LAST month Unite Scotland ran a political school for young people with question and answer sessions from Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard. They were taken to a demo, and then on a walking trade union history tour of Glasgow. There were talks on the miners’ strikes, a showing of the great movie Belonging and discussions about the economic state of past and present with a mixed audience of employed, unemployed, political, non-political, unionised, non-unionised with a few more experienced colleagues thrown in for good measure. This event was a perfect way to highlight how shared experience and education really helps to put socialising into socialism. 

I have no doubt all in attendance will have walked out with more questions than answers. One of them being: why was I not taught that in school? They are right to be indignant. Why over a weekend put on by Unite are you hearing parts of history that you did not know, and another side of history you were never taught?

Paying attention to the economic systems of past and present shows us evidence that we are heading towards disaster — yet we continue along that same trajectory. Events from our history about how rights at work were won and what those basic rights consist of are absolutely necessary for working people to understand. These are basic need-to-know facts for working people and their powers when they organise which cannot be censored in our schools by the powers that be.