ASOCIALIST MSP has called for an end to Scotland’s “democratic deficit” in the economy and at the ballot box.
Speaking at a fringe meeting on building a new democracy for a new politics organised by The World Transformed, Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba called for Labour to engage with constitutional reform if it was to be “successful in delivering for workers.
She said:“As in England under the Tories, in Scotland the SNP have continued to win election after election because they give voice to the democratic deficit by providing a parliamentary conduit for the independence movement.
“If our party is to coalesce around a single issue, that issue must be socialism.
“But to ignore point blank a widespread popular campaign for constitutional reform which divides the left has locked Labour out of power in Scotland for over a decade.”
But Ms Villalba argued that challenging the democratic deficit was more than a constitutional battle, but one tied to class and ownership of the economy.
She added: “To win for working people, we must advocate for democratic routes to constitutional change from a socialist perspective.
“Our strength comes from our numbers, it can only be activated when we as a class recognise our power.
“It is our job, as socialists to empower each other, to remind ourselves that the power they hold over us has been delegated and that we can take it back if they do not wield it in our interest.
“This work is already underway in the campaigns of trade unions and community organisations calling for the right to food, publicly owned transport, green energy for people, not profit; and land justice for the many.
“These are our resources, that we built, that we run.
“It is our wealth, that we work for, that we create, and it’s time we controlled it”
Source: Morning Star
