Press release 04/05/2026
SSP CALLS ON WORKERS AND YOUNG PEOPLE TO VOTE SOCIALIST AS THE FIRST STEP IN MASS CAMPAIGNS AGAINST LOOMING SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT CUTS
The Scottish Socialist Party are calling on workers and young people to vote for the one and only socialist alternative on their peach voting forms for list MSPs, as the first step in a major battle to save jobs, public services and communities from looming cuts.
Scottish Socialist Party Election Campaign Organiser, Richie Venton, told us:
“Workers and young people face a stark choice on May 7th. Either vote for one of several parties who refuse to tax the millionaires or multinationals and instead threaten savage cuts to public services and 20,000 jobs – or for the one and only socialist alternative on their peach paper, the SSP, who are determined to resist austerity, tax the wealthy minority, and create jobs instead of slaughtering them.
“The forecasts of a £4.7 billion black hole in Scottish government finances by 2029 can only be filled in one of two ways: savage attacks on the jobs, wages and services of the working class, or by taxing the super-rich and public ownership of energy, transport, construction and banking to build a green socialist Scotland, as the SSP demands.
“The SSP makes a public pledge: the day after the election, we will unite with trade unionists, young people and working-class communities in battles to save jobs and services against the incoming Scottish government, just as surely as the 8th of May follows the 7th of May!
“The great advantage of getting a team of socialist MSPs elected is that they’ll remain working-class fighters, remain on a skilled worker’s wage, propose parliamentary Bills to combat these attacks on workers and their communities, and help lead mass campaigns of ‘people power’ to stop job losses in local government, healthcare, education, fire and rescue, and other vital public services.
“We will call rallies and demonstrations to immediately abolish the hated Council Tax – which the SNP promised to scrap 19 years ago, but have miserably failed to do, even when in coalition with the Scottish Greens.
“Our income-based Scottish Service Tax would have raised an extra £2.6 billion last year – doubling tax funding for local jobs and services by making the wealthy cough up, whilst 8 out of 10 people would pay less.
“We will step up our campaign for a 5% wealth tax on all millionaires, which in just one year would raise 4 years’ worth of the entire Scottish government budget, or raise £1.25 billion from just Scotland’s 20 richest families – to invest in health, education and free public transport for all on buses, trains, ferries, subways and trams – built in Scotland, green-powered, creating 60,000 transport workers’ jobs.
“During the election, other parties have tried to hide the threat to jobs and services from the public, reassuring billionaire businesses and millionaires they won’t be taxed, whereas the SSP have been on picket lines of workers striking against cuts in universities and other workplaces.
“Workers and young people – the vast majority population – need to seize advantage of there being no split vote for the genuine left on the regional lists. Vote for the one and only socialist party, the SSP, as a first step to building resistance to cuts by the next Scottish government”.