editorial of 5 June says 'an Assembly will not transmute base metal into gold" this is obviousiv so. But it certainly can transform the political situation in Scotland and become the focus of opposition to Thatcher. That's why the Tories will only concede an Assembly pressure of a Labour-led campaign. Limiting in advance the powers of that Assembly,
Scupper Labour's chances of building effective opposition lo the Tories.
Docs establishing an Assembly incan taking the first step towands the slippery sope of separation? Yes and no: the north/south divide doesn't run parallel with the Scottish/English barder. Not only are there no Tory MPs In Glasgow - they ve also been kicked out of Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, A Scottish Assembly that organised resistance to the Torics would be likely to gain increasing support from the English labour movement.
The alternative for Labour in Sentland is to sit it out despite having five out of every seven MPs. The left in the Party must make sure that, if the leadership goes for this option, they commit political micide themselves and don t take the rest of us with then. This means quite simply that the loft must become the most consistent advocates of a Scottish parliament that rellects the aspirations of rhe clectorate. The powers of this body and its relationship to Westminster are ques lions that must be settled democratically in the cause of political struggle. not decided in advance by the Executive of the Scottish Labour Party.
The thousand The thousand and onc problems raised by the constitution of a Scortish Assembly must nor be used as an excuse for fudging and manoeuvre to oppose campaigning for it, or to sidetrack the issue into a Royal Commus sion. Labour fought this campaign as the only party capable of providing a Scottish assembly (Neil Kinnock, Domald Dewar, et all and thcy should not be aided in their attempts to wriggle out of this commitment by confused elements on the political left, who are *not interested in Scottish devolution, but British revolution* Kinnock and Dewar must be kept to their word. They have the legitimacy to demand an Assembly and organise a campaign to force the Tories to concede it.
Those who reject this position, those who raise spurious arguments about the abatract unity of the British labour movement, or the need to build an alternative to Labour, or the sovcecignty of Westminister being sacrosanct, we in effect the same poople who are prepared to let Thatcher rule the roost unchallenged for the next five years when the basis for a real challenge has emerged in Scotland. Jim Niblock & Tony Southall
C- dozens of scats in the north did mot yield cxtra seats, bur the crushing of the Tories in northern industrial towns was remarkable: there are now no
Tory MPs ar all in Manchester, Newcandle, Glasgow, Liverpool arif Leicester. The resulte in Liverpool, where che: anti-Mitant crusare had been enormuus, were striking. Militan MP
Terry Fields substantially Increared his majority in Broad Green. Pat Wall won Bradford North from the Tories, despire his association with Militant Eric Heffer, deleated in last year's elections to the Labour NIC, had a nine per ccot swing in tis favour in Liverpon! Walton, taking nearly 67 per cent of the vote.
In the mining areas the Labour substantially creased, and Alan Meale even won in Mansfield: Notting hamshire-based UDM advised members ro vorc against Labour. Tn
Bryan Gould, the rising star of Labour's front bench the Midlands the results were morn mixed, and the negative effocts of a right-wing Labour council were certainly felt in Birmingham. But in Coventry therr was a substantial swing to Labour, the biggest being in rhe constituency of Militant MP Dave Nell-
All these results of course represent i working-class swing to Labour in uncas of high unemployment and social deprivation. Bur perhaps the most remarkable results came in Scorland: Of 72 Scotish Mi's. 50 are now Labour, and only 10 are Tories. In this clection Lie SNP Were not the beneficiarics of the anti-Tory tide, Josing three sears to Labour and gaining two from the Tories. The result of this of course will be a widespread feeling in Scodand that the governmental question in Scotland is likely to come to the fore, and the campaign for a Scottish assembly, with powers to raise
C N its own taxes and implement its own laws, will become a focus of opposition
In thesc arcas ar least the Labour was able to mobilise enormous rejection of Thatcherism. However, in some of the London wer city consutuencies, like Perkham and both Hackney constituen cies, the voter turnout was only in the region of 55 per cent, as opposed to a very uniform national rate of around
*the arithmetic of seats lost and gained obscures the results' real meaning' 75 per cent. This was repeated in inner-Birmingham constituencies. shows that some of the poorest sections of the working class, especially black youth, were disallected with the whole electoral proces and saw the election as irrelevant to their interests. itself is an indictment of weaknesses in Labour's campaign. YOUTH BETWEEN the ages of 18 and 25 were the only age group in which Labour beat the Tories, Overall LaBour won about 39 per cont of the youth vote as opposed to 36 per cent for the Tories. But here there is a sexual disparity. While more young Ineil voted Tory than Labour (42 as opposed to per percent), among young women under 25 the Tabour lead was remarkable — 42 per cenr for Labour as against only 31 per cent for the Tories, On a sex/age basis, young womch were the only social category in which Labour beat the Torics. This Labour Icad among the youth of course reflects both youth unemployment and the fact that the Tory proportion of the vote increases the higher you go up in the age range (with a slight decreasc slight decreasc among pensioners). But it seeme unlikely that the sexual disparity simply reflects the addition of the cacegories "youth' and "women'. It scems to reflect a specific radicalisa-
*Labour's right wing campaign failed to maximise its potential tion of young women around a wide range of social issues
Labour's averall women was 4.5 per cent, as opposed to only two per cent among men. But despire this gai, the Labour campaign fell down badly in attracting the maximum number of women's votes. In fact, the Alliance made the theme of women's rights more prominent in their campaign than did Labour. The
Alliance had more women candidares than the Labour Party (although of course a lot fewer elected); made specifie proposals to boost women's rights
— for example they proposed that all public bodies should have 50 per cont women on them within ten ycars; and beld one of their morning press conterences arnund the there of a belter deal lor women. The spectacle of David Owen proclaiming a beter deal for women may have been less than credible to some of us, but it did expose the lack of campaigning on this issue by die Labour leadership - a falure which undoubrelly cost many
The necron campaign waged by the Labsier leadership was undoubeedly the slickest and most professiocampaign waged by the Labour Teadership for decades. Concentrating on TV prescocation and die presidential-style build up of Kinnock as a
Bernie Grant, newcomer on
Labour's backbenches credible leader, it owed its inspiration not to socialis but to American-style packaged politics. Radical it wasn't. The High' point of the celebrated party political broadcast which concentrated on Kinnock and his family. was the conference speech excommunicating Miliant and the hard lelt.
It is not true to say, as did Ken Livingstone, that cho Tahour manifesto was the most radical since 1945'. Tr was Jess radical than that in 1983, or indeed in 1974 when Labour promised a fandamental sbift in power and wealth to working people and their Jarnilies'. It was a campaign that not only had no anti-capitalist content but also Tailed to convince many workers that Labour would increase living standards. In addition the campaign was indemocratic in the way it was contrulled from the top, as Scargill's revelations about being kept off Labour platforms demonstrates. 19 continued on page 22
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 2 July/Augur 1987 Pines Covendish Rala: