In
recent years, the spirit of national identity has been reborn in
Scotland and elsewhere. Backed by the indignities of the past, fired
by an interest in national resources such as oil reserves, it has
succeeded in forming an organised opinion which has forced the
government of Westminster to once more take notice of the
nationalists. But we should always remember, it is not Scotland's
oil, it is the capitalists' oil.
The
early history of Scotland shows it to be a land peopled by tribes for
the most part engaged in inter-tribal disputes. Its ’community of
interest' was of clan chieftain self-interest, there being no
centralisation of authority which could exist under the prevailing
social and economic conditions. The Union of the Crowns then the Act
of Union changed the situation and Scotland's clan culture was
dismantled.
The
advent of the Industrial Revolution saw Scotland as a people
exploited by the coal and iron masters, both English and Scot, a
situation shared by their brethren throughout the length and breadth
of Britain. The
Socialist Party has always argued that nationalism has no progressive
role left. Marxists realise that Nationalism is the ideology of the
capitalist class. The identification of people with the Nation State
and the National Interest enables the bosses to present society as a
struggle between nations in the interests of the people thus
obscuring the real conflict in society between the working and
capitalist classes. Nationalism threatens to poison relations between
English, Scottish and Welsh workers.
The
world is full of leaders claiming to unite their countries while
deepening their divisions. Defending the homeland against foreigners
is a political strategy that has been played out countless times.
Populist nationalist leaders are promising more than they can deliver
and looking for scapegoats at home and abroad to blame when things go
wrong. Nationalism has always needed real or invented threats.
Borders divide the working class more than they divide capital.
Global capital flows across borders easily. It uses borders to its
advantage, by imposing a race to the bottom. National governments
compete for capitalist investment, by offering compliant workers.
Scottish
nationalism does not strengthen the movement for socialism, a united,
class-conscious working class, but fragments and weakens it. A
sovereign Scottish parliament would represent no more than a
decorative layer of tartan paint on the capitalist state machine.
It certainly would not impede the workings of the major capitalist
institutions. The perspective of the nationalists is one of the
reformist prospect that they can run capitalism better from
Edinburgh than from the City of London and Westminster, an illusory
one. the SNP rails against London mismanagement and like every
opportunist political party promises wealth beyond our wildest
dreams. But for whom, exactly, it must be asked. It is the pursuit
of a class collaborationist Utopia of palliatives and amelioration,
not
based on class struggle but passive acquiescence.
The left-nationalist's socialist verbiage is buried beneath this
nationalist reformism. We do not spread the illusion among Scottish
fellow-workers that separatism would be any gain for them. They think
that they need to do is change the tune and all will follow. The Left
in Scotland is weak and it will not get any stronger by hanging on to
the coat-tails of nationalism and pretending they are leading the
struggle against global corporations, which are itching to establish
themselves, as soon as an independent Scotland re-enters the EU.
Capitalists around the world will turn an independent Scotland into a
client state and the only opposition to that is to become a vassal
state of Brussels and Strasbourg.
We
insist that Scottish sovereignty will leave the workers in exactly
the same position as before. The Socialist Party does not
support nor encourage the separatist trend in Scotland. We don’t
believe that it will improve your condition one iota. Only class
struggle and ultimately socialism can do that. However, the Socialist
Party does not, of course, defend the present centralised British
state. We do not defend the unity of the UK in any way. To do
so is simply to line up with the British nationalists. We
know that most of our fellow-workers will vote for reformism but we
have to say to them, “See what good it does you!”
The
goal of the Socialist Party is one of a world in which the working
class organises and controls its own destiny. Socialism cannot
be imposed from outside – it can only be made by, and for, the
working class where it lives and works. It is the question of who
owns and controls the means of production which matters, not whether
our exploiters have an English, Welsh or Scottish accent. The lesson
to be learned is that to resist we require unity with our class
brothers and sisters throughout this island. We have to make the
ruling class’s divide and rule inoperable by our unite and
liberate. The task before us is a vast one. Working class unity
makes it impossible for the capitalists to go on in the old way of
divide and rule. Working class unity enables us to combine our
tactics for defending our class with the strategy of liberating our
class. Working class unity is where revolution is on the
agenda. Working class unity is revolutionary.
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