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Capitalism
has nothing to offer but barbarism. All too often, the employing
class have resorted to nationalist flag-waving to defend “native”
business enterprise against "foreign" competition -
conflating the interest of the bosses with those of workers. The
Socialist Party rejects all nationalism this is not the case with the
many on the Left who support nationalist struggles. Every
barbaric anti-working class nationalist movement with its attendant
policies of genocide has found supporters within the left-wing.
Apologies are made for death, rape, torture and human misery on the
specious grounds of “your
enemy is my friend”.
The
working class has a difficult, but urgent task: to gather all its
resources to try to stop the attacks being waged against it. What is
on offer is not ‘independence’, but the division of the working
class into hostile camps, alongside the continued unity of the
exploiters. Business as usual for British Bosses, in fact, nationalists should not imagine that they are ridding
themselves of the exploiting class. Just as in the case of
Westminster rule, the real decisions will continue to be made by the
British billionaire class behind the scenes in their board-rooms. The
SNP will simply be what all other British politicians are and have
been for centuries – the public face of a very old, very
experienced and very cunning ruling class. The reality, far from
being the socialist paradise that is painted by the
Left-nationalists, in Scotland it will simply be a race to the
bottom, as the government compete to attract investment by lowering
wages, lowering corporation tax, restricting workers’ rights, to
prove their subservience to capitalist class. This is a law of
economics under capitalism, and especially in times of crisis, when
unemployment is climbing ever higher and workers are becoming
desperate for whatever they can get. Better conditions for workers,
higher taxes for improved social services will be seen as less
‘attractive’ to ‘investors’ (capitalists), since anything
that benefits workers cannot help but impact levels of profitability.
So the capitalist will invest in the more ‘flexible’ side of the
border, and the cry will go up on the other side … “we, too, need
to be more flexible”. Down will come the wages, the corporation
taxes and other ‘barriers’ to profit-taking. Back will come the
exploiters to reap the rewards … until the workers on the other
side of the border can be forced to accept even worse pay and
conditions in the interests of ‘job creation’ and
‘competitiveness’. The Scottish nationalists such as Salmond
and Sturgeon are showing they are more than willing to play their
part. Such a future has appeal to the ruling class, but it is hardly
the manifesto of a left-wing liberation struggle!
The
separation of Scotland from Britain will fix the problems of our
fellow-workers. The SNP present themselves as the progressive party
but in truth all they promise slightly-less-inefficient hospitals and
slightly-less-inefficient schools. We deserve a lot better and
there is little evidence that this is anything more than wishful
thinking on the part of those who assert it. The Scottish capitalist
parties will do what the capitalist ruling class requires them to do,
no matter how people vote or how many of them take to the street to
express their opposition. What we are witnessing in Scotland has its
echoes all over Britain. The outward appearance may seem to be more
progressive, since many left-wing workers support the call for
independence, but it is essentially a mirror of the rise of those on
the left who supported Brexit and call for increased immigration
controls to gain support among impoverished and misguided English
workers. As the recession bit ever deeper, workers have been
suffering the same demoralisation and the same frustrations and have
been asking themselves what the solution is. As independence has
been used to dupe workers, elsewhere immigration has been blamed for
the mounting misery. In Scotland nationalism has been offered up as
the ‘answer’ to the problems of capitalism. But its effect is the
same – it gives workers a scapegoat for the ills of capitalist
society. “Don’t blame capitalism, blame the immigrants!” say
the the British nationalists to discontented and disillusioned
workers in England. “Don’t blame capitalism, blame the English!”
say the SNP.
Capitalism
has shrunk the planet. The internet and other social media have
brought the whole world into contact with one another. Communication
and transport networks have made global production and distribution
easier. Socialists do not envisage cultural uniformity but there is
more that unites human beings than divides them. There is a universal
need for shelter, food, housing, creativity and so on. Human beings
are both social and co-operative and can work together to produce and
distribute goods to meet human need. We cannot trust the
capitalist system to be run in the interest of workers. Everything we
win in the course of class struggle can be taken away again if we let
down our guard. The only way to keep hold of the gains we make is to
get rid of the capitalist system and establish socialism. A lack of
local power is not an argument for nationalism; it is an argument for
socialism. In the Socialist Party,, our job is to promote
understanding in order to help workers discard popular yet harmful
prejudices. If we don’t do that, then there’s really not much
point to our existence, since it is only through discarding the
prejudices that keep us shackled to ruling class ideas that we will
be able to build a movement capable of overthrowing capitalism and
building socialism. When we in the Socialist Party argue against
Scottish nationalism, we do so not because we wish to endorse the
rule of Westminster, but because we wish workers to understand that
it is not ‘the English’ who are their enemies, but the British
ruling class. And because we wish to create a movement that is as
strong and unified as possible that will have a fighting chance of
displacing our exploiters. Say no to nationalism, which ties workers
to capitalists and turns us into tools of our own oppression. Say yes
to working-class unity, yes to revolution, and yes to a socialist
future.
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