The Wales Labour Party, and the whole Welsh political establishment, is preparing for the first elections to the National Assembly for Wales, due to take place in May 1999. The establishment of limited self-government for Wales has already proven a fertile source of controversy - over everything from the pay of the Assembly's members, to the location of its building.
Within the Labour Party, opposition to the principle of devolution seemed to have been largely silenced by the successful outcome of the referendum campaign in September. Fresh divisions have now been created, however, over the method by which, the party will select its candidates.
As with the European and unitary authority elections, is moving away from direct selection by constituency parties, towards a more tightly controlled system. Would-be candidates have to apply directly to the Wales Labour Party, to be considered for inclusion in a centrally compiled list. This of course further smoothed by the unpopular decision that candidates need only have been party members for one year. All of this has fostered dissent among party activists concerned about the continual attrition of democracy. The greatest anger has, however, been focused on the party's proposal for achieving a gender balance in the Welsh Assembly. The objective of equal representation for women and men - for the Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the London authority was agreed by Labour's Brighton Conference. The need for a clear action to bring this about in the case of Wales is unquestionable.
Women are grossly underrepresented in Welsh politics. Only seven women MPs have ever been elected here, and three of these first entered Parliament at the last general election.
Women also account for only 19 per cent of councillors in Wales, with the whole. party membership across any pair seats voting on a shortlist of four and! four men. The highest-polling man and woman would each then take up the party's candidacy in one of the two seats.
A far better system would be for each constituency to have two members, one male and one female; and this alternative would no doubt have won greater support in the Welsh party - if it had been allowed to have any say. 'Twinning' was adopted, however, by Labour's Welsh Executive Committee in January, withour any prior discussion of the issues having taken place within the party's official structures in As with the decision to incorporate an element of proportional representation in the Assembly's voting system, a broadly progressive measure has been introduced in a top-down, undemocratic manner The announcement of the move created an immediate backlash with around twenty constituency parties declaring their opposition to the proposals, and many of them helping to establish a pressure group, 'Constituencies Against Twinning'. This body represents an uneasy alliance of three different tendencies;
• die-hard opponents of devolution, who will take any opportunity to obstruct the Assembly proposals out-and-out reactionaries, hostile to any form of positive discrimination, who would like to see the party renounce even its aspirations to achieve gender balance those who oppose only the mechanism of twinning, as another constraint on the independence of CLP's to make their own decisions.
The distinction between these three tendencies is of course blurred in individual cases, and it tion that many left-wingers have been pushed into a coalition with some of their natural enemies. While the belated assertion of constituencies' rights to autonomy is to be welcomed, Labour's bureaucratic bungling has given some of the most reactionary elements in the party the opportunity to obstruct the pursuit of a positive objective. The whole saga has also shown the Welsh Executive to be a completely ineffectual body, incapable of exercising any real independence from the NEC in London.
When it was allowed to discuss gender balance - for the first time - on 19 January, the Welsh Executive was told that it must make an immediate decision to accept or reject the NEC's twinning proposals in their entirety, because of the lack of time available.
A majority therefore agreed do this, despite strong misgivings. By the time the Executive next met, on 16 March, the revolt in the constituencies had made the need for a rapid change of plan apparent even to the NEC. The Welsh Executive again obeyed instructions from London, this time reversing its earlier decision and putting twinning on hold, to allow a period of consultation to take place.
Constituency parties, branches and affiliates now have until 23 April to discuss the issue properly, after which a final decision will be made by a special meeting of the Welsh Executive.
Socialists will have to support whichever system emerges from the consultation process with the best prospects of ensuring gender balance - while keeping up their, criticism of the party's increasing centralisation of decision-making and attacks on democracy.