Recent events have led many people to consider voting Plaid as a leftwing alternative to Labour. In response it is not enough to attack Plaid Cymru by counterposing socialist internationalism to its Welsh nationalism.
Internationalism has too often been used as a cover for the worst winds of British chauvinism. And : internationalist credentials the Labour Party are y dubious indeed.
is necessary to ‹ at both the pos.a and the negative aspects of Plaid The positive aspects are its rejection of the centralist British state, its longstanding anti-militarist and pacifist tradition and its defence of the Welsh language.
More negative is the widely propagated that policies "made in Wales" will be inherently better than those made "in England", and a consistent failure to identify international capitalism as the real culprit in the impoverishment of the people of Wales.
extremely heterogeneous nature of the party, particularly at local government level, where it often acts more as an anti-Labour bloc than a socialist opposition. On a European level, Plaid shares with Labour a support for the Maastricht Treaty and the single currency. The contradiction between supporting monetarist policies on Plaid European level and shares with Keynesian on a Welsh level is policies Labour a support left unresolved. for the Maastricht As a result, there Treaty and the has been real debate in Wales on single currency. the future the European There is also a danger that Plaid will not function as an effective opposition in Assembly, given their stated aim of trying to "make the Assembly work", in order to establish their own legitimacy among the Welsh people. United socialists The other group standing to the left of Labour in the Assembly elections are the United Socialposed of the Socialist Party (formerly Militant), Cymru Goch, the SWP and various non-aligned Socialist Outlook does not believe that such a grouping offers a credible alternative to not least because the groups involved do not appreciate the centrality and importance of the Labour Party in Welsh politics.
Socialist Outlook supported the establishment of the Welsh Assembly, in part because of its potential to reinvigorate Welsh It has certainly begun to do this, even of this is largely restricted to a party-political level at present. It is also a fact that despite recent reverses, Labour retains the support of 50 percent of the Welsh the electorate.
This support expresses the hopes and aspirations of working class people in Wales for a better society. The "yes" vote for the Assembly was a vote for change -and a Labour majority in Assembly must be forced to deliver that change.