Back to main newsThe fight to rescue Scotland - launch of the People's Charter in Scotland saw a remarkable degree of consensus across political boundaries
Sun 25 Oct 2009
Author: Last week's launch of the People's Charter in Scotland saw a remarkable degree of consensus across political boundaries.
MSPs from both the Labour Party and the SNP, leading trade unionists and members of parties to the left of the Labour Party were all united on the need to promote the Charter on a mass scale through workplaces and local communities.
Scottish National Party MSP Jamie Hepburn struck the keynote with the phrase "Let's keep it united."
The unanimity was indeed notable because the Charter is organised at British rather than Scottish level and is designed to bring pressure to bear on governing parties at Westminster.
In this sense the consensus is born of necessity. It reflects a recognition of the severity of the economic crisis, the consequences of the cuts being prepared by both new Labour and the Tories and the need to mobilise for a clear set of alternative, left policies.
The charter has to be addressed to Westminster because this is where the relevant power lies.
But this consensus also begs a question. Is there not a Scottish dimension that needs similar unity - not to cut across the People's Charter but to buttress and consolidate it? Otherwise this new-found co-operation could quickly lose momentum as in face of heightened political tribalism.
The SNP currently has a Bill before the Scottish Parliament to enable the Scottish people to vote in a referendum on independence. It will probably be rejected by an alliance of Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. The SNP will then take the issue into the general election demanding that the Scottish people have the freedom to express their will.
This question is likely to dominate the election. And the key arguments will be economic. Unfortunately, however, all the alternatives on offer are framed in neoliberal terms.
The SNP argues that independence is crucial for economic growth. It will give Scotland the freedom to attract investment from across the globe by setting lower taxes on business - and do so within the wider comfort blanket of the EU.
The assumptions are those of the Scottish government's notably neoliberal Council of Economic Advisers. And the EU remains a blind spot for the SNP. There is no understanding that the fundamental EU principle of free movement - of capital, labour, services and commodities - will block even a limited social democratic project to control the capitalist market in the interests of working people.
New Labour is no better. Economically, its alternative of devolved taxation powers seems to be framed in terms of 1930s-style financial rectitude - the Scottish people will learn prudence and responsibility if they have to tax themselves. The poor will police the poor.
And the Tories are much the same - with an added dash of cynicism. As Professor James Mitchell put it in the Herald last week, a Tory government in London would be much better off if the Scots can blame their own government for the coming cuts rather than seeing them as imposed from Westminster.
Is there therefore some Scottish minimum on an economically progressive basis that can unite the left across the political parties? Not in absolute terms but in the interim and in the face of the much deeper economic crisis that will be upon us within six months.
First on the crisis. Currently the economic situation in Scotland is not much different from that in England and in some respects slightly better. Over the year to April 2009 production in Britain fell by 6.3 per cent and that in Scotland by 2.8 per cent. Construction in Britain fell by 4.1 per cent and in Scotland by 3.3 per cent. Only in services did Scotland do worse, as a result of its collapsed banks.
This does not mean that the situation is not grave. Youth unemployment now extends to one-third of the 18-24 age group. In Glasgow at the end of September 28.9 per cent of households had no member in employment.
But so far Scotland has been protected by the size of its public sector, in which spending has been maintained, and by the continuing scale of public-sector investment as reflected in the better construction figure.
On current projections this will end in the coming financial year - very sharply indeed in terms of public-sector fixed investment and construction. And the size of Scotland's public sector, which has until now protected its economy, will now work in reverse.
Nor should there be any illusion that the economic downturn is coming to an end. The massive cuts demanded across Europe by the European Central Bank and the IMF will see to that.
So is there a minimum constitutional demand that can unite the left for the time being and supplement the core demand of the People's Charter that democratic, public-sector intervention is the way forward?
Probably the best approximation is the demand of the Scottish Trades Union Congress that the Scottish Parliament be given powers to borrow - powers that would be sustained by a limited extension of its tax remit, particularly to unearned income, but with the Barnett formula block grant retained to reflect spending based on need.
This would enable a Scottish government to do something that is currently of critical economic importance - to maintain and step up public-sector investment in infrastructure and the productive economy. Above all, it would enable it to avoid further private finance iniatives and rescue Scotland's woefully weak manufacturing sector in areas such as renewable energy and carbon emissions.
One key symptom of the weakness of Scotland's productive economy is expenditure in research and development. R&D investment by business in Scotland is less than half the British level and a quarter of Germany's. But when public-sector, largely university-based, R&D investment is taken into account it rises to just under the EU average - 1.5 per cent as against 1.7 per cent in terms of GDP.
And this has a remarkable effect. Scotland generates more than three times the number of university spin-out companies per head than the US or Canada and considerably more than Britain as a whole. Why? Because Scotland spends more on higher education.
Yet it is precisely such areas that are due to be cut, as is construction work on the transport infrastructure and housing.
The People's Charter has already shown its potential to bring the left together across trade unions and political parties. This needs to be consolidated in terms of Scottish issues.
Scrapping Trident, as Labour MSP Bill Butler argued last week, would be one particularly Scottish theme. An agreement on a constitutional change to permit public-sector borrowing and investment would be another.
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