LAST YEAR reaffirmed the severity of our global crises. As Britain endured its hottest day, deadly flooding swept Pakistan. The scourge of war claimed thousands of lives as the hawks banged the drum for escalation. The far right made gains in Italy and the US as the Western world raised the drawbridge to those fleeing suffering.

However, that’s only one side of 2022. On the other, last year laid the foundations of the new world. Across Latin America, a tide of hope swept away the forces of reaction. Colombia elected its first-ever leftist president and Lula’s election in Brazil may well have saved the Amazon rainforest.

Closer to home, the organised working class regained its confidence and more working days were lost to strike action in Britain in 2022 than at any point over the last decade.

In Scotland, the story was similar. A year characterised by class war brought suffering, but also the hope of change and dignity.

Soaring household bills and real-terms wage cuts left workers under attack. Abandoned by the politicians elected to represent them, people were left at the mercy of the profiteers, whether it was their energy company or employer.

Not content to watch friends and neighbours live in misery, new campaigns were born to lead the fightback. In Glasgow, solidarity groups ensured no striking worker was left without support. The Power to the People campaign went after the energy companies, demanding a freeze on prices, not people.

Fans Supporting Food Banks confirmed that hunger doesn’t wear club colours, breaking down archaic sectarian boundaries by collecting food during Old Firm games.

As thousands of Scots came together to say Enough is Enough, union-backed campaigns like Unite For A Worker’s Economy built power in some of the communities worst hit by the cost of living crisis. Throughout the year, as the attacks worsened, the resistance
strengthened.

There is immense cause for optimism in that which emerged in Scotland last year — but the challenges we face are serious too. For much of 2022, the Scottish government sat on the sidelines. Happy for bubbling fury to be directed at Westminster, the SNP indulged in idle theatre at the Supreme Court.

Orchestrated to provide red meat to the party’s increasingly discontented electoral base, the court’s ruling came as no surprise. The outpouring of faux-anger that followed served only to launch the SNP’s next election campaign.

Ensnared by the trappings of power, the party’s political leadership stands more than happy to serve as managers of the status quo, trading on their determination to break the back of the very political class to which they belong.

As the SNP prepares to march Scots back to the top of the hill, the campaigns which took the fight to the Tories in 2022 must ready themselves for a confrontation with the Scottish government in 2023.

For 15 years, SNP neoliberalism has depended upon Friedrich Hayek’s thesis that economics belongs in a separate sphere from politics, that with one hand tied behind their back the SNP can do little for the working class in Scotland. Building on efforts like the STUC’s Scotland Demands Better campaign, let’s make 2023 the year that this myth is shattered.

This year marks a century since the death of the great John Maclean. There’s much to be taken from his writing to inform today’s struggle.

“The root of all trouble in society at present is the inevitable robbery of the workers by the propertied class,” wrote Maclean weeks before he died. “To end that robbery would be to end the social troubles of modern society.”

Like 2022, this year shall require socialists and trade unionists to stand firm, both in Scotland and internationally. Our struggle is much the same as Maclean’s was 100 years ago: to fight for a new world at home and around the globe. Let us fight for money to fund not the new cold war, but pay rises for every worker.

Only by connecting the heroic struggles of railway workers, postal workers and activists with the fight against the insidious face of imperialism may we move forward in 2023.

Coll McCail is a Scottish climate activist. He writes for the Progressive International and represents young members on Scottish Labour’s executive committee. Twitter — @MccailColl.