New Year, New Crises… and New Reasons to be Socialist!

by Richie Venton, SSP National Trade Union Organiser

ON TOP of the imperialist violence unleashed by Donald Trump in Venezuela, three new reports capture some fundamental reasons to be a socialist in 2026.

They deserve to be dragged into full daylight, rather than left to languish in the mists of the festive season, and used to help popularise the case for full-blown socialist change.

The richest 500 individuals on Earth added $2.2 trillion to their personal wealth in 2025. Just eight billionaires accounted for a quarter of that increase. As Oxfam pointed out, the additional wealth accumulated in a single year by those 500 people could instead have lifted 3.8 billion human beings out of poverty. A separate report underlines the grotesque inequality produced by 21st century capitalism: fewer than 60,000 people now control three times as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity — 3.8 billion people.

Money trees for millionaires.

The next time a banker, business tycoon, or tame politician claims there is “no magic money tree” for higher wages, better benefits, decent pensions, or investment in public services, remember these figures — and ram them down their greedy throats.

For much of last year, the Scottish Socialist Party campaigned on the streets for a 5% wealth tax as a modest first step in redistributing the mountains of wealth hoarded by a tiny minority of millionaires. In Britain alone, that measure would raise £260bn in a single year — enough to fund the Scottish Government’s entire budget, for everything, for more than four years. But that would require a government with the courage to confront the rich and powerful.

Hunger amongst workers

The third report was a survey of its membership by the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union. Its account of workers’ food insecurity gives a chilling new meaning to the phrase feast and famine. Some 61% said their wages do not meet basic needs. One in five have had to use food banks. 45% said they could not eat what they wanted at Christmas. Three in ten do not have enough food to feed their families throughout the year.

These are workers who produce, package, and sell food for society.

We want not crumbs, but the bakery

Reading this report made my blood boil — and strengthened my determination to fight for socialism. Socialists are not content to beg for crumbs from the rich man’s table. We want collective ownership and democratic control of the bakery itself.

That is why, as the SSP campaigns to elect socialist MSPs on the Holyrood regional lists in May, we will not only advocate a 5% wealth tax on all millionaires but go further. We argue for democratic public ownership of industries, banks, landed estates, and privatised public services — the sources of obscene wealth for a parasitic profiteering class in Scotland.

Mass movements required for socialist change

We are under no illusions about the limits of devolution, which is why the SSP has always argued for an independent socialist Scotland. But the fundamental socialist transformation needed to confront poverty, inequality, environmental catastrophe, and endless wars will not be delivered by parliamentarians alone. It requires a mass movement — people power — rooted in organised workers through the trade union movement, alongside communities and young people, with socialists embedded throughout.

Such a movement needs clear aims, concrete demands, and fighting slogans to rally around. Socialist MSPs, living on the wage of the working class they seek to represent, could play a vital role within such a movement.

For a Scottish People’s Budget If SSP members were already in Holyrood, this week’s Scottish Budget would offer an immediate chance to confront famine for millions amid the feast enjoyed by millionaires, through concrete socialist measures in a People’s Budget. Instead of capitulating to Westminster-imposed austerity — delivering cuts of at least £6bn since 2020, as SNP and SNP-Scottish Green governments have done — we need a budget that invests in housing, health, social care, education, fire and rescue services, local government, and workers’ wages.

Only such a programme could create the “national movement of hope” that First Minister John Swinney has spoken about so glibly.

In November’s Westminster Budget, Labour claimed to be giving an extra £820m to Scotland — by 2030. Even if this were true, and not the recycling of previously announced funds, it “pales in comparison with a projected £4.7bn funding gap between what Scottish ministers want to spend on public services and what funding is available”, as the BBC noted.

Defiance, not compliance

Instead of meek compliance with spending limits dictated by Westminster Labour, we need defiance.

A People’s Budget that puts money into the pockets, postcodes, and public services of the working class — and a government willing to pick a fight with Westminster for the additional funding required. Such a fight could mobilise mass support and build a powerful movement, rather than dividing working-class people.

By addressing material issues like housing, health, public services, and incomes, a People’s Budget would also undercut the appeal of the far-right, arch-Thatcherite demagogues of Reform UK, who feed off anger and despair caused by the failure of mainstream parties.

Let me outline some of the measures the SSP advocates:

Tackle the housing crisis

Build 100,000 council houses Housing: build 100,000 eco-friendly council houses for affordable rents. Scotland faces an officially declared housing emergency. Contrary to Reform UK’s lies, 6,000 asylum seekers are not responsible for 250,000 people on social housing waiting lists. Nor are 90 men in the Cladhan Hotel responsible for 11,000 households waiting in Falkirk. The root cause is serial failure to build sufficient high quality council housing. Research by Shelter and the National Housing Federation in February 2024 showed that building 90,000 social rented homes would support 140,000 jobs and add £51bn to the economy.

Within three years, the initial cost would be recovered through reduced housing benefit payments, increased employment and tax revenue, and improved health and wellbeing. A People’s Budget should fund councils and a public construction company to deliver 100,000 council homes, tackling slum housing, landlord rent-racketeering, unemployment, and young people’s despair.

Axe the Council Tax

Scrap the council tax and replace it with an income-based Scottish Service Tax, doubling funding for local jobs and services. The SSP has fought for this since its formation in 1998. The SNP promised to abolish the council tax in the 2007 Scottish elections, won a massive mandate, and then did nothing. Now, 19 years later, households dread yet another round of council tax hikes, which hammer low- and middle-income families while the rich pay a smaller share of their income.

According to government figures, a Scottish Service Tax would see 75% of people pay less, while raising £5.3bn a year — enough to close the council funding gap, expand housebuilding, insulate homes, and fund free public transport through a publicly owned People’s Transport Service.

Scrap outsourcing and PFI contracts

Cancel all PFI contracts and end outsourcing of public services, expelling loan sharks and profiteers from health, education, social care, and childcare.

More than £16bn of Scotland’s £111bn annual public spending is outsourced to private firms. Up to £3bn a year is siphoned off in profits — money stolen from services, wages, and pensions. Yet the Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform Strategy speaks of “hundreds of millions” in savings without mentioning outsourcing.

PFI repayments alone will cost £1.25bn in 2025-26, including £544m charged to council taxpayers. A further £27bn in PFI payments remains, with most NHS contracts running until 2045. Labour plans to extend this racket through 200 new health centres. A People’s Budget should cancel all PFI contracts and redirect the money to jobs and services.

A £15 minimum Scottish Living Wage

We would introduce a £15-an-hour Scottish Living Wage for 600,000 public sector workers and 130,000 workers in outsourced contracts. While the statutory minimum wage is reserved to Westminster, a Scottish public-sector Living Wage of £15 per hour, rising with wages or inflation, would transform lives and strengthen collective struggle across the economy. Join the struggle for socialism.

These measures — all achievable within Holyrood’s devolved powers — could transform lives for a generation. The only losers would be a handful of millionaires and shameless capitalist profiteers. The facts of this new year demand a serious struggle for people, not profit. I hope readers will join us in fighting for People’s Budgets, socialist MSPs, and an independent socialist Scotland that puts the nation’s wealth to work for its people — not a grotesquely rich few.