hands of the petty-bourgeois natHOnETISIS It is in this situation that the newly formed Scottish Labour Party will contest its first election at Darnley, standing against the "oficial" Labour candidate. (The previous Labour incumbent, ex-Bailey Kane, was one of the increasing number of Labour councillors in Scotland unfortunate enough to be caught with his hands in the till, and is now serving six months for corruption.)
Origins The SLP is still very much stamped by its origins as a split essentially confined to the bureaucracy of the old Labour Party. Despite the fact that many socialists welcomed its Torauon as a porchuamy posiuve step forward in challenging the disastrous policies of the Government, its leadership around Jim Sillars and Alex Neil have attempted to project the SLP as merely a 'new' and 'modern' Scottish social democratic organiing from Labour to the SNP in the words of one of its leading members.
This belief that the SLP can somehow combine the "best" policies of the SNP and the Labour Party means that its leadership turn their face away from a fight against the very Government policies which are driving workers towards the reactionary nationalists.
The SLP is finding it dificult to avoid being ground down by the much larger and more powerful forces of the Labour Party and the SNP. The deal done at the Troon conference of the Labour Party, where a resolution giving economic powers' to the Assembly was supported by the STUC, the Labour Party in Scotland, and representatives of the Cabinet, means that the SLP's policy on devolution is now virtually indistinguishable from the old Labour Party clear alternative to the anti-working class policies of the Labour leaders can be seen in the SLP's Jobs and Industry' policy statement, which argues against nationalisation and for the encouragement of entrepreneurial initiative. As Jim Sillars put it: When we talk abour harnessing the skills of the Scottish people, the skills of management are at least as important as those of means different 'managerial skills" from those which turned Glasgow into the biggest industrial slum in Europe.
The same inability to spell out a a centre lathe turner.' Presumably he Such policies only open the door for the type of statement which SLP leader John Robertson, MP for Pais- threat.
So long as there is no challenge from official Labour candidates to the policies of the Government, a vote for the SLP can only strengthen and encourage workers to fight back against the closure of Educational TV, against teacher unemployment, and against the selling of council all policies spearheaded by the local Labour council.
The so-called principle of voting for Labour under all circumstances to preserve the 'unity of the labour movement is the same bureaucratic argument used against unoffical strikes, against unoffical action by tenants, in fact against any dissent inside the labour movement which challenges the line of the leadership. Without a fight against the latter's policies, 'unity' is no more than the unity of the graveyard for the labour movement at the hands of the SNP.
A vote for the SLP at Darnley on 1 June provides at least one limited step forward in warding off that the pay deal agreed between the Govern this year's chairman. The conference also voted to accept voluntary redundancies.
What upsets the Mail, however, s une rac mar mne union nas been highlighting the phenomenal sums lost in tax avoidance by the self-employed and company directors, whilst workers are currently having more tax than ever before being deducted from their wages under PAYE The press has launched a massive cam paign against two measures introduced in the last Budget: powers for tax inspectors to obtain a warrant to see directors" bank books and accounts where criminal evasion is suspected, and the tightening up of taxation of directors' "perks' -especially company cars.
The majority of new cars bought in Britain are now purchased by companies, not mu viduais, anu dre ven to drector who normally enjoy unlimited private use and pay utue or no tax on tnis bene fit. These, of course, are the same class of people who are calling for ever greater sacrifices from their workers "in the national interest'.
It seems likely, however, that Healey will back down on these measures under pressure from his mentors in big business The Engineering Employers Federation has already sent a confidential memo to the Chancellor claiming that 'several prominent and successrul moustralists could be bankrupted if the Government goes ahead with its proposals to tax fringe benfits.
There is no doubt that the one part of the Budget which Healey has no in tention of altering is the so-called tax "concessions', which trade union leaders have been falling over themselves to accept in return for cutting their members real wages. These, however, were denounced as a 'total fraud' by a group of tax officers at the IRSF conference.
In their daily conference bulletin, the Kevenue kank and rue Group exposed the propaganda surrounding the deal. For example, have you noticed how the publi-