WHAT people are lacking throughout our communities is hope.

Hope for their life chances. Hope for their job prospects. Hope that their wage packets will see a rise while their bills will fall.

It’s a potent and powerful emotion. It can move mountains and move people, if it’s strong enough.

It’s that type of energy that we will be marching with on our Scotland Demands Better march and rally this Saturday.

Alongside the Poverty Alliance, charities, churches and more, we’ve mobilised our movement to stand together for hope, for a better future and for a united communities up and down the land.

The march, taking place at 10am outside the Scottish Parliament, bring together workers from all sectors and all workplaces. We have the workers from Grangemouth demanding the investment that the UK Labour government promised them.

We have retail workers demanding an end to harassment and abuse at their workplace. We have hospitality workers — the inspiring staff of the Village Hotel in Glasgow fresh from their resounding victory in winning backdated and improved pay — marching for respect and dignity in their jobs. We also have social care workers demanding the £15 per hour they were promised.

Plus, many more besides.

The aim is simple if, admittedly, the demands are broad.

We make no apologies for trying to capture the breadth of Scotland’s civic, social and trade union demands. Rightly so too. What matters to our movement — the workers’ movement — is accentuated and improved by the demands of the climate activists, the poverty charities and the community groups.

We’re uniting behind a simple but powerful truth: our country has the wealth, the talent and the resources to build a fairer, greener, more equal Scotland but we need our governments to start delivering it.

That means both governments — Scottish as well as UK Labour.  

This is a movement of hope and determination that is calling on everyone, irrespective of political stripes, to wake up and realise that working people have simply had enough of feeling left behind.

The sad reality is that, particularly among working-class areas, that vacuum of hope has started to be filled by nefarious, divisive figures who are capitalising on worker apathy and are seeking to direct that ill-will towards those most in need.

We can’t allow that. Scotland Demands Better is a rejection of the politics of hatred, blame and division. Instead, we are demanding action from our politicians that is rooted in our activism; action that delivers justice, fairness and decency throughout our communities.

The key point is this: we need you with us. Whether you’re a nurse, a teacher, a carer, a student, a parent, or a pensioner — your voice matters. When ordinary people stand together with a shared purpose, we are far more powerful than we realise. It’s that collective strength that can push governments to act and make change happen.

We’ve seen what division can do. It holds us back, weakens our communities and distracts from what truly matters: decent wages, secure jobs, strong public services and a future we can be proud of. The Scotland Demands Better march is about standing shoulder to shoulder and saying: enough is enough.

We’ve had enough of working people facing the suffocating feeling that they can’t make ends meet.

We’ve had enough of communities being abandoned by the political class but suddenly being remembered when an election rolls around.

We’ve had enough of being treated like second-class citizens within an economy that fundamentally keeps us from achieving dignified lives.

My message to anyone reading this is clear: if you believe in a Scotland where everyone can thrive, where no-one is left behind and that we lift each other up, not punch down on the most in need, then join us. Bring your friends, your family, your colleagues. Come and be part of something bigger than any one of us.

Because when we stand together, we have the power to change everything. Let’s make October 25 the day Scotland’s working people stood together and demand the better future we all deserve.

See you on the march.

Roz Foyer is general secretary of the Scottish TUC.