02.05.2001

Welsh Alliance steps up challenge

Sixteen people attended the final pre-election meeting of the national council of the Welsh Socialist Alliance in Briton Ferry on Sunday April 29. The meeting took important decisions which will serve to boost the credibility of the WSA challenge at the general election.

A motion presented by the CPGB calling on the WSA to stand sufficient candidates to gain a party political broadcast - seven candidates - was passed by a large majority. Given that the WSA is now definitely standing in a fifth seat (Neath) and is almost certain to contest Swansea East also, it should not be a tall order to stand in a seventh constituency. Islywn, Caerphilly and Aberavon have been mentioned as possible targets.

Bizarrely, the delegation from the Socialist Party - which included the national secretary and the national treasurer of the WSA - decided not to support the motion. Instead, they argued that the alliance would be overstretching its small resources by standing in seven seats. I drew the conclusion that that this was not conservatism on the part of the SP, but a conscious attempt to minimise our election challenge.

A wise sage recently told me that watching the SP at the moment was like intruding on a group going through a collective nervous breakdown. This was on full display when discussion turned to the broadcast itself.

Given that the WSA had made no plans to produce its own broadcast, it was agreed that we would accept the invitation from the Socialist Alliance in England to use the Ken Loach film, which would include an interview with a WSA candidate.

Yet the SP made an insane attempt to sabotage this by insisting that before the WSA accepted the invitation it should be stipulated that the WSA would have editorial control of the broadcast to ensure that it was suitable for a Welsh audience. The thought of Wales SP having control over the work of Ken Loach (one of the SP film buffs thought he was not a particularly good director) amused me so much that for a moment I toyed with the idea of supporting the veto. Perhaps the comrades in England will follow suit and demand that Peter Taaffe offer his services to comrade Loach.

The SP did have one valid point though. The broadcast would not be suitable for screening on the Welsh language S4C. But it was so obviously another wrecking manoeuvre. Either we use the Loach film or we do without. Up to this point the SP, including its national officers, had not raised one finger to organise a Welsh broadcast (as was demonstrated when refusing to support a seventh candidate). It seems that the SP would jeopardise the electoral fortunes of even its own candidates if it meant the WSA was sunk too.

The rest of the meeting focussed on practical matters relating to the election. It was also agreed to set up an e-group and launch a new website (apparently we already have one).

Cameron Richards