04.11.2004

Wales at Sea

One curious feature of the Respect conference that would have been overlooked by most delegates and observers was the decision of the delegation from Wales to remit its motion on the national and language questions. This was despite the fact that a special meeting of Respect Wales took place in Cardiff in early October and devoted much of its agenda to exactly these questions (see Weekly Worker October 7).

Then, with only members of the CPGB in opposition, the SWP and its hangers-on were convinced that the decisions made were eminently wise and sensible ones, yet at the conference it was suddenly announced that the motion which they had raved about in Cardiff was somewhat “unclear” and lacked “specific” details.

What explains this volte face? Certainly there was something faintly ludicrous about the motion, lacking any specific content whatsoever about the relationship of Wales to the rest of Britain and limiting Respect to merely calling for the national assembly to have the same powers as the Scottish parliament. Yet, whilst this may demonstrate the complete inability of the SWP in Wales - never sure whether to run with the nationalist tiger or not - to formulate anything remotely coherent on the national question, this in itself does not explain the decision to remit.

In Cardiff the majority was pleased as punch that it had defeated a CPGB motion which, while calling for the abolition of the acts of union, at the same time advocated the voluntary union of England, Wales and Scotland in a federal republic. They insisted that our motions were far too “specific” and “detailed”. So it seems likely that pressure was applied by SWP tops in London. After all, any policy made about Wales would surely have implications for Scotland.

The motion remitted did make the correct call for Wales to have the right of self-determination. This might just have been too much to swallow for George Galloway - someone whose British unionism is worn as a badge of honour. Thus, rather than causing a rupture with George on the question, the SWP preferred to leave Respect with no policy whatsoever on Wales or the national question generally. A sorry state of affairs indeed and little wonder why Respect’s electoral intervention in Wales is likely to be virtually non-existent.