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SSP poised for breakthrough
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) could make a big
breakthrough in May’s Scottish parliament elections. This, argues PHILIP STOTT,
would mark a significant advance for socialist forces.
"OPPOSING George W Bush might be unpopular in the USA, but
the latest System Three poll suggests there is potentially more to be gained
than lost by being implacably anti-war", commented the Glasgow Herald in its
editorial on March 7.
"That has to be the most likely explanation", it went on,
"for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) setting records in the new poll. For the
first time it has reached double figures, securing the support of 10% of the
electorate in the second, list vote for the Scottish parliament elections. That
puts it on a par with the Conservatives. In Glasgow, the SSP heartland, the
figure rises to 22%, just behind the Scottish National Party (SNP). Glasgow has
been an entrenched Labour stronghold, but the party is only 8% ahead of the SSP
in the city... The poll suggests the party would win ten seats in the May
elections, though that is unlikely. Half this number would still be a remarkable
achievement".
The Scottish elections on May 1 will be contested against
the backdrop of the war on Iraq and its aftermath. Even before the first bombs
began raining down on Baghdad, politics in Scotland was being shaped through its
prism. The SNP, who originally said they would support war with a second UN
resolution, rapidly hardened their position following the mass protests of
February 15. Their leader, John Swinney, announced that even a new UN mandate,
unless it was accompanied with clear evidence from weapons inspectors, would not
be enough to win their backing. The Lib-Dems and a handful of Labour rebels,
alongside the SNP, the SSP, the Greens and independents, backed an anti-war
amendment from Labour’s John McAllion in the Scottish parliament on March 13.
Only through a bloc of New Labour loyalists and Tories was a narrow majority for
Blair’s position passed.
Before the war started 27% of people in Scotland said they
opposed war under all circumstances. Only 15% believed a war was justified
without UN backing. Even with shifts in the mood once the war started, the
potential for a significant erosion in support for New Labour clearly exists.
The growth in support for the SSP is taking place against the background of the
general alienation by the working class towards the capitalist political
establishment, the upturn in the class struggle as seen by the fire-fighters
dispute, and the deepening economic downturn, with its particular impact on
Scotland.
Character of the SSP
THE SSP WAS launched in 1998. The Committee for a Workers’
International (CWI), whose members in Scotland are part of the SSP, has from the
mid-1990s supported and where possible participated in steps to build new mass
parties of the working class following the wholesale transformation of parties
like the Labour Party into capitalist parties. We supported the idea of
launching the SSP, recognising the potential it could have in Scotland as at
least a step towards a mass party in the future. Where we disagreed
fundamentally with some comrades who then parted company with the CWI, however,
was on the necessity of maintaining a Marxist organisation and the programme of
the CWI while building the SSP.
This idea was rejected by Tommy Sheridan, the current SSP
MSP, and others. It was enough, they argued, to build the SSP in a politically
broad way, with a mix of revolutionary and non-revolutionary ideas, while at
best maintaining a loose ‘Marxist think-tank’ within the party. These
differences were not secondary but went to the core of what type of party and
programme is needed to defeat capitalism and establish a socialist society. The
history of the 20th century proves that without a mass party and an
internationalist and revolutionary socialist programme it will not be possible
to build and ensure the long-term victory of socialism.
The SSP is not a Marxist party. Increasingly its programme
emphasises greater taxation on the rich and big business, for example, as the
method through which wealth could be re-distributed, with public ownership of
the economy and socialism seen as a ‘long-term’ aim. Marxists, while supporting
increased taxation on big business, have always sought to explain the
limitations of such an approach. The capitalists will seek to avoid paying an
increased share of their wealth through taxation, resorting to tax avoidance or
a ‘strike’ of capital, refusing to invest. What this then poses is the need to
take over completely the wealth and the means to produce wealth, the major
companies and banks that control the economy, under democratic working class
control and management.
The SSP manifesto, in contrast, highlights the examples of
Denmark and Norway – with "some of the most impressive public services in the
world" – which, the manifesto argues, was a result of higher levels of top-rate
taxation. Without explaining the limitations of the ‘Scandinavian model’ however
– with public services under attack anyway from neo-liberal politicians across
the region – this can foster illusions that on the basis of capitalism a more
equitable form of society can be sustained. Marxists fight for every reform for
the working class that can be won through struggle. At the same time we
recognise that every reform wrestled from the ruling class under a crisis-ridden
capitalism is of a temporary character and will be clawed back. It is essential
to link the struggle for reforms to the need to end the rule of big business and
capitalism.
Independence, the SNP & the SSP
THE MOST RECENT SSP conference, held this February, also saw
a decisive shift in the approach of the party leadership on the national
question, with the embracing of a two-stages approach. First an independent
Scotland that would stand up to a hostile capitalist world: "We repudiate the
fictional claim that in the new globalised economy an independent Scotland would
be powerless to tax the rich and wipe out poverty". And then, "Our long-term
goal is to create an independent Scottish socialist republic". (Quotes from the
SSP election manifesto.) This two-stage idea was spelt out further in a
resolution from Tay Coast SSP branch, supported by the party leadership, which
argued for "Scottish independence [to be] a key strategic objective of the SSP"
as "independence will provide the Scottish people with the democratic machinery
to support their struggle for socialism".
Socialists support independence but would warn that, unless
Scotland breaks with capitalism and links up on a socialist basis with other
countries and workers internationally, it would not be possible to end poverty,
low pay and the crisis in the NHS. On the basis of capitalist independence the
banks, financiers and big business would still, as they do now under devolution,
control the economic levers of power.
The CWI argues for an independent socialist Scotland which
would link up in a socialist confederation with England, Wales and Ireland as
part of a socialist Europe. At the same time, we oppose any attempts to divide
the working class on national lines. Working-class unity on an all-Britain basis
can play a vital role in undermining support for nationalism as well as
increasing the power and cohesion of the working class movement.
The consequences of the SSP’s approach could be
far-reaching. There will be great pressure on the SSP MSPs to support the SNP in
the new parliament particularly if, as is possible, the SNP could form an
administration with support from other parties.
If the SSP sees an independent Scotland as the first stage
of a two-stage strategy then why not back the SNP as the quickest way of
achieving that goal? That could prove fatal for the SSP, which would be tainted
with the pro-big business policies of the nationalists in the same way other
left parties in Europe have been tainted by propping up pro-capitalist
administrations (the PDS in Germany, the Swedish Left Party, the Danish
Red-Green Alliance etc). A class policy of political independence from the
bourgeois parties, while supporting measures that advance the interests of the
working class and socialism, is essential if the SSP is not to throw away the
opportunity that could be won on May 1.
The SSP could make a big breakthrough in May, which would
mark a significant advance for socialist forces. This would only be the start
however. It then becomes a question of what the party and especially its
leadership does with such a position. History is littered with the remains of
political parties that had significant influence, including even mass support
among the working class, but with a wrong policy were ruined.
CWI members in Scotland were founding members of the SSP. We
will fight to build the influence of the party at the elections and beyond. At
the same time we will continue to advance our Marxist and internationalist
programme which we believe can strengthen the SSP and play an invaluable role in
the working class movement in Scotland.
To keep up to date on developments in Scotland subscribe
to International Socialist, the monthly paper of the Scottish section of the CWI.
Five issues for £3-50; 12 issues for £6-50. Write to: CWI,
PO Box 6773, Dundee, DD1 1YL. Cheques payable to International Socialist.
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