SOCIALISTS set a target to double the Morning Star’s Scottish circulation this weekend.

At the paper’s readers’ and supporters’ conference in Glasgow on Saturday, Scottish TUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said the paper could take advantage of the collapse of the political centre to build support for a popular politics.

“We’re no longer in a situation where the right can say that, if it pulls the centre of gravity to the right, then the organised left will follow,” Mr Moxham said.

He said the paper should aim to win twice as many trade union activists as regular readers.

Tam Kirby, of the People’s Assembly Scotland, described the Star as “the only paper we can rely on in this country to support union campaigns, union conferences and union activities.”

He argued: “A huge part of the class war we’re engaged in is a propaganda war.”

Unison Scotland’s Kate Ramsden said the Star provided a “left-wing counterbalance to what we read in the rest of the media,” while Labour activists Vince Mills and Carol Mochan said there was huge potential in building the paper’s reach in constituency Labour parties (CLPs).

Former Glasgow MP Maria Fyfe said the paper could play a vital role in building support for direct action and bridging the gap between parliamentary and protest politics.

The conference was also attended by Labour peer Baroness Bryan of Partick and former MP Ian Davidson, both of whom write regularly for the Star’s Voices of Scotland column.

Conrad Landin is Morning Star Scotland editor.