A SURVEY of public opinion in Scotland carried out at the start of the
election campaign found that 79% of people believed that wealth should be
redistributed in society. The BBC survey also found that 61% wanted an
increase in pensions while 51% supported the removal of troops from Iraq by
the end of the year, even if the security situation was still bad.
Philip Stott, Dundee SSP and CWI
More spending on health, education and pensions were the top priorities.
These findings indicate just how far to the left the majority of people in
Scotland are compared to the main big-business parties. And how big a vacuum
there is in which to build a socialist alternative.
Against this background the Scottish Socialist Party is standing in 58 of
the 59 Scottish Westminster seats. The SSP has stood down in East Kilbride
where Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Iraq, is challenging Armed
Forces minister Adam Ingram.
The SSP’s manifesto Make Capitalism History puts forward a radical
alternative to the neo-liberal consensus. Tax increases on the rich and big
business, public ownership of the privatised industries and services, an £8 an
hour minimum wage, £160 a week minimum pension and the removal of troops from
Iraq form the core of the SSP’s election programme.
The huge gulf between the aspirations of the working class in Scotland and
the policies of the main parties has meant that the SSP’s alternative has
built up a base of support in Scotland. At the 2003 Scottish elections the SSP
polled 6.8%, 130,000 votes winning six MSP through the PR list vote.
It remains to be seen what effect the resignation of Tommy Sheridan, who
was the best known national figure, as SSP national convener has on the SSP’s
vote at this election. The target set by the party is to emulate the 2001
Westminster election when the SSP polled 72,000 votes, 3.1% of the Scottish
vote. There has been very little coverage for the SSP in the media.
Whatever the vote for the SSP, it is certain that there will also be an
increase in those not voting at all in protest at the political establishment.
The SNP, who have tried to put forward a left face in this election while
promising to cut the taxes of big business, would be happy if they could
increase their representation from five to six MPs.
Members of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) in Scotland are
standing as SSP candidates in six seats – which is 10% of the total number the
SSP are contesting. These include two in Dundee, one in Glasgow and one in
Edinburgh.
In Dundee the SSP, within which the CWI has a major influence, has run an
energetic campaign of canvassing, leafleting and street stalls. Given the
attacks by New Labour on pensions, public-sector workplaces in particular have
been targeted.
Dundee Nursery nurses who were on strike for nine weeks last year took part
in the public launch of the campaign pledging support for Jim McFarlane and
Harvey Duke, the two CWI candidates.
We have also taken the campaign to multinationals like the Royal Bank of
Scotland who are Scotland’s biggest company making £7 billion last year. A
campaign of press releases and public actions has meant that there has been
regular press coverage for the campaign in the local media.
Election
