Fellow Scottish Labour members, voters and supporters,

We have been members of the Scottish Labour Party for years, some of us for decades, and we have remained in the party through thick as well as thin.

As party activists – campaigners and trade unionists fighting at community, workplace and national political levels, inside but also outside electoral politics – we, alongside so many others, have been at the forefront of the struggle for socialist politics and for improved conditions in the communities we come from and which we seek to represent.

We believe that it is our socialist Labour politics that still offer the solutions to assist people in their daily lives and in the battle for a better society, and it is clear from this current crisis that they are more relevant than ever. 

Investment in public services, democratising our economy through the expansion of public and common ownership, developing a green industrial strategy, increasing pay and improving conditions in the workplace, ending homelessness and building decent, warm homes for all are just some of the socialist policies that our country needs.

Many Labour Party members are feeling dispirited and reeling after the devastating general election result. To those members we appeal to you to stay, organise and influence the direction of the Labour Party.

The Labour Party still offers the best opportunity for change. There is no other vehicle or shortcut to the progress that our country needs.  Our Labour manifestos of 2017 and 2019 show clearly the difference between us and other parties, and showed the difference that Labour can make if we win.

Let us not forget the policy progress that has been made over the past five years and how the Labour policies of 2017 and 2019, based on our socialist ideals, are still Labour Party policy. 

It is our job as Labour Party members to ensure the fundamentals of the policy programme that we fought with in the past two general elections is retained and updated in response to Covid-19. 

In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament election is fast approaching. These elections are vital in helping to shape the direction of our country as we deal with the huge economic challenges coming in the aftermath of the Covid crisis. 

Socialist and progressive policies from Scottish Labour that envision a fairer, better and more equal Scotland are needed more than ever. Richard Leonard’s leadership gives us the radical policy agenda that will challenge the cost of living crisis, create a new publicly-owned national care service and invest in our industries and under-pressure public services, such as our NHS and councils. 

Our policies for a properly-funded public sector and the lifeline services it provides will help workers and set about addressing the inequalities and poverty that so many of us experience. These policies are vital to our planet’s current and future well-being, and we are clear that it is only the Labour Party which offers such a vision.

It is critical that socialists are helping to shape that policy agenda. Scottish Parliament list selections are taking place imminently and it is vital that socialist and trade union comrades organise for, and stand in, those elections.

A central focus has to be protecting our policy programme because we know that these are exactly the policies that our country needs. Our other focus is working with our brothers and sisters in the wider movement to protect workers by fighting to defend as well as create jobs. That is where we think the political priority is. 

On the constitution we say the Labour Party must stop conflating the substance of support or opposition to independence itself with the process of determining whether there should be another referendum. The Labour Party must seek to speak to, listen to and influence both sides of the Yes-No divide.

If you agree then please stay and help to shape and influence the approach taken by the Labour Party in Scotland. 

We urge you to unite and fight. Unity always brings strength. Let’s organise and ensure we have a Labour Party that responds to the needs – and reflects the objectives – of the Scottish people.

Yours in solidarity,

Lorna Robertson, Perth & Kinross CLP TULO, Scottish Executive Committee (SEC) member (women’s committee representative)

Siobhan McCready, Unite delegate to the SEC

Pauline Rourke, Dundee CLP, trade union activist

Kevin Lindsay, Scottish organiser, ASLEF 

Jackson Cullinane, Unite delegate to the SEC

Joe Cullinane, leader of North Ayrshire Council

Craig Anderson, Greenock and Inverclyde CLP, trade unionist

Michael Muir, Young Labour member of the SEC

Enas Magzoub, Young Labour member of the SEC

Lina Nass, SEC representative for North East Scotland and Highlands and Islands

Rory MacLean, National Coordinating Group, Momentum

Gordon Munro, councillor for Leith Ward, Edinburgh, former PPC

Malcolm Chisholm, former Labour MSP/MP, current community activist

Tommy Kane, Almond Valley CLP, former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn

Jim Malone, Dundee CLP TULO, former PPC

Craig Beharrie, Scottish Policy Forum (SPF) member, ASLEF local representative, Edinburgh Waverley

John McCue, SEC member, ASLEF district council secretary

Cameron Gilmore, former PPC

Martin Lennon, councillor, South Lanarkshire

Vince Mills, chair, Campaign for Socialism (CFS)

Pauline Bryan, Labour Peer

Neil Findlay, Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Lothian

Bob Thompson, former chair of the Scottish Labour Party

Mike Cowley, Edinburgh North and Leith CLP

Maeve MacKinnon, Maryhill and Springburn CLP

Stephen Low, Glasgow Southside CLP

Anna Dyer, Maryhill and Springburn CLP

Gray Allan, Falkirk West TULO, chair of Local Campaign Forum

Anthony Beekman, chair, Airdrie & Shotts CLP

Stewart Cook, Airdrie & Shotts CLP

Tricia Duncan, chair, Perth and Kinross CLP, vice-chair of SPF, member of Unite and EIS

Liam Thomson, secretary, CFS, Mid Scotland and Fife CLP

Robert Foster, councillor, North Ayrshire, cabinet member for health and social care

Louise McPhater, councillor, North Ayrshire, cabinet member for participatory democracy, former PPC

Colin Jackson, councillor, Inverclyde

Christopher Rimicans, chair, Cunninghame South CLP, former PPC

Nairn McDonald, former PPC 

Stephen McNeil, secretary, Cunninghame North CLP

Matt Kerr, councillor, Glasgow

Hugh Gaffney, former MP and trade union activist

Tam Dewar, Cunninghame South CLP

Joyce Stevenson, Motherwell and Wishaw CLP, trade union activist

Scott Hartles, trade union activist

Eddie Devine, leader, Labour group on Renfrewshire Council

Pete Shears, Dundee CLP, trade union activist

John Brownlie, Dundee CLP, trade union activist

Jim Sharkey, councillor, Renfrewshire

Caitlin Kane, secretary, Almond Valley CLP, former PPC 

Wendy Milne, Linlithgow CLP, former PPC

Stevie Dunn, chair, Almond Valley CLP

Craig Finlay, vice-chair, Perth and Kinross CLP

Robbie Duncan, executive, Perth and Kinross CLP