Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER
Alex Salmond: a transformative but limited political legacy
JOHN FOSTER examines how the late SNP leader shifted the party leftwards and upwards, bringing Scottish independence to the forefront while fundamentally failing to address deeper issues of class and corporate capture
Alex Salmond speaks at the SNP conference in Glasgow, October 14, 2016
A judge in a German court ruled that the ban activity imposed on renowned Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah was unlawful, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
From Gaza protest bans to proscribing Palestine Action, political elites are showing a crisis of confidence as they abandon Roy Jenkins’s apologetic approach for Suella Braverman’s aggressive ‘hate march’ rhetoric, writes PAUL DONOVAN
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
The summer of 1950 saw Labour abandon further nationalisation while escalating Korean War spending from £2.3m to £4.7m, as the government meekly accepted capitalism’s licence and became Washington’s yes-man, writes JOHN ELLISON
DURING his two periods as SNP leader, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014, Alex Salmond transformed Scottish and, thereby, British politics. In doing so, he helped ensure that Britain’s character as a multinational state could no longer be ignored.
What led to this transformation? Salmond was a forceful and charismatic speaker. He could read his audiences — whether trade unionists or bankers. But it was his politics that were key. They transformed the SNP.
In the 1930s, the SNP had been a right-wing, and sometimes very right-wing, party representing a mixture of romantics, eccentric aristocrats and minority elements within what used to be called the petty bourgeoisie — but it was squeezed to virtual non-existence between a dominant Unionist Party, that harvested a significant Orange vote, and a challenging and relatively radical Labour Party.
More from this author
Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER
Ahead of a TUC special Congress next weekend to fight Conservative anti-strike laws, JOHN FOSTER looks back to 1969 and 1972 when similar proposals were defeated through class solidarity and painstaking organising work
JOHN FOSTER recommends the down-to-earth realism of a political memoir that navigates the surreality of Scottish politics
JOHN FOSTER discusses the role of communists in responding to the aggressive militarisation initiated by the US in a world that faces an unprecedented period of acute crisis, as he introduces the international resolution for this autumn's Communist Party Congress
