Community struggle in Scotland
Community struggle within Scotland has had some setbacks at the beginning of the decade, but is now bouncing back and looks set to once again change the political landscape.
The last four years in Scotland has been one of retreat and stalemate in Scotland’s community struggles.
After the massive victories at the turn of the century – the 2001 Housing Act, won by a massive campaign, involving the (then) powerful national federation of tenants and residents associations, the Scottish Tenants Organisation, led to the guaranteed right of Scottish residents to a social house; campaigners across England and Wales can only dream of such legislation – the government set about crushing the tenants movement. In 2004 the clampdown began. The state set about systematically attacking the tenants movement. At the lowest ebb, the department for the crushing of independent tenants organisation and the total privatisation of council housing (“Communities Scotland”) was organising ‘unity’ conferences across the country, announcing that ‘the STO was no more’. A wave of stock transfer ballots was set in motion.
Everything seemed to be lost. The New Labour Scottish Executive was tooling up central government, through Community Planning Partnership agreements, to force councils to privatise municipal services faster. Central government noting that neo-liberal rhetoric did not match up to reality unleashed “People and Place”, announcing that “Scotland [was] open for Business.” Glasgow (with the largest concentration of social housing in Europe), had already moved into phase one of the plan – council housing being turned over to stock transfer landlord the GHA. Edinburgh remained, and, it was hoped, the rest would follow.
Until a grassroots political earthquake took place.
At the end of the year in 2006, Edinburgh tenants voted no to stock transfer. Despite the failure of the local tenants federation to fully back the campaign, maverick tenants campaigners, running a low key, grassroots campaign, which was based around solid groundwork, talking to tenants, explaining the issues, and working steadily to reverse and undermine the multi-million pound state propaganda machine, was able to strike a hammer blow to the process of stock transfer.
The response of the ruling political class in Scotland was as immediate as it was shocked an confused. A conference was called, where the unthinkable was to be countenanced. Wholesale stocktransfer was on the rocks. Was there another solution? What about ALMOs? How could they privatise social housing when tenants could turn around and vote “NO!” even after the tenants movement had been crushed?
As the crisis talks began, cracks started to emerge in the Scottish Executive. It seemed possible, after the
failure of the GHA to move to second stage transfer, and the increasing dissatisfaction of working people
towards the New Labour project that heads might roll at the top. In the intervening malaise of months that came to follow the Edinburgh vote a quiet process of rebuilding began. New community movements were forged in places as far afield as Glasgow, and Inverness, and more votes began to be won.
Then a series of unexpected events took place. For the first time in history, the SNP became the Government. This was accompanied by the housing crash and credit crunch. The problems capitalism had been storing up since the last big crisis have started to come out. While this inevitably means foreclosures and misery for many, in terms of community politics it can mean that campaigns against gentrification and for more public housing (once the lost causes of the dead and dying left) are becoming winnable struggles. As more victories are racked up the chances of seeing a class movement, whose participants know what it is like to win, and win consecutively and convincingly, has become more than just a dream. It is becoming a reality.
Today as we enter the new political epoch (where the Labour Party can be unthinkably beaten on home soil by the SNP), the STO is recovering from the blows struck by one of the most comprehensive ruling class assaults on tenants organisation in history. Membership is up, and across the country there is a national campaign calling for council housing, investment, debt writeoff, and local organisers are getting their act together. There is also a renewed acceptance that sectional composition of community organisation like the STO needs to change, that we need to build outside of the heartlands of council housing, and try to organise all citizens into powerful community movements.
That process is only beginning to take shape, but for once it looks like the working class may be going on the attack.
In Glasgow today a host of gentrification projects have been shelved – partly due to adverse economic conditions, partly due to widening and deepening community resistance. The programme for developing a federation of residents associations, the programme for developing in effect a ‘section movement’, is now on course. Isn’t it time that across the whole of the UK the working class went on the attack?