left centrist movement).
Nevertheless, despite this favourable development most of us got done by the right wing Executive (c.g. Islington, and Ted Knight, Tom Mercer and myself in Norwood L.P) in 1954. There is no corresponding left centrist current in the L.P. now, and far less chance for a mass break from that Party.
So are the unions the key for opening up the construction of a powerful alternative party, despite their leaderships and bureaucracies?! think they are.
A number or unions c.gthe TGWU, FBU, RMT, UNISON and GMB have threatened or decided to cut back on funds to New Labour. They have voted for tionalisation of the railways; 0000800040 opposition to the governlaws (especially vouchers and detention centres); disgust at the growing diver. gence berween rich and poor ane oc cio ous cios for directors and executives; ducation and the encourasement of Big Business to run schools; the refusal to The right wing policies of I WAS INTERESTED to read Alan horec s assessment of the sune zer eral election results ('New Labour: a fovemment with no mandate'. SO 46). but 1 have to question some of his In the firse place, whie l agree that it is indeed bizarre that Labour's landslide was founded on only around a quarter of the electorate. I think it is difficult to go on to argue that there is anything in the figures that vindicates the decision co run the Socialst Aliance campaign.
t Noo ce conan wne special factors came into play, the overall average percentage poll of under two per cent (in an clection in which the tumout was saty eringy ow anyway) hardy indicates the emergence of anyring like a simhcant layer within the workers' movement breaking from 1997. prepared to vote against ic.
These kinds of numbers are what one comrade memorably called a 'BT vote" w.e.. Tamsy and trenos (or tne canok date). So while the degree of co-operabon amone the groups of the tar lere may be gratifying, the actual content of But chis is in England. In Scotland. on the other hand, the level of the vote won by the SSP does seem to have passed some kild of threshold. Here there is a different process underway — reflected this time round by the vote to the left of Labour, but building on patterns already evident in the way in which the SP and SWP in Scotland have evolved. Politics in Scotland seems to be moring at a different rhythm than in England. a significant fact that socialists in Britain have to be able to understand and work with. And what of Wales? Here the situation appears differenc again. Comrade Thornett can only note the poor performance of the Alliance, and the fact that Plsid Cymru 'did a lot worse than expected"
One is tempeed to ask expected by whom? By some within Plaid I expect bue when did a small party do as woll as it expected! The very same point could be made about the Alliance. In fact, by any standards. Plaid did in fact remarkably well indeed. If a comparison is made with the last British state general elections in Looking at the total votes cast for the main parties in both elections. we see that not onty was Plaid the only party to increase its vote in Wales. but it did so by a whopping twenty-one per cent.
Why was this so? Who were these new Plaid voters? Looking at the figures. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that they are former Labour voters fed up with the current direction of the Party. especially when it is borne in mind that the biggest swings from Labour to Plaid (again calculated using actual numbers of votes cast) tend to be clustered in the Wales coalfield.
That this is so can be largely explained by the fact that Plid's policies are in general not only to the lefe of Labour's, but also appear to be more in line with the aspirations of the latter's own traditonal supporters. With regard to privatisation, for example, Plaid is both croca of the Private rinance niosac and in favour of renationalisation of the raiways. For many Labour voters, it soems, a vote for Plaid is seen as a vote in defence of the welfare state and public services: Plaid's appeal to Labour voters would seem to lie in the popular perception that Plaid are better defenders of traditional labourist" interests-are This is of course exactly me same pattern or vour that we saw in the vyeisn Assembly elections in 1999, save the much smaller scale. The rezons for this are obous: the Welsh working class is not stupid, and for the time being it is going to take the question of Westminster governmene seriously. But the pattern that we saw in 1999 is exactly the same, only this time with smaller numbers. nere is a real process here, different to that in both England and Scotland. Socialism on the internet Socialist Outlook web site: International Socialist Group: www.3bh.org.uklISG And this is the real point i want to make. Since the 1970s, the unitary politcal system in the British state has been breaking down, and the fruits of this process are what we can discern in the June results. The consequence today is that in England, especially in metropolitan England, there is no significant radicalisation occurring outside of the organisational or political confines of Labourism. In Scotland, following on from the poll tax movement and the moact of the national question, mere is a genuine age-scue radical current that is berinning the break from the dominant current of British working class politics. In Wales, a different process is taking place, with a small but significant shift in political allegiance from Labour to Plaid. Aside from all debate on the merits or otherwise of the performance of the Socialist Allance, therefore, the real point is that a British political outlook which does not recognise that England is not Scotland and Wales is not England i not soin to be able to address the real political developments taking place within the British working class moveEd George, Spain
OUTLOOK A monthly marxist CIBSE 18:5 Racist review. No 48. September 2001. 50p