[page 11]
Scotland now!
ON THE MORNING of May 8 the Scottish political establishment was rocked by news of the stunning successes of the newly-formed Scottish Militant Labour (SML) in the local elections in Glasgow.
"The night Scottish Militant Labour showed it could no longer be ignored in Glasgow', proclaimed a headline in The Scotsman newspaper, over an article which reported that SML candidates had "inflicted humiliating defeats upon their official Labour Party opponents." On the same theme, the Glasgow Herald described the "deep sense of hurt and outrage among Glasgow Labour councillors as the full impact of Militant successes sunk in... to have the Scottish National Party (SNP) bite lumps out of the party is bad enough. For Scottish Militant Labour to do likewise is horrifying and humiliating for a seemingly unshakeable Labour Group."
Not only the Labour leaders, but every major political party in Scotland must now be viewing with trepidation the rise of Scottish Militant Labour in the deprived housing schemes of Glasgow.
Following on from the stunning success of Tommy Sheridan in Pollok in the general election, where he received more than 6,000 votes, these local victories mark a historical breakthrough for the forces of Marxism in Scotland. In seven seats across Glasgow, Militant-backed candidates won a staggering 38.7% of the total vote. This compared to an official Labour vote of just 32%, 20% for the SNP and a derisory 9% for the Tories.
Yet, as columnist lan Bell pointed out in The Observer, "Militant is supposed to be dead and buried with a stake through its heart. But here was Tommy Sheridan reaching out from his jail cell to plant a sizeable spanner in the works of the Glasgow Labour machine."
Unlike the established political parties, Scottish Militant Labour was not conceived as an electoral machine, devoted solely to electioneering. It was created as a vehicle through which to expand the influence of Marxist ideas within the Scottish working class, and to exert pressure upon the official labour movement to return to the ideas of struggle, solidarity and socialism.
100 MIR
The Scottish Tory leaders
have been lulled into a lse sense of
security
id of c
sweep argues
ingry defiance has
through Scotland, Alan McCombes.
Nonetheless, these victories will provide an important platform from which to spread the ideas of Marxism throughout Glasgow and Scotland. At the same time they will enable Scottish Militant Labour to play an even greater role in the day-to-day struggles in Scotland against damp housing, school closures, the poll tax, hospital opt-outs, dysentry and poverty.
But the main significance of these results is that they have brought out into the open the underlying mood of defiance and rebellion simmering inside Scotland's cities at the present time.
THE TORY LEADERS in Scotland appear to have been lulled into a false sense of security as a result of their marginally increased share of the vote in the general election. Like a football manager who has just seen his team come from sixnil down to score an unexpected consolation goal in the final seconds, Scottish Tory leader Ian Lang has deliberately sought to put on a brave face. However, if the Tories seriously believe that they are now on course for a recovery in Scotland, they are living on a different planet.
It is true that by playing the 'union card' the Tories succeeded in scaring a small layer of ex- Tory voters back into the fold. With all the other parties committed to major constitutional reform, the Tories had threatened that a vote for any other party would be a vote for instability, upheaval and the eventual Balkanisation' of Britain.
Despite this scaremongering they were once again resoundingly defeated in Scotland, with 75% of the electorate voting for opposition parties. Although they held on to a few marginal seats, this was largely due to a fall in the Labour vote in the working class areas as a result of increased support for the SNP and the loss of thousands of voters from the electoral register in every constituency.
Significantly, the two Tory gains were in Grampian, in North-east Scotland. At the centre of the oil industry, the Grampian region is now the most prosperous in the whole of the U'nited Kingdom, with an unemployment rate of just 4.4%, and living standards among the highest in
[page 12]
Western Europe.
On the other side of Scotland, in contrast, Strathclyde, with more than two million inhabitants, is the second most impoverished region in the UK after Northern Ireland. The unemployment rate in Strathclyde is almost three times that of Grampian.
Although Scotland has not suffered the brutal national oppression found in other parts of the world, there is a strong undercurrent of national resentment flowing under the surface of Scottish society.
In the aftermath of the election, the Tory leaders claim that there is no real mood for constitutional change in Scotland: that on the streets and on the doorsteps people are more concerned with bread and butter issues such as unemployment, housing and the NHS than with the national question. This argument has been echoed by sections of the right wing of the Labour and trade union movement, notably Brian Wilson MP, and national trade union leaders such as John Edmonds.
It is true that in opinion polls, when people are asked to list the priorities that concern them, issues such as devolution and nationalism do not feature as frequently as the poll tax, unemployment, the NHS or housing. On May 7, the SNP made the serious tactical mistake of attempting to turn these local elections into a referendum on the constitutional future of Scotland. For working class families living in intol. Audience at a Scottish Militant erable housing conditions, inundated with Labour rally.
threatening letters from sheriff officers, and struggling against poverty and debt, there are more pressing and immediate problems to preoccupy them.
Nevertheless, when people come to seek solutions to their problems. the national question invariably looms large. As a result of successive Tory general election victories in England, there is now in Scotland an increasing sense of alienation and political impotence. In the 1983 general election, a survey of Scottish public opinion showed that at that stage only 13% of Scots were in favour of independence, with a mere 0.05% of the population considering devolution and nationalism to be important issues in the election. Now support for Scottish independence is at least 30%, frequently rising even higher such as at the time of the Ravens craig closure announcement, when polls showed 50% support. In the 1992 general election, between 15-20% of the electorate regarded the national question as a key issue.
As Militant anticipated, the SNP made only modest advances in the election. For the broad mass of working class voters in Scotland, the real possibility of ousting the Tories outweighed all other considerations on April 9. However. with these hopes now in tatters, the pendulum is likely to swing back in the direction of nat- MIR O11
[page 13]
120 MIR Summer Scotland
Jim Sillars.
ionalism in the next period. In the local elections on May 7. the SNP gained votes everywhere, especially in working-class Labour strongholds such as Glasgow, Fife and Dundee. In Scotland as a whole, they won 24% of the vote, pushing the Tories back into third place. In contrast to the previous local elections in 1988 when Labour's lead over the SNP stood at 21% Labour's lead on May 7 was slashed to just 10%. Yet several new factors have arisen in the situation in Scotland since the general election which are likely to complicate the picture, and possibly even cut across the advance of the SNP, at least for a temporary period.
IN THE FIRST place, there is disarray within the ranks of the SNP itself. Lacking any sense of proportion, the SNP leadership made the extravagant claim in the run-up to the general election that they were on course to win a majority of Scottish seats — a completely unbalanced estimate of the situation which has played a role in demoralising a section of the party's rank-andfile.
Although the total SNP vote increased by 50% in this general election, the party ended up with just three seats, the same number as in 1987. The most serious blow suffered by the SNP was the loss of Jim Sillars' seat in Govan. Judging by his outbursts after the election - he described the Scottish people as "90 minutes patriots who lack the bottle to take the road of independence" — Sillars himself now appears to be personally demoralised
Sillars' defeat has weakened the SNP's leftwing, notwithstanding the successes of a number of left-wing SNP candidates in the local elections. SNP leader Alex Salmond, whose political base is in the rural North-east of Scotland. already appears to be moving to the right in the aftermath of the general election. In an interview in the Glasgou' Herald, Salmond condemned what he called "talk of anti-Tory fronts and eliminating Scottish Tories. That makes many people who might be sympathetic to the Scottish cause feel unnecessarily threatened. The campaign we should engage in is not anti-Tor! but pro-Scottish."
In a TV debate with Labour MP George Galloway, the day after the general election, Salmond, in language similar to that used by the Labour leaders in the past, attacked Galloway for preaching civil disobedience. To the disma! of many rank-and-file SNP activists, he went on to argue that change could only be brought about 'democratically' - ie through the ballot box. Thus Alex Salmond, once expelled from the SNP for his membership of the left-wing '79 Group, now appears to be distancing himself from the radicalism which has been the main hallmark of the recent SNP revival.
There is now a gulf developing between the SNP rank and file in the cities, particularly in the West of Scotland, and the middle class right-
wing leaning elements who dominate the part! elsewhere. Open civil war, leading to a split within the SNP. is a distinct possibility in the foreseeable future.
AT THE SAME time, there is growing tension within the ranks of the Labour Party in Scotland On the one side is the 'nationalist' wing. involting the pressure group. Scottish Labour Action. and a number of left-wing MPs and STUC leaders. As well as demanding action from the Labour leaders around the call for a multi-option referendum, the nationalist left are also calling for complete autonomy for the Scottish Labour Party.
But these demands will be fiercely resisted by the party's so-called 'unionist' wing, which is based largely upon the Scottish party leadership and the right-wing led trade unions. A foretaste of what could develop was given in a recent report in The Guardian that "senior Scottish Lab our MPs are pressing for tough action against at least 10 colleagues who are preparing to def! the leadership with a rolling programme of partiamentary protests to highlight the case for a referendum on Scotland's constitutional future... the time is fast approaching when either whips or a new leader must warn Scotland United supporters about their future conduct in the party." (26 May 1992).
Labour's nationalist wing has been the main driving force behind 'Scotland United'. Although at this stage 'Scotland United' is a single-issue campaign, based upon the demand for a multi-option reterendum, it is not ruled out that it could eventually take shape as a fullyfledged political party, drawing together the left-wing of the SNP and the nationalist wing of the Labour and trade union movement.
At a time when the SNP leadership has app eared paralysed by indecision. 'Scotland I nited has begun to take on some of the features of a mass movement. Assisted by pop stars and entertainers, including Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue, Donnie Munro of Runrig, and Pat Kane of Hue and Cry, 'Scotland United' has already mobilised some of the biggest rallies ever seen in Scotland around the national question.
Scottish Militant Labour fully supports the campaign for a multi-option referendum on Scotland's future. According to one recent opinion poll, this demand now has the support of almost 70% of the Scottish population. It the Tories refuse to give ground on this issue, the Scottish Militant Labour Group on Glasgow district council will demand that the Labourdominated Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COLSA) organise its own unofficial referendum early next year. The outcome of that referendum should in turn be regarded as a mandate for mass action on the part of the Labour and trade union movement in Scotland, including Labour-controlled district and regional councils.
[page 14]
In the meantime, Scottish Militant Labour will continue to participate in, and build support for, the activities of 'Scotland United'. With the Labour and SNP leaders standing in the sidelines, wringing their hands in despair, unable and unwilling to take action against the Tories, people like Galloway and Canavan nave shown that they're prepared to stand up and be counted.
IT WOULD BE dishonest to pretend that we do not have important political differences with the leadership of 'Scotland United'. Albeit in a friendly fashion, Scottish Militant Labour will not shirk from offering constructive criticism of 'Scotland United' where we are in disagreement with the method or tactics of its leaders. However, at this stage, 'Scotland U'nited' lacks any democratic structure within which differences of opinion can be debated. It is a serious weakness, for a movement which is campaigning for democracy and attempting to build mass popular support, that all of its decisions are taken by a small group of unelected leaders. One of the great strengths of the Anti-Poll Tax Federation is that it is a grass roots campaign, with a network of local branches, regular delegate conferences and a democratically elected leadership, accountable to the rank-and-file.
Another potential weakness of 'Scotland Unired' is its refusal to take up, even in the most general fashion, the burning social problems facing Scotland under the Tories. Some of its leaders have called for 'party politics to go into suspended animation' until constitutional change is achieved. The dilemma facing 'Scotland United' is exactly the same as that which confronted the Scottish Constitutional Convention - how to force concessions from a hostile Tory government. The fact that the SNP walked out of the Convention is neither here nor there: without organised mass political and industrial action, there was always more likelihood of Scotland winning the World Cup than of the Tories backing down.
Unlike the now discredited Constitutional Convention, 'Scotland United' has at least been prepared to take to the streets and attempt to mobilise popular support behind the campaign. But in order to sustain and develop such a movement, particularly if it is to draw into activity the decisive sections of the working class, the campaign has to find a may of linking the general question of a Scottish parliament with the concrete issues that concern ordinary people.
As a logical extension of the idea that the Tories have no mandate to govern Scotland, 'Scotland United' should now call upon every non-Tory controlled local authority in the country to band together and refuse to implement any further Tory cuts and cease all co-operation with the poll tax. This demand alone would arouse massive popular support, and would even find a sympathetic echo among
whole swathes of Labour and left-leaning SNP
councillors who now find themselves, after the
general election, in a desperate position.
Undoubtedly, the Liberal Democrats within
'Scotland United' would throw up their hands in
horror at such a suggestion. But the leadership
of 'Scotland United' have to weigh up caretully
the price of unity. The Liberal Democrats won
only 13% of the vote in Scotland. Yet their pres-
ence within 'Scotland United' may prove to be
the Achilles Heel which paralyses the entire
movement.
The very name 'Scotland United' is a misno-
mer. In reality, Scotland is a grotesquely divided society. Edinburgh's New Town is separated by just a few miles from the city's poverty-
ridden Pilton housing scheme. Yet economically, socially and politically they are on two diff-
erent planets. There is not one but two Scotlands, co-existing side-by-side. One awash with wealth, owning vast tracts of countryside. And the other of giro cheques and YTS schemes, of housing schemes fitted with wall-to-wall damp and of mortality rates which rank amongst the highest in the Western world.
Scotland's bankers, businessmen and landowners oppose constitutional change, not because they are anti-Scottish, but because they are anti-working class and anti-socialist. They fear that a Scottish parliament would come under enormous pressure from the working class to carry through radical left-wing measures. Some sections of the Scottish business establishment have begun to flirt with the idea of limited constitutional change, not with any enthusiasm but because they are nervous of the possible consequences of clinging to the status quo. Others remain implacable opponents of any reform.
Certainly, whether or not the Tories concede any ground on this issue depends upon how events develop in Scotland - only if the movement for constitutional change is seen to be gathering strength will the Tories consider making concessions. On the other hand, if the initial momentum behind 'Scotland United' is seen to run out of steam, then the Tories are likely to stand firm, just as Thatcher stood firm in the aftermath of the 1987 general election.
This is not 1987. The last five years has seen a sea-change in Scotland. The impact of the poll tax campaign has penetrated deeply within working-class communities from one end of the country to the other. More than in any other part of Britain, there exists in Scotland a clear understanding that mass defiance of the law led directly to the downfall of Thatcher.
The anti-poll tax struggle has made militancy respectable. It has instilled a sense of confidence and power into the hearts and minds of the Scottish working class. The rise of Scottish Militant Labour in the housing schemes of Glasgow is just one sympton of the changing mood which has begun to sweep through Scotland. O
MIR mer
Sco
Scotland
A clear understanding exists that mass defiance led to the downfall of Thatcher
[page 15]
Lessons of LA
The the
following article appeared in May edition of the American Tarxist paper, Labor Militant.
FIRST THE LOS ANGELES cops shocked unemployed construction worker Rodney King with their 5,000 voltage stun guns. Then they surrounded him, kicking and clubbing him, inflicting a total of 56 blows. This savagery was videotaped. It was clear for all to see that these cops were guilty.
However, the cops, their lawyers and the legal system conspired to move the trial from Los Angeles to suburban Simi Valley, 100 miles away in which the black population is only 2%. Thus the jury was rigged right from the start and the cops were acquitted
The explosion of justifiable anger that followed this racist verdict left at least 44 dead, 1,900 injured, 5,200 arrested, 3,700 buildings burned and riots, demonstrations and injuries in several cities from coast to coast. These events constituted the most serious mass upheavals in the Us since the 1960s.
The responsibility for this verdict and its aftermath lies with big business and its politicians, the Republicans and Democrats who have carried out the policies of big business over the past decades. Under the Reagan and Bush presidencies, in co-operation with the Democratcontrolled Congress, the rich have gotten richer and the poor poorer. The richest 1% of the population, 834,000 households, now own more than the bottom 90% - 84 million households. The ending of the 1982-90 booin has focused a spotlight on this savage inequality. Social services have been cut and poverty has exploded. The Californian state budget has plunged into a S14bn deficit and major cuts in services and education have been made. Over the past decade, wages have been cut and unions attacked. Between 1979 and 1982, 70,000 wellpaid, mainly unionised jobs were destroyed by the recession and the drive for profit in South Central Los Angeles. The result is that inequality, pressures and tensions in society reached a breaking point.
The earning power of the working class as a
whole has fallen by 11% over the past decade.
For black, Latino and other specially oppressed
racial minorities, the earning power has collaps-
ed. Between 1973 and 1990, the average yearly 1+0 MIR
These
the serious upheav:
the US
the
were most mass ils in since 960s.
income of black high school graduates declined by 44% and 35% for Latinos. Poverty is over 30% among blacks and Latinos while at 14% overall. Poverty in South Central Los Angeles is 40% and in some parts 90%. Youth unemployment is 40%. Only 11% of the adult population of South Central LA can afford a median priced home. As one commentator on the upheavals stated, these statistics of poverty and joblessness 'are the social context of the riots.'
TO DEAL WITH this, big business strengthened the police. The poor, especially the black and Latino poor. were to be forced to accept their worsening poverty by violence and coercion The cops shot and clubbed and the jails filled up. The one-in-four young black males now in prison or under court supervision is more than the number in college. A higher percentage of the black population is in prison in the US than in South Africa. The US has the highest percentage of its population in prison than any country in the world.
To get away with its increased attacks on all workers' living standards and rights, big business stepped up its racist divide and rule propa ganda and policies: civil rights laws and reforms were weakened and blacks were portrayed as being responsible for their own poverty and for crime.
[page 16]
The labor leaders gave no way out, as they refused to unite and mobilise the working class as a whole against big business. Concession contracts were accepted which sold hundreds of thousands of well-paid union jobs. A constructive way to fight back, which only the labor movement can give and which is the responsibility of the labor leaders to provide, was not given and living standards continued to decline.
The increasing number of black political leaders were absorbed into the big business parties and carried out big business, profit-addicted capitalist policies. Black Democrat Tom Bradley, Mayor of Los Angeles for 19 years, has represented the interests of downtown real estate speculators, the banks and Japanese capitalists. He has presided over the rise of glittering office buildings in the city centre. while neighborhoods such as the mainly black South Central LA and the mainly Latino East LA have sunk further into poverty and despair.
The riots, uprisings and lootings which followed the acquittal of the four cops showed that big business's attacks on living standards, and especially on the living standards of black and Latino workers and youth, are no longer going to be accepted without massive opposition. In that sense, the developments in Los Angeles and throughout the US are signs of the future movement of the US working class.
NO SUPPORT CAN be given to the hypocritical condemnation of violence and looting by Bush and the other politicians, academics and media of big business. These are the people, this is the class, that murdered over 100,000 Iraqis to keep down the price of oil. Bush is the man who described LA police chief Gates as 'exemplary' Clinton is the governor of Arkansas with some of the worst anti-union laws, poverty rates and racial discrimination in the US.
But for activists of the specially oppressed minorities and in the labor movement, the form that this explosion of anger took has to be discussed. This is necessary in order to clarify a correct program, strategy and tactics for the struggles and upheavals that lie ahead.
With the working class and youth of the cities unable to endure any longer, and with no lead from the labor leaders, the explosion of anger in Los Angeles turned into the burning of buildings and looting. The gangs in the areas moved into the vacuum and organised the activities on a mass scale. These actions, plus incidents like the attack on the truck driver, were concentrated on by the big business media. The enormous outrage at the acquittal of the cops, which was shared by 89% of the population, was weakened by this. Even in the black neighborhoods of the major cities, there was a hesitancy to take action against the verdict as the fear of their own neighborhoods going up in flames became stronger. The burnings and looting, therefore, have tended to cut across the possibility of
mobilising millions into mass demonstrations against the verdict.
What was necessary was for the mass outrage in Los Angeles to be armed with a program, strategy and tactics which would have tapped the anger and discontent that exists among the working class and youth as a whole and would have shown a way out of the crisis. Such a prog ram would have started from the demand that the Los Angeles police department must pay for their crimes.
This should have been linked to the fact that the cops are controlled by big business and they are used as an occupation force to subdue the most poverty-ridden neighborhoods, to break strikes and bust unions. The demand should have been raised for the replacement of this force by a labour-community controlled police force. Elected committees of representatives from the unions, workplaces and neighborhoods - from local to national level should control this force. All members of such a police force should live in the areas they work.
This demand would need to be linked to a program of massive public works, under trade union control and at union rates of pay, to build houses, schools, hospitals, roads etc, funded by cuts in military spending and the nationalisation, under workers' control and management, of the top 500 banks and major industries. This would allow the economy to be run according to the needs of the majority and not those of
MIR O15
Bush surveys the aftermath.
The form explosion anger toc has to bi discussed
[page 17]
160 MIR Summer Los Ange
99 Sé
eve are tion ings
in
199
indica
th come
nts
an
of
to the Os.
short-term rich.
A campaign against racism is needed. By dividing the working class, racism weakens and reduces the living standards of all workers. Uniting the working class around such a prog ram, along with a mass campaign to organise the unorganised into the trade union movement and the building of a union-based Labor Party to contest the coming elections with socialist policies, needs to be at the forefront of the struggle to solve the problems.
On the basis of such a program, the outpouring of rage at the acquittal of the cops could have been turned into a demonstration of millions in Los Angeles. This would have won the support of workers and youth all over the US. It would have been a major setback for big business and its policies, laying the basis for a mass labor movement capable of moving on to the transformation of US society along democratic socialist lines.
Huey Newton, leader of the Black Panther Party, urged his comrade Bobby Seale from his prison cell after the murder of Martin Luther King: "Tell them not to riot because all it would do is get 50 or 100 people killed," but to "get the community to become an organised force ready to defend itself." To this must be added the need to take the offensive against the capitalist system that is responsible for the conditions that exist in South Central and East Los Angeles.
The blame for the death and suffering in the aftermath of the acquittal of the cops lies with Bush, the Republicans, the Democrats, the capitalist class and their svstem. But the responsibility for solving the problems that lie at the root of these events lies with the labor leaders who control the 16 million-strong organised trade union movement, potentially the most powerful force in society. The blame for the form this outpouring of rage took lies on their shoulders. They abdicated their role and left working people leaderless.
Three weeks before the Los Angeles events, the nearly six months-long Caterpillar strike was called off by the labor leaders. If this battle. between the world's biggest construction eq uipment maker and one of America's most powerful unions, had been continued and stepped up into an occupation of the plants, and had been given a program that would have appealed to all workers and youth, this would have turn-
ed the rising discontent into a mass movement capable of changing society.
In the space of a few weeks the labor leaders refused to lead, first at Caterpillar and then in
Los Angeles and nationwide in response to the
acquittal. Their lamb-like silence left the working-class and the specially oppressed minorities leaderless and the field open to be exploited by the Clintons, the Perots, the racists, and gang leaders in Los Angeles. This refusal to act must
be condemned and the struggle taken up within the labor movement for the labor leaders to take action against poverty and racism.
THE EFFECTS OF the Los Angeles events did not stop at the borders of the U'S but have had world significance. They represent a body blow to US imperialism and its attempt to create a 'new world order, in which it would totall! dominate after the collapse of stalinism. When its arrogant representatives lecture the pro-capitalist elements and the working class in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and demand major cuts in living standards in the future or when they do the same in Latin America. Africa and Asia, their authority will be greatl! weakened
The uprisings in Los Angeles and other US cities are part of the explosion of revolt building throughout the underdeveloped world against the increasingly aggressive policies of imperialism and the new world situation. They are part of the same pressure that has produced the riots in Venezula; strikes and demonstrations throughout Latin America: the fifteen millionstrong general strike in India; and the demonstrations and movements in the Middle East and Africa.
US imperialism and its counterparts have responded to these movements, which are in opposition to their policies and interests, by invading Grenada and Panama; bombing Libya and, most recently, waging war against Iraq Those same troops that went into Iraq, went into Los Angeles. The objective is the same: to force the most impoverished victims of imperialism's policies to accept their lot. No support can be given to the intervention of imperialism's armed forces, the National Guard and the federal army, whether in the Middle East. Central America or Los Angeles. Whatever excuse is given for their armed intervention - to stop drugs coming through Panama. to 'stop Iraq from developing nuclear weapons. to 'stop looting in Los Angeles' - the real reason is to prop up the rule and profits of big business.
The uprisings around the acquittal also represent the beginnings of a backlash. political and otherwise, against the 1980s. The bills are now coming due. Chicago, the third largest city in the US, was flooded in April as a result of the neglect of the infrastructure and the deregulation of the 1980s. Los Angeles, the second largest city in the US, was burning as the month came to a close due to the refusal of big business to invest in infrastructure. the living standards of working people and its racist and repressive policies. These events are an indication of the shape of things to come in the 1990s. It is up to the labor leaders to organise a mass Labor Party, a mass unionisation drive. a campaign against racism and to mobilise and unite the working class around a democratic socialist program.
[page 18]