“NEVER again glad, confident morning” - these famous lines by the poet Browning must now haunt the reformed ex-socialists who head New Labour in London and Edinburgh as they survey the collapse of their anti-socialist project.
The Voice goes to press in the wake of the biggest U-turn of the entire New Labour years to avoid defeat over the abolition of the 10p tax rate and on the eve of a likely Labour kicking in the English council polls.
Whatever the outcome, it is increasingly clear that the entire neo-liberal counter-revolution headed by Blair, inspired by Thatcher and backed by Brown is sinking fast.
The cruel deception that the wonders of the market allied to ever-rising credit bankrolled by rising house values would enrich everybody for all time is now just a smoking ruin.
Brown is now the most unpopular Prime Minister since Neville Chamberlain faced defeat by Hitler in France in 1940 - and this after less than a year in Downing Street.
With each passing week, the danger grows that New Labour face defeat by the Tory Old Etonians around David Cameron, among whom is the buffoon Boris Johnston.
However, if the crisis facing Westminster Labour is grave, that confronting Wendy Alexander’s branch office in Edinburgh increasingly looks terminal.
As the first year of SNP government is marked First Minister Salmond and his colleagues are riding high and even more popular than they were when they evicted Jack McConnell from power.
In contrast New Labour who started out stunned by defeat have spent a year veering between carping criticism of the SNP and floundering in a swamp of scandal and confusion.
So desperate has the hapless Wendy become that she has been reduced to describing herself as a socialist and loosely using the description for Labour’s pro-capitalist policies.
But it not just the obvious petulance and lack of purpose that is undermining any attempt by the self proclaimed ten out of ten Wendy to portray herself as Kelvinbridge’s answer to Rosa Luxembourg.
The most dangerous challenge facing the supposed defenders of the working class under Red Wendy is that most feared of political events - the example of a better policy.
Thus after years of feeding the voters London’s fudge and determinedly rejecting any policy which might suggest that they were even mildly left wing New Labour are looking on in horror as the SNP colonise what were once mainstream Labour issues.
The list is formidable and it has left the supposedly ‘socialist’ occupants of New Labour’s Holyrood perch to defend discredited policies such a council house sales and PFI.
So far the SNP administration has opened the process of scrapping prescription charges and piloting free school meals - both ideas pioneered in the last Scottish parliament by the SSP.
The announcement by Nicola Sturgeon that, after a quarter of a century council house building - bolstered by the abolition of the right to buy them - is back on the agenda is a decisive break with the long held hostility to public housing from both Tory and Labour.
But the most stunning and politically significant move so far was the announcement to the STUC congress in Inverness by Salmond that the new £800million Southern General hospital in Glasgow was to build by public money and not by the now discredited PFI.
Both the content of the announcement and the fact that it was made to an audience of trade unionists - traditionally Labour allies - was a dagger at the heart of the Blair/Brown moneylender friendly project.
None of this signifies that a socialist administration is now in power in Edinburgh - there is not.
The behind-closed-doors deal to extend the private franchise on Scotland’s railways, moves to introduce competition in water services, Trump and handouts to business clearly indicate otherwise.
However, what the first year of SNP government has done is to decisively break the ‘only game in town’ mantra which held sway in the two previous Scottish Parliaments dominated by Lib/Lab coalitions.
What was supposed to be outdated and unthinkable - public housing, non-PFI services and so forth is now returning to the centre of the policy agenda.
Although only a beginning this move now opens up the political process beyond the narrow confines of what the neo-liberals decree.
It now means that there is space in which the radical forces in Scotland can start to shape collective responses to issues of social justice and economic and environmental concern.
This is an agenda of opportunity which places big responsibilities on all progressive elements in Scotland to find the means to shape a different economically just and ecologically sustainable future.
That is the challenge for May Day and beyond, and renews the old message: you have nothing to lose but your chains - you have a world to win!

STUC congress report 2008

by John Miller

STUC 2008 was graced by the presence of the main protagonists on the UK and Scottish political scene.
Prime Minister Brown reiterated his unionist credentials by posing Britishness as a means of eradicating world poverty and disease, conveniently forgetting the imperialist ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Apparently in his world, if Scots pursued a separatist agenda then trade across the border would be in jeopardy, whilst contradicting himself by pronouncing the need for change via the globalisation of the world market.
Trying to trump him, First Minister Salmond courted delegates with the prospect of the biggest single publicly funded project ever in Europe with the construction of the new Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.
This attempt to distract those present from the SNP’s business friendly policies failed, as Finance Minister Swinney had espoused the partnership that should be forged between workers and bosses the day before.
This stress on ‘social partnership’ at Congress however, through the invitations from the Scottish Government and to the General Secretary to visit Dublin to learn the shared ethos of collusion to bail out Scots bosses as the economic storm clouds gather should be cause for concern.
The Irish experience has been one of attacks on workers pay, pensions and terms and conditions.
Allied to this was Congress TV, which broadcast to delegates over the three days, seeking to inculcate delegates with the belief that ScottishPower, ScotRail and other business partnerships bring benefits to trade unionists.
A message reinforced by the president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions who went out of her way to praise the out going Taisioch, otherwise known as the crook Aherne.
All this points to future battles that lie ahead in the trade union movement.
SSP members made a number of contributions from the floor on issues like Trident, solidarity with Iraqi women and home care charges amongst others.
Attempts to raise SSP policies on the minimum wage and free public transport were subject to the machinations of Congress procedures. The composite motion on the minimum wage made a small step in the right direction by moving to the to campaign for two-thirds of male median earnings, roughly equating to £8 an hour.
However, the demand for a fare free public transport policy met with resistance from the transport unions and General Council.
Attempts at debating the motion, which called for a commission to explore costings were rejected, as were calls to engage with the PCS where it is national union policy.
More positively, Congress agreed to support national disputes across the public service on cuts and pay.
SSP members made a positive contribution at Congress in other ways, with Voice sales, leafleting and highlighting the campaign of gypsy travellers to other delegates.
This highlights the contribution all party members can make if they wish to get involved.
If you are in a trade union and want to find out more information contact the SSP by text on 07899 732068.

STUC, May Day and the Iraqi Trade Unions

by Pauline Bradley, Convenor Iraq Union Solidarity Scotland, Delegate to STUC from Dumbarton TUC

A motion at STUC calling on them to strengthen support for Iraqi unions and for affiliation to Iraq Union Solidarity Scotland (IUSS) was seconded by Norma Stephenson, President of Unison (UK) who has visited Iraq and said she was proud to be seconding it.
The mover named Iraqi comrades who have been murdered whilst struggling to build trade unions.
Hadi Saleh was tortured and killed in January 2005, Talib K Khadim al Tayee was beaten and kidnapped, Alaa Issa Khalaf was targeted and shot dead in January 2006, Torky Al Lihabi (previously jailed by Saddam Hussein and the US occupiers) was killed in 2006, Maaid Hamid (ICEM and GFIW Vice President) and his wife were abducted by sectarian gangs, Shibihad Al Timin (President of Journalists Union) was shot in February 2008 and suffered a heart attack.
Those who naively support sectarian groups, stay silent when confronted with the facts of these murders.
The motion called for support for the Iraqi Women’s Leagues campaign against violence against women. Recently 50+ women in Basra have been killed, their bodies found in streets or rivers, sometimes with scarves tied round their head to show the consequence of not conforming to religious dogma.
The motion was passed unanimously; the STUC General Council’s statement thanked Dumbarton TUC for raising it.
To remember the martyred Iraq comrades and others who have died whilst fighting for our unions, rights and liberty; on May Day the SSP will be handing out red carnations with the names of martyred comrades on them, and asking for a donation of £1 for the Iraqi trade unions.