Brief as it was woeful, Wendy Alexander’s
leadership of the Labour Party in Scotland has come to an end.
Alexander was forced to resign after being given a one day ban from parliament
for breaking rules regarding donations for her campaign to become Labour Party
leader. Her actions were illegal – no doubt about it. No one is quite sure why
such large sums of cash were needed for what in effect became a coronation,
given the lack of an opposition candidate.
Alexander broke parliamentary rules
regarding funding, and seems to have received an exceedingly lenient punishment
given that donations of about a thousand pounds from several different donors
went unregistered (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7478913.stm). In effect
Alexander has received a slap on the wrist from her fellow careerists for an
act that would see most workers facing charges of embezzlement or fraud. This
is also in stark contrast to the four Scottish Socialist Party MSPs who were banned
from parliament for a month and had their salaries and allowances withdrawn for
the period for the crime of protesting against the 2005 G8 summit inside
parliament.
However what is far more concerning than
the technicality of parliamentary procedure is the revelation of where the
money for Alexander’s leadership campaign came from. Rather than being reliant
on the support of the labour movement, it was large donations from individuals such
as Jersey based businessman Paul Green that
made up the financial backing for the campaign.
In a tantrum-like speech announcing her
resignation Alexander appeared to lash out and blame everyone but herself and
the Labour Party leadership for putting her in this position. She went as far
as to remark that;
“I have sought
to lead Labour in the Scottish Parliament with commitment and conviction,
without indulging in the personal attacks which have become so fashionable in
current Scottish politics.”
Reality is of
course that Alexander has continued leading the Labour Party in the same right
wing direction as her predecessors in the Scottish Parliament. Under her
leadership there was no attempt to form a serious alternative to the current
status quo of politics in Britain.
Rather than raising a bold socialist alternative to the programme of the nationalists
Wendy Alexander tried to out do the SNP at their own game, claiming that she
would be better at running Scotland
under capitalism than the nationalists.
The Labour Party has been consistently outdone in the polls and
Alexander in parliamentary debate as she provided no substance of argument in
response to the policies of the SNP. Whilst focusing on the SNP’s failure to
deliver on election promises such as cutting student debt there has been no
promise that in power the Labour Party would deliver such a measure. One of
Alexander’s main criticisms of the SNP has been their failure to recruit 1,000
new police officers in a crude appeal to the hang ’em flog ’em brigade.
Although Wendy
Alexander raised the slogan of nationalism or socialism at the Labour Party
conference earlier this year she has failed to come out in support of the
refinery workers at Grangemouth who went on strike in April or the tanker
drivers earlier this month. She has also failed to deliver support to public
sector unions in their battle against below inflation pay “rises”. At a time of
rising inflation and the resulting falling pay, price hikes, increasing student
debt and the creeping fear of unemployment Wendy Alexander has been found
wanting by Labour’s traditional supporters and shall not be missed.
Alexander was
elected unopposed in 2007 after the left failed to present a candidate. To do
so again would be a criminal error at a time when the Labour Party is in a dire
state in Scotland
and seemingly on course for defeat in the next general election. The result of this situation is a rank and
file that is looking for answers and will be open to a socialist alternative
after seeing that more than ten years of Blairism has meant nothing more than
the continuation of Thatcherite policies and attacks on the working class. This
is a route that the SNP have only continued, albeit covered in a mask of
populist policies.
Such a contest will also come at a time of
emerging struggles of the working class with Unison local government workers
set to be on strike in July just the latest in a number of emerging disputes. The
campaign for socialism, which has the support of the left of the party and
several MSPs, could become a left wing poll of attraction if it were to stand a
leadership candidate arguing for socialist policies as the beginning of
rebuilding a fighting left within the Labour Party in Scotland. It is
only on the basis of taking this debate to the rank and file of the labour and
trade union movement as well as the youth that we hope to see this happen.
See also:
New Labour Scottish leader & supporters under investigation over illegal donation
