Neither Union or Separatism

NO PASSPORTS
JUST PEOPLES

 "I have no sense of nationalism, only a cosmic consciousness of belonging to the human family" - Rosika Schwimmer

How are we to explain this nationalism arising in an advanced capitalist country at this time?Since the 1707 Union Scotland has visibly progressed, not regressed, as part of the United Kingdom. Certainly, there are a number of features which spur national consciousness in Scotland: the legal and educational systems are separate from those in England and Wales and there is even the remnants of a ‘national’ language - gaelic. But to pretend that the Union is the cause of all the problems is to deliberately fool the people.

Nations that divide the world at present have not existed for all time. They are the by-products of fairly recent historical developments. Usually, they grew up as a particular ruling class sought to establish its dominance over the economic activities of the territory it inhabited. To do so successfully, it had to replace the various local traditions and dialects that characterised pre-capitalist society by new traditions and a uniform language and to fight to subordinate the state power to its own ‘national’ interests.  As well as serving the interests of capitalist progress, nationalism contained the concept of popular sovereignty—of a motherland which claims to represent the people as a whole, its vast majority, and which grants and defend their liberties and gives them a conscious stake in shaping its future.

The idea of an independent Scottish parliament has arisen among sections of the Scottish business class and it has also enticed the support of many workers. Independence is offred as  a panacea which will enable Scots to  rid themselves of the myriad of social problems thrown up by capitalism without having to fight to overthrow capitalism itself. North Sea oil is the new snake-oil cure. All that is needed is an Edinburgh sovereign parliament to demand a larger share of revenue from the global energy companies but this panacea simply ignores the realities of power under capitalism. Nationalism finds little expression among the Scottish businessmen which is firmly committed to its junior partner relationship with UK capitalism. While at the national level the bourgeoisie is divided, various elements within the ruling class, from one faction and the other, have been exhorting workers to abandon its own interests for the sake of the “nation”. Each faction is hoping to push the balance of power between the factions in its own favour, in order to profit to the hilt from the capitalist crisis which is shaking Scotland and the UK.

Nationalist calls for independence serves as an instrument of the capitalist class to mystify its rule, to delude the workers, to deter them from developing a class consciousness and organising along independent class lines. It has been used to pit them against one another.

Scottish nationalism and independence does not strengthen the real force for socialism but weakens and fragments a united, class-conscious working class. The Left nationalists contribute nothing but division and confusion. They ally with the little tartan-clad bosses. Marx and Engels, by saying that “the workers have no country” were stating fact. Since the workers do not own their a share of the country, they are without a country. You cannot take from them what they have not got. It is a truth that capitalist ruling classes are always seeking to camouflage. For the members of the ruling class in Scotland, to fight unemployment and the recession, English colonialism must first be fought so runs Salmond’s appeal  and it is a simplistic one. “Support me, I am the saviour of our country, forget about your exploitation and your misery for the time being...Help us get independence then you’ll get more jobs...later””

A worker’s  place of birth is accidental.  Nationalism groups men according to their land of origin, as decided by the vicissitudes of history. Socialism groups men, poor against rich, class against class, without taking into account the differences of race and language, and over and above the frontiers traced by history. Workers have no country. The differences which exist between the present countries are all superficial differences. The Socialist Party looks at the national question from the desire to find the best method of struggle for socialism.  We do not accept that the struggle for independence is more important than the struggle for socialism.

In a big company, there is always an owner or many shareholders that live off the work of others: these are the ones who really hold the power! The foremen and supervisors are only their watchdogs; they apply the rules the capitalist owners dictate; they “direct” the workers in such a way as to insure as much profit as possible, and when the industry is facing difficulties, they are charged with the laying-off, or they do the “pushing” to raise production; they also try to create division among the workers as they fight against their union or try to buy off their representatives. If a party does not want to abolish capitalist exploitation, it can only serve capitalism – its role is that of the foreman in the plant.

 If the Left nationalists truly have at heart the interests of the workers, why don’t they denounce the very essence of exploitation, the capitalists system? They call themselves “socialists,” but that doesn’t mean much – they are hollow words. One is not truly a socialist who does not want to abolish the private/state ownership of the means of production, who does not want to expropriate the capitalists. Left nationalists are pretend revolutionaries. They want to rally the working class behind the nationalist cause. But nationalism disarms the workers, an attempt to rally the working class behind the cause of our native ruling class seeking a better place in the sun. Nationalism does not oppose capitalism. There are no shortcuts to the socialist revolution, and those who enter the nationalist paths retard the coming of a popular revolutionary movement by chasing fake enemies.

Furthermore nationalism is used to divide the workers among themselves so they can ignore their real enemy. The workers (Scots and English, Scots and Europeans)  need to unite – their main interests lie in such unity. The separation of Scotland would divide the workers of Britain in two and draw Scottish workers nearer to the Scotland-based bourgeoisie. We must fight nationalism! The Left that supports independence serve the interests of “our” ascendent capitalists. The social revolution is an immense task and workers must have their own organisations.

A workers’ movement that fights for economic gains, yes!  A Socialist Party that fight for the emancipation of the working class, even better!