Scotland: workers’ resistance a priority

In Scotland there are signs that class struggle is beginning to take precedence over the parliamentary road to Holyrood, with a range of actions taken by organised workers all over Scotland.

Usually characterised by low turnouts, elections are coming round again: all 129 “Members of the Scottish Parliament” (MSPs) are up for re-election on 7 May. A similar vote takes place in Wales for the Senedd in Cardiff that day, as well as council and mayoral elections in England.

By the summer’s end, 12 years will have passed since the unity referendum marked the rejection of separatism. A unified Britain then voted in 2016 for its independence from the European Union. Turnout was massive in these votes in comparison with the meagre turnouts for the devolved parliament.

A general loss of confidence in MSPs and a growing disenchantment with the whole idea of devolved parliaments has grown from a catalogue of unacceptable governance. The list is long. It includes: years of delay in fixing Scotland’s lifeline ferries; the lack of strategy for rebuilding industry; the steady deterioration of education; becoming the worst area in Europe for drug deaths; attempting to push through the Gender Recognition Act; the effect of immigration on jobs; the disastrous imposition of net zero policies in energy.

Recognition victories

In contrast, much more positive thinking is emerging from organised workers. This goes against the flow of electioneering and posturing by the politicians. An almost celebratory mood was felt behind the announcement by Unite – the trade union representing the largest number of workers in the offshore oil and gas industry – that they had at last secured recognition for a unionised workforce from one of the major oil and gas operators in the North Sea.

On 9 April Unite said that the agreement with Apache Corporation meant that they would now be able to negotiate on behalf of workers to improve jobs, pay and conditions. Apache is a subsidiary of APA Corporation headquartered in Houston, Texas, which had a world-wide revenue of $9.74 billion in 2024. The company operates two major oil and gas fields: Forties, north east of Aberdeen, and Beryl, south east of the Shetland Isles.

Successes

Other recent successes for Unite include improved pay and pension agreements for their members at Adura Energy, at Sodexo (Sullom Voe in Shetland) and at Bilfinger UK. The struggle has to go on – for example to prevent the 50 year old Sullom Voe oil and gas terminal from becoming another disaster like the closure of Grangemouth.

Andrew Hirst writing in the Shetland Times sounded the alarm that there could be “hundreds of job losses and millions wiped from the economy unless urgent action is taken.” Unite also gave its firm backing to the government giving the go-ahead to the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields.

Net zero negatives

All of this shows a positive outlook that contradicts the net zero policies of the British and devolved governments. Organising against the negative effects of these policies are campaigns such as Keep Grangemouth Working and an online petition to “Keep the North Sea Working”.

‘By summer’s end, 12 years will have passed since the unity referendum marked the rejection of separatism…’

Campaign group Net Zero Watch points out, “Dozens of North Sea oil and gas fields are being blocked from development by Government net zero policies, as new analysis shows more than 50 projects were rendered ‘unviable’ by the ‘windfall tax’ and exploration ban. Why kill investment into our domestic energy supply?”

Unite was busy on the higher education front too. Around 1,000 of its members took action on 7 April at Glasgow, Strathclyde and Napier universities. The union’s officer for higher education, Alison MacLean, pointed out, “Staff working in Scottish higher education have faced years of significant and successive real-terms pay cuts. Last year university staff had one of the worst-ever pay awards imposed upon them – which is why our members have no option but to fight back.”

Teachers take action

The main trade union for teaching staff in Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), called off an overwhelmingly backed strike after securing a settlement with the Scottish administration. It also seems that the SNP wanted to settle quickly to avoid strike action during the May elections.

EIS had gone so far as the issuing of a statutory notice to strike in mid-March when an emergency meeting between the EIS, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Scottish Education Secretary settled the issues. Councils will now receive £40 million in 2026-27 enabling more recruitment, and a reduction in hours allowing more time for preparation.

But the issues are not quite settled and dispute may revive in the near future. The other teaching union, the Scottish Secondary School Teachers Association, said that 88 per cent of its members consulted had rejected the agreement.

Blows to arts and culture

A rare street demonstration by a wide variety of those working in various fields of the arts took place at the City Council headquarters in Glasgow on 27 March. A large arts base (Trongate 103) housing visual arts, music groups, theatre groups, film makers and mechanical sculptors (Sharmanka Gallery) raised the rents of its tenants beyond what was affordable. Its owners are subsidised by Glasgow City Council. Cuts have forced the rents to rise dramatically. The arts groups feel they are being forcefully evicted. The campaign continues.

Glasgow School of Art, completely ravaged by two major fires, remains a ruin amid wrangling over responsibilities and lack of funding to restore it properly.

The Centre for Contemporary Arts has closed completely. It served the city for over 50 years as a major hub for visual arts and new music. Again withering of funding seems to have been the cause.

It is such cuts to funding of the Arts that the actors’ union Equity brought to public attention recently. Paul Fleming, Equity general secretary, pointed out, “We are watching universal access to the arts and entertainment disappear across Britain. New research by the Autonomy Institute shows the dramatic fall in local authority funding.”

Scotland’s local authorities have cut spending by over 18 per cent in 2024-25. It is even worse in England and Wales with funding falling by 61 per cent and 46 per cent respectively.

In the case of libraries, the run up to the elections has been used by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland to point out the importance of libraries and the need to fund them properly. The details of their campaign can be found on their website.

Wrest power – don’t hand it over

Rather than be consumed with the petty rivalries of the politicians in forthcoming elections, the challenge is how to wrest power from them. These politicians are intent on re-running the referendum that Scottish workers won.

The talk in SNP ranks is of another referendum in 2028 to break up Britain (and our working class). They feel that the Starmer government is weak enough to concede one. Opportunist politicians who once stood for unity are now jumping on the separatist bandwagon. The same forces are determined to rejoin the capitalist club of the EU. Workers have to redouble efforts to defeat these trends.