POWER FOR WORKING PEOPLE - Neil Findlay MSP

Click read more to hear contributions from stalwarts of the labour movement Tom Morrison and Jackson Cullinane - not to be missed!

Communists and many on the left have long fought for equality for women in society and in the work place.

Although we still have a distance to go today towards achieving these aims, it is inspiring to hear of the huge struggles of women in the past against massive obstacles in,  what was then, highly patriarchal society.

Marion Munro described her experiences as an engineering worker in the 1940s and 50s and the struggles on pay and equal conditions.  John Foster looked at the lives of Margaret Irwin, first secretary of the STUC, Helen Crawfurd, the Suffragette and Red Clydesider who met Lenin and became a leading Communist and Agnes Dollan, Red Clydesider and housing campaigner who went on to become a leading figure in the Labour Party.

Part of the Morning Star newspaper's "Our Class Our Culture" series from throughout Scotland.

Recorded December 2011 in Paisley Town Hall.

Professor John Foster

Marion Munro (to whom we give thanks for stepping in at short notice).

Scottish Morning Star Conference - New Powers for Scottish parliament: Morning Session

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk
The 2011 election has pushed the question of the Scottish parliament and its powers to the top of the political agenda. The Scottish government is currently calling for the inclusion of Corporation Tax within its remit. An independence referendum is promised within five years.
However, for the trade union movement the real question is another one: how far can new parliamentary powers be translated into power for and by working people.

Note: Morning Star conferences are broad left conferences bringing together progressive voices. These videos will be featured soon on a Scottish morning Star website. As such, these are not CPB videos.

Pauline Bryan Introduction

Grahame Smith General Secretary STUC

Lynn Henderson Scottish Secretary PCS

Patrick Harvie MSP

Richard Leonard GMB Scotland Political Officer

Dick Gaughan - famous Scottish guitarist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer. Known and loved as a singer & writer of working class songs, there is no one better to take us through this topic than Dick. http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/ Sponsored by the Morning Star newspaper, the only English language Socialist daily newspaper in the world, http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk as part of their OUR CLASS OUR CULTURE series in Scotland. Recorded 1st March 2011 in Augustine Church Centre, Edinburgh.

Dick Gaughan - Song and the Working Class Movement

Dick Gaughan - Song and the Working Class Movement - Further Discussion

Morning Star Meeting: a part of the "Our Class, Our Culture" series

James Connolly (1868--1916) was one of the greatest political thinkers to emerge in the early twentieth century. He was a soldier, labourer, cobbler, journalist, trade union leader and organiser, committed socialist and patriot, intellectual, historian, and military tactician. He was a devoted husband and father to his wife and their six children. With the support of his wife he worked unceasingly in the struggle for national freedom, socialism, and international working-class solidarity, despite the poor circumstances in which he and his family lived in the typical working-class conditions of that time.

Connolly was a man who lived his life according to the dictum of Karl Marx: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." He set about trying to change the world for the betterment of the working class and the peoples enslaved by imperialist power.

Connolly wrote pamphlets, articles, plays, poems, and songs. He was an accomplished public speaker and went on lecture tours in Scotland, England, and the United States, a reflection of the esteem in which he was held in the international labour movement.

He commanded the revolutionary forces in Dublin during the 1916 Rising and was shot by firing squad on 12 May, tied to a chair. This man who played a significant role in changing the course of Irish history in the twentieth century wrote one month before his execution:
"The cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland; the cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour. They cannot be dissevered."

Talk

A full and very enlightening discussion led by Tommy Campbell with contributions by members of the public along with Prof John Foster, follows on below. Click on the "read more" button if you can't see the next video.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk Morning Star: Our Class Our Culture series (Broad Left meetings in the name of the only Socialist daily, not a Communist Party meeting). Recorded Tuesday 5th April

2011 in Bathgate.

Poet Alaistair Finlay, chaired by Jim Swan

Poetry & the Working Class Movement

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk Morning Star: Our Class Our Culture series (Broad Left meetings in the name of the only Socialist daily, not a Communist Party meeting). Recorded Tuesday 5th April

Poetry & the Working Class Movement

2011 in Bathgate. Poet Alaistair Finlay, chaired by Jim Swan

Click "Read more" to view the enlightening discussion.

Morning Star Conference October 2008

Read the Morning Star online - the only English language Socialist daily newspaper.

Morning Plenary, Morning Star Conference October 2010

Read the Morning Star online - the only English language Socialist daily newspaper.

Afternoon plenary, Morning Star Conference October 2010