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News, Campaigns & Events
Dundee steps forward
DLS members joined others at Dundee’s Speak Oot Summer Conference 2026. Saturday July 25th saw members of eight local trades unions join with individuals from the Pensioners’ Forum, Living Rent, Lochee Larder, Dundee RAAC campaign, Fans Supporting Foodbanks and others to discuss what is going on in the city. The event was opened by Jenny Douglas, President of the STUC. Jenny highlighted that Scottish Trade Union Congress was taking a keen interest in events in Dundee and was
Against abomination
Later this week, Scottish CND Local Groups will be holding various vigils and events in commemoration of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki atomic bombings. The legacy of Hiroshima & Nagasaki only gains in significance as nuclear-armed states disrespect their obligations to work towards disarmament, and instead promote these abominable weapons that can only cause incalculable, intergenerational harm. There are various commemorative initiatives taking place across Scotland this week. Sc
Where now for the University of Dundee?
Thursday July 16th will see a demonstration held outside the Court meeting of the University of Dundee (UoD). In itself, this is not an entirely unusual occurrence. What will hopefully be different is that it will signal change in direction for the institution. At a recent public meeting organised by Dundee Trades Union Council, more than 150 people heard from academics, support staff, and students. The meeting heard that Dundee’s third biggest employer would again be sheddi
Perspectives & Views
Early days?
Doug Chalmers and Seb Fischer look ahead to a possible, more progressive, Scottish polity. Can Labour grasp the Scottish nettle as Burnham settles into Number 10? "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation” is Alasdair Gray’s epigram, now engraved on a wall of the Scottish Parliament building. The writer’s vision of a better nation may also drive Andy Burnham’s in his early days as Labour leader - but so far only for England. For Scotland, early actions seem t
“Die Linke als Steinhaus bauen”
Sebastian Fischer has been ‘a casual observer’ at Die Linke’s party congress over the last three days. A palpable sense of confidence ran through this weekend’s party congress of Die Linke in Potsdam near Berlin. A confidence based on the party’s best-ever federal election result in 2025 with 8.8.% of the popular vote electing 64 members to Parliament – electoral success matched by a doubling in membership. A confidence visible in many young attending congress and sizeable de
“A dozen or so”: Your Party in Scotland has "dwindled into obscurity"
Niall Christie is a committed and experienced activist who took up Scotland’s ‘place’ on Your Party’s Central Executive Committee. Then, on the basis that the party has 'run out of road', he resigned. Now it’s time to learn the lessons of what’s gone wrong. Casting my vote this week was not how I had foreseen myself doing so just a month or two ago. Instead of again trudging to the ballot box to vote (in my case, Green in the constituency and SSP on the list), my hope was tha
Reviews and Reflections
An injury to all - New book on the 'unmaking of the working class'
Ewan Gibbs, the Glasgow-based historian who is author of Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland will be known to many Democratic Left Scotland members. Ewan’s latest book An Injury to All is now available on pre-order. The British working class has been pushed to the margins of our society. The new book considers how this has happened and how a force that once influenced the direction of the country has become so peripheral. As the
Soundings from Scotland
The latest issue of Soundings, the thoughtful and radical journal of politics and culture, carries a couple of very substantial articles particularly focussed on Scotland. The guest editors (Dave Featherstone, Ewan Gibbs and Jenny Morrison) are all teachers at Glasgow University, and Democratic Left Scotland is very pleased to see this development – we know that Dave in particular has been looking for opportunities to foreground Scottish experience in the journal. The editors
Progressive perspectives
Scottish Left Review marks its 150th issue. The Educational Institute of Scotland has sponsored Scottish Left Review 's March / April issue, this support from a key component of our country's labour movement meaning that every delegate to the Scottish Trades Union Congress will receive a copy when it meets in Dundee (22 to 26 April). STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer contributes an agenda-setting piece to the issue. Foyer recovers the language of 'taking back control' for a
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