BY SARAH PEART
GLASGOW — Socialism has taken a giant leap forward in Scotland. In a wonderful May Day election success, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) will send six members into the Scottish parliament.
The leader of the SSP, Tommy Sheridan, declared to cheering party supporters: "What's happened tonight is our emergence across Scotland as a new political force. One that is willing to challenge poverty, inequality and low pay."
Since the last Scottish election in 1999, the SSP has transformed itself. Consistent year-round activity in local communities and workplaces across Scotland has attracted many new members and thousands of supporters.
Sheridan has spent four years as the sole SSP member of the Scottish parliament (MSP), confronting the lies and opportunism of the major parties and acting as the mouthpiece for the SSP's principled vision of a better kind of society.
Scotland's progressive electoral system benefits smaller parties and independents. As well as the traditional first-past-the-post single-member electorates, each voter in Scotland casts a second regional ballot for seats elected on the basis of proportional representation.
In the Glasgow region, where the SSP doubled and in some cases tripled its vote (averaging 15%), Sheridan and leading SSP environmental campaigner Rosie Kane each picked up a seat. Significantly, Sheridan scored 28% in his former seat of Pollok, not too far behind the winning Labour candidate's vote. "It will just be like double trouble, we are going to stir it up a wee bit", Kane declared.
In the West of Scotland region, a seat was won by Frances Curran (an ex-Labour Party national executive member), and in Central Scotland, key trade union activist Carolyn Leckie also won a seat. In the Lothians and South of Scotland, Colin Fox and Rosemary Byrne each won seats.
These will be names to watch for over the next four years as the SSP sheds the "one-man-band" label.
The SSP stood candidates in every single-member electorate in Scotland. In the seat of Cunninghame South, the SSP vote reached 11.7%; in Rutherglen, it was 9.5%; and in Hamilton South it was 9.23%.
In an election in which, as one tabloid newspaper headline declared, "People power is on the march", the Greens picked up seven MSPs (up from just one MSP in 1999) and four independents also won seats.
In a surprise result, a safe Labour seat was won by an independent, Dr Jean Turner, who ran a campaign against hospital closures. Anti-war former Scottish National Party (SNP) MSP Margo MacDonald was reelected as an independent. The 17 SSP, Greens and independent MSPs may be able to work together on an issue-by-issue basis.
The ruling Labour Party and the SNP both lost seats, while Labour's coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, and the opposition Tories (Conservative Party), made few gains. Labour's losses included one cabinet minister and one former minister. The SNP suffered a major blow, losing at least nine seats.
In a further blow to the SNP, in the parallel local council election the SSP came second to Labour in 75% the local council seats in Glasgow. Keith Baldassara maintained the SSP presence on the council, holding on to Sheridan's old seat.
SSP campaigning for the election began well before the other political parties. Without big business lining its pockets or the mass media at its beck and call, the SSP was unable to have the same quick impact as the Scottish Labour machine. But for the SSP, a party with such a firm practice of street campaigning, an election year simply means an intensification of its normal activity.
In one of many media stunts, activists on SSP stalls gave passers-by big wads of notes from the Bank of Socialism — illustrating to them how much money they would save if the unfair council tax was replaced with a Scottish Service Tax levied on big business.
In a leaflet delivered to every home in Scotland, voters were asked to choose from a variety of "pizzas" available from the "Holyrood Hot Food Takeaway" (Holyrood is the site of the Scottish parliament). The "New Labour Americano Pizza" was "greasy, cheesy and full of mince, with helpings of war, privatisation, low pay and inequality". In contrast, the "Scottish Socialist Supreme Pizza" was "a hot tasty recipe bringing tears to the eyes of big business fat cats — and a warm glow to pensioners, low-paid workers, students and lone parents. The rich pay more, the rest pay less".
In the pamphlet, voters were also asked to take part in "Who wants to be a MSP?" (a spoof on the TV show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire) — "no skills or qualifications needed; £48,000 a year plus perks; three-months' paid holidays a year".
The election may have been called dull and boring by the corporate media, but the SSP's campaign provided a much-needed alternative. The slogan, "Wage war on poverty not the people of Iraq", was central to the campaign. The SSP stood out, alongside the Greens, as providing principled opposition to the war. This was in contrast to the SNP and Liberal Democrats, who would have backed the war had the UN been bullied into sanctioning it. Their opposition fizzled out after the US bombing began.
Scottish Labour's support for the war infuriated the Muslim community in Scotland. Traditionally, Muslims have supported Labour at the polls, but in Edinburgh and Glasgow the Muslim Association of Britain issued how-to-vote cards calling for a vote for anti-war parties.
Another key feature of the campaign was the SSP's growing support among trade unionists. The British Labour government has continued to push the privatisation of public services and has maintained the previous Conservative Party government's anti-union legislation. It recently took on the Fire Brigades' Union (FBU), one of the UK's most democratic and best-organised unions, using a legitimate pay claim to attack working conditions and make cuts to the fire service.
This record has forced trade unionists across the UK to question their links with the British Labour Party. In Scotland, the SSP now provides a pro-union alternative for the use of unions' political funds.
During the election campaign, Bob Crow, general secretary of the transport union RMT, and Mark Serwotka, secretary of the civil service union PCS, both pledged complete support for the SSP's policies. Crow hinted that his union would not be funding the Labour Party for much longer, and described the SSP as the natural alternative in Scotland. Serwotka went further and stated that if he lived in Scotland he would be a SSP member.
Jimmy Scott, a firefighter and recent SSP recruit, stood for election in Glasgow. Scott represents a number of FBU members who have been politicised by their dispute and have joined the SSP. A recent poll conducted by the FBU showed that only 2% of the union's members intended to vote Labour. This is a massive drop from 69% in 1999. Support for the SSP leapt from 1% in 1999 to 19%.
Two TV election broadcasts firmly stamped the SSP as Scotland's anti-war party. Filmed during the 100,000-strong February 15 demonstration in Glasgow, one took the form of a series of interviews with protesters. This was clearly not an average broadcast, which are usually dominated by white, male jacketed politicians touting promises. The SSP broadcast was of ordinary people from across the country commenting on why they were marching, what they thought of Labour and being asked if they would vote SSP. This was clearly a broadcast from a real peoples' party.
The second broadcast featured a fiery speech by Tommy Sheridan, as he hammered the hypocrisy of spending billions of pounds "to start fires and take lives in Iraq while no money can be found for those who put out fires and save lives in Scotland".
Despite hostile media coverage, Sheridan has topped polls as the best-known politician and the best performer in the Scottish parliament. The opportunity to feature on TV talk shows and news features has given him a chance to further stamp the SSP's mark on the political landscape. Now five more socialists will share this limelight.
The SSP's success is a step forward for socialism in Scotland and for the movement world-wide. It will inspire activists around the world and illustrates the possibilities of left unity. Not only is a better Scotland possible, it is on its way.
From Green Left Weekly, May 7, 2003.
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