The Socialist Party Against Nationalism

So once again the Scottish separatists are parading with their Saltire and Lion Rampant flags, with those claymore communist left-wingers cheer-leading them on.

Members of the Socialist Party do not think that a sovereign independent Scotland is worth demonstrating for. We said it before, we say it again, and we will keep on saying it every time our fellow workers are exhorted to go down the nationalist dead-end.

We expect jingoist Tories to be flag-waving fools, rejoicing in the lunacy of nationalistic fervour, with parades of patriotic enthusiasm used as a means of whipping up workers' support for the pernicious belief that we, who do not own the nation's wealth, have an identity of interest with those who do. What particularly angers members of the Socialist Party is when self-styled Marxists endeavour to deodorise the stink of national chauvinism with the socialist vision. The Socialist Party continually accuses the Left who pay lip-service to the slogan “workers of the world unite” yet support the nationalism of the SNP.  The problems of workers in Scotland are the problems of wage-slaves everywhere and they will not be solved separately within a sovereign state from the rest of the working class.  For the worker in Scotland, there is but one hope. It is to join the world socialist movement and make common cause with the workers of all countries for the end of all forms of exploitation: saying to both English and Scottish capitalists: “A plague on both your houses." For the true battle-cry of the working class is broader, more significant and more inspiring than mere nationalism, and that rallying cry is: “One World, One People”

“Independence" is a word used to stir up emotions. An "independent" Scotland will be no more independent than it is today. It will still have to conform to global economic pressures which govern how much food will be on the table of the average person.  And is this that most sane people are more worried about the necessities of life: putting food on the table, a roof over their head, and other far more important things than the constitutional status of the state they happen to live in. The capitalist system doesn’t play favourites based on national, ethnic, or cultural sovereignty. Investment and trade are based on making the best profits, not upon whatever nationality of politicians forms the government. The most important decisions are now made, not by politicians, but in the boardrooms in the City of London, Wall St or Shanghai. Even so, many locally-based businesses are indirectly tied into this economy as sub-contractors and the ever-deepening nexus of international linkages means they cannot escape economic crises emanating from elsewhere which impact upon the local economy. The limited leeway of governments to ameliorate such localised effects has been correspondingly reduced. Of course, the Scottish businessmen such as Brian Souter, who helps to fund the SNP, do so not because they want to end the Glasgow Effect and the dismal life expectancy but because he believes that Scotland’s rich can benefit. Freedom is not intended for the people of Scotland, but for Big Business to maximise returns.

It is time to reject the notion that there are Scottish problems which apply exclusively to Scottish workers and which can be solved by a "Parliament of our own.”  Instead of turning their eyes to Scandinavia as inspiration, the aspiration should be to set their sights on the poverty of our fellow-workers in Brixton, Birmingham, Bristol and Bradford and call for unity and solidarity, not separatism.

So today,, when thousands of workers are on the streets of Glasgow to demand Scottish independence the Socialist Party members in Scotland, say we are proud to be anti-patriotic. Our fellow-workers on this demonstration today for Scottish independence are wasting their time when they struggle to make some aspect of capitalism better, to make capitalism more acceptable. Capitalism is not a system that can be humanised or reformed into something better. It is a profit system subject to economic laws which can only work in one way: as a system of profit-making and accumulation of capital in the interest of a tiny minority of profit-takers. You can have the most democratic constitution imaginable but this won’t make any difference to the fact that profits have to come before meeting people's needs under capitalism. If our rulers want to reform the machinery of capitalist government, that’s up to them. But spare us the pretence that nationalism is some great extension of democracy. It is not imperfections in the political decision-making process that’s the problem but the exchange economy and its profit system. And the answer is not sovereignty but socialism. Independence would be a purely political and a mere constitutional change which would leave the basic economic structure of society unchanged. 

Socialism, a “society organised as a conscious and planned association”, "a community of free individuals, carrying on their work with the means of production in common," as Marx described it. Socialism will be a world-wide co-operative commonwealth, not parochial provincialism.