Scotland’s rapidly growing support for Reform UK is the result of a profound crisis of trust in mainstream politics — one that progressives share, and must harness, writes DEREK THOMSON
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Tommy Campbell, Jon Lansman... and Tunnock's teacakes
The Morning Star Scotland editor reports on his week
Retiring trade union stalwart Tommy Campbell flanked by Unite Scotland secretary Pat Rafferty (left) and the union's assistant general secretary Tony Burke
COLL McCAIL rejects the Scottish Establishment’s attempt at an ‘elite lockout’ of Reform UK and says the unions should be wary of co-option by their class enemies in Holyrood just to keep one set of austerity-mongers in power instead of Reform UK
That Scotland was an active participant and beneficiary of colonialism and slavery is not a question of blame games and guilt peddling, but a crucial fact assessing the class nature of the questions of devolution and independence, writes VINCE MILLS
The devastating impact of austerity has left Scotland’s education system on its knees, argues ANDREA BRADLEY, urging politicians to show courage by increasing wealth taxation to fund our schools properly
On the 80th anniversary of liberation from Nazi-fascism, left forces in Italy mobilise against genocide, armament, and the Meloni government, reports ANA VRACAR
After a ruinous run at Tolkien, the streaming platforms are moving on to Narnia — a naff mix of religious allegory, colonial attitudes, and thinly veiled prejudices that is beyond rescuing, writes STEPHEN ARNELL
YOU KNOW you’ve done a service to the movement when your retirement do is as well attended as Tommy Campbell’s last Saturday night in Aberdeen. The crowd at the Copthorne Hotel included Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke — all the way from London — and other union top brass like Unite Scotland secretary Pat Rafferty (pictured with Campbell). But there were countless others whose names wouldn’t be in the Morning Star on a regular basis, but who had turned out because they’d equally seen the service Campbell did for workers over 50 years, originally in Enniskillen and Belfast, and latterly in the Granite City. Equally, he couldn’t have done it without them. As Campbell said in his interview with the Morning Star last weekend, it’s the shop stewards who are the “real heroes” of Aberdeen’s labour movement, “and the workers who support them in that role.”
A PLEASURE too to welcome Momentum founder Jon Lansman to Glasgow the following day, and introduce him to the delights of Calabash, Glasgow’s finest African restaurant. Lansman faces vitriol on a daily basis from rightwingers who accuse him of putting faction before party, while getting called a sell-out by a few leftwingers on the late night typewriter. Hot takes, but both are misguided. I may be biased — I worked with Jon for several years running the Left Futures website — but a figure more committed to achieving socialism in our lifetime I’ve yet to meet. His lack of personal career ambition in politics is his most striking feature — and, I’m in no doubt, why so many on the right feel threatened by him. For those of us on the left, it’s worth remembering that a few disagreements shouldn’t be reason to forget we’re working for the same cause.
ARISE, Sir Boyd. Teacake magnate Archibald Boyd Tunnock, of Uddingston, is to be knighted for “services to business and to charity.” Would those services include his donation last year — initially anonymous — of a six-figure Rolls Royce to Glasgow City Council? The Lord Provost added insult to injury through accepting the gift at a time when the council was still claiming it couldn’t find the money to settle equal pay claims for thousands of women workers. As the dark knight rises, I can’t help feel this gong takes the caramel wafer…
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