Scotland is being de-industrialised once again. This country was once famous for its industry – coal, shipbuilding (particularly on the Clyde), iron and steel, the oil refinery at Grangemouth, bus building in Fife, the Mossmorran chemical works in Fife, and Silicon Glen’s microchip manufacturers. All of that has been dismantled in the name of privatisation, private profit, and free markets. Successive governments have vandalised and destroyed these industries, relying instead on foreign imports. All those jobs are lost; all that skill and experience thrown away.
The recent loss of the Grangemouth oil refinery – a facility capable of producing the ecological aviation fuel that Scotland needs – is a devastating blow. Now, with the illegal war in Iran, there is a shortage of aviation fuel. This refinery, privately owned by Petroineos and PetroChina, will see the loss of 430 jobs. That loss will contribute to a critical shortage of jet fuel just as the summer travel season approaches.
This story is all too familiar. Scotland is moving away from an industrial manufacturing economy towards a service-based one – largely privatised and foreign-owned. Privatised industry goes only where there is profit to be made. When profitability fails, these companies move on, destroying communities in their wake. The only answer is the nationalisation of industry, with profits returning to the state and to the workers.
Today, the former industrial heartlands of Glasgow and the West of Scotland suffer from higher rates of deprivation, unemployment, and lower life expectancy. Cuts are being made to vital services such as the NHS, social care, transport, and housing, while the cost of living continues to rise – forcing people to choose between eating and heating. People no longer matter. All that matters is profit and the creation of wealth.
Instead of investing in creating a better life for people, we are investing in the arms industry – the means of killing and suppression, a hangover from our colonial past. The arms industry produces neither socially useful products nor secure jobs. It produces only the means of killing people and vast profits for company owners. We need a plan for skilled workers to apply their expertise – with no loss of income or working conditions – to produce the goods that society actually needs.
Scotland, and indeed Britain, must invest in re-industrialising the country, moving away from the fruit machines of financial speculation. We must use the skills of our people to create the wealth necessary for a fair and just society.
By voting for the Socialist Labour Party in the elections on 7 May, you will be taking the first steps towards creating such a society. The Socialist Labour Party will work with trade unions and trades councils for the good of all citizens.
Vote SLP – 7 May.
Chris Butler,
SLP Nomination Officer.