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Scotland

UK refusal to accept Scotland’s supply of haemophilia drugs resulted in thousands of deaths

By Robert Stevens, 4 January 2020

Blood supplied from contaminated sources led to thousands of people being infected with diseases such as hepatitis and HIV, and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in the UK.

Scottish court authorises eviction of Glasgow asylum seekers by Serco

By Steve James, 23 November 2019

Dorrian’s ruling is an example of class justice, upholding Serco’s interests against vulnerable, stressed and insecure people.

Glasgow helicopter crash inquiry scapegoats pilot

By Steve James, 16 November 2019

After six years waiting, the verdict of a Fatal Accident Inquiry has pinned responsibility for the Clutha helicopter crash solely on the aircraft’s pilot, David Traill, who was one of those killed.

Scotland records highest drug fatality rate in the UK

By Stephen Alexander, 15 August 2019

The deaths from drug overdoses have fallen disproportionately on poor, urban areas of the former industrial working class.

Scottish National Party supports the witch-hunting of Julian Assange

By Steve James, 20 July 2019

The statements of Scottish National Party representatives on the hounding and torture of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange make clear the party supports his jailing and extradition.

Scottish government threatens to seize Irish fishing vessels

By Steve James, 12 June 2019

Last week, the Irish government received a formal letter of notice of the Scottish government’s intention to seize Irish fishing vessels operating within 12 miles of Rockall.

London meeting to free Assange and Manning

Attendees from Scotland speak out: “Workers have to make their voices heard”

By our reporters, 18 May 2019

Audience members at livestream viewings in Scotland of the SEP’s May 12 London meeting in defence of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning spoke to the WSWS.

Local authority funding cuts worsen poverty and social inequality in Scotland

By Stephen Alexander, 9 May 2019

Scottish local authorities are imposing further cuts and increasing charges on vital services.

Scotland: Union suppresses teachers strike as lecturers fight on

By Darren Paxton, 24 April 2019

The teachers dispute has been closed down, but lecturers and education staff fight on.

Former leader Alex Salmond’s arrest threatens to tear Scottish National Party apart

By Steve James, 26 January 2019

Whatever the outcome of the legal case against Salmond, the SNP is being torn apart by factional infighting.

Scottish teachers balloted for strike action in pay dispute

By Darren Paxton, 23 January 2019

Teachers in Scotland are demanding a 10 percent pay increase, having rejected on several occasions the Scottish government’s offer of a paltry 3 percent.

Scottish lecturers expand strike for pay claim

By our correspondents, 18 January 2019

Lecturers are demanding a 2.5 percent increase, which merely covers for inflation, against an offer from the employers group Colleges Scotland of 0.9 percent.

Scottish teachers overwhelmingly reject pay offer

By our reporter, 23 November 2018

The Scottish government, local authorities, teaching and local government unions are desperate to avoid strikes, and above all to prevent a united offensive by teachers and council workers.

Scotland: Michelin plans closure of Dundee plant with loss of 845 jobs

Rank-and file organisations needed to organise fight-back

By Steve James, 17 November 2018

French-based transnational Michelin’s decision to close its Dundee tyre manufacturing plant poses workers with the challenge of creating new organisations of struggle.

Tens of thousands of teachers demonstrate in Glasgow for better pay

By Robert Stevens, 29 October 2018

The demonstration was far larger than the EIS anticipated and shows the desire of teachers to fight back against pay cuts.

Thousands strike in Glasgow for equal pay

“The council seem to think they can do what they want and get away with it”

By our reporters, 25 October 2018

Workers maintained picket lines at many of the city’s schools, museums, cleansing depots and libraries.

Thousands of workers in Glasgow plan strike for equal pay

By Steve James, 23 October 2018

Eight thousand poorly-paid, mostly women workers are due to strike October 23 and 24 in a long-running dispute with Glasgow City Council and its care services agency.

Scottish National Party proposes pact with Labour for second Brexit referendum

By Steve James, 15 October 2018

The SNP is proposing support for a Labour government in the UK based on demands for a rerun of the 2016 Brexit vote.

Alex Salmond resigns from Scottish National Party

By Julie Hyland, 31 August 2018

Salmond led the SNP for more than 20 years and is identified as the key figure in the push for Scotland’s independence from the UK.

Scotland: Protests force Serco to halt asylum seeker evictions

By Steve James, 14 August 2018

Serco wrote to Glasgow City Council of its intention to evict “former Asylum Seekers who do not wish to engage in voluntary return, and who the Home Office have determined have no legal right to remain in the UK.”

Hundreds of asylum seekers face imminent eviction in Glasgow

By Stephen Alexander, 4 August 2018

Serco has already issued six “lock change notices,” giving asylum seekers just seven days to vacate its property.

Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh building destroyed by fire fuelled by profit

By Steve James, 19 June 2018

Within hours, the British and Scottish governments refused to call a public inquiry into a fire which has reduced to ashes—for the second time in four years—a much loved and culturally significant public building.

Engineering workers occupy three BiFab yards in Scotland

By Darren Paxton and Sandy Campbell, 23 December 2017

Although workers effectively took control of the yards, the GMB and Unite trade unions were at pains to insist the action was a “work-in.”

Scottish National Party backs European Union over Catalonia

By Steve James, 14 November 2017

The SNP has avoided any criticism of EU support for the brutal crackdown by the Spanish government against the Catalan national movement.

SEP national secretary proposes “Capitalism Has Failed” at St Andrews University Union Debating Society

By our reporter, 7 November 2017

Chris Marsden, the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Britain, won substantial support for the proposition that capitalism is an “abject failure.”

Director of British rights group Cage convicted for refusing to reveal mobile phone and laptop pass codes

By Steve James, 4 October 2017

The conviction of Muhammed Rabbani underscores the significance of recent investigations into massive mobile phone surveillance in Britain by local police forces.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale quits

By Steve James, 25 September 2017

Dugdale’s career points to the hollowed-out character of Labour and leader Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to wage a struggle against the party’s right-wing.

Grenfell Tower: How the warnings of cladding dangers were ignored

By Steve James, 10 August 2017

Decades prior to the Grenfell fire, the dangers of flammable and incorrectly installed cladding were known to governments of all stripes and ignored.

Scottish National Party seeks pro-European Union pact with Labour

By Steve James, 7 June 2017

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is likely to emerge as the largest party in Scotland following the June 8 general election in the UK.

Royal Bank of Scotland seeks to avoid High Court action by shareholders

By Jean Shaoul, 27 May 2017

Former senior RBS executives have never had to make a public account of the events leading up to the bank’s collapse in 2008, when it was rescued by then Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The strange rebirth of the Conservative Party in Scotland

By Steve James, 18 May 2017

Following the local elections, the Labour Party in Scotland has fallen into third place, trailing the ruling SNP and the Tories.

Striking college lecturers protest outside of Scottish parliament

By Stephen Alexander, 29 April 2017

Despite almost a decade of swingeing education cuts, the EIS resisted any national action up until last year, when a few one-day stoppages took place.

Scottish college lecturers walk out over pay and conditions

By Stephen Alexander, 27 April 2017

The lecturers' strike must be seen in the context of growing unrest among workers in every sector of the economy after a decade of austerity.

Britain’s pseudo-left promotes Kurdish YPG militia volunteer Brace Belden as University of Glasgow Rector

By Stephen Alexander, 5 April 2017

The Kurdish YPG militias function as a proxy force of the imperialist powers in the brutal US-instigated war for regime change in Syria.

Pseudo-left groups champion Scottish National Party’s independence referendum demand

By Chris Marsden, 20 March 2017

Access to the European Single Market is the sole genuine concern of the Scottish National Party’s business backers, and it is one shared by broad sections of big business throughout the UK.

Scotland: Thousands protest in Edinburgh against Trump’s attacks on migrants

By Steve James, 13 February 2017

Scotland Against Trump put forward no perspective to mobilise the working class against the most right-wing, anti-democratic government ever elected in US history.

UK: Janitors and IT workers at Glasgow City Council face common struggle

By Minnie Watson, 7 January 2017

Unison aims to keep the Glasgow disputes separate from the identical threats facing the numerous council workers and Unison members in every single local authority in Britain.

Brexit seized on by Scottish government to mount new power grab

By Steve James, 28 December 2016

The Scottish National Party government are hoping to directly benefit from the Brexit debacle by laying claim to additional powers for the Scottish parliament.

Royal Bank of Scotland accused of corrupt practices with small business investors

By Jean Shaoul, 26 October 2016

In 2008, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling took an 83 percent stake in RBS, pumping in £45 billion of taxpayers’ money to keep the bank afloat.

Scottish National Party pushes for second independence referendum

By Steve James, 25 October 2016

For Sturgeon and the SNP leadership, the threat of a new independence poll is a tool to extract concessions from London—primarily over the terms of Brexit.

Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon ignored in Europe

By Steve James, 12 July 2016

While the Brexit crisis centres on British relations with the EU, the unanticipated debacle is also threatening to destabilise relations between and within all the EU’s component countries.

Scotland’s RISE electoral coalition descends into crisis

By Steve James, 4 June 2016

RISE is led by an aspiring middle class layer of academics and commentators seeking to build their careers through the creation of a new Scottish capitalist state

Unsafe Edinburgh schools expose scandal of privatisation

By Steve James, 30 April 2016

Sixteen Edinburgh schools remain closed after the private consortium that built and managed the properties was unable to guarantee the safety of the buildings.

Glasgow City Council workers strike against cuts and poverty wages

By Steve James and Minnie Watson, 17 March 2016

Another round of spending cuts imposed by the Scottish National Party government on behalf of the Conservative central government is likely to cost as many as 15,000 job losses.

Brexit vote sparks crisis for Scottish National Party

By Steve James, 7 March 2016

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has come forward as the most craven booster of the political bona-fides of the European Union.

Scottish government imposes more cuts

By Minnie Watson, 21 January 2016

The Scottish National Party is faithfully imposing the attacks dictated by the Conservatives, including significant cuts in education and the arts.

RISE: “Scottish Syriza” seeks alliance with Scottish National Party

By Steve James, 20 January 2016

Under conditions where the SNP government is enforcing austerity policies, RISE seeks to ensure that disaffection with the SNP is channelled along nationalist and separatist lines.

Scotland: Victims demand removal of former police spy from St. Andrew’s University

By Steve James, 23 December 2015

Every political or campaign organisation whose outlook implies the slightest criticism of the authorities has been spied upon by the police.

Mass job losses loom in Scotland

By Stephen Alexander, 4 December 2015

Job losses are mounting, even before the huge cuts announced in the Autumn Statement are factored into the Scottish budget.

Scottish police flout law to uncover journalist sources

By Minnie Watson, 24 November 2015

An independent investigation has revealed that 34 police forces, over the course of three years, accessed the data of 105 journalists and 242 sources.

Jeremy Corbyn supports autonomy for Scottish Labour Party

By Steve James, 20 November 2015

Corbyn used the Scottish Labour conference last month as a platform to promote a variant of left-sounding Scottish nationalism.

Contradiction between pro-business policies and leftist rhetoric defines Scottish National Party conference

By Paul Mitchell, 20 October 2015

Aware of the precarious nature of the support for the SNP, the conference was directed towards attempts at maintaining its already damaged anti-austerity image.

Refugee crisis exposes Scottish National Party’s human rights hypocrisy

By Stephen Alexander, 5 October 2015

Underlying the SNP’s cheap anti-Tory populism and fawning before the European Union are definite material interests.

RISE: The “Scottish Syriza” that dare not speak its name

By Steve James and Julie Hyland, 3 September 2015

RISE’s purpose is to save the project of Scottish independence—and the lucrative opportunities they hope will be offered to its pseudo-left founders.

Scotland: Sheku Bayoh likely died of asphyxiation by police, lawyer says

By Minnie Watson, 26 August 2015

Within 45 seconds, Bayoh was incapacitated, restrained in handcuffs, leg and ankle restraints, and was in a “prone position face down.”

Scottish Socialist Party defends Syriza

By Steve James and Chris Marsden, 13 August 2015

Scottish Socialist Party leader Colin Fox has made clear that what Syriza has done in Greece, the SSP would be more than ready to do in Scotland.

Glasgow homeless caseworkers’ strike ended

By Katie Rhodes, 1 August 2015

Caseworkers will be returning to an even more chaotic and failing service compared with 17 weeks ago.

Scottish National Party’s anti-austerity hypocrisy exposed

By Stephen Alexander, 18 July 2015

The progressive pretensions of the SNP are a cover for core neo-liberal policies.

Scottish National Party’s Nicola Sturgeon goes warmongering in Washington

By Steve James, 23 June 2015

Sturgeon’s comments make clear that the SNP leadership fully supports British participation in the US-led military escalation that has brought the world closer to global war.

Pseudo-left seek formation of Scottish Syriza

By Jordan Shilton, 13 June 2015

The new formation is seeking advice from Syriza on how to access the corridors of power and consolidate positions within the capitalist state.

Meetings on UK general elections: “We were alone in telling workers and young people the truth”

By David O’Sullivan and Katie Rhodes, 30 May 2015

The Socialist Equality Party in the UK held two successful meetings, in London and Glasgow, on the lessons of the May 7 British General Election.

Murdoch’s Scottish Sun backs the Scottish National Party

By Jordan Shilton, 4 May 2015

Whatever other motivations are involved, Murdoch’s endorsement of the SNP punctures the carefully constructed myth that the SNP is an anti-austerity party.

Scottish National Party’s overtures to Labour prompt Conservative backlash

By Julie Hyland, 25 April 2015

Faced with a mounting social and economic crisis, the British bourgeoisie’s traditional mechanisms of rule are collapsing.

Scottish Socialist Party manifesto: Nationalism and class collaboration

By Julie Hyland, 23 April 2015

The SSP approaches every issue facing working people solely from the standpoint of the ability of the Scottish bourgeoisie to grab more powers from Westminster.

The political fraud of Britain’s Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

By Chris Marsden, 17 April 2015

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition offers no answer for anyone seeking a left alternative to the Labour Party.

Scottish nationalist advocates “devo-max” in Aberdeen leaders’ debate

By Julie Hyland, 11 April 2015

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she would push for complete control of taxation and spending in Scotland “as quickly as the other parties agree to give it.”

Pseudo-left rally behind Scottish National Party at anti-nuclear submarine rally

By Julie Hyland, 7 April 2015

The organisers of Saturday’s protest are seeking to channel opposition to war behind capitalist parties fully committed to militarism.

Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon denies claim she wants a Conservative government

By Julie Hyland, 6 April 2015

Labour is polling poorly across the UK and is forecast to be wiped out in Scotland, with the Scottish National Party the beneficiary.

UK general election: Conflicts intensify over possible hung parliament

By Julie Hyland, 12 March 2015

Amidst a possible Labour Party rout in Scotland, what emerges from the discussions on the makeup of a future UK government is the right-wing agenda of all the parties.

Oil slump triggers North Sea crisis

By Steve James, 5 February 2015

The slump upends the Scottish National Party’s mendacious perspective of an independent capitalist Scotland awash in oil revenue.

Scottish National Party prepares for a coalition role at Westminster

By Steve James, 19 January 2015

The SNP has decided that the views of its newer members are not going to prejudice its chances of cutting a deal with one or other of the leading British parties

Scottish first minister reassures the financial oligarchy

By Steve James, 31 December 2014

This pledge of fealty between the Scottish National Party and the top echelons of the British state exposes the role of the Scottish Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party.

European Arrest Warrants at center of Scottish National Party’s repressive agenda

By Steve James, 10 December 2014

Earlier this year, Scottish police attracted worldwide attention for having a far higher stop and search rate than both London and New York.

Radical Independence Campaign does dirty work for Scottish National Party

By Chris Marsden, 4 December 2014

The primary function of the RIC is to channel hostility to the Labour Party behind a section of the Scottish bourgeoisie and its party, the Scottish National Party.

Smith report on Scottish devolution sets off further devolution throughout UK

By Julie Hyland, 2 December 2014

The cross-party commission was established immediately following the September 18 referendum on Scottish independence.

Scottish student debt skyrockets

By Joe Mount, 2 December 2014

Although tuition is free in Scotland, miserly levels of student support mean that students must turn to loans to cover their living costs.

Scottish National Party’s Salmond and Sturgeon pitch to Labour and the ex-left

By Steve James, 25 November 2014

With UK opinion polls showing the likelihood of a hung parliament at the 2015 election, the SNP’s clutch of Westminster parliamentary seats could hold the balance of power.