Keep Left: Red Paper on Scotland 2025

This book has a message for everyone concerned about the direction of politics in Scotland, the UK and beyond: do not despair. There are realistic, left alternatives to being stuck in a political ‘doom loop’.  In 1975 the Red Paper on Scotland, edited by the young, radical Gordon Brown was a seminal publication; it helped create, not just catch, the mood of the day.   Fifty years later a new group of writers have come together to write about what we can learn from the past and how we can shape what lies ahead.  The authors of this book believe only a radical redistribution of wealth and power within a democratic economy will engage Scottish voters. It calls on us to Keep Left.

About the Author :
PAULINE BRYAN, Baroness Bryan of Partick, is a Scottish writer and socialist campaigner. She was nominated for a life peerage by the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, in May 2018. Bryan is part of the Red Paper Collective, a group of Labour activists who aim to provide an alternative from the perspective of the Labour movement to the ‘sterile nationalist vs. unionist debate’ around the Scottish independence referendums. In a review of Neil Findlay’s book, Socialism & Hope: A Journey Through Turbulent Times, Bryan wrote that the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party ‘was a lifeline for the left. It rebuilt friendships and enthusiasm... By the 2017 election, we saw the beginnings of a renewed Scottish Labour Party and a renewed activist base who, regardless of what their MPs and MSPs thought, were committing themselves to a radical Labour Party’. Bryan is a founding member of the Keir Hardie Society, and was the editor of the 2015 book What Would Keir Hardie Say?. She is also a founding member of the Campaign for Socialism.

Review :
The visionary proposals put forward in this Red Paper are so important. Because it is only through real substantive change that addresses the material concerns of ordinary people that we will stop the far right from gaining ground. from the foreword by ROS FOYER, General Secretary, stuc The problems of inequality in Scotland and the UK require bold socialist solutions. Keep Left The Red Paper on Scotland 2025 makes an important contribution to this challenge. BRIAN LEISHMAN, mp for Alloa and Grangemouth A book [which] lit up the murky Scottish political scene like a lightning-flash. THE GUARDIAN on the first Red Paper on Scotland