FRED BAYER says the cuts to the congress cycle could be disastrous for the Scottish trade union movement

Scottish Labour's leaders cannot keep blaming Westminster for the collapse at the ballot box, says VINCE MILLS

The new Scottish Parliament looks set to continue a cycle of managerial tinkering while public services face the axe, writes STEPHEN LOW

As Scotland heads to the polls, the main parties offer variations on the same script, says MATT KERR

As STUC Congress moves to a biennial format, TOM MORRISON warns of concerns over shrinking lay power

But that’s OK, says MATT KERR, as talking is what will help us get things done

A recent Union Street blaze showed firefighters at their best, but years of underfunding and job losses are stretching the service to its limits, writes JOHN McKENZIE

As the STUC gathers in an election year, the message to politicians is clear – continuing managed decline is unacceptable to Scotland’s workers, says ROZ FOYER

Inspired by Ireland’s success, Equity urges all parties to support a basic income for artists that could unlock talent and boost the economy, says MARLENE CURRAN

FINOLA SCOTT relishes a collection of verse in Scots that, among other things, meditates on the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

As world leaders posture and local politicians bore, voters are left with a grim choice: despair, disengage — or start imagining something better, says MATT KERR

Labour’s approach to Scotland reveals a long-running tension between rhetoric and reality, warns PAULINE BRYAN

Art matters because stories, herstories, histories, and even flights of fancy matter, posits MATT KERR

After 27 years in Holyrood, the former first minister urged unity and respect — but,  says NEIL FINDLAY, her time in power told a very different story

The public recognise the corrosive influence of the rich over our democracy, argues MIKE COWLEY — it’s a shame the Labour Party doesn’t

Until ministers stop deferring to the market and start drawing hard lines, the public will remain at the mercy of private power, says MATT KERR

Five years ago a flash crowd of Glaswegian activists defeated the Home Office and the police; MATT KERR urges you to savour that day in a cinema

KENNY MacASKILL looks at the extraordinary political commitment of a Church of Scotland minister’s wife

Scotland’s deepening crises expose the human cost of political complacency — and the toll it is taking on working-class communities, says NEIL FINDLAY

Labour’s by-election defeat tells a story Scotland has known since 2008. A party that assumes loyalty while offering little more than managed decline will eventually discover that voters always have somewhere else to turn, says MATT KERR

KENNY MacASKILL reminds us of the unprecedented political career of a Scottish miner’s militant son who stayed the course and true to his roots

Uninspiring politics, weak leaders and party infighting could leave Scottish voters out in the cold come May, warns LYNN HENDERSON

Last weekend’s inaugural conference mixed warmth, unity and ambition with the unmistakable echo of old arguments. MATT KERR wonders whether the fledgling party’s difficulties can be overcome

Current polling shows Scottish Labour faces a stark choice: break decisively with Westminster or continue its slide into irrelevance, warns VINCE MILLS

ALISTAIR FINDLAY recommends the simple cadence, common prose, free verse, and descriptive power of a new collection by Julie McNeill

As assaults on transport staff rise and the Scottish Parliament heads for dissolution, promised legislation to protect rail workers has yet to materialise, says ANN HENDERSON

The city has some of the most expensive, fragmented and unreliable buses in Britain – the case for bringing buses back into public ownership has never been stronger, says GRACE STEVENS

England rise, France gamble and Ireland search for stability in the wide-open title race which begins on Thursday, writes FOSTER NIUMATA

MATT KERR takes a winter journey through poetry, labour and memory, from Glasgow to Newcastle, arguing that our radical past isn’t something to revere from a distance, but a tool still meant to be used

From the radical promise of early land reform to today’s cautious Community Wealth Building Bill, Scotland’s Parliament has lost sight of its founding ambition to shift power and ownership, writes RICHARD LEONARD MSP

It is time to stop tolerating the governing elites incompetence which makes our lives a daily misery, argues MATT KERR

As Holyrood sets the Budget, the gulf between rich and poor is wider than ever. PETER OLECH of Unite Community Scotland argues that only by taxing extreme wealth can we properly fund public services and deliver justice for working-class communities

STEPHEN LOW looks at the SNP plans for public services

From childhood summers in a post-industrial village to midnight picket lines in Glasgow, the promise of ‘social mobility’ rings hollow for MATT KERR

Alba party leader KENNY MacASKILL makes some suggestions on how to save our pubs and reduce irresponsible drinking

Association of Tartan Army Clubs slams Fifa's ‘disgraceful and disgusting’ dynamic pricing policy

Trade union leaderships have so far stopped short of the bold industrial action over Gaza seen in Italy and Greece. NATHAN HENNEBRY calls for a re-radicalising of the union movement and rebuilding class power as vital to turning solidarity into action

Fuelled by economic abandonment and a collapsing faith in politics, Farage’s party is transforming grievance into momentum north of the border, warns COLL McCAIL

Amid the festive lights, Scotland faces a stark holiday truth: only real investment in public services and the workers who sustain them can lift communities out of poverty, argues LILIAN MACER