50 years after the Equal Pay Act
Money can’t buy you love – but it does pay the bills. Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act, women are still fighting for equal pay. What lessons we can now learn from the Covid-19 pandemic?
Six Red Months in Russia: Louise Bryant’s view of the revolution
Louise Bryant’s Six Red Months in Russia, with its nuanced and enlightening discussion of women’s lives, is a vital eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution.
Women’s lives under austerity
Christine Bird, in an article originally published in the Leeds publication Northern Star, discusses the realities of many women of lives under capitalism and austerity, arguing that things weren’t always this way, and they won’t be like this forever. The Tory – LibDem coalition just gone was hardly at the forefront of the global struggle for […]
Glasgow Homeless Caseworkers strike: defending services against austerity and a Labour council
Homeless Caseworkers in Glasgow have been on strike for ten weeks for decent pay. Austerity is forcing working-class people in the city out of their homes. But, as Christine Bird reports, Glasgow’s Labour council seems more concerned about imposing Tory cuts than providing services to homeless people. Last Friday, after they had been on strike for nine weeks, the council made […]
Radical Independence Conference – hopeful, energetic, impressive
Three thousand people took part on Saturday in the Radical Independence Conference in Glasgow. Christine Bird reports from an inspiring event, part of the renewal of the left in Scotland.
After Rotherham – how can we protect every child?
We need a consistent and effective response to child abuse. But, writes Christine Bird, that means thinking the issues through, and rejecting racism and hypocrisy. It is important to say from the outset that all children have a right to be protected from abuse. This should surely be the starting point for any discussion of Professor […]
The Other Side of the Commonwealth: ‘Emancipation Acts’ Review
Christine Bird reviews a new performance exploring Scottish links to slavery Who knew that Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art is housed in the 18th century mansion of tobacco merchant William Cunninghame? There is not so much as a plaque to commemorate the thousands of enslaved people who grew the crop that brought so much wealth […]
Yestival and a summer of independence
Christine Bird from Glasgow gives her take on a festival that brought together all parts of the movement for Scottish independence This past weekend, 5 and 6 July, 450 people attended Yestival on Glasgow’s Southside, with at least as many again at the Common Weal Festival at The Arches. Both pro-independence events brought together political […]