The 2011 election has pushed the question of the Scottish parliament and its powers to the top of the political agenda. The Scottish government is currently calling for the inclusion of
Corporation Tax within its remit. An independence referendum is promised within five years.
However, for the trade union movement the real question is another one: how far can new parliamentary powers be translated into power for and by working people.

Almost exactly forty years ago the Scottish Trades Union Congress convened the first Scottish Assembly to mobilise opposition to the closure of the Upper Clyde shipyards. This Assembly called for a Scottish parliament with powers to intervene economically, develop industry and create jobs. Such a parliament, said the general secretary of the STUC
Jimmy Jack, would have to be a 'workers parliament' - dedicated to strengthening the power of ordinary people against the power of capital.

This challenge remains. Working people do not exercise power any more than they did in 1972. The Coalition government in Westminster is set on the privatisation of what remains of the public sector. A conveyor belt of ostensibly democratic institutions, from Westminster through to local government, mandates cuts in benefits, pension rights and essential services. Above them all, the EU Treaty gives legal primacy to the free movement of capital and neo-liberal fiscal policies.

The issue to be debated at this autumn's conference is how this process can be reversed. How can elected, democratic institutions at Scottish, British or local government level be used to strengthen the power of working people rather than to reduce it ?

свернуть