Against Parochialism

Scottish nationalism is born out of a frustration. The problems of the Scottish workers flow not from being part of the UK, as the nationalists argue, but because of the crisis of capitalism which weighs just as heavily on the workers and their families south of the border. The oppression and exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only be removed by the socialist transformation of society. This, in turn, requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nation, colour, creed, sex or language. That is why workers' unity must be foremost in the minds of our fellow-workers. Nowhere is the result of this more glaring than in the trade union field that there should be no encouragement of the splitting of the trade unions, the basic organisations of the working class.  Fellow-workers are on a slippery slope if we abandon the principle of unity. Our blog has highlighted the division among the Scottish coalminers in the past.

Capitalism pits the interests of the employers and workers against each other, sooner or later all nationalist parties are forced to take sides and we know what the choice always has been from history. They declare that the “national interest” is supreme which is the interest of business. Socialism is about solidarity, coming together and uniting through class struggle. Nationalism should be anathema for a socialist for it creates arbitrary divisions based on nothing more than where a person happened to be born. Claiming that the true road to world socialism lies in erecting more borders is absurd. Socialism should be about uniting people through common interests, not pulling people apart through arbitrary ideas of nationhood. Breaking things up into smaller and smaller units is surely not the method of a socialist.

 Socialism is the self-liberation of working class people, by their own efforts, creating and using their own organisations. Social struggle occurs in a given place on the surface of the planet. As we live in Scotland we will begin here.  Our attitude to constitutional reform is that no fundamental problem facing working people can be solved, or even seriously alleviated, by tinkering with the state structure. We cannot tag along with or follow these nationalist movements or parties - we must resolutely propagate socialism. We must constantly hammer home that SNP and their ilk are nothing but tools of the ruling class. The nationalists will not just go away if we ignore them.

All too often, British union leaders have resorted to nationalist flag-waving to defend "British" enterprise against "foreign" competition - conflating the interest of the bosses with those of workers.  By choosing to operate on the basis that British workers have distinct interests from workers elsewhere, union officials (whether consciously or not) play right into the hands of the capitalist profiteers. Of course, nationalism was deep-seated in all Communist Parties

In the world in which we live each and, every society is pinioned within the iron grip of global capitalism. Against the vast multinational power of capital only one force can be counter-posed and that is the worldwide unity of the working class. Socialism, therefore is international or it is nothing. Socialism sets out to abolish the antagonisms and divisions between the peoples of the world. Socialism means large units, closer and closer fraternal relationships between all countries and peoples. Ultimately it means, in the shape of fully flowered socialism itself, a united Federated Communes of the World, ours will be free unions of free people. There will be not a trace of national chauvinism about them.  Working-class people are casting off old ideas and looking around for new ones.