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Ben Wray is the author, with Neil Davidson and James Foley, of Scotland After Britain: The Two Souls of Scottish Independence (Verso Books, 2022).
Firms like Uber and Deliveroo systematically deny their workers basic rights by falsely treating them as self-employed contractors. Now Europe is finally passing legislation to recognize them as employees — and the UK should do the same.
Since the 1990s, workers in the Basque Country have gone on strike more than twice as often as any other workforce in Europe. The Basque unions insist that we have to fight for our interests — a strike-fund-centered strategy that has won huge victories even in the age of austerity.
Scotland played a pioneering role in the rise of global finance, from the Industrial Revolution to the age of neoliberalism and the great crash. Since 2008, however, its banks have become offshoots of the City of London, posing a sharp dilemma for supporters of Scottish independence.
The British government has extended its program to subsidize employment during the lockdown, but pressure is mounting on workers to risk their lives for the sake of profit. We can’t let this happen.
When Scotland held an independence referendum in 2014, Catalan leaders criticized Madrid’s sharp refusal of any similar vote. There, Spanish nationalists have exploited the Left’s weaknesses on self-determination — and Boris Johnson’s bid to block a fresh vote in Scotland risks bringing the same dynamics to Britain.
World-renowned scholar Walden Bello on the financialization of the Chinese economy, the middle-class roots of far-right movements, and the urgent need for a radical alternative to capitalism’s crises.