Build a socialist challenge for the 2021 Scottish elections

Statement by Socialist Party Scotland Executive Committee

An appeal to socialists, trade unionists and anti-austerity campaigners

The Scottish parliament election, which will take place on May 6, 2021, is just over a year away. The Holyrood government has been led by the SNP since 2007. Current opinion polls strongly indicate the SNP will be the largest party by far next year.

Taking place against the backdrop of a Boris Johnson-led Tory government at Westminster refusing to agree to the Scottish parliament’s demand for a negotiated indyref2, the Scottish election will be dominated by that question. But it won’t be the only issue facing working class people.

There is also growing anger and opposition to continued Tory austerity. And to the actions of the cuts-making SNP leadership on the NHS, council cuts, education and austerity generally.

With Scottish Labour suffering its worst ever result in the Westminster election in December 2019, and likely to shift even further to the right in the wake of that defeat, how should trade unionists and socialists approach the 2021 election?

How can a working class and socialist opposition to the parties of cuts and austerity be built?

Socialist Party Scotland has consistently encouraged and supported a socialist challenge to the agents of austerity and capitalism.

As part of the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), alongside the RMT trade union and other socialists, we have stood in Scottish, Westminster and local government elections over the last decade.

In 2016, we stood candidates in the constituency section for the Holyrood election, polling the largest left vote in those seats we contested. In preparation for 2021, we are working to help ensure socialist and trade union candidates stand again next year as well.

To that end we will be assisting in the organising of a conference later this year to facilitate preparations for this.

Our starting point is the need to build a mass working-class and socialist political alternative that fights all cuts and austerity in all its forms. Opposes the profit-driven destruction of the planet, supports workers in struggle, promotes public ownership of the economy and stands full square in defence of the right to a second independence referendum while fighting for an independent socialist Scotland.

Socialist Party Scotland believes that a new Scottish workers’ party, with the trade unions playing a central role, should be built to provide that necessary political alternative.

Neither the Blairite-dominated Scottish Labour party nor the SNP offers a way forward. A full debate on the creation of such a party, in the trade union movement in particular, needs to take place.

At the same time a Scottish TUSC-type coalition for the 2021 election can also be a concrete step towards the building of a new mass workers’ party.

SNP and austerity

The stark reality is that there has been no real opposition by the SNP government to the cascade of cuts coming from Westminster since the SNP came to power.

No effort has been made by the Alex Salmond or Nicola Sturgeon leadership to mobilise a mass movement to demand a return of the billions stolen from public services by the Tories. SNP politicians have implemented cuts at Holyrood and in councils across Scotland, as have their Labour counterparts.

The last ‘decade of austerity’ is not just a litany of Tory cruelty, it’s also a sorry tale of inaction and capitulation by so-called ‘anti-austerity’ politicians, propagated by SNP and right-wing Labour MSPs and councillors.

As we have consistently explained, both the Scottish parliament and councils have the powers to set no cuts budgets and to refuse to make cuts and fight for the money to fully fund public services in Scotland.

A heroic no cuts stand was taken by the socialist council in Liverpool between 1983-87 that won real gains for the working class of the city in council houses, nurseries, sports centres and a job creation programme.

But the example of Liverpool is a closed book as far as the machine politicians of the dominant political parties in Scotland are concerned.

The consequences of refusing to fight and allowing Holyrood to be a conveyer belt for Tory cuts have been devastating.

Tens of thousands of jobs have been slashed from local government in the last ten years. Local communities have lost much needed facilities and services.

The latest Scottish budget is leading to most councils in Scotland carrying out yet more cuts. The Scottish Greens have aided this jobs and services slaughter by voting for SNP cuts budgets at Holyrood.

The NHS in Scotland is facing an unprecedented level of underfunding. A recent audit Scotland report estimates a shortfall of a colossal £1.8 billion by 2024.

GP services, hospitals and social care services are in crisis. In education, the workload scandal is crippling teachers’ ability to cope in schools.

The FE and HE sectors see cuts to colleges and universities that are placing enormous pressures on staff and students – who are also facing record levels of debt after graduation.

More of the same is not an option. Nor have the SNP leadership, who are committed to capitalism and all the inequality and poverty that accompanies it, been prepared to act to bring Scotrail into public ownership.

They have continued with their own failed form of PFI/PPP to fund the building of schools and hospitals, creating a profits bonanza for the big construction companies – some of whom have been complicit in the blacklisting of trade unionists.

Time and again austerity-wielding SNP politicians have clashed with workers and the trade unions. From the striking equal pay women and men in Glasgow in 2018, to the Scottish teachers’ pay campaign in 2019, to the workers and communities in Scotland facing cuts to jobs and services.

Mass struggle can win indyref2

For all of the reasons listed, a socialist electoral alternative to the pro-capitalist SNP leadership and right-wing Scottish Labour needs to be built.

But there are many more reasons besides. Not least of which is on how to win the right to self-determination and a second indyref.

But bluntly, the SNP-leadership have no viable strategy to force Boris Johnson into conceding a ‘legal’ referendum.

Nicola Sturgeon has said that the only way to deliver such a vote is via the ‘gold standard’ template of the Edinburgh agreement, signed between Alex Salmond and David Cameron to allow the 2014 referendum to take place.

But there is little chance of Johnson acceding to such a proposal if the only strategy is yet another electoral mandate for the SNP via the 2021 election, no matter now undemocratic and unacceptable that is.

The idea put forward by Sturgeon that the election of an SNP-majority government in 2021 would apply such ‘moral’ democratic pressure on Johnson that he would be forced to concede is absurd.

Supporting Johnson’s refusal is the overwhelming majority of big business and capitalist interests who will do all they can to prevent the break up of the UK.

Cameron agreed to indyref1 because he was confident he would win. Today, with support for independence at 50% or more, and with the experience of the Brexit disaster still to fully unfold, another ‘mandate’ for indyref2 in the elections in 2021 will not change the position of the ruling class on its own.

Therefore a collision is being prepared that can have big elements of the confrontation that took place in Catalonia between a mass movement and the Spanish state government that refused to recognise the right to self-determination.

What could defeat Johnson on indyref2 was if he was faced with mass struggle in the streets, workplaces, schools and colleges demanding the democratic right to decide.

Such a movement in Scotland needs to be built with the trade unions and the working class playing the leading role.

Moreover, it would also need support from the working class across Britain who will be moving into opposition to the Tories in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well.

Yet Nicola Sturgeon is terrified of unleashing such a force. Indeed the SNP leadership have been mightily uncomfortable with even the AUOB marches, largely organised to demand the SNP leadership act over indyref2.

The mortal fear of the pro-capitalist SNP leadership to building a mass working-class movement for self-determination is rooted in their support for capitalism itself.

In essence, Sturgeon et-al fear such a development more than they fear Johnson and the Tory leadership.

They also understand that as the pressure builds on the Scottish government to organise the referendum, the more they will come into conflict with the pro-independence, overwhelmingly working-class, movement itself.

Scottish Labour’s refusal to support the right to self-determination in Scotland also means that they are incapable of playing a decisive role in the struggle for democratic rights.

Barrier to independence

The SNP leadership are also a barrier to winning a sustained majority for independence. Not least because they want to continue with the same failed economic system that has delivered austerity, record levels of inequality and disintegrating public services. An independent Scotland that continued with capitalism would fail to deliver for the working class majority.

SNP government ministers and their ‘economic advisors’ admitted as much when they produced their 2018 ‘Growth Commission’ report – a blueprint for their vision of an independent Scotland.

As we commented at the time: “What is clear is that the report can only undermine support for independence. It will fail utterly to answer the genuine fears of working class people, many of whom are increasingly facing the impact of Tory austerity delivered to their door by SNP politicians.

“The addiction of the SNP leaders to pro-capitalist economic “solutions” underlines the importance of building a socialist case for independence. One that is based on a reversal of all cuts, public ownership of the economy and massive income redistribution in favour of the working class majority.”

The Growth Commission said that public spending must rise no faster than one per cent less than annual GDP growth. But that would have meant, based on actual Scottish growth figures for 2018 and 2019, public spending cuts of 5% more than were actually implemented by the Tories.

It is not possible to build a sustained majority for independence with such a policy. The case for and independent socialist Scotland, in contrast, would be overwhelmingly popular among the working class.

For all of these reasons and more, the idea of advocating a vote for the SNP in 2021 in order to ‘win the biggest possible pro-independence majority’ is a route to continued cuts and a failure to build a mass movement for independence.

The recently established “Alliance for Independence”, made up of Yes groups and even some socialists, proposes to allow the SNP to stand unopposed in the constituencies. And to appeal to SNP voters to give the Alliance their list vote.

In effect it means advocating a vote for a party that is the primary delivery mechanism for Tory austerity in Scotland.

Moreover, as we have explained in this statement, a party that is hostile to the interests of the working class and therefore incapable of leading a mass struggle for independence.

It is possible to stand for the right to indyref2, and for an independent socialist Scotland, without giving a single concession to a party of cuts and capitalism.

We’d appeal to Yes campaigners, trade unionists and socialists inside and outside Labour and the SNP to discuss with us about building a socialist challenge for the elections in 2021 via a genuine anti-austerity and socialist coalition.

Socialist Party Scotland fights for:

• The building of a mass campaign for indyref2 that brings together trade unions, Yes campaigners, socialists and anti-austerity fighters

• For the Scottish parliament to be a bulwark against austerity. Set no cuts budgets at Holyrood and in local councils. Build a movement for a return of the billions stolen after a decade of austerity

• Massive investment in public housing, NHS, education and job creation

• For public ownership of main sectors of the economy – gas, electricity, rail, buses, ferries, oil, banks, agribusiness and big industry – under democratic working class control

• A minimum wage of £12 an hour as a step to a real living wage

• Genuine free education for all. Scarp Student Debt. For a living grant that covers the cost of living and studying

• A living income for all – Scrap Universal Credit

• End privatisation – drive out the profiteers from public services

• Scrap all anti-union laws. End zero hours contracts. For trade union rights from day one of employment and a 35-hour maximum working week

• For a socialist green economy. Scrap Trident. For massive investment in a publicly owned renewable energy. Guaranteed employment with no loss of wages/pensions to workers transferring from fossil fuel production

• No to racism and division. Reject the bosses’ EU and their Fortress Europe – For a socialist Europe that defends workers’, young people and migrant rights

• Build a mass workers’ party in Scotland rooted in the 600,000 strong trade union movement to fight for an independent socialist Scotland.

• For unity of the working class and a voluntary and democratic socialist confederation of Scotland with a socialist England, Wales and Ireland.