05.09.1996

Labour’s Scottish hoops

“It is worse than the worst I had thought possible,” John McAllion said less than 24 hours after the Scottish executive of the Labour Party took the decision to hold not one but two referenda on the question of a future Scottish parliament and its proposed powers. The executive went into the meeting to debate whether it should be a one-question referendum (the position backed by the left of the Labour Party) or whether it should include a second question on tax-varying powers (the position of Blair and the leadership). A gambling person could have made a fortune at the bookies because the odds of the executive coming out with three questions must have been phenomenal.

The executive decided that the first referendum, to be held after a Labour victory, would carry two questions, including that concerning tax-varying powers. If there was a ‘yes’ majority on both counts, then the newly created parliament would itself conduct an ‘activating’ referendum to confirm its powers.

Just as incredible is that the so called Labour ‘rebels’ went into the meeting, having counted the votes, expecting to win but instead a ‘compromise’ position won the day after a period of horse trading and negotiations. It must certainly be an event which will go down in Scottish political history as one of the major cock-ups of our decade.

The chances now of Labour delivering any kind of ‘meaningful’ parliament for Scotland even by its own pathetic criteria are remote. Five times will the Scottish electorate have to jump through Labour hoops to get even a sop parliament which does not have the right to decide on the critical question of self-determination. Labour even has the audacity to seek to mandate a parliament not even in existence on what it must do.

What remains of the Labour left in Scotland is in complete despair, caught between their own political ambitions and following what they believe in.

Calls for autonomy for the Labour Party in Scotland are heard from Canavan, McAllion and Bob Thompson, while Ian Smart (Scottish Labour Action) is simply dumbfounded in his incredulity at the ridiculous position they find themselves in. Yet they cannot blame this one on Blair’s English lackies. This was the supposedly radical and fearless Scottish executive who actually had it within their power to give Blair and his undemocratic regime a bloody nose, yet they ran away from the fight - so much for Scottish autonomy. What we need is fearless fighters for the class, not lilly-livered opportunists, whether they be in London or Edinburgh. The Labour Party does not fit the bill and the drop of nine percent in a System Three opinion poll suggests that while people in Scotland may well vote Labour in the election, it is only because they are heart sick of the Tories and do not believe that there is a viable alternative.

Those on the left who seek to fill this vacum and offer the working class a real socialist alternative to Labour must consider very carefully their atitude towards the proposed referenda. Will they really campaign now for a ‘yes-yes-yes’ vote or will they take the offensive and state categorically that they will fight for nothing less than self-determination for Scotland? And that must include the right to determine its relationship with the rest of Britain and indeed the rest of the world.

The left in Scotland, if it is to offer a real alternative to Labour, must not just go along with this Labour Party fudge. We must fight for nothing less than a federal republic.

Mary Ward