Alan Graham examines how politics and music link up Looking back on the Make Poverty History march and the events surrounding it, it is hard to ignore the effect music had on the event. But how did it compare to other political/music events, and how political was the music? I will look at various bands…
When ‘Raising Consciousness’ Ain’t Enough
Column written by Mumia Abu-Jamal The images of voracious famine leaking out of the steamy deserts of the Northwest African nation of Niger, cuts to the soul’s quick. Babies barely able to grasp a breath. Mothers with breasts as flat, and milkless as boys. Men and women, dizzy with hunger, laid low in the barren…
Two Words Collide – Nationalism and Republicanism
Allan Armstrong reviews Two Worlds Collide – power, plunder and resistance in a divided planet by Alan McCombes Earlier this year, Scotland hosted a series of activities in response to the G8 Summit held in Gleneagles. The key events were the official ‘Make Poverty History’ march in Edinburgh, held on July 2nd, and the G8…
Obstructing a Legal Demonstration
On the morning of July 6th, myself and Raphie DeSantos, both members of the SSP, were tasked with organising buses, bus stewards and getting people on buses to go up to Gleneagles from Waterloo Place in the centre of Edinburgh. It was a chaotic scene, with many more people showing up without tickets than with,…
Facing up to the Challenge
Nick Clarke looks at the Left’s response to G8 Over a year ago, comrades from the anti-capitalist movement, Globalise Resistance and the Scottish Socialist Party came together to create G8 Alternatives. G8 Alternatives immediately started organising, agitating, and campaigning to make sure that, when the world’s leading imperialists turned up at Gleneagles in July, they…
The Legacy of the Gleneagles Summit
The 2005 G8 Summit, held at the luxury Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland from July 6th to July 8th, was notable for many reasons but three which stood out in particular were: (i) the failure to come up with anything to alleviate unremitting poverty in Africa other than a pledge to raise aid by a paltry…
Death Squad Britain – the Case of Jean Charles de Menezes
In the aftermath of Jean Charles’ murder, Steve Kaczynski looks at Britain’s shoot-to-kill policy On July 7 and July 21, bombs exploded in London. On July 22, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician named Jean Charles de Menezes left his flat. He was followed by anti-terrorist police and in Stockwell underground station , he was shot a…
A few thoughts on literary matters
by John Manson John Manson is a Sutherland-born, Dumfriesshire-based poet, reviewer and translator. He has published a number of poetry collections including East Sutherland and Other Poems. He has also translated Victor Serges, Carnets (1944), available at Victorserge After reading Allan Armstrong’s Beyond Broadswords and Bayonets (E&L 5/6) he wrote making the following helpful comments.…
Caught Between the Covenant and the Clans
A Reply to Allan Armstrong The full, illustrated pamphlet is available from the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement Allan Armstrong is to be commended for his excellent contribution to Scottish radical/revolutionary history, Between Broadsword and Bayonets, Emancipation & Liberation, Issue 5/6. In this piece Allan seeks to expose the left nationalist and left unionist traditions within…
Consistently democratic and vibrant?
In the Autumn 2004 edition of Emancipation and Liberation there is an editorial on The role of platforms in the SSP – Why have the RCN platform? While agreeing with much of the article at a certain point it says: One reason that platforms are suppressed is they may present a threat to the controlling…