Putting Socialism on the Agenda

by Frances Curran
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Thirteen years after Tony Blair hailed the Tory defeat, proclaiming “a new dawn has broken”, night is closing in on the New Labour era.

In contrast to the confident predictions of a third way which would ensure permanent peace and prosperity Brown’s government is sinking fast in a sea of economic crisis, bloody war and sleaze.

However perhaps the most striking fact about the coming Westminster contest is how slight the differences are between the so called ‘major’ parties.

At the heart of this is the reality that from Salmond’s praise of now dead Celtic tiger economies to Brown’s grovelling to now exposed City of London speculators all four backed the greedy globalised capitalism now collapsing before our eyes.

Forget the essentially irrelevant debates about when the bankers debt will be paid back - the one certainty is that all four intend the innocent public to pay the bill with lost jobs and slashed services.

And all four dutifully wave the flag and lie to the public that the ever worsening war in Afghanistan is a noble crusade to make us safe rather than bloodstained disaster doling out death to largely working class soldiers and innocent Afghans alike.

Beside such policy disasters the spectacle of expenses laden ex ministers hawking their inside track contacts for £5,000 a day simply seals the public revulsion with politics.

It is against this background of anger fear and cynicism that Scottish Socialists will fight in ten Westminster seats with the message that it doesn’t have to be like this, that another way is not only possible but essential.

On the doorstep, in hustings and public meetings on street stalls and in leaflets and the media SSP candidates will hammer home the messages against war and to make the rich pay for the disaster they have created.

At the poll the SSP stands out as the only party which demands an immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and an end to the war.

Centrally they will argue that the ingenuity knowledge and money exists to solve peoples problems but the greed of the rich and their lust for profits blocks the way.

Only by removing that roadblock, making the rich pay and putting the needs of people before the greed of profit can a different, just and peaceful future be won.

That will be the socialist message of hope over fear and war that SSP candidates will put to voters in the weeks ahead.