first published in mid-January 1999 by Roger Warren Evans

INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT affords the explanation. Modern Wales was forged in the industrial conflict of the 19th century. Trade unions took the socialist lead in Wales, and trade union values still predominate. Welsh trade unions financed many of the first Labour MPs, who took their seats in the Commons in February 1906. The 1983 Miners' Strike was actively and enthusiastically backed by local Labour parties throughout South Wales, with food supplies and with money. Traditional values are alive and well, in modern Wales.

THREE PILLARS OF PERCEPTION, all derived from the experience of industrial conflict, inform socialism in Wales.

+ That ordinary people are routinely oppressed by the abuse of power, both public and private power, and that Labour is a crusade against such injustice.

+ That society is best reformed by using democratic means to take command of government, and by deploying the force of law as the primary agent of change. The commitment of the UK trade union movement to democratic action represents its key contribution to contemporary socialism.

+ That institutions founded upon the ethics of public service remain superior to those of private property, such as those of the corporate sector.

THESE PERCEPTIONS will permeate the politics of Wales. True, the province of Wales will first be hewn from the UK granite by statute, by the Assembly's Standing Orders and the transfer of powers, all prescribed by Westminster. But the real work will fall to be done from May 1999 onwards, as the Assembly begins to flex its political muscles.

LABOUR WILL BUILD upon the Party's growing understanding of market mechanisms, the global economy, of the corporate and voluntary sectors, and the potential of partnership between the corporate sector and public service agencies. 1999 is not 1945, nor even 1976, when Labour created the first Welsh Development Agency, and the Land Authority for Wales. Labour has moved on, as has the world. The province of Wales will be a new, and entirely contemporary, political institution.

LABOUR IN WALES will have to focus upon the central task of shaping the new province, giving to its constitution the best possible foundation. For political opponents will try to knock the new province off course. Plaid Cymru will exploit every opportunity to undermine the very concept of a province, continuing to argue for the transfer of primary legislative powers. Some Liberal Democrats, ever unreliable allies, will continue to do the same. The Torieswill continue their unprincipled, opportunistic sniping. Labour's Assembly team will need all their powers of concentration, if the new province is to flourish. It will be on their shoulders alone that the fate of devolution, both in in those moments, Labour in Wales will draw upon the unique resources of its socialism.

EQUALITY. That will be the guiding light of Labour in Wales, in forging the new province. Cydraddoldeb. The Assembly will be able to bring into the public political arena a thousand inequities that have been disregarded by Westminster and Whitehall.

THERE WILL BE TIME ENOUGH, and space, to debate the distributive principles which underlie Wales' £7 billion annual governmental Budget. Working closely with the twenty-two primary local authorities, the new Labour Government of Wales will be able to deliver greater equalities of outcome for its citizens, in health, in education, in housing. A Labour Financial Secretary Trysorydd will, with the Welsh Budget, be able to continue the redistributive strategies which have since May 1997 been a distinguishing feature of Gordon Brown's stewardship as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

LABOUR IN WALES will be able to assert, within the compass of the province, that equality is a transcending value of its socialism. The Assembly will have no powers of taxation and will work within the fiscal disciplines of Westminster. But Labour in Wales should reject the view that greater equality is merely an adjunct of future economic growth.

A Labour Government in Wales should seek to ensure that, in both good times and bad, every individual, every household, enjoys equal public service treatment, equal protection against the abuse of power. It is axiomatic that, in good times, all should enjoy a fair share of the benefits of economic growth. But that is not enough. When times are bad, there must be fair and equal distribution of the burden.

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