THOUSANDS of workers across Scotland marched at the weekend to celebrate May Day and prepare for battles ahead.

In Glasgow, striking college workers, who are fighting for their first pay rise in three years, received the honour of leading the march from the city’s George Square to the once unlikely location of Glasgow University Union. 

The union’s debating chamber, which once echoed to the voices of champion debaters such as John Smith, Menzies Campbell, Donald Dewar and Charles Kennedy but was long associated with all-male privilege on the campus, instead rang out to the voices of trade unionists and activists focused on the theme of international solidarity.

Thora Hinds of college workers’ union EIS-FELA told the strikers that their cause is of vital importance in a sector facing £32.7 million in SNP Scottish government cuts this year alone.

“We’re fighting the Scottish government’s neglect of FE,” she said.

“We’re fighting for the communities and the people that colleges serve and for the students who depend upon access to education and training that lecturers provide.”

Robyn Martin, a Unison rep at social care provider Enable, followed with a rousing speech on the battle against cuts and for collective bargaining across the sector.

“It’s time to stop begging on our knees and time to start fighting on our feet,” she declared.

“Currently, profit is more protected than care … and this is the case across society.

“We see landlords having a profit protected more than a tenant’s rights and when it comes to arms sales, profit is protected more than human rights.

“So we must demand a transformational approach that will offer class solidarity, rather than profit over people.”

Newly elected Glasgow University rector Dr Ghasaan Abu-Sittah, a British-Gazan surgeon, had been expected to address the rally but was unable to reach Glasgow in time after being denied entry to France at the behest of the German government under the Schengen Treaty.

Glasgow University student Coll McCail, who spoke in his place, said: “This must be a mask-off moment for the EU, which for too long has evaded questions over its hostile environment and treatment of refugees.

“Palestine is a trade union issue.

“Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine sits at the heart of the function of global imperialism.

“For us as workers, part of a global working class, Palestine must sit at the heart of all that we do because no-one is free until Palestine is free.”