22.08.1996

SSA forces Labour to fight

The recent Toryglen by-election in Glasgow shows the potential benefits that using the election tactic can have for the left.

The Scottish Socialist Alliance (SSA) candidate, Rosie Kane, managed to poll 315 votes, equivalent to 19% in this safe Labour seat. An impressive vote in only the second contest where the SSA has stood (the result of the first one in Invergordon being a bit of a disappointment in terms of votes).

The high level of campaigning by the SSA in Toryglen meant that for the first time in years the Labour Party was forced to fight for working class votes. It brought in its MPs and councillors from across the West of Scotland in an attempt to shore up Labour support and stamp out the Alliance’s challenge.

Rosie was delighted with the result: “Both Labour and the SNP threw everything into this contest. Yet Labour had a spectacular fall and the SNP only gained 35 votes. New Labour knows that ordinary working class people cannot be taken for granted.”

This result has to be rammed down the throat of the Labour Party across Scotland. A real working class alternative to Labour is starting to be built. The sooner people can be won away from the pro-capitalist ideology of Labourism the better. To achieve this all possible opportunities must be taken. It can be done through championing the day-to-day struggles of workers and using bourgeois elections to win people to the ideas of genuine socialism - they are not mutually exclusive.

Nick Clarke

Election results

(1995 figures in brackets)

Labour 948 (1,595)
SNP 375 (340)
SSA 315
Tories 36
Lib-Dems 19

Turnout: 37% (41%)