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.