All change for no change

NEITHER GODS NOR MASTERS

The capitalist class – national and international – being in possession of the wealth stolen from the workers, compete with each other for the control of the world's markets. This capitalist class are continually embroiled over the disposal of the spoils on the markets, but they present a solid front to the workers whenever the latter get out of hand in the endeavour to better their conditions of life.  It is a false notion of the Scottish nationalists that the Scot workers must struggle for national independence before they can tackle the problem of poverty. But the working class everywhere is under one capitalist government or another. The form of government makes no difference to the workers. Government implies subjects and under the capitalist system of society the actual government machinery, Parliament, councils and judiciary, etc., are representative of the capitalist class – the necessary machinery for ruling a subject class composed of wage-slaves. There is no essential difference between the capitalists of England and Scotland. Both are characterised by the same greed for money, the same ambition for power, the same hypocrisy and corruption.  It is of no concern to workers in Scotland whether they are governed from London or by a separate independent government in Edinburgh. This is because the cause of the problems they face is the capitalist economic system of production for profit, not the form of government. And the capitalist economic system would continue to exist in a politically independent Scotland. The only people to benefit from Scottish independence would be the local politicians, who would be able to award themselves grander titles and greater salaries.

We oppose nationalism. We, as Socialists, have no sympathy whatever with the demand for independence. We would no more assist the SNP than assist the British Government against them. A plague on both their houses! Our only interest is to try to get fellow-workers in both camps to mind their own business and leave this quarrel about the right to exploit to the people who gain from exploitation. Left-nationalists think and act, differently. Some of them are still very much the victims of the mental disorder patriotism, and their understanding of socialism is nil; others are playing a double game which they call "tactics." They argue that as the people among whom it is desired to propagate socialism are still entirely wrapped up in all kinds of antiquated illusions, then the way to clear their minds is to tack their superstitions on to the socialist case. It is hard to imagine anything less calculated to further socialism, their propaganda becomes a farce and they degenerate usually into the more or less open tools of local business interests. They talk about smashing up British imperialism as a step towards the final struggle with the capitalist class. They forget some things. First, there is no movement or combination of movements which has at the moment the power to scratch the power of Britain's hegemony, much less dismember it. Secondly, the effect of their attitude is simply to strengthen the patriotism of the British worker and make him still more ignorant of, and hostile to, socialism.

To split territories, set up new governments, or to re-establish old ones will not help Scottish workers nor even simplify the problem. Their only hope lies in the speedy establishment of socialism. They must join hands with the workers of the world, and make common cause against the ruling class. Not until the working class in Scotland clearly grip the essential fact that they are slaves to the master class no matter what nationality these latter may be; fully realise that such slavery is confined within no national boundary but is worldwide; throw off the mental shackles of "nationalism" and join their fellow-workers the world over to abolish capitalism - not until then will they be free to enjoy Nature's resources. We don’t want or care about Scottish independence any more than we care or support an “independent” Britain after Brexit,

For many people, nationalism has a bad reputation. Yet, few take issue with identifying with their home nation – they call it patriotism. Marxism explains how workers are exploited and unfree, not as individuals or particular nationalities, but as members of a class. From this perspective, identifying with a class provides a rational basis for working class political action. The objective would be a state-free world community. Given that nationalism does nothing to further this understanding, however, it is an obstruction to world socialism. The simple truth is that capitalism will be just the same as far as the working class is concerned in a “free” Scotland. What is required is another system of society, not new administrators for the old one. Independence will be merely a change of masters. Would the working class be worse or better off under London or Edinburgh? Would there be anything to choose between the two "solutions"? Surely, in both a British Union or a sovereign separate Scotland, the workers' standard of living would be much the same. So would the slums, the unemployment and the other problems of capitalist society. The only difference would be the colour of the flag that would fly over the government buildings: Union Jack or the Saltire? Independence will solve none of the problems resulting from capitalist exploitation. All governments are wedded to the same set of priorities and subject to the same constraints. What then has national independence done for the mass of the population, whether we take the European nationalist movements of the 19^th century, such as the Italian struggle against Austria or the Balkan countries’ struggles against Turkey, or the new States set up in former colonies of the European empires? We can say that independence is good for local politicians, lawyers, army officers, manufacturers and business men; it opens up careers and money-making opportunities for them, as also for those in local government posts. The disappointing results of nationalism from the worker's point of view is that when countries achieved independence, absolutely nothing changed except the personnel of the State machine. The sooner the left-nationalists give up pandering to working-class political ignorance and devote themselves to socialism, the sooner will the nationality problem be solved.