Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By Dave Bartlett (TUSC candidate in Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf)
Socialist stand fights for new workers’ party
Dave Bartlett, Cardiff Socialist Party
The Welsh Senedd elections take place this May and while the final outcome is not yet known, one thing is certain: Welsh Labour is facing down the barrel of a gun.
Socialist Party Wales will be presenting a socialist alternative in two seats in Cardiff and Swansea – Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf and Gwyr Abertawe – standing as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). Our five candidates will be the only ones opposing all austerity and campaigning for a new mass workers’ party. Even though we don’t have the resources of the main parties we will be reaching out to the working class and youth with a clear message that we should not be paying for the current crisis.
The first shots in the Senedd election were fired by the main parties last Autumn when Labour finished third in the Caerphilly by-election with 11% of the vote. In the latest poll Welsh Labour are on 12%, just ahead of the Greens but way behind Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru on 33%, and Reform on 27%. The Tories would have just one seat and the Liberals wiped out. For a hundred years Labour was the dominant political voice in Wales. Just 30 years ago, half of the safest 20 Labour seats in the UK were in Wales. There was the old saying that votes for Labour in Wales were not counted but weighed!
Welsh Labour have been in control since the Senedd was set up in 1999 but have done precious little to improve the lives of working people. Wales has the worst poverty rates in the UK. The NHS has seen hospital closures and mergers, especially along the M4 corridor, where the vast majority live. The number of beds per head is the lowest anywhere in western Europe. Unemployment is amongst the highest in the UK, as is dependency on welfare benefits.
Year after year, Labour councils have piled on cuts after cuts. Their excuse is “we don’t have a choice as the Tories control the budget in Westminster”. Maybe they haven’t noticed there is a Starmer government now and a Blair/Brown Labour government during its first ten years!
‘Anyone but Labour’
It’s now got to the stage where the working class is sick to death of Labour and the clear message in this election is ‘anybody but Labour’. This contempt extends to all the big parties as the turnout could be barely over 50%.
Otherwise, it’s a race between Plaid and Reform. Plaid are the favourites to top the poll but without an overall majority. They are seen by sections of the working class as a left alternative. They will also be the prime benefactor of many voters who see themselves as on the left and want to vote to stop Reform. The Plaid leadership are on record as saying not to expect too much from a future Plaid-led government, and that there will be no moves in their first term to push for independence.
Reform will pick up much of the collapsing Tory vote, and they too will benefit from the anti-Labour mood. A recent poll of those intending to vote Reform said 40% didn’t agree with many of its policies but “we need to get rid of Labour”. They also disguise their programme, for example on the NHS they say: “We will save the Welsh NHS and slash waiting lists” but they don’t mention their support for further privatisation.
Welsh Greens
The Greens could win a dozen seats but are second to Plaid as an alternative to Reform. They do have real support amongst younger voters, many of whom will have been among those signing up to support Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party announcement last summer.
New Green leader Zack Polanski has picked up support by campaigning against inequality and the ‘rigged system’. We have made the argument that he should instruct Green candidates and existing elected representatives to take a no-cuts, anti-austerity stand – a change from the approach taken by Greens previously in local councils and in Scottish government. This will be especially important if they become a partner in the next government. Labour could take a backseat after these elections and we could see a coalition of Plaid and the Greens run Wales.
Without taking a fighting stance, using the existing considerable powers the Welsh government has to begin to restore public services, and mobilising the working class to demand money from Westminster, whoever forms the next administration will not fundamentally change Wales for the better.
A mass party of the working class, built around the trade unions on a socialist programme to end austerity would most effectively cut across support for Reform. We had hoped that Your Party could have begun that process, but it is not standing – a huge missed opportunity.
The Socialist Party stand, as part of TUSC, is laying down a marker. None of the establishment parties are for the working class. We need a new mass workers party to fight the real battles coming our way, for and end to austerity, war and a future built on socialism.
