What party should we vote for in Scotland?
Date: 1st June '01
Name: Lion Rampant
Country: Alba
I note in their criticisms of TAL and RA, the SRSM have accused both of being 'anti- Scottish' and 'racist'. I scanned in an article from TAL 29 which might provide evidence to the opposite. From what I have been reading here I really do wonder if those who are making these criticisms have ever read TAL or Red Action?
-----------------------------------------
From 'Tiocfiadh Ar La' (TAL Fanzine) Issue 29
General Election
What party should we vote for in Scotland?
The forthcoming General Election throws up a dilemma for many Celtic fans and republicans. It would be difficult to fit a Rizzla paper between the mainstream political parties. Labour are the Tories by any other name and the Liberal Democrats are part of their government in Scotland, which has done little to meet the needs of the poorest and most deprived sections of the community.
Labour has pushed ahead with its plans to sell-off council housing stock in the face of opposition and protest from tenants. Despite making noises about social inclusion there are more people now excluded from society as a result of poverty and homelessness. Hard drugs are the scourge of working class communities in Scotland. The government have no answers other than to rally round the reactionary campaign headed by the Daily Record and the Stagecoach millionaires.
If we are to see radical change in Scotland then it is certainly never going to come from Labour, a party that renounced any social conscience it had long ago.
TAL has always said that we are for the break up of the British state. The Scottish Parliament represents a step along that road but nothing will change as long as Labour dominates it. The link between Labour and the Irish Catholic vote in Scotland is well documented. For years, in areas like Lanarkshire and Glasgow, Labour has fostered sectarianism and fear to maintain their stranglehold on working class communities. We believe that it is time that their grip on our community was finally broken.
In some areas Labour are being challenged closely by the SNP. TAL readers may well feel that a tactical vote in favour of the SNP in these communities would be the best slap in the face that Labour could receive.
For the first time though, across the whole of Scotland, working class people are being offered a radical alternative to Labour in the guise of the Scottish Socialist Party. We believe that despite its faults the SSP puts forward a series of policies that if implemented would seriously challenge poverty and inequality in our society.
Many TAL readers might be surprised that we should be advocating a vote for the SSP given our past criticisms of them. The criticisms remain regarding their position on Ireland which amounts to the pathetic a plague on both your houses a kind of Nil By Mouth with a red flag tied to it - and like the old Militant organisation before it the SSP have stated that ALL the parties in the north of Ireland are sectarian. This is, of course, utter rubbish and it is heartening to see that at least a minority of the SSPs membership have fought for a militant republican analysis of the situation in Ireland.
However, our disagreement with them over Ireland is not enough for us to discourage our readers from voting for the SSP. The fact is that Tommy Sheridan, despite his many political faults, has provided a radical edge in the Scottish Parliament and more importantly is a voice for the most disenfranchised sections of our society. His relentless pursuit, in the parliament, of the abolition of warrant sales and poindings was admirable. So too his partys support for tenants fighting the sell-off of their council homes.
Perhaps the biggest area of controversy recently has been Sheridans outspoken view that cannabis should be legalised. He has also advocated the medicalisation of the use of heroin (i.e. that addicts be allowed to register and receive drugs on prescription) which has seen him vilified by the Labour Partys poodle, the Daily Record. TAL readers in Ireland might find this a surprising, even objectionable, position for a politician to take. However, we at TAL believe that the SSPs approach is not entirely without merit. It at least seeks to distinguish between soft and hard drugs and to separate the users from the dealers. In the context of Scotland we believe this to be an entirely pragmatic approach to the issue and Sheridan is to be commended for having the nerve to challenge the status quo on drugs. The hatred poured on him for his stance on this and other issues by the Daily Record is completely out of proportion when you consider that he is the only MSP that the SSP, but it is proof to a certain extent that labour in Scotland fears any challenge to its electoral dominance in working class communities. It also demonstrates the potential for a radical working class alternative to eat into the Labour vote in its heartlands.
Despite our political criticism and misgivings about the Scottish Socialist Party, the TAL editorial team are of the view that in this election a vote for the SSP gives us the best opportunity to stick two fingers up to Labour.
Back to discussion page RA home page