Build a socialist and trade union stand in 2026

Socialist Party Scotland and the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition have pioneered, since 2010, the standing of socialist and trade union fighters in elections. Established by Bob Crow, then general secretary of the RMT trade union, as well as the Socialist Party and other leading trade union and community campaigners, TUSC in Scotland has stood consistently in Westminster, Holyrood and council elections since.

The urgency of building a new mass working-class party based on the trade unions has never been more important. The collapsing support for the pro-capitalist Starmer government and the utter failures of the SNP to offer an alternative to austerity has created an enormous political vacuum. In part, this has led to mass abstentionism in elections, but also recently growing support for Reform UK. 

With elections to the Scottish parliament due in 2026, it is vital that a trade union and socialist alternative is built to cut across racism and division. This can only be done effectively with unashamedly left and socialist policies like wealth redistribution, opposition to war and oppression, massive investment in housing, the NHS and council services and public ownership of the economy.

Ideally, the trade union movement in Scotland would call a conference to that end as a step to creating a new workers’ party in Scotland. Such a party would have an electrifying impact and what attract not only trade unionists but also those who have been fighting against the brutality of Israeli stare terror, cuts to council services and opposing racism. 

As a step in that direction, Socialist Party Scotland members in the trade unions have drawn up a model motion to be debated and discussed with the aim of building support for a conference in the first half of 2025 to help lay the ground for a working-class election challenge.

We would encourage all those who agree with this idea to move this or a similar motion in your trade union, anti-war group, student union or community organisation.

Contact Socialist Party Scotland and Scottish TUSC for more info 

Model motion

This (name of organisation) notes the significant increase in support for Reform UK in recent council by elections in Scotland. Moreover, current opinion polls indicate that Reform UK is likely to enter the Scottish parliament in May 2026. 

The politics of Reform UK – the scapegoating of immigrants, migrant workers and asylum seekers by the party and its candidates – are a direct threat to the unity of the working class. A party led by the millionaire Farage offers nothing for working-class communities facing cuts to services, lower living standards and attacks on benefits.

This (name of organisation) agrees that the growing support for Reform UK is a product of the political vacuum that exists in working class communities and must be countered. The trade unions should be in the forefront of that campaign in shaping an alternative to racism and division. 

We further note that the utter failures of the UK Labour government and the cuts-making SNP Scottish government are creating further opportunities for the far/populist right and racism to prosper.

It doesn’t have to be like this. If the trade unions leave the political field to austerity-wielding politicians, including the leadership of Labour and the SNP, then racism and the far right will continue to grow. 

For these reasons we resolve to:

• Discuss immediate steps to build a united trade union-led response to Reform UK that fights for jobs and homes for all and for massive public investment to end all cuts
• Support the building of a political alternative in elections based on working-class unity, trade union principles and socialist politics
• Support the calling of a conference in the first half of 2025 open to all those who want to see a working-class and socialist challenge for the Scottish parliament elections in 2026