Scotland

Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and English local election analysis 2026 will be remembered as the year that Britain’s existing political order finally fell apart. The two main parties that have governed Britain in the interests […]

‘Your Party Scotland’ was officially launched at a conference on 7/8 February in Dundee. Attended by around 250 members in person, with more taking part online, the conference was the first national opportunity for Your […]

The Scottish government’s pre-election budget – the 19th since the Scottish National Party (SNP) won power at Holyrood in 2007 – did nothing to alter the crisis of underfunded public services and deep-rooted poverty in […]

The latest round of cuts to Scotland’s colleges is yet another damning indictment of an education system suffocating under austerity and the failed priorities of both Holyrood and Westminster. For years, staff and students have […]

One hundred years ago, in November 1915, the rent strike battle in Glasgow was in full swing. This was an historic event that saw up to 20,000 tenants refusing to pay the increased rent imposed […]

Your Party must stand as part of a mass working class and socialist election challenge The Scottish National Party (SNP) annual conference met over 11–13 October, just seven months before the Scottish Parliament election due in […]

Against the background of rising tensions and protests over the issue of asylum seekers being accommodated in hotels, urgent discussion needs to take place in the workers’ movement to put forward a fighting policy of […]

Socialist Party Scotland and our forerunner, Militant, have a rich history of struggle within the labour and trade union movement, tracing our roots back to the early days of Trotsky’s International Left Opposition against Stalinism. […]

Former left Labour Westminster MP Zarah Sultana’s announcement that she intends to co-lead a new party with former Left Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has placed even more pressure on already stress-fractured Green Parties in […]

With the announcement that energy bills for a ‘typical’ household in Britain will rise by £111 a year from April, a 6.4% increase, millions of working-class families will despair at further increasing pressure on household […]

Socialist Party Scotland condemns the threats from Aberdeen City Council to make millions in cuts on the backs of hard working council employees. Their proposals are to slash the working week of council staff while […]

2025 began where 2024 ended; with collapsing support for the Labour Party in Scotland and across the UK. The full reality of Starmer and Reeves’ betrayal of their albeit threadbare promises in opposition has been […]

The Westminster Labour government has approved the takeover of Royal Mail by EP group whose majority shareholder is multi-billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, with a personal wealth said to be over £9 billion.  The Communication Workers Union […]

Following the Scottish government’s announcement in January that more than 1,000 funded university places for Scottish students would be cut, the Herald newspaper has unearthed several ominous findings about the funding gap widening in Scottish […]

The Scottish government have announced another delay in their much talked about National Care Service amid overwhelming opposition from care workers, trade unions and local authorities. In this article written before the announcement, Chris Sermanni, […]

Scotland continues to be the drugs death capital of Europe for the sixth year in a row. An estimated 1,172 people lost their lives due to drugs last year.  The figure might be the second […]

The contrast between the insurgent mood that marked the run-up to September 18 2014 and the prospects for Scottish independence today, on the face of it, could not be more different. ‘Indyref 1’ was an […]

The Israeli state’s onslaught on Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip continues despite international condemnation, massive protests across the world and the unimaginable suffering of those trapped by the IDF’s siege. With the death toll […]

Aside from the Tories, the biggest losers in the UK general election, which took place on 4 July, were the Scottish National Party (SNP). They emerged bloodied with just nine MPs, down from the 48 […]

The Labour Party has watered down its promises on workers’ and trade union rights, in keeping with the dumping of almost all the policies from the Corbyn era since Keir Starmer lied his way to […]

In the run up to the July general election, it could be time for the Scottish National Party (SNP) Scottish government to go back to school. In a cowardly and highly controversial move which will […]

Unite, one of the UK’s largest trade unions with over 1.2 million members, is campaigning in six vital oil-dependent constituencies in Scotland during the general election. This comes as a reaction to a key policy […]

We need a New Workers’ Party The less than 3-year-old power-sharing agreement between the SNP and Scottish Greens has collapsed. What has become a bitter fall out is rooted in falling support in working-class communities […]

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act was implemented on 1 April to a storm of political debate. More than 7,000 hate crime reports were lodged at Police Scotland’s Contact, Command and Control Centres […]

Hundreds of home care workers are striking for pay justice. Socialist Party Scotland offers our full support to these workers in the fight for decent and equal pay that recognises the vital and skilled job […]

A year has passed since the Scottish National Party (SNP) was thrown into a huge crisis following the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as party leader and first minister in the Scottish parliament. As we pointed […]

The following document was discussed and adopted by the Socialist Party Scotland congress in March 2024.   International backdrop The tumultuous and increasingly overwhelming crises facing the global capitalist system is the backdrop to any […]

There is a large scale housing crisis in Scotland. A number of factors have coalesced, including continued local government cuts, the cost of living crisis and decisions taken by the Tories in Westminster, that mean […]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) – Scottish Green budget has delivered a devastating blow to public services in Scotland that were already locked into a spiralling crisis. An estimated £1.5 billion shortfall has been bridged […]

Scottish revolutionary socialist John Maclean died a hundred years ago on 30 November 1923. As part of our occasional working-class history series, Brian McLelland of Socialist Party Scotland looks back at the events of Red […]

Members  of the UNISON trade union in local government in Scotland voted to reject the previous COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) pay offer with a near 90% majority on a high turnout just a […]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) conference, took place earlier this month and was one of the smallest in years. Day one saw yet another retreat by the nationalist leadership on its strategy to achieve independence. […]

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election was a massive vote of no confidence in the main pro-capitalist parties. Despite intense attention from the media and the political establishment, and major resources expended by Labour and […]

Last week’s historic 3-day strike by over 22,000 members of the trade union, UNISON, in Scotland, working in schools and early years, was an expression of the pent up class anger felt by council workers […]

Scotland’s council workers are heading towards another autumn of strike action over this year’s annual pay rise. All three trade unions’ members overwhelmingly rejected an offer of 5.25% – 5.5%. Unite has returned strike majorities […]

Around 1,650 contractors across five companies are due to strike in June in the North Sea. The planned action is for two 48-hour strikes starting June 1 until June 3 and then June 8 to […]

The recent, and unfinished, crisis in the Scottish National Party raises questions about the future prospects for Scottish independence. PHILIP STOTT from Socialist Party Scotland (CWI Scotland) analyses current events and looks at where the […]

The crisis in the Scottish National Party (SNP), triggered by the resignation of party leader and Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, on 15 February, shows no sign of abating. Falling opinion poll ratings, the clashes […]

Humza Yousef, the favoured candidate of the party establishment, has been elected as the new leader of the Scottish National Party. He will now also be the Scottish government’s First Minster at Holyrood. His victory, […]

Voting in the contest for the new leader of the Scottish National Party, and therefore First Minister of Scotland, starts Monday 13 March. The outcome will be known two weeks later. Realistically, there are only […]

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and the First Minister has underscored, in spectacular fashion, the multi-faceted crisis that has engulfed the Scottish government recently. In power since 2007, the SNP administration […]

The 29th January 2023 marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the historic 1993 struggle of Timex workers in Dundee. The almost 8 month-long dispute was the most significant industrial struggle in the history […]

On 22 December 2022 the Scottish parliament overwhelmingly passed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. Immediately after the bill was passed the Westminster Tory government undemocratically raised the threat of blocking the legislation. Now they […]

Faced with the UK Supreme Court ruling against a referendum organised by the Scottish parliament, and a new round of ‘eye-watering’ austerity unresisted by the Scottish National Party and Green Party government in Holyrood, the […]

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Scottish parliament does not have the right to organise an independence referendum. The ruling will surprise virtually no one. However, it will cause anger and defiance across […]

The Scottish National Party-led Scottish government – with the support of their Scottish Green ministers – have announced the biggest cuts package in the history of Scottish devolution. Coming in the wake of more than […]

Socialist Party Scotland offers our full support to the RMT ScotRail members who shut down the rail network on 10 October for 24 hours. An overtime ban and an end to working rest days began […]

Scottish council workers have received a fifth pay offer for 2022/23 from the employers. This follows strike action across a majority of Scotland’s councils involving waste workers which brought bin services to a halt across […]