From: stevew@cs.man.ac.uk (Steve Wallis)
Newsgroups: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
Subject: Why wait 5 years?
Date: 13 Apr 92 11:00:06 GMT
Followup-To: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester

After Labour's disastrous election defeat, the British people have to wait
another 5 years to get rid of the Tories, and the Scottish people have to
wait another 5 years for devolution.  Or do they?

The Tories do not have a mandate in Scotland, with only a quarter of the
vote.  Many Scottish people will not be prepared to wait 5 years - why should
they?  The "Scotland United" campaign was launched yesterday with a
demonstration in Glasgow of about 5000 (according to the BBC).  Nine Labour
MPs attended, and the campaign also has the backing of some SNP and Liberal
Democrat MPs.  It proposes to use protests, civil disobedience and possibly
industrial action.  With the obvious strength of feeling against the Tories,
and against the Labour leadership for betraying their aspirations (wait for
the election and everything will be alright), this campaign has the potential
to become an unstoppable movement to achieve Scottish home rule.

Obviously, an effective strategy has to be worked out (I don't know what form
of civil disobedience is being proposed), but I will make the point that the
Scottish working class has the power to force the Tories to give in, if they
decide to use it.  If nobody (or perhaps only the 25% who voted Tory) works,
then the country would be brought to a standstill.

If (or when) the struggle takes off in Scotland, it could spread to England
and Wales.  The Tories also have little support in Wales, and they don't even
have majority support in England.  With Labour almost certain to adopt
proportional representation, many people will come to the conclusion that the
Tories don't have a mandate here either.  So why wait until 1997 to ditch the
Tories when they shouldn't be in power now?

In the industrial field too, workers will rapidly come into conflict with the
Tories and the bosses.  In the last couple of years or so, the Labour and
Trade Union leaders have used the argument that workers should keep their
heads down and wait for a Labour government.  This is a major reason for the
low level of strikes in recent times.  But with the prospect of another 5
years of the Tories - and with no guarantee of a Labour government at the end
of those 5 years - workers will increasingly come to the conclusion that they
have to fight, to safeguard their jobs, and their pay and conditions.  Even
city analysts are admitting that economic prospects are far from rosy (which
caused the Financial Times to come to the conclusion that it would have been
better if Labour had got in!)

Workers will learn from their experiences - we didn't have to wait for a
Labour government to force the Tories to ditch the poll tax.  It seems likely
that non-payment figures for the council tax will be similarly high.  There
are turbulent times ahead!  Forward to a socialist society...

Steve.

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  /    / / \    / /            --------------------------------------------
  \/\ /\ \/ \  / \\/      /    |    Steve Wallis (stevew@cs.man.ac.uk)    |
    /   \ \/ \/   \\//\  /     | Mail me if you want to join the struggle |
                   \/  \/      --------- for a socialist society. ---------
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:5893 soc.culture.celtic:3424