The Green Brigade
After a week of debate about the Green Brigade and (almost) universal media condemnation, we publish a different view. We think its crucial that the Green Brigade are attempting to Continue reading
Bella Caledonia
It's time to get above ourselves
Go Lassies Go
Women don’t need to be passive and risk averse. When convinced of the cause, there’s no holding them back. If that cause is independence, the only fair future for Scotland, they can be in the vanguard.
Upcoming Events
John Holloway at University of Glasgow Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movements Tuesday 16th November, 2010. John Holloway (Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla in Mexico) Crack Capitalism: Continue reading
The Republic of Hope
To conclude (but not close) our week long celebration of women writers - we’re delighted to publish a handful of poems by Lorna Waite, from her forthcoming collection The Steel Garden. Continue reading
Independent Women 2
By Lena the Hyena My initial response to reading Caitlin O’Hara’s piece, Independent Women, was where is the breakdown of figures showing women’s support for independence? What exactly are we Continue reading
Bevvy Merchants
By Kate Higgins I’ve spent 12 years now being up close and personal with the Scottish Parliament and engaged in more legislative processes than I care to remember. Some were fruitful, Continue reading
Scotland Deformed?
By Kirsten Stirling The label “Bella Caledonia” below the portrait of the main character on p. 45 of Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things (1992) – surely familiar to readers of this Continue reading
Independent Women
By Caitlin O’Hara I have been slagging the editors of this site for months that it is more ‘ Blokey Caledonia’ than Bella, and I’m afraid they’ve called my bluff. Continue reading
Cop Outs and Cuts
Stopping Trident is one cut the British state is not prepared to make. We will forever cling blindly to our nuclear juju. Our sacrosanct national fetish will remain eternally inviolable. However, to make this act of faith, we must first stifle our own sense of human sympathy or compassion. Only when we have killed the humanity in ourselves, can we then countenance the mass killing of other human beings. Thus, in essence, we are our first nuclear victims.
Positively Independent
What’s the point of independence? Opponents routinely portray the independence movement as being about ‘divorce’ ‘break-up’ and separation. Those within it see it as an opening future – a path Continue reading
The Power of Scotland
Last year a report The Power of Scotland Renewed (you can read it here) showed the amazing potential Scotland has for conversion to renewable energy. The Power of Scotland Renewed Continue reading
Ideological Incapacity
Welfare is a complex subject. Yet, some welfare facts are brutally simple. Around 2.5 million people on IB are a testimony to the fact that the experience of living and working under a decaying British capitalism has proven damaging to the health of many. Respiratory illnesses from damp housing, smoking, or poor working conditions; heart-conditions; arthritis; cancer and other diseases; muscular injuries; and a vast range of mental health problems – all make it hard for people to work; and all have added to numbers on IB.
Michael Albert Interview
Michael Albert, along with Robin Hahnel, is one of the main developers of the idea of Participatory Economics, or Parecon. He is the co-founder of ZMagazine and South End Press Continue reading
No Shock Doctrine for Scotland
By Mike Small “Margaret Thatcher is lying sick in a private hospital bed in Belgravia but her political children have just pushed her agenda further and harder and deeper than Continue reading
Keep Cornwall Whole
By Ray Bell. We may or may not agree with the idea behind a hunger strike. Almost all of us, however, would agree that such an action is an extreme Continue reading
If You Have a Racist Friend
While we have idiots like Labours Michael McCann, while we have the far-right operating amongst the orange disorder, Sarkozy expelling the Roma and a German leader like Merkel spouting forth, we are in dangerous times. While we remain tied to the racist British State its essential we make clear a different approach. It’s vital that here in Scotland we articulate a progression vision for our country.
Who Stole Scotland?
‘Show the people that our Old Nobility is not noble, that its lands are stolen lands – stolen either by force or fraud; show people that the title-deeds are rapine, murder, massacre, cheating, or court harlotry; dissolve the halo of divinity that surrounds the hereditary title; let the people clearly understand that our present House of Lords is composed largely of descendants of successful pirates and rogues; do these things and you shatter the Romance that keeps the nation numb and spellbound while privilege picks its pocket.’
Michael Albert Preview – for Doc8 Glasgow
Glasgow and Scotland has a considerable scoop in organising for Michael Albert to speak as part of the Doc 8 festival. Albert formed with Robin Hahnel the idea of PARECON Continue reading
Transition Before Transition, Colin Ward: A Life in Review
By Jamie Heckert Colin Ward’s writing, spanning three decades and twenty-seven books, focus on recognising the low-input alternatives which already exist and which can help inspire transitions to more resilient Continue reading
Generation Less
Douglas Coupland, author of Generation X, and A, chronicler of the internet era, codifier of minutaie of disaffected sects, neologist and cultural entrepreneur sets out his notes for the future. Continue reading
State of The Art / Staid Na h-Ealain
After recent discussion on gaelic culture revival (and anti-gaelic trends) we wanted to reflect on other recent positive developments, in particular a conference that brought together researchers focusing on the Continue reading
Crises of Capitalism
David Harvey’s must-see animated lecture on the crisis of capitalism.
Live Events Preview – October/November
We’re not sure to be delighted or frustrated that there are two radical book fairs happening in Scotland at the same time. Is this evidence that neither end of the Continue reading
Scottish football: When does the revolution begin?
Perhaps now is the time for Scottish coaches at every level to forget about Jimmy Johnstone and start encouraging the most talented kids in a team to perfect their passing and movement; show their team mates how to pass through teams rather than run with the ball at defenders. The greedy wee shites who try to beat everyone on their own and only look up to pass when they run into trouble are holding back kids football and at higher levels.
Ed’s Redness
“Mr Miliband’s problem is that while his message will go down well in Labour heartlands such as Scotland, the election is won elsewhere, in England”.
Demonstration Effects: Reclaiming Scotland Part 2
By Donald Adamson In February 1998, William Hague, at the time the new leader of the Conservative party, made a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies in London which Continue reading
Bad Language & Dodo Journalism
In 2006, the £4 million Glasgow Gaelic School (the cost equivalent to one mile of a two-lane road) threw open its doors in the city’s west end to a mere Continue reading
Gosh, I Got It Wrong……..
By Brian Quail In the sort of words never to be uttered by Margaret Thatcher or her successor Tony Blair, let me say out loud and clear: Sometimes I get Continue reading
Let the People Decide?
By Mike Small This is in part a response to Jeff’s piece over at the brand new Better Nation (is there room for some kind of ‘Alasdair Gray inspires Scottish Continue reading
Gullibles Travels
In 1987 the Gruniad started an article describing Tony Blair like this: “A man without a shadow”; a “pleasant man with a pleasant family living in a pleasant North London house”; a bright, telegenic, yet elusive politician with a “smooth facade.” How prescient they were. But fast forward thirty years and poor Tony pitches up in Dublin expecting rapture and got pelters. If it’s A Journey we’ve all been along for the ride.
