Seventeen years after losing her council job due to needing endometriosis surgery, Michelle Dewar’s campaign for paid menstrual leave gained 50,000 signatures in a week, reports ELIZABETH SHORT

BOB GILLESPIE who died on April 12 aged 85, was a staunch trade unionist and socialist, well-known and respected in the Scottish trade union and labour movement.
From humble beginnings he became a national officer of the print unions Sogat and GPMU.
Born in 1937, Robert Pollock Gillespie was evacuated to Ayrshire with his mother during the second world war. His father was an infantryman serving overseas.

TONY BURKE revels in the publication of previously unreleased tracks by the great US folksinger

This is a remarkable set of hop hip, salsa, reggae, soul, cumbia and traditional Mexican music finds TONY BURKE

New releases from Madalitso Band, Gabriel da Rosa, and Femi Kuti

A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens