“Solidarity. Socialism. Equality. Against Austerity. For Workers’ Rights”. A bolder message than we expect from the Labour Party, even under Jeremy Corbyn’s new leadership.
Yet that was a leaflet, printed in bright red too, issued before the 5 May election by the Scottish Labour Party under Kezia Dugdale, who was initially voted into leadership on a slate with ultra-Blairite Jim Murphy.
The leaflet did not sway the election. Not many copies seem to have been produced and distributed. It came out only shortly before polling day.
Its reverse side included “stopping the cuts”; but it was weaker in definite commitments than the general slogans on the front; and Labour councils in Scotland, like Glasgow’s, continue to make cuts.
But it was surely a shift. The leaflet carried the logos of ten unions as well as the Labour imprint, and seems to have been produced as a result of unions pushing.
If it can be done in Scotland, it can and should be done in England and Wales too.
We should demand that Labour and its new leadership set themselves to campaigning for socialism, not just on detail demands, not just against the Tories being “chaotic” or “incompetent”, and not just for supposedly cunning fix-it policies like a national investment bank.
