Common Sense
The consistently inspiring Variant has a new edition out (read it here).It includes an interview with John Holloway, author of Changing the World Without Taking Power (2002) and Crack Capitalism Pluto Press (2010).… Read More
Monthly Archive: May, 2011
The Gruniad, Britishness and its One-Faced Janus…
By Lallands Peat Worrier For those who keep an eye on the London-based UK press, its collective reaction to this month’s Holyrood result has been rather queer, particularly in the comment section. Without… Read More
Gil Scott-Heron: The Wisdom of Anger
By Mike Small I’m gutted to hear that Gil Scott-Heron, the American musician and poet, has died at the age of just 62. Described as the “Godfather of Rap”, a title he apparently… Read More
Report from the Scottish Independence Convention
Kevin Williamson, Secretary of the Scottish Independence Convention, reports on a lively meeting held in the Scottish Parliament building last night. The first post-election meeting of the Scottish Independence Convention was packed out… Read More
Where Now for Scottish Labour?
By John McAllion The SNP’s crushing electoral victory has changed Britain’s political union for ever. Whatever else now happens, the constitutional and political status quo is no longer an option. The Scottish Parliament’s… Read More
What’s Going On?
First up from our occasional series of assorted & haphazard shtuffwhatshappening…is our own NeuReekie…Friday 27 May…Scottish Books Trust, Trunk’s Close, 55 High Street, The Capital. Here’s the blurb: “Neu! Reekie! is a night… Read More
End of the World: Not Many Affected
By Christopher Harvie If you were looking at Thursday 19 May’s evening news on BBC Scotland, hoping to see details of the Cabinet changes, and blinked, you’d miss them. They came after a… Read More
Which Way Forward?
Mhairi McAlpine (West Glasgow SSP) writes: My excitement at the implications of the national election result on May 5th, has been tempered over the last few weeks with the realisation that, despite a… Read More
Joan McAlpine: Time to change Auntie’s Anglocentric channel
In today’s Scotsman, Joan McAlpine MSP, argues that the BBC has failed to come to terms with devolution and its programming proves how far from fit for purpose it is for Scots. Just… Read More
This is not who we are
Imagine, writes Robin McAlpine, the Scottish people as if they are a Peter Howson portrait, all simmering anger and grimy masculinity, a crowd scene of shared mistrust, the washed-out neutral tones of a… Read More
The Weekend Starts Here: Win a Scottish Spring T-shirt
The last few weeks have taken their toll on the Bella Caledonia team so we’re having the weekend off. I know, how dare we, the world keeps spinning. But before we down tools… Read More
Iain Banks & The Culture
In an article first published in Democratic Green Socialist, Steve Arnott takes a personal look at the ‘Culture’ novels of Iain Banks and argues that sceptics of the genre are missing out on… Read More
North and South, Ecology and Justice
With neoliberalism on a down slope and a new era of South-South cooperation dawning, this is the most favorable historical moment in decades to retake the endeavor of Third World militance and solidarity.
The Socialist Left and the Scottish Election
By James Doleman You do not need to be a psephologist to realise that the Socialist Left* in Scotland did not, to say the least, have a triumphant 2011 Holyrood election campaign. The… Read More
Independence Lite?
By Pat Kane (from Thoughtland) It’s fair to say – along with the not-so-gentle student arm-twisting of a newly elected representative for the South of Scotland region – that the veteran SNP grandee… Read More
Donald Dewar’s Glasses
By Gordon Darroch Donald Dewar will be remembered, among other things, as the last Labour figure whom Scots looked upon with any real sense of affection. After his sudden death, while the Parliament… Read More
Altered State
By Mike Small “We have given ourselves the permission to be ambitious.” More than anything among a barrage of new sensations (collective relief, delight, and unbridled optimism) it was the sense of the… Read More
A Scottish Spring
This is about more than one election result. This is about a deep, long-term transformation of Scotland which has been occurring for decades. From the age of Labour identification, and seeing the world in terms of workplace politics and class. Away from the visceral anti-Nationalist politics which shaped so much of urban Scotland for so long. And towards a new era of SNP support, identity politics and sense of national purpose.
It Was the Scottish People Wot Won It
By Kate Higgins What will it take for the opposition parties to “get it”. Even as Alex Salmond was arriving in his helicopter at Prestonfield House to claim victory, Annabel Goldie was on… Read More
It’s A New Dawn, It’s A New Day
Scotland has shown that it is no longer content to be a second-class satellite of a union that is built on a global city and a depressed, and increasingly unloved hinterland. Now is the time to start defining what it wants to be instead.
