MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.
I'm as bemused as anyone
AS bemused as the next political hack. That's what I have been telling people who ask me what I think of Wendy Alexander and the sudden emergence over the last week of the independence referendum question.
Your correspondent filed his copy last week about the membership of the cross-party Calman commission on devolution and how it was essential to broaden the scope of the public debate to include mature and serious consideration of issues including independence, as the STUC decided unanimously in Inverness last month.
And I then went off to enjoy and report Glasgow May Day. It was good fun too, thanks. I like the indoor venue at Glasgow Fruitmarket. I miss Glasgow Green, but only when it's not wet, as it often is on May Day.
I came back home later to find that Alexander had torn up the no-referendum script with her bold call to "bring it on."
It was as though she had taken seriously the absurd title of her flimsy think piece pamphlet published before Labour's Scottish conference in March, Change Is What We Do. Yes, that's the conference where she claimed to lead a "socialist" party.
If the intention was to "harry" the SNP and put it "on the back foot," it clearly didn't work. The best-laid plans gang aft agley and this wasn't one of them.
Alexander may get a little incidental kudos for seeming to stand up to Gordon Brown, not Alex Salmond. And, if the independence option is now to be discussed seriously, that will be good.
Knee-jerk nationalist-bashing is no use any more. The SNP is no socialist panacea, but it is engaging with many issues which appeal to Labour support.
As Vince Mills pointed out in Thursday's Morning Star, the issue is not really about nationalism, it is much more about class.
It is unlikely that there will be a vote in favour of independence even if a referendum does take place. The problem is that there are no popular left-wing shots in Alexander's new Labour locker with which to actually outflank the SNP on basic issues.
Until that changes, the gloomy electoral prospects for Alexander and Labour are unlikely to change either.
The fury is rising
AS we are now seeing among workers as diverse as civil servants, coastguards, Remploy staff, teachers and even police, there is a lot of discontent around this summer.
Yet another strike ballot, this time of Scottish local government craft workers, is due to close today. The main focus of the unions is on the issue of equality.
Thousands of plumbers, electricians and skilled building trades workers employed by local councils in Scotland still work a 39-hour week. Their colleagues doing the same jobs for councils in the rest of the UK work 37 hours per week. And other local government workers in Scotland won a reduction to 37 hours with no loss of pay five years ago.
The Scottish craft workers also want a pay increase greater than the 2.45 per cent offered by employers' body the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. Again, this is an issue of equality as well as the cost of living. Other Scottish council workers have received better pay settlements.
When workers consider taking action, as the Ineos strike showed, it is not done for frivolous reasons. Equal pay and equal working hours are questions of fairness and justice. And justice denied means that things can only get serious.
Dundee's Spanish civil war connection
DUNDEE Trades Union Council has been running a historical project Dundee and the Spanish Civil War to mark the 70th anniversary of the conflict.
Its research has uncovered not just fascinating information about local volunteers - more than 60 went from Dundee to fight in Spain among the 500 from Scotland - but also unusual stories like the Basque refugee children who came over to Montrose after the bombing of Guernica.
DTUC secretary Mike Arnott tells me that the aim is to rededicate Dundee's Memorial to the International Brigade, following its reinstatement in the city's Albert Square.
This should happen in October, to coincide both with Dundee hosting the International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM and with the publication of the research project as a finished document.
Dundee TUC has launched a financial appeal to help pay for the project and publish the findings.
The work of the project can be seen at http://groups.msn.com/DundeeandtheSpanishCivilWar and you can contact Mike Arnott at Dundee Trades Union Council, 141 Yarrow Terrace, Menzieshill, Dundee, DD2 4DY or email dundeetuc@hotmail.com to offer financial support or find out more. No pasaran!
Shelter strike fundraiser
SCOTTISH Shelter workers are planning a party in Glasgow on Thursday to boost funds following their recent 48-hour strike action.
It's at one of my favourite venues for seeing local unsigned bands in Glasgow, Box on Sauchiehall Street near Charing Cross www.myspace.com/boxglasgow. Going under the moniker STRIKE BACK!, the night promises to be an excellent way of showing solidarity.
Solidarity is certainly needed. Shelter's management plans to force workers to sign new contracts increasing the working week by 2.5 hours without additional pay. It comes to something when a large publicly subscribed charity which aims to help the vulnerable starts acting like the worst kind of private-sector employer.
Mind you, as I have noted before, the Scottish public-sector environmental agency SEPA has behaved badly in similar vein and its hugely browned-off workers across Scotland have also just voted overwhelmingly for industrial action.
Shelter Strikers party features the The Phantom Band, Jumpers Knee, Figure 8, Richie Gallacher and more, plus DJs until 3am. Doors 7pm and £5 entry, with all donations from the event to support the Shelter strike fund. You know where you should be.
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