The Scottish Left Alternative announce a number of positions to spell out where they stand and what they will offer voters in next year’s Holyrood elections.

In Issue 145 (April-June 2025), Scottish Left Review published an open letter headed ‘Scotland Needs a Working Class Left Alternative’. It was the outcome of discussions between trade unionists, campaigners, activists, councillors and members of socialist parties (or none), who had been meeting since the start of the year in recognition of the important need to construct a united left initiative that could put forward an electoral alternative at the Holyrood elections of 2026.  

The urgency that impelled the initial signatories to commit to this initiative has been hugely amplified by subsequent political developments. Starmer and Labour’s brutal offensive against the working class and the poor has intensified. Disabled people are merely the latest victims of austerity in the midst of a continuing cost of living crisis that enables the wealthy to further enrich themselves. Warfare not welfare has become the government’s obsession. Their complicity in an increasingly horrific genocide in Gaza has been matched by unprecedented authoritarianism, culminating in the proscription of Palestine Action. In Scotland, after two decades in office, the SNP has fundamentally failed to tackle poverty, inequality, drugs deaths and the housing crisis.

As a consequence of widespread disillusionment with the political mainstream, fake anti-establishment rhetoric has seen the far right – whether the openly fascist street thugs or Farage’s beige shirts – grow alarmingly by trying to shift the blame away from the rich and powerful and onto migrants, refugees, and Muslims. Reform is a real and present danger that, if unchallenged, may gain significant representation in the next Scottish Parliament. In this political context, a left electoral challenge is imperative.

That our open letter has now gained 55 signatories from across the movement and from all parts of Scotland indicates how many agree that such a challenge is desperately needed.  Working class people battered by years of cuts, frozen wages, insecure jobs and declining living standards cannot wait. Disabled people and those on social security cannot wait. Tenants cannot wait. WASPI women cannot wait. Workers on strike cannot wait. Trans people cannot wait. Our planet cannot wait. Refugees cannot wait. Palestinians cannot wait. We need to act now. The signatories to this letter, while committed to an electoral project, have also developed as a network, fully involved in campaigns, fights and struggles since April: solidarity meetings and collections for the striking Birmingham bin workers; support for the Village Hotels strikers; Palestine solidarity activities including defence of the right to protest; support for disability campaigns; and very many anti-racist and anti-fascist mobilisations.

Our initiative strives to connect these fights with an electoral alternative. To be clear, we are not forming yet another party, but are a pluralist electoral coalition seeking to offer voters in Scotland a radical left-wing option. As a coalition, we seek to be as broad as possible and democratically organised, acting with maximum discussion, transparency and in the spirit of mutual trust. We want to get behind those who are already fighting for a better society and inspire others to fight too. Following full and open debates we have now agreed a number of headline positions or demands that spell out where we stand: ‘Welfare not Warfare – Build Houses, Schools and Hospitals, not Bombs, Restore Benefits’; ‘People in Scotland Have the Right to Decide Their Future’; ‘Free Palestine, Stop the Genocide’; ‘Defend the Right to Protest’; ‘No to Racist Scapegoating, Yes to Refugees’; ‘Full Support for LGBT+ and Women’s Rights’; ‘Stop the Climate Catastrophe’; ‘Tax Corporate Greed, Tax the Wealthy, End Poverty’; ‘Full Rights for Workers, Support Workers in Struggle’. Our name – Scottish Left Alternative – is also an agreed outcome of a full, considered discussion. The Scottish Left Alternative is being registered with the Electoral Commission and will be open to candidates who agree with the demands and positions outlined above.

We welcome the announcement by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana of the formation of a new political party, temporarily titled Your Party. It is hugely encouraging that, at the time of writing, several tens of thousands in Scotland and 720,000 across the UK have signed up to this initiative prior to the party’s formal foundation. Collective Scotland, the new party’s representatives in Scotland, have been fully engaged with the Scottish Left Alternative since the start. We are also involved in discussions with Collective at UK level. These interactions will continue as we jointly strive to build a real electoral alternative at the Holyrood election in May 2026 and to develop the networks of resistance in communities, workplaces, unions and across the many campaigns.

We aim to facilitate co-ordination across the left and our project is open to anyone who wants to become involved. We will continue to organise towards it with maximum discussion and transparency and in the spirit of mutual trust, but also with a genuine sense of urgency. The stakes have never been higher.

Those interested in the Scottish Left Alternative and/or who would like to add their names to the Open Letter can contact philip.taylor@strath.ac.uk.

Signatories

Professor Phil Taylor, Interim Convenor Scottish Left Alternative 

Ross McKenzie, Independent Councillor for Sighthill/Gorgie 

Bill Shields, Independent Councillor, Coatbridge North 

Aamer Anwar, Human Rights Lawyer 

Paul Laverty, Screen Writer 

Gordon Martin, RMT Scotland Organiser (personal capacity) 

Matt Kerr, CWU & NUJ (in a personal capacity) 

Lyn-Marie O’Hara, Unison (personal capacity) 

Raymond Morell, Unite the union representative, Scottish Aerospace and Shipbuilding regional industrial sector committee (personal capacity) 

Ian Mullen, Unison, City of Edinburgh Branch Officer (personal capacity) and TUIC 

Ross Gibson, UCU (in a personal capacity) 

Paula Dixon, EIS (personal capacity) 

Talat Ahmed, UCU and Joint Vice Chair of STUC Black Workers’ Committee (personal capacity) 

Rab Paterson, Secretary Midlothian Trades Council (personal capacity) 

Mhairi McKean, Unison (in a personal capacity) and Trade Unions in Communities 

Grant Buttars, rs21 and UCU (personal capacity)  

Zamard Zahid, anti-racist campaigner  

Jim Monaghan, Collective Scotland 

Mohammed Asif, Director Afghan Human Rights Foundation 

Hector Sierra, Socialist Workers Party, Scottish Organiser   

Angela McCormick, EIS-FELA Branch Convenor, New College Lanarkshire (personal capacity) and SWP 

Trade Unions in Communities (TUIC) 

Mike Cowley, EIS-FELA (personal capacity) 

Keith Paterson, Unison (retired) and community tutor 

Chris Sutherland  

Emeritus Professor Henry Maitles 

James Stephen, Aberdeen Marxist Caucus 

Dr. Dejan Stepanovic, UCU Dundee (personal capacity)  

Craig Lewis, Assistant Secretary Unite Retired Members, Glasgow (personal capacity) 

Ian Macbeth, United Tech and Allied Workers (personal capacity) 

Siobhan McFadden, EIS and Director of Board of Trustees for Romano Lav (personal capacity) 

Owen Walsh, UCU Committee Member (personal capacity) and Aberdeen Marxist Caucus 

Andrew Fullwood, EIS National Executive and Glasgow LA (personal capacity) 

Dennis Fallen, RMT Scotland Learning Coordinator (personal capacity) 

Jim McCourt, Manager Inverclyde Advice and Employment Rights Centre (personal capacity) 

Stuart Graham, Vice Chair Glasgow Trades Council (personal capacity), Unison NEC (personal capacity)

John Kelly, Community activist and Paisley4Palestine 

Arthur West, peace activist 

Steve West, PCS Scottish Executive Committee (personal capacity), Independent Socialist candidate for Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart by-election 

Pauline Brady, Unison Health Ayrshire, Equalities Officer (personal capacity)

Liz McGachey, PCS Scottish Executive Committee Co-convenor (personal capacity) 

John McFadden, Unison Shop Steward (personal capacity) 

Rebecca Givan, University of Aberdeen Palestine Solidarity Society (personal capacity) 

Sai Shraddha Suresh Viswanathan, President NUS Scotland (personal capacity)

Arabela Orande, President University of Aberdeen SA BAME Forum (personal capacity)

David Conway, Chair Socialist Health Association – Scotland (personal capacity)

Mary (Maz) McLaren, Branch Chair Unite Community Branch Tayside and Fife, Chair Dundee for Palestine (personal capacity)

Fatima Uygun, CEO Govanhill Community Baths Trust (personal capacity), Director Romano Lav (personal capacity)

Dr. Clarke Mullen, retired GP

Tam Dean Burn, actor and Equity member (personal capacity)

Danny Miles, Secretary, Unite the Union, West of Scotland Community Branch (personal capacity)

Arthur Nicoll, Dundee City Unison, Vice-Chair Unison Scottish Local Government Committee (personal capacity)

Danny Miles, Unite the Union, Secretary West of Scotland Community Branch

Niall Huggan

Colin Brown, FBU (personal capacity)