When I left school in 1975, Edwin Morgan had not yet pushed his way on to the syllabus for Higher or sixth year English. When I returned to school 4 years later as a student teacher, he was taught to all years and has stayed there for the best part of 30 years. When he…
Word Power – an interview with Elaine Henry
WORD POWER – “A veritable flea market of books and ideas” Allan Armstrong interviews Elaine Henry who set up the Word Power bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland’s only independent Left and radical bookshop Why did you decide to set-up Word Power? I’d been a volunteer in the women’s bookshop, Womanzone, and was aware of other radical…
White Pete
To give it this obscene nickname is to make it seem attractive and much less harmful than it is like calling cocaine simply ‘ coke’ or the atom bomb ‘ Little Boy’ to render the screams of children the impotence of their parents their frantic hope for remedy without mention whatsoever and to still light…
Savings in the Down-Turn
Savings Efficiency ones or just savings Public sector restraint And reducing waste New realities demanding These new measures For we all have to tighten our belts During this down-turn Which refuses to say What we are all saving for And who we all are While we still fight wars And order Trident Mark 2 As…
Book Review: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Robert Burns 1759-1786
A Celebration of the Life and Work of Robert Burns 1759-1786 An Independent Revolutionary Radical By James D. Young; Printed and published by Clydeside Press; £3.95 What does Robert Burns mean to me? Edinburgh People’s Festival Published by WP Books; £3.00 It is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns and we have…
Edinburgh People’s Festival: Inspirational and Educational
Colin Fox speaks to Allan Armstrong about the vision and mission of the Edinburgh People’s Festival What made you revive the Edinburgh Peoples Festival after almost 50 years? We didn’t start off with the intention of reviving the Edinburgh Peoples Festival (EPF). At Hamish Henderson’s funeral in 2002, a group of us, including Bill Scott,…
Blunderwall
Originally published in Emancipation & Liberation Issue 8, Autumn 2004. This wall between us slowly grows slinking along the dusty earth like some snake in the desert sands Once in Jericho it fell down by those who now do the building the heirs of the trumpet blowers Once Belshazzar saw the writing on the wall,…
Man’s Best Friend?
This experience comes from leafleting during a council by-election in the Lochee ward in Dundee, but I imagine that what is described in this little ditty is transferable to anywhere that dogs lurk unseen, waiting to give their canine judgement on political activists of any persuasion. For we, who politics inspire, There is a time…
Life With You
by The Proclaimers Like many people I have liked the Proclaimers for years. I really enjoy their love songs which have a Tom Leonard quality to them in terms of their ability to express profound emotions in the language of the working class. I was therefore really pleased to be given Life with you as…
Democracy 2
Review: Alan Graham Keynesian Economy Simulator Format: PC Publisher: Positech Developer: Cliff Harris (probably in his bedroom) Price: £15.28 Bourgeois Democracy: Another simulation Following on from the original Democracy, Clif Harris has released a sequel: imaginatively titled Democracy 2. The game is a simulation of politics. You have been elected President of X country and…