01.08.1996

Labour running scared

Toryglen by-election

Following the death of the sitting Labour councillor, Glasgow council faces its first by-election since the city-wide Save Our Schools campaign inflicted a humiliating U-turn on the Labour administration.

The Scottish Socialist Alliance (SSA), the driving force behind that campaign, has decided to contest this election, giving the voters a real alternative on August 8. Rosie Kane, the SSA candidate, knows the area and the issues that are important to the people that live there. She has played a key role in the ‘Residents against the M74’ campaign, which is in opposition to the eight-lane motorway being driven through their area.

As Rosie told the Weekly Worker,

“This election is a good opportunity for the SSA to test the water. The response has been very positive. Folk have been so miserably let down that they’re willing to do something different. They see us as a change. The Labour Party in the city is behaving digracefully over the construction of this motorway. It gave planning permission for this road. People are not looking for clever-mouthed politicians. They’re looking for someone who will bang on doors and kick up a rammy. They know I’m a fighter.”

If allowed to be completed, the M74 will lead to the demolition of many homes and Toryglen being turned into a building site. Quantities of toxic waste are buried under the area, which large-scale construction like the motorway would disturb, causing a serious health hazard.

The threat from the SSA in this election has obviously scared the Labour Party. Instead of complacently expecting the working class vote they are being forced to fight for it. For the first time in years thay have been seen out campaigning in the area. Sometimes they have even been out three times a day with car cavalcades. At a recent hustings debate a question was asked about how we reorganise society and restore a sense of community. For the Labour candidate, the vandals and the drug users were the problem. His solution was to flood Toryglen with more police. Only the SSA candidate put the problem in a wider perspective with the need to challenge capitalism.

There is no doubt that the election tactic is an excellent way of spreading the ideas of socialism and winning people to see that there is a positive solution to the problems of living in Britain today.

Andy Maclean