You Reds

As the money-hungry machinations of the Premier League rumble on through the January transfer window, and all major parties declare their policies for punishing the unemployed rather than helping them, a pertinent passage from David Peace's Red Or Dead, pinning down Shankly's notion of socialism.


Bill knew people did not need chance. Bill knew people did not need luck. Yes, people wanted success. Yes, people wanted victory. But not by chance,

not through luck. The name of your father or the name of your school. People wanted success through their effort, people wanted victory through their work. Not the toss of a coin,

the roll of a dice. Through their effort and through their work. Their communal effort, their collective work.