The campaign to save the livelihoods of workers at the Diageo Bottling plant in Kilmarnock and the Port Dundas distillery continues but it is not clear where it is going, or even what it is. The media, as usual, only serves to exacerbate and highlight the confusion. While the workers, along with 20,000 others, families, friends and activists protested and showed their genuine determination to fight, those claiming to have the answers only serve to confuse the issues.

The Scottish Government waded in with fighting talk and the promise of ‘financial aid’ to pay for the jobs with the bosses at Diageo merely waiting to see how much. The Trade Unions, Unite and GMB, started a web site where people could sign an on-line petition and announced that they will organise further protests, all to try and get Diageo “to think again”, a strategy some might describe as a ‘gonnae no dae that?’ kind of strategy. Even the chairman of Kilmarnock Football Club declared, “Kilmarnock FC will support the employees whose jobs are under threat.” He didn’t say how exactly but that is no less effective than the promises of any of the political parties. Scottish Enterprise, who have basically led the campaign, commissioned consultants to come up with an ‘Alternative Business Plan’ (at extremely short notice). But it was somewhat scuppered by the consultants declaring that it doesn’t really matter where a company plants its business and that Diageo’s plans make sound business sense.

Well, why should we be surprised that financial consultants happen to agree with other financial consultants, when they are faced with the same problem and particularly without the time to make a proper study of all the issues?

East Ayrshire Council has now waded in and declared that the consultants have got it wrong and they will produce all the evidence needed to convince Diageo that their plans are mistaken and they should remain in Kilmarnock after all. Well, I hope to goodness they are right, but somehow I don’t really see the Diageo executives throwing their hands up in the air saying, “Oh, now we see where we went wrong!!” Not unless it comes with a hefty financial sweetener – an offer they can’t refuse, so to speak.

The whole campaign seems to hinge on the historic links between Johnnie Walker and Kilmarnock and that’s what makes the consultants’ report so damaging. It leaves the campaigners with a problem of where to focus the campaign, unless they want to continue the time honoured tradition in the Labour and TU Movement of flogging dead horses. How many times have we seen campaigns of this nature tried? Or, to make it easier on the memory, how many have been successful?

Diageo is the largest multinational beer, wine and spirits company in the world holding brands such as Guinness, Red Stripe, Harp Lager, Johnnie Walker, Bell’s, Black & White, Vat 69, Talisker, Lagavulin, Smirnoff, Gordon’s, Captain Morgan, Seagram’s, Bushmills, Jose Cuervo, Archer’s, Pimms, Baileys, Sterling Vineyards, Piat d’Or, Barton & Guestier, Blossom Hill and on and on. They are not short of a bob or two. In 2008 the revenue was £10,643 million, with a net income of £1,597 million and profits of £2,226 million. They have 22,000 employees worldwide. The Chief Executive Officer, Paul Walsh, was paid £5 million despite the company being hit by a 7% drop in the first 3 months of 2009. Like most (if not all) other multinational companies based in Britain, Diageo dodges paying the proper level of tax, paying just £43 million per year corporation tax, saving £100 million. Yet the reason they give for the job cuts is to ensure the company remains “sustainable”. Honestly!!??

There is a clear moral case for Diageo remaining loyal to the Kilmarnock workforce but that cuts no ice with today’s multinational executives who are keen to impress the shareholders. It’s all about hard cash and the quest for profit.

What does the left propose? Many left writers will tell you that the socialist solution would be for mass demonstrations, a sit-in, even a riot or two. That is the traditional method but come on, have we learned nothing from the Miners Strike? The miners in 1983 thought they could adopt the kind of tactics they had in 1972 and ’74 and, because they worked then, they should work now. Well, they got that tragically wrong. What did I say about flogging dead horses? There is certainly a place for sit-ins and demonstrations but that can only be as part of a bigger, wider campaign, one which has the clear goal of taking the plant into joint Scottish Government and community ownership. I do not believe the TU leaders or political leaders have the stomach for such a clear and radical call, but that should not prevent us from raising it.

The Diageo plant in Levenmouth had been promised over 300 jobs (most reports say 400) before the announcement of the closures, but Diageo executives must have known. Workers there along with local politicians have stated their support for the workers in East Ayrshire and that must be heartening for the workers there. However Levenmouth has one of the highest levels of unemployment and associated deprivation in Scotland, with poverty levels second only to one or two areas in Glasgow. The promise of so many jobs to an area like that is like gold dust which would boost the local economy, and that might colour attitudes in the area if either Diageo or the politicians are allowed to successfully play one group of workers against the other. If the Kilmarnock campaign does escalate into all-out strike and occupation it needs to be on the basis of a clear call to defend all Scottish jobs.

Diageo have said that the withdrawal from Kilmarnock would be over a two year period, still time to build a meaningful campaign, but also that they would leave a legacy to the people of Kilmarnock. Perhaps, therein lies the answer.

Let them leave the bottling plant to the workers in Kilmarnock and the distillery to the people of Port Dundas, and let them get on with it. After all, it’s the workers and local management who run the plants and make them profitable for the executives to take the credit – and the money. If the Scottish Government genuinely wants to retain the jobs then they should keep the £75 million they are reportedly going to offer Diageo to ‘bribe’ them, and instead invest it to develop community ownership and control of the plants. Consultants could draw up a feasibility study and could offer options, working with the workforce, the Scottish Executive and the community to produce a viable plan. This time they would have at least a year in which to do it.

This is a strategy which has actually succeeded in other instances and other communities and, in my opinion, is the best option for the workforce and those who back them to campaign around.