The Scottish National Party (SNP) has made a clear and repeated commitment to get rid of the Trident nuclear weapon system come independence. Rather than simply accepting that commitment and waiting for the happy day I believe we should be attempting to tease out what is intended.
The SNP has vigorously denied that they would engage in a ‘Dirty Trident Deal’ whereby the Trident bases on the Clyde remain operational in return for a smooth independence path and/or other goodies, such as…
Over 350 people, most of them on their bikes, gathered outside the office of the Scottish government in Edinburgh on 11 January. They came to support Stop Climate Change’s campaign to increase funding for cycling and walking instead of expensive road-building programmes that will increase Scotland’s carbon footprint.
Scotland has shown global leadership by setting the most ambitious emissions reduction targets in the world, including a target to reduce Scotland’s emissions by 42% (…
On 2 January, Scottish members of a “Stop the JNF” delegation joined trade unionists and Stop the Wall campaigners to re-plant trees as part of a new project in a previously devastated area of Palestine.
The group, which included people from a nearby refugee camp, planted 111 trees, representing the number of years since the foundation of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) which plays a key role in Israel’s policy of displacing and dispossessing Palestinians.
Non-Jewish people are…
Unsilenced, John Stewart and Dan Glass speak on aviation resistance to a US audience in San Jose University via Skype
A new US-wide activist network is to be set up to oppose the soaring growth of aviation in America.
This exciting development follows the Aviation Justice Express tour in which John Stewart and I were invited to share the great British people’s victory against Heathrow’s third runway with people in the USA. The invitation…
It is a common view in Scotland that the high road to the removal and dismantling of the UK Trident system is Scottish independence. Alex Salmond has recently given a “100%” guarantee that Trident will go once Scotland can make its own decisions.
There are concerns about this. Independence may not happen. SNP leaders are adamant that there is no question of a dirty deal where Scotland would be granted a form of independence in return for continuing to host the business end of Remnant…
The 1 October Glasgow march and rally against the cuts began and ended in rain of biblical proportions. None escaped the deluge as banners sagged, soaked within minutes of being raised, and placards (many hand- drawn) disintegrated in the hands of their creators. And, annoyingly, all this at the end of a week of remarkable warmth and sunshine!
The mobilisation was a notably diverse one. Besides the Scottish TUC, civic society was represented by a range of groups from the leftist…
The continued resistance to cuts and a wider protest against global economic injustice and the financial system has been expressed through occupations in Scotland’s main cities.
The occupations were initiated on 15 October, International Day of Action against Austerity and War. In Edinburgh, the St Andrew’s Square occupation is situated at the heart of Scotland’s financial centre, right next to the Bank of Scotland.
Meanwhile, Occupy Glasgow is sited in George Square.…
On 17 September, Glasgow’s George Square was the venue for the Make Peace Festival, organised by Scottish CND. Hundreds gathered for the event which included speakers, stalls and live music. A large selection of four hundred children’s pictures was also exhibited in the square, each inspired by the theme “Paint for Peace”.
Speakers included Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie and Bill Kidd, the Scottish Nationalist MSP. Those who came along combined to form a large CND symbol, in human…
On 17 September, students began an occupation of Edinburgh University’s George Square lecture theatre that lasted 36 hours. A hundred students were involved in the occupation, which followed the university’s announcement that tuition fees would be raised to £9,000 per annum for UK students from outwith Scotland, with Scottish students remaining exempt under Scottish law.
Standard Scottish degrees consist of four-year courses, taking the fee total to as much as £36,000. Students asked…
This year’s Coal Action Scotland Outdoor Skillshare event brought over 100 people to a gathering in rural South Lanarkshire to share skills, ideas and experiences about all aspects of life and activism, and to increase mutual capacity for effective action.
For four days, the Talamh housing co-operative became a hive of mini-projects, massive marquees, geodomes and inclusive participatory skillsharing.
The diversity of people was truly inspiring. People came to South Lanarkshire…
When London was experiencing the aftermath of looting, Edinburgh commenced its annual festival season. But the political backdrop to the explosion of sometimes nihilistic, often materialistic anger and frustration vented in England was not forgotten.
Public service union UNISON brought a “festival against cuts” to the Edinburgh Festival this year. “Mobilise, The Anti-cuts Festival” was held in an attic space in Edinburgh’s West End, hosting free events with artists and performers…
In July, the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre received a promising reply to an open letter sent to the Scottish government immediately after the Scottish elections in May. The letter was concerned with the Scottish government’s role regarding the removal of Trident and the wider debate on nuclear non-proliferation.
In the reply, Bruce Crawford MSP, the cabinet secretary for parliamentary business and government strategy, restated the government’s opposition to the possession and…
Students at the University of Glasgow are celebrating after the university’s principal Anton Muscatelli conceded defeat, so ending the longest student occupation in UK history. Hard-won concessions include a new postgraduate club, no further cuts to courses and no compulsory redundancies at the university. As part of the deal, students will be able to question the principal in a mass open meeting in October as there has been a perceived lack of transparency surrounding management decisions…
Walker is reflecting on the 1969 moon landing and the planting of the US flag. The magic of that silver disk, with its message that there are places still untainted by human greed and malice, had been diminished forever.
Many of us have the same feelings about the sea, although the illusion of freedom from contagion is even more difficult to maintain, given the quantity of plastic debris that litters all our coasts, to say nothing of our knowledge of the huge and terrible changes we…
Anarcho-punk legends Oi Polloi have been around since 1981, but recently their music's taken a completely new turn. Their latest album, Ar Ceòl, Ar CÃnan, Ar-a-mach (a pun, meaning Our Music, Our Language, Revolt) is entirely in Gaelic.
Scottish Gaelic (pronounced “gah-lick”, rather than “gay-lick”) is a minority-language based around the north-west of Scotland with about 60,000 fluent speakers and up to 100,000 with a good grasp of it.
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