The Scottish Socialist Party, including our candidate for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election – elected trade union activist COLLETTE BRADLEY – will mark May Day in Hamilton with activity calling for a 4-day maximum working week on 5 days’ pay.
SSP national trade union organiser and Election Campaign Organiser, RICHIE VENTON, said:
“For the past 140 years, socialists and trade unionists have celebrated international workers’ solidarity and socialism on May Day. In the early years, the clarion call on these annual demonstrators was for the 8-hour day, to combat long hours of drudgery, create jobs for the unemployed, and free up workers for leisure, family time, and participation in the running of society.
“Far too often these fundamental socialist demands have been put on the back burner in recent decades, as the working class suffer a combination of back-breaking overwork and unpaid overtime in the long-hours culture that infests Scotland and Britain, and unemployment and under-employment for millions of others.
“The SSP has persistently fought for a 4-day week on 5 days’ pay, as an immediate step to cut working hours without loss of earnings.”
SSP by-election candidate, COLLETTE BRADLEY, told us:
“As an elected trade union representative of thousands of support workers in Scotland’s Further Education colleges, I’ve been at the heart of struggles for a 4-day week without loss of income.
“Not five days’ work jammed into 4 days, but as a measure to create more jobs, lighten workers’ workload, and free people up for other interests in life, making for a happier, healthier working class, and a more democratic society, with workers’ control and management of public services and industries.
“I’m proud to represent the SSP, a party which keeps alive the traditions of May Day, campaigning for a shorter working week without any loss of income, cutting hours not pay or jobs, putting people before profit.
“I will be joining other SSP members in Hamilton on Thursday 1st, May Day, to show local people there is one party standing up for working-class solidarity and socialism.”