Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 22:43:09 -0500
Subject: M-I: Britain/Welsh Assembly (fwd)
From: jschulman-AT-juno.com (Jason A Schulman)


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 09:36:44 -0500
From: International Viewpoint <100666.1443-AT-compuserve.com>
Reply-To: International_Viewpoint-AT-compuserve.com
To: ".Press English" <fi-press-l-AT-mail.comlink.apc.org>
Subject: Britain/Welsh Assembly

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Britain

Welsh Referendum

In September voters in Wales approved the Labour
government's plans for decentralisation. Despite its
limitted powers, the Welsh Assembly is a step forward for
Britain's smallest nation.

Ceri Evans*

*Joint YES Campaign Coordinator for Cardiff West Labour
Party


Conservative killjoys might suggest that the vote was only a
half victory. The September 18 referendum on a Welsh
Assembly was won by a margin of about 0.6%. Only 51.3% of
the electorate bothered to vote at all. And the new Assembly
will not have any powers of taxation.

Support for decentralisation was stronger in Scotland.  In
the 11 September referendum an incredible 74% voted in
favour of a Scottish Parliament and 63% in support of
tax-varying powers. Indeed, opinion polls taken a few day
before the Scottish vote showed that a majority of Scots
would vote to give the new Parliament tax-raising powers,
fully expecting that the first Scottish administration will
increase taxes. In 1979 only 52% voted for a Scottish
assembly.

The limits of the Welsh Assembly

The Welsh Assembly is a much weaker body than that offered
to Scotland. It will not be able to make laws or raise
taxes. It will simply take over control of the existing
budget of the Welsh Office, which is the government
department currently responsible for Welsh affairs. It will
also be able to pass "secondary legislation" in areas
approved by the London Parliament. The proposals fall fa
short of the wide-ranging autonomy that most socialists in
Wales would support. But given a choice between the status
quo and some measure of greater control over our politicians
and the state - the need to campaign for a YES vote was
clear.

The first results, from North Wales constituencies close to
the English border, showed significant majorities against.
There was also a large NO vote in the capital Cardiff.
Then the results began to trickle in from the South Wales
valley constituencies, Labour's working-class heartland.
Neath and Port Talbot voted 2 to 1 in favour, Rhondda by a
majority of 15,000 and Caerffili by a majority of 6,000.
With only one result still to be announced, the NO vote was
still short of the winning post. That final result was from
Carmarthen, an area which includes important working class
areas like Llanelli, the Gwendraeth Valley, Ammanford and
Carmarthen town itself. These areas registered a massive 65%
in favour, based on a high turn-out, and the YES vote
scraped home by a majority of 6,721.

Working class and Welsh speakers

What is most significant about these results is the pattern
of support which they reveal. Unlike Scotland, support for a
Welsh Assembly is very uneven. It is concentrated in the
working class areas which suffered most under 18 years of
Tory rule. Contrary to what the NO campaigners claimed, it
is not simply linguistically based, since the predominantly
English speaking South Wales valleys contributed as much to
the victory as did Welsh speaking areas in the North and
West. Indeed, Welsh speaking Ynys Mon (Isle of Anglesey)
only narrowly voted in favour.

Two areas of Labour support which did register significant
NO votes were the capital Cardiff and nearby Newport. This
reflects the much lower level of Welsh national
consciousness in these areas and, in Cardiff at least, a
strong feeling that a Welsh Assembly would be a bloated
version of the increasingly unpopular local Labour council.
Another point comes through very clearly in the results. In
every one of the areas in which rebel Labour MP's campaigned
for a NO vote, or cast doubts on the proposals, the vote was
overwhelmingly in favour.

The role of Llew Smith MP is particularly problematic. He is
the only member of the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group of
Labour MPs in Wales, and his stand against the Assembly has
done a great deal to discredit the Labour left, allowing
opponents to lump together all his radical positions as
representing "old-style state centralist socialism". This
could have particularly damaging consequences for any future
socialist campaign against Maastricht and EMU.

Welsh autonomy in  Maastricth Europe

Both the Wales Labour Party and the left-nationalist Plaid
Cymru have deep illusions about Wales' prospects in a
Maastricht Europe. The mythical "Europe of the Regions" is
seen as a means of bringing power and prosperity to
peripheral regions like Wales. The reality, of course, will
be exactly the reverse. However, Llew Smith's stand on the
Assembly will make it all the easier for people to dismiss
his arguments against European Monetary Union as emanating
simply from a London-centred, British nationalist
perspective.

But despite the closeness of the result and the problems for
the left, the vote on September 18th was a massive step
forward for the people and the politics of Wales. The
creation of an Assembly gives socialists an exciting
opportunity to reinvigorate and enliven political life in
Wales. It will give us an elected body which can be both a
forum for debate and a focus for demands and campaigns.

The left agenda for the Assembly

The left must not squander this opportunity by confirming
the fears of so many voters that the Assembly is simply
about "jobs for the boys". Women must be equally represented
in this Assembly and the voice of Black and Asian people
must also be heard.

If Wales deserves a full time Assembly it also deserves the
full time attention of its Assembly members.
Dual-membership, whereby people can be both London MP's,
Euro MP's, Lords or local councillors and also members of
the Assembly, makes a mockery of the whole process.

Activists within the Wales Labour Party have proposed a
number of key points, in relation to the Assembly, which we
are confident enjoy broad popular support. We will continue
to campaign for an Assembly which:

* Abolishes the vast majority of the quangos
(semi-independent government bodies, which blossomed under
the Conservatives). Those that remain, such as the Welsh
Development Agency and the Welsh Tourist Board, must be
under tight democratic control.

* Dismantles the huge bureaucracy created by the
Conservatives in the Health Service and opposes further
hospital closures.

* Ensures that women are equally represented in the Assembly
and that black people are fairly represented.

* Assembly members should be paid the average wage of a
skilled worker in Wales, in order that they stay in touch
with ordinary people.

The narrow YES vote presents an enormous challenge to
radicals in the Labour Party, Plaid Cymru and beyond. People
voted YES for an Assembly that would break with the past and
make a real difference to their lives -- the left must fight
to make that happen.
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