May 2008

"All theory is grey, dear friend, but the golden tree of life springs evergreen."

Goethe 1749-1832

• Editorial - Why the hounding of the Sheridan Seven is an attack on the whole left
• Issues - With the anniversary of the SNP's first year in power fast approaching, Steve Arnott examines the rising support for independence , Leah Ganley on a woman's right to choose,Norma Anderson on the rise and demise of the SSP ,
• Science - Joanne Telfer discusses Perspectives for the planet .
• Culture & Politics - Praise of John Rae , a socialist poem of arctic exploration from Saltire prize winning writer John Aberdein, Liz Walker investigates the work of sculptor Antony Gormley, Steve Arnott explores Marx's journalistic writings.
• The Big Idea - Gary Fraser Taking crime seriously.

June 2008

"If you build it, they will come." The Voice, Field of Dreams.

• Editorial - Wendy Alexander's referendum u-turn, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
• Issues - Shirley Gibb on ID cards and the database state, Norma Anderson reports on the Defend Sheridan Seven Rally, Anne Macleod examines issues of sexual crime and justice in relation to the Free Chris Wiles campaign.
• Science - Steve Arnott appreciates the late, great Arthur C Clarke's Life in Science and Fiction.
• Culture - Gary Fraser on Bob Dylan and the Left, Anne Edmonds picks 10 films socialists should see before they die.
• The Big Idea - Luke Ivory on Racism, Immigration and Globalisation.
• Eulogy -Tribute to the late Jay Bailey
• & Letters - Your Views.

Aug 2008

"Nothing human is alien to me" - Favourite Maxim of Karl Marx (from Karl Marx, Francis Wheen)

• Editorial - Attacks on incapacity benefit: New Labour’s new assault on the ill; public sector workers' strike
• Issues - As the American Presidential race hots up, Donald Morrison asks What Colour is Barack Obama? Norma Anderson on the fight for Affordable Homes Michelle Brown asks what does sustainable development mean for working class communities
• Science - Steve Arnott reviews Richard Dawkins new series The Genius of Charles Darwin
• Culture - As the new football season gets under way under the increasing domination of big business and foreign capital, Luke Ivory asks Where now for the working class game? , Hugh Kerr on the politics of opera
• Special Feature – Cuba: Four personal perspectives Socialists from different backgrounds who have visited Cuba in the recent past record their impressions of the revolutionary state on America’s doorstep
• The Big Idea - As domestic energy prices go through the roof Steve Mowat and Steve Arnott expose The Great Energy Con.
• & Letters - Your Views.

Should Scotland’s oil wealth be used to build social justice and a renewable energy economy?

Oct/Nov 2008

"If the money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down" - George W Bush, Sept 26 2008

• Editorial - Left Unity initiative should be welcomed
• Editorial - Solidarity Statement on the American Election, the economic crisis and the Scottish left
• Issues - Gary Fraser - The NHS at sixty, Jock Penman - Community Ownership, Solidarity Statement on the banking crisis
• Science - Paul Cockshott on 'The physics of socialism'
• Culture - The Ferryman - a short story by John Aberdein, Mary Craig on The Persecution of Witches in 17th century Scotland
• International – Iain Macleod on Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution , Israel unleashes hell on Gaza - John Wight
• The Big Idea - The Bubble Bursts, Steve Arnott and Donald Morrison examine the biggest capitalist crisis for decades and argue that socialism is the only rational response
• + Your Letters – Anne MacLeod on Tommy and Big Brother, open letter from Colombia, more on opera, and housing schadenfreude

Is capitalism's ball well and truly burst? Steve Arnott and Donald Morrison discuss in this issues Big Idea

Apr/Mar 2009

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster" - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.

• Editorial -

  Chavez victory a victory for all socialists

  left unity

• Latest news and views - Bill Mullins on the Lynley Oil Refinery Strikes, Update from the Chris Wiles campaign and DGS eye spots megaphone mischief at successful Glasgow Save our schools demo
• Isues - After two budgets and dropping the scrapping of the council tax, Donald Morrison looks at year two of the SNP in power , George MacDonald looks at the privatisation threat to Royal Mail and Geoff Skeet takes a long in the tooth look at wages, profit and inflation
• Science - Gary Fraser explores the controversial ideas of psychiatrist RD Laing, Life on Mars?  Steve Arnott explores what alien biology on the Red planet would mean
• Culture - Liz Walker reviews Steven Soderbergh's new biopic of Che, Steve Arnott explores the revolutionary musical art and life of Beethoven
• The Big Idea - Gary Fraser argues that to understand the Nazi Holocaust an analysis of the dark side of modernity is required
• + Your Letters – Gaza, Columbian support network and PPP

Hugo Chavez and the PUSV have won a historic referendum victory for the Bolivarian socialist revolution in Venezuela at the second time of asking by 54% to 46%. Will Chavez now be able to ‘complete the socialist revolution’. See editorial

Apr/May 2009

• Editorial - Democratic Green Socialist celebrates its first birthday Editorial - Yes to Europe and Yes to Democracy
• Emergency Editorial - Glasgow Springburn Latest news and views - Donald Morrison looks at the G20 meeting in London and the protests and events surrounding it; Dundee prisme occupation ends in victory; Willie and Derek Duncan recall the UK’s worst football disaster 20 years on from the horrific events of Hillsborough.
• Issues - As New Labour and the pro-capitalist press look for scapegoats to blame for the banking crisis and recession, John Wight looks at historical roots of the capitalist crisis; March saw the 25th anniversary of the start of the historic miners strike of 1984-85, Jock Penman remembers the heroic struggle of the mining communities and looks at the lessons of the dispute; Twenty years on from the introduction of the poll tax in Scotland Anne MacLeod interviews Steve Arnott on the lessons of mass non-payment and Tommy Sheridan celebrates the poll tax refuseniks who brought down Thatcher.
• Science - As leading Green activists sell the jerseys on nuclear power, Iain MacLeod argues that renewables, not nuclear, are the only rational answer to global climate change
• Culture - On the fortieth anniversary of John and Yoko's 'Bed-in' for peace; Gary Fraser looks at the legacy of the most radical Beatle; In the year of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Liz Walker examines Burns, the man and his work; And Now for Something Completely Different… Graeme McIver rolls up is trouser legs and puts a knotted hankie on his head to remember the glorious Monty Python 40 years on.
• International - March 28th marked the fall of Madrid and victory for Franco's fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Stewart Hunter commemorates the men and women who fought against fascism in Spain; Tribute to former brigadista, James Larkin (Jack) Jones who died in London on Tuesday, April 21.
• The Big Idea - In the Bicentenary of Darwin's birth, Steve Arnott begins a series of articles on Darwinism and Marxism. In the opening chapter he critically examines left attitudes to modern Darwinian science and calls for an end to the sterile nature vs. nurture debate.
• + Your Letters - Fan mail, feminist poetry and energy co-ops.

In this month’s issue Steve Arnott opens a series of articles exploring the connects and disconnects between two of the greatest thinkers of the modern era. Is the nature versus nurture debate now redundant in terms of modern Marxism and Darwinism?  (See this issue’s The Big Idea below)

Jun/Jul 2009

• Editorial - Scotland Bucks the Trend - DGS Analysis of the European Election Results
• Latest news and views - Two articles on the EU: Graeme McIver argues that it was right to support No2EU-Yes2Democracy; Hugh Kerr on why the No2EU campaign was wrong about Europe; Human Rights legislation is often attacked by the press and by the right. Shirley Gibb provides a short history of human rights laws.
• DGS Special Report - Laura Adamson from Families Against Coroporate Killers, reveals the human tragedies that can occur due to inadequate health and safety legislation.
• History - John Wight celebrates the life and times of the legendary socialist James Connolly; In the first of two articles, Gary Fraser discusses the life and times of Adolf Hitler focusing on why so many people were prepared to follow the Nazis.
• Science - In the second instalment of his articles on Charles Darwin, Steve Arnott takes issue with the assertion that socialism is impossible because human nature is inherently selfish.
• Culture - Steve Arnot reviews Strip the Willow the second novel from John Aberdein; Football has a become a big business. Willie Duncan raises the issue of who owns the clubs and looks at why Barcelona FC might provide something of an alternative; In the Tragedy of Susan Boyle John Wight explores the darker side of celebrity culture; David Campbell discusses the cultural, emotional and social importance of storytelling.
• International - Israel must be held to account for human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. Kevin Connor argues why there needs to be an organised boycott of Israel; Graham Campbell on Zimbabwe PM Morgan Tsvangirai's visit to UK showing crisis of leadership.
• That’s a good idea - Is it possible to reconcile the convenience of the car with concerns about the environment. Shirley Gibb looks at the Edinburgh City Car Club.
• Why I am a Socialist - This is the first in a series of interviews with socialist campaigners. Gary Fraser talks to Anne Edmonds about her involvement with the socialist movement. 
• The Big Idea - Geoff Skeet on Humanism.
• + Your Letters - Letter criticising John Wight’s article on the economy; Letter on the 40^th anniversary of the moon landings.

United we stand divided we fall?

Aug/Sep/Oct 2009

"History makes itself in such a way that the final result always arises from conflicts between individual wills, of which each again has been made what it is by a host of particular conditions of life. Thus there are innumerable intersecting forces, an infinite series of parallelograms of forces which give rise to one resultant - the historical event…For what each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something no-one willed."  

Frederick Engels, Letter to Bloch.                                     

• Editorial - After the Vesta occupation; bringing together the red and green threads. Also SWP votes to back a yes vote for independence,
• Special Feature - NEW! Debate on Gary Fraser’s Deconstructing Hitler Articles. Contents: Letters and Editor’s reply: John Wight’s critique of Deconstructing Hitler; Gary Fraser’s Reply
• Latest news and views - Gary Fraser looks at the implications of the al-Megrahi release; Jock Penman on Diageo and the fight for Scottish Jobs; and Shirley Gibb asks what is it with Swine Flu? 
• Culture - On seeing Orcas in Burra Sound, a poem by Steve Arnott; Steve Mowat argues that socialists should back the reforestation and rehabilitation of natural hillside habitats; and Joanne Telfer takes a cultural/historical look at why a boat sailing on a Sunday still causes a stooshie in Stornoway, as Lewis literalists collide with modernity
• Your Letters - Stop the War calls for mobilisation, building unity at ground level, and a call for a debate on what constitutes human rights for socialists.  
• MediaWatch - New Feature, Dave Watt watches the watchers. A sharp tongued media diary that casts a cynical look at 'manufactured consensus'
• Science - Gordon Morgan outlines A Climate Change Plan for Scotland; Mina Penrose reprints Barack Obama's speech to the US Academy of Sciences and argues that the Bush anti-science era is well and truly at an end.
• International - John Wight on Afghanistan, and paying tribute to the proud history of military refuseniks.
• History - Gary Fraser’s Deconstructing Hitler Part II; Graeme McIver uncovers a hidden part of Scotland’s history with the swashbuckling story of enlightenment radical Thomas Muir.
• The Big Idea - The recent Milburn report into social mobility showed that our society is more divided by class than ever when it comes to working class people getting access to top jobs. Steve Mowat argues that it will take radical action, not platitudes about aspiration, to tackle the class glass ceiling
• And finally - the silly season for Scotland’s Holy Wullies.

Nov/Dec 2009

• Editorial - Fall of the Wall – Twenty years on, DGS dedicates an entire issue to the fall of the Soviet Bloc and asks whether its time for an historical re-evaluation.
• Lessons of the Glasgow North East by – election
• Bust the BNP initiative.
• Histories, Analyses and Views Part 1- Auferstanden Aus Ruinen, Andy Newman argues we need to remember both the good and the bad about the DDR. John Wight laments the passing of the USSR in a brief history of the Soviet Union. Neil Davidson celebrates The revolutions of 1989. Sinead Daly and Christine Thomas on Women and Family after the fall of the wall. Kevin Williamson argues Freedom is a Noble Thing
• Science - Steve Arnott on The cold war and the space race
• Culture - Film: Graeme McIver reviews Goodbye Lenin, and Anne Edmonds reviews The Lives of Others
• Books: Graham Jepps reviews The Case of Comrade Tuleyev by Victor Serge. Three cheers for more equal societies as Dave Watt Reviews The Spirit Level
• Art: Liz Walker on Art and the Revolution: Before, During and After
• Histories, Analyses And Views Part 2 - Defend October, not Stalinism argues Luke Ivory. As an ‘informed tourist’ Steve Mowat casts his eye From Berlin to Bulgaria and The People behind the Wall – Gary Fraser on the sociological history of East Germany  
• Dave Watt’s Mediawatch
•   Your Letters - Graham Campbell on Glasgow North and the BNP plus Fraser & Wight debate Immigration & Left Unity                             

Feb/Mar 2010

• Editorial: The General Election
• Issues and Campaigns: John Wight on The Chilcot Inquiry , Stephen Mowat on Housing, Finance and the Credit Crunch , Fatal Flaws in Council Exposed by Sheltered Housing Tenants, John Aberdein on a victory against service cuts in Orkney, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities statement on Atif Siddique.
• Culture: Mina Penrose reviews the years big screen science fiction hits Avatar and  District 9 from a left perspective.Gary Fraser asks Was Elvis racist?
• Science: Steve Arnott and Joanne Telfer on The Copenhagen Summit
• Your letters: inc. Cadbury job losses, is DGS a Stalinist apologist? TUSC and left unity, are the SDL fascists or just football hooligans?
• Good Ideas: As part of our occasional series on good ideas from the left, Graham Jepps introduces the North East Art Collective
• Historical: A social history of the British Police part 1, by Gary Fraser
• The Big Idea: John Wight argues The case for a maximum wage