As usual in the echo chamber that passes for political discussion in Britain, comparatively insignificant events can assume a disproportionate presence. Take the recent Hamilton by-election, for example.
The result (Scottish Labour won, in case you weren’t paying attention) was treated as thunder clap from the political gods. The anointed one, Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar, is now to be installed in his rightful place in the forthcoming 2026 Scottish elections as Prince of Neoliberalism (First Minister) displacing the pretender that is John Swinney, who is just not managing capitalism well enough — if you are to believe Labour pundits.

Keep Left, Red Paper on Scotland 2025, Westminster Launch
Wednesday 9th July 6.30- 8.30
Houses of Parliament, Westminster Committee Room 8 (entry through Cromwell Green)

In the introduction to the 1975 Red paper on Scotland Gordon Brown made a powerful case, that unless there was a challenge to the dominance of global market forces Scotland’s economy would be akin to that of a colony – high levels of external control, absentee decision makers and subsidiary technology. Who knew that as UK Chancellor Brown would hasten that problem across the whole UK.

Speakers:
Chair: Lynn Henderson Chief of Staff (operational) at PCS, Chair of the Electoral Reform Society and the Jimmy Reid Foundation
Costas Lapavitsas Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, served as a member of the Greek Parliament.
John McDonnell MP for Hayes and Harlington, Shadow Chancellor 2015 2020
Pauline Bryan Scottish Labour Peer, Convener of the Red Paper Collective. Campaigns for the abolition of the House of Lords and for a Senate of the Nations and Regions.
You can register here: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/resist-capitalism-internationally-in-the-uk-and-in-its-nations-and-regions-tickets-1412540178699 

Once you have registered we will be in touch. 

It was a win that was literally against the odds: Labour’s Davy Russell snatching victory from the jaws of universal pundit condescension. The result shows an impressive organisational strength on the part of Scottish Labour, it also illustrates a serious political weakness; and while it was certainly a defeat for the SNP, with Reform getting over a quarter of the vote – the real losers might be all of us.
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The Scottish Parliament which came being in 1999, however much it may have been portrayed as an expression of national self-determination was in fact an effort to manage the fracturing of Britain that increasing de-industrialisation and neo-liberalism had brought about. 

THIS is my favourite period in the labour movement calendar, albeit it kicks off with a sombre event, International Workers’ Memorial Day, when we remember those killed for corporate profit while trying to make a living, and rededicate ourselves to improve health and safety at work.

The recent local elections demonstrate that these ‘socially conservative and economically leftist’ factions prioritise only the former, and legitimise the far-right instead of beating them.

​Scotland is facing a political, democratic and economic crisis likely to deepen as the far-right gains momentum. On the 50th anniversary of Gordon Brown’s Red Paper on Scotland, a new book seeks to address this crisis. Visit the Red Paper stall at the May Day Rally in Glasgow University Union, 32 University Avenue, Glasgow.

This year marks half a century since Brown, then a PHD student at Edinburgh University edited a series of essays by politicians, commentators academics, artists and trade unionists which, in his words sought “to transcend that false and sterile antithesis which has been manufactured between the nationalism of the SNP and the anti-nationalism of the Unionist parties” and in doing so would address the social and economic woes facing the country. The book included contributions from amongst others, Robin Cook, Jim Sillars, Tom Nairn, Vince Cable and playwright John McGrath.
 
To coincide with this anniversary a new book: “Keep Left, Red Paper on Scotland 2025” has been launched  at the STUC congress.
 
In a marked contrast to the original book which did not carry a single contribution by a woman, this edition is edited by Baroness Pauline Bryan and contains contributions from a wide range of figures on the left of Scottish politics including trade unionists, academics, activists and performing artists. 

The book addresses a number of current and recurring themes including; Scotland’s democratic crisis, over-centralisation, outsourcing, the loss of democratic control, the crises in our public services such as housing and social care, the damage caused to the education system, Scotland’s colonisation by big business, poverty and inequality, environmental degradation, cultural commodification and an increasingly fragmented society and wider world.
 
Speaking at the launch Pauline Bryan said: “In 1975 the authors of the original Red Paper argued that ‘Scotland’s problems arise from the uneven and uncontrolled development of British capitalism and that the way forward lies in pursuing vigorous socialist policies’ tragically many of those problems that were written about then remain today - a lack of genuine democracy, the excessive power and influence of multinational corporations and the dominance of overseas capital all of which contribute to a society and economy that is failing the people.
 
We are being let down by the UK state and the Scottish state. This book looks to set out a radical alternative to redress the balance so that power, wealth and opportunity are redistributed, unshackling workers and communities to build a society for the many not the privileged few.”