(PDF) Beyond the Crimson Tide

SCOTTISH LEFT REVIEW Issue 136 • October-November 2023 • £3.00 • scottishleftreview.scot WHAT STARMER MEANS FOR SOCIALISM • POST-POPULISM PALESTINE ACTION IN SCOTLAND • TWO VIEWS ON THE UKRAINE WAR CLASS AND THE CRISIS 1 CONTENTS STARMER AND SCOTLAND CONFRONTING WAR Editorial Huda Ammori Against Faint-Heartedness pg. 3 Stopping Scotland’s War Machines pg. 16 Lauren Harper Bill Bonnar Fighting Back Against the Starmer Project pg. 4 The Unwinnable War pg. 19 Fanny Wright Colin Turbett Labour’s Evangelical Moment pg. 5 Ukraine’s Popular Resistance pg. 20 Bob Thomson and Stephen Smellie Jen Stout Labour’s March for Power Alone pg. 6 Unexploded Ordnance pg. 21 CLASS AND THE CRISIS CULTURE AND REVIEWS Roz Foyer Ali Zaidi Real Change, not Spare Change pg. 8 Beyond the Crimson Tide pg. 22 Francis Stuart Coll McCail A Course Through This Crisis pg. 9 From the Ashes of Left Populism pg. 24 Arianna Introna David Green Welfare Struggles as Class Struggle pg. 10 Strategic Alliances pg. 25 Alan McIntosh Vladimir McTavish More Advice to Tackle Poverty pg. 11 Kick Up the Tabloids pg. 26 Diarmuid McDonnell, Xihua Chen, Hazel Marshall and João Rafael Cunha Solidarity of a Lifetime pg. 27 Collaboration or Collapse pg. 12 Neil Gray Emma Brown Reigniting Radical Culture pg. 28 We Don’t Want Paper Straws pg. 14 CONTRIBUTORS AND CREDITS Contributors Credits Huda Ammori is a co-founder of the Diarmuid McDonnell is a Lecturer in Editor: Cailean Gallagher direct action network, Palestine Action, Social Sciences at the University of the and has conducted extensive research West of Scotland. Subeditor: John Wood and campaigns targeting British complicity with Israeli apartheid. Alan McIntosh is an Approved Design: Mitchell F Gillies Money Adviser and blogs at Bill Bonnar is the International www.advicescotland.com. Cover art: Jennie Bates Secretary of the Scottish Socialist Party. instagram.com/jenniebates Vladimir McTavish is a BAFTA- Emma Brown is a former librarian and nominated stand-up comedian and The Scottish Left Review is a bi-monthly an activist with This Is Rigged. satirist. magazine that provides a place for thought and discussion for those on Xihui Haviour Chen is an Assistant Stephen Smellie is a UNISON NEC the Left. Professor in Accountancy at Edinburgh member and co-convenor of the Climate Business School, Heriot-Watt University. Justice Coalition Trade Union Caucus. Editorial Committee: Pat Kelly (Convenor) João Rafael Cunha is a Lecturer in Jen Stout is a correspondent, writer Stephen Smellie (Vice-Convenor) Finance at the University of St Andrews. and radio producer from Shetland. Bob Thomson She left Russia at the outbreak of the Maggie Chapman Roz Foyer is General Secretary of the invasion and moved to Romania and Lilian Macer Scottish Trades Union Congress. then Ukraine. Her book of stories from Dave Sherry Ukraine, Night Train to Odesa, will be Dexter Govan Neil Gray wrote regularly for Variant published by Polygon in Spring 2024. Bill Bonnar (2006-2012) and was latterly part of the Bill Ramsay formal editorial group from 2011-2012. Francis Stuart is a Senior Policy Officer Gordon Morgan at the Scottish Trades Union Congress. Dr David Green is a social science scottishleftreview.scot/subscribe lecturer at City of Glasgow College and a Bob Thomson is a board member of the

member of Socialists for Independence. Jimmy Reid Foundation and a former Chair of the Scottish Labour Party. Printed by Hampden Advertising Lauren Harper is a member of the on Hillington Road, Glasgow Scottish Executive Committee of the Colin Turbett is a lifelong trade Labour Party, and a branch secretary of unionist and socialist who spent 40 Unite Hospitality. years as a social worker in the West of Scotland. He writes about social work Arianna Introna is a disabled matters and 20th century social history. researcher, activist, and Associate Lecturer with the Open University Fanny Wright is a writer and historian (Scotland). based in Dundee. She occasionally writes for Heckle, the magazine of the Hazel Marshall is secretary of East Republican Socialist Platform. Kilbride and South Lanarkshire Trades Union Council Ali Zaidi is the Director of Publications at the Transformative Studies Institute. Coll McCail is a Glasgow University He was the Vice-President of the student. He writes for Progressive Southeast European Studies Association International and represents young (2009-2013). members on the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party. 2 EDITORIAL: AGAINST FAINT-HEARTEDNESS Since Keir Starmer was elected in April 2020 at the low-point of the leaders who make the laws. In this same spirit, different move- Covid recession, he has spawned a Labour culture that feeds on ments of resistance in Scotland are uniting and aligning. Emma economic stagnancy. ‘This is clause four – on steroids’, he said, Brown explains why climate activists who stopped the oil flowing two months before he shared a stage with Tony Blair this summer. out of Grangemouth six times and brought the Cycling Champion- The wages of the working class have shrunk, and any hope that ships’ wheels to a halt between Falkirk and Fintry are now turning Labour will introduce policies to redistribute wealth has evapo- their energy to challenging the cost of living crisis. They are taking rated too. Sixty years ago, in his study of the Labour Party, Ralph up James Connolly’s old rejoinder to the faint-hearted politicians: Miliband identified the old and peculiarly sticky idea that social- our demands are moderate, for we only want the earth. ism can (only) be advanced in Britain through the Parliamentary Alongside solidarity and direct action, education is another Labour Party winning Westminster. The lumbering figure of par- source of hope, with the potential to generate common class un- liamentary socialism sometimes takes on a lovable form, when derstanding for a new generation. Continuing a theme of political there is a decent honey-pot for taxing and investing on a massive education that we have fostered in recent issues, STUC General scale. But now, once again, that friendly old bear called parlia- Secretary Roz Foyer writes about STUC’s priorities to turn class- mentary socialism is back in hibernation. based campaigns into a sustained movement for change. Francis It doesn’t take a Marxist to observe that economic contexts Stuart explores how people have used the STUC’s Cost of Living tend to determine political prospects. We shouldn’t be beating course to learn about the history of class consciousness, and to our heads against the wall, saying if only we did things different- share stories of workers and communities struggling as one. ly we could get hold of the honey-pot. As Coll McCail explains in These stories do not stop at the border. People’s struggles in this issue, the European wave of anti-austerity anger that brought other nations are connected with the work that is done in Scot- Corbyn and other left leaders closer than ever to power failed to land. Palestine Action, a campaign group that includes people generate a durable belief in the possibility of economic transfor- from many different movements in its ranks, has recently been tar- mation. The Labour left will continue urging Starmer towards the geting sites in Scotland which produce military equipment that is democratic socialist policies spelled out by Stephen Smellie and used against the Palestinian people. Huda Ammori, its co-found- Bob Thomson. But in the undertones of its rightward shift, former er, describes the way that communities around the factories re- Labour member Fanny Wright detects an echo of the anti-red, an- sponded to their actions. Folk understand that sending bombs ti-welfare, family-first evangelising of the US right that shaped a and bullets from Scotland to Israel cannot be right, however many generation of reactionary politics. local jobs are created. Starmer’s offer of nothing but a better-managed version of Other conflicts have resulted in more divergent views across the current state will have deadly consequences. Labour’s social the left and across society. In this issue, we broach the debate security policies like keeping the two-child benefit cap are sym- about the war in Ukraine. Bill Bonnar presents the case for a peace bolically and materially dire. They mean that whatever party gov- settlement as soon as possible, to prevent an unwinnable war erns at Westminster, the welfare state will provide some meagre from resulting in more and more horrendous consequences. Colin support with one hand, while the other pinches back every coin it Turbett argues that solidarity with the people of Ukraine should can and pares back every layer of support. As ever, it is tempting be the paramount priority, and that our attitude should be shaped to suppose that Scotland might be insulated by more social-mind- by the testimony of Ukrainian people and the reports of witnesses ed institutions, but the administrative systems that can mitigate like Jen Stout, whose battle-field photography we also publish. Westminster policies are dependent on money, not good will. Alan Despite its disagreements, the Scottish Left shares a common McIntosh describes how cuts to financial advice services will un- language of solidarity, and a common cause with people across the dermine any poverty-focused policies of the Scottish Government, world in their struggles for freedom. The poetry of the Pakistani while Xihui Chen, Diarmuid McDonnel and João Rafael Cunha socialist Faiz Ali Faiz expressing his love and action for a long-suf- show how charities are now so co-dependent with local authori- fering land, is honoured by Ali Shehzad Zaidi, who writes of Faiz’s ties that cutting either would be catastrophic. The austerity of the connections with the Borders bard Howard Purdie. This living early 2010s generated a widespread belief, however superficial, stream is never stagnant. It keeps flowing here and everywhere that Scotland could go a different way. This decade, economic through boldness in action, and sharpness of critique. Recently, hardship has stirred no mass conviction that we have a special two people died who throughout their lives had stood against route out. It has induced the same sense across the UK that we faint-heartedness in thought and action. John Keenan, stalwart of must all drift through the same doldrums, basically alone. East Kilbride and South Lanarkshire Trades Union Council, was Yet the left acts in the knowledge that the individual’s strug- one of the stars of Nae Pasaran whose courage stopped weap- gle for the means of life is part of a class struggle that depends ons reaching Pinochet in Chile. Leigh French, editor of Variant, on building solidarity across workplaces and communities. In the poured his creative life into political critique that bequeathed a face of hostile and punitive reforms by the DWP, Arianna Introna radical culture to a new generation. The issue ends with tributes calls for a revival of worker and welfare-claimant solidarity. Lau- to them both. ren Harper takes heart from the boldness of those in the labour movement historically, including those in the Labour Party, who have stood in solidarity with others who lack work, or lack a home, or lack a country, even as they are marginalised and villainised by 3 STOPPING THE STEAMROLLER Changing the direction of the Starmer project depends on the combined pressure of many campaigns, writes Lauren Harper. Every other week, ‘Labour Twitter’ is ablaze with people lamenting the right-wing press and thrown one of the most-attacked minority Keir Starmer's latest U-turn. Recently it transpired that his shadow groups under the campaign bus. ministers took £10,000 in gifts from Google and Youtube soon be- As socialists and trade unionists it is imperative that our move- fore the party U-turned against increasing the Digital Services Tax by ment builds solidarity amongst minoritised groups in order to force 10%. The irony of Starmer’s leadership slogan ‘integrity, authority, the party leadership back to left-wing progressive policies. Trans soli- unity’ cannot be overstated. darity is one example. In Glasgow, groups of people funded by Amer- But he has still to U-turn in the right direction. A hard line on the ican anti-choice organisations have been standing outside abortion two-child benefit cap led many people to believe that Starmer has clinics in order to intimidate women accessing reproductive care. taken to the idea of starving children. During his visit to Blantyre’s Trans women have been some of the most vocal and active against David Livingston Centre to promote Labour in the Rutherglen and these groups. There are parallels between the campaign to remove Hamilton West by-election, he made a half-hearted capitulation to abortion access and the campaign of bigotry against trans rights. critics of the hardline policy. Yet he is still maintaining that it is too Trans women are putting themselves in dangerous situations to fight expensive to reverse the policy. for cis-women’s rights to abortion. You would struggle to find a socialist who doesn't think the two Within Labour there are diverging opinions on trans issues. For- child cap is repugnant. Removing it would lift 250,000 children out tunately, within trade unions, solidarity with trans rights is strong. of poverty almost overnight, and significantly improve the circum- At Unite’s policy conference I was part of an effort co-ordinated by stances of some 850,000 children. It disproportionately affects chil- young members and the LGBT caucus to go against the Executive dren from minority ethnic backgrounds and children in single-parent Council and speak against a motion that was designed to be a Trojan households. Which perhaps makes it rather fitting that the Labour horse against the multitude of equalities motions passed only the day Party chose to hold the event in a centre dedicated to a renowned before. colonialist rather than, say, the still-thriving miners' club. Migrant solidarity is another example where solidarity shows the The two child cap fuels the misogynistic dogma that women who power of the progressive left. In Erskine, trade unionists have been claim welfare are actually lazy sluts who would rather pop out babies out in force demonstrating against fascist groups who have been vo- to claim more money in order to pay for their nails and iPhones on cal about their displeasure that refugees are being housed in a hotel the state's money. Yet the policy is incredibly popular amongst the in the area. One of the protests that unions demonstrated against has sections of the public that Labour is targeting, so Labour has taken been linked to the banned group Patriotic Alternative. The opposi- to the idea. tion to fascists has been so strong that the fascist groups have been What should the left do when Labour adopts policies that track routinely outnumbered by anti-racist groups, and on some occasions principles and prejudices of sections of the public that are opposed have simply not shown up at all. by many socialists? Fortunately the party’s history provides exam- Meanwhile, at the top of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer wishes, ples of struggle that can set a precedent for socialists today. once again, to steamroll over Scottish democracy, to overrule the Scot- In 1985, Labour Conference in Bournemouth passed a resolution tish leadership on trans rights, and to continue housing migrants on committing the party to gay rights. At the height of AIDS panic, the barges as a form of temporary accommodation. Given Labour’s bleak topic of equal rights for gay communities was deeply unpopular with- positions despite the solidarity from below, you would be entirely for- in the country. But this was the Labour Party at its best, with leaders given for asking: what exactly is the point of the party? In previous who stood in the face of criticism and said that what was happening years, socialists in Labour could point to the better prospects under was wrong, and that the dominant cultural norms are wrong. As a a Labour government. Even under our most right-wing leaders work- political party we are at our best when we do this. ers’ rights were strengthened, and it was easier for trade unions to So what is the key difference between the party of the 80s that organise in the workplace and society. In truth, we can’t sincerely say struggled for gay rights and the party today that adopts policies in that anymore. You know times are bad for socialists in Labour when line with the dominant culture norms? There are many answers, but you find yourself in a situation in which you start your points "well at one is clear: solidarity. The 1985 resolution was only passed due to least Blair…". Starmer stands for nothing, blowing whichever way the block support from the National Union of Miners, which later became wind takes him that week. one of the most outspoken critics of Section 28 in the fight against Soin our resistance to the Starmer regime we must be organised. it in 1988. This stance followed the solidarity offered to the miners’ The left needs to be united in resistance to the leadership. Starm- strike by Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, a group who raised er’s unease about the two child cap has shown he is not static, and over £20,000 to support miners and their families in Neath, Dulais with enough pressure the wider socialist movement can still change and the Swansea Valleys. the direction of the party. From the gay rights struggle in the 80s to Today, Labour likes to virtue-signal about how it is the party our presence as Erskine and at abortion clinics, and our campaign of gay rights. But the principles that led the party to take its stance against the two child cap, it is through solidarity that we fight back in 1985 have been almost entirely forgotten in recent years. In the against the Starmer project. struggle for trans rights we have succumbed to the culture wars of 4 STARMER THE EVANGELIST Keir Starmer’s Labour is becoming a vehicle for the right-wing politics of US evangelicalism, writes Fanny Wright. Addressing the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983, Ronald er came to power. After a ruthless multi-year campaign against Jer- Reagan endorsed the push by the anti-abortion movement to require emy Corbyn by the British establishment (replete with some of the parental notification for abortions procured by those under the age of most comical examples of modern anti-communism), Starmer posi- eighteen by asking: “Isn’t it the parents’ right to give counsel and ad- tioned himself as a sensible alternative to the paper-hawking Sovi- vice to keep their children from making mistakes that may affect their et who came before. Brooking no welfarism in his shadow cabinet, entire lives?” Addressing Mumsnet in 2023, Keir Starmer said: “I feel Starmer reneged on a veritable cornucopia of promises to improve very strongly that children shouldn’t be making these very important Britain’s welfare system, firmly shutting the door on the possibility decisions without consent of their parents. I say that as a matter of of a Labour government lifting working-class people out of poverty. principle. I say that as a parent.” On this, as on every major social issue on which the left comes into These parallels tell a fascinating story about the state of the direct conflict with the US evangelical movement, Keir Starmer has Labour Party and its rightward turn. Four years before Reagan’s ad- conceded without complaint. dress, the US was deep in the doldrums of the Carter presidency. The For the left, full-throated opposition to evangelical influence is humiliation of the Vietnam War and the temporary enshrining of non-negotiable. Evangelicalism’s dismantling of the last vestiges of abortion rights in US law by Roe vs. Wade were not so much specks an American welfare state and its attempted re-subjugation of wom- in the country’s rear view mirror, as mushroom clouds threatening to en and queer people are two sides of the same coin. To any sensible engulf the horizon. It was then that televangelist Jerry Falwell (and person, it would appear impossible to spend only one side of the coin his deep-pocketed financial backers) established Moral Majority, an while retaining the other. organisation dedicated to campaigning against the joint evils of com- Yet Keir Starmer is not sensible – if there is one word to define munism and social liberation, and for evangelical supremacy. his leadership of the Labour Party, it must be “insensible”. We will Through capture of mass media and other levers of the culture afford him the grace of assuming that his insensibility is that of a man industry, the organisation worked to conflate anticommunism with asleep at the wheel rather than a man who just doesn’t care that he’s evangelical social mores. By tethering anticommunism to Christian hit someone with his car. But just as a court looks no more fondly on conservatism, the evangelical movement leveraged liberals’ con- recklessness than outright intent, thus we must judge Sir Keir Starm- suming hatred of communism against their lacklustre commitment er KC’s overtures to the evangelical right through his opposition to to social progress. It was thanks to Moral Majority and the collapse abortion rights, his support of anti-gay evangelical churches and his of a robust liberal opposition that Reagan was swept into the White U-turns on trans rights. House, a debt he worked tirelessly to repay. A Labour movement which refuses to reckon with the influence The influence of the evangelical movement on Reagan’s regime of the US evangelical movement on global politics is doomed to fail- was never clearer than in his 1983 address. Now known as the “Evil ure. In a part of these isles that Keir Starmer is no doubt incapable of Empire” speech for its extensive diatribe against the Soviet Union, identifying on a map, an ostensibly-progressive mass party narrow- it began with a survey of the ills done upon God-fearing Americans ly avoided inaugurating the gruesomely right wing evangelical Kate by abortion and opposition to prayer in schools, and ended with the Forbes as its leader. Begrudgingly, we must congratulate the SNP for proclamation of a holy crusade against communism. To the evangel- doing what Labour has thus far proved itself unwilling to do. ical movement, no difference exists between the movement for abor- It is deeply troubling if Keir Starmer does not care whether he tion rights and the communist state; each erodes the fundamental has hit someone with the political car that is the right-wing evan- morality of mankind. These were the domestic politics of the Reagan gelical movement. It is even more troubling if he is simply asleep at administration: the calculated malice of its response to the AIDS cri- the wheel and has become a powerful ally for the vicious right-wing sis went hand-in-glove with supermassive cuts to the welfare state. politics of US evangelicalism through his own unshakable apathy. Each gay man who breathed his last was as mighty a blow against the Starmer's inability to recognise and confront this enemy leaves the Evil Empire as every dollar looted from the social safety net. For eight whole labour movement exposed. This vulnerability will not go un- years, evangelical priorities sat at the fore of American policy, leaving noticed by powerful reactionary forces if he finds himself stepping an indelible mark on modern history. into Downing Street next year. Despite their accumulated power, evangelicals found them- selves unable to conjure a Reagan presidency at will. From the late 1980s, they made a strategic turn to soft power strongholds in the me- dia and corporate America, exporting evangelical politics to near al- lies like the United Kingdom, and cheerleading right wing successes in distant Russia. At home and abroad, evangelicals became some of the most important funders of right wing politics, bankrolling a series of crusades against queer liberation, in support for Israel and against Palestine, and against action on climate change. It is impossible to ignore the conditions under which Keir Starm- 5 A MARCH FOR POWER ALONE Labour’s current plan will lead them towards irrelevance and decline, write Bob Thomson and Stephen Smellie. Keir Starmer’s march towards 10 Downing Street, according to re- more than two kids? No change on the two-child rule. If they are cent opinion polls, seems to be going to plan. That is, if the plan waiting on a hospital procedure? No additional funding until the was not to upset business leaders by rolling back on workers’ economy improves. If they work in the gig economy? No new work- rights, not to upset financial markets by pledging any more for ers’ rights. Nor is Labour offering anything to younger voters, who benefits, public services and a Green Economy, and not to upset are less motivated to vote and turning increasingly to single-issue people attracted by the Tories’ pledge to stop immigration and causes and organisations. Stop the Boats. They are sticking to the plan to use the pre-elec- Labour relies on members enthusiastically delivering leaflets tion, don’t-rock-the-boat-for-party-unity-ticket to attack the left, and knocking doors to overcome the Daily Mail-driven barrage ensure ‘safe’ parliamentary candidates are selected, and concen- of lies and pro-Tory messaging. Many of these members have not trate power in the hands of the Leader and associates. The plan is been allowed to select the candidates they wanted, and in some going well to remove working-class MPs with a trade union back- cases have had popular sitting MPs and councillors barred from ground and replace them with career politicians. running for Labour. They have seen the popular, radical policies Labour should be fighting to win, not for its own sake, but to agreed year-after-year at conferences being ditched. Will they be implement change for the benefit of the majority of the popula- enthused to get onto the streets to knock doors? tion, the working class. That would require significant structur- If Starmer gets into Downing Street, he will be tied down by al changes to where power lies in the UK, as well as significant his own promises – to the market, to business, to the press – not to spending on public services and a green economy, funded through do anything that will cost any more money. Is getting him elected taxing the better off, the profits of big companies, and the wealth really worth getting up in the morning? of the rich. While the first job of Labour is to win, the second is to win for a During his leadership election Starmer promised to deliver purpose. A Labour government should empower working people, that kind of change. Now he has ditched all those policy pledges. in their workplace, communities and in the marketplace. It should Effectively he is saying that he will run capitalism more efficient- also try to stop the Tories getting elected next time. That means ly than the Tories. His strategy is to do nothing that could upset more worker and trade union rights, improved health and safety the press, and to wait for the Tories to implode and become un- legislation, and greater environmental and consumer rights. Rath- popular. The Tories have been keen to assist in that strategy, and er than rowing back on promises to invest in a green economy, Labour currently has a healthy lead in UK-wide opinion polls. We Labour should be campaigning to explain why it is needed. And will come to Scotland later. since all the good of a government can be undone when the Tories There are risks in such a strategy. The Tories can’t be relied win again, Labour needs to commit to proportional representation upon to keep making a mess. They could do something popular. (PR), as agreed at Labour’s conference. Analysis of general elec- Inflation is falling and Sunak will hope that he will get the credit, tion results for the last fifty years show that under PR, the Tories restoring his ratings. Neither can the press barons be relied on to would not have had a majority government to ignore the wishes give Labour a helping hand. They could easily turn against Starm- and interests of large numbers of voters. er and use a range of scare stories to harm Labour, as happened In Scotland, Anas Sarwar is not playing to a Tory-voting elec- to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband during their general election torate. He is competing with the SNP who remain committed to the campaigns. kind of social-democratic policies in Scotland that Starmer finds Getting people to vote Labour usually means more than just too radical for the southern or northern English electorates. He getting them not to vote Tory. Voters who voted Tory in the past has disagreed with some of Starmer’s policies, pledging to urge but think that Labour will do nothing for them might just stay a Starmer government to abolish the two-child rule. But Sarwar’s at home. What are they being promised if they are a family with strategy, similar to Starmer’s, has been to wait for the SNP to im- 6 plode, and they, similar to the Tories, have been willing to oblige. promises of reviews. Currently Labour is offering no change in the And yet Scottish Labour is still behind a weakened SNP in the constitutional relationship between the UK and Scotland. This is polls. This is not a reliable strategy. Humza Yousaf will no doubt a gift to the SNP. think of something popular. He will continue to highlight the dis- Voters need hope, and a party they can trust. Talk of a new astrous consequences of Tory policies, which might give his party party is fanciful: the general election will be next year, and the a boost in the polls. recent history of new parties is one of feuds and sectarianism. The In response, Scottish Labour needs a clear set of radical poli- PR system in the devolved nations makes things different, but at cies for achieving a Just Transition and green economy, investing a UK level, left parties face the overwhelming hurdle of the first- in health and care and public services generally, and devolving past-the-post electoral system. A political party needs vision and powers including employment law. Gordon Brown promised more passion, and Labour must find it or face irrelevance and decline. powers in the ‘Vow’ made during the 2014 Independence Referen- dum, when the establishment panicked that they could lose the vote. As Roz Foyer, General Secretary, STUC pointed out recent- ly, promised reforms on workers’ rights are not enough and they don’t stop the Tories reversing them in future. Scottish Labour should also demand PR at Westminster in order to break the cycle of Tory Governments imposing policies that were never supported in Scotland. They should be insisting that a Labour Government would entrench the powers of the Scottish Parliament on devolved matters so that Westminster cannot block them as has happened too often recently. On constitutional reform and decentralisation of decision-making from Westminster, it needs to offer more than Tenth Jimmy Reid Annual Lecture, 7pm Thursday 26 October 2023 The Foundation is delighted to announce that its 2023 annual lecture will be given by the First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf MSP, on Thursday, 26 October 2023. The lecture will be a physical event, staged in the Banqueting Hall at the City Chambers, George Square, Glasgow, at 7 pm. Humza Yousaf will deliver the lecture, followed by a Q&A session, with proceedings closing at 8.30 pm. “I have the great honour of representing Govan in our Scottish Parliament, the home of the iconic Jimmy Reid. The actions of Jimmy Reid stand as an enduring example of how trade unions empower people; of how they provide a voice for those who might otherwise go unheard. I look forward to discussing his legacy, and how his philosophy of human-centred economics inspires leaders towards purposeful economic growth now more than ever.” Humza Yousaf MSP Further details about the lecture and how to acquire tickets can be found at: https://reidfoundation.scot/2023/09/tenth-annual-jimmy-reid-lecture/ 7 CLASS AND REAL CHANGE, THE CRISIS NOT SPARE CHANGE Roz Foyer explains how the Scottish Trades Union Congress is countering the right with political education on the cost of living crisis. We live in an age of misinformation and fake news. With the majority of the media still owned by corporate interests and the right, the ability of trade unionists to win our political and eco- nomic case relies on our ability to counter the propaganda of the right and to have workplace conversations which arm our members and activists with the arguments they need. It also requires trade union leaders and reps to listen to workers and to build our understanding of the issues they face. Nowhere is this truer than in building our response to the current cost of living crisis. We know that the current economic crisis is a product of bad policy as well as of the deeply en- trenched inequalities of power and wealth which scar our so- ciety. We also know that there are alternatives to austerity, to wage depression and to the politics of fear. There is a growing collectivism among workers. Workers are leading strikes and engaging in broad-based working-class campaigns around the cost of living. A key priority for our movement is to translate these high levels of solidarity and ac- tivity into the growth of a sustainable and angry movement for change. At the height of the COVID pandemic, the STUC published its People’s Recovery manifesto. It stated: When trade unionists speak of recovery, we do not mean reverting to life in 2019. We mean recovering, for working class people, the income, wealth and sense of collective purpose stolen from them by decades of political bias to- wards the rich and powerful. What was true then is even truer now. The STUC’s Cost of Living political education course examines the history and causes of the cost of living crisis specifically and of our political economy more generally. It examines key global and local fac- tors as well as the arguments, strategies and tactics we need to collectively win the case for change. It is particularly useful for workers involved in current disputes and campaigns, but also looks at how as a movement we can broaden our reach and en- gage in joint community campaigns by building a shared anal- ysis and vision of the alternative. Their class is powerful and well-funded, but we have the advantage of numbers. When we are educated, agitated and or- ganised we are more powerful than they dare to imagine. This course, and future courses we hope to run, will help to further build that power and the movement we need to deliver change. 8 A COURSE THROUGH THIS CRISIS Francis Stuart introduces a radical education programme that uncovers why capitalism isn't working. In 2021 STUC Congress resolved to “bring forward a programme of and devolution. political education designed to win a deeper understanding of the The third module maps wealth and power in Scotland. We ex- case for the ‘People’s Recovery’ and work with affiliates to ensure plore how money flows in and out of our communities, look at who sharing of best practice across the Scottish Trade Union Movement.” holds wealth in Scotland (and how we can get our hands on it), and This, and further Congress resolutions in 2022, were recogni- learn how to influence decision-makers by developing model cam- tion that while there is a vast range of important education under- paigns on issues such as night buses in Glasgow, care homes in Ab- taken within and by the trade union movement, there is a lack of erdeen, and free school meals in Edinburgh. collective, political and economic education. This wasn’t always In conjunction with Unite, Glasgow Trades Council, South La- the case. Political education has always been integral to producing narkshire Trades Council, Glasgow Strike Solidarity, and Edinburgh generations of trade union activists and leaders. If we fail to plant Trade Unions in Communities, the course has now been delivered the seeds of political education, we fail to nourish and grow our to more than 100 people. Recognising the need to build the pool of movement. tutors in our movement we have also delivered tutor training and We are at a crossroads. The last eighteen months have seen a briefing sessions on the course materials. resurgence of trade union activity. In Scotland, workers have won The feedback has been tremendous. In the words of partici- more than £1.2 billion through taking or threatening to take strike pants, the course is an ‘eye opener’ that helps ‘explain why capital- action. Workers would not have received that money had they sim- ism isn’t working’. It ‘lays bare the ideological propaganda people ply accepted what bosses and governments first offered. But the are forced to believe around “there is no money”, and exposes the success of this strike wave won’t only be counted in the numbers system with concrete examples.’ It ‘underlines the situation we cur- of pounds won into people’s pockets. It will be counted in the num- rently face and provides possible solutions’, and ‘is exactly what bers of people who become politicised, develop their class con- we need as an introduction to political education and to political sciousness, and begin to organise within and across workplaces economy.’ It draws on examples from the Scottish economy that are and communities. That is why the STUC’s Organising Group has ‘educational and tangible’, while the module on what drives the begun a programme of political education starting with a course on cost of living crisis reveals ‘the logic of neo-liberal capitalism on the cost of living crisis. our day-to-day lives’. Meanwhile, ‘the people’s history photo exer- Rather than the traditional teacher/student model, the course cise showed possibilities achieved by working class solidarity’ and has been designed on the basis that everything we do, we do to- was a great way to exchanged ‘embodied stories of class struggle.’ gether. The course includes a mix of games, videos, photos, arte- The STUC has plans to develop more political education on top- facts, presentations, and case studies, all of which can be delivered ics such as a Just Transition as well as Race, Class and Imperialism. in-person or online, over the course of a day or in three separate But in the immediate term we want to roll the Cost of Living course modules. out as far and wide as possible. Because of the importance of polit- The first module covers the drivers of the cost of living crisis: ical education to our movement – we are offering the training up prices, pay and profits. We look at what has happened to prices for free. and wages over the last year, examine the difference in inflation in- dexes, and discuss the problems with the ruling class response of If you would like to have the course delivered in your branch, work- raising interest rates. We examine how social care companies, roll- place or community, or to volunteer to help tutor the course or simply ing-stock train companies and big energy companies are extracting find out more, contact Francis Stuart at

. profits through ever-more complicated financial engineering. Then we look at the language we use to fight back against this. The second module situates the cost of living crisis in historical context. We use a photo-wall exercise to look at significant political and economic events as well as workers’ disputes over the past sev- enty years. We hear from Stiofán Ó Nualláin of Trademark Belfast, the anti-sectarian arm of the Irish Trade Union Congress, on globali- sation, the banking crash and capitalist crises. We discuss the pros and cons of the post-war social democratic consensus, New Labour, 9 WELFARE STRUGGLES AS CLASS STRUGGLE Arianna Introna reports on the resistance to increased harassment of benefits claimants. In March 2023 The Glasgow Keelie reported an escalation in the gibility for out-of-work welfare support. While the DWP justifies harassment and threat of sanction-induced poverty faced by these changes as warranted by the ‘rise of flexible and home Universal Credit (UC) claimants in Glasgow. A new DWP pilot working and better employer support for disabled people and in 11 Glasgow jobcentres had been in operation since the 27th people with health conditions’. Disabled People Against Cuts of February 2023, forcing ‘thousands of Universal Credit claim- have denounced them as an outright attack on disabled people ants to compulsorily attend jobcentres 10 times over a 2-week and, specifically, out-of-work benefits for disabled people. period’.1 Because failure to attend jobcentre appointments con- In response to the rise in sanctions and conditionality im- stitutes ground for sanctions, the risk for UC claimants to have posed on UC claimants, claimants’ solidarity and mutual aid benefits stopped increased exponentially. The Keelie also re- is a fundamental tool of the class struggle that runs through ported how the PCS union condemned the pilot scheme, and the delivery and claiming of social welfare. Groups such as Ed- that claimants’ solidarity group Edinburgh Coalition Against inburgh Coalition Against Poverty gather information to pro- Poverty (ECAP) described the pilot as a punitive measure aimed vide people with practical ideas for avoiding and challenging at forcing people to accept poor wages and working conditions sanctions, for making sure that one’s claimant’s agreement is by making the claiming of Universal Credit more difficult. reasonable, and for being accompanied to any tricky appoint- ECAP’s analysis positions the current intensification in ments by a friend or advisor. conditionality and harassment of claimants within an anti-cap- This antagonistic framework of claimant solidarity action italist standpoint of class antagonism and struggle: any attack is captured by ECAP’s message ‘RESIST SANCTIONS! LET’S on people claiming Universal Credit, or disability benefits, is ACT TOGETHER AND MAKE SANCTIONS UNWORKABLE! Seek ultimately an attack on the whole of the working class. solidarity from us and others ... CARRY ON CLAIMING! Do not How this is the case is captured by the simultaneous attack be intimidated into giving up your claim’. It issues from an an- on in-work Universal Credit claimants and claimants of out-of- ti-capitalist perspective which reads poverty as no natural dis- work disability benefits. aster but an inevitable part of an economic system based on When the former are concerned, more claimants have been exploitation and profit. forced to attend jobcentre appointments by an increase of the Appreciating that welfare struggles belong at the core of Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET), which divides UC class struggle is the second step in developing forms of coali- claimants into a ‘Light Touch’ group and an ‘Intensive Work tion building and organising that connect claimants’ and work- Search’ group based on earnings and working hours. This in- ers’ struggles. The first step is challenging working class hostil- crease has meant that more claimants have been moved into the ity to claimants of UC or out-of-work benefits, and recognising ‘Intensive Work Search’ group and been forced to undertake ac- this hostility as the unfortunate effect of the divide-and-rule tivities and attend jobcentre appointments, with the attendant tactics that capital deploys against us. risk of sanctions. While the DWP Press Release of the 30th of January 2023 presents the increase as an opportunity for ‘addi- Find out how you can support ECAP at tional claimants’ to ‘benefit from more face-to-face time with a edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/ work coach, allowing them to access opportunities to increase their earnings’, 2 the real effect has been an expansion in claim- Notes ants’ vulnerability to harassment and sanctions. 1 ‘Glasgow Target of Universal Credit Shakedown’ (March 2023) Most importantly, the same DWP Press Release introduc- https://glasgowkeelie.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/new- es the actual erosion of the divide between ‘Light Touch’ and keelie-39-final.pdf ‘Intensive Work Search’ groups. It anticipates that ‘In Work Progression support’ would become mandatory for claimants 2 DWP Press Release, ‘Hundreds of thousands more workers to in the ‘Light Touch’ group as of September 2023, exposing in- receive job support boost’ (30 Jan 2023) https://www.gov.uk/ creased numbers of low-paid and part-time workers to the pos- government/news/hundreds-of-thousands-more-workers-to- sibility to be sanctioned. receive-job-support-boost-in-spring Where the attack on disabled claimants is concerned, the DWP Press Release of the 5th of September 2023 has announced 3 DWP Press Release, ‘Government announces new welfare re- ‘new welfare reforms to help thousands into work’, targeting forms to help thousands into work’ (5 Sept 2023) https://www. ‘Disabled people and those with health conditions, who are gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-new-wel- currently being held back from improving their lives through fare-reforms-to-help-thousands-into-work work’.3 The reforms revolve around changes to the categories of the Work Capability Assessment, which decides claimants’ eli- 10 MORE ADVICE TO TACKLE POVERTY Alan McIntosh explores why Humza Yousaf needs to fund advice and assistance services to address the cost of living crisis. If Humza Yousaf wants to tackle poverty he cannot be faulted providers, in the shape of the Scottish Government and local on his ambition, but the Scottish Government is going to need government, but no integrated system that avoids duplication a joined up and inclusive strategy to do it. There are certainly or waste. Also, the Scottish Government prefers to fund big na- easier challenges he might have picked in his first Programme tional charities that tend only to provide advice rather than as- for Government, especially during a cost of living crisis. Poverty sistance such as helping people to fill forms or negotiate with is a complex problem and its impact is multi-faceted, from food creditors. This often means people have to be referred on to and fuel poverty to low-income life, from poor performance in local advice agencies and other local services, who do much schools and poor diets to a higher proportion of those in pov- of the work that generates the financial gains for clients. The erty being affected by disabilities, addiction, and inadequate Scottish Government also tends to fund third sector providers housing. without having any regard to what services are already being It certainly feels like Yousaf may be inadvertently setting up a provided by local authorities, and what other services already multitude of metrics that in years to come his opponents will exist in localities. hold him up against to say that he is failing. This is especially By far the largest funders of advice in Scotland are local author- true given current economic conditions. Thirty years of histor- ities, and therefore most of the advice in Scotland is provided ical statistics on matters such as repossessions, bankruptcies, by them or their delivery partners. In 2021/22, for example, the evictions, sheriff officer and court related debt actions, all Improvement Service reported local authorities spending £24.8 show increases for at least three or four years after an economic million on local money and benefit advice, with £13 million be- crisis. Whether it’s the early 1990s or the post credit-crunch ing provided to internal services and £11.8 million being spent years, stats all show the same thing: a bell curve that rises after on external services. The Scottish Government, in contrast, re- the initial crisis occurs and continues to grow for several years, portedly invested only £11.7 million in 2023/24 in funding mon- before beginning to subside. There is no reason to believe the ey and benefit advice services. current cost of living crisis will not similarly plunge tens of If the Scottish Government is serious about targeting poverty, it thousands of people into economic distress as the ‘new poor’. will need a joined-up strategy that involves both the public and However, there is hope for Yousaf. The speed with which that third sector. It makes no sense to pursue a funding strategy, es- bell curve rises, and the period it spans, depend on sever- pecially in relation to advice, that does not involve discussions al factors, and not all of them are about giving people more with local authorities to ensure that everyone who wants advice money (although that helps). There are two factors that are to can access it locally if they require it. his advantage. First, in the areas of bankruptcy, repossession, There can be no doubt about the scale of the task that Humza eviction and debt areas, the relevant laws are devolved to the Yousaf has set himself. Tackling poverty is a huge challenge at Scottish Parliament, so many of the solutions that would give any time, and he will be trying to do so at a time when the wind Scots increased protections can be granted in Holyrood and not will be in his face. However, a joined-up advice-first strategy, Westminster. utilising all the powers of the Scottish Parliament, may put the Another factor is the potential for advice and assistance to help wind at his back and get him part of the way there. mitigate the worst effects of many of these crises, while also generating financial gains for clients. Evidence from 2021/22 shows that every £1 invested in local advice agencies results in £11 in more social security benefits and written-off debt. Im- portant figures like these have to be considered when you have limited funding available to invest in anti-poverty initiatives. Local advice can also help to reduce the number of people pre- senting as homeless, requiring emergency help in the form of crisis grants, food bank and fuel bank vouchers, or even turn- ing to their GPs for help with poverty related health issues. Although much impaired since the post credit-crunch years, Scotland still has an extensive network of local authority ad- vice services, Citizen Advice Bureaux, local independent advice agencies and law centres where people can turn for advice re- garding money, benefits, and housing. The problem, however, is that Scotland doesn’t really have a joined-up strategy for de- livering this type of advice. There are two main large funding 11 COLLABORATION OR COLLAPSE Charities are now critical to the support that local authorities must provide to tackle the cost of living crisis, find Diarmuid McDonnell, Xihua Chen, and João Rafael Cunha. Charities play an important role in the ‘mixed economy of wel- cessity of charities in supporting local authority residents. Man- fare’ in the UK. Originally seen as supplementary or superfluous agers emphasise the need for increased resources, especially in to the aims and activities of the state, charities are now partners order to train volunteers and hire full-time coordinators. Current in the delivery of essential public services in the form of care funding from cost-of-living policies is viewed as insufficient, homes, hospices, employment and income support, citizens ad- leading charities to seek supplementary financial support from vice, dementia support and more. There has been rapid change various sources. Managers advocate for transferring more fund- in central and local government funding of charities as public ing from local governments to charities, asserting that charities bodies move from being providers to purchasers of public servic- possess unique insights into local communities and can efficient- es. The involvement of charities in supporting local government ly target funds to specific needs. They stress that their agility and to tackle the cost of living crisis is therefore unsurprising. How- direct connection to local areas allows them to engage effectively ever, a number of features of this crisis mean the partnership with people in need and to operate with less bureaucratic burden between the public and charity sectors warrants a closer look. than local councils. In essence, they want to be commissioned by Rising inflation is the critical context for understanding this the local government to fulfil their roles effectively. partnership. The increase in the prices of goods and services af- Conversely, workers and volunteers express concerns about fects individuals, businesses, charities and governments alike. the use of charities to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, viewing it as The Consumer Price Index (CPI) peaked at 11.1% in October unsustainable. They question why individuals seeking warmth 2022 and this recent increase in inflation has multifaceted im- and meals must depend on charities or churches instead of direct plications. It has decreased the purchasing power of consumers, government assistance. The primary focus of the organisations putting pressure on the cost of living. In turn, the rise in interest we spoke to is to support individuals finding employment rather rates to fight inflation has put an even greater pressure on house- than merely to provide warm spaces. holds’ budgets. Local authority budgets are also at the mercy of How do these findings and perspectives relate to the pros- inflationary pressures, with sharp increases in employee sala- pects facing charities in Scotland? Scotland’s local authorities ries, maintenance, utilities, capital projects and service provi- face a constrained or shrinking funding environment through- sion (especially to vulnerable groups). out the mid-2020s2 and this will affect charities in a number of This summer, we have been researching the characteristics striking ways. Firstly, local authorities are important funders of of charities that offered their services and infrastructure to local charities directly and it is likely that these grants and contracts authority residents in an effort to ease the impact of the cost-of- will be put under pressure – the case of bankrupt Birmingham living crisis.1 This often took the form of offering a warm space City Council is likely to be instructive in this regard3. Secondly, (such as a village hall, café) or food aid (like food banks and research from England demonstrates how austerity is down- pantries). In some instances, charities received funding from the loaded from central to local government in the form of spend- local authority to provide these services and in others they relied ing cuts, impacting the finances of charities that receive funding solely on their own resources. Our emerging findings suggest from local authorities: this process is patterned by deprivation, that the organisations that offered their services and infrastruc- as charities in the most deprived local authorities suffered the ture were larger, older, conducted a wider range of activities, and largest reductions in income.4 Thirdly, local authorities’ increas- were less impacted financially by the pandemic than their peers. ing reliance on charities to support efforts to tackle social need offers an opportunity to form and deepen these relationships: Divergent views of managers and workers the rapid construction of lists of charities offering support to lo- Our interviews with managers, staff and volunteers of some of cal authority residents during the cost of living crisis is likely to these charities revealed divergent viewpoints on the role and ne- prove longer-lasting than initially thought. Fundamentally, the 12 essential needs of local authority residents are likely to be met sations as a cost to be cut. by the charity sector for longer and more intensely than councils or charities would perhaps like. 1 For example: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/directory/10258/ other-warm-and-welcoming-locations/category/10512 Collaborative or co-dependent? This mutual reliance creates a relationship between charities and 2 Institute for Fiscal Studies (2023). Scottish Budget 2023–24: local authorities which brings both risks and possible solutions. further analysis. https://ifs.org.uk/publications/scottish- The risk is that a co-dependent relationship emerges through budget-2023-24-further-analysis which local authorities are locked into allocating funds to chari- ties in order simply to maintain basic services, without efficient, 3 Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (2023). Statement on meaningful, or accountable improvements in service provision. Birmingham City Council's Section 114 Notice. https://www. The prospect of imminent cuts as the cost of living crisis contin- bvsc.org/news/bvsc-statement-on-birmingham-city-councils- ues could result in a crisis for charities themselves, particularly section-114-notice given it follows the substantial financial shock of the pandemic.5 What solutions exist to support the capacity of charities to 4 Clifford, D. (2021). Disparities by deprivation: The geograph- play an important role in addressing the needs of local authority ical impact of unprecedented changes in local authority residents? Charities’ responses to the pandemic were insightful: financing on the voluntary sector in England. https://journals. voluntary organisations ‘showed up’ and ‘stuck around’ at the sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X211034869 onset of Covid-19, tailoring their services to different groups ex- periencing complex social issues. In return, local authorities and 5 Clifford, McDonnell, Mohan (2023). Charities’ income during other state bodies offered an ear and support to charities, includ- the COVID-19 pandemic: administrative evidence for England ing smaller, community-based organisations that had previous- and Wales. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279422001015 ly struggled to be heard and included in projects. Funding and reporting requirements were loosened, and there was top-down 6 Rees et al. (eds). COVID-19 and the Voluntary and Community permission to ‘break the rules’ of normal public service delivery. Sector in the UK: Responses, Impacts and Adaptation. [6] While it seems as though the status quo ante is returning, we would urge local authorities to continue to proactively seek the involvement of charities in addressing the needs of their res- idents, and to think twice before seeing support to these organi- 13 WE DON’T WANT PAPER STRAWS Emma Brown explains why climate campaign group This Is Rigged is shifting its focus to the cost of living crisis. ‘This is Rigged’ is a new youth-led movement based in Scot- In the spring, we made our voices heard in Parliament, land agitating for change through direct action. It was formed showing just how disruptive ordinary people can be when they in response to the lack of connection between the climate cri- refuse to sit down, shut up, and watch politics happening. In sis and the other crises destroying our communities (the cost July, we escalated to a series of sustained actions, targeting of living crisis, the housing crisis), and on the understanding Grangemouth and the oil terminal in Clydebank Oil, blocking that we need defiance, risk-taking, cheekiness, creativity, hu- 70% of fuel distribution from the sites. From 20-year-olds climb- mour, and above all a fucking sense of urgency about the rad- ing tankers to 70-year-olds disabling tankers, from trespassing ical changes needed to stop the deadly suffering issuing from and climbing pipework to blocking the single road where all a crisis perpetuated by wealthy and faceless corporations, and fuel leaves the Grangemouth site, we demonstrated that ordi- abetted by incompetent and impotent governments. nary people can shut down the businesses killing us. And we Formed at the beginning of this year, ‘This is Rigged’ has didn’t just do it once. We did it six times. This was material two core demands of the Scottish Government. First, that they disruption targeting the source of harm, with major cost to the develop a backbone and oppose all new deadly oil and gas pro- companies. We combined this with cultural actions, based on jects in our North Sea. Considering that Scotland is Europe's Scotland’s history of radical resistance: accosting King Charles, biggest oil producer and second-biggest gas producer, this scaling the Kelpies, painting parliament, and disrupting the cy- would increase political pressure on Westminster and the com- cling world championships. The combination of material and panies hiding under bogus arguments for jobs. The truth is that cultural disruption spreads the message to a wider audience, oil is a finite resource, so even if it was not frying the planet, forcing people to engage. It’s all fair game when we’re in this the number of jobs in oil has been declining and would con- much trouble. Some people might like some actions and not tinue to decline. Our second key demand is that they provide others but we’re not going for the Turner prize here, we’re a fully-funded and fair transition for our fossil fuel workers. throwing everything at a society that feels stuck and frozen and There is £500 million sitting there for the ‘transition’ which the seeing what breaks through. Scottish Government has complete control over. There is nae Now we’re moving into demanding action on the cost of liv- reason whatsoever for fossil fuel workers to end up in the sit- ing crisis. While supermarket profits are protected, food banks uation that miners did with Thatcher, when there are four po- can’t cope with the numbers of people who can’t afford to eat. tential jobs in renewables energy for every one job currently Direct action is the best way to show that we won’t comply with in fossil fuel production. At the moment we are in the bonkers this situation. It's not just unsustainable, it’s intolerable, so we scenario where if oil workers want to get a job on offshore wind, will show that we won’t tolerate it by taking collective restora- for example, they have to pay out of their own pocket for the tive action. The climate crisis is exacerbating food insecurity retraining. If Scotland can’t lead the way on this, as a territory and existing inequality, as extreme weather events like floods, with vast renewable resources and what should fundamentally heatwaves and droughts decimate crops, food prices rise in the be a more accountable political system as a small country, we UK and internationally (enriching those profiting off scarcity are fucked. and price inflation), and the poorest suffer first. Governments 14 This Is Rigged activists at Grangemouth are supposed to act in the interests of the population, serving sleepwalking governments or out-of-touch judiciaries who are us. We need price caps on essential items. Hunger will never causing us to be in crisis. be eradicated by individual acts of charity. We need collective We will refuse to play by the rules as the waters rise over action to demand solutions so that people can have what they our neatly obedient crossed legs. We will refuse to pay extor- need to live with dignity. tionate prices for food and energy so that shareholders can Our actions this year showed how serious we are. We’re keep killing us, driving us into poverty, and having a bloody willing to take collective risks that jeopardise our own liberty. good laugh at us. We will not let ourselves be gas-lit, because Why? Because it’s all rigged. Sometimes you still hear the opin- nature is telling us what is wrong: the rich fly in jets, while ion that the climate is a separate issue that we’ll get round to poor countries are decimated by a crisis they did not cause. The when we’ve sorted out all the other issues - of housing, poverty, game is rigged, but the reality of the climate crisis is the trump inequality, food insecurity, crap jobs, and asylum seekers being card against every rigged argument for neo-liberal free-market put on a prison boat. That idea is nonsense. It’s all one crisis: business-as-usual. And if we don’t look away, we can make this exploitation of people and resources for the motive of short- critical decade the start of a better society. term profit above everything else. This year, This Is Rigged has shown a sense of fucking ur- gency. No, we can’t just watch as things slowly get worse and worse. We need to fight back, and that means not just trying to get back something we had last week. We want the huge changes that are actually going to make a difference. We don’t want paper straws, we want the world. To me it’s more unreal to imagine we’re going to all carry on obeying the rules that are making us poorer and more miserable, while the earth beneath us is being destroyed. That's a more bizarre ending to the story than the one where we get our act together and collectively de- mand changes through our non-compliance, channeling all the lessons we’ve learnt from history. This goes beyond the old books and left wing theories. It’s what a child can tell you about what’s right or wrong. We don’t need to know what we’ll find when we get there, or have some perfect theory. We need to act, to stand up against injustice, to take a chance, to DO something, so that something has to happen, and then something else, to shake and challenge the system, to cause crises for those exploitative businesses or 15 CONFRONTING STOPPING WAR SCOTLAND’S WAR MACHINES In November, Palestine Action activists who took direct action against weapons producer Thales in Goven will stand trial. Huda Ammori, a founder of Palestine Action, discusses the campaign’s Scottish targets. This is part of a longer interview which you can read online. What are Palestine Action's main targets in Scotland or with Scottish connections? Our main targets in Scotland are Thales, which has a factory in Govan, and Leonardo in Edinburgh. Palestine Action start- ed out in England and Wales, where our main target is Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer. They supply 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and 85% of their land-based equipment. They provide the ammunition, the bullets used to massacre Palestinians, and they supply tear gas, parts for air- craft, parts for tanks. A lot of Elbit’s work is done in England, and they work closely with companies like Thales, which is one of the world’s biggest weapons manufacturers and a target in its own right. There is a factory in Leicester called UAV tactile systems. This factory is part-owned by Thales and part-owned by Elbit. We have seen licences from this factory which are evidence that UAV are sending drone equipment directly to the Israeli state. These are used to constantly surveille the population of Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. The majori- ty of the population in Gaza are children of families displaced from other parts of Palestine. Because Israel has put Gaza un- der a brutal air and sea blockade for over a decade now, it has basically turned Gaza into one of the world’s largest open-air prisons. Every time Israel bombs or strikes Gaza, they are mas- sacring Palestinians who live there. Elbit use these attacks as opportunities to market their weapons as ‘battle-tested’. Our other key Scottish target, Leonardo, is an Italian weap- ons company with a huge site in Edinburgh employing 2000 workers. These workers are building laser targeting systems for F35 fighter jets. Israel is the main buyer of these jets, which are used to constantly attack the people in Palestine, as Leonardo admitted after one of our actions at their site this year. These are our key targets, but there are numerous other companies and operations in Scotland that are complicit in what is happening in Palestine, despite pro-Palestine senti- ment amongst Scottish people, and supposedly even within the Scottish Government. 16 Palestine Action activists on the roof of Leonardo in Edinburgh Yes, there is a notional solidarity with Palestine associated necessity, which obviously means that jurors will not be able with Scotland. What has the response to your actions been to see as much of the evidence about these companies’ involve- like in Scotland compared with across the rest of the UK? ment in war crimes. Jurors are the people who, in a democratic How does Scottish politics connect with your objectives? society, are supposed to decide if you’re guilty or not guilty. But One surprise has been that media outlets in Scotland actually whatever happens, guilty or not guilty, we know that history cover our actions, which is very different from media in Eng- will vindicate us, that we are on the right side. land. We’ve also seen huge amounts of community support in Scotland. When activists targeted Leonardo, there were hun- Stepping back from current and recent examples, how does dreds of comments from people in the area about the fact that Scotland fit into the history of the situation of the Palestin- this company is going into schools recruiting workers, and bom- ian people? barding communities and children with propaganda. When PA One Scottish connection with Palestinian history is the Balfour took its action, you could see how unhappy people were with Declaration. It is named after a Scot called James Balfour. When the factory being there, despite the propaganda about the jobs Balfour was UK foreign secretary in 1917, he issued a declara- it provides, and so on. tion that called for a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine. Pri- In the past, Humza Yousaf has supported the Stop Arming or to this, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Palestinians used to Israel campaign and called for a two-way arms embargo. His live as one people. Shortly after the 1917 Balfour Declaration wife Nadia El-Nakla has family who’ve had to live through as- cemented the first steps for creating the apartheid state of Isra- saults on Gaza. Yousaf should be helping people to understand el, British soldiers were on the ground. Under what they called that these companies are producing components in Scotland the British mandate, they were arresting Palestinians, killing for weapons to go to Israel. He should at the very least acknowl- Palestinians, suppressing the indigenous population who were edge that activists should not be going on trial and facing pris- uprising against the colonisation of their lands by the British. on for disrupting the production of weapons. One of them was my great-grandfather. He was shot and killed In Scotland, we’ve got a case coming up in November of by a British soldier shortly after the Balfour Declaration. three activists who occupied the Thales factory in Govan and There were instances where they would destroy indigenous caused some damage to the building, forcing the workers to villages. In essence, these soldiers were paving the way for the evacuate, so they had to shut down the whole building and put Nakba, which was when Zionist militia who were armed and down the tools they were using to make weapons. That was an trained by the British went in in 1948 and forced out more than incredible action, and I think Thales are arguing that it cost 750,000 from their homes, destroyed over 500 towns and vil- them over £1.5 million on one day, which is a good day’s work. lages, and massacred many families. After 1948, even though Overall we are quite clear that all of these actions are justi- the British were not on the ground, Scottish, English and Welsh fied. They are necessary for preventing the loss of lives. That’s diplomatic links, financial links, and other ties were main- the core basis for our defence. When you compare dismantling tained with the Israeli apartheid state. What is happening in a weapons factory to the lives taken by that weapons factory, Palestine is extremely connected to where we are in the impe- then it is an easy calculation to choose which one is right. Ac- rial centre. tivists like [Trident Ploughshares founder] Angie Zelter, who Palestine Action is part of a tradition both of Palestinian have taken action numerous times against weapons companies solidarity and of struggle against the arms trade. Are your tac- in Scotland, have always been allowed the necessity defence. tics and methods informed by previous campaigns? But PA activists facing trial in Scotland are being told there is a Many of us have been inspired by ploughshares activists, high chance that they will not be allowed to make defences of who broke into nuclear weapons bases in Scotland, and who 17 broke into BAE systems facilities in England and stopped the charges under the legal system, when you see what Palestini- Hawk jets from getting to Indonesia in 1994. Then there were ans are going through, and see their strength, it’s easy to draw the Irish activists, the Raythen Nine. While Israel was bombing inspiration from that strength, and to know that you’re acting Lebanon in 2009, they went inside the Raythen weapons fac- in solidarity with them. tory in Derry, smashed the computers and threw them out the After one of our actions, Palestinians painted a mural on windows, smashed the whole site up, and then sat down to play walls in Gaza depicting Palestine Action stopping the war ma- cards and wait for the cops. They were arrested, they all went chine, and writing ‘Thank You Palestine Action’. It confirms to court, and they were found not guilty by a jury. And then that you are doing the right thing, and that you are on the right nine women did the same, and they were found not guilty too. track. There was also an action where people threw a red sub- This meant the company had to leave, because the fact that no stance on the Balfour statue in Parliament, and a group from one would convict these activists meant that the company had Gaza wrote a letter thanking Palestine Action for doing it. It’s no legal protection, and so the factory was forced out of Derry. really, really good to see how they feel about those actions. A We started Palestine Action right after Extinction Rebellion motivation for us all is solidarity with those who are at the oth- launched. XR made it culturally more normal to take actions er end of these weapons that are being built on our doorstep. which might lead to arrest. Now, obviously we are quite differ- ent in our approaches. We take direct action which we see as The interview continues with an exploration of how Palestine directed to the source where these weapons are being made, to Action views the developing cultures of resistance in Scotland stop their production, whereas their action is more public dis- and the UK, as connections continue to grow between climate ruption. But what they did was change culture, and also made resistance, anti-imperialist struggles, and the trades union it more acceptable to say, ‘you know what, the democratic pro- movement. Read the full article on our website. cess is broken, and there are other ways we can go about this’. And so I think the groundwork was kind of set for Palestine Action to launch, and also I think we had a strong amount of faith that a lot of people were willing to risk their liberty when it comes to taking action. So we have had lots of people come over from climate action to action for Palestine – and so many who are doing both. Where do you draw your courage from when you develop, plan, and carry out your actions? The main inspiration is the Palestinian people themselves, and how they resist day in and day out. Despite all the odds, despite the strength of the Israeli military, they continue to find new ways to resist. So, for us, when we’re facing court cases or 18 AN UNWINNABLE WAR Bill Bonnar sets out a socialist case for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine represents an attack on a sover- ance, while Nato was pouring vast amounts of military hardware eign country and is in violation of international law. This princi- into the country. Almost overnight Ukraine became a member of ple has been front and centre of every statement produced by the Nato in all but name. Scottish Socialist Party on the subject. However, we reject much Moscow viewed these unfolding events as a direct threat to its of the narrative around the causes of this war and what will form national security. The SSP holds no truck with Russia’s gangster the basis of an eventual solution. Failure to understand its causes capitalist regime. Yet the simple truth is that no government in will make a solution impossible to find. The result will be the con- Moscow, not even a socialist one, would tolerate Ukraine becom- tinuation of an unwinnable war in which hundreds of thousands ing a vehicle for Nato expansionism. of innocent young Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are slaughtered Since 1991 Nato’s aggressive drive eastward has been re- in scenarios resembling those of the First World War, alongside lentless. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech mass killing of civilians and blanket destruction of large parts of Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria have all joined Nato, Ukraine. pushing this nuclear-armed military alliance to the borders of Rus- The background factor ignored by the western media has been sia. For Russia, the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato would take the complete and total failure of capitalism in Ukraine. The impo- this threat to a whole new level as even the most superficial read- sition of capitalism in 1991 following independence has proved a ing of modern history would show. In 1917 after the Brest Litovsk disaster by just about every definition of disaster one can think of. Treaty, Germany occupied large parts of Russia; the occupation The Ukrainian economy collapsed into a catastrophic crisis from was channeled through Ukraine. During the civil war following which it never recovered. Compared to Soviet times, the economy the Russian Revolution, fourteen countries invaded Russia; most today is around half the size it was. Living standards for most peo- invaded through Ukraine. In the Second World War, the Nazi inva- ple are lower than in the 1980s, and Ukraine was listed as the poor- sion of the Soviet Union was primarily through Ukraine. Ukraine est country in Europe in 2020. Spending on everything from health joining Nato is seen as an existential threat to the Russian state. care, education, social care and even culture and sport is signifi- Why is all this important? Failure to understand the reasons cantly less than when it was part of the Soviet Union, while aver- for the war makes finding a solution more difficult. The conflict age life expectancy is lower today than forty years ago. Ukraine has now reached horrendous proportions. An estimated 200,000 has become a failed capitalist state. Ironically, so has Russia. All innocent young Russian and Ukrainian conscripts have died on of the figures outlined above equally apply to Russia since 1991. In behalf of their respective regimes in a conflict which already has fact this has been a war between two failed capitalist states. parallels with the fighting of the First World War. It is a war with When Ukraine became independent in 1991 it was governed no end in sight that is unwinnable on either side. Russia has failed by a number of different and volatile regimes, yet for twenty years to overthrow the government in Kiev, while Ukraine cannot regain these regimes agreed on two basic principles. The first was that in control of the Donbas Region or Crimea. terms of relations between Russia and the West, Ukraine should be There can only be one solution; a negotiated peace settle- neutral and non-aligned, seeking positive relationships with both. ment. The vast majority of the international community have Second, given that Ukraine contained large ethnic and regional already arrived at this position, in contrast to the United States minorities, the new Ukraine could not simply be an ethnical- which is carrying out a proxy war against Russia and is willing to ly-based Ukrainian state. An element of concerted nation-building fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood. was necessary. What would be the basis of such a peace agreement? An un- This changed in 2013 when a mass popular protest, fueled equivocal recognition of Ukrainian sovereignty by Russia and a by a severe economic crisis, was hijacked by right-wing nation- withdrawal of its armed forces from the country. An end to the alist forces who staged a coup and overthrew the elected presi- Nato arming of the Ukrainian government and a general demili- dent. This brought to power a radically different regime in Kiev. tarization of the region. A categorical rejection of any attempt by Strongly nationalist, and interlaced with elements of fascism, it Ukraine to join Nato. Plebiscites to be held, under international was pro-western, virulently anti-Russian, awash with American supervision, to allow the people of the Donbas Region and Crimea money, and surrounded by American advisors. When Russian to decide their futures. regional forces rose up in support of the former president, a civ- These form the core of a number of peace proposals doing the il war quickly developed in which an estimated 14,000 civilians rounds, and are self-evident routes towards ending this conflict. were killed and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their The fact that they fail to appear almost anywhere in the British homes. These were mostly Russians; often the victims of ethnic media will soon change as more and more people realise there is cleansing carried out by Ukrainian fascist forces like the notorious no alternative. An unwinnable war lasting years, or a peace settle- AZOV Battalion. While this was going on the government in Kiev ment? For socialists, there can only be one choice. made no secret of its desire to join Nato in an anti-Russian alli- 19 UKRAINE’S POPULAR RESISTANCE Resistance to Russia is the choice of the Ukrainian people, and deserves the support of socialists in Scotland, writes Colin Turbett Bill Bonnar and I were Scottish Socialist Party comrades but communities quite indiscriminately, committed mass murder parted company at the 2023 National Conference when a majori- in Bucha and elsewhere, kidnapped Ukrainian children, and of ty of the sixty or so present resolved the position on Ukraine that course lied to their own people about it all. Through non-total he outlines. Bill describes this as a ‘principled socialist’ position control of the media, and brutal quelling of anti-war opposition, which I believe is wrong on both counts. It lacks principle be- the Putin regime ensures that this ‘special operation’ is swal- cause it will not be heard in Russia and therefore serves Putin’s lowed wholesale by most Russian citizens. To suggest that UK- purpose by calling for no arms supplies to Ukraine, and it is not based journalists of the calibre of David Pratt and Jen Stout are socialist because it denies to the people of Ukraine the right to telling us similar lies from the other side is not serious. self-determination and the choice to resist invasion by any rea- The people of Ukraine are not nazis or extreme nationalists. sonable means available. Those elements exist but are a small minority and pale into in- Whatever was agreed between Gorbachev and Western lead- significance compared with the rise of Putin’s openly fascist sup- ers at the end of the Cold War is of marginal relevance today. port-base in Russia, and his brutal suppression of any semblance Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries joined NATO be- of opposition that followed the start of his “special operation” cause they wanted to, and although I don’t like that and see NATO (calling it war is a criminal act). Ukrainian nazis certainly don’t as serving capital’s global interests, Putin’s actions have served include Zelenskyy, whatever his faults: his background is that to confirm their fears about greater Russian imperialist ambi- of a Russian-speaking Jew whose family fought fascism in the tion. Now Sweden and Finland have been brought into the fold. Red Army along with millions of other Ukrainians in the Second Ukrainian membership had been denied prior to the invasion World War. Socialists, anarchists, and free trade unionists in and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was amongst those against it. NATO Ukraine support the resistance and are strongly represented in countries had provided basic hand-held weaponry, armour, and particular fighting units. The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, and other military equipment, but were very reluctant in the period its sister organisation in Scotland, were set up to make the links after the invasion to provide more. Germany, for example, would between their struggles and ours and to win them practical sup- only provide helmets and body armour. What changed things port for their fight for survival. They also need support to resist was the Ukrainian popular resistance that stalled the Russian the neo-liberal reconstruction of Ukraine. blitzkrieg attack on Kyiv and Kharkiv with simple hand-held an- Defenders of the neutral (effectively pro-Putin) position ti-tank weapons, and the sinking of the Russian Black Sea flag- also quote the popular “Maidan” revolution of 2014 as evidence ship the Moskva in April 2022. From that time on, with Russia’s of western intrigue; the fact is that two free and open elections expected quick regime-change operation no longer on the cards, have taken place since, and there should be no doubt now that resistance was not a case of martyrdom, but a means for Ukrain- the majority of Ukrainians see their future lying in a European ians to defeat Putin’s plans and win a future for their country. rather than Russian direction. Even the previously pro-Russian To ask the Ukrainians to sue for peace on the basis of ter- mayor of Kharkiv has condemned the invasion and supported re- ritorial status-quo represents nothing short of Munich-style ap- sistance, as have the majority of Russian speakers in the country peasement of Putin. The Russians have pulverised Ukrainian – preposterously described by Putin as facing genocide. 20 Unexploded ordnance, Lyman, March 2023 - Jen Stout - www.jenstout.net/photography-ukraine Stop the War and their supporters are one end of a continuum cide what are acceptable terms for any negotiated settlement – (I exclude genuine pacifists) who want to stop arming Ukraine; including questions about the territories annexed and invaded it includes those who swallow Putin’s line on everything despite militarily by Russia since 2014. A simple call for an end to arms the rise of his totalitarian regime in gangster-capitalist Russia. supplies and for peace sounds warmly persuasive, but betrays Their position will do nothing to support the beleaguered oppo- Ukrainians if they are denied the means to defend their right to sition in Russia (who support Ukraine’s right to self-determina- self-determination. Ask any and see what they tell you. tion), or Ukrainian socialists who support the resistance. Of course Stop the War, the CPB, SWP, SSP and others rightly fear a descent into global, even nuclear war. However, it is simply an arrogant idea that the people of Ukraine, in whose interests peace is paramount, are wrong in their majority view. It is ridic- ulous to suggest (as I heard at SSP conference) that 40 or 50 SSP members have a “socialist duty” to correct 40 million Ukraini- ans. Resistance was their choice, and they deserve our support. Developments since the start of the war confirm that they were right to fight. The insulting suggestion that “NATO will fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood” came from Putin, and ignores the agency of Ukrainians themselves. This might have become a proxy war between NATO and Russia, but it is above all a genuine freedom struggle. Our rulers may have their own reasons for sending arms to Ukraine, but that should not obscure our view on the need to support its people. We are delighted at the position on Ukraine taken by the ma- jority of trade unions at the last STUC congress. Support from the left needs to be stepped up and USCS welcomes individual membership and organisational affiliation. No one wants peace more than the people of Ukraine and they should collectively de- 21 BEYOND THE CRIMSON TIDE The poems of Pakistani exile Faiz Ahmed Faiz reflect the people’s longing for a just social order, writes Ali Zaidi. It ought to be more than a passing concern that, according to a irrigates Pakistan’s farmlands while providing drinking water for 2011 survey, malnutrition has stunted the growth of nearly 44% its people. The shimmering lights of unrealized possibilities and of children in the world’s fifth most populous nation. Further- unfulfilled dreams gives rise to frustration and a cult of death. more, among the 186 countries surveyed in 2015, Pakistan had the Financed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan’s highest rate of stillborn births, spending a mere $36 per capita on military, allied to feudal lords and rightwing religious groups healthcare that year. Underscoring its fiscal priorities, Pakistan such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, crushed democratic and progressive possessed an estimated 165 nuclear warheads by 2021. These con- movements, targeting the courageous few who dared to speak up. tradictions exist in a country whose official name, as adopted in It carried out extrajudicial killings of labor organizers, scholars, the 1956 constitution without any apparent sense of irony, is the trade unionists, journalists, dissidents, human rights activists, Islamic Republic of Pakistan. workers, farmers, and the incompliant, with near total impuni- During the first decades of Pakistan’s existence, the military ty, imposing press censorship and crippling cultural life in Paki- gradually imposed authoritarian strictures in all aspects of life. stan. Under the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq, showy religiosity Those strictures found an effective challenge in the Urdu poetry became the norm for public officials, and retrograde education of Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984). In “Ash Flower,” Faiz highlights that masqueraded as patriotism mystified the past. the paradox of a fertile land full of hungry people: Faiz’s career as a newspaper editor ended when he was im- prisoned and later forced into exile. In “Amnesia,” Faiz describes Why do my people – the malaise that afflicted those who longed for a just social order: the doomed inhabitants of these beloved A strange disease – shimmering cities people no longer know how to walk always live in the fervid hope with their heads held high. of death? The love-possessed avert their eyes Mountain-stream and move through the streets cleaved like shadows. in two by a dark boulder. Ultimate absurdity – bricks and stones chained down And and vicious dogs absolutely free. why does only hunger As the poem’s title suggests, memory was erased from pub- grow lic consciousness. The military suppressed civil institutions that in these fecund might countervail its rule, such as universities, unions, the press, voluptuous fields? and human rights organizations, leaving itself as the default in- stitution for providing order and stability. The dark boulder represents the forces that thwart the natural Faiz did more than anyone to counteract the destructive forc- course of the nourishing mountain-stream that represents mercy es reshaping Pakistan. In the seventies, during a brief interlude of and succor. The mountain symbolizes spiritual heights and the semi-enlightened civilian rule under Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali water that flows from it recalls the diminishing glacier melt that Bhutto, Faiz developed the National Council of the Arts and the 22 Institute of Folk Heritage, and served as cultural advisor to the Note on the essay and translations Ministry of Education, to name but a few of his worthy endeavors. The translations of Faiz’s poems in this essay are by Daud Ka- In “Two Loves,” Faiz writes, mal. The copyright is owned by the Kamal family, who granted me permission to publish them. Kamal also translated poems by Blood gushes out Munir Niazi which will feature in an essay in the next issue of the from the night’s ruptured veins: Scottish Left Review. the crimson tide swells What brought me to the Scottish Left Review is the memory of without abatement. the Scottish poet Howard Purdie, who wrote a couple of articles Agony of stars about Faiz, which were published in The Scotsman in the eight- resolved in the sky’s oblivion: ies. Purdie visited Pakistan more than once, and in 1983 he met my hopeless passion for you both Faiz and Daud Kamal. Kamal was my professor at the Univer- and this our long-suffering land. sity of Peshawar during the early eighties, at which time I edited They branded me an infidel the English department literary journal. We published a beautiful from the pulpit: poem by Purdie in the 1983-84 session issue entitled “Echo, River, they screamed at me and Cloud”. in the market-place. In 1985, Kamal gave me a manuscript of his poems and trans- Inquisitors. Prison-cell. lations, some of which have never been published, owing in great Torment in the desert. part to his untimely death in 1987. A few translations remain un- Banishment. They condemned me published, while others, including the Faiz translations in this to loneliness, alienation, despair. essay, circulated only within Pakistan during the eighties. Some I did not complain. were published in our department journal or in English language They stretched me on the rack. newspapers such as The Muslim and The Pakistan Times, often in I did not repent. truncated form with missing lines because of censorship or edito- My heart is sick rial incompetence. I am publishing this essay and the essay in the but not with remorse. next Scottish Left Review at the request of Kamal’s family. The explicit love for “our long-suffering land” contrasts with the absence of specification of the ‘you’ whose ambiguity reminds us of our collective identity and prompts us to action. Beyond the crimson tide that swallows stars and annuls possibilities, the moon still shines. WRITE TO US We want the magazine to be a place of discussion, debate, and dissent. If you have any reactions, reflections or perspectives on what you are reading, send a letter to the editor:

WRITE WITH US We want to publish work by those who don’t usually write, as well as those who do. This issue has writing both from people who have never had their words published, and from acclaimed and established authors. You do not need to be a writer to write. If you join the network of writers and contributors, you will find yourself in company with writers who can offer mentoring, creative guidance, and editorial support. Let us know how you want to get involved in radical writing by emailing the editor:

KEEP US WRITING The magazine depends on readers' support. If you can afford it, take out a subscription or make a donation at scottishleftreview.scot/subscribe. 23 FROM THE ASHES OF LEFT POPULISM Coll McCail reviews The Populist Moment by Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger (2023, Verso Books) “My own Party, in a previous incarnation, had a degree of tan middle class… and a post-industrial working class”, write populism in it coming from the left,” said David Lammy, “I wor- Borriello and Jäger. Populism bred shallow politics unable to ry about that.” The Shadow Foreign Secretary aired his concern unite these disparate interests. Corbynism, like other projects during an interview with Lewis Goodall this September. Earlier of its time, was a “product of the void”. These insurgent, often that morning, Lammy held a breakfast meeting with George W. unplanned reactions to a global austerity agenda did not have Bush’s Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. sufficient time for the development of politics or raising of con- Few encounters better illustrate the contrast between to- sciousness. day’s Labour Party leadership and its “previous incarnation”. The complex social content of their coalitions was one of In a past life, Jeremy Corbyn’s “populist” leadership opted to two major dilemmas faced by the left-populist projects, suggest neglect the counsel of war criminals. But that was then and this Borriello and Jäger. The second was their new organisational is now. Corbyn and 125,000 members are out of the Labour Par- form. Jeremy Corbyn inherited the machinery of a mass, social ty. The technocrats are in, eager to comply with capital’s ‘fiscal democratic party, but as we know, it was never really on his rules’. side. Left-wing organisations were founded to redress this fac- In the short term, the left in Labour must now wait to tional imbalance in Labour’s bureaucracy. Successful deploy- see how hawkishly Starmer will behave, and how completely ment of digital media saw Momentum, for example, quickly they take their economic policies from businesses and banks. attract thousands of members to become the largest socialist Longer term, any prospect of restoring left policies and princi- organisaton on these islands. While vital to preserving Cor- ples in Labour depends on new political strategy. In searching byn’s leadership at critical junctures, these campaigns were for a left strategy to resist the Starmer-induced malaise, inter- ultimately victims of their own success. Unable to replace the rogating the rise, fall and legacy of the leadership he replaced networks of traditional social democratic parties, Borriello and is imperative. Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger’s latest contri- Jäger argue that “clicktivism” – activists could simply “click bution to this discussion, The Populist Moment: The Left After their way in and out” of organisations – contribued to pop- the Great Recession, charts the arch of five left populist projects ulism’s transience. that emerged in the last decade. In Greece, Syriza took pow- Discipline was in short supply among those politicised er. Podemos shook up Spanish politics and eventually entered during the ‘populist moment’. In the case of Corbyn, “these government. Bernie Sanders took socialism to the masses in the fair-weather friends remained far more committed to the EU US. Jean-Luc Mélenchon almost entered the French Presidential than to socialism.” There was not the time or the appetite to run-off. Against this backdrop, Jeremy Corbyn seized the La- build class politics amongst those freshly brought into the fold. bour leadership in 2015. How could there be? After all, Brexit illustrated how difficult it Populism erupts, argue the authors, amidst a ‘crisis of rep- was to marry the divergent elements of Labour’s coalition. For resentation’. In the aftermath of 2008, swathes of society reject- Borriello and Jäger, then, opulism is the form that progressive ed a politics that bailed out the banks, privatising profit and politics takes “in times of (relative) disorganisation.” socialising their losses. Young people bore the brunt of rentier Now we’re entering a new political chapter. Across Europe capitalism, burdened with debt and employed in precarious and the US, the flame of left populism is waning, if not extin- work. A threat to their living standards forced dissent among guished entirely. In Britain, the likes of David Lammy have their the “squeezed middle” class. What was left of the industrial hearts set on locking out the left. In a further display of Corby- working class objected too, although it never sat comfortably nism’s transience, so far they have succeeded. On the verge of within this new cross-class alignment. Government, the Labour leadership readily accepted the fram- Left-populism mobilised those alienated by social democ- ing of Britain's ruling class by offering only a ‘better-managed’ racy’s concession to capital. The driving force of left politics decline. changed from ‘the working class’ to ‘the people’. “We are the As things stand, Keir Starmer will stroll into Downing 99%,” cried Occupy Wall Street. All of a sudden alliances were Street carrying the votes of a disengaged, unenthused public broader. In Britain, the resulting mass engagement was one of that is convinced that a radical break with the economic or- Corbynism's greatest strengths. However, it was a gamble. “Cor- thodoxy is impossible. Yet the conditions are similar to those byn ultimately failed to bridge the gap between a metropoli- under which the left took charge of Labour. For Borriello and 24 Jäger, this is evidence that “without waging a war of position democratic decline and the potential for change. Divided into to consolidate the gains of the digital vanguard, left populism fourteen chapters across five sections, and drawing upon dif- will be remembered as little more than a wasted opportunity.” ferent theoretical approaches, methods and case studies, the Since “very few people are involved in the kind of organised book explores the nature of the current crisis and the new po- conflict” that established the sides of 20th-century politics, the litical order that seems to be emerging. task of the left must be to develop and enhance the politics of The book initially focusses on the precarity of liberal de- those mobilised by the ‘populist moment’. Only then may the mocracy and the extent to which democracy is even compati- transitory clientelism that has captured mainstream politics be ble with the values it claims to promote. In section one, Márk challenged once more. Losoncz’s discussion on hybrid regimes and the comparative analysis from Tiedemann et al. complement each other in demonstrating the ‘riskiness’ of liberal democracy, with partic- ipation necessarily ‘limited to the political sphere’ (p. 21). In effect, this means we have ‘liberal representative governments’ (p. 153) rather than radically democratic politics. This makes society vulnerable—as in the cases of Hungary and Serbia—to populists’ ‘subtle strategies’ (e.g., manipulation of the media and elections) (p. 153), which reshape familiar institutions to their own ends. But as Teppo Eskelinen points out later, democ- racy is about the ‘political community learning how to govern itself without hierarchies’ (p. 204), meaning we must learn not to be afraid of democracy, and must resist attempts to limit it in the face of such populist threats. This is surely a lesson many left-wing activists would do well to remember. Section three discusses the contradictory forces at work in liberal democracies, largely in the context of the Covid-19 pan- STRATEGIC demic, with section four offering a clear link between research and activism. Cotarelo and Cutillas's contribution, in particu- lar, is a considered case study of three attempts to democratise left-wing populist movements in Spain using information tech- ALLIANCES nology. Despite often employing such tools with the intention of removing the very hierarchies Eskelinen previously mentioned, the case studies show us that technology on its own cannot do this. Activists, they warn, require considerable thought, plan- ning and resources before embracing new technologies as a panacea for low levels of participation. The volume finishes with a provocative discussion of the future of democracy and the tactics needed for a transforma- tive shift in society. In the chapter ‘Future? What Future?’, the authors attack the left’s tacit support for the mainstream lib- eral centre, which they call ‘a source of menace for political anti-racism’ (p. 474). The answer, apparently, is to ‘demand the systems crash’ (p. 501). What happens once everything is burn- ing is left for the reader to imagine. The authors here strike a highly condescending tone, leaving the reader feeling more in- sulted than provoked. This moralising only serves to highlight the weakness in the final chapter’s argument that the left needs David Green reviews The Crisis and Future of to give its values and morals a central place in its activist and Democracy, edited by Ada Regelmann (2022, Rosa research base. It is not the lack of morals that is holding the left back, but rather strategic questions of whom alliances can be Luxemburg Stiftung) built with and how this is done. As with any edited collection, some chapters will reward more than others. But the volume’s broad scope and diversity of A cursory glance around European parliaments today demon- cases will give the persevering reader a much clearer overview strates that liberal democracies are in crisis. Only seven coun- of the state of democracy today. The book adds significantly to tries have no right-wing influence in government, and the our understanding of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic upon spread of authoritarian populism seems as tenacious as it is democracy, and will hold relevance for activists wanting to po- pervasive. It it the right which, electorally at least, has benefit- sition their own struggles against the threats of neoliberalism ted most from rising inequality, instability in working practic- and authoritarian populism. es, and states’ perceived failures to deal with worldwide threats such as global warming. Optimistically, however, declining Free hard-copies of the book, as well as its electronic version, trust in oppressive state institutions has generated alternative can be requested from https://www.rosalux.de models of democracy, with grassroot responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruptive spread of information and com- munication technology renewing hope in a transformative re- newal of democracy. In this context, the most recent publication from the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, The Crisis and Future of Democracy (Re- gelmann, ed., 2022), is a welcome addition to the discussion on 25 VLADIMIR MCTAVISH'S KICK UP THE TABLOIDS Who’s shocked there was a Chinese spy at Westminster? Liz terview about not having a second job, despite owning a num- Truss for one. In parliament, she described China as “the big- ber of companies which operated get-rich-quick schemes. This gest threat to the UK”. She should know, as this time last year, included a web sales business HowToCorp which claimed that she herself was the biggest threat to the UK. clients who paid $ 200 for its software would “make $20,000 in It must be a dawdle spying on Tory MP’s and ministers, as 20 days or your money back”. most of them are far too pre-occupied with their second jobs. It This is the kind of hokum which would set off anyone’s seems loads of these guys look on their MP duties as a sideline. scam alarm. At the time he denied that he had a second job as Boris Johnson earned an incredible 4.8 million pounds he was trading under an assumed name, Michael Green. from speeches and book advances in his final year as an MP. Perhaps he should also have used an assumed name for his No wonder he made such a ham-fisted job of being Prime Min- political career. Through no fault of his own, he has an utterly ister. He was obviously far too busy lining up book deals to care laughable surname. It sounds like Cockney rhyming slang for about trivial matters like the economy, the NHS, and stopping an unpleasant bowel condition. I can imagine it being used as people dying of Covid. an excuse to phone in sick for work. “I’m sorry I can’t come into He’s not the only one. Jacob Rees Mogg made an eye-water- the office today, I’ve been up all night with a dose of the Grant ing 350 thousand pounds last year over and above his ministeri- Shapps”. Equally it could be the sales pitch for some quack al and parliamentary salaries. This begs one very obvious ques- remedy claiming “We’ll rid you of the Grant Shapps in ten days tion. Exactly what skills does Jacob Rees-Mogg possess to tempt or your money back guaranteed.” anyone to pay him over three hundred grand? To most impar- This is the guy in charge of defence? No wonder the military tial onlookers, the man has very few visible talents. Unless, of are shapping themselves. course, someone were casting for the part of Lord Snooty in a stage musical based on the Beano or looking tor someone to play a Gestapo officer in a remake of the 1980’s sitcom Allo Allo. Like a lot of posh people, Rees-Mogg tries to dress up his shortcomings by quoting Latin. Like a lot of expensively-edu- cated posh folk, I suspect Rees-Mogg uses Latin as an attempt to disguise the fact that he's actually not very bright. I've never quite understood why the ability to speak Latin should be seen a sign of intelligence After all, not everybody in ancient Rome can have been a genius. And all of them could speak Latin. This is why people like Education Secretary Gillian Keegan expect to be congratulated for turning for work. She spat the dummy on Sky News, when she was off-air but still being re- corded, ranting “Does anyone ever say, ‘You know you’ve done a fucking good job’?” No, of course they don’t say that. For the very good reason that nobody thinks she is doing a fucking good job. We have had some dreadful Tory ministers since 2010, but nothing to compare with this current crop of talentless chanc- ers. None of the current Cabinet would look out of place as con- testants on The Apprentice, Sunak himself included. They all have the look of small time con artists aspiring to work in retail management. Take the new Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps, about whom many former military big- hitters have expressed con- cern. Not only is he unlikely to know one end of a tank from another, Shapps looks like he really ought to be the manager VLADIMIR MCTAVISH of a branch of Carphone Warehouse in Slough. However, be- neath this unbelievably dull, bland exterior lurks a would-be snake oil salesman. A few years ago, Shapps lied in an LBC in- 26 SOLIDARITY OF A LIFETIME Hazel Marshall pays tribute to John Keenan and his contribution to the trade union movement in South Lanarkshire. John Keenan (left) with Bobby Somerville, Bob Fulton and Rolando Drago, Chilean Ambassador to the UK, during an awards ceremony in Glasgow, where the three Nae Pasaran stars received the Order of Bernard O’Higgens medals. The medals are named after one of the country’s founding fathers who freed Chile from the Spanish in the 1820s. John Keenan, the Chair of East Kilbride and South Lanarkshire time in this role alone spanned more than four decades. Trades Union Council, recently passed away at the age of 83 af- My involvement in the trade union movement is a blink of ter a short illness. John was a trade union activist all his work- an eye compared to the lifetime John contributed. His is a leg- ing life, known throughout his union, the AUEW, and the wid- acy that few others’ can compare with. Beyond that, however, er trade union movement, particularly in Scotland. As a shop I feel gratitude towards the man who was kind, gentle, and al- steward and convenor in the East Kilbride Rolls Royce plant he ways patient with those less informed than himself who sought was active on the shop floor and at a national level. As a mem- his advice and knowledge. He was always willing to listen to ber of the STUC General Council, and its President in 2006, he your opinions, and to provide an alternative theory if he felt was a respected stalwart of the movement. you needed another perspective, but he was always non-judg- John was one of the key figures in the Rolls Royce work- mental. ers’ boycott of the production of engines for Chile in 1974 that Never one to take the limelight, John was content to allow grounded most of the Chilean air force for a time, demonstrating others to step forward while he worked tirelessly on projects real solidarity with the people of Chile. John and his comrades’ that affected working people. Equally, he wouldn’t shy away solidarity became more widely known in recent years through from speaking up and imparting his knowledge in public fo- the film Nae Pasaran, and along with Bobby Sommerville and rums. In April, for International Workers Memorial Day, John Bob Fulton he was honoured by the Chilean government at a laid a wreath on behalf of the Trades Council along with STUC ceremony in Glasgow City Chambers. Vice-President Lillian Macer and other dignitaries at the me- John was an active trade unionist to the end, serving on morial outside South Lanarkshire Council HQ. Afterwards he the STUC Disabled Workers Committee, where his knowledge spoke about the Bill proposed by Mark Griffin MSP to establish of benefits and pensions was invaluable. He continued working a Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council (SEIAC). As with the Citizens Advice Bureau where he was a valued adviser, always, he was knowledgeable and able to explain to his au- dealing with benefit appeals and winning thousands of pounds dience what the key issues were. This was to be the last time I for disabled people. heard him share his wisdom on a public forum. At our Trades Council meeting the Monday after his death, Many people will write far more eloquently about John and we discussed John’s involvement and history. None of our dele- his myriad trade union achievements than I could ever do, and gates could work out how long John had actually been involved I will not attempt to do so. with the trades council. In fact, no-one could recall a time when John will be sorely missed by all in our Trades Council as he was anything other than the Chair. We worked out that his well as across the wider trade union community. 27 REIGNITING RADICAL CULTURE Neil Gray and the Variant editorial board pay tribute to Leigh French, writer and editor. Leigh French’s death on Sunday 28 May, aged 53, was a dev- ist-run project in a new free tabloid format, with Paula Larkin astating blow to his partner, family and many friends and ac- (advertising, distribution and editorial input), Ian Brotherhood quaintances. Leigh was a writer, researcher, artist and cultural (editorial assistance) and Kevin Hobbs (design). Daniel Jewes- worker, renowned as the brilliant editor of Variant magazine bury took on a co-editing role with Leigh in 2003. A wider Vari- (1996-2012). Leigh will be remembered as a tremendously vital, ant editorial group was formalised in 2011 for what would be the wickedly funny, convivial, generous, supportive and kind man final two issues. The magazine’s focus was on ‘cross-currents in whose rigorous criticality was a powerful antidote to prevailing culture’, and besides its written form it held numerous events. ‘common-sense’, whether on the right or the left. Leigh made Variant held an affinity to the radical left but challenged con- us think harder and better, whether we agreed with him or not. sensual ways of thinking on left and right alike, questioning He set a standard for non-academic research rarely matched in the very nature of what a ‘cultural magazine’ might be. If the contemporary Scottish cultural and political life. content was serious, Leigh carried it lightly: being involved in According to Leigh’s father Eric, in news that will amuse his Variant was an exercise in ‘difficult fun’, inspired by Leigh’s friends, Leigh was a ‘very strong-willed’ child. Eric was a civil playful, dissenting mode of discourse. It was a pleasure to meet technician in the RAF. The family moved from North Wales to Leigh in The State Bar or The Doublet, proudly patting a new Fife and eventually, after a marital breakup, to Darfield, South ‘hot-off-the-press’ edition of Variant while wearing a mischie- Yorkshire. There Leigh lived with his mother, Margaret, who vous grin as he contemplated the effect of the latest issue on worked as a postwoman, his younger brother, Craig, and soon the magazine’s readers. Variant was a labour of love for Leigh; his stepfather Tom, with his father living in a neighbouring vil- it is also no contradiction to say that the exploitation of artists’ lage. A teenager in South Yorkshire, Leigh remembered both the labour or cultural production was an abiding theme. solidarity and community division of the 1984-85 miners’ strike. For Leigh, art and culture were always political, always By the time Leigh finished school, students were no classed. In a contemporary Scotland where the blogosphere is longer invited to visit the pit en masse as an introduction to often consensus-affirming and anti-intellectual, Variant helped a coal-mining career. He left Darfield in 1988 to study at the to produce the theoretical grounds for genuinely radical social Slade School of Fine Art in London. The artist John Beagles, a transformation. It’s a lazy truism to say that criticism is easy, close friend and former flatmate in Hackney, said that his life but it’s much easier to follow prevailing common-sense. drawing was the finest he’d ever seen. However, Leigh rarely The quality of the magazine concealed the constrained followed an obvious path, choosing instead to specialise in circumstances of its production. When I moved to Glasgow in sculpture. He enjoyed new encounters and discussion in Lon- 2008 and got to know Leigh and others associated with Variant, don and developed lifelong friendships with other students I realised it was a kitchen space endeavour motored by huge from similar working-class backgrounds also disaffected by the amounts of enthusiasm and very little money. Without Leigh’s ‘symbolic violence’ encountered around the art student milieu. unpaid labour and dedication, it wouldn't have been possible After spending a year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, he to maintain the magazine. I have abiding memories of his spar- became a student at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in 1993, where tan but neat flat on Maryhill Road, with stacks of Variant lined he developed an avant-garde practice of critical reflection on up against the wall and Leigh ploughing into his curious diet, art and society, transgressing the individualised production of equal parts allotment vegetables turned curry, diet coke and art objects within reified art settings. ready-salted Golden Wonder crisps. This practice chimed with the first incarnation of Variant Leigh’s articles for Variant remain vital reading on the pur- magazine (1984-1994) under Malcolm Dickson’s editorship. In pose of arts funding, cultural ‘regeneration’, and the role of 1996, with William Clark, Leigh revived the magazine as an art- the critic. This work can be found in Variant's online archive 28 and deserves careful re-appraisal. In Variant’s latter years, he how much these discussions and collaborations meant to them. focused more on editing the magazine, but an article we co- Following a lengthy process of complaint, Variant received wrote for Scottish Left Review in 2010 provides a glimpse into funding from Creative Scotland to review cultural democracy in some of his ongoing concerns. ‘The Empire in Miniature' ar- Scotland, publishing in 2016, 'Divergence and Agonism', co-au- gued that the personalised ‘scandals’ associated with Stephen thored with Gesa Helms and Lisa Bradley. This was Variant’s Purcell’s fall from grace as a Labour Party City Council leader final piece of funding. In 2017, Leigh moved to Lochwinnoch were symptomatic of the city’s neoliberal politics, replete with after a new factor violently intimidated fellow residents in his an ‘elaborate system of political patronage’. For us, Purcell’s Maryhill tenement close. Contracting Covid during the first demise obscured the neoliberal restructuring and marketisa- UK wave, and struggling for a year with its long-term effects, tion of local government at public expense. This was typical the rural setting provided welcome respite, distance and air. of Leigh: dissatisfaction with topical political ephemera, and His editorial work, mentorship and support for numerous col- a stringent dissection of the material relations obscured by leagues, comrades, friends and students was then based within popular common-sense debate. This attitude was to the fore a flourishing back-yard garden in Lochwinnoch––many of the in his writing with long-term collaborator Gordon Asher on the fruits of which are now treasured by friends far-and-wide. He 2014 Scottish Referendum. ‘Crises Capitalism and Independ- maintained a close cross-border, post-Brexit relationship with ence Doctrines’, written in 2012, undermined the content and his long-term partner, Gesa, now living in Germany, welcomed form of independence as an unexamined good, shredding the guests to Lochwinnoch and regularly undertook long-haul cy- ‘plodding redundancy of positivism’ and consensus-making in cles to see friends in Glasgow and tend to Gesa’s plants in her favour of critical scrutiny, open discussion and anti-capitalist absence. Numerous plans were afoot with friends and allies, participatory democracy. not least a move to Northern Germany with Gesa and a potential Variant eventually paid for its bold critique of institutions one-off issue of Variant, so it was a major shock for us all to like the Scottish Arts Council, Glasgow Life and Creative Scot- hear of his death. land, when the latter withdrew funding in 2012. This was a major Leigh loved plotting new schemes and I will miss that blow to Leigh, wresting from him a beloved project and depriv- pleasure greatly, as will many who have worked with him over ing Scotland of its premier magazine for self-reflexive critical the years. His impact on politics and culture will be remem- cultural and political debate. Nevertheless, he continued devel- bered long after his passing. Variant is his greatest cultural and oping new projects, often involving his long-term partner, Gesa political testament. Under Leigh’s guidance, Variant was at the Helms. One was the Strickland Distribution, an artist-run group centre of much that was genuinely radical in Scottish culture (developed with former Variant associates) supporting the de- and its archive remains a treasure trove for contemporary re- velopment of independent research in art-related and non-in- searchers looking to reignite critical cultural and political de- stitutional practices; another was his PhD on Scottish cultural bate and practice. Leigh is survived by Gesa; his father, Eric; nationalism and cross-European curatorial practices on na- his mother, Margaret; and his brother Craig. His unique, pas- tionalism, for which he organised a series of events. Leigh’s sionate and forceful personality and his mischievous sense of frequent email exchanges were legendary for their care, depth humour is sorely missed by all. of discussion, and masses of links and references; and along- side his work as editor and proof-reader in Higher Education, On 21 October, Broadside Studio on Allison Street, Glasgow, will he continued doing editorial work for friends and acquaintanc- hold an event to celebrate Leigh’s life and legacy through the var- es, contributing to dissertations, articles, chapters and books, iant archive. Explore the archives and other writing and resourc- often gratis. Since Leigh’s death a host of people have stressed es at variant.org.uk. SOME MEN, FAINT-HEARTED, EVER SEEK OUR PROGRAMME TO RETOUCH, AND WILL INSIST, WHENE’ER THEY SPEAK THAT WE DEMAND TOO MUCH. ’TIS PASSING STRANGE, YET I DECLARE SUCH STATEMENTS GIVE ME MIRTH, FOR OUR DEMANDS MOST MODERATE ARE, WE ONLY WANT THE EARTH. JAMES CONNOLLY scottishleftreview.scot/donate