04.09.1997

‘Scottish Militant Labour and the Socialist Alliance’

Extracts from an internal SML document

SML executive August 6 1997

‘As the 20th century draws to a close, the struggle for socialism in Britain will not necessarily take the route that we would have tended to sketch out in the 1980s. A number of factors have combined to complicate the position - although that does not necessarily mean that the struggle will be more protracted: if we develop the correct tactics, strategy, programme and orientation, it could possibly even be accelerated by the national question.

Alongside the rise of nationalism and the gathering momentum towards independence there will also take place a big resurgence of socialism in Scotland and across Britain. However, the serious forces of genuine socialism are relatively small at this stage.

In Scotland, only the forces gathered around our organisation and the SSA appear capable of constructing a viable rival counterweight to the SNP. While there are socialist currents within the labour and trade union movement, they refuse to take the ideas of socialism out to the wider public, preferring instead to wrangle for influence in smoke-filled rooms.

The landslide victory of Labour and the subsequent illusions which have been engendered have tended to reinforce the more cautious and conservative tendencies of the ‘official’ left. Undoubtedly, the failure of Scargill’s SLP to grab the opportunity of building a broad socialist alternative to New Labour has acted as a disincentive to those sections of the left who may have been flirting with the idea of a breakaway.

Faced with major betrayals, that position could change in the future. In Scotland, a section of the trade union and labour movement could even go directly to - or at least eventually merge with - the SNP, which has assiduously courted sections of the STUC and trade union leadership over a long period of time. The SNP’s moderate, left-of-centre brand of social democratic nationalism is actually more closely in tune with the outlook of a section of the labour and trade union left, including MPs like George Galloway, Dennis Canavan and John McAllion, and the leadership of the STUC than the Thatcherite philosophy of New Labour.

This is unlikely in the short term; but over a longer period we cannot rule out a root and branch realignment of Scottish politics with at least a section of the trade union left coalescing within the SNP.

A more likely short to medium perspective would be a left breakaway with a strong pro-home rule or even pro-independence programme. However, the failure of Scargill’s SLP to materialise a serious mass force has reinforced the fears of the ‘official’ left that a break with Labour would be a leap into the political wilderness. The organic conservatism of this layer of left trade union officials, MPs, Euro-MPs and councillors will lead them to prevaricate and procrastinate before eventually making a break. Any major rupture involving a significant section of the trade union movement would probably be preceded by a series of small-scale schisms moving either towards the SSA or even towards the SLP.

In the meantime an opening exists for the SSA to step into the breach. If in the next two to three years the Alliance can build upon the position we have already established - and especially if the Alliance is able to make a major electoral breakthrough in the local council elections in 1999 and/or in the first elections to a Scottish parliament - the Alliance itself could become a central pillar of a new mass or semi-mass left formation in Scotland.

Even now, because of the general sympathy that exists for the Alliance in cities like Glasgow and Dundee and in parts of the trade union movement, it is unlikely that a new workers’ party could be established in Scotland over the head of the Alliance. At the very least, the Alliance would be part of any negotiations to set up any new formation.

In the general election, the Alliance did not make a spectacular breakthrough. The same mass movement to oust the Tories which held in check the SNP affected the Alliance. On the other hand, what became clear during the general election is the potential mass support for the Alliance which could erupt to the surface in the next few years.

Taking into account the size of the population, the Alliance stood in the equivalent of 150 seats in England and Wales. The vote in Glasgow could be compared to a socialist party or alliance under our leadership standing in all 75 London seats, and taking 60,000 votes across the city.

It is also the case that our rivals on the left have been completely marginalised by the emergence of the Alliance. The SLP is significantly weaker in Scotland than in any other area of Britain. Across the whole of Scotland, the SLP stood in just three seats in the general election; it has no members in Scotland’s biggest city, Glasgow; and its leadership in Scotland are in favour of a merger with the Alliance - although at this stage, they are not prepared to defy Scargill. The SWP too has been marginalised in Scotland.

When the idea of the Alliance was first floated by our organisation two years ago, it was envisaged firstly as a long-term project aiming to be in place by the first elections to a Scottish parliament; and secondly as a loose electoral pact or coalition of existing left forces.

However, the move by Arthur Scargill to form the SLP in late 1995/early 1996 altered both the timetable and the nature of the project. The formation of the Alliance was speeded up - a decision which has been vindicated completely by the subsequent evolution of the Alliance and the SLP. If at that stage we had dragged our feet, the SLP would have rapidly moved in and created long-term complications for our organisation and for the wider socialist movement.

From the outset the SSA developed into a hybrid formation rather than a straightforward alliance, with many people joining as individual members. The single biggest grouping within the Alliance at this stage are those who have joined the Alliance on an individual membership basis. Some of these have been attracted to the Alliance because it is a socialist organisation; others precisely because it is an alliance rather than a tightly knit party.

At the same time, SML has been the main political force within the Alliance. Our programme has in the main been adopted - although there are still contentious issues outstanding, including the issue of Northern Ireland. Although 200 new recruits joined the Alliance during the general election - the equivalent of 2,000 on an all-Britain scale. Out of that reservoir, we are steadily building our own organisation.

On the other hand, most of the Alliance office-bearers, and much of the week-to-week administration work is carried out by non-SML members. Apart from large scale campaigns initiated under the banner of the Alliance, such as the general election intervention and the Save Our Services campaign, our organisation spends less time and effort attending Alliance meetings, running the structures of the Alliance, etc than we directed in the past towards the Labour Party, the Labour Party Young Socialists or the Anti-Poll Tax Federation.

At this stage, we are carefully discussing our own identity and relationship with the Alliance. Flowing from the wider perspectives for Scotland, it is essential that we maintain our involvement in the Alliance and have a long-term strategy geared towards promoting, building and developing the Alliance.

There is no automatic contradiction between that task and the task of building and strengthening our own organisation; one will feed off the other and vice versa.

As in England and Wales, we are involved in a struggle to build a strong, tightly-knit socialist organisation in preparation for long-term developments. Because of our involvement in the Alliance, it will be necessary to continually monitor the state of our own organisation, and to ensure that there is careful attention paid to the structures, the functioning and the identity of the organisation.

We are in the process also of examining the name and identity of the organisation in Scotland - although we cannot necessarily apply exactly the same identity to the organisation that we have established in England and Wales, because of the different conditions under which we operate.

That is one side of the equation. But the other side of the equation is that in Scotland, to a much wider degree than in any other part of Britain, our organisation is involved in attempting to speed up the struggle for socialism through the establishment of a wider, broader left formation that can act as a magnet for trade union organisations, community organisations, enviromental protesters, and other sections of the working class and the oppressed.

Whether or not this project succeeds will depend to a high degree upon the political and organisational drive of our own organisation. If we fail to achieve this aim, the struggle for socialism in Scotland and throughout Britain could be significantly delayed.

All perspectives are necessarily conditional. Unforeseen events can intervene to speed up or to slow down the processes at work, or to derail developments along an unexpected path. There may be occasions in the future, as there have been in the past, when we will be forced to change course or to retrace our steps.

Nonetheless, it is necessary that we always attempt to chart as best we can a route through the mists of the future in order to equip and position the organisation to play a decisive role in shaping history’.