MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
Home truths
JOHN FOSTER recommends the down-to-earth realism of a political memoir that navigates the surreality of Scottish politics
Jeremy Corbyn with Neil Findlay MSP during a rally at Glasgow's Crowne Plaza Hotel, where the impact of a Corbyn led Labour Government on Scotland was discussed
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
Hope and Despair: Lifting the Lid on the Murky World of Scottish Politics
Neil Findlay, Luath Press £14.99
THIS is the second volume of Neil Findlay’s account of his 10 years in the Scottish Parliament. It provides a brutal exposure of Scottish politics from 2017 to the present.
The years of hope were those between 2017 and 2020. Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto provided a programme for working class empowerment which transformed the perspectives of the Labour movement in Scotland.
The last two years, 2020-21, were those of despair. Corbyn and, in Scotland, Richard Leonard were despatched — and Labour’s new leaders made it clear they would move back towards the politics of New Labour. Then, at the same time as Covid exposed the fatal flaws in both Scotland’s social fabric and its current political institutions, the SNP imploded.
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
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
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 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
