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Scottish Socialist supporters picketed a Tribune anniversary rally held in Glasgow's McLellan Galleries on February 27th. They were protesting the presence on the platform of Bedweilty MP. Neil Kinnock, whose abstention five days previously had helped sabotage the Devolution Bill.
Tribune was born 40 years ago in the aftermith of one of the biggest defeats ever suffered by the Labour left" over the Spanish Civil War, The fortunes of Labour's left wing have not significantly improved since; they remain very much the "loyal opposition' to a permanent right-wing majority in the Party.
Some Tribunites end up defecting from the ranks: Harold Wilson, for example, or Michael Foot. Others decline the rewards of high office but remain no less ineffectual: socialists like Norman and Jancy Buchan remain fixed to a crumbling past where opposition to foreign generals and support for Clause 4 was quite sufficient for survival as a left-winger".
The 40th anniversary rally proved an embarrassing occasion. Norman Buchan, who shared the platform with Kinnock felt constrained to defend him agamst the points made in our icallet. Kinnock, he said, had shown great courage in the stand he had taken: although he, Buchan, did not support this stand, he felt that "personal attacks' were out of place.
Kinnock, himself, was more forthright. As far as he was concerned, he supported the demand for the right of the Scottish people to decide: this was why he had fought for the
referendum. But his constituents were fervently opposed to devolution, and he had acted accordingly. Furthermore, nationalism had to bc "confronted' and the Bill capitulated to it.
In fact, Kinnock campaigned in Parliament to take Wales out of the Bill and on this basis opposed the Guillotine motion. We may well feel entitled to ask why the Welsh people should not be allowed to express their opinion themselves, rather than rely on quixotic Mr. Kinnock to do it for them. We are certainly entitled to ask by what right he chooses to arbitrate on a Scottish Assembly.
As the Scottish Socialist leaflet pointed out, 'No Tribunite MP's have used their parliamentary votes to stop the Government's attacks on living standards .....Only when it comes to defying the policy of the party and the TUC and the rights of the working people of Scotland and Wales, does the courage to vote "No" arrive". it was regrettable — not least in the light of Norman Buchan's testimony to Neil Kinnock's great courage that, in breach of a long-standing tradition at such meetings, no questions or contributions were taken from the floor.
The most important issue under discussion, however, was the Social Contract. Here, 1oo. Tribune scored an embarrassing tirst by giving a platform to Lawrence Daly - the first major Trade Union leader to back the Social Contract in Scotland since the present wave of apposition began. "Tam proud", he said, "that the miners took the initiative in supporting the TUC-Labour Party policies which led to the Social Contract". A fine start to a meccing entitled "The Socialist Alternative'. And Kinnock chipped in to say the working class could not accept wage cuts and unemployment while prices continued to rise. The government had broken the Social Contract: what was needed was a new one with price and import controls.
The only redeeming feature of the meéting was the presence on the platlorm of co-ClA man, Philip Acce. Ironically, Agee himself. is presently under notice of deportation served by the very Labour Government against whose policies the Tribune Group has signally failed to organise any real opposition.
MARTIN O'LEARY