All Campaigns subcategories:
Socialism keywords:
Working-class
Highlight keywords |
Print this article
Blaenau Gwent
Blairites trounced in Labour heartlands
"I'M VERY pleased - we're a socialist area and Labour has become Tory." This shopper in Ebbw Vale reflected thousands of voters' feelings in Blaenau Gwent at Labour's crushing defeat in by-elections for Parliament and Welsh Assembly.
Dave Reid, Cardiff Socialist Party
This constituency has some of Western Europe's highest levels of unemployment, poverty and ill health. Working people have been abandoned by big business and its parties for nearly 30 years.
Yet they suddenly found the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Welsh Secretary and the First Minister of the Welsh Assembly government on their doorsteps with furrowed brows promising to deal with the area's problems!
New Labour failed to win back this seat, which for years had Britain's highest Labour majority, from Blaenau Gwent People's Voice (BGPV). Their Tory policies were rejected in an old Labour heartland.
BGPV was formed after Peter Law won the parliamentary seat from Labour in the 2005 general election. Law's group split when he was excluded from Labour's short list through the manipulation of an all women's short list. This was seen as a way of shoe-horning a Blairite into Blaenau Gwent when the local Labour Party wanted a socialist.
But for Blaenau Gwent's working people, this was more than just a squabble over party selection procedures. The imposition of a Blairite candidate showed the anti-socialist, anti-working class takeover by New Labour whose Tory policies of privatisation and cutbacks devastated Blaenau Gwent and other working-class communities.
When Peter Law died earlier this year the media asked: was Blaenau Gwent's general election result a one-off protest vote? Well they got their answer when the result was announced.
The new MP, Dai Davies spoke for millions of disappointed Labour voters when he warned: "Political parties take note. You take people for granted at your peril. It's the people that matter, not the political parties. The dinosaurs thought they'd live for ever - they died out. Listen to the people or you're in trouble."
Certainly low turnouts in elections reflect people's disenchantment with the main parties who all dance to the same pro-business tune. But these parties will never listen to working-class people.
Davies also said: "A political revolution is starting in Blaenau Gwent tonight". It's certainly an important breakthrough, a half-way step to a new political formation. But this must be widened beyond the South Wales valleys and it means adopting a programme to tackle the vital issues of jobs, health, education and public services.
That would mean a socialist programme. Unfortunately while stating that BGPV is socialist throughout the election, none of this was reflected in the election literature which concentrated on local issues and "more police on the beat".
Dai Davies says he'll work with backbench Labour MPs at Westminster who voted on principle against the government. But the Blairites' grip on the Labour Party means this is a dwindling band resorting to protest gestures rather than offering a new political direction.
BGPV's success shows that when a significant socialist alternative is put forward working-class people would respond. The challenge to BGPV is to work with socialists and trade unionists to extend this potential to the rest of Wales and Britain. Socialist Party members and CNWP supporters who helped in the by-election campaign will work with BGPV members to achieve this.
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
LATEST POSTS
12 May Stop Israeli state brutality
 |
9 May Post-election meetings
15 May Birmingham Socialist Party: How can we fight for socialist change and a new workers' party?
17 May Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
18 May Bristol North Socialist Party: Liverpool - history of socialist struggle
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 075 4018 9052
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 079 3539 1947
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999