Crisis in the Welsh
Assembly
The crisis in the Welsh Assembly is an indication of the
failure of the old arrangements which the government imposed on the political
processes and institutions of the devolved body.
It may well be that a factor in the resignation of Alun
Michael as Welsh First Secretary on February 9, just prior to losing a vote of
no confidence, was the fact that he was seen as Tony Blair’s man. But this
could be said to be a symptom of the fundamental flaw in the way the Welsh
Assembly is constituted, which is that sovereignty resides at Westminster and
not with the Welsh people. As such, the crisis cannot be resolved by the
replacement of one First Secretary by another, or by a coalition government. In
addition, that the Assembly is being run on the old model of a party or a
coalition of parties in power and a party or coalition of parties in opposition
is exacerbating the crisis. First of all, this model presupposes a two-party
system, where an equilibrium is maintained of one party in power and another in
opposition, which at election time may undergo turn and turn about. The essence
of this system is as a mechanism to keep the people away from political power.
In the Welsh Assembly, as well as in the Scottish
Parliament, the conception derived from the Westminster model or traditions is
coming into conflict with a different and more modern conception, which is that
of a people being sovereign, of a nation determining its own destiny. One
reason the crisis has come to a head in Wales at this stage rather than in
Scotland is that the amount of power that has been devolved to the West
Assembly is correspondingly less than to the Scottish Parliament. Strictly
speaking, the conception of devolution, which is that upheld by Tony Blair and
Westminster, is one of making arrangements which bolster the status quo. It is
to roll over, or delegate, powers from central to regional or local government,
while maintaining authority at the centre. As such it is to underpin the
present set-up of the British state while giving the people of Scotland and of
Wales "more say" in their affairs. However, the conception which is
being espoused by the peoples of Wales and Scotland is that of self-government,
which views devolution as a step towards the people themselves exercising
sovereignty. An opportunity was missed with the setting up of the Welsh and
Scottish bodies to institute modern arrangements, to give effect to modern
definitions of where political power lies and to enable the people themselves
to participate in government.
What should the future be for the Welsh Assembly? It must
be one where the national aspirations of the Welsh people for sovereignty are
recognised. Welsh workers should fight that they are the ones who have the
solution, that there should be a modern sovereign state of Wales, in which it
is the people, not the political parties, who select the candidates to be
elected to the Assembly, and that they should not allow divisions to be imposed
on Party lines.
As far as the issue of the hundreds of millions of pounds
of grants from Westminster that could trigger grants from the European Union is
concerned, a number of points can be made. One is that the economic
backwardness of Wales itself stems from the subjugation of that country by the
English bourgeoisie. However, the Welsh people cannot look to the Europe of the
monopolies to solve their problems. On the basis that Wales, Scotland and
England, as well as a reunified Irish nation, should each establish modern
sovereign states, a free and equal union in one British state with three
governments is one clear way forward in order to build a self-reliant and
harmonious British economy. Only if the workers in Wales, Scotland and England
also take up the project of constituting themselves as the nation can this
solution make headway.
