How to cut python output in rows and coloumn

Hi All i have written below program to take output of linux process

import subprocess
def backupOperation():
   p = subprocess.Popen(["ls","-la"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
   output, err = p.communicate()
   print(output)

 backupOperation()

if i print output its output is as shown below

-rw-r--r--.  1 root root  100 Dec 29  2013 .cshrc
 drwx------.  3 root root   24 Dec 21 15:14 .dbus
 drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Desktop
 drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Documents
 drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Down loads
 drwx------.  2 root root   22 Dec 21 17:07 .elinks
 -rw-------.  1 root root   16 Dec 21 15:21 .esd_auth
 drwx------.  2 root root   79 Dec 21 16:42 .gnupg
 -rw-------.  1 root root 1240 Feb 21 20:19 .ICEauthority
 -rw-r--r--.  1 root root 1142 Dec 21 15:15 initial-setup-ks.cfg
 drwx------.  3 root root   18 Dec 21 15:21 .local
 drwxr-xr-x.  4 root root   37 Dec 21 16:53 .mozilla
 drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Music
 drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Pictures
 drwxr-----.  3 root root   18 Dec 21 15:49 .pki
 -rw-r--r--   1 root root  172 Feb 24 22:44 process.py
 -rw-------.  1 root root   10 Dec 21 17:48 .psql_history
 drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Public
 -rw-------.  1 root root 1024 Dec 21 16:43 .rnd
 drwx------   2 root root   24 Feb 22 00:12 .ssh
 drwx------.  3 root root 4096 Dec 21 16:44 ssl-build
 -rw-r--r--.  1 root root  129 Dec 29  2013 .tcshrc
 drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Templates
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root    6 Dec 21 15:21 Videos
-rw-------   1 root root 6994 Feb 24 22:44 .viminfo

all i want is to cut first coloumn of the out put as i do using awk like awk '{print $1}' Here i want to do this using python but i do not find any suitable string function doing this.Can this be achieved using python or i have to use shell for such operations.