For the latest Red Paper Magazine click on Fight for Our Rights above. It includes an analysis of the outcome of the recent SNP leadership contest.

About the Red Paper Collective

In 2012 a group of academics, trade unionists and political activists established the Red Paper Collective. The group aimed to follow the approach of the previous two Red Paper for Scotland books published in 1975 and 2005. That approach was and remains that the criteria for democratic change of the British state is political and structural transformation that makes our economy democratically accountable; enables redistribution of wealth within the UK and within the nations and regions and consolidates and builds on class solidarity across borders. In 2013 the Red Paper Collective published Class, Nation and Socialism to help inform the debate on independence that took place around the referendum of 2014.

More recently The Red Paper Collective has been considering how we move forward in light of the constitutional, economic and public health quagmire that Scotland finds itself in. The Red Paper Collective believes that Scotland must move in a socialist direction building an economy based on tackling climate change with a just transition, full employment and a fundamental re-distribution of wealth and power. We want a Scotland where every person can contribute to the best of their ability and satisfy their needs on the basis of human dignity and respect, where essential public services are owned and run democratically and financed through a redistributive tax system.

To build the widest alliance for such a change will need a broad coalition of trade unions, civic society and political parties similar to the Scottish Constitutional Convention that laid the basis for devolution. It should be tasked with creating the vision of a better Scotland and identify the powers that would be needed to deliver it. This could include more extensive use of existing powers and where appropriate, identifying additional powers. Achieving this vision should not be dependent on a referendum but if there is such a future referendum this option should be on the ballot paper.

If you would like to get in touch about any aspect of our work, please email us at: [email protected]