Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
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Why Scotland needs public ownership
Just because Labour lost the election does not mean the Scottish labour movement can afford not to fight for its agenda of nationalisation, writes JOHN FOSTER
BEN CHACKO speaks with Knesset member OFER CASSIF about rising political violence, the prospects for peace and his continuous ‘silencing by suspension’
The City is leaning on Rachel Reeves to cut welfare spending — when what’s needed is cuts to all the benefits given to the mega rich, corporations and banks to help them not pay or blatantly dodge their fair share of tax, explains BERNIE EVANS
The choice between two Blairites to revamp the tepid centrism of our ruling party doesn’t even come as cold comfort as we wander the city streets suffering from their third decade of austerity and the fifth of wage stagnation, writes MATT KERR
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
HENRY FOWLER puts the strike of public-sector workers in New Zealand in the wider context of deteriorating employment conditions throughout the world’s major economies
MAT COWARD looks back at a protest 105 years ago this month, whose reporting by the media bears uncomfortable similarities with demos today
JOBS continue to be lost across Scotland. Within the last six months Cummings has announced the closure of its engine works in Cumbernauld and Devro has shut its manufacturing plant in Bellshill. In the banking sector the Bank of Scotland has announced a further 15 branch closures, Virgin Money seven and TSB seventeen. BiFab is reducing its three Scottish sites to a care and maintenance basis and IBM has put its 49 East Kilbride IT staff, contracted to Scottish Power, on notice.
All these firms have one thing in common. They are owned and controlled from outside Scotland. Twenty years ago at least some were still run from within Scotland: Devro, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Power.
Last year also saw the much more high-profile closure of the historic Caley rail workshops in Springburn. At that point the firm was ultimately owned by a German holding company, Mutares, that specialises in what is described as “equity engineering.” This is not engineering as you or I know it. It is about “engineering” firms — buying them, stripping assets, merging, concentrating and if possible securing monopoly niches for particular products.
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As bus builder Alexander Dennis threatens Falkirk closure and Grangemouth faces ruthless shutdown by tax exile Jim Ratcliffe, RICHARD LEONARD MSP warns that global corporations must be resisted by a bold industrial strategy based on public ownership
Ministers urged to nationalise North Sea fossil fuels to prevent massive taxpayer bailout and a just transition when the reserves run dry
Keir Starmer’s BlackRock enthusiasm is a clear give-away for Tory continuity plans, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
The left must call out the fact that BlackRock and private billionaires have merged with the state apparatus as our leaders abandon any pretence of there being a ‘free market’ for direct and overt corporate control, writes JOE GILL