Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By John Williams
Even by Welsh Labour standards, the current Welsh Labour leadership election- that will decide the next First Minister of Wales has been uninspiring. Vaughan Gething has been in the news a lot recently, so most people in Wales know him by now, but it takes a while to remember the name of the other AM standing- Jeremy Miles.
Vaughan Gething has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. It was revealed last week that he accepted a £200,000 donation from an environmental offender’s company. The man was convicted twice for environmental offences- for illegally dumping waste on a conservation site! We haven’t heard one apology or a promise that he’ll return the money. And with no self-awareness, Vaughan Gething’s leadership manifesto pledges to strengthen enforcement action to protect the environment and pledges stricter penalties for those who break environmental rules! But amazingly, Vaughan Gething has been silent on the recent Welsh Water Pollution scandal where last year, in 83,000 separate spills, the company dumped untreated sewage for nearly 600,000 hours. The obvious answer is to bring Welsh Water into public ownership and fund it properly.
At a recent demo in support of the Tata steel workers in Port Talbot, Vaughan Gething was a speaker. He provided no solutions, just basically saying that all we need to do is wait for a Starmer lead Labour government. That was it. Surrounded by socialist party placards, demanding ‘Nationalisation not devastation’, he didn’t even take up that issue once. And no mention of support for upcoming ballot of unite members at the steel workers who could potentially go on strike. There was no enthusiasm from the crowd, and a heckler shouted, “Pay our nurses properly!”
This was in reference to the wave of NHS Wales strikes that took place last year. The Welsh Government essentially went to war with the health unions, opposing the strikes, blamed public sector pay in part for some of the cuts they have made. In the end, the Labour-led Senedd (Welsh parliament) offered an additional 3% one-off payment worth around £1,000 for 2022-23, and a 5% consolidated rise for 2023-24. Which was pathetic, and not too dissimilar to what the Tories in England offered.
Vaugh Gething is currently the Minster of the Economy for Wales, and the upcoming Welsh government budget is absolutely damning and will ruin lives. As previously reported, (What is point of Welsh Labour if it passes on UK Tory cuts?), because of inflation, the budget is worth £1.3 billion less now than when it was originally announced in 2021. It was already a cuts budget. And the real value of the Welsh budget is £3 billion less than it was in 2010. The NHS in Wales is in an even worse state than in Tory England.
Vaugh Gething and Jeremy Miles haven’t once supported the call for a socialist Welsh government to fight cuts, privatisation, to demand more money and more powers from Westminster to nationalise industry. And both abstained in a recent vote in support for a ceasefire in the horrific situation at gaza currently. You couldn’t tell the difference between these two candidates and Keir Starmer, who’s likely next government will just implement tory policies and spending plans but just with the labour banner. Many members of unions who can now vote in this leadership election will simply not bother.
But we’re just not going to complain about it. We’ll be holding a TUSC Wales public meeting at some point this year, to bring together Welsh socialists, strikers, campaigners, and everyone who wants to build a political alternative in Wales.
