After the Coup, Where Next for the Labour Party in Scotland?

As we look back on a second successful Jeremy Corbyn leadership election campaign in just over 12 months, and prepare for a possible snap General Election and the unifying moment it must surely provide, we should recall the circumstances which led to the emergence of a left leadership in the first instance only 13 months ago. As he is at pains to point out, Jeremy did not singlehandedly give life to what now constitutes an authentic, but still evolving mass Labour Party in the UK. Nor can he claim exclusive personal credit for the re-emergence of socialism as a viable, oft-discussed and ‘live’ political creed capable of attracting fresh adherents and interest. He may have provided the catalyst for the various historic, economic and political variables swirling around UK and global life, but to target Corbyn’s character, politics or approach out with a context where millions of ordinary people are looking for alternatives to the tired and discredited shibboleths of the unregulated economy and its political cheerleaders is to fail to grasp the variables which give rise to movements and provide traction for previously marginalized ideas. His re-election, achieved with an even more emphatic mandate, should give pause to those both inside and outside our movement for whom socialist ideas are always by default a vote loser.

However, if we are to engender the kind of enthusiasm his tenure has already spread across the Party, our celebrations should be tempered by an acknowledgement that broadening the appeal of transformative ideas beyond our numbers will necessitate the development of not

1 only policy and principle but a compelling narrative capable of entrenching itself in the public consciousness. Socialists do not come in to politics to make virtuous noise from the side lines. Our ambitions are not limited to the merits of sound policy. Ideas remain arid, irrelevant to the lives of working people if they are not deployed by politicians in office. A vigilant mass movement can foster the ground upon which radical ideas become self-evident and widely accepted. It can offer permission for radical politicians to legislate radical programmes. But a Party must first convince a wide and varied section of the population that it is capable of an effective implementation of its manifesto. Now Corbyn’s tenure – for now – is once again democratically secured, CFS, Momentum and all unaffiliated members and supporters who support the general thrust of redistributive policy must roll up their sleeves, integrate into and transform the life of their CLPs, union branches and communities. Only then can we provide the animated base of support that can propel a leadership in full command of their message into government.

It is the failure to place Corbyn’s victory within a specific set of historical circumstances that perhaps more than their obsolete politics exposes our dwindling but still powerful opponents in the movement to censure. Their preoccupation with models of Presidential leadership, of spin, dissembling and manipulation of the public mood, of parliamentary trickery and media schmoozing leaves them vulnerable to being left behind by a sweep of history they barely register, never mind grasp. In contrast, the left must reach out not only beyond its traditional

2 constituencies (though without winning back the confidence of working people and those elements of the progressive middle classes anxious to see radical governance, our hopes of achieving power will remain unrealised), but do so in ways which are not content with being right, but with winning purchase amongst the population. There are many trenches in the war of ideas. The more we occupy, the more deeply our political offensive resonates with the lived experience of the people.

We must reach out also to those supporters of Owen Smith who are of decent intent, who genuinely support the more radical elements of his platform. Only by resisting the rear-guard manoeuvers of Progress/Saving Labour et al will they see any of their policy hopes realised. Funded from Sainsbury’s millions and other corporate sources, the rump of the Old Right no doubt saw Owen as a useful patsy, a stop gap until further destabilisation becomes possible. If we can unite around a programme which acknowledges the progressive aspects of Owen Smith’s campaign, we can formulate the kind of unity essential if we are to take the fight to a Tory administration utterly consumed with ideological fervour. Those Labour MPs whose perspectives remain detained within the corridors of Westminster cannot feign surprise if, as they have demanded of Corbyn, their own CLPs now hold them to account should they fail to acknowledge the result of a democratic contest they themselves demanded. The narcissism demonstrated by some elements of the PLP stands in sharp contrast to the patient work of Labour Party socialists over the decades who, despite everything, stayed with our movement, fought our corner and organised on the basis of ideas and policy. The Party needs more, not less democracy. The trawling of social media in search of perceived infractions is seen by a bewildered and connected generation of young people as akin to the state rooting around for dissenting bloggers. A newly elected NEC must confirm democratic policy making, freedom of comradely expression and the accountability of the Shadow Cabinet to members as priorities. In Scotland, if we are to effectively expose the Emperor’s clothes now concealing the government’s record of failure, Kezia too must register

3 that a sea change is in progress, a shift that will continue with or without her support. The SLP can either embrace the possibilities offered by a mass Party desperate to move on and confront poverty, inequalities and nationalism in all its guises, or, in a hapless attempt to impose control, deny and squander energies which might otherwise be harnessed to transform our fortunes. As members, supporters and affiliates once again confirm Jeremey Corbyn as the Leader of our Party, a binary choice confronts us all. Embrace the prospects for electoral success a mass Party offers, or indulge an internecine rancour that can only let the Tories and the SNP off the hook. A mandate has been confirmed. It is up to those who opposed Corbyn – sometimes on the basis of genuine principle, but too often by echoing the narratives of the right wing press – to accept that the Party is changing, has changed, and will continue to evolve as events outside reverberate through its structures. If that is not possible, if a version of ‘loyalty’ continues to circulate which prioritises behind the scenes machinations over honest and transparent debate, only the Tories and SNP will benefit. We have a world to win, let’s get to work. For access to the London School of Economics report into systematic media bias against Jeremey Corbyn and his supporters, please see: http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/Mainstream-Media-Representations-of-Jeremy- Corbyn.aspx; http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/pdf/JeremyCorbyn/Cobyn-Report- FINAL.pdf To contact the Media Response Unit, launched at the 2016 LP Conference and currently looking for skilled volunteers, ideas and contributions, see: www.mru.org.uk

If you would like to find out more about Campaign forfor Socialism please contactcontact:::: info@campaignforsocialism,, or if you would like to join CfS please visit: wwwwww.campaignforsocialism.org.uk/join.php

Currently, 5.3 million people receive less than the living wage and 700,000 people are on zero hours contracts. The UK state pension, at less than 30% of the average income, is almost the lowest in western industrialised nations. The poorest 10% of the households pay 47% of income in direct/indirect taxes, compared to 35% for the richest 10%. The increase in personal allowances from £10,600 in 2014-5 to £10,800 in 2015-6 and inflation- busting rise in the threshold at which the higher marginal rate begins will not change any the above. Tax exemption for the first £1,000 interest on savings does not amount to redistribution and will not help those struggling to make ends meet. The government claims that it will raise £3.1bn from a clampdown on tax avoidance, but £34bn of tax revenues are going astray.’ Professor Prem Sikka (writing in 2015) is co-author of HMRC: Making it fit for the 21 st Century.

Faustian Alliances and the SNP Dale Street, Glasgow Momentum

In late May Compass Chairperson Neal Lawson penned an open letter to the SNP calling for a “progressive alliance” with the Labour Party. Other candidates for his “progressive alliance” are the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. Anxious to press all the right buttons, Lawson wrote his letter “as a Londoner” (you can still smell the sackcloth and ashes as he typed that phrase) and referred admiringly to “your country” (even though, as confirmed by the 2014 referendum, Lawson inhabits the same country as the SNP). Adopting the language of the “progressive” (sic) SNP, Lawson denounced the unholy trinity of “English Tory rule, the Daily Mail and the City of London”. As chair of an “influential left-wing think tank”, he probably found it too vulgar to go the whole hog and inveigh against “Westmonster” rule. Lawson was “jealous of the political conversation you had as a nation over independence”. But, he continued, it was time to move on and to go beyond “tribalism”: The SNP should join “the progressive alliance conversation” with Labour and other parties. “As ever,” concluded Lawson, “you must be bold and take the lead in forging a new politics. Compass is here to help.”

Most notable about Lawson’s open letter was its abject failure to grasp the nature of the SNP’s politics and its record in power. The SNP is a conservative, intolerant, populist, flag-waving, centralised cult. As one journalist recently put it: “There is no party in Britain quite as fake as the SNP.” It is the only party in Britain which bans its parliamentarians from publicly criticising party policy and fellow parliamentarians: “No member shall, within or out with the Parliament, publicly criticise a Group decision, policy, or another member of the Group.” Its activist base specialises in conspiracy theories which even David Icke would baulk at. Like all good nationalists, they engage in endless accusations of betrayal, treachery and sell-outs. These are people who would have felt at home in the politics of the Weimar Republic. Its keyboard activists ally with the party’s MPs to stifle cyberspace criticism of the SNP. Historian Neil Oliver and journalist David Torrance fell foul of the former. Journalist Stephen Daisley recently fell foul of the latter.

The “political conversation” of 2014 which Lawson so admires saw class politics overwhelmed by a tsunami of nationalist grievance-mongering, nationalist scapegoating, nationalist tribalism, and nationalist irrationality. Riding that wave of resurgent nationalism, the SNP won 56 seats in the 2015 general election, on the basis of a manifesto which demanded that a Labour government implement all the policies which the SNP, in 2014, had ruled out for an independent Scotland. In 2014, for example, the SNP had promised a cut of 3% in corporation tax in an independent Scotland. In 2015 it promised that the best way to ensure a Labour government increased corporation tax was to vote SNP. (Or Green, or Plaid Cymru – anyone but Labour!) By 2016 the SNP’s anti-austerity rhetoric had served its purpose. “Austerity” was mentioned 17 times in its 2015 Westminster manifesto. In its 2016 Holyrood manifesto “austerity” was mentioned just once.

And with good reason, given the gap between SNP rhetoric and SNP reality. Spending on Scottish education has slumped under the SNP. Teacher numbers have been cut. Class sizes have increased. Literacy standards are falling. Class-based differences in levels of educational achievement are increasing. Cuts of 20% in Further Education funding have resulted in the loss of 130,000 student places and 3,600 teaching posts. Youth from the poorest backgrounds are now less likely to go to university in Scotland than their counterparts in England. The SNP has cut health spending in real terms, at a cost of 4,500 jobs in the Scottish NHS. Holyrood now spends a lower proportion of its budget on health than the Tories. But spending on private healthcare is flourishing: up by 47% since 2011. SNP cuts in the funding of local authorities are more than double the cut in the Westminster grant to Scotland (24%, as against 10%). While council services and 39,000 jobs have been

6 axed, the SNP’s council tax freeze has ‘saved’ owners of the highest-value properties £300 millions. Labour proposals to avoid this year’s round of SNP council-funding cuts – £350 millions, at a cost of another 15,000 jobs – by a 1p increase income tax rates and maintaining the 50p rate for the highest earners were voted down by the SNP in Holyrood, backed up by the Tories. This is not the record of a “progressive” party committed to fighting austerity and social inequality. It is the record of a party which plays with anti-Tory rhetoric in Westminster while implementing Tory austerity, with an added dose of their own, in Scotland. The SNP’s overriding goal is independence. It is not interested in forming alliances to achieve that. It is not even interested in a coalition government with the Greens in Holyrood. Instead, the SNP’s strategy is to stifle all dissenting voices

Hence the SNP’s efforts to destroy Scottish Labour as an electoral force, backed up by the party’s ‘Trade Union Group’ campaign for trade union disaffiliation from the Labour Party. Scottish Labour will not revive as an effective political force by trying to forge a suicidal “alliance” with a party committed to its destruction. Instead, it needs to grasp the opportunity opened up by Corbyn’s victory in 2015, by reasserting the centrality of class politics and mobilising around a radical socialist alternative to SNP nationalism.

Reviews

Walls Come Tumbling Down!

Neil FindlayFindlay: OK, this is something I have wanted to do for ages and I have found it very difficult, but here goes --- it is an eclectic mix that reflects my taste in musmusic.ic. I love a wide range of stuff ––– Mod, Ska, Punk, Country & Western, Folk, Soul, and lots inin----between.between. So, in no particular order:

Green Onions ––– Booker T and The MGs This was always the last track played at the famous Bathgate Palais disco (it was never a nightclub) where we went when we were young. I have always been into older and newer Mod, Ska, Punk and New Wave – this is just a classic. This clip of Sting dancing to it in Quadrophenia is just pure Mod Cool.

The SpecialsSpecials---- Too Much Too Young 2 Tone tracks from The Bodysnatchers, The Beat, The Selecter and The Specials are ones I go back to time and again. The Specials are a class act

8 with highly political music reflecting the times when I was I was growing up. As a young teenager these were bands I listened to. ‘Too Much, Too Young’ shows them at their best, although ‘Ghost Town’ and ‘Doing Nothing’ are close runners-up. One of my favourite lyrics of all time comes from ‘Rat Race’ with a witty but withering dismissal of education, “You got a PHD- I got one Art ‘O’ level- it did nothing for me.” I saw The Specials a few years ago at the Carling Academy in Glasgow – it was fantastic, full of balding, overweight rudeboys and girls bopping away all night – magic!

Alabama 33---- Love Will Tear Us Apart I’m a member of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and a few years ago I went to the RMT union’s annual Cuba Garden Party in Clapham. After the political speeches, Alabama 3 took to the stage and one of the tracks they sang was this version of the Joy Division classic ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. The singer Aurora Dawn sang it in such a beautiful, atmospheric way- with such presence and charisma, too. A fantastic cover version that, dare I say, even tops the legendary original. The video is a bit shaky, but stay with it.

Eric Bogle and John MunroMunro---- No Man’s Land (AKA thethethe Green Fields of France)France).... Simply the best anti-war song ever written. Very pertinent for the times we live in. I’ve seen Eric Bogle and John Munro several times- they are folk legends. The ultimate anti-war protest song.

The JamJam---- A Town Called Malice God, how do I pick a song from, as Paul Weller’s Da’ said, “The best band in the fucking world.” This is not necessarily my favourite track, but I picked it because it was their last TV appearance.

There are so many classic Jam tracks with tremendous song-writing and a great political and social commentary, such as ‘Eton Rifles’, ‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’, ‘Thick as Thieves’, ‘Saturday’s Kids’, ‘That’s Entertainment’, and so many more. He also wrote beautiful songs like ‘English Rose’, which should be the English National Anthem. The Jam are one of my top bands. I didn’t get to see them, but my brother John saw them at the Edinburgh Playhouse. I recently bought a new turntable and have rescued my old albums from the loft- ‘All Mod Cons’ has been played so much it’s nearly worn out (I also have the album cover on my office wall). I went to the Jam exhibition in London over the summer- it was fantastic, and well worth going to. I am also off to see the Underground Jam for the fifth time in January. Top band, top song-writing.

Johnny CashCash---- San Quentin When I was about 16, I looked through my Ma’ and Da’s albums and found the original Johnny Cash ‘At San Quentin’ album and loved it. He has a great voice and again, is a really great commentator, with a fantastic catalogue and a Who’s Who of people who he has worked with on collaborations. The video of ‘San Quentin’, when he sings inside to the prisoners, says a lot about the type of man he was. I could have picked many other personal favourites, including ‘The Man In Black’, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘The Highwayman’ with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, or one of his most moving, ‘Hurt’ (with one of the great videos of all time). His music and his influence will last forever.

The PoguesPogues---- Thousands Are Sailing Shane MacGowan at his very best, with a tale of immigration from Ireland to the USA. MacGowan is dismissed by some as a drunken waster, but he is really an outstanding writer and poet (although this song was written by the great Phillip Chevron ) , telling stories with brilliant lyrics and cracking folk-punk to back them up, such as the love songs ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ or ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’, or other stuff like ‘Sally MacLennane’ and ‘The Broad Majestic Shannon’. My own party song, which is I sing very badly, is ‘Dirty Old Town’ (by Ewan MacColl), but MacGowan’s version of this and his version of Eric Bogle’s ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ lend themselves to his voice. I have seen them in concert 10 times.

The LagganLaggan---- Jarama Valley/Bandiera Rossa (medley) Singer Arthur Johnstone is a legend of the Scottish Left folk scene. Here he sings about the Spanish Civil War. He sang this song along with my friend Stephen Wright and Fraser Spiers (Scotland’s finest moothie player) at the final rally we held over the summer in Scotland for the Jeremy Corbyn campaign. Over two days we held packed rallies in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and finally an unforgettable event at the Glasgow Fruitmarket. When Arthur and the bands sang this at the end, the place was rocking- what an atmosphere it was. He is a great singer with a sharp wit and brilliant story-telling- everything a Socialist folk-singer should have.

Terry Hall and Sinead O’ConnorO’Connor---- All Kinds of Everything In my early 20s, I remember coming in one Friday night from the pub and putting the telly on and seeing this on ‘Eurotrash’, of all shows. They had a feature about Eurovision song contest songs being covered by different artists, and this came on. It turns a cheesy Eurovison song into a cool and beautiful song with a great video to match.

Nina SimoneSimone---- Mr Bojangles One of my wife Fiona’s favourite songs- it is just beautiful and classy. We went to see a play about Nina Simone at the (Edinburgh) Festival this year. She was a fiery, temperamental civil rights activist with an amazing voice and complex life. There are many versions of this, but Simone’s is the best.

Reviewed in a previous edition of the Citizen, ‘Clampdown’ is as tight a polemic as the best three minute riff. Rhian Jones writes with fire and skill about the ideological role of pop music, at its best counter cultural and challenging of dominant hegemonies, too frequently a pliant and deferential voice validating conformity, misogyny and the snake oil of meritocracy. http://www.zero-books.net/books/clampdown - http://www.danielrachel.com/event/walls-come-tumbling-down/

The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil Edinburgh Lyceum Mike Cowley

Dundee Rep’s staging of John McGrath’s perennial socialist favourite affords any inductee to recent Scottish history a passionate, boisterous and warm spirited retelling of the historic – and contemporary - plundering of the nation’s natural resources. Particular emphasis is placed on the people’s resistance to exploitation and pillage, placing the autonomous struggles of women organising to defend their communities front and centre stage. The audience, with cast members moving amongst us in a spirit of democratic involvement and breaching of the ‘fourth wall,’ are regularly drawn directly into the story, with songs of hope and justice animating the intimate environs of the Lyceum.

The Highlands provides the central setting as events unfold in more or less chronological order. From the mass evictions of the Clearances – where Cheviot sheep were deemed a more profitable commodity than human beings – to the emergence of stag hunts in artificially curated game parks in the 19 th Century, to the North Sea oil boom of the 1970s onwards, a familiar story of both local and global exploitation unfolds. Through song, dialogue and political exposition, a story of enduring conflict and class-driven injustice is told with a light and accessible touch which never feels didactic or hectoring. The good humour is sustained throughout, and what we are left with is a clear sense of the spirit of the Highland masses in the face of threats both internal and external.

A spiritual as well as political embrace of Scotland’s bountiful natural resources is accentuated throughout. The question of class power and how it can be repelled is central to the play’s life affirming drive. An equivalent ire is reserved for both the Scottish and global ruling class and their role in expropriating the earth’s assets for private gain, and the play never allows its politics to lapse into the hollow sentiments of national grievance. A highly recommended night out, with song, comedy and politics all combining to make a heady and inspirational brew.

WhWhyy I Joined the Labour Party (or the unhinged testimonies of Trots, Stormtroopers, Entryists and Trolls)

Members from across Scotland describe the circumstances that brought them into the LaboLabourur Party

I joined when Jeremy was elected last year because of his integrity and policies, and because of the growing potential for a mass movement for socialism. Social Democratic parties are bereft of any perspective for change and have been losing support across Europe. This Labour phenomenon brings hope. Eileen Simpson

After decades of voting Labour, I recently joined the Labour Party. This was largely because of Jeremy Corbyn. I feel that Jeremy’s policies are offering real hope to people who are desperate to see the end of the savage attacks on the NHS, Education and the most vulnerable in society.

Name withheld at the writer’s request

As a Labour Party member who believed 'Things are gonna get Better' following 28 years of Conservative governments, the final straw was the illegal invasion of Iraq. I joined a local anti-war group and so my political journey began. This journey was full of hope, frustration and the occasional success story. Although not immediate, my journey ended with a new beginning as I returned to the Labour Party following Jeremy Corbyn's election as leader. If Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected on September 24, I am confident that alongside the people I have met since my return much will be done to promote and develop the message of the Labour Party leadership, especially in Scotland.

James Matheson

I joined the Labour Party after 2014 Independence Referendum. I was shocked at the state of the party and felt that a radical change in direction was needed. I first heard of Jeremy Corbyn as a wild card contender for leader in 2015 to "appease the left" Little did I realise,when I heard him at a hustings, that he would be saying what I was thinking. Principled, ethical, fair...no contest then. No contest now. Go Jeremy! Cathy Scott

JeJeJeremyJe remy Corbyn Leadership Campaign: What Is At Stake?

James Matheson represents Equalities issues on the Executive Committee of Cathcart CLP, and is Secretary of CfS-Momentum Glasgow. Until recently he was also the chair of Glasgow and Renfrew Unite Community Branch

From the beginning of Jeremy Corbyn’s first leadership campaign and his successful election as leader of the labour movement two questions have been raised. As the political representative of the labour movement what type of political party is the Labour Party to be, and what type of political, social and economic order should the Labour Party promote? As we are now (at the time of writing) into a second leadership campaign following the poorly executed attempt to remove Jeremy Corbyn, and by extension other members of the Labour Party leadership, this article will attempt to answer these questions by examining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign and what is at stake.

There has been a constant battle between two types of political representation from which the labour movement evolved. One strand is that of a ‘centralised, authoritarian and traditionalist conception of the state and political system,’1 the other strand is imbued with the ideas that developed at the time of the French Revolution. As well as the overthrow of

1 Thompson W, The Long Death of British Labourism: Interpreting a Political Culture, Pluto Press, (1993), P.1

15 an absolutist monarchy, the forces of change in eighteenth century France advanced the causes of human welfare and equality amongst citizens, at least in the 18 th century sense.

It was a period when the left produced political, economic and social commentators such as Thomas Paine, but also a period that produced the White Terror , forces that reacted against the principles which replaced an absolutist monarchy. If Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the labour movement is regarded as revolutionary, then it could be argued that the mainstream media and the political forces conspiring to overturn the present leadership of the Labour Party is the modern equivalent of the White Terror. It is a return to the centralised, authoritarian and traditionalist idea of the labour movement that is at stake if Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign does not achieve a second victory; a political model that increases economic disparities, has supported wars in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, and continues down the path of privatisation of public services, most notably involving private interests in the National Health Service in England and Wales.

Buffered slightly in Scotland, the NHS in England and Wales in contrast has experienced creeping privatisation over many years and a long term reduction in staff morale. As with any other workers NHS staff live in a world where outgoings can and quite often do outstrip income, particularly in London. For nurses there were changes to the working environment that led to an increased workload. These difficulties on NHS staff also led to ‘the first all-out

16 junior doctor strike in the history of the NHS’ 2. Under a Jeremy Corbyn led Labour Party, however, Margaret Greenwood MP has introduced, through the Ten Minute Rule Bill, an NHS Reinstatement Bill which would bring NHS responsibility back within the orbit of the Secretary of State for Health, and a first step towards the renationalisation of the NHS in England and Wales. If Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign to lead the Labour Party is unsuccessful, it is guaranteed that the National Health Service in England and Wales will continue along the privatisation path, as will transport services throughout the British Isles.

In Jeremy Corbyn’s first leadership campaign, as well as his second, the message has remained the same, an end to policies that demonise sections of society, an end to polices that prevent opportunities accruing to working class people, an end to policies that lead to public money landing in the hands of private interests, rail, health, education and private housing being such examples.

Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaigns have consistently spoke of the need to reinvest in communities through housing and other infrastructure projects, reinvest in communities through the promotion of new industries which encourage the sustainable use of diminishing resources, reinvest in communities through environmental projects that will in the long term ease the dramatic effect that climate change has on communities throughout the British Isles. There are many examples of environmental policies that the present Westminster government has scrapped: subsidies for onshore wind projects, subsidies for biomass, ending

2 Morning Star, Tories Are Ripping The Heart Out Of Our NHS , 16/07/2016

17 the zero carbon homes initiative, selling off the green investment bank, and allowing fracking. The potential within all of these policies, as well as banning fracking, are at stake if Jeremy Corbyn’s continued leadership of the Labour Party is overturned.

Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaigns have also consistently spoke in a language that implies a form of economics that will mean government, not international financial institutions, will control the economy, a type of politics that will mean people and the communities they inhabit feel empowered, a type of society where people feel less alienated no matter their religion, ethnic background, or physical ability.

Make no mistake, we live in a world where a new demon was created to replace the Cold War demon. We live in a world were blame for terrorist atrocities is placed squarely on a faith system, Islam; we live in a society conditioned to associate a style of dress, oppressive though we may consider it to be, with those same terrorist atrocities. Each new terrorist attack in Western Europe or the United States was met with new anti-terrorism legislation which also reduced civil liberties and attempted to prevent peaceful protest.

Although now repealed, Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowed stop and search without suspicion. The social engineering alongside anti-terrorism legislation, culminating in the Anti-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, as well as the new government initiative of PREVENT, are all features normally associated with a totalitarian state. It is a social engineering which has continued apace since the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, which is intended to maniupulate society’s acceptance of the aforementioned government strategy. What is at stake if Jeremy Corbyn is not re-elected as leader of the Labour Party is a continuation of this Orwellian nightmare, as any other Labour Party

18 leadership would want to be seen as ‘strong on security’, rather than provide rational thinking.

It is only under the leadership of a Jeremy Corbyn led government that we could see legislation that would provide the police and intelligence services with the tools they require to maintain internal security in an uncertain world, whilst ensuring that civil liberties are protected and where initiatives such as PREVENT are given short shrift. After all, whom else other than Jeremy Corbyn has the moral standing in the political arena and amongst civil society groups to provide an apology for ‘New Labour’s’ role in the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, and for that apology to be regarded as genuine?

Furthermore, Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaigns have promoted the opposite message from the mainstream narrative which suggests that people with a physical or mental health issue are less capable of contributing to the social and economic wealth of a community. Indeed, this narrative goes on to suggest that these same people are a financial drain because they are less capable of contributing to society’s wealth, either through physical or mental employment tasks, and as a consequence contributing to society through traditional economic means. Such is the level of support given to the above groups by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, prior to the positions they now hold, and the consistency of Jeremy Corbyn’s message during his leadership campaigns, that the non-aligned Disabled People against Cuts (DPAC) wrote an open letter in support of Jeremy Corbyn’s continued leadership of the Labour Party.

However imperfect, the raison d’être of the Labour Party, the political representation of the labour movement, is to maintain the financial dignity of people in the workplace, maintain the health and well-being of people in the workplace as well as to sustain additional workplace rights. Within communities the role of the Labour Party is to improve the physical environment through housing and public amenities; improve public education through public investment in schools, therefore providing greater opportunities for individuals to participate in and add to the development of society, in addition improving access to higher education by removing financial barriers, improvements all citizens and communities require and which were won and built upon long before the various elements of the labour movement attempted to combine a social movement with political representation.

Given the slow reversal in the above areas from the late 1970s onwards, partly as a result of International Monetary Fund imposed dictats, partly a result of international conditions, but mostly the result of constraints imposed under a repackaged political and economic order, the financial gap between working people and bosses has increased, the control of national and local markets has swung in favour of multi-national corporations and an ever greater tax burden has fallen upon working people and small to medium size business. Following Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party, and the team that surround Jeremy Corbyn, a vision has been presented that shows it is possible to create a social and political movement capable of transforming society through the way we think and behave as political and economic actors, by grasping the mechanisms of power and using them to transform the political and economic environment that shapes society.

Given the groundswell of support for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, what is at stake if Corbyn loses the present leadership campaign is the ability of the Labour Party to hold together the threads that bind us, namely, the trade union movement, the co-operative movement, affiliated socialist organisations including civil society groups and those chosen to be the political representatives of the labour movement. All these forces work towards a common aim, the formation of the next Westminster government by the Labour Party and a change in the political and economic order that has shaped society for almost four decades.

But what about Scotland I hear you say? Without the continued leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour First element within the Scottish Labour Party will receive a boost and maintain its Blairite path. The Progress rump has found shelter within Scottish CLPs, as reflected in the number of Scottish CLPs who have supported the upstart Owen Smith. If Jeremy Corbyn does not remain leader of the Labour Party, the electoral dominance of the Scottish National Party (SNP) will continue as voters look for a left talking SNP to provide the type of policies that many expected a labour government to provide when elected in 1997. It seems that a great deal is at stake. Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign may also decide whether Scottish voters remain or return as supporters of the Labour Party.

Scottish Labour Dexter Govan, Disabled Students Officer - Scottish Labour Students, Aberdeen Central CLP

In recent comments in her regular Daily Record column, Kezia Dugdale has waded into the Labour Leadership debate and emerged supporting Owen Smith. This is despite a narrow majority of CLPs in Scotland endorsing Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign. While at face value this might suggest a break between Dugdale and the membership who elected her, in reality, no one could be surprised at this decision.

Since the campaign to elect Jeremy began over a year ago, it has been a campaign to sweep away the rusted ideas and archaic institutions which have hampered Labour in its quest to become a government which empowers ordinary people. By contrast, in Scotland, and with Jeremy held too often at arm’s length, the Scottish Labour electoral machine drove members into their worst defeat since the creation of the Scottish Parliament. It is this machine, not Jeremy Corbyn, which is unfit for purpose.

In response to raising a discussion on the disparity of views between Scottish members and their elected leader in Holyrood, we will likely be told ‘the issue is too important to remain silent on.’ As if somehow a raising of stakes foregoes the need to move away from the top down approach which is the source of so much of our electoral misery.

Scottish Labour’s decline is of course in part the result of an emerging civic nationalism, but the party establishment based at Bath Street and Holyrood must also take responsibility. Throughout its decline Scottish Labour has been riddled with accounts of infighting in the interests of securing or retaining power. Invariably the winners of these battles have been the candidates who best represent the establishment tradition within the party. Kezia Dugdale is among these victors.

As a result, over the last decade there has been an increasing gulf between the party hierarchy and the public in Scotland. Mindless rhetoric about taking a ‘fresh look’ at Scottish Labour is all too familiar to members, and yet time and time again this ‘fresh look’ is almost indistinguishable from the previous election cycle. Clearly, if our fortunes in Scotland are to improve we must reform our party, and we have that opportunity with Jeremy Corbyn. Because Corbyn represents the things which the electorate in Scotland have told us endlessly we should strive for; a party of honesty and integrity rejecting Trident and austerity, but most importantly, embodying a vision for government which empowers ordinary people in politics and the economy.

That’s why when the ballots have been counted in this leadership election Labour will again choose Jeremy as its leader, and it is in truth why Kezia has chosen this moment to announce her support for Smith. It is not because she believes that Smith can win the leadership contest, instead it the action of an establishment within Scottish Labour that is finally beginning to lose control of the party it has constrained for too long. Through her

22 endorsement of Smith, Dugdale seeks to destabilise Corbyn and in so doing minimise his reforming influence in Scotland. As Scottish members we must hope she is unsuccessful in this endeavor.

But there is of course a tragic hypocrisy in Dugdale’s comments which reflects the entrenchment of Scottish Labour’s leadership. In her recent interview on BBC Radio 4’s The Today Programme, when asked how she was in a position to criticise Corbyn over his electability, Dugdale responded that it was because of her crushing defeat in the Scottish Parliamentary elections that she was able to offer insight. The obvious problem with her account is that in suggesting Corbyn isn’t electable enough and so should be replaced, she does not call for her own resignation.

Regrettably, for over a decade Scottish Labour has been governed by a narrow clique that has failed to engage the electorate and remained oblivious to these failings. Through anti- democratic practices and a persistent arrogance, this leadership has taken Labour from a huge majority to third place in the Scottish Parliament behind a once toxic Conservative Party. In contrast, Jeremy Corbyn offers a step toward the reform Scottish Labour needs to regain power, and yet the Scottish leadership remain ignorant of this necessity. Perhaps it should think more carefully before attacking Jeremy Corbyn though, because even if it were true that he only speaks to the ‘converted’, it is increasingly clear that Scottish Labour’s leadership speaks no one at all.

Scottish NEC Rep must bebebe elected not appointed bybyby leader ––– “We need democracy not patronage” say Scottish Labour Left

Press statement, carried in UK press 27/09/2016

The Campaign for Socialism (CfS) – the left organisation in the Scottish Labour Party, says that the Scottish rep on the NEC should be elected by members, not appointed through a ‘grace and favour’ appointment by the leader. The move to give the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party the power to appoint a member on UK Labour’s ruling NEC was passed by Annual Conference today (Tues). This was voted through as part of a package of measures on giving the Scottish Labour Party more autonomy. These other measure are not controversial but in a move described as a “stitch up” procedural rules at the conference were abused to ensure that delegates could only accept or reject all of the proposals as a whole.

It was claimed in the debate by speakers in favour of the proposals – no speakers against the proposals were taken – that this move had been consulted on with the Scottish Labour Party. Yet that consultation made no reference to having any reps on the NEC, far less to one serving solely at the behest of the Leader. Speaking for the Campaign for Socialism, from the Labour Conference, Vince Mills said; “In recent years we’ve seen an extension of OMOV – One Member One Vote. But this is the introduction of OLAV – One Leader All Votes. It isn’t democratic and will need to be replaced. “More autonomy for the Scottish Labour Party is welcome, but having a Leader place someone on the NEC is an exercise in patronage not democracy”. A guaranteed representative on the NEC should be about empowering our membership as a whole – not simply one person at the top. For ‘direct representation’ to be meaningful then the

24 representative has to be there as the choice of the members not a grace and favour appointment by the Leader. A change of this significance should have been voted on specifically not put through as part of a large range of, entirely uncontroversial and helpful, proposals – and frankly it passed because of a stitch up where conference rules were flouted” For ‘direct representation’ to be meaningful then the representative has to be there as the choice of the members not a grace and favour appointment by the Leader. This isn’t a sustainable situation. Everyone in the Scottish Labour Party should recognise that democracy is better than patronage and move to a mechanism where the NEC rep is elected by the Scottish Labour Party as a whole.”

‘The Citizen’ is the journal of the Campaign for Socialism, established initially to defend Clause IV of the Party’s constitution, now the voice of the Labour Left in Scotland. It is active alongside our sister organisation the Labour Representation Committee, and Labour Briefing http://labourbriefing.squarespace.com/

To all CFS Members

Subscriptions can be paid at any time and £10/£15 (with copy of Labour Briefing) waged per annum, with anything above this a voluntary donation. Many members choose to pay by standing order, and we attach below a standing order form you can use to set one up. The CfS Executive will be seeking endorsement from members at a full CfS meeting on the 29 th May for the following:

• CfS would be branded as the ‘Campaign for Socialism – Momentum Scotland’ on membership forms and online materials. • Current CfS members would automatically receive joint membership of Momentum at no extra cost. This would require CfS members to be added to Momentum’s database, to which we have access. • When current CfS members come up for renewal of their subscription fees, the subs will be reduced to £10/annum (in line with Momentum across the UK) and with the option of opting in to a subscription for Labour Briefing at an additional £15/annum. • All new Momentum members who are in Scotland automatically also become members of CfS and subject to our constitution.

• Standing Order Form To the Manager of: Bank/Building Society *

Please pay the sum of £ . every month/year/______(other)* until further notice to the following account:

Name: Campaign for Socialism

Account Number: 50114373

Sort Code: 839125

Bank: CoCoCo- Co ---operativeoperative Bank, 29 Gordon Street, Glasgow G1 Name(sName(s):):

Events

STUC Fair Work, Fair Taxes, Better Public Services ––– STUC Centre, Glasgow, 9.30am ––– 4pm, October 14 ththth ... http://morningstarscotland.org/upcoming-events/58