Socialism Not Separatism

The ruling class of Scotland have long been merged with that of England and the working-class of Scotland, Wales and England has long been one homogenous working class. We cannot tag along with, follow behind, or try to lead these nationalist movements or parties – we must resolutely struggle against them while propagating socialism. “Self-determination” is a slogan that can be used to justify any project, no matter how reactionary. It was the call for self-determination for the national minorities of Yugoslavia in the 1990s that laid the basis for the bloody civil war. It is the call for self-determination in eastern Ukraine that is creating the conditions of civil war there today. “Self-determination” in reality means granting the ruling elite free rein to set its own economic and political agenda to meet their own needs, skilfully masked by socialist phrases.

Nationalism is always the tool of the capitalist class. There was a brief period in history where there existed an identity of interest between the national bourgeoisie and the working class against aristocratic feudalism, and hence even Marx recognized nationalism had a progressive role to play. However, now that the progressive role of the capitalists is long finished, so too is the progressive role of nationalism. In essence, supporting nationalism nowadays amounts to a switch from socialist which hold that the working class is the sole agency for the liberation of humanity, to nationalism, which effectively is a movement in support of the local “national” capitalist class.

 From being a tiny inconsequential entity with a few members the Scottish National Party became suddenly the dominant party in Scotland. How did this startling transformation come about? Disappointments, defeats and disillusion have been the left’s constant companions for many a year. The SNP increasingly began to seem like an attractive and viable alternative to many people given the background of growing disillusionment with Labour. The SNP was tailor-made for the job of providing the reformism traditionally offered by the Labour Party. This trajectory is essentially a product of despair following successive defeats of the working class and the destruction of large sections of the organised working class. The SNP has successfully tapped into widespread anger and a sense of injustice. Nationalism is being fomented now in Scotland in order to provide an alternative to austerity.  A series of Labour governments have now convinced even some Trotskyists that the Labour is nothing but a pro-capitalist party, and they are now deserting the Labour Party like rats from a sinking ship and rushing to fill the life-boat of left-nationalism. They are blind to the fact that they are jumping from the frying pan into the fire. They still do not understand or opportunistically refuse the anti-socialist role of nationalism. The Trotskyist movement naively simply switched their opportunistic slogan “vote Labour without illusions” to vote “Independence without illusions.”

 Let us also be very clear and state the patently obvious. Scottish nationalism has no intention of challenging capitalism.

At present Scottish nationalism and the SNP have the appearance of a progressive left-wing movement to some honest people who read the promises of their election policies. Deceived by manifesto pledges, sincere people will work in and around the nationalist movement only to discover, in some years’ time, that they have been most cruelly misled, have been wasting their time and worse – have been advocating ideas which they will then have to destroy to establish socialist principles. Instead of tragically wasting their time fostering nationalism those seeking a socialist society must stand firm to socialism. We must do work to popularise socialism alone in order that people shall not be side-tracked. Socialism and nationalism are mutually exclusive. Nationalism abandons notions of workers solidarity and seeks an outcome that necessitates the dividing of workers, denying any role for English or Welsh trade union activists. The history of the British labour movement is the history of the intertwined fates of the Scottish, English, and Welsh working class, for example, the legendary Keir Hardie was an MP for a London and then for a Welsh constituency. The links between Scottish, English and Welsh working people have forged through common struggles and shared experiences a potentially powerful political force. Rising support for nationalism means Scottish workers are turning their back on class unity and joint struggle with their brothers and sisters south of the border, and strengthening reformist illusions that hope lies in a new constitution and a sovereign Edinburgh parliament.

The left nationalists urge Scottish workers to reject this historic solidarity with their English and Welsh fellow-workers, on the grounds that it is impossible to achieve progress at a British level; only in Scotland. But they are wrong if they think that a more radical, more socialistic agenda will emerge in an independent Scotland. The new Scottish state would find its policies constrained exactly the same sort of undemocratic, technocratic, neo-liberal rules of globalization that left nationalists stringently oppose. As with the formation of the Irish Republic, the political landscape will be dominated not by a consciousness of class but of “national interest”. Working people will be spun the line that sacrifice for the good of the nation is the symbol of patriotism despite the pain and privation. A new Scottish state would have an overwhelming incentive, like Ireland, to cut business taxation to gain a competitive advantage over its larger neighbour and would actively discourage collective co-ordinated action by workers across all of the nations of the United Kingdom. Scottish English and Welsh workers do not respond to an abstract appeal for “international solidarity”, they don’t need one, they act out of their already existing unity. The fact is that we live in a single state with a single economy and trade unions have created an organic unity with identical interests and a common consciousness. Independence will tear the fabric of unity apart. In Britain a division of the working class along national lines would be a huge step backwards for the workers movement, even from the weakened state it is currently in.  For though class struggle is at a very low level, those struggles that have taken place, including in Scotland, have arisen out of nationwide disputes.  The creation of an independent Scotland would break that unity and make the task of advancing the workers movement more difficult.

The left nationalists must ask themselves if the possibility of a few seats in a Scottish Parliament is a worthwhile exchange for an abandonment of basic socialist principles. Draping themselves in the Saltire rather than the Red Flag, left- nationalists act as a recruiting sergeants for the pro-business SNP. During the referendum vote many on the left tried to disguise the unpalatable policies that the SNP was preparing to implement by claiming that a Yes vote did not mean support for the SNP and that a move to independence would not necessarily mean an SNP government. Clearly this was deceitful as there was no other political party capable of forming a government if the Yes campaign had succeeded and the SNP’s economic policies and corporate-friendly pledges would have entailed a race to the bottom for tax rates on capital and for workers’ living standards in Europe. The Left-nationalists could merely counter with an idealist social democratic utopia in a very small state vulnerable to the economic blackmail of the bankers as we witness in Greece today.

There is an alternative to nationalism and spreading false hope amongst workers in Scotland. It’s called class politics and it comes with internationalism and working class unity and being honest with the working class, even if it’s not what some want to hear, rather than peddle cynical opportunistic shortcuts up deluded blind alleys to gain some supposed influence amongst workers. In reality the short-cut to socialism turned out to be a short cut to nationalism. The Socialist Party reject the idea that Scottish nationalism (or any nationalism, for that matter) represents a way of advancing the interests of the working class.  There is no basis for socialists to be advocates of Scottish independence.  All the arguments for independence are in essence nationalist and pro capitalist whatever the left-wing gloss than is placed on them. Our opposition to independence is not support for the status quo but for the unity of the working class. The workers movement would be weakened by a process where regional capitalist classes try to corner local resources and endeavor win the workers over to defend them. The task for socialists in all countries, whether that be Scotland, Britain or Ireland, is indeed independence - not of nations or of regions - but of the working class. This class independence, in terms of politics and organisation, is the very foundation of the struggle for socialism.  It is because Scottish nationalism and the call for independence throw up yet more barriers to this unity that we urge workers in Scotland to reject the siren song of separatism

"merchants have no country. the mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Thomas Jefferson