Politics of a woman's place Power struggle

SCOTLAND could yet be wailing and chewing clumps of heather at the

prospect of all those braw, young, and ambitious male Socialists being

deprived of their rightful inheritances (ie Labour Parliamentary seats).

The threat comes from a bunch of harridans called the Scottish Labour

Party Executive. These unhinged hysterics include men and women from

various sections of the Labour movement.

They have proposed a way of resolving one Scottish Labour Party

equality problem -- 93% male MPs to 7% female MPs from this haven of

democracy north of the Border.

Before their arguments have even been presented to the National

Executive Committee in London, they have been ruled out of order.

The simple idea was to propose women-only candidate short lists in

vacated Parliamentary safe seats and marginals in Scotland. At present,

this would involve a handful of Scottish seats. Labour's stated aim is

to see gender parity in the House of Commons by the year 2000, though

there is as yet no party mechanism by which this could be achieved in

seven years' time.

The people's party has been democratically parking white male bums on

benches for its entire political life -- and not only in Westminster.

Women who have struggled and worked in the party for most of their lives

are wearied by all the reasons why they are so rarely picked, by an

organisation bursting at the seams with equality policies.

For many, this year's party conference decision to permit women- only

lists in 50% of those specific seats was seen as a victory. Other

activists decided this would have too tiny an effect in the long run.

The Scottish Women's Caucus, set up this year, went for the 100%

female option in the few relevant seats -- and this position was adopted

by the Scottish party executive recently.

Slapped down by the national bosses, the Scottish party is ready to

argue back, though of course there are divisions in Scotland.

''We have been listening to the persuasion argument for a long time,''

said Johann Lamont, Scottish Labour Party chair. ''It's not realistic to

suppose you can persuade people out of power when they have always been

there.''

Some arguments used against the 100% supporters are that they are

anti-men, ignoring the trade unions, patronising to women, based on

middle-class careerism, not looking for the best candidates, visiting

the sins of the fathers on today's bright young men and being unfair to

constituency parties who should select a haggis if they so choose.

Johann and other members, including men, pushing the radical but

obvious way of shifting the grey-suited ranks have no problem dealing

with these objections. They have heard them all their lives -- in

politics, in work, in social situations, in the domestic world.

Margaret Curran has been a Labour Party member for years, slogging

away supporting policies meant to assist the more disadvantaged people

of Britain.

Now she is convener of the new women's caucus, women tired of making

the metaphorical tea.

''Yes, I still must push the policies,'' she said, ''but explicitly, I

want more women in power -- and not just women, but feminist women, who

know how far there is to fight yet.''

Johann Lamont has had a lot of media stick since the 100% women lists

story broke. As has Rosina McRae, another member of the Scottish Labour

executive who has had her openly expressed equality beliefs attacked in

public and in private.

''It has been quite interesting reading the press stories about

leading women activists saying this, and a Cathcart spokeswoman saying

that,'' remarked Rosina with a laugh. ''Why aren't they giving their

names, if we're the ones with the loony tunes? We have a just case.''

She believes that Parliament just doesn't work for half the population

-- for the poor, the disadvantaged people, who include women as a

majority.

Labour, unfortunately, was not delivering despite old credentials and

all that male talent. A critical mass of 30 to 40% of women in

Parliament would change the shape of politics, she claimed.

Margaret recalled that women had often been told they did not have the

correct background, education, experience and training for political

prominence.

''Well, I got trained up to the eyeballs, got educated and have

considerable party experience,'' added Johann. ''Now I'm defined as

middle-class. Whereas Rosina, who didn't go to university, has had

various jobs with low-paid workers and people with other disadvantages

and also has all that party experience -- she doesn't fit either.''

These women concede that the 50% policy agreed by Labour this year is

an advance, but feel that 50% of the crumbs is still a pretence of

fairness. They remember the party machinery resisting the idea of one

woman on short lists, of opposition to women's sections and black

sections in the party.

There is also a Scottish dimension to this political struggle. Apart

from the fact that there is a smaller percentage of women MPs north of

the Border, the Labour Party in Scotland is supposed to have rather more

autonomy from London HQ these days.

''The NEC has thrown out this Scottish proposal before we have even

discussed it with them,'' said Johann.

A body called the joint liaison committee exists to facilitate

dialogue between London and the Scottish party. This next meets on

Thursday, when its members are due to debate the new 100% proposition.

Two days later, the Scottish Labour women's conference will be

debating the issue too. That conference will be chaired by Ina Love, who

is officially neutral, but personally unhappy about the Scottish

executive's decision.

''It's going to alienate a lot of women and I can understand how the

men feel,'' she said. ''It's not an ideal world but women have made a

wee bit of progress. I think too much energy is going to go on this

issue when we should be tackling the social problems of this country.''

The chairwoman of the Scottish Labour executive before Johann was Anne

McGuire, who is also worried about repercussions within the party and in

the public perception.

''I've every respect for women taking the 100% position, and quite

honestly, I don't know how we can increase the number of women as MPs or

on our local councils,'' she said. ''But I don't think we are taking

people with us on this. There may be a backlash and we could be making

another rod to beat ourselves with.''

There has already been plenty of abuse for the more public spokeswomen

of the Scottish Labour Party. People tend to forget that many men

support the 100% solution, as the only sure way to get women at least as

good as male MPs on to those green benches down south.