Another Independence Referendum?

A NEW PASSPORT - A NEW RULING CLASS

Sturgeon on Tuesday pledged to publish draft legislation for a new Scottish independence referendum, including the question and timing of the vote, before the country’s parliamentary election next year.

“Before the end of this parliament, we will publish a draft bill setting out the proposed terms and timing of an independence referendum as well as the proposed question that people will be asked in that referendum,” Sturgeon said.

Next year’s election to the devolved parliament is expected to provide a fresh platform for the Scottish National Party to press for a new referendum. The nationalists are expected to win a majority and aim to use that mandate to push Johnson to grant a fresh vote on the issue. However, it is ultimately up to the British parliament to decide whether Scotland can hold another referendum, and Johnson’s Conservative government in London has repeatedly said it will reject any demand for a fresh vote.

The position of the Socialist Party remains unchanged from the previous referendum in 2014. A constitutional re-arrangement of the British state is not the business of the Scottish working people. It does not advance the interests of the Scottish working class.  The Socialist Party remains committed to the end of all nations rather than the creation of new ones.

We oppose nationalism.

Scottish nationalism did not go away with the referendum. Repeated calls are being made for a second referendum. The starting point of any nationalism is the assertion and appreciation of a particular group: “we”. Scotland as a nation was taken for granted by all sides arguing over Scottish independence. The British State considers Scotland a nation and itself a country of four nations. Consequently, Scottish nationalists did not have to agitate for its recognition as a nation. The taken-for-granted starting point for all separatist and unionist agitation was Scotland and the referendum simply presupposed Scotland and the Scots as a collective who now decide on an important aspect of their lives. The referendum could happen because the British State, which asserts absolute authority over its citizens, gave a part of itself — the Scottish Government — permission to subjugate a part of the British population in the case of “Yes” vote.

“We” is also the assertion of an accordance between the people of the nation (“Scots belong and fit together”). When nationalists speak of “us”, they do not simply mean to describe a group that is somehow distinguished from the rest of humanity like “all people with brown hair” or “all people who like tea”, instead “us” characterises a community. Nationalists think that their personal interests and the interests of other members of the community — and hence of the community in total — are somehow aligned. Not necessarily perfectly so but at some level. Nationalists think that somehow the national community is the place where they fit in, where their purposes have a place, where people accomplish their respective goals somehow with each other. They believe that there is a connection, some accordance, some cohesion even, that “we” are “better together”. Nationalists differ in where they see the basis of this accordance. Some see the basis for why “we” fit and belong together in a presumed common biology (“Celtic blood”, “Aryan race”), some in a common culture (language, customs, cultural values) and some even in a common conviction (constitutional patriotism). None of these reasons holds water. There is no “Celtic blood”, language does not preform thought but ideas can be expressed in any language, a habit of drinking tea makes for a tea drinking society, not an all-encompassing community. For example, Cornish nationalists invoke a wide range of historical, political, linguistic and cultural reasons to illustrate that Cornwall does constitute its own nation.

Nationalists identify with their nation. Nationalists assert that belonging to a certain nation is not a lifestyle choice, a conscious, calculated decision or a particular interest, it is an identity. To nationalists, being Scottish or English is not something you decide to do, but it is something which claims to define your being. For an English nationalist when eleven English players win a world cup, we won the world cup in 1966. Thus if the British State goes to war, we go to war and its soldiers are fighting for us. The assertion “we” is as much an invitation as it is a demand. Firstly, “we” is an invitation to look beyond the day-to-day competition and to recognise the needs of the community as being greater than mere individual materialism and calculated decisions for personal gain. Secondly, “we” is also a demand that this unity is not up for debate, it is an invitation you cannot refuse, it is essential.

A lot of energy is spent by professional nationalists — politicians, journalists, teachers, etc. — on educating the population about “their” national customs, culture and history. Students learn the national language, learn about national history, about their “cultural heritage”. National holidays encourage the celebration of the nation. Nationalists hold that a national community requires actualisation in a state. Nationality — in the eyes of nationalists — is an identity which requires a political authority. The nationalist proposition is “the right of nations to self-determination”. Or rather the right of their nation to self-determination, e.g. “Scotland should be an independent country”. Even if the “Yes” campaign had won the independence referendum, it would not have been “the Scottish people” who would have given themselves a state. The Scottish independence referendum was an attempt of a nationalist movement — around the Scottish Government — to subjugate Scottish people under a new state. If the “Yes” agitation had been successful, then the Scottish Government would have subjugated those it defined as Scottish under a new Scottish state, regardless of whether they voted “Yes” or “No”.

The “Yes” campaign and the Radical Independence Campaign argued for independence by listing many nice things which could be done in an independent Scotland: better health care, higher benefits, greener energy … None of these policies were actually on the ballot. The ballot did not ask voters what they think of the welfare state, citizenship laws or where government spending should be directed. The question was if the authority ruling over Scotland should be Scottish and this is the first standard by which nationalists judge it.

Nationalists judge all and sundry from their nationalist standpoint, also other nations and their states. On the world stage, nation states confront each other with their demands and compete for power. They compete economically, threaten each other with their military might and engage in open war. Nationalists observe these conflicts in a peculiar way. To nationalists, their own nation is the home of the decent and universal, the guarantor of everything that is good in the world. In contrast, other nations are merely French, Russian, American etc. The respective national standpoints are merely their particular standpoints. This does not necessarily make them foes, but every nationalist can identify base motives driving other nation states’ policies. Watching a BBC report on Russia compared with RT provides ample material of this kind. From this perspective then, it only makes sense for nationalists to wish their own the best of luck in every endeavour, even the most contemptible ones.

Adapted and abridged. Full original article can be read here

Scottish Independence : Tartan Delusions

On the 31January the blue Euro-banner was hauled down at Westminster and the Union flag raised in its stead. In Edinburgh, though, the self-awarded gold stars flag was pointedly left fluttering in place next to the saltire.

The SNP are making a none too subtle point. The antidote to the referendum they don’t like is to be… another referendum. It would seem the political ‘logic’ is that the best way to counter leaving a union is to leave a union.

It is somewhat ironic that the clash between Holyrood and Westminster stems from a single shared source, nationalism, be it competing nationalisms. The cause is perceived sovereignty, as if Scotland, or England, or Britain can stand alone, or at least break away from a power portrayed as inhibiting its freedom.

However, what would the SNP do in short order should they achieve independence? Give it up to the EU of course. Similarly, should Britain shake off the last vestiges of EU influence, then treaties will be sought and signed with such as the USA.

Not only will the USA want untrammelled access to the NHS for its big pharma, for example, there will be a demand for any arrangements to be subject to America’s legal system. For the USA substitute any other major trading nation/bloc and something similar will apply.

This is what ‘independence’ means in a global capitalist world. Significant change cannot be achieved by a binary vote in a referendum. At best there is some reordering of the arrangements, but essentially, adjustments made, capitalism continues unhindered other than by its own contradictions.

The SNP has previously stated its intention of retaining the monarch as their country’s head of state, continuing the use of sterling and joining NATO. Presumably unaware of any contradiction, they also want to be rid of the Trident submarine bases.

Do they really think that if capitalism degenerates to the point where international warfare results in the use of nuclear weapons, the removal of Trident bases will somehow insulate Scotland from the consequences?

Should the SNP decide the monarch was not to be their head of state, then a president or some such would fulfil that function. Has being a republic lessened the grip of capitalism, with its extremes of war, inequality and crises, on the USA?

If Scotland was denied the use of sterling presumably that would mean embracing the euro with all its financial hazards and, more importantly, subservience to, not independence from, the European Union. If sterling is retained, then economic policy would, ultimately, continue to be determined in London.

The formation of Britain enabled the industrial revolution to create a dynamic economy in which Scots, Welsh and English played full parts. This also led to the formation of the working class with interests transcending those of constituent regional and national parts. Workers in Scotland faced the same exploitative capitalism as they did in England and Wales and expressed their voice through their own organisations, the trade unions.

And nothing has changed. Workers on any side of a border, wherever it is drawn, all face the same fundamental problem, capitalism. To exist, capitalism must exploit workers to make profit. Painting your face blue with crossed white stripes alters this not one iota.

Whatever the outcome of another referendum the people of Scotland will continue to live under a parliamentary system designed to preserve the interests of capitalism. If they have opted for ‘independence’ they will find ‘sovereignty’ surrendered to the EU.

The parliamentary system has evolved to serve the interests of capitalism, not democracy. It does not matter if a parliament is situated in London or Edinburgh, nor if its benches are upholstered in tartan and populated by nationalist MSPs, it will remain subservient to the needs and preservation of capitalism.

Referendums are designed to give apparently simple solutions to complex problems, they are the chosen way of despots and demagogues attempting to garner some semblance of popular support of their self-serving programmes.

The ballot box can indeed be part of the response of the working class to taking economic and political power away from the capitalist class. But this will have to be just one element of a much wider movement in which the working class consciously acts for itself.

No referendum can solve problems for the working class, not in Scotland, not in Britain via Brexit (or re-joining the EU at some point), not anywhere. There is no Tartan alternative to socialism.

DAVE ALTON

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2020/2020s/no-1387-march-2020/scottish-independence-tartan-delusions/

Anarchists and Left Communists Against Independence

Edinburgh Anarchist Federation have posted a blog that reflects many of the views of the Socialist Party enabling the Socialist Courier blog to quote extensively from it.

“Don’t buy into the ideology of the Yes campaign or its variant, left nationalism. Whatever the rhetoric of some on the Left, this is a Scottish nationalist campaign, just as the No camp represents a British nationalism.  Anyone who cares about class struggle politics needs to strongly oppose both.

Nationalism, whatever form it takes, does two things: it tries to create a community of interest between the bosses and the working class; and it binds this community to the capitalist nation-state, reinforcing the latter’s power and role in exploitation. There is no genuinely ‘progressive’ form that this can take. We have, as Paul Mattick observed, a century of experience of national liberation struggles where apparently progressive anti-imperialist movements culminated in an oppressive new ruling class. And we could now potentially see a new wave of independence movements in Europe in response to neoliberal restructuring and the more immediate crisis of capitalism.  Do we expect different results?...

Are smaller states better and more democratic? 

...Well, if we were to take a critical look at actually existing small European states we find:
That they’re certainly no more favourable to workers’ organising;
They are also coercive (which is the role of any state apparatus) and can be just as authoritarian (an example being the role played by the Catholic church backed by the Irish state);
They have been remarkably open to neoliberalism and austerity (which has had a devastating effect on small states from Finland to the Netherlands, never mind southern Europe);
There is a growing anti-immigrant trend related to systemic white supremacy across northern Europe;
That some have also sent willing to send troops abroad (Denmark in Afghanistan) or have aided others who have (Ireland again, offering Shannon airport for use by the US Air Force);
And they are always subject to the dictates of larger supranational structures and of capital itself....

The Nordic example

... Common Weal want us to emulate the Nordic states where thanks to a number of reasons – a strong labour movement,  available natural resources etc. – it has been able to maintain more of its welfare provision than Britain.
“ we still have a cabin on the upper deck, but it is the upper deck of Titanic.” - Asbjørn Wahl

 But all of the Nordic states have experienced their own neo-liberal offensive and inequality is growing there too.
Swedish welfare academic, Daniel Ankarloo, argues that the labour movement there has been ‘weakened by ... class co-operation’  and belief in a ‘social policy road to socialism’– i.e. that somehow the welfare model was an example of socialism in practice that just needed to be expanded.  Instead, to defend existing gains as well as to fight for a different society, we need to rediscover class militancy and that this, ‘radicalisation must ... come from below in the form of the self-organisation of the labour movement’. .

 What about the Scottish Left? 

...Both Common Weal and the vision of the Radical Independence campaign are concerned with trying to manage capitalism better.

 Common Weal is an explicitly class collaborationist think-tank – nicely summed up in its slogan ‘All of us first’.  Its proposals in creating a high-growth economy, are in reality about increasing the rate of exploitation and outcompeting workers internationally. Its advocacy of ‘work councils’ to smooth relations in the workplace is a necessary part of increasing productivity – i.e. profit. Where they have been used in Europe they have consistently undermined unions and workers’ militancy....

The most comprehensive statement made by members of the Radical Independence campaign, is a call for united frontism to the extent that socialism – even a bureacratic state ‘socialism’ – isn’t even on the agenda, but is treated as a utopian project for some distant future. It seeks to create a Scottish broad left – not an ‘anti-capitalist’ – party along the lines of Syriza or Die Linke, and it reproduces the same ‘Keynesian wish list’ based on the same weak analysis of the state and capital, critiqued so well by Michael Heinrich. Like Common Weal, it sprinkles radical rhetoric – participatory democracy, decentralisation – on its reformism.  It doesn’t differ substantially from the latter, but offers mild criticism of certain aspects, including its support for the Nordic model.

After the referendum

...We should not trust an independent Scottish state to share much wealth, to protect NHS provision, not to attack the unemployed or the disabled, not to make cuts, to deport people or remove trade union restrictions. Some are hopeful that the grassroots pro-independence movement will produce an oppositional social movement after secession.  But this is wishful thinking.  It would require it to reject its own ideological basis, its very nature as a cross-class alliance organised by forces who seek to gain political power. ..

Whatever the result of this referendum, the lasting gains we need depend most of all on our own capacity as a class for itself to organise and struggle...

The Internationalist Communist Tendency on the Referendum

The Left Communist organisation on their website also made some insightful comments of the referendum which again is well worth quoting

One of the ruling class’s weapons in its armoury is its ability to mask the reality of the exploiter/exploited class relation. Its web of cultural constructs is aimed at obscuring that reality - and the weave of that web is religion, race, gender and above all, nationalism. Nationalism isn’t “natural”. It is manufactured. It is the particularly manufactured ideology of the capitalist class. For them it is the perfect expression of their rule. They can pretend that in the nation we are all “free” even if some of us are freer than others because they have more money...Scottish Independence is just a diversion from the real issue based on a reactionary fantasy.

Post Referendum

If a ‘yes’ vote created a Scottish state, it would begin life already crippled with its share of UK National Debt – a sum estimated by the National Institute of Social Research to be £143 billion. That debt will have to be serviced, as will the debt incurred in the functioning of any capitalist state – borrowing for investment, infrastructure, defence, the social wage (pensions, health, welfare etc). For example, Edinburgh, Scotland's capital, is currently paying £5.8 million a year interest on its new 8 mile tram line even before any repayment of the £776 million capital costs.. Naturally, services such as libraries, social care, teachers and nurses etc ( all part of the social wage) are discretionary spending, while interest repayments are written in stone. The UK state, despite its vicious hacking back of the social wage, its use of cheap migrant labour to help drive wages down, its attack on working conditions and wages, has so far been unable to cut its deficit – in other words far from being able to address its debt, it is daily increasing it. Again, that debt incurs interest – and that interest is set by global money markets that take a very close interest in state spending. The Scandinavian states, for long hailed as examples of successful welfare states, are seeing their social spending slashed because the money markets demand it. National governments are expected to be ‘responsible’ (i.e. shaft the working class) or pay the price when they come to sell bonds, gilts or raise loans. This is an inescapable fact of crisis ridden global capitalism – no country is immune...

...Foreign capital investment, crucial to any Scottish state will expect, and get feather-bedded treatment in terms of grants and tax-breaks. What the workers will get can be seen in the brutal working conditions of the staff in the huge Amazon depot at Dunfermline. Any serious attempt by a Scottish government to improve working conditions there would see Amazon pack up and move elsewhere. No surprise in this – it’s how capitalism operates. The surprise lies only in the fact that so many are prepared to believe ‘We’re different up here’...

....There is only one internationalist response to this referendum – fuck it! The real issue for the world’s workers is that they face an increasingly dire future under whichever capitalist regime rules us.... Our only hope lies in getting rid of the system that produces such misery and such abominations. In the long run only autonomous working class struggle on our OWN terrain can hold out any hope for our future. In the short term, refusing to be dragged in to ruling class power plays is a crucial first step – seeing our class brothers and sisters sucked into nationalist traps in the likes of Ukraine, Libya, Gaza and Kurdistan only underlines the importance of this....

Socialist Courier has to add the caveat that neither group accepts our position that we support the democratic principle of voting in the referendum by going to the polling station and spoiling our ballot. Neither No, Nor Yes But World Socialism. 

Raise the Red Flag, Not the Saltire

IT DISNAE MATTER

Scotland is gearing up for the question that it will put to the Scottish people in a few months time. The SNP seek to be masters in its own house. The SNP seek to make maximum use of the state to foster the development of the Scottish capitalist class. As the various politicians whip up jingoism  to save their collapsing profit system, workers should not be fooled by sugar-coated patriotism used by the bosses to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. Workers should never turn away from the advocacy of, and the fight for, socialism. For many months now, a debate has been going on within a number of left-wing organizations in Scotland. What programme will succeed in winning over  Scottish workers to socialism? What strategy and tactics will ensure victory for socialism? The economic crisis is more and more devastating in its effects on workers. The reactionary forces are on the rise on all fronts. Yet the socialist alternative remains very much a fringe phenomenon within the workers movement and emphasis placed instead upon Scotland’s  separatism. The Socialist Party proposes spoiling your ballot in the referendum. Spoiling your ballot means refusing to support the aspiring Scottish capitalist class and it means rejecting the status quo. It shows our determination to affirm an independent working class position that refuses to line up behind either of the two capitalist camps. Our alternative is to continue the battle for socialism .

In a few months the people of Scotland will be voting in the referendum. Many have been anxiously awaiting the referendum, particularly whow this is the first time in a few hundred years the Scottish people will have the opportunity to express their will on their political future. But is the referendum truly the historic moment so emotionally claimed. The question being put is to to choose one state over another. A YES vote is an vote anti-worker vote and objectively  means condoning the SNP policies To re-organise capitalism and re-distribute Scotland’s wealth  in favour of part of its ruling class, which is after their share. The SNP would use its power to  to continue to subsidise native capitalists to the tune of millions. It would use its exclusive power to make laws to repress workers. In an independent Scotland, the SNP would ask us to further tighten our belts in the interests of the “nation,” i.e. to profit the domestic economy. In an independent Scotland, exploitation will still exist, as before, and will intensify. Yet many workers and progressive people are still drawn towards a YES vote, despite that it would be “business as usual.”  Voting for the NO option is acting as an apologist for the current system.

Various left-nationalists hope to persuade the working class that Scottish independence would be a step towards socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The independence of Scotland would not mean a step forward towards socialism. It would be a step backwards. lf the Yes side wins, Scotland will not be independent. What the Socialist Party want is real independence. What we want is freedom from capitalist domination. Nationalists should stop pretending that sovereignty would be a step towards independence.

The nationalists are working overtime to convince Scottish workers not to demand too much. Thus the working class would be sacrificing its struggle for socialism, which is the only way to do away all forms of oppression and  exploitation, in return for a few meagre changes, for crumbs. The left wing Yes strategy of independence first and socialism later is utopian and suicidal that pushes the workers into support for the Scottish bosses. In other words, the working class must first follow the nationalist employers and fight at their side, until one day, in the undetermined future it will develop its own  autonomy. How much longer will so-called leftists keep on telling the  workers’ movement that is it is still too premature to act on its own. An independent working class position can and does, in fact, exist right now. It is a plague on both your houses, Yes or No. It is no support for any pro-Unionists and no alliance with any separatists.

In the fight for socialism one thing is certain that the success of that struggle depends on achieving the greatest possible unity of the working class. Promoting independence does exactly the opposite. Instead of uniting the Scottish working class against the capitalist, it divides them from the rest of the working class. It delays socialist revolution and unites the Scottish  people with the Scottish capitalists. It is utterly ridiculous to argue that the working class ought to divide itself into two different countries in order to accomplish this unity. They cloak their position in “Marxist” garb and pose as fierce opponents to the SNP. They say that the struggle for independence is the principal class struggle for Scottish workers, claiming this will bring them to socialism. For all the fine talk about “capitalist exploitation” it amounts to nothing but hollow words. Their attacks against the SNP are only for show as their performance can’t hide what’s at the bottom of their position – it’s  support, albeit critical, for the SNP.

Supporting Scottish independence in the name of socialism is a monumental hoax. To advance toward revolution, the working class must develop its consciousness of being a class with common interests radically opposed to those of the capitalist class. The “real” independence pushed by the nationalists is shown up for what it really is, a mirage and an illusion intended to attract Scottish workers and tie them to the interests of the national bourgeoisie. By subordinating  the class struggle for socialism to the nationalist struggle, they help keep capitalism alive.

These “national socialists” are not at all interested in destroying the capitalist system – far from it. They want to make it more efficient, all to the profit of the “national” capitalists and their well fed bureaucrats in the  public administration, council halls and universities. Nationalisation and state planning carried out by a Scottish sovereign state still in the hands of the bosses’ class!   Socialism is not a question of nationalisation but means bigger profits for the “national” parasites. Waging immediate struggles alone is not enough to bring about victories which last. We view that those struggles must be fought clearly within the framework of a conscious struggle to overthrow the entire capitalist system. Capitalism can be transformed more effectively to the extent that we properly understand the specific conditions.

Working class unity is a must right now if effective resistance is to be mounted to the crisis austerity measures imposed by the capitalists. Those groups who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalists who are busily trying to fulfill their ambition to join the ranks of world capital. The left nationalists would have us believe that the demands of the Scottish people can only be met through independence. Thus, they claim, the task is to transform bourgeois independence into a socialist independence. In reality, they find themselves in the camp of those promoting division of the working class and reactionary policies. Independence then socialism option is nothing but a dead-end road. It doesn’t bring us closer to socialism, only farther away from it. It maintains and reinforces the divisions within the working class – a real boon for the different sectors of the ruling class which do their best to keep us divided. Furthermore, it pushes narrow nationalism and in so doing, strengthens the SNP. And one thing is sure, we’re not going to get any closer to socialism by building up the SNP, a party that represents the interests of Scotland’s capitalists. This is pure and simple class collaboration while posing as combative, radical “left-wingers”. By isolating Scotland in a separate struggle against international capital they split the international working class before their common enemy. Separation is no stepping stone to socialism, despite what these phony “Marxist” theoreticians may say.

Some nationalists argue that the main enemy of Scottish  workers inside the country is the English ruling class. According to this theory, Scots have little to fear from our native capitalists, because they’re not part of the main enemy. But the truth of the matter is that Scottish  capitalists have been an integral part of the British  bourgeoisie ever since the Union, when the old Scottish  ruling class sold out the rights of the Scottish  people to benefit from the markets created by the soon-to-be  British Empire. Capitalists who are natives of Scotland, be they big or small, are not any less a part of the British bourgeoisie than English capitalists. Support for independence can only chain workers to the local employers and hold back the struggle for socialism. With full control of a separateScottish state, the Scottish  section of our worst enemy will have added instruments to force Scottish workers to “tighten their belts in the interests of the nation.” The Yes camp is an alliance of thieves who want to increase their part of the profits –  at the expense of the workers.
 Many say, “Wouldn’t it be a positive step on the road to socialism to gain independence for Scotland?” “Even though we know the Scot Nats is not a party for the workers couldn’t we support it in a ’critical’ way and give it our vote?” Isn’t theSNP at least more progressive than the Labour Party?” As socialists we must take a clear stand on these questions. We must answer the questions being raised in the working class from a Marxist perspective. The only way socialists can make their decision is if it in the interests of the working class. Does the separation of Scotland promote the best interests of the workers  in its struggle for socialism? We say that the answer is no. That to support separation is to support narrow nationalism and that the main problem for the working class is not national oppression but capitalist exploitation . The working class of all nations has one common and main enemy: the bourgeoisie. To struggle for independence would not bring those in Scotland any closer to getting rid of capitalist oppression and exploitation. Instead it would divide the working class against its main enemy; it would weaken the struggle for socialism all across the land; it would hold back and retard our struggle.  Unity is necessary to make revolution. This is why we say that nationalism is not in the interests of the working class. The SNP is a pro-capitalist party basically no different from the Tories or Labour.  We cannot give such a party any kind of support whatsoever, critical or uncritical, total or partial. The SNP in Holyrood has always defended capitalism. The only correct course to follow in the coming referendum is to denounce all the parties involved, to give our support to none of their solutions whether it be the “sovereignity” offered by Salmond  or the Union status quo. The working class has nothing to gain from a Yes or No which only serve to deceive and to mislead.

Independence is not in the interests of the working class. The task of workers is to attack the root of their problems. Our goal is socialism, a new social order based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of our class and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. That failure puts a campaign for the socialist alternative on the immediate agenda. The referendum question of national independence is not an important question for Scottish workers. As for workers in the rest of Britain and the world, the basic question is capitalist exploitation and the fight for socialism. Class solidarity is the necessary antidote to the nationalist poison. National  chauvinism  is a barrier to our unity in the struggle for socialism, an obstacle we must overcome.

We gain nothing from changing the government in power, from throwing out one old set of thieves and voting in a new set of bandits. It’s not the government, the First Minister becoming a Prime Minister that we must change but the capitalist system itself. The referendum is being used  to mystify the people, to cover up the really important political questions and to attempt to impose on us their false solutions.  We say participate in the struggle to build a real working class party, a mass socialist Marxist party. We say that at this time the struggle we must take up is not for independence but the struggle for the social revolution to liberate us from the chains of capitalist exploitation. The working class has every interest in building the class unity that is indispensable in overthrowing capitalism.  Socialism will put an end to this system based on exploitation, injustice and inequalities once and for all. The Socialist Party’s alternative to a Yes or No is to defend an independent position from the two pro-capitalist options in the referendum in the common interest of all workers. 

Things always change

Labour Party sources have told the Guardian that Scottish Labour is considering backing a second independence referendum in a dramatic reversal of policy by the party leader, Richard Leonard. He told his shadow cabinet on Monday he wanted to hold a special conference in May to decide Scottish Labour’s position on a fresh independence referendum, where he would present proposals for Labour to back a federal UK. Leonard said he would consider asking for a pro-federal option to be included in a multi-option referendum on independence. “Labour would be more willing to consider supporting a second referendum if it was multi-option,” one source said.

Rosa Luxemburg grasped why Marx had supported particular wars and certain nationalisms, but she realised that the situation had since changed and urged opposition to all wars and to nationalism. The Socialist Party also argues that all wars should be opposed, and that nationalism has no progressive role left.

Nationalism is the ideology of the capitalist class. The identification of people with the nation and the national interest enables the bosses to present society as a struggle between nations in the interests of the people thus obscuring the real conflict in society between the working and capitalist classes.

The Socialist Party objective is overthrowing capitalism and establishing socialism, in all lands. This will involve the abolition of national frontiers and the disappearance of racial and ethnic prejudices. The world will then be a place for all its inhabitants to live in and travel in, freely and without hindrance or prejudice. Any oppressed nationalities will be emancipated because all workers will be emancipated from capitalism.

The Independence Referendum

The Executive Committee of the Socialist Party on the 2nd August adopted the following as a statement on the Scottish Breakaway Referendum on 18 September:

Most of us don’t own a single square inch of Scotland.

It doesn’t belong to us: we just live here and work for the people who do own it. In or out of the Union, that won’t change.

In Scotland, society is run in the interests of those who own the wealth. They argue among each other over billions of barrels of oil, GDP rates, profits and exports, because where the borders lie matters to them. Every border is an opportunity to wring cash out of other property owners. Scotland will remain dependent upon their whims and interests whatever the outcome of the referendum.

They’ll try to sway us one way or another with crumbs (or the promises of crumbs) but we’ll only get what they feel they can spare to protect their privilege and wealth. We will remain dependent upon their investments making a profit for them before we can get our needs and interests seen to

The only way to stop this dependency would be for us to take ownership and control of the wealth of the world into our own hands. We could, together, use the wealth of the world to meet our mutual needs and grant the true independence of being able to control our work and our lives in free and voluntary association of equals.

Though the outcome of this referendum is irrelevant, it is an opportunity for us to tell our fellow workers that this is what we want. We don’t have to suffer in silence, we can go to the ballot stations and write “NEITHER YES NOR NO BUT WORLD SOCIALISM” across the voting paper. Then, join The Socialist Party to fight for an independent world."

'The Referendum and Its Aftermath' - Public Meeting

A talk by Vic Vanni

Wednesday, 19th August - 7:00pm

Venue: Maryhill Community Central Halls,

304 Maryhill Road,

Glasgow G20 7YE

The ten months since the referendum has provided the opportunity to consider the results and its implications for the future.  The most striking outcome of the referendum has been the collapse of the Labour Party in Scotland.

The SNP's biggest problem was its inability to break Labour's grip on the heavily populated central belt.  It has now achieved this as Labour voters appear to have decided that the Labour Party is no defence against the Tories.

Are Scottish voter so desperate to be rid of the Tories that they will at some point opt for independence?  And could an SNP government enable Scotland to avoid the inevitable problems which capitalism brings?  These and other views concerning the outcome of the referendum will no doubt be discussed.

Yes. No. Who Cares?

The UK government has formally rejected a call from Scotland's first minister for a second independence referendum. Johnson said a referendum would "continue the political stagnation Scotland has seen for the past decade". And he said Sturgeon had previously pledged that the 2014 referendum would be a "once in a generation" vote.

This decision may lead to a constitutional confrontation similar to Catalonia's unapproved referendum.

 However, it should be no concern to us, the working people of Scotland.

The message of socialism is global. It reaches across the artificial national boundaries erected by government. 

The task of the Scottish workers is that of the workers everywhere — to fight against capitalism whatever the national flag under which it hides. 

The task of socialists is to keep this issue always to the fore, not to rouse deadly national rivalries which obscure the class divisions in society and hinder the growth of socialism. 

Another duty of socialists when they declare their opposition to Holyrood is to show clearly and unmistakably that they are also against Westminster and free from the suspicion of condoning its actions. 

Socialism is worldwide. For years we have affirmed it.

the Independence Referendum

Nationalism and the referendum increasingly dominates Scottish politics and its newspapers. We now have the date of the referendum which will be the 18th September 2014when Scot voters will be asked the Yes/No question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"


By re-drawing the map the nationalists promise economic prosperity. The unionists prophesise economic catastrophe. Socialists say experience shows that either way, the working class will lose out.

Independence is nothing but a dead-end. It doesn’t bring us closer to socialism, only farther away from it. Separation is no stepping stone to socialism, despite what phony “Marxist” theoreticians may say. It maintains and reinforces the divisions within the working class – a real boon for the capitalist class which do their best to keep us divided. The people on the Left who are pushing this option fall right into class collaboration. Under capitalism there is necessarily a division between rich and poor, a ruling class and the ruled, the class of capital and the class of wage-workers, and any attempt at uniting them must involve the acceptance of exploitation and oppression. It is glossed over with much talk of the shared culture. The experience of the poor living in a slum council estate is very different from that of the rich living in their country estates. Anyone on the Scottish Left who, therefore, combines the working class with the ruling class, calling on capitalist and worker to unite and fight for independence is not a Marxist or a socialist. Nationalism places the working class under the control of its ruling class and this means that socialism is abandoned. This process has been observed many times resulting in the the conclusion that national feeling is somehow stronger than socialism. The repeated triumph of national consciousness does not however prove that class consciousness is incapable of transcending national consciousness.

Some Scots claim that the Scottish nation has been a victim of English rule but the working class throughout Britain has been the subject of capitalist oppression. Nationalism divides our forces before our common enemy. The fight against the bosses has been a united struggle with workers joining together across all the regions of the UK. Nationalism is about organising and mobilising people on the basis of their national identity. Socialism is about organising and mobilising people on the basis of their class identity. It is class war between employers and employees not Scottish versus English.

Those who say that the main enemy is the English ruling class mislead workers in Scotland into thinking we have less to fear from the Scottish capitalist class. But the truth of the matter is that Scotland’s capitalists have been an integral part of the British bourgeoisie ever since the Union, a union to advance the interests of the aristocratic land-owners and the developing merchant and capitalist class. The Scottish ruling class sold out the rights of the people in Scotland for a hare in the spoils of the Empire. Scottish capitalists, be they big or small, are not any less a part of the British bourgeoisie than English capitalists. Now they simply want a re-division of the pie by re-writing the constitution. Those who would subordinate the class struggle to the struggle for independence, those who counter-pose national unity to class unity, help keep capitalism alive. Independence divides the working class against the international bourgeoisie and it chains workers to the interests of “their” bourgeoisie. No-one seriously considers that the SSP or Sheridan’s Solidarity constitute in any sense an independent political force. They are, in effect, merely propagandists for the Scottish bourgeoisie and its chosen party, the SNP.

An independent parliament has no answers for the working class and would continue to be used by the millionaires and multi-nationals to control and rule.There are no common interests between workers and their exploiters, whatever flag is waved. Nationalism and class struggle are irreconcilably opposed. A nation is simply capitalism with all its exploitation and alienation, parcelled out in a single geographical unit. It doesn't matter whether the nation is 'small, 'colonial', 'semi-colonial' or 'non-imperialist'. In Scotland some businesses has found new roots, hoping to be effective in getting workers to sacrifice themselves for the false goal of “building the national economy” through independence from Whitehall. Multinational interests can just as much thrive on smaller centralised interdependent states, rather than through the old concept of the powerful nation. Separatism only reproduce the same problems on a smaller but no less savage scale.

All nationalisms are reactionary because they inevitably clash with class consciousness and poison it with chauvinism. Working class co-operation, especially in this global age of capital movement across all borders, is necessary for a real defence of our co-workers, neighbours and communities. Socialists have long maintained that people have the right to live, work and travel wherever they choose. As internationalists, socialists oppose national borders, which serve to divide and segregate people. It is important to remember that this view has always been central to the international labour movement from its very beginnings long ago. It is time for labour to remember this vital part of its history.

In the Scottish independence referendum there will be two different forms of nationalism on offer. The British nationalism of a “No” vote. The Scottish nationalism of a “Yes” vote. We will be advocating a third choice - a spoiled ballot with the words “world socialism” written on it. The Socialist Party is committed to destroying the capitalist system, the root cause of all oppression. It aims to unmask the irrationality of nationalism and work to show up the void that is national self-determination. Only by ending capitalism and building a democratic socialist future can we end the nightmare of war, environmental chaos, national and ethnic division, poverty and inequality that capitalism thrives on. The Socialist Party aspires to liberate all humanity, across the boundaries of national identity.

Brexiteers

Capitalist democracy is government in the interests of a parasitic minority class OVER you.

The recent referendum was a battle between members of the parasite capitalist class. The sad thing is that so many workers were led to back this maverick section of the capitalist class in the belief that they were protesting against the ‘elite’, while in fact they were being duped into pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for a part of it.

The notion that it is YOUR country is YOUR nightmare which helps produce cannon fodder for the capitalist parasite class, whenever it suits them to go to war over trade routes, raw materials, spheres of geo-political interest. You are only of consequence to the real owners of this country, while they can extract surplus value from your employment or use you to further their interests in a bloody conflict with your fellow workers of other lands and none. They will promise you ,"Homes built for heroes" or welfare, "From the cradle to the grave" in order for your continual slavish attention to their bidding, but withdraw any reforms when they feel the purpose of this, to buy off potential social discontent, has been served

After the EU referendum, the Electoral Commission released figures on the funds received by the two sides. They showed that the Leave side spent about £17.6 million and the Remain only £14.3 million. These were not contributions from grass-roots supporters but, on both sides, from individual capitalists. Since staying in the EU, and especially the single market, was in the overall interest of the majority section of the British capitalist class, how come that capitalists gave more to Leave than Remain? In fact, who were the capitalists who funded the Leave campaign, and why?

Among the dozen largest Leave donors were: Peter Hargreaves (£3.2m), Arron Banks (£1.95m plus a loan of £3m), Jeremy Hoskins (£980,000), Lord Edmiston (£600,000), Crispin Odey (£533,000), Jonathan Wood (£500,000), Patrick Barbour (£500,000), Stuart Wheeler (£400,000), and Peter Cruddas (£350,000).

What all these have in common (apart from most of them appearing in the Sunday Times Rich List) is that they are involved in hedge funds and other such financial activities.

It might seem strange since the City stands to lose from Brexit, that those who funded the Leave campaign should be financiers (other financiers funded the Remain campaign). But there are financiers and financiers. The City establishment tends to see some hedge fund managers as cowboys engaging in practices it doesn’t regard as entirely above board and which it is prepared to see regulated. It is precisely such regulation that the Brexit financiers wanted to avoid.

One of the Brexit supporters, the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, let the cat out of the bag when, in an article in the Daily Mail (12 April), he painted a picture of what a Brexit Britain would look like in 2020:

“London, too, is booming. Eurocrats never had much sympathy for financial services. As their regulations took effect in Frankfurt, Paris and Milan – a financial transactions tax, a ban on short selling, restrictions on clearing, a bonus cap, windfall levies, micro-regulation of funds – waves of young financiers brought their talents to the City instead.”

That was their main aim, then, their manifesto for the referendum: allow all these practices which enhance their profits to continue. To achieve this, they in effect hired politicians, not just lightweights such as Hannan but also national figures like Boris Johnson and Farage, with a remit to go out and get a vote to Leave by any means. They didn’t really care about the NHS or immigration but left it up to the politicians to deliver. Which, against expectations, they did.

The rest of the capitalist class are furious with them but are going to have to adapt to the result. Most of them will want a deal with the EU that allows them continued free access to the vast tariff-free single market with common standards and its coming extension to services, even if this involves accepting some free movement of labour and a payment to Brussels. Some of the Brexit funders might well be prepared to go along with this as long as there is no regulation of their activities.

The sad thing is that so many workers were led to back this maverick section of the capitalist class in the belief that they were protesting against the ‘elite’, while in fact they were being duped into pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for a part of it. Workers of the world have more in common with each other than with their home-grown, local, regional or global capitalist class. Real equality comes from common ownership, production for use and equal access to the social product rather than a parasite class gleaning profits from a wage-enslaved one.

Technology has been used to tighten the screw on us instead of freeing us. We can have the world to run by ourselves, using the technology to produce a superabundance of necessities along with a self-regulating system of stock controls, access based on need, rather than priced demand, allied to production for use and not for sale, without elites, political or otherwise.

All wealth comes from the workers.

Workers have no country but a world to win.

It is not and never was OUR country.

A plague on all nationalisms.

Wee Matt

What we said in 2014

The Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of Great Britain on the 2nd August adopted the following as a statement on the Scottish Breakaway Referendum on 18 September:

“Most of us don’t own a single square inch of Scotland.

It doesn’t belong to us: we just live here and work for the people who do own it. In or out of the Union, that won’t change.

In Scotland, society is run in the interests of those who own the wealth. They argue among each other over billions of barrels of oil, GDP rates, profits and exports, because where the borders lie matters to them. Every border is an opportunity to wring cash out of other property owners. Scotland will remain dependent upon their whims and interests whatever the outcome of the referendum.

They’ll try to sway us one way or another with crumbs (or the promises of crumbs) but we’ll only get what they feel they can spare to protect their privilege and wealth. We will remain dependent upon their investments making a profit for them before we can get our needs and interests seen to.

The only way to stop this dependency would be for us to take ownership and control of the wealth of the world into our own hands. We could, together, use the wealth of the world to meet our mutual needs and grant the true independence of being able to control our work and our lives in free and voluntary association of equals.

Though the outcome of this referendum is irrelevant, it is an opportunity for us to tell our fellow workers that this is what we want. We don’t have to suffer in silence, we can go to the ballot stations and write “neither yes nor no but world socialism” across the voting paper. Then, join The Socialist Party to fight for an independent world.”