The vote yes campaign for independence has been launched.
Nationalism divides society into more and more separate entities, create more divisions, more fears and suspicions and when the globe is totally criss-crossed with walls, fences, and border posts that we allow ourselves to become so paranoid, afraid and suspicious of each other. Officialdom drum “patriotism” into people’s heads. Ill-considered rhetoric, regurgitated mantras built on lies, fears and hatred need overturning without hesitation. Nationalistic slogans are uttered by right and left.
Revolutionary socialists have discarded the flag and the school history books with the details of so many deeds of butchery within its pages. That its workers should be patriotic is vital to each national ruling class and this, fertilised by official lies, is exploited by all governments. This appeal to workers to a fake identity with their own exploiters in the name of “national” unity is utterly poisonous to the real interests of the working class.
What, after all, is one’s own country? One’s native land, every country, no matter under what form of government, is made up of two groups of men, consisting on the one hand of a quite small number, and on the other the immense majority of people. The first of these is seated round a well furnished table where nothing is lacking. At the head of this table, in the seat of honour, you find the great financiers, the large shareholders in companies, the factories and big shops, the landed proprietors; all are seated at this table. Also seated you have government ministers, officials of every department of civil, religious or military administration. That is your country, made up of this social inequality.
If you don't believe so, then just ask yourself why Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump have the ear of Alex Salmond and you do not.
The difference across Britain between the top 10% and lowest 10% in incomes is 95.8:1 in England (aided by the grotesque levels of inequality in London of 273:1), but only slightly less in Scotland, 93.4:1 and in Wales, 89.5:1. Despite the pervasive story of modern Scotland that we are an egalitarian land the reality is that Scotland is the most unequal part of the UK after London and the North West of England.
If we went back to election turnout levels of only 25 years ago in the mid-1980s, nearly one million (977,742) Scots are missing from the democratic debate. The missing million Scots are mostly younger, poorer, and live in the West of Scotland and Central Belt, disengaged and disconnected because of apathy and alienation.
And do the Scots communicate more and have access to more information? Broadband and PC access in Glasgow and the West of Scotland was at shockingly low levels versus the rhetoric of digital liberation. Ofcom explained, "The reasons for this are complex but lower income levels and older age groups are less likely to take broadband services". Yet the same research showed that there was a "Scottish effect" which went beyond material poverty: with lower income groups having 30% Broadband access compared to 55% across the UK; 16-34 year olds have 65% access in Scotland and 82% across the UK. And this digital divide has an even more pronounced "Glasgow effect".
Many of us have found repugnant the actions and behaviours of the British state these last few decades but why do we automatically assume that Scottish self-government will be any different to the rotting edifices of the British body politic. For socialists the independence debate is about shifting from self-government to self-determination, not about what the Scottish establishment institutions will and won’t do, or what they will let you do but about real political and economic control and new social relationships that will lead to our self-emancipation as a class, not as a nation
Nationalism divides society into more and more separate entities, create more divisions, more fears and suspicions and when the globe is totally criss-crossed with walls, fences, and border posts that we allow ourselves to become so paranoid, afraid and suspicious of each other. Officialdom drum “patriotism” into people’s heads. Ill-considered rhetoric, regurgitated mantras built on lies, fears and hatred need overturning without hesitation. Nationalistic slogans are uttered by right and left.
Revolutionary socialists have discarded the flag and the school history books with the details of so many deeds of butchery within its pages. That its workers should be patriotic is vital to each national ruling class and this, fertilised by official lies, is exploited by all governments. This appeal to workers to a fake identity with their own exploiters in the name of “national” unity is utterly poisonous to the real interests of the working class.
What, after all, is one’s own country? One’s native land, every country, no matter under what form of government, is made up of two groups of men, consisting on the one hand of a quite small number, and on the other the immense majority of people. The first of these is seated round a well furnished table where nothing is lacking. At the head of this table, in the seat of honour, you find the great financiers, the large shareholders in companies, the factories and big shops, the landed proprietors; all are seated at this table. Also seated you have government ministers, officials of every department of civil, religious or military administration. That is your country, made up of this social inequality.
If you don't believe so, then just ask yourself why Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump have the ear of Alex Salmond and you do not.
The difference across Britain between the top 10% and lowest 10% in incomes is 95.8:1 in England (aided by the grotesque levels of inequality in London of 273:1), but only slightly less in Scotland, 93.4:1 and in Wales, 89.5:1. Despite the pervasive story of modern Scotland that we are an egalitarian land the reality is that Scotland is the most unequal part of the UK after London and the North West of England.
If we went back to election turnout levels of only 25 years ago in the mid-1980s, nearly one million (977,742) Scots are missing from the democratic debate. The missing million Scots are mostly younger, poorer, and live in the West of Scotland and Central Belt, disengaged and disconnected because of apathy and alienation.
And do the Scots communicate more and have access to more information? Broadband and PC access in Glasgow and the West of Scotland was at shockingly low levels versus the rhetoric of digital liberation. Ofcom explained, "The reasons for this are complex but lower income levels and older age groups are less likely to take broadband services". Yet the same research showed that there was a "Scottish effect" which went beyond material poverty: with lower income groups having 30% Broadband access compared to 55% across the UK; 16-34 year olds have 65% access in Scotland and 82% across the UK. And this digital divide has an even more pronounced "Glasgow effect".
Many of us have found repugnant the actions and behaviours of the British state these last few decades but why do we automatically assume that Scottish self-government will be any different to the rotting edifices of the British body politic. For socialists the independence debate is about shifting from self-government to self-determination, not about what the Scottish establishment institutions will and won’t do, or what they will let you do but about real political and economic control and new social relationships that will lead to our self-emancipation as a class, not as a nation
1 comment:
“Scotland as distinct from her people is nothing to me; and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for ‘Scotland’ and yet can pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and suffering and the shame and the degradation wrought upon the people of Scotland: AYE, WROUGHT BY SCOTSMEN UPON SCOTTISH MEN AND WOMEN without burning to end it, is a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements he is pleased to call ‘Scotland’”. James Connolly
I took the liberty of substituting Ireland for Scotland
Post a Comment