The new issue of Scottish Labour History for 2023 is out now, with more than 250 pages of notices and reports, articles, shorter ‘profiles in Scottish labour history’ and an extensive book reviews section.

Published by the Scottish Labour History Society, volume 58 opens with an introduction by Gregor Gall and Jim Phillips, who note the one hundredth anniversary on 23 November of the death of John Maclean, ‘schoolteacher, adult educator and revolutionary … one of Scotland’s most important and famous socialist sons’. The front cover of the journal features an image of Maclean, while its pages include a bibliography of writings by and about Maclean, Harry MacShane’s tribute written thirty-five years after Maclean’s death, and the report of a conference organised by the SLHS to examine aspects of his life, work and impact.

The journal’s main articles cover

• ‘From Red and Green Clydeside to Liberty Hall’ in which Stephen Coyle looks the solidarity offered by radical elements of Scottish labour to the Irish independence movement in the decade 1913-23, and its political influence on Irish republicanism in this period;
• ‘Beyond the “Invergordon approach”’, an examination by Gillian Murray of community co-operatives and economic security in the Scottish Highlands and Islands from 1977 to 1991; and
• ‘The Emergence of ‘Labour’ in Dumfries, 1884-1895’ by Ian Gasse, which traces the development of a labour movement in the locality, from the setting up of a branch of the Scottish Land Restoration League in the 1880s to the foundation of a branch of the Independent Labour Party in 1895.

Articles from the journal’s ‘profiles in Scottish labour history’ section include:

• Robert Laurie: on ‘William Morris’s 1886 Tour of Scotland’;
• Colin Turbot on ‘Facing Both Ways: Moral choice, trade unionism and Chile solidarity in Scotland in the 1970s’; and
• Chris Bambery on ‘Irish Solidarity in Scotland: How we failed and what we won.’

In addition to the individual book reviews in this issue, Henry Maitles, emeritus professor of education at the University of the West of Scotland, contributes a review essay on ‘Scotland, capitalism and slavery’.

The issue concludes with obituaries for those associated with Scottish labour history who died over the past year: Alex Bennett, Richard Croucher John Eldridge, Bob Gillespie, John Keenan, Elinor McKenzie, Elaine Murray, Tom Nairn, Alice Sheridan, Jim Stevens and Willie Thompson.

Scottish Labour History is available price £10 (free to SLHS members).