One Struggle: How the Plight of All Workers Is Bound Together
Dr North reflects on the "Scotland Deserves Better" protest and the Rose's strike coverage
On Saturday, the streets of Edinburgh were filled with workers gathered around a shared solidarity. The “Scotland Deserves Better” march may have started as a call for fair pay and dignified working conditions, but it spoke to something deeper: a reminder that the struggle of one group of workers is the struggle of all.
Across industries and borders, the same story repeats itself — decreasing real wages (wages not increasing in line with inflation), insecure contracts, rising costs of living, and governments that seem more responsive to markets than to the people and their problems. Whether it’s in Edinburgh, Manchester, or London, the issues differ in detail but not in essence. Each fight is part of a broader pattern: the long erosion of workers power in the face of corporate capture and political apathy.
The Common Thread
What connects these struggles is not just hardship, but inequality. When profits rise and wages don’t it’s not a series of isolated events — it’s a system working exactly as designed.
For decades, neoliberal economics have encouraged the idea that workers’ fates are separate — that a teacher’s struggle isn’t a builder’s, or that public sector workers can’t have solidarity with those in hospitality or logistics. But that’s a false divide. Every successful strike, every demand for fairer pay, shifts the balance of power for everyone.
Lessons from History
History teaches us that progress for working people never comes as a gift from above. It is organised, fought for, and won. From the Red Clydesiders of the early 20th century to the miners’ strikes, to today’s care workers and delivery drivers — every victory has come from unity across trades and communities.
When workers in one sector stand up, they create space for others to do the same. That’s why solidarity matters: not as a slogan, but as a strategy. The “Scotland Deserves Better” march wasn’t just about one city or one industry — it was about reclaiming the collective voice of labour itself.
Beyond Borders
This is not just a Scottish issue, nor an English one. Across the UK, Europe, and the World — workers are rediscovering their strength in each other. From French rail strikes, Amazon walkouts in Germany, and Swedish workers in dispute with Tesla, the shared thread is a demand for dignity over exploitation.
Global capitalism ties us together and so must resistance. When the bus drivers in Manchester win a contract reform, it strengthens the nurse in Dundee. When Scottish teachers strike for fair pay, it sends a message to every underpaid worker across Britain, that you are not alone.
The Road Ahead
The task now is to turn shared anger into shared organisation. Unions must grow, cooperate, and speak not just for their own members but for all who labour under precarity. Political movements must stop treating the working class as a demographic and start treating it as a coalition — diverse, united, and powerful.
Because until we see that every struggle for fair pay, safe work, and dignity is one and the same, we will keep fighting in fragments.
Scotland deserves better. So does everyone who works for a living. And until all workers rise, none of us truly will.
What Else?
Over the next week the Rose will be covering a series of strikes across Manchester so stay tuned.
To see more check out our previous reporting on strikes in Manchester: