Back to main newsThe new secretary of the Party in Scotland Tom Morrison was elected - NATIONAL APPEAL TARGET £1845 FOR SCOTLAND
Thu 08 Oct 2009
Author: Tom Morrison The new secretary of the Party in Scotland Tom Morrison was elected at the August CPB Scottish Committee meeting taking over from Simon Steele who has relocated to Germany. The committee thanked Simon for his hard work.
With probably between 6-9 months before the General Election and despite the policies of the free market being totally discredited, if the polls are to be believed, it looks like the Tories will return to office.
While New Labour with their dismal record of war, privatisation, attacks on civil liberties and the welfare state etc deserve the distain of the British people the Tories will be even worse as can be seen by the anti-working class rants at their conference in Manchester. New Labour have paved the way for an even more vicious attack on working people and their families as the Tories move the political agenda even more to the right.
It is too simplistic to say there is no difference between the Tories and New Labour. Because of the affiliation of the trade union movement to Labour the potential is always there to compel Labour to move to the left. There is no such possibility with the Tories. However it must be acknowledged that there has been little sign of the trade unions reclaiming the Labour Party for the labour movement and the constitutional changes brought in by the right wing make that all the more difficult to achieve.
So what do we do? Just call for support for Labour because the Tories will be worse for our class? While they will be, New Labour has been so bad that such a call cuts little ice with ordinary working people. So form yet another socialist party? Tony Benn answered that one, too many socialist parties not enough socialists. Also there has been little electoral support for parties to the left of Labour. We have not yet created the conditions where the mass of the people have developed a political consciousness where they see the need for socialist politics.
That is our task, to create such a understanding. It is not enough just to call on workers to vote Labour, we need asTony Woodley of Unite has called for, Labour to go into the election campaign with a programme that will inspire workers to campaign and vote for a Labour victory.
But where have the leaders of Unite, Unison and GMB etc been over the years? They have kept quiet and continued to pour money into Labour’s coffers without making any demands on them resulting in the most right wing Labour government since 1931 creating a growing number of trade union activists arguing that their union disaffiliates from Labour. What we need is the trade unions fighting for an alternative programme. It is due to sterling work by communists and left allies in the movement that the recent British TUC was won for the Peoples' Charter after defeats at the Scottish and Welsh TUC's. This represents a historic turnaround – as long as the People’s Charter now becomes a mass demand though campaigning on the ground involving the whole trade union movement.
In Scotland the Communist Party has been on the streets collecting signatures for the Charter along with left wing Labour Party activists. Door to door work has been organised and public meetings organised.
Regular city centre stalls in Glasgow and Edinburgh selling party materials takes place most weeks with a Morning Star sale when the paper is available. Trips down to Carlisle to pick up the paper have taken place although sometimes the paper fails to reach even there. The Star and our allies in Unite are urgently trying to locate a suitable printer in the north to print the Saturday paper to over come distribution problems.
Party comrades are active in the trade union movement, Scottish CND, community work and tenants movement, Cuba Solidarity, amongst the Pensioners, anti poverty work, and campaigning against the anti working class directives of the European Union. Student work has restarted on modest basis.
Marxist education classes are held regularly and a series of Morning Star education class have started. The revamped Communist Review is now printed four times a year and has drawn much praise in the progressive movement. The Morning Star Conference at the STUC, Sunday 11 October with the Venezuelan ambassador, will be followed by the launch of the Peoples' Charter in Scotland.
A Communist Party aggregate (for Party members only) takes place on Friday 9th October, 7pm in the Party Office, 72 Waterloo Street, in Glasgow. John Foster will give an update on the Peoples' Charter and a report from the Party's National Executive Committee. Details of events on the Scottish Party website.
All this activity cost money and the NEC at its meeting on 27 September launched the party's National Appeal of £15,000. Scotland's target within that total is £1845. We need to make sure every comrade is asked to contribute, along with our friend in the progressive movement, and we would ask you to make your donation via the Scottish Party office.
The Party has been recruiting steadily in the past period and we would welcome comrades old and new to help in campaign in the fight for socialism.
Work is ongoing to resurrect our branches across the country but we need your help. So get in touch.
In comradeship
Tom Morrison
Scottish Secretary
Communist Party of Britain
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