WeeklyWorker

30.03.1995

Vote communist on April 6

Workers in Scotland go to the polls this week to elect the new ‘shadow’ councils. But it is clear that - Labour, SNP or Tory - the new councils will still be ‘cutting councils’. So use your vote positively - vote communist and join us in fighting back

THE ANGER amongst workers in Scotland has been obvious during our campaign. This is why the presence of the Communist Party on the streets has been so important.

Shoppers have been literally queuing up to sign our petitions against local hospital closures. They have taken communist manifestos away with them. There has been no anti-communist feeling - people are glad somebody is doing something to stop the rot. In Dundee, where communists have been out on the streets every day, it is the Communist Party which is now known to be taking the lead against the cuts.

Labour and the Scottish National Party have been only notable by their absence and, where they do pop up their ugly heads, they have nothing to offer workers - whether in a devolved or an independent Scotland.

Last week we got a taste of what Blair meant by devolution. It had nothing to do with workers taking control: rather he is concerned, as with all ‘good’ rightwing bourgeois politicians, to strengthen the bosses’ state.

Noisy neighbours will apparently be targeted, along with parents of truants. This of course is the best that Labour can offer as it flows comfortably with the rightwing agenda.

But more state laws will do nothing except further oppress the working class. They will do nothing to provide all neighbours with a decent environment, instead of squashing them into derelict, damp and filthy multis.

They will do nothing to ensure that our children get an education that teaches the truth, encourages their enthusiasm and imagination and prepares them for life, rather than fills their head with the bosses’ deadening ideology. They will do nothing to give our children hope and a vision for a future freed from the confines of unemployment and poverty.

Communist candidates have taken a very different message to the doorstep of voters in Scotland. The only way to stop the attacks of all the bosses’ parties is to organise ourselves, and this message has had a powerful resonance among voters.

The fact that communist candidates are not knocking on doors with a list of empty promises has been appreciated. Workers have been sold out so many times by SNP and Labour, who both increase council tax and at the same time shut down and cut services.

Many of course tell us they will be voting Labour, but it is quite unusual to find anyone who expects anything to be delivered by a Labour council - its record is too notorious. The SNP now also has its own record of attacks on workers while in power on the council. Talk of Scottish independence may be persuasive to people who feel totally powerless in the face of their lives being ruled from Westminster. But the SNP has proved that its own rule in Scotland would be no more attractive.

One voter in Lochee, Dundee, slated his local Labour councillor: “Tom McDonald is a waste of space. The only way we’re going to get anything today is to do it ourselves,” he told the communist candidate, Dominic Handley. This voter was not alone.

That is why our election address hit home. Workers know they cannot rely on any of the other parties. The problem is that equally they do not feel strong enough to do anything themselves.

Our task of putting forward the alternative is vitally important. Communist candidate Mary Ward was told by Julie, a Hilltown voter, “I’ve never put my name on the electoral register, because none of the parties are going to make any difference to me.” But she was impressed by our manifesto, which is a fighting programme for action rather than a list of meagre promises. Julie, like many others, wants to come to Communist Party meetings.

This is the reason we are standing in these elections. A vote for the Communist Party, unlike a vote for any of the other parties, will not be wasted.

Our work goes much further than a cross on a ballot paper. Voting communist in these elections is the first step for the working class. It states: we will not be treated as so much fodder to make money for the bosses, who take 75% pay rises while our pay drops; we will not live in squalor anymore; we will not accept unemployment and smile as you slash our benefits.

A communist vote is a vote for action. It is a vote to rebuild the working class organisation that we so desperately need to really put power into our own hands.

Vote communist for what the working class needs, not what the bosses say they can afford!

Lee-Anne Bates

Where there is no Communist Party candidate, we say voters should only vote for candidates who support the following demands: