BY ALAN McCOMBES
GLASGOW — It was the most spectacular vote for socialism in any Westminster election in the last 50 years. As hundreds of thousands of voters deserted New Labour, the Scottish National Party and the Conservatives, tens of thousands swung behind the Scottish Socialist Party.
In 1997, the forerunner of the SSP — the Scottish Socialist Alliance — contested 16 seats and won 9457 votes. In 2001, the SSP stood in all 72 seats in Scotland and took 72,518 votes. Support for the Scottish Socialists has multiplied seven and a half times in the first four years of New Labour.
Even in the two years since the Holyrood [Scottish parliament] elections, the SSP has surged forwards and upwards. In 1999, with the same national turnout, the total SSP vote was 25,000 in the first ballot and 39,000 in the second ballot, conducted under proportional representation.
It is always exceptionally difficult for a small party to make headway in a Westminster election. The loaded first past the post voting system discourages people from voting for candidates who have no hope of winning. In general elections, the media generally ignore the non-mainstream parties while providing massive daily coverage to every word and gesture of the major party leaders.
The SSP was systematically excluded from TV debates. It was in effect banned from the pages of the tabloids. As a result, the coverage of the 2001 general election was brain-numbingly boring as four identikit parties squabbled over petty details. This contributed to the pitifully low turn-out of just 59% across Scotland.
Against this background, the 72,500 votes for the SSP represent an outstanding breakthrough. The Scottish National Party (SNP) took 30 years before it finally won 64,000 votes in the 1964 general election, transforming Scotland into a four-party system.
On June 7, a five-party parliamentary political system arrived in Scotland.
In the past, socialists have been able to achieve modest successes at the local level by selecting prime seats and concentrating resources into those areas. In England and Wales, that is still the stage that socialists are at. But the SSP is now a truly nationwide party.
In Glasgow, the party averaged 7% of the vote and saved its deposit in all nine constituencies within the city. In Edinburgh, traditionally a more difficult city for socialists, the party achieved more than 4% in several seats. Even more remarkable was the SSP vote in Orkney & Shetland and Argyll & Bute. In these remote rural and island constituencies, the SSP took 4.7% (Orkney) and 4% (Argyll).
The SSP vote on June 7 was the highest socialist vote in Scotland since 1945. It is all the more significant given that this election took place against a backdrop of four years of economic growth, with unemployment in Scotland falling to its lowest level for more than 25 years.
In the space of two and a half momentous years, the SSP has smashed the myth that socialism is dead and buried. In the next two years, leading up to the next Holyrood elections, Scotland's united socialist party has the opportunity to capture the hearts and minds, not just of tens of thousands, but of hundreds of thousands of people the length and breadth of Scotland.
[From Scottish Socialist Voice at <http://www.scottishsocialistvoice.net>.]