18.01.1996

Revolutionary foundations

Richard Whyte was a member of the Labour Party for some 12 years, but left after the continuing rightward drift to become an active member of the Scottish Socialist Movement. Richard has been involved in the debates and discussions around Arthur Scargill’s proposed SLP. Mary Ward spoke to him about recent developments

You were at the meeting in London last Saturday. What happened?

Continuing discussion in London since the publication of Arthur Scargill’s perspective document on November 4 revealed differences in opinion between various comrades. This became distilled as a ‘Scottish question’, probably because the Scottish comrades involved in the discussion had been actively engaged in working through a process of socialist realignment and cooperation and therefore had a developing position which was supported in theory and practice by relatively large numbers of people who were given the opportunity to discuss and debate the issues.

The Scottish Socialist Movement distributed 1,200 special bulletins featuring Arthur Scargill’s perspectives paper in full with comment from a variety of political, trade union and campaign activists.

Aside from the question of Scottish autonomy, doubt and disagreement was often verbalised by the Scottish comrades who had the experience of three years’ work in a pluralistic project. The huge benefit of a continual collective discussion and debate involving comrades from various traditions gave us clarity and strength.

At the meeting on Saturday it was clear that no agreement or acceptable compromise could be reached. A certain process of dialogue had been exhausted and, rather than sit through details of how a Socialist Labour Party would be set up in England, with the clock ticking towards the departure times for our transport, the three Scottish comrades left the meeting with comradely regrets and respect all round.

And the proposals for Scotland?

A small sub-group from the steering committee has prepared and circulated a basic first draft of aims and objectives for a Scottish Socialist Alliance. This is crudely simplified as the socialist transformation of society, support for struggles against capital in the widest sense, the right to Scottish self-determination and for a sovereign Scottish parliament, internationalism, environ-mentalism and anti-imperialism. This will be discussed in the Socialist Forums.

This is accompanied by a draft structure which we see as inclusive, flexible, pluralistic, democratic and in keeping with the needs of the 1990s to realign socialists, based on what unites them ideologically, and work collectively and ceaselessly in the struggle to change society.

Will this be successful?

Ultimately, yes: I am convinced that the world will be transformed by the working class and that social need and environmental protection will replace private greed and ecological destruction as the motivating logic in a new world which will benefit all of humanity.

The Scottish Socialist Alliance type of development is the general positive trend in socialist organisational realignment across the globe. Left alliances, socialist unity can be seen as the current stage of the left restructuring process in Spain, Italy, Brazil, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. Of course there are no smooth paths.

In the Scottish context we have an audience for radical ideas among the working class. This has been reflected in mass opposition to the poll tax, water privatisation, the Criminal Justice Act; in industrial disputes such as Timex, the Caterpillar occupation, the offshore struggles around Oilc.

The M77 motorway protests united environmental activists, political activists, local residents from working class estates and hundreds of striking school children in direct action.

A Scottish parliament elected under a form of PR will allow an opportunity for a real impact electorally - for, I would hope, a yet broader realignment of socialists, some of whom at this stage will stick in Labour or the SNP.

In a general election a few selected strategic seats could be targeted to continue to develop a mass orientation and build a base of support for the future. The head of steam that we can build up in campaigning against Tory policies and Labour’s accommodation with them, whilst also developing and pushing radical policies for a future Scottish parliament, will be a crucial factor.

We also need to work with other socialists in rebuilding the industrial networks which at one time the old Communist Party had in place and which acted like a cement in the workplaces and union movement.

I feel confident about the future. How successful, how quickly I couldn’t determine in advance. However there is a gap, a vacuum, a need. As long as we continue to operate on the basis of comradeship, respect and collective discussion, learning our lessons as we go - rather than charging down particular lines filled with false super-optimism or self-calculating pessimism, as much sectarian politics has tended towards historically in Britain - then I think we can lay a foundation for significant progress.