Elections for the Scottish
Parliament and local councils are to be held on 3 May. Most opinion polls are
forecasting a big fall in support for New Labour.
Labour's agenda of neo-liberal attacks on
workers - privatisation, attacks on public sector workers etc - and the wars in
The main beneficiaries look to be the
Scottish National Party (SNP). They have consistently topped opinion polls
although a crucial factor in all the polls is the big number of voters who have
still to make up their mind at this late stage.
Labour's campaign was embarrassed further
when the recent Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) voted by a majority of
just one to call for a Labour vote in this election. Even the patience of the
leaders of many of the trade unions has been strained to breaking point,
resulting in this very narrow vote. Trade unionists have been involved in a
number of industrial struggles over the last few years especially in the public
sector. Firefighters, nursery nurses, civil servants and local government
workers have all taken action over the last term of the Scottish Parliament and
all were in direct opposition to the Labour-led Scottish Executive and/or
Labour run local authorities. Workers in the NHS have seen privatisation
spreading while pay and conditions have worsened.
The rise in support for the SNP has not
meant a big rise in support for independence. The nationalists have benefited
from the mass hatred and outright hostility towards Blair's neo-liberal attacks
on working-class people and the war in
The SNP have also benefited from big
financial donations from some of the richest people in
the country such as Kwik-Fit owner Tom Farmer and Stagecoach boss Brian Soutar.
The SNP have continued on their right-wing trajectory, they want to cut taxes
for big business and have called for a more 'efficient and streamlined' public
sector - a very thinly veiled threat of cuts.
Their opposition to the war in
The most likely scenario is that the SNP
will make gains and could end up as the largest party in the parliament.
However that does not necessarily mean they will form an administration. The
electoral system virtually means that any administration would have to be a
coalition.
The Liberal Democrats have said they would
be opposed to joining a coalition with the SNP because the nationalists want to
hold a referendum on independence within the first term (four years) of their
control. But the reality is, all of the big business
parties may be prepared to do some backroom deal once the votes are counted.
It cannot be ruled out that Labour could
remain in a coalition with their current partners the Lib-Dems, propped up by
the support of the Tories in any confidence votes.
The International Socialists (CWI in
The campaign to have Tommy Sheridan and
Rosemary Byrne re-elected to the parliament as well as the election of other
Solidarity candidates at both local and national level has seen tens of
thousands of election bulletins distributed to workplaces and working class
communities.
Trade unionists have been the backbone of
Solidarity's campaign in a number of areas due to Solidarity's stance in
support of workers in struggle and in defence of trade union rights.
A number of public meetings have taken
place with big and enthusiastic audiences. The response to the fighting
socialist alternative being presented by Solidarity has been encouraging but
there is still much to do.
There will be industrial battles to follow
in the coming months and years. If Solidarity can maintain a parliamentary
presence then that can be a useful platform for the building of a much needed
mass socialist party to challenge the economic consensus of the four big
business parties.