Scotland

The Scottish Defence League – an offshoot of the English Defence League – is planning to stage a demonstration – or rally, or some sort of protest – in Glasgow on Saturday 14 November. The EDL has been able to mobilise several hundreds for protests which it claims are against political Islam (but not ordinary Muslims) and the government’s alleged ‘softness’ on Islamist movements. It has also publicly distanced itself from the BNP (just as the BNP has distanced itself from the EDL). As elsewhere in the UK these people mean different things to different people. In practice, it functions as a...

This pamphlet explains how Scottish nationalism came into being, how it was shaped by economic and political developments and how it has, unfortunately, shaped the workers movement. Most of the left in Scotland present a distorted view of Scottish history tailored to support arguments in favour of independence. “The pro-independence Scottish left has gutted the history of post-Union Scotland of its real historical content and replaced it with a mixture of recycled leftovers of Jacobite anti-Union propaganda and contemporary ‘anti-imperialist’ verbiage.” It serves as an ideological...

In mid-July up to 20,000 people marched through Kilmarnock in opposition to Diageo’s plans to shut down its Johnnie Walker bottling plant in the town, at a cost of 700 jobs, and to shut down its Port Dundas grain distillery in Glasgow at the cost of another 200 jobs. From the platform at the closing rally great speeches were given by politicians from all the major parties pledging their support for the campaign to keep the bottling plant open. A government-led task force, involving elected representatives from across the political spectrum, trade union leaders, and civil servants from Scottish...

On Sunday 26 July, up to 20,000 according to press reports, marched against the threatened closure of the Diageo bottling plant in Kilmarnock. It was a massive display of opposition to the company’s plans. Diageo is the world’s biggest drinks company, with a worldwide workforce of 22,000. Its brands include Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Smirnoff and Captain Morgan. Its profits over the last decade have averaged £2 billion a year. In the twelve months to July of this year, its pre-tax profits amounted to £2.093 billion. Diageo’s Chief Executive, Paul Walsh, was paid a total package of over £3.6...

By Stan Crooke “Scotland’s Hidden History” is the title of a historical vignette which currently graces the website of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). And what truly sorry reading it makes. The piece of “hidden” Scottish history so miraculously unearthed and brought to light through the medium of the SSP website is none other than – Red Clydeside! Red Clydeside is the expression popularly used to describe Glasgow in the years between approximately 1915 and 1922. Given the plethora of historical studies which they have given rise to, the events which lie behind this expression can hardly be...

At 28.6% the turn-out for the Euro-elections in Scotland was not only lower than in 2004 (30.75%) but also lower than last week’s overall turn-out at an all-British level (slightly under 33%). The turn-out reflected the level of campaigning: in the weeks leading up to 4th June there was little visible sign that elections were pending. Voters received election leaflets from – some of – the parties through the Royal Mail. And there was the occasional public meeting or street stall. Otherwise, there was very little sign of ‘traditional’ election campaigning. The big loser in the elections was the...

Does it make any sense for socialists to pitch their tent in the camp of Scottish independence? This pamphlet tries to shed light on this question by examining the history of Scotland since 1707. Download as pdf or order online here. What were the driving forces behind the Treaty of Union of 1707? Was Scotland a victim of the British Empire or an equal partner in the imperial enterprise? What were the conflicting forces which shaped the Scottish workers’ movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? Why was the Scottish labour movement so inconsistent in its attitude towards Home Rule...

In Scotland No2EU is backed not only by the Communist Party of Britain (CPB, the “Morning Star” faction of British Stalinism) but also by “Solidarity Scotland” (launched after its core membership split from the Scottish Socialist Party in 2006). Despite a scattering of branches round Scotland, “Solidarity Scotland” is more a flag of convenience than a cohesive political movement. The two socialist organisations which still support it, on paper at least, are the Socialist Party (SP) and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Unlike the SP, however, the SWP does not currently support No2EU. This...

“The delegation ended its visit with a strong sense of the injustice and human rights violations experienced on a daily basis by ordinary Palestinians,” states the recently published “Report of the Scottish TUC Delegation to Palestine and Israel, 28th February – 7th March 2009”. And it’s easy to see why the eleven trade unionists, a mixture of STUC officials and members of affiliated unions, felt such a strong sense of injustice by the end of their visit. In Jerusalem they met with victims of forced evictions and other discriminatory policies carried out by the Israeli authorities in the east...

Colin Kidd’s “Union and Unionisms” is a 300-page-long deconstruction of many of the myths surrounding the historical origins and political features of unionism in Scotland. At the risk of over-simplification, there are essentially three strands to the book: the historical origins and development of unionism; unionism and Scottish institutions; and Scottish nationalism as a form of unionism. Scottish unionism, writes Kidd, is sometimes seen as un-Scottish: “The ultimate provenance of this lap-dog ideology lies in an English desire to control the whole island of Britain, an alien cause which...