tish Labour Party threatens to split the labour movement?
A There is almost no Labour vote to split; we want to win back that vote which, otherwise, will go to the SP. As far as splitting the British labour movement is concerned, that is simply not true. All we want to do is to re-shape the relationship between the labour movement in Scotland and the labour movement in Britain as a whole, which devolution of government makes necessary.
How do you see your relationship with those left-wing activists still inside the Labour Party?
Supporters of Tribune or any other group would be most welcome to join us, like any member of the Labour Party. We are open to people who accept the principles of socialism and accept our aims, policy and principles. Q Do you envisage united action, say on unemployment, with these forces?
A We are part of the labour movement and we envisage united action with the Labour Party, the Scottish TUC, and the TUC on unemployment and poverty and the harsh realities of capitalist soclety. Q Will you be applying for affiliation to the Labour Party? Certainly not: we regard ourselves as a sister party, not as a suoservient partyQ Would you draw any lessons from the ILP, in terms of similarity — a party which was almost a party inside a party in the 1920s, but went into rapid decline after it left the Labour Party in 1932?
What the SLP has done is to catch the mood of the Scottish people. The ILP did catch the mood of the Scottish people for a while, but the timing was wrong. I think that this time we have the timing right, and I would say that ANNI IN HAVE IT of our foundation meeting proves that we have got our timing right. Q How do you see your relations with the STUC, which has very similar policies to those of the SLP, and played a major role in forcing the change of line on devolution at the Labour Party Scottish Conference last year? A The STUC long ago took the decision vis-a-vis the TUC that we are taking vis-a-vis the Labour Party now. Far from opposing us, we. would imagine that the STUC would be very sympathetic to our position. Q You do not envisage trade union affiliation to the SLP? A Our structure is based on indivVidual membership only: no block affiliations from trade unions, or any other bodies. We are trying to learn the lessons of the past, and one of the lessons is that democracy in the Labour Party has been severely damaged by the Tammany Hall deals and Head Office cabals which the block vote allows.
A classic example: the £6 policy is decided over dinner between Foot and Jones, and then forced on the Labour Party Conference. We don't envisage that kind of party.
How do you see the development of your policies on practical, immediate questions, such as the £6 limit, unemployment, welfare cuts, etc? A We have already initiated a number of discussion papers, for one of the things that we want to do is to encourage debate and political discussion in a waythat never happened in the old Labour Party. The most pressing problem is, of course, the high level of unemployment.
At our foundation meeting, we predicted that unemployment in Scotland could rise to 150,000 by March, and this week's statistics show that we have grossly underestimated that figure. We will be producing a statement on jobs and soon as possible. That's our number one priority. limit, but the Government has not ing, you said that the Labour Party has traditionally been a party of all bark and no bite. How will the SLP differ in action?
A The key to that is thestraetwo elements: firstly, individual membership makes it very difficult for any cabal, right-wing or left-wing, to run it; secondly, our branches are the most important focal points of activity and policy making.
send delegates to the annual confwhich will elect the whole leadership, including the General Secretary and the parliamentary leadership, every two years. I imagine that that structure would stop us from repeating the errors of the past.
mass meeting of Glasgow stewards against the Chrysler redundancies, supporting workers in occupation like those at Personna, etc.?
A place in Scotland at the moment the redundancies at Scottish Aviawhich were proposed and still might take place at Marathon, the THE SUHBO 53:20 1ST CONS Will the SLP play an active role in actions such as the Clause Four, A We have already taken positions on redundancies taking pl tion at Cumnock, the redundancies redundancies in the mining industry WILLCHl ular time.
Q production, etc.? oil? and in the steel industry. We have a position on all of these, which is quite clearly to oppose all of them Amid the key points of SLP membership - essentially, a Scottish Parliament with a socialist majority, pledged to socialist policies - there is a rather surprising omission: the traditional position of Labour Party membership, One of the most exciting things we will have to do is to define what modern socialism is, and how it should be applied. Now Clause Four is part of the old Labour Party Constitution, and when we come to write our constitution, which we are in the process of doing, we will then decide to accept the wording or whatever of Clause Four, or it might be reWe have a very democratically elected Organising Committee, and we can t want to pre-determine tne constitution before the committee was elected. There is no question of diluting our socialism. At the same time we have to realise that we are living in a Western capitalist society, and you can only push the socialist boat out so far at a particSo you see the SLP taking the traditional left Labour posit ion of supporting nationalisation. public ownership of the means of I think that we will be in favour of public ownership in principle, but not nationalisation as we have known it. We could not persuade the mineworkers, or the steelworkers or the railworkers that it's a good principle. It's public ownership that we're talking about.
One of the best examples in this country at the moment is the Shetland Islands, where a small island of six thousand people and their County Council have taken much turmer control over the operatior of the oil companies than any Labour Government has ever done.
What policy will the SLP adopt on the exploitation of In many respects, we will A steal the clothes of the Labour Party. In 1973 the UK Labour Party adopted, as part of its programme for Britain, the policy that the oil revenues should be used to regenerate the economies of Scotland and other areas in need of development: but it didn't stick to it.
Scotland makes up around 3040 per cent of the development areas, therefore Scotland should get around 30-40 percent of the oil revenues. Given the infrastruct- C ural and environmental problems that come along with the oil industry, that would be a fair bargain.
There have been complaints of collusion between oil companies, construction firms and the Labour Government - collusion right down to systematic lying, for example, about the manning levels at Nigg Bay. How should this be tackled?
I don't see any collusion between any of our representatives and the multinationals, and I hope no Labour council has taken part in this sort of thing. We would take a much tougher line with the oil companies as regards the environmental aspects, as regards production policy, landing policy, etc.
Shetland, in many respects, has shown the way. I think, for example, that we have to put the onus on the oil companies for an environmental protection fund to regenerate areas damaged by oil extraction.
In many yards there is still fierce company resistance to union organisation, and living conditions are often typified by derelict liners, caravans, etc., in the midst of a so-called oil boom'. How does the SLP plan to link up with oil and construction workers against this?
Unionisation is, in many respects, a matter for the unions, not for the SLP; but I think that a Scottish Parliament with responsi bility over labour and manpower would over-rule or outlaw any company, be it oil company or off-shore company, that wanted to prevent unionisation, for it is the basic right of every worker to join a The mood of the SLP's foundation meeting was obviously rather euphoric at being freed from the anti-democratic constraints of
February 1976 Do you consider the relationship with the Labour Party to be dead — is the coming NEC disScottish Labour Party 7
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ition on the t6 limit A I imagine that we will take a
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