THE 82nd annual STUC Youth Conference sent an emphatic message of solidarity with RMT last weekend as delegations of young workers representing 12 trade unions across Scotland came together to set fresh priorities.

The conference adopted a resolution backing the Network Rail workers’ struggle against wage suppression, the stripping of terms and conditions, robbery of pensions, threats of compulsory redundancy, and recent Establishment media attacks designed to “break the back of our movement and our class.”

Evidently, young workers will not be easily led by cynical divide-and-conquer tactics deployed by an out-of-touch, anti-worker government and media who serve capital.

The dispute is about the collective rights and futures of all workers, and for this reason delegates unanimously called on the STUC youth committee to develop a strategy for maximising young people’s involvement in the struggle and any future strike action.

The freedom to organise ourselves and withdraw our labour as a last resort should be defended as a fundamental human right, especially right now in Britain with workers under the cosh of the most regressive anti-union legislation in Europe. 

Raising workers’ consciousness of the true strength we possess in our labour is the key to rebuilding our confidence as a class. Direct action such as strikes, which demonstrate that power lies in collective organisation, are a historical necessity.

The rail workers — first to put their heads above the parapet — exemplify this. They have emboldened workers voting over further walkouts this summer across a range of sectors — signalling that the RMT rail dispute is representative not of a moment but an entire movement. 

The intent of young workers to harness this energy into a prolonged fightback against the cost of living and climate emergencies was the overarching theme of the conference, with the transition to an international socialist Green New Deal being the most salient long-term campaigning commitment. 

The urgent need to build on industrial disputes with an angry mass movement was laid out in STUC general secretary Roz Foyer’s guest address and remained apparent throughout the weekend in resolutions on mental health, the cost of living, apprenticeships, technology and automation, sexual harassment and gender-based violence, refugee solidarity and climate justice. 

A panel session and important resolutions stressed the need for the trade union movement to stamp out cultures of reaction from within its own ranks.

Cultures that minimise and normalise sexual harassment and violence seep into all institutions that exist in capitalist society, even progressive movements.

Sexual harassment and violence are not some equalities issue separate from the collective bargaining agenda — like any other industrial issue it is about power and control.

Failing to address this is degenerative to the class struggle. We cannot build a mass movement with a workforce lacking in confidence. 

Organising around young workers’ mental health is therefore also of the highest priority. We are increasingly bearing not just the industrial, social, and economic, but also the psychological burden of capitalist rule.

There should be nothing controversial in stating that low morale stems from low living standards. Thought is not independent of matter; material conditions directly impact upon how we think. 

To assume that mental health issues are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain ignores the part played by the wealth imbalance in society.

The raised awareness of mental health among young workers must be embedded within the raising of our political consciousness. 

Involving mental health education in the STUC’s political education strategy. Lobbying the Scottish government to make rent pressure zones mandatory in every local authority area in the country.

Organising apprentices. Highlighting the link between casualised work and sexual harassment. Fighting for a worker-led just transition and democratic public ownership and workers’ control of sectors crucial to decarbonisation: these are just some of the campaigning commitments in the plan of work emerging from the 2022 STUC youth conference.