SOLS remained famous for its hostility to Trotskyism and its members were key to recovering control of the National Organisation of Labour Students, NOLS, from the Militant tendency in 1975 and the following year SOLS members took the famous "icepick express" (a bus with an icepick - the weapon used to kill Leon Trotsky - attached to the front) to that year's NOLS conference at Lancaster University.

In 2023, Scottish Conference voted unanimously to re-affiliated SLS after a campaign by incumbent Chair Solomon Cuthbertson.

Each campaign is autonomous and hold events and discussions designed at highlighting issues relevant to them to the wider Labour Students movement.

In the 2021 Scottish Labour leadership election, SLS officially endorsed the Campaign for Socialism-backed candidate, Monica Lennon, who subsequently lost to Anas Sarwar by a margin of 58 to 42 per cent.

[13] Note: Blair McDougall served two terms because the Youth and Student Conference was cancelled following the death of Scotland's First Minister, Donald Dewar.