While the British Labour government in London is one of the most right-wing in the world due to its foreign policy and domestic neo-liberal agenda, there remains an interest alternative developing on these islands. Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall are all showing that there is an emerging pole of pro-people, anti-war and anti-privatisation developing, all coming from progressive nationalist and republican quarters, showing that it is not only Third World nationalism which is challenging Western arrogance and exploitation. There also exists progressive nationalisms within the Western world, as well as plenty of very reactionary nationalist movements. However, as can be understood from the article below, there are many openings for a left-wing and socialist movement within the context of the assertion by these nations of their right to forge their own political path. - Sukant Chandan, Sons of MalcolmWelsh Politics - an overview
By Mike Davies
The recent debate about devolution within the UK has
focussed mainly on Scotland with talk of England asserting
its independence too. Typically missing from the debate,
except when eccentric MPs tried to redraw the Union Flag,
was Wales.
It’s worth recalling that 2007 was a momentous year in
Welsh as well as in Scottish politics. The May elections to
the National Assembly saw Labour achieve its worst
percentage result in Wales since 1918 (31%) but manage to
hang on to 26 seats out of the 60 Assembly seats. Plaid [Cymru]
gained three AMs to go to 15, Tories 12 (+1), Lib Dems were
static on 6 and Trish Law retained her seat as an
independent People’s Voice representative (essentially Old
Labour). The other ex-Labour rebel, Forward Wales AM John
Marek, lost his seat in Wrexham.
After many weeks of stalemate and negotiating, Labour and
Plaid Cymru agreed to the One Wales document and formed a
government. The pact has been dubbed a red-green alliance
but it’s more complex than that. It’s as well to recall
that Welsh Labour has remained essentially Old Labour -
generally rejecting the Private Finance Initiative route in
health and education, maintaining comprehensive education
and introducing modest reforms such as free prescriptions
for all (something taken up by the SSP) and free bus passes
for all Welsh pensioners.
Plaid had run its campaign on a left platform of reforms
(what it could deliver within the Assembly’s limitations)
coupled with demands for greater powers for the Assembly.
One Wales, an agreement that combined most of Plaid’s
policies with firm commitments to halt all privatisation
and PFI in the NHS and keeping council housing in the
control of local authorities, was born. The agreement also
commits Labour to a referendum on a Scottish-style
Parliament and to campaign for a ‘yes’ vote.
Only a red-green alliance can deliver on the constitutional
issue because a 2/3rds majority is needed in the Assembly
to trigger a referendum. Plaid and Labour between them have
41 members out of 60.
Plaid was initially split between those wanting red-green
and those who see the chance to ditch Labour, which has
ruled Wales ruthlessly for 80 years, and impose a Plaid-led
coalition with Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid’s leader) as First
Minister. But it became clear that there was a majority
that couldn’t contemplate any alliance with the hated
Tories.
Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price’s blog - makes it clear that this
is not only a historic agreement but that it is intended to
remake Welsh politics and create a new Welsh left. It has
certainly exposed the British Unionist wing of Labour as
the pro-war reactionaries that they are and helped to give
the more left-wing elements in Welsh Labour some backbone.
For comrades outside Wales, I’d urge you to take a look at
the One Wales agreement - The One Wales document is
necessarily reformist and limited - it aims to do what is
achievable under the Assembly’s very limited powers (Wales
has been given less devolutionary powers than Northern
Ireland, Scotland and even Sark!). The key will be to
obtain more powers in a referendum to take that progressive
agenda further forward.
For that reason it doesn’t deal with the war in Iraq but,
for the record, Plaid Cymru has been clearly against war
and the war in Afghanistan, leading the opposition both on
the streets and in the House of Commons where Adam Price
attempted to have Tony Blair impeached.
One Wales makes a clear commitment to the public services:
• A commitment to end PFI and privatisation in the health
service (including bringing cleaning contracts back
in-house) • Safeguards to keep council housing in the
public sector • Halted the right to buy in areas of housing
pressure as a first step to rebuilding public housing
stock. • Develop new not-for-profit nursing homes.
These are clear commitments that have infuriated the
Blairite wing of Labour (mainly the MPs). To make matters
worse for these Unionists, as they now style themselves,
the One Wales agreement commits Labour to campaign for a
yes vote in a referendum on Scottish-style powers for the
Assembly within the next 4 years. Already the dissident
voices - notably Lord and Lady Kinnock - have been heard
making their opposition clear. Labour’s failure to deliver
on this matter - which would enable the Assembly to make
its own laws without taking a begging bowl to Westminster
every time - would undoubtedly break the alliance.
The difference between Welsh and English politics is very
stark - in England, the Tories are in the ascendancy,
Labour is busy courting the middle-class vote and UKIP and
the BNP have representatives and some electoral base. In
Wales, Welsh Labour is increasingly turning its back on the
Blairite agenda, nudged by its main rival - a left-wing
challenge from Plaid Cymru. The Tories are becalmed and
increasingly torn between their own Unionist and
devolutionist tendencies. Neither UKIP nor the BNP, despite
some worrying results, have won a single council seat in
Wales.
What of the left groupings in Wales? Forward Wales
effectively vanished when John Marek lost his seat. It had
lost many of its key activists long before then and Ron
Davies is doing nothing politically. Trish Law still
carries the People’s Voice banner but it’s a localist
rebellion that is currently focussing on taking control of
Blaenau Gwent borough council. Ideologically People’s Voice
is instinctively Old Labour.
There are some good individual activists in what remains of
the orthodox left in Wales - SWP, SP and Respect. But none
of these grouplets has more than a handful of members, any
councillors and only have branches in Swansea and Cardiff.
It’s no surprise, given that the kind of anti-privatisation
agenda and pro-public services that they have advanced in
elections and localised campaigning is now being
implemented by the One Wales government.
