottery Fund taken” – and looking at the rubble strewn worktop, he arrived at island ceilidhs. Things progressed until an was right. The kitchen sink had been torn out. offer was ready and Colin Carr was summonsed to He didn’t offer us a coffee or a seat. We stood awk - London to hear it. wardly. Maruma declared he wanted to see round the It was a poisoned chalice. A million pounds was island immediately and meet some people. available immediately if Colin agreed that the Lottery Colin probed gently. Obviously Maruma had and other public agencies would have a controlling enough money to buy the island – but did he have majority stake with the islanders in a minority position. more cash to run it – improve it? 49% control might have seemed pretty good to a “Would Maruma a Rolls Royce buy when he not tired man who’d travelled alone for three days to enough cash for the petrol had?” reach the feet of the great and the good. Eventually we all to verbs at the end of sentences But Colin got up, thanked them for their time and accustomed got. walked out. No way would locals accept anything but But soon it was obvious – Maruma was a phoney. 51% control. And if that meant losing the million His Professorship had been purchased from an pounds, so be it. American University and by 1997 he’d defaulted on Back home no-one questioned Colin’s decision. one of two loans he’d taken out to buy the island Perhaps some words were ringing in their ears. When (from Hong Kong and Liechtenstein). After a false the Assynt crofters achieved their historic buyout alarm suggesting Pavarotti had bought Eigg for an off - some years earlier, the advice from charismatic ring - shore opera school (you really couldn’t make it up) leader Allan MacRae was simple. Buy everything. Buy and a public appeal that saw £1 notes from kids and all the rights. Don’t be fobbed off. Get everything – go £100 cheques from grannies pour into Maggie Fyffe’s for gold. letterbox – it was clear community control was just a Colin’s decisive action proved Eigg was already in matter of time. Finally a cheque for £900,000 arrived community control – un-lairdable to quote Alastair from a mystery lady donor in the North of England. MacIntosh. It was just a matter of time till the right 65 people from Eigg made history on 12th June cheque came through Maggie’s door so that informal 1997 – they became the first Scottish islanders to own reality would become a formal truth as well. their own island. 65 people had turned the tide of Scottish history – Where though were the politicians during all this? virtually unaided by any part of the formal Scottish Woefully, shamefully and almost completely absent. political machine. The local MP the late Russell Johnston refused to What an embarrassment. Eigg had laid bare the help because he thought the islanders were not fit to great lie of Highland life. Grannie’s Hielan Hame

10 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 might look quaint. But “normal” life in the Highlands Us v them The bitterness of that reality has been handed down was often precarious, disempowered and un-improv - suited all the through the generations. able thanks to moody, absent and paternalistic Despite travelling for 16 childhood summers from landowners – including the state. Thus the Land important to Wick to stay with our Caithness family we Reform Act was the first substantial piece of legisla - interests never once visited Dunrobin Castle, the seat of the tion passed by the new Scottish Parliament. running Sutherlands, or the Castle of Mey, the Queen Result. Mother’s “second home”. Scotland. It Although the Clearances ended, the dispossession xcept. Its impact has been limited. Even communi - also left of Scots endured. But who cared really? Should the Eties with the cohesion of Eigg didn’t opt immedi - Scots scared tens of thousands of dispossessed in Glasgow care ately for a community buyout – it took years to build about the fate of 65 people on an idyllic looking island up the mutual trust. The people of Assynt had worked to change with five beaches? together as the local crofters union branch long before the colour of And that’s partly why British politicians took so Lord Vestey created the North Lochinver Estate by their own long to react to situations like Eigg. carving it off from his larger estate in the early 90s. Land problems were a bit too complicated. And a Without the extra push of an intolerable landlord, a council bit too remote. And a bit too fundamental to fix. pre-existing community (or nowadays the prospect of house door wind farm cash) most Scots have baulked at the knocker. he problems of the Highlands just didn’t affect prospect of sinking their lives and their bank balances Tenough people to interest Westminster. The Tories into such irrevocable collective ventures. represented the landowning classes, Labour were No wonder. Ordinary folk in Scotland have had gey urban, the Lib Dems were largely ineffectual and the little practice running anything. coun - SNP too small in number and based in the non-croft - cils in the 1950 were building more council flats than ing fishing villages of the north-east. the Soviet Union. Scottish unions stressed workers’ So Eigg was just an irrelevance, an anomaly and a rights not co-operative or collective ownership. Us v bit of an embarrassment all round – until they won. them suited all the important interests running The warmth of the public’s response to their commu - Scotland. It also left Scots scared to change the colour nity buy-out proved the anger generated by the of their own council house door knocker. Clearances had never stopped reverberating around Scots simply haven’t had the same experience of Scotland – even if most of us could only access family participatory, co-operative ventures as our Nordic, history or John Prebble for some detail. Dutch or German neighbours. Most of the landowners who created the lofty, So land reform needed to be both larger and smaller feudal archetype of the Laird were Scots – but sound - in scope. ed English. They had to. Since the Statutes of Iona in The crofters’ or tenants’ pre-emptive right to buy 1609, aimed at weakening the clan aristocracy, eldest will never break up Scotland’s big estates because they sons of Gaelic-speaking clan chiefs had to be educated never come on the market. A few acres of land for one in English in Lowland schools. After Scotland and or two friends or families could make all the differ - England’s shotgun marriage in the Union of the ence to local people – but forcing purchase through Crowns those eldest sons followed James VI of the mechanism of a community buyout is using a Scotland down to London where he became James 1 sledgehammer to crack a nut. of Great Britain and Ireland. Humble tastes became Scotland still has one of the most concentrated pat - expensive tastes. Scots learned new feudal tricks from terns of landownership in Europe. their new English peers and adopted new ways of The forces of feudalism have not been defeated. treating tenants. Rents rose, people were moved and The unfairness of history has not been undone. without leases or proof of purchase they had no way And it must. to resist. Debate still rages over the motivations of “improv - Ironically in good old materialist England, where ing landowners” in the 19th century who shifted land had always been traded, even peasants could people round the Highlands like pawns on a giant wave around bits of paper asserting ownership rights. chessboard. My own family in Caithness were cleared Scots law traditionally regarded land as an asset to be to the coast centuries back – a regular feature of my held in trust for the next generation – not owned. childhood summer holidays was a trip to Bad Bea – a Clan chiefs were originally custodians of the land – cliff-top community where children were tied to not owners. Mary Queen of Scots was Queen of Scots wooden stakes battered into the ground to prevent not Scotland. She – like all clan chiefs – was owed loy - them wandering over the edge. Recently erected alty through her leadership of people, not rent. Well, plaques tell us that men from Bad Bea were generous - that was the theory. Chiefs demonstrated status ly employed to build walls by the renowned agricul - through the strength of their fighting men – loyalty tural improver Sir John Sinclair. The elegant dry stane and courage were the old currencies of Highland life – dyke wall meant his precious sheep didn’t fall over the not bits of paper. cliffs. The people were generously allowed to live on The slow erosion of these values created a Scottish its exposed seaward side. Or leave. landowning elite living at great distance from “kins -

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 11 NO MAN IS AN ISLAND folk”. Some folk had formal leases and tenancies. Scotland is Land reform legislation has transformed ownership Others had no paperwork. It made no difference. run by the patterns across the Western Isles, it’s true. But it’s Come the Clearances, all bets were off. failed to repopulate extensively cleared areas – because Scots betrayed Scots. And that knowledge hurts. defensive there are no communities left to exercise a community Still. inhabitants right to buy. It’s failed to bite on the mainland, in small of towns or in Scotland’s big cities where councils rou - ake in the where islanders tinely appropriated land owned by Common Good Twere hunted down for removal by Lieutenant- competitive Funds which belonged to the people. In the Scottish Colonel John Gordon of Cluny in 1851. Government towns in Parliament only the Green Party has had the courage to sources reported conditions: English- propose a Land Value Tax to end land speculation in “The scene of wretchedness which we witnessed as our cities. Somehow Eigg and its well rehearsed story we entered the estate of Colonel Gordon was leaning, has persuaded Scots that land reform is a problem for deplorable, nay, heart rending. On the beach the fertile remote areas only, and a problem largely solved. Not whole population of the country seemed to be met, lowlands. so. Land ownership issues gnaw away at Scotland’s gathering the precious cockles. I never witnessed such unavailable, over-priced urban core. countenances – starvation on many faces – the chil - So land ownership is still a raw nerve – sometimes dren with their melancholy looks, big looking knees, even an open wound. shrivelled legs, hollow eyes, swollen like bellies – god help them, I never did witness such wretchedness.” he Scots writer and artist Alasdair Gray wrote a 1851. Some may regard that as ancient history. Tpowerful, slim wee book in the 1990s – Why the Actually, my grandmother’s grandmother would have Scots Should Govern Scotland . In it he argued the been alive to see it. Scots and English had developed different tempera - Such reports prompted the Napier Commission ments because of geography. No-one wanted poor, which took evidence across the Highlands and finally barren Scottish land so the Scots had been forced to led to the Crofting Act of 1886. co-operate to survive. It gave security of tenure (but not outright owner - But everyone wanted the fertile, lush plains of ship) to crofters and their families in perpetuity. But it England – so they had become defensive to survive. didn’t solve the problem of chronic overcrowding. As The only exceptions to the co-operative rule in a result many Scots left after the Crofting Acts to settle Scotland were the fertile lowlands of Lothian and in Canadian Cape Breton and Nova Scotia – not Aberdeenshire where – indeed – Scots have regularly exactly “nursing their wrath to keep it warm”, but voted Tory. Thus, Alasdair reasoned, the co-operative - keeping Gaelic and the culture of clanship alive. It is ly minded Scots should supplant the competitively the ultimate irony. minded English in running Scotland. The “losers” survived, reached America, built large It’s a simple but powerful point. Scotland is run by houses and prospered with small ranches in the New the defensive inhabitants of competitive towns in World. The “winners” who managed to stay in English-leaning, fertile lowlands. The rest of us are left Scotland have managed to scrap by in the same sub - to exercise that Scottish urge to connect with a quick standard housing stock for centuries and face the wave of the hand to strangers on a single-track road. same scramble for land on the coastal margins as their The Norwegians call it dugnad and had the guts to forebears 150 years ago. The outlook of the lairds has build their new nation state on the co-operative out - somehow become enshrined in the planning philoso - look of the peasant and the hill farmer – not the phy of today’s local authorities. The enduring aes - landowning class which went out with the Black thetic of emptiness means “cleared” glens are Death nor the city slickers who stayed in Denmark considered too beautiful to be marred with the basic when Norway first stood apart. homes or static caravans locals can afford. The his - The experience of connection and co-operation toric absence of services like mains water and elec - based on knowledge of land and sea should have tricity means the price of house building is become the very fabric of our daily lives in Scotland … prohibitively high anyway. It’s as if Scotland’s but our history has been otherwise. Victorian landowners are having the last laugh. Their Meanwhile, Eigg has gone from strength to strength massive estates are largely intact – it is still possible to – stripping out the old diesel generators in 2007 for an walk across Scotland from Beauly to Knoydart with - entirely renewable system of “Eiggtricity”. out leaving Lovat territory. And any would-be house - The population has risen to 105 – most local chil - builder is still fighting for tiny parcels of overpriced dren have decided to stay, spurred on by the offer of land – unable to compete with crofters for their free land on which to build. common grazing, unable to fight topography for It was a long haul but Eiggachs are now the only what remains, unable to challenge habitat designa - Scots I know acting as if they live in the early days of a tions that have turned many areas into sites of special better nation. scientific interest, and unable to compete with Little, massive Eigg. wealthier incomers for the occasional house plot that becomes available. I Lesley Riddoch is a writer a broadcaster.

12 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 Our skin is our interface with the outside world. It reveals much of our identity and our individuali - ty, age, emotions, and ethnic PRET TY origin. Although painting faces and dressing up has for all time been used in the visual arts to convey ideas and impressions and to con - nect groups of people, it has been suggested that the explosion in the use of cosmetics came about when NASTY Hollywood films arrived on the mass market. Chosen images of Morag Parnell warns that womanhood abounded and the cosmetic industry became a multi- there is more to the pursuit billion dollar outfit. Women were of personal beauty than meets programmed to sell everything from porches to porn. The same the eye – especially where firms still portray women in what - cosmetics are concerned. ever way will bring maximum cash returns.

COSMETIC COVER-UP hildren of all ages love to pre - The assumption may be that Clearly, a study of the his - tend, imitate, dress up and applying things to our tory of cosmetics and Cmake up. It is how children skin is harmless: our fashion is that their use learn, how we entertain and skin will protect us is strongly influenced cement or question social relation - and, in any case, we by the social and eco - ships through art and artifice. It is can wash it off. Wrong. nomic structures and how we play the mating game. Skin absorbs substances gender relationships We have watched our children we apply to it. pertaining in that place dress up in Mum and Dad’s clothes Skin is much more than a at that time. What emerges is and raid the make-up bag. There is waterproof covering holding our an ever changing surface version scope for play there: every day, on important body parts dry and of beauty – a cosmetic cover-up. average, women use 12, and men together. It has an amazing range Where does beauty lie? six, personal care products with an of functions. Everyone has at some time been average of 160 ingredients. Our skin is moved by the portrayal of a deep It isn’t only when children play LARGEST ORGAN our interface sense of beauty that is the result of that they are exposed. We know It is the largest organ in the human something true, real and lasting that many care products are rou - body. The bit you see will no with the and that supervenes time, from tinely used on children. longer be there in 30 days’ time. outside cave paintings to the present day. All old cells will be shed and world. It Byron said “She walks in beauty, TOXIC EFFECTS replaced with new. like the night of cloudless climes It is disturbing to know that a baby, Within the upper layer of skin – reveals much and starry skies; and all that’s best while still seemingly safely devel - the epidermis – are many different of our of dark and bright meet in her oping in its mother’s womb, is types of cell responsible for regu - identity and aspect and her eyes.” He links exposed to a battery of industrial lating temperature through blood beauty in us with that of the rest of toxins, 287 of which have been flow, goose bumps and sweating, our the natural world. isolated in umbilical cord blood, protecting from overexposure to individuality, Take a brief look at our use of transmitted through the placenta ultraviolet light by producing age, sunscreens. A healthy-looking tan and including personal care prod - melanin. It synthesises vitamin D is desirable. It indicates a level of ucts that their mothers use. All and has a fine tuned sensory func - emotions, affluence to enjoy the leisure to have a range of toxic effects, tion for touch, pain or pleasure. It and ethnic bask in and to visit sunny including cancers, affecting every protects from pathogens and has origin. climes! vital system. How much does the cells that give immunity. The Sunscreens are advised, particu - public know about those ingredi - dermis gives strength and elasticity larly for children. Yet here are ents? Should we be concerned and and the subcutaneous fat layer is some comments from researchers: should we be asking what they are for body insulation and a shock “Retinyl palmitate, a form of and how to avoid them? absorber. vitamin A, found in two-fifths of

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 13 PRETTY NASTY

US sunscreens, speeds the develop - 156,000 deaths (about one in four bio-accumulates and persists in the ment of skin tumours and lesions of all deaths). environment. It can cause allergies when applied to the skin in the We are now treated to a cornu - and bacterial resistance, organ tox - presence of sunlight.” Or of oxy - copia of new cosmetic products. icity and is an endocrine disruptor. benzone “significant photo-aller - Sixty-five thousand have been Plastic containers made of useful genic effects … human endocrine analysed by the Environmental clear shatterproof polycarbonate disruptor … causes mutations, We are now Working Group (www.ewg.org). It plastic are engineered from leads to cell death. May be impli - treated to a has an extensive database where Bisphenol A (BPA). Several thou - cated in cardiovascular disease. you may check your favourites. sand studies have shown BPA to be Suspected to bioaccumulate in cornucopia an oestrogenic endocrine disrupt - people.” of new TOXIC INGREDIENTS ing chemical. It leaches into con - Benzophenone, used to prevent cosmetic More than 10,000 ingredients are tainers – baby bottles, water breakdown of products when used in cosmetics, several thou - bottles, food cans and paper cash exposed to sunlight, decreases products. sand in perfumes and fragrances receipts. Almost everyone has it in testosterone production in both Sixty-five alone. Ingredients must be shown their bodies. cultured human testes cells and in thousand on labels, except for perfumes and Women’s Environmental Net - male mice. fragrances – these are trade secrets. work Scotland (WENS) asks Nano materials are used in some have been Researchers found 133 volatile people not to wear perfumes at sunscreens. How far they pene - analysed by organic compounds (VOCs) in meetings. Some people suffer trate skin and their ultimate effects the Environ - twenty-five fragrance products asthma attacks when exposed. are largely unknown, but from tested. 24 are classified as toxic This is a common problem, yet in what is known, researchers have mental and hazardous. some public places fragrances are named them the new asbestos. Working It is on labels, but how many put into the air conditioning sys - They are in several hundred con - Group. know what “methylchloroisothia - tems. sumer products on the market, zolinone” is and what it does without prior safety testing. when it is absorbed into DESIRE TO FEEL GOOD (One nanometre is one your body? A search of the There is a desire for women to billionth of a metre. database reveals that it is appear youthful and healthy and A human hair is a preservative, is a skin men to appear virile, to feel good, about 80nm.) allergen and can to demonstrate their fertility and damage your immune to attract a suitable partner. If we SUNSHINE system. use cosmetics to enhance this, we In this age of climate Phthalates are widely want them to be safe. However, change and ozone deple - used as plasticisers in cos - nature has provided. We, like tion we are rightly warned metics and in many common other animals and plants, secrete about overexposure to the sun. We household products. Phthalates pheromones from our skins – a need sunshine. It stimulates vita - are associated with adverse effects hormone that doesn’t act on our min D production and, with care, on the male reproductive system, own internal organs but on those produces a protective tanning. It e.g. sperm quality, undescended of others we encounter. They makes us feel good. But be careful. testes, hypospadias and testicular signal attraction, alarm or warn - In 2008, the most recent statistics cancer. Now add possibly prema - ing. available, there were 11,700 new ture puberty, asthma, autism, low When measured throughout cases of malignant melanoma in birth weight, ADHD, and type 2 their menstrual cycles, without any the UK, quadrupling the number diabetes. direct contact and no alteration to over the past 30 years. Two thou - In the EU, a few phthalates are their acts, earnings of pole dancers sand people died. Unlike most banned in cosmetics and children’s shot up significantly during the other cancers, the incidence of this toys. In March 2011, REACH few days, mid cycle, of maximum cancer is highest in younger age (Registration, Evaluation, fertility! groups and amongst the most Authorisation and restriction of According to REACH data, affluent. Chemicals), banned the use in 106,000 chemicals are in commer - This, in spite of ever increasing Europe of three phthalates. This cial use in the EU. Only 3% have a use of sunscreens! still leaves phthalates in many full set of toxicity data, of which In the same year, the incidence products, including some medical several hundred are known car - of the less serious non-melanoma devices. cinogens. Many more cause other skin cancer (NMSC) was 99,000, Parabens, widely used as preser - serious diseases. Hundreds are and deaths numbered 500. The vatives, classed as endocrine dis - known, or suspected, of having NMSC figures are not included in ruptors, have been associated with endocrine disrupting properties. total cancer incidence and deaths breast cancer. We need to know which product in the UK, which, at 2008 figures, Triclosan, a biocide, used in is safest and which foods to avoid total 309,527 new cases and soaps, shampoos and toothpaste, in order to protect ourselves and

14 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 our families, but that who couldn’t make it, nates, cosmetics and is in cigarette will not solve the those on the next shift smoke. It causes the symptoms problem. The air we or who had family described in the poem, and is clas - breathe, what we use commitments. sified by the WHO as a Class 1 at work, what goes into Thereafter followed a Human Carcinogen. and out of our landfills year of meetings and The following year there were and incinerators is anoth - recordings of the some modifications to the er matter. Whatever we do as women’s concerns plus a bit of women’s working conditions, a individuals will never be more “lay epidemiology” on our part. It tacit acceptance, but never a public than damage limitation. We need We need to was a rewarding and enjoyable admission, of the source of the to confront a system of production confront a year! We distributed our report original problem. which allows products onto the and eventually the women per - A few years on, the factory market without adequate testing. system of suaded their union and manage - closed and was relocated to the far We have become pawns in a global production ment to agree to a study by East. The original workforce is clinical trial without our knowl - which allows professor Andrew Watterson of now scattered. Who is looking edge or our consent. Stirling University. This confirmed after the old and the current work - A huge, dangerous toll on products our fears that the women’s symp - force? health, costly in human and eco - onto the toms were the result of exposure I nomic terms, is happening. It is market to formaldehyde, used for drip dry Morag Parnell is a retired general preventable, yet it is growing year and permanent crease finishings. It practitioner and member of on year. without has many uses including in lami - Democratic Left Scotland. It is the result of the same fac - adequate tors driving climate change. testing. The substances of concern are mostly derived from fossil fuels, mainly petroleum. We need HIDDEN HAZ ARDS Green energy, agriculture, chem - istry, p roducts and a new look at You take out your drip dry shirt, your well creased suits how we use them. A Green New immaculately tailored, symbols of power and fame. Deal. You put them on and with them your chosen character, However, the problems will not teacher, banker, doctor, lawyer, politician, sir or dame. be solved by green technologies You’re ready to play your part, to carve out a niche, alone. Clearly the problem is sys - to stand out, to make your name. temic and needs profound changes in the social/economic/ philosophi - How often did you think to ask where that suit came from? cal/political theories and practices I don’t mean the high-class tailor or the department store, which currently drive our world. but where you’ll find girls and women working While there is still much to be long tedious shifts for low wages on the factory floor. uncovered, more than enough is And did you know about their skins and eyes known to start toxics use reduc - all red and sore and itching, tion programmes now. Because that their noses constantly stream, their lungs wheeze, you’re worth it. their lips smart and swell; and did you know that their long-term health is compromised, MYSTERY VIRUS just to let the rest of us dress up and dress well; In the late 80s I read banner head - and we become unwittingly complicit in this vastly profitable big sell. lines in my local newspaper. A mystery v irus had struck women in Now that you know that these things are devoid of justice, the local Daks clothing factory. It what do you intend to do, and will you say was January, so no real surprise. It like Gandhi, I will wear only plain homespun, was, however, unusual that dozens or as our national bard would like, of women were being crowded wear honest hodden grey. into sick rooms, sent home or And will you pause and think that every hour of every day admitted to hospital. Two months one hundred and twenty-five are dead later West Lothian Women’s for working for their hard earned pay. Forum was asked by the Trades Even in our clothes, like in so much more, Council to meet women from the hazards are hidden. factory to discuss problems that And what will you do to have such practices forbidden. were still affecting them. More than 60 women turned up for the Morag Parnell meeting, apologising for others

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 15 THE JIMMY REID government which opposes nuclear weapons, a result of the FOUNDATION dogged pursuit of the issue by anti- nuclear campaigners over years. This illustrates two of the three Robin McAlpine sets out the stall of real aims of the Jimmy Reid Foundation. The first is to provide a new organisation that aims to a focus for those on the left irre - bring fresh thinking to left-wing spective of where they are located. If we can unite people around spe - politics in Scotland. cific ideas it should be possible to get the support of Labour people, SNP people, Greens, socialists and people from faith groups, cam - hat is to be done? biggest claim to an ongo - paigning organisations and the The perpetual ques - ing socialist tradition relat - public. It might not be possible to Wtion of the left, with ed to the things we haven’t bring them together across all both its implicit meanings. done, the ways in which issues, but then the neo-liberals As in “we’re in such a mess, we aren’t following don’t feel the need to agree on all what is to be done with England? Of course the issues. They just pick the wins and us?”, and “things are such a usual analysis of hegemony, go after them. And that is the mess, so what is to be the media and manufac - second aim – to “professionalise”. done?”. The Jimmy Reid tured consent can be Many on the left tend to baulk at Foundation has been estab - applied, but it is certainly the idea of the practices of profes - lished to take a shot at insufficient to explain why sional political advocacy because trying to answer both of Scotland persists in electing they are so closely associated with these. political parties largely on the practices of corporate lobbying Firstly, a look inwards. the basis of how firmly they in the US. But they are only tools The received wisdom of reject neo-liberal doctrine. and they work. The Reid the political establishment As importantly, we have to Foundation will aim to use these is that the left in Scotland has frag - look at practices, behaviours sorts of practices to push an alter - mented. But while the noun “frag - Neo-liberals and approaches. The Scottish native agenda. ment” (a small piece or part of don’t feel the advocates of neo-liberalism are something) might just about be pretty focussed. As this is being FRESH THINKING applicable to some of the left, the need to written they are assembling their Which may help provide a partial verb “fragment” (to cause to sepa - agree on all massed ranks of lobbyists to put answer the exasperated question rate into pieces) is not. The reality issues. They the fear into a Scottish “what’s to be done with us” but is that the left in Scotland has Government which has proposed not the bigger question of “what is never really been in one piece to just pick the some very modest additional con - to be done?”. This is the third aim fragment but has always existed in wins and go tributions from the business sector of the Foundation – to generate different forms in different places. after them. to Scotland’s public finances. They fresh thinking. Almost everyone The SSP/Solidarity split has almost phone, write, e -mail, contact, have now accepts that at least some of been a convenient means of draw - meetings, run press conferences, the left critique was correct but ing attention away from the many produce “facts” and “figures”. everyone believes that this didn’t people and groups which lie on the They have their slogans and they follow through into a plan for spectrum somewhere between have a strategy. action. While this is not entireLY social democrats and socialists in fair, there is a large dose of truth in Scotland – in the SNP and the REALISTIC STRATEGIES it. Successful public policy (as Labour Party, the campaigning On the other side? Is the left measured by whether it actually organisations, the practitioners focussed on achievable goals with becomes public policy or not) falls and the sympathisers. Indeed, realistic strategies? Does it have a into two categories – the visible much as the establishment would “shopping list” and if so does and the invisible. The invisible is like people to believe otherwise anyone know what it is (other than usually negotiated directly with its process-analysis of politi - as seen in the distorting mirror of between Big Money and Big cal affiliation as if it was an apoliti - the right-wing media)? And can it Government, primarily to the cal cult, the left in Scotland is routinely co-ordinate to make sure interests of Big Money. PFI, regu - dominant, at least in electoral that people are pushing in the right latory frameworks, export rules, terms. direction at the right time? global treaties and so on – these So why hasn’t there been more Certainly sometimes it can, such as are barely known by people and progress? Why is Scotland’s can be seen in the election of a only understood by institutions.

16 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 THE PENSIONS This is policymaking of the elite and usually against the population and generally nothing positive or progressive can be achieved in this DISPUTE: way – there are no negotiating partners for non-venal invisible policy. WHAT NEXT? ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESS Visible policy is the goal – initia - tives and ideas that people hear of. What can be learned following the largest public But these ideas must have three ele - ments for success. They have to be sector strike in a generation? Stuart Fairweather possible, they have to work and argues for the unions re-winning the co-ordinated they have to be understandable. This is where Scotland needs fresh participation of their members. thinking – ideas that can be imple - mented in Scotland within the dif - ferent powers available, ideas that ince taking office eighteen social security benefits and state will change things, and ideas that months ago, the Conservative- retirement pensions. At the same people and politicians can under - SLiberal coalition government time, in its capacity as an employ - stand, that are properly articulated. has continued the neo-liberal poli - er, the government decided that This above all is what the Jimmy cies of its predecessors, seeking to the same arrangement was to Reid Foundation is aiming for – to maintain the grip of unfettered apply to public sector pensions. create a set of ideas and proposals capitalism, to restore the fortunes The CPI excludes housing costs which cannot be disregarded of the City of London and to put and, since its introduction in 2002, because they are impossible to the private before the public in all has tended to rise by between one implement, which cannot be dis - things. There have been variations and two percentage points less missed because they are unrealistic on this theme over time, but the than the RPI. Obviously, switching in their aspirations and which direction of travel has remained to the less favourable index cannot be ignored because they are the same. reduces the value of pensions over too obscure to gain widespread Drawing on the ideas of Lord time. For example, the average support. Hutton, a former Labour minister, pension paid to retired Scottish So we have established a Project the government has mounted an council workers is currently Board which will bring together 15 onslaught on public sector pen - £3,048 a year. If the CPI rises by leading thinkers to develop a pro - sions. Indeed, the very idea of 1.5 percentage points a year less gramme of work which will in turn public sector workers collectively than the RPI, then at the end of ten generate a sequence of concrete negotiating a pension with their years retirees will be roughly 15% proposals for action. But we are employers is under threat. And worse off than they otherwise also working on setting up an while it is true that public sector would have been, equivalent to online network of interested and pensions are generally superior to £450 a year at today’s prices. sympathetic people and a website those of workers in the private Yet at a time when one in five which will enable them to discuss, sector, it is hard to see how making young people aged 18–24 is unem - develop and refine thinking so that public sector workers pay more and ployed, council employees will this is not only a top-down process work longer for reduced entitle - have to go on working until they of policy development. ments is going to improve inade - are 68 before qualifying for this None of this is rocket science. In quate provision in the private diminished pension. And in fact, much of it is really just stan - sector. Media attacks on “greedy England they will also be required dard practice. But right now is a public sector workers” are designed to pay higher contributions. The time full of opportunity for those to drive a wedge between public government argues that unless who want to see radical reform of and private sector workers so as to employees bear a larger share of life and work in Scotland. The real undermine terms and conditions of the cost, public sector pensions question, though, is what is to be work and retirement all round. will become unsustainable. But this done? We hope that you will all In his emergency budget of June claim is undermined by the Hutton become part of our network and 2010, George Osborne announced report itself, which shows that that you will start to answer this that, with effect from April 2011, once the switch from RPI to CPI question for us. the government proposed to indexation is taken into account, switch from the Retail Price Index the estimated annual outlay on I Robin McAlpine is director of the (RPI) to the Consumer Price Index public sector pensions as a propor - Jimmy Reid Foundation. (CPI) as the basis for uprating tion of GDP will start to decline

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 17 THE PENSIONS DISPUTE from 2019 onwards, even if no Victory for well beyond the existing ranks of organisationally and financially change is made to employees’ pen - the members. Interest ing - weaken a group of people who are sion contributions. ly, it was the veteran British politi - only just beginning to understand In the run-up to November 30th government cian Tony Benn who was invited to what they have in common. Cuts union negotiators won agreement will weaken speak at their October People First in public sector pensions will not from the Scottish Government that a group of demonstration. This invitation had benefit the country or even “pay the increased contribution rates as much to do with his moral off the debt”. Cuts will simply go faced by English workers would people who authority as his political wisdom. to foster greater inequality and not be passed on in Scotland. This are only just Benn himself chose to reflect on provide bonuses for the rich. shows the complexity of industrial beginning to the very Scottish experience of the Failure to build on the co-ordi - struggles across Britain in the con - innovative action taken at the nated action of November 30th text of devolution. But it also indi - understand (UCS), a will ensure a huge setback for all cates the scope for pushing Alex what they dispute where workers took a lead working people and provide a fur - Salmond on his pronouncements have in and built links across society. ther move forward for the about a “social wage”, with any Things are very different today, Conservative-Liberal coalition and victory here being used the basis common. but hopefully Benn’s reflections its neo-liberal project. The detail of for wider progress. At a British will have made an impression on the pension dispute by definition is level the unions need all the allies the Scottish Labour and SNP complex: different unions and dif - they can get. Yet to date Miliband politicians who were there listen - ferent groups of workers negotiat - and Balls have been lukewarm and ing amongst the public sector ing differing pension schemes. have even suggested that the dis - workers, churchgoers and volun - GMB and Unison have signed up pute is a trap. Their desire to move tary sector service users. to the “heads of agreement” which beyond new Labour would appear Unlike opposition politicians, outlines the structure of negotia - to stop short of supporting this public sector unions do not have tion. But people marched about democratic industrial action. the luxury of inaction. A forward- more than the detail. Rather than looking, alliance-building approach allowing the politicians to take the WHAT CAN BE DONE? could influence the outcome of the lead unions need to re-win the co- On November 30th union mem - negotiations with the government. ordinated participation of their bers took a different view to But it will be difficult. However, membership. It is the voices of the Labour leaders. They located the these tactics are pitted against a members and the communities pension dispute in a wider context. public opinion trained to see con - they live in that need to heard if They understood that industrial sumerism as pre-eminent and col - alternatives to cuts in pensions and action was about opposition to lective action as old fashioned or services are to be reversed. austerity and workers becoming simply strange. the scapegoats for the neo-liberal The stakes are high. Victory for I Stuart Fairweather is convener of financial crisis. The UCU the government will emotionally, Democratic Left Scotland. (University and College Union) and the PCS (civil service union) had led the way in summer of 2011. In November the unions with more established links to Labour – Unite, GMB and Unison – joined with others in a huge show of popular democracy. This approach suggests some - thing new. The unions are begin - ning to articulate an alternative that reaches out beyond the sec - tional interests of their members and opens up a wider discussion about society as a whole. Politicians, including those who form the “official opposition” to the government, need to decide Back issues of Perspectives are now where they stand. available online to download in The ongoing campaign organ - ised by the Scottish Trades Union PDF format. Congress (STUC) under the slogan There is a Better Way points www.democraticleftscotland.org.uk towards a broad alliance that goes

18 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 THE FERAL SUPERCLASS Erik Cramb observes that it is not just the “underclass” that is feral.

n the wake of the riots in English cities this summer, Their culture perhaps? Certainly akin to the arrogant and Kenneth Clarke, the UK Justice Secretary alleged incomes are feral culture of the market. Ithat three-quarters of the adults arrested had previ - When Sir Fred Goodwin and his likes say “Sorry” is ous convictions. He then went on to refer to them col - more secret it an acknowledgement of the failure of this arrogant lectively as a “feral underclass”. than the and feral culture? Unlikely. An interesting statistic, it made me wonder if the operations of Is it an expression of pain at the 22,000 employees statisticians collected facts about the incomes of the of the Royal Bank made redundant? Or is it sorrow at hundreds who were arrested. How would their com - MI6. precipitating what Sir Mervyn King, the Governor of bined incomes compare with the combined incomes of the Bank of England, is calling “The most serious the Cabinet which has some 23 millionaires amongst financial crisis since the 1930s, if not ever.” Perhaps it its number – Kenneth Clarke himself being one. might be sorrow for the so-called “wasted generation How would the combined incomes of the hundreds of young people” who face a job market where there of arrested members of “the feral underclass” com - average 80 applicants for each job, or that a cash- pare with the combined incomes of the board of RBS, strapped NHS is appealing for volunteers to come and now 83% owned by the taxpayer, but still it seems help feed patients in hospital? Or does it sound more beyond our control? How would the combined like I’m sorry I made a mistake that got found out? incomes of this “feral underclass” with criminal They are amoral at best, immoral for the most part. records compare with the combined incomes of the It’s this feral super-class who bedevil our lives, not with owners of Premier League football clubs south of the three nights of rioting, but with perpetual exploitation. Border, who are all decent chaps of course with no They operate a tyranny of economic barbarism. criminal records, or compare with the combined The pathetic rallying call of the Prime Minister incomes of the Manchester United or Manchester (another millionaire) that we are “all in it together” City or Chelsea or Arsenal first team pools? was never more revealed in all its hollowness than How would the combined incomes of Kenneth when he called a summit meeting in October with the Clarke’s “feral underclass” compare with the combined heads of the major energy companies, “to do some - incomes of the faceless merchant bankers and stockbro - thing for poor people about rising fuel costs as winter kers and other members of the Priesthood of the approaches.” The result, a promise from the energy Temples of Finance? We’ll never know because their companies to make their billing clearer and to help incomes are more secret than the operations of MI6. people switch their supplier more easily. Gosh, that The day after the millionaire Justice Secretary, the Rt will make a difference! As if elderly people are going Hon Kenneth Clark, had pronounced on his feral to, or should, scrabble around on computers or underclass, the millionaire Chancellor of the phones or on foot trying to work out the cheapest Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne, was being deals, which in all likelihood will last only a few pressed to cut the 50% rate of income tax for the super months. A Prime Minister in touch with the plight of rich – otherwise it was said they will simply move out his people? I think not! of the reach of taxman and invest elsewhere. This is a Michael Manley, when Prime Minister of Jamaica, class who, if their wealth is threatened, are ever ready said “Where poverty is shared it may be endured. to bare their teeth and snarl at government to back off. Where poverty is mocked by extravagance it becomes “Feral” has become a favourite word of Tories the condition within which resentment smoulders.” recently. The Oxford dictionary defines “feral” as Perhaps there is a sign of hope in the appearance on “wild; untamed, uncultivated”, a term well befitting the streets of 82 countries in October of the “indigna - this class of super-rich, not only already floating in dos”, the Indignants, the Occupy Wall Street their private sea of riches, but wanting more, and pre - Initiative; UK Uncut; Scotland’s Coalition of Resisting pared to rip off the basic provisions for the great mass and many other and varied names, but all sharing in of the peoplein the process. The richer they get the one aim, to somehow bring the feral super-class to more they assume the right to judge the rest of us and heel. As some 500 set up camp outside St Paul’s cathe - tell us what is best for us. dral in London, how refreshing it was that the clergy I suspect they often watch David Attenborough of the cathedral told the police to back off, believing documentaries. “Look Piers,” says Lord Big-Banker to the cathedral was under no threat. How good it was his son and heir, home from his private prep school that on the Sunday morning worshippers threading for half term, as they watch a pride of lions stalking a their way through the sea of tents shared words of sol - herd of zebra. “Look how the King of the Jungle, the idarity with the indignants? Maybe there are more “in noble lion, downs his prey.” The noble lion’s skill is in it with us” than we realise. isolating the weakest member of the herd before felling it and tearing it apart. Akin to RBS acquisition I Erik Cramb is a retired Church of Scotland minister.

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 19 BOOK REVIEWS 1707 AND ALL THAT

An updated edition of a book on Scotland’s constitutional future leaves Alf Young wondering why it has not explored the fall-out from the 2008 financial crisis.

his slim volume in praise of and enthusiasm” for the cause but retain the House of Windsor and, was on the potentially fickle will of the given the state of the eurozone, Tfirst published in 2008, Scottish people. Is the “great goal” sterling and the current monetary reprinted twice, and now appears of independence already in the union in the UK too, at least in the in an updated edition with a fore - bag? None of us really knows. first instance. There is talk of an word from Scotland’s first minister What we do know is that if, over enduring social union that could Alex Salmond. It is the work of six the period this book has been in retain integrated welfare benefits people. Five men and one woman. print, we have all been convulsed and state pensions across these I’ve known all of them, to differing by a banking crash, a deep reces - islands too. One Salmond aide has degrees, down the decades. I was A Nation sion, a eurozone crisis and the talked openly in his blog of creat - deputy to one, Harry Reid, when Again – Why biggest squeeze in living standards ing a new “union of equals” in he edited the Herald in the 1990s. Independence since the 1920s, who knows what place of the Treaty of 1707. There They approach their task from Will be Good further convulsions in the global is also growing talk of a third diverse perspectives, informed by for Scotland economy or in market capitalism option, so called Devo Max, being sharply contrasting hinterlands. (and England itself might happen over the three added to the referendum ballot They have, the book’s introduc - too) or four years before that choice is paper. That that might even be the tion reminds us, a collective age of Paul Henderson finally to be made. preferred outcome for some in the over 350. Their common cause is Scott (ed) SNP leadership. “the imperative of independence”. Revised and CONSTITUTIONAL UNKNOWNS All that seems a long way from Bizarrely this new edition extended edition In an increasingly uncertain world Harry Reid’s vision of the British appears to have been sent to the (Luath Press, 2011) it could take more – a lot more – state being “sent to the knacker’s printers weeks before the Scottish than Harry Reid’s characteristical - yard”. Or Stephen Maxwell’s view National Party emerged as the first ly trenchant critique of a British that, if the eurozone crisis forces majority government at Holyrood, state in “terminal decay”, Tom the European Union as a whole having trounced all three unionist Nairn lambasting what he calls towards a two-tier structure, parties in May’s election. The “zombiedom” and once more sug - Scotland’s best option would be to most contemporary references gesting “I told you so” in his 1977 join the outer circle, allowing her anywhere are to things that hap - tract The Break-up of Britain or to remain competitive with the rest pened in February 2011! That Stephen Maxwell’s assertion that, of the UK while developing links leaves the contributors, notably by the time of their collapse, with the Nordic rim. “Whether Stephen Maxwell, to confront the Scotland’s main banks had ceased Scotland then adopts sterling or, consequences of the great financial to be Scottish except for the brass bolstered by rising world energy crash of 2008 – which saw plates on their headquarter build - prices, opts for a separate Scottish Scotland’s two main banks, collec - ings to persuade enough of their currency would be,” he concludes, tive age 600, surrender their fate hard-pressed fellow citizens to opt “a pragmatic judgement.” to the stewardship of the British instead for an independence state – with no recourse to that proposition that simply swops one CLOUD CUCKOO LAND great electoral breakthrough set of economic unknowns for a Such is the evolving crisis in the May’s election delivered. new set of constitutional ones. eurozone, triggered by renewed We as readers now know what Even at this early stage, it is far default fears in Greece, the knock- they as writers could not have from clear that the choice on offer on consequences for Italy, Spain, known. That, short of some legal will be between the kind of inde - Portugal and even Ireland and the challenge, a referendum on that pendence envisaged by some of prospect of second round of independence imperative now this book’s contributors and the European banking failures, that looks assured by 2014 or 2015. Its status quo. Alex Salmond has Maxwell’s scenario, penned just a outcome, of course, depends not already indicated that his concept few months ago, suddenly looks on the authors’ sense of “urgency of an independent Scotland would like cloud cuckoo land. How, in

20 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 the current atmosphere of naked We’re disagree with Alex Salmond on the under the weight of its own con - market panic, can there be the creating enduring value of the House of tradictions. “We’re creating kind of orderly retreat to a two- Windsor. He calls it “the ultimate zombie households, zombie banks speed, two-tier Europe he zombie resort for those wishing to pre - and zombie governments,” describes? The more likely options households, serve the notion of Britishness at Roubini suggests. What could are the one George Osborne is zombie all costs.” Tom Nairn, now follow is another great depression. improbably pressing of eurozone returned from Australia, sees a That’s a different, more menac - leaders – accelerating fiscal union banks and confederation as inevitable. ing take on Tom Nairn’s version of within the existing seventeen zombie zombiedom. But it features members. Or disorderly sovereign governments. CAPITALISM ON TRIAL nowhere in A Nation Again . Or in defaults and the culprits being But there is another new narrative the wider debate about Scotland’s expelled from the zone altogether currently taking shape as the con - constitutional future this far. But for their pains. sequences of the 2008 financial it’s a narrative that is consuming I’m sure the current UK chancel - crisis rumble on and on and the whole acres of space and a bur - lor is only pushing closer fiscal over-leveraged dreams of the geoning political response else - union in the eurozone to protect boom years give way to austerity, where. If these issues remain the UK economy’s chances of gen - unemployment and fear. Michael unresolved when Scotland comes erating some significant growth Portillo takes to Radio 4 to wonder to vote on its promised referen - again. After all, Europe takes 40% if capitalism itself is on trial. The dum, who knows what the mood of everything we export. In any distinguished American economist might be? I don’t think any of us other circumstances he would Nouriel Roubini wonders if Marx knows, least of all our professional fight it tooth and claw. After all might have been right after all, that politicians. closer fiscal union for the seven - you can’t go on shifting income teen could lead eventually to an increasingly from labour to capital, I Alf Young contributes a weekly inner single market, one that pro - from wages to profits, without cre - column to the Scotsman and has gressively excludes the non-euro ating excess capacity and a lack of been commenting on economic, members in what Maxwell calls aggregate demand, causing the business and political issues in the outer circle. whole system to begin to collapse Scotland for the past three decades. Quite how, in all that tumult, an independent Scotland would choose between sterling and float - ing its own currency is anyone’s guess. The only pragmatic judge - THE ROOTS OF ment that would come into it would be the one the SNP appears to have taken already – that it will stick with sterling and UK mone - NEW LABOUR tary union until the dust settles. And who knows how long that Eric Shaw is impressed by a set of essays that might take? In his introduction to A Nation form a searching excavation of left -wing politics Again , Paul Henderson Scott over the last generation. makes clear that the book “is most definitely NOT about what pre - cisely would happen in an inde - he Politics of New Labour is, it ceptive observations and exhibits pendent Scotland, because nobody should be said, a somewhat an impressive capacity to weave knows”. He goes on: “That is the Tmisleading title. The book is patterns into a (generally) convinc - whole point. The people of rather a searching excavation of ing narrative. Scotland would at long last be left-wing politics over the last gen - The first two chapters explore empowered to decide what their eration or so, a compilation of the the reception in Britain of country was to be like and the author’s reflections on such phe - Gramsci’s thinking, whilst the next direction it was to take. At the nomena as Eurocommunism, femi - examines the application of such beginning there would be an open nism and Marxism Today as well as thinking (particularly in the skilful book.” The Politics of the Labour Party. It is more a set of hands of Stuart Hall) to dissecting But some of his fellow authors New Labour: thematically linked essays organ - “Thatcherism”. The fourth chap - can’t wait. They are already scrib - A Gramscian ised around the motifs of ideology, ter investigates what Pearmain sees bling on those blank pages. Analysis hegemony, power and representa - as the “abuses of Gramsci” in post - Stephen Maxwell wants to eschew Andrew Pearmain tion than a coherent, integrated modernism and cultural studies, neo-liberalism and embrace social (Lawrence and study. It is very well written, often whilst the two that follow chroni - democracy. Harry Reid seems to Wishart, 2011) eloquent, packed with sharp, per - cle the impact of the magazine

PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 21 BOOK REVIEWS

Marxism Today on left-wing think - The problem and sectional industrial militancy. tled “What New Labour left out” ing. The final four chapters chart is that many The 1980s, he argues, affords a which could as well been called in greater historical detail the ideo - series of object lessons in strategic “Leaving New Labour out” since it logical roots of New Labour. on the left miscalculations and self-defeating examines how Gramsci could help The book’s central thesis is that were locked actions stretching from the initial us explain a range of phenomena, Gramsci’s key concepts, such as into the failure to grasp the significance of including the financial crash, hegemony and historical bloc, con - Thatcherism to the “militant syn - Thatcherism and the SDP as well sent and transformism, illuminate myth-making dicalism of the miners’ strike”, as the development of Labour both the rise and character of New narratives of “the crass posturing“ of left policy in the 1980s, but with just a Labour and its placement in the “heroic Labour councils and the “exclusive couple of (it has to be said) quite historical experience of the labour separatism” that dogged much inconsequential pages devoted to movement. But it has subsidiary struggle”. black, gay and feminist politics. New Labour. themes and questions, notably the The Gramscian approach is a role played by thinkers associated MORE POTENT FACTORS valuable corrective to the lop- with Marxism Today , the votaries, But if his view of conventional left sided, overly structural and institu - one might say, of Gramsci, in politics is often coruscating, his tional accounts of the crisis of Labour’s programmatic trajectory evaluation of the impact of social democracy found in much of and in the intellectual formation of Marxism Today on left politics is the academic literature. But it New Labour. decidedly a mixed one. The maga - remains the case that the diffusion zine’s “signature tunes”, the decline of neo-liberal and authoritarian PATH-BREAKING ANALYSIS of the left and the hegemony of ideas and value constellations The Politics of New Labour Thatcherism, were, he maintains, a occurred within, and were rein - explores what it sees as Marxism sound application of Gramscian forced by, long-term structural Today ’s three major contributions concepts, but had the effect of changes, notably the fragmenta - to debates on the left: Eric demoralising the left, hence creat - tion and shrinkage of the working Hobsbawm’s seminal essay “The ing “a political moral and emotion - class, the spread of global forces Forward March of Labour al vacuum which New Labour … (notably financial markets and Halted”, Stuart Hall’s elucidation was ready and willing to fill.” multi-national corporations), of “The Great Moving Right Indeed Pearmain contends that deregulation and the weakening of Show” – both in the late 1970s – Marxism Today ’s “New Times” the nation sate. All these trends, and the analysis of post-Fordism thesis was “at least a contributory Pearmain agrees, posed serious (New Times) a decade later. factor” to the triumph of New challenges to the Labour Party, but Pearmain demonstrates how the Labour, serving as “a crucial step - he doesn’t sufficiently acknowl - sheer sweep, depth and analytical ping stone between ‘Old’ and edge the genuine dilemmas created acuteness of these three contribu - ‘New’ Labour”, and hence con - for its leaders. It would have been tions set the parameters of thought tributing to “a decisive shift from a a brave, determined and supreme - on the left over two decades. Quite recognisably socialist variety of ly self-confident leader who, in the rightly he is particularly impressed Labourism … to a newer form midst of a period of sustained eco - by Hall’s brilliant and path-break - which has adjusted to the funda - nomic growth, was prepared to ing analysis of Thatcherism in mental social, cultural and econom - confront the power of the financial which he utilises Gramscian con - ic shifts wrought by Thatcherism.” market and defy the domestic cepts in an imaginative way to lay This seems to overstate the influ - political, media and economic bare the “… authoritarian pop - ence of Marxism Today , for which establishments. Equally there is ulism that underpinned its mass only modest evidence is furnished. insufficient recognition of the appeal. Thatcherism, Hall under - There were other, more potent fac - relentless pressure to which stood sooner, more completely tors that propelled the party to the Labour ministers were subjected in and more subtly than most, was right, not least the shock effects of a 24/7 media environment, often forming a new, hegemonic ideo - four successive election defeats, cul - lending a reactive, ad hoc and, logical dispensation and a new minating in the unexpected 1992 indeed, ill-thought-out quality to popular idiom”, which was debacle, whose devastating effects policy decisions. Contingency and reworking in a fundamental way on Labour’s self-confidence were the pressure of events play a larger the political terrain inhabited by almost palpable. role in politics that this account all political formations. We are left with the central suggests. The problem, for Pearmain, is question posed by the book: to that many on the left failed to what extent does Gramscian analy - CONFLICTING AIMS grasp the insights afforded by sis help us understand New Nor does the book present a bal - Gramscian thinking, and were Labour? The question is most anced portrait of New Labour. locked into the myth-making nar - directly addressed in chapters 10 There is, for a start, a tendency to ratives of “heroic struggle”, with and 11, but the answer is oddly overstate the internal consistency its grand-standing, gesture politics tangential. There is a chapter enti - of New Labour, to exaggerate the

22 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 extent to which it constituted a The outcome rather overstated with all the nec - Function set by whom? What are coherent project and, correspond - is a lop-sided essary caveats and qualifications the forces or factors that define ingly, to overlook its internal ten - stripped away and evidence which Labour’s “function” and what is sions and conflicting aims and image of does not fit a pre-set mould simply the causal process through which aspirations. The book concedes New Labour, ignored. The outcome is a lop- they manifest themselves and have that New Labour’s “transformist” neglecting all sided image of New Labour, their ostensible effects? adaptation was incomplete – for neglecting all those policies – However, these are relatively example it poured generous new those notably the massive increase in minor blemishes that do not resources into the NHS – but this policies spending on healthcare and educa - impair the overall quality of this is explained (or explained away) in which had a tion, expansion of social transfers book. It offers a closely reasoned, terms of its continued reliance on and multiple attempts to combat frequently illuminating study writ - its “core” votes. Otherwise New progressive, poverty and social exclusion – ten with verve, insight and impres - Labour is subsumed into the politi - indeed a which had a progressive, indeed a sive fluency, a deft and thoughtful cal and intellectual hegemony of social social democratic bent. account of the intellectual roots of neo-liberalism. New Labour in Part of the problem here is the New Labour. office “could properly and sugges - democratic book’s tendency to resort to func - tively by described as ‘soft right’”, bent. tionalist analysis. Thus we are told I Eric Shaw is a senior lecturer in indeed constituting “a kind of that New Labour’s function was politics at the University of Stirling. proxy hegemony, keeping that of “humbly consolidating He is a long-standing member of Thatcherism’s flame while more Thatcherism’s epochal shift and its the Labour Party and has published conventional Conservative forces newly configured historical bloc of many books and articles on the regroup and refocus.” This is all social and political forces.” party’s history and policy.

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PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 23 GOD APPEARS BEFORE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS SELECT COMMITTEE

The House of Commons enquiry into phone hacking rather over-shadowed another important select committee investigation. Fortunately for us, Tim Haigh was there to record this less publicised exchange.

od is well known as the publisher of The Bible, Meetings There is a pause which lasts for aeons. God appears and his media empire extends throughout the between Her to be trying to remember. Or he may have fallen Gworld to include the The Book of Mormon, the asleep with his eyes open. His son attempts to answer Guru Granth Sahib, the Upanishads, and Channel Five. Majesty’s for him. His newsletters have frequently claimed the credit for Government the success of various religions – who can forget the and God Jesus of Nazareth: If I can help here … trumpeting headline following the ascendancy of the Mr Dawkins: Thank you, Mr Of Nazareth, we will Christian Church: “It Was The New Testament Wot have largely be coming to you in due course. I’d like Mr God Won It!” Although originally Heavenly, God became been to answer this one. an American citizen in order to be able to own Billy conducted Graham, and he soon had an extensive stable of The Almighty stares through Dawkins as if he didn’t television evangelists. Such was the influence of God very much on exist, an irony which is not lost on him. A colleague and his numinous agencies that meetings between Her His terms. takes up the cudgels. Majesty’s Government and God have largely been conducted very much on His terms. Generations of Mr AC Grayling MP: Mr God, this confessional political leaders have trod a well-worn path to a certain thing; that’s supposed to be confidential, right? antipodean burning bush, and Tony Blair’s visit to Jesus: That’s right. You see … Mount Sinai is now the stuff of record, although he has Mr Grayling: Mr Of Nazareth! Please let your refused to disclose the full text of their conversations. It father answer his own questions. Now, Mr is widely supposed that he suppressed the original Ten God, isn’t it true that the confessional is a little Commandments (where, for instance, is the obvious less private than we thought? In fact, there is “Thou shalt not cite imaginary WMDs as a pretext for always an employee of the church listening in, invading middle-eastern countries, and especially when isn’t there? you don’t have any kind of an exit strategy and what Jesus: That’s only the Catholics. makes you think a drooling muppet like President Bush Mr Grayling: Mr Of Nazareth! Again. Please let your would have thought it through”?). There is a strong father answer for himself. suspicion that the Ten Commandments was in fact little more than a garbled version of ethical precepts already Proceedings are suddenly interrupted. A comedian circulating on the internet, and that Mr Blair merely appears and flings a logical argument at God. God sexed up a couple of tablets of stone which happened moves in a mysterious way, although the flame-haired to be lying around. Virgin Mary, who is sitting at His left hand, leaps That was then. This is now. The credibility of upon the comedian and rends him limb from limb in God’s publications is called into question and, an orgy of violence. sensationally, God agrees to appear, not to say, manifest in front of a Commons select committee. A journalist broadcasts the news: Well, that was shocking. Thank … Him … that we got it on Rt Hon Richard Dawkins MP, Chairman of the camera. In the end it was harmless, since God is Committee: Mr God, there is an amazing impervious to logic or reason, but you have to amount of smiting in Your name. Can you tell wonder about House of Commons security. me exactly what you knew of this and when you That could so easily have been a handful of knew it? Higgs bosons.

24 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 When the dust has settled, the questioning prosperity – you know it is the best-selling recommences. religious tract in history? So it is with enormous regret that I sacrifice it. After two Ms Diane Abbott MP: Tell me, Mr God, what was and a half thousand years I am closing The the point of creating Lord Voldemort? Bible down. It will no longer be the revelation God : (Looking as puzzled as Ms Abbott’s victims of record. usually do) That wasn’t Me. Look, if I could just Mr Bertrand Russell MP: That’s a bolt from the blue. make a statement … Jesus of Nazareth: Although we will now be Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury: publishing a completely new and unrelated (Clapping his hands) I would be so grateful if scripture using the same clerics and many of the you did. same ideas and principles. It will be called The God: I am personally extremely distressed by recent Koran on Sunday. events. I may be omniscient but I can’t be Mr Bertrand Russell MP: Yes, Mr Of Nazareth. I expected to know everything. I was personally thought it might. involved in the days of Tyndale and King James, but I have recently learned that the I Amongst other things, Tim Haigh hosts an current editors of the Revised Standard Version occasional series of podcast interviews, and the most have resorted to gutter religion and illegal recent one is with Chris Mullin about the final volume phone tapping. As you know The Bible is very of his diaries. Tim’s interview can be heard at close to my heart. It is the bedrock of my www.timhaighreadsbooks.com PERSPECTIVES BOOK OFFER The era of devolution as we have known it is over. Radical Scotland challenges conventional wisdoms, and poses solutions which encourage us to become more active agents of our own destiny.

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PERSPECTIVES 31 / WINTER 2011-12 / 25 DIARY Jenny Marra MSP dons The Hat , and observes that big implications. We questions, like live in a globalised independence for world; one where interdependence both Scotland, deserve big economically and answers. politically is entrenched. As part of the UK we are established in this world order. As Brits we are hat makes us British? And Travelling people all over the world who risk strong and powerful, and as Scots what defines us as with the their lives to come to Europe and we have a real opportunity to WScottish? Personally, I the UK to get a British passport magnify our position as part of have always felt more Scottish insurance of and enjoy the benefits of one of Britain on the world stage. than British, and I think I have a British the most civilised countries in the this in common with most Scots. passport and world, frankly, would think we UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY From a family of Irish immigrants are mad. It is not just the economy that is who came to Scotland to find the cultural How many Scots, tomorrow, becoming more and more work, eventually in the jute mills kudos of would surrender their British interconnected. The rise of of Dundee, we embraced being passport? The reach and clout of political institutions such as the Scotland. A mix of Irish heritage, the UK’s embassies to protect its EU, the UN and NATO have all a love of Scotland and a feeling of Scottish is a citizens abroad would be led to degradation, not security in the UK, were a mix that I extremely difficult for a country reaffirmation of the importance of combination of identities that have always of three million taxpayers to borders. As part of the UK never seemed contradictory and recreate. Travelling with the political system, Scots have a managed to blend: the same found very insurance of a British passport and unique opportunity to shape process as immigrant families the useful. the cultural kudos of being world events through our place on world over who respect and have Scottish is a mix that I have always the UN Security Council, our affection for where they came found very useful. significant trade within the EU from, and appreciate the and Eurozone, and our opportunities of their new home. AFFECTION ABROAD contribution to NATO. Although So, for a girl who won a Scotland enjoys an unsurpassed we can debate the actions these Scottish Cup for Burns recitation, amount of affection abroad, in institutions take, as part of the UK climbs Munros, listens to Take the Europe, and beyond. This we have a real opportunity to Floor, makes Cullen Skink for tea, stretches from the pioneers we shape the way we interact with loves Stripping the Willow, lists have exported – Macquarie in them. favourite bands as Teenage Sydney, the Scottish founders of Scotland, apart from the UK, Fanclub, expounds the virtues of Ivy League universities in the and without direct involvement in Scotland abroad, and can’t stand USA, our scientific inventions of these institutions, would risk Tory governments, why not be a the Enlightenment, the statue of becoming a casualty of decision- nationalist? Burns in Central Park in New making that does not account for York, the Singing of Auld Lang our interests. By joining these STUPIDLY AND IDEALLY LUCKY Syne the world over, our immense institutions, Scotland will be Scotland has the best of both contribution to pop music. All losing independence, not worlds. In fact, we are stupidly since 1707, we have continued to gaining it. and ideally lucky to be in the define our special and respected situation we’re in. When we’re place in the world as part of the THE SUMS DON’T ADD UP looking out we have the security UK, sharing the economic risks, In a debate on independence at of the UK, when we’re looking in and benefiting undoubtedly from Abertay University recently I we have the power to determine the shared economic argued that separation would take our own affairs, shape our opportunities. time, money and resources that direction and enjoy the unique When we talk about we could ill afford while needing identity we have in the world. independence we must discuss it to tackle child poverty, fuel Are we really going to vote to within its proper context, and poverty and unemployment in pass this up? The millions of take into account all of its Scotland. The SNP argued that

26 / WINTER 2011-12 / PERSPECTIVES 31 Scotland faced these problems after 300 years of Union. But this is the nub of the SNP’s problem. If an independent Scotland could create full employment, eradicate child poverty, have a fair energy policy and create a world-beating education system, I would vote for it tomorrow. But none of this is clear and the sums don’t add up. There are big unanswered questions that they don’t seem to be able to answer, or even agree on.

BIG ANSWERS NEEDED The SNP argued at Abertay that they had a personal vision of independence. That’s all good and well, but given the momentous question they will ask the Scottish people in the referendum, they need to come up with some of the big answers very soon. We could be faced in two years’ time with a tipping point in our history – a vote for independence. But still we do not know what currency we would have, how we would pay for embassies all over the world, an army, navy, Scottish air force, how Schengen would work – free movement apart from Hadrian’s Wall? Would we have the BBC? Would we have to hand in our British passport? An elected head of state with all the expenses that brings too? And, how do we fund all this? In private moments, many people say to me, please pick yourselves up quickly after that election, because although I voted for Alex Salmond to be First Minister, I do not want to live in an independent Scotland in five years’ time. Visit Democratic Left Scotland’s In the end, the students at Abertay voted by 73% for website for news, views, events Scotland to stay in the UK. It’s our job to make the case to the rest of the country. listings, articles, blogs and

I Jenny Marra is a regional MSP downloads from Perspectives . for North East Scotland and a member of the Education and Culture Committee and also the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and www.democraticleftscotland.org.uk Environment Committee in the Scottish Parliament.

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