Sturgeon’s Youth Guarantee won’t deliver – Fight for jobs and socialist policies

By Brian McLelland, Young Socialists Young Workers Rights Campaign, Glasgow

SNP First minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her Youth Guarantee policy on September 1 as part of her Programme for Government.

In response to the realistic prediction of mass unemployment being the next stage in the Covid-19 nightmare, Sturgeon has promised to guarantee a position in education, training or employment to every young person aged between 16 and 24 in Scotland.

The implementation plan for this policy was published on Wednesday, September 2 by Sandie Begbie, the chief transformation officer with Tesco Bank. He was appointed to lead the plan by Ms. Sturgeon in early July.

Reports also suggested company bosses would receive a cash incentive upon recruitment of youngsters for work experience. Employing young workers is no use to them if they do not profit themselves immediately, of course.

One of the opening principles of the plan is rather romantic in its delivery under the circumstances of capitalist Scotland for the past few centuries: “We view work as an economic and social stabiliser that helps address the inequalities in Scotland’s economy and society.”

Employment for a young person in a free-market economy that is built on the duality of exploited labour for the working class and profits for the capitalist owners and bosses cannot possibly begin to “address inequality” when the very system is built to maintain it.

Nowhere in the plan does it state any inkling of defence for young workers at risk of losing their jobs to cuts. Socialists stand in opposition to all job cuts. Any company that declares redundancies should be nationalised under democratic workers’ management.

These companies should open their books to trade union scrutiny. Quite often the expenses required to pay the redundant workers will be readily available in the secured pocket of the rich business owners. They should be held accountable for their malpractice and pay their workers with their extensive wealth instead of laying them off.

No clear commitment is mentioned in the plan for a living wage to be paid to young workers, only “if we were in a better economic environment” would it be possible, says Mr. Begbie.

This leaves young people open to exploitative rates of pay. There is talk of a commitment with employers to move to living wage within an agreed time period with no guidelines on how long this could be, only that it “will coincide with the economic recovery.” In other words, only when it is a mere pittance to the bosses’ profits to do so.

The plan also does not mention that there will be a job guaranteed at the end of a training or education programme. We believe this does not go far enough, as people are likely to end up in the same position that they were in (or worse) before engagement, as this survival-of-the-fittest economy heads for the cliff edge.

I myself have been through the 4-year road to a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and have struggled to find employment for well over a year now in the respective industry.

The Scottish government need a mass public programme which invests in the creation of socially useful jobs for all, whether they are degree-qualified or not, with trade union rates of pay and secure, safe work hours.

This required programme will allow someone like myself to work on the research and development of renewable energies for a greener future. A programme that allows every graduate to use their degree to work together for a brighter, more equal society.

Students in colleges and universities across Scotland should not have to worry about the additional anxieties of unemployment whilst dealing with the stresses of our results-based education system.

The decisions on plans tackling unemployment should not be made by someone who has overseen job cuts and amassed considerable wealth and is therefore completely disconnected from the issue at hand.

Stand with us in rejection of capitalist crisis. The only way to solve our wide-ranging employment woes for young and older people is to implement a socialist planned economy with jobs for all and an end to the mass hoarding of wealth by big business.

The minimum wage should be immediately raised to £12 an hour as a step towards a living wage of £15. Join us in the fight to end unemployment, homelessness, discrimination, and climate change – the fight for a future is the fight for socialism.