Scottish left-wing leadership must hold firm against “naysayers” who want the party to move back to the right, a leading trade unionist has stressed.
Writing in today’s Morning Star as the party starts its three-day annual conference in Dundee, the Communication Workers Union’s Scotland secretary Craig Anderson argues that that Richard Leonard, who has led the party since the autumn of 2017, “offers a break from the managerialism that haunts the Scottish Parliament.”
He argues that Mr Leonard’s leadership is “committed to genuine partnership with the trades unions,” and that trade unions “should rejoice at that.”
He writes: “Many of us have stuck with the Labour Party in harder times, but, with a leadership in Scotland and the UK firmly on the side of organised labour and our ideas, it is arguably the best time for a trades unionist to be part of the Labour Party in a generation. Let’s not change our colour now.”
His comments could be seen as a riposte to an intervention last weekend by GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith, who accused Scottish Labour of failing to speak “for working-class people and working-class communities” under Mr Leonard.
In an interview with the Sunday Herald, Mr Smith said Scottish Labour had “nothing coherent or clear to say” on Brexit and argued that “the whole strategy just seems to be riding on the coat-tails of Corbyn into power.”
He added: “It is a recipe for disaster.”
Mr Smith’s comments proved controversial within the GMB, with one branch in Glasgow writing to the union’s regional HQ to express concerns.
Mr Corbyn will address the conference today and he is expected to set out the “clear choice” between Labour’s vision of investment and the status quo of Tory austerity passed on by the SNP.
Scottish TUC president Lynn Henderson will also address conference today.
Speaking ahead of the conference, Mr Leonard said: “It is clearer now than ever that the real choice is either more cuts and division with the Tories and SNP, or hope and investment under Labour.
“While the SNP plan turbo-charged austerity for Scotland, Labour offers a decade of transformational investment.
“We will bring an end to austerity and we will shift the balance of wealth and power in Scotland, ensuring the wealthiest pay more to fund our NHS, our schools and the services we all rely on.”
He singled out low pay, worker exploitation, rising poverty, homelessness and foodbanks among Labour’s priorities for tackling ills in society.
Meanwhile deputy leader Lesley Laird is expected to ram home a unifying message in her speech today.
“The reality is that the real division in our country is not between those who voted to remain or leave, or those who voted yes and those who voted no,” she will say.
“Constitutional politics is the scourge of our times, but ultimately if we are to break free from this impasse we must remember one thing.
“That whether you are from Benarty or Broxburn, Kelty or Kilmarnock, Lochgelly or Lesmahagow, it is irrelevant. If you are up against it, you are up against it, but you are not against each other.”