Revitalise project gathers pace

Vince Mills

The atmosphere surrounding Tony Blair at Scottish conference of the Labour Party in Dundee in early March was I imagine, like that engulfing Louis XVI once it became clear that he was done for. Courtiers political and journalistic disappeared in search of a successor and abandoning their erstwhile sun king to his fate. (Yes I know it was Louis XIV who was the sun king but the metaphor was too good to miss). All this of course, distracted from the main event.

For the Conference met amidst a storm about the crisis of membership numbers. The annual report to conference gave the total membership figure for Scotland in 2004 as 19,061. The last figure available before that was in the 2003 report where, if memory serves me right membership was around 22, 000 suggesting that roughly three thousand members have left the Party in that short period. It is difficult to make historical comparisons because of the previous practice of affiliating all CLPs at 1000 members minimum, but the 2004 figure is the lowest since individual membership was properly tracked.

This gave added edge to the debate over constitutional change. The Revitalise alliance, a group of unions led by Unison, and Constituency Labour Party (CLP) activists led the Campaign for Socialism had tabled two constitutional amendments last year which were to be discussed this year. One would have given the Scottish party the right to debate and take decisions on issues reserved for Westminster under devolution, like the Iraq war. The other would have given CLPs and affiliates the right to submit amendments to final stage documents from the Scottish Policy Forum (SPF), rather than accepting or rejecting reports en-bloc. They also tabled, in the name of Glasgow Central CLp, an amendment which would subject Scottish Labour Party Parliamentary Group coalition deals with the Liberal Democrats ( or anyone else for that matter) to democratic scrutiny. This will be debated next year.

In advance of conference, the Scottish Executive decided, by a narrow margin of 10 to 7 to ask conference to either remit or reject the constitutional amendments. It may seem obvious, that given the fall in membership and the likely critical impact on levels of activism at the forthcoming election, the leadership might have seen some merit in trying to inject some life back into conference through the cut and thrust of open debate. But with an arrogance worthy of Marie Antoinette such concerns were dismissed.

Indeed the leadership used every ounce of political muscle they had to stop the amendments even being discussed. Under pressure and in the belief that they would stand a better chance of success next year, ASLEF deferred and so did North Ayrshire Constituency Labour Party, only one of their three delegates resisted the charms of the General secretary to defer their amendment. The amendment concerned would have given Scottish conference the right to debate and take positions on Reserved matters.

But perhaps it was Unison that came under the most pressure. Ian McCartney the appointed Chair of the Labour Party met representatives of Unison and told them that Unison concerns about Conference democracy would be considered by the review of Partnership in Power. It was pointed out to him that the review did not cover Scotland. McCartney was able to reveal that that oversight had now been rectified. Scotland would now be included. During the conference debate on the amendment Unison delegate Karie Murphy described this unexpected offer as an attempt to undermine support for the Unison proposal. Despite all this pressure, the Unison delegation refused to defer the amendment and it went to a vote, or rather two votes. There was a vote on the executive report referred to above, and a vote on the Unison amendment.

The executive report was carried on a show of hands. The vote on the amendment saw Amicus and the GMB as well as USDAW and perhaps some smaller unions vote against. Unison, T&G, CWU, ASLEF and TSSA all voted for it. It was lost narrowly in the Union section, but it was heavily defeated in the CLP section with over 70% of the CLP votes against the amendment.

Delegates (the right delegates, of course) had been phoned on Sunday morning and ordered to the hall to get their hands up.

Despite this, it would be a mistake to see the conference vote as sign of unassailable strength of the New Labour ascendancy. They are about as safe the Bourbon dynasty in late 18th century France. And furthermore those loyal to the last bastions of reaction may well have sealed their fate. Speaker after speaker, perhaps most notably Rosemary McKenna MP, fused support of the constitutional status quo with support for the policies that it had produced. In other words there was no attempt to pretend that we were debating an issue of democracy. This was about the political soul of the Labour Party and they wanted it to remain Blairite.

Of course the New Labour Leadership hopes that this will all blow over. Like the French third estate we've had our time in the tennis courts and now we can all go home. But to arrive at that conclusion you have to ignore what for them, are some uncomfortable facts.

Firstly, the ASLEF amendment on being able to vote on Westminster issues has been deferred not ditched. It will be back next year.And the Glasgow Central amendment on submitting coalition deals to democratic scrutiny will come up next year too. So two of the three demands which formed the core of the Revitalise agenda are still live.

Secondly, the pace of change in the trade union movement and the implications of this, may not bode well for the New Labour leadership. Amicus has provided the big battalion for the leadership over this issue in Scotland, with support, on this occasion any way, from GMB. Given the possibility of a merger between Amicus and the T&G, the political complexion new combined union is not.

Thirdly and I would have thought most worryingly for New labour, the core of their support, the ClPs, is literally ebbing away. The point was made by Ian Davidson MP at the well attended Revitalise conference fringe meeting that at just over 19,000 members and falling, Scottish labour has less than half the numbers signed up to the Orange Order in Scotland.

And one last important straw in the wind. Stephen Purcell, whom the left backed in the Scottish executive elections, came top of the poll. Nor is he the only new face on the executive. The changes are likely to make it very difficult for the leadership to assume, as they have done over the last few years, that they can win automatic majorities.

And then of course there is the demise of the sun king himself.

Despite their best efforts, conference organisers could not fill the hall for Blair's speech. His standing ovation lasted barely a minute and as the formerly supportive Glasgow Evening Times noted, Gordon Brown's concluding barb in his conference homily, a quote from Shelley and meant for the SNP's Alex Salmond, might equally have been directed at Blair himself:

"He has lost the power of communication but not, alas, the gift of speech."

I am sure that a coup de grace from the political equivalent of Madame Guillotine will soon see to that. Fetch your knitting.