An independent socialist Scotland
We support self-determination and independence. Independence needs a vision that delivers transformative change for the working-class majority in Scotland.
The Scottish Socialist Party supports the right of Scotland’s people to determine Scotland’s future – and the SSP supports Scottish independence.
The SSP were founding members of the 2005 Scottish Independence Convention, which brought together independence-supporting political parties, campaigners, and other representatives of civic Scotland to find a road that took independence from the periphery to the frontline.
Before the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, the SSP were key in making sure that the Yes Scotland campaign was one that put the needs of working-class people first. The SSP’s work in campaigning for independence in workplaces and working-class communities was vital in bringing support of independence to new heights.
We put forward the case for a radical and transformed Scotland – an independent socialist Scotland.
The SSP continues to fight to make independence a vehicle for progressive, transformative change for working-class people, when other parties and the Scottish Government have turned away from them.
independent socialist scotland
“the YES side can only win if it can persuade Scotland’s working-class majority they will be economically, socially, and politically better off”
Colin Fox, SSP National Co-Spokesperson
The SSP supports independence, and works collaboratively with other independence supporters and campaigners. But, we do so without compromising on our unique case for Scottish independence: that of an independent socialist Scotland, and a modern democratic republic.
We’re socialists, not nationalists. We support independence as the best vehicle for change for working-class people, and that is our vision for Scotland’s future.
Independence supporters want a Scotland that is more equal, fairer, and more free. They want a Scotland without low wages, fuel poverty, and austerity cuts, and where the needs of people are met regardless of their ability to pay. They want a Scotland where civic and human rights are not just protected, but expanded for everyone; and where Scotland’s incredible economic potential is in democratic hands, run for people and planet – not profit.
That’s why we put forward the working-class, socialist case for Scottish independence: one built around expanding democratic public ownership of our economy, putting Scotland’s working-class people in control of Scotland’s economy, ending discredited austerity budgets, removing Scotland from NATO and nukes from Scotland, taking bold steps to end the climate crisis, raising wages, improving conditions, ending poverty, building council housing, defending our NHS, delivering free public transport, and building a publicly-owned National Care Service.
build the working-class majority
“link the here-and-now struggles of workers with defence of the right of the Scottish people to decide their own future, and to advocate a vision for a socialist Scotland based on concrete demands around working class rights and living conditions“
Richie Venton, SSP National Workplace Organiser
Independence needs the support of the majority of Scotland’s people – and the majority of Scotland’s people are working class. We won’t move towards independence until we have the support of Scotland’s working class.
That means we need a vision for Scotland’s future rooted in the needs of working-class people, and that delivers on the radical, transformative changes that our society needs. But the fact is, not enough has been done to advance the case for independence since 2014. In fact, under the domination of the SNP electoral machine, things have gone backwards.
The SSP works to connect the needs of working-class people in Scotland today, and the struggles of working-class people around jobs, conditions, pay, poverty, inequality, cuts, privatisation, climate crisis, and social injustice with the cause that working-class people alone can decide Scotland’s future.
To win independence, we have to win the working-class majority by uniting every day class struggles with the case for Scottish independence.
The independence movement needs clarity, and a renewed focus on the key questions like currency, industrial strategy, wealth redistribution, rebuilding the organised grassroots campaign, and a real strategy for Westminster’s denial of democracy. That’s why the SSP has called for a new Independence Convention to prioritise securing majority support for independence, bringing together parties, campaigners, civic organisations, workers in struggle, and their trade unions.
