17.10.1996

Futuristic language

Mary Ward spoke to the Weekly Worker about one element in the SSA

I am very pleased to have been accepted as the Scottish Socialist Alliance’s candidate for the general election in Dundee West. The formation of the SSA is to be welcomed as an important step forward for the working class in Scotland and throughout the rest of Britain. The alliance however is not a party, and those of us committed to Partyism must see our priority as building the kind of organisation the working class needs to lead the struggle to overthrow capitalism in the 21st century.

Any alliance, by its nature, must be made up of different elements. The Communist Party of Scotland members in Dundee probably represent the most reformist section within the SSA.

It is difficult to pin down the CPS. Despite being apparently financially well resourced, they publish very little on their organisation’s positions. They prefer rather to indulge in publications akin to church magazines: nice, safe interviews with nice, safe lefties on nice, glossy paper.

Their position within the SSA is strange too. They have not affiliated as an organisation, but encourage individuals to join. Leading lights like Bill Bonnar have had the courage to actively campaign against the Labour Party, while Dundee’s two CPS stalwarts, Edith and Sandy Constable, will not participate in any campaign that will upset their friends in Labour. They believe not so much in the British road to socialism, but in the Scottish long and very winding road.

They have made it clear they will be supporting Labour in the general election, because they believe that the SSA is premature in standing.

At the Dundee election meeting they challenged my candidature, questioning whether I could be trusted to advocate SSA policy and not to use “futuristic language” - like ‘class war’ or ‘revolution’. It seems that their criteria for calling themselves communist is based not on a programme or on Marxism, but merely on age: “We have been around for a long time,” they say in justifying every negative viewpoint they put forward.

The CPS vision revolves around a Scottish parliament (even with minimal powers), then PR, then a realignment of the left, then ... who knows?

The CPS is an organisation riven with disagreements. I would urge those within it who would call themselves communists in the Marxist sense to fight for what is necessary and to reject this reformist approach.