So Scotland in its quest for national unity now has another independence party to add to the SNP, the Scottish Socialist Party and Sheridan's vanity party, Solidarity. It now has acquitted and exonerated Alex Salmond's Alba Party, with two defected MPs, Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey.
Such political goings-on in no way changes the attitude of the Socialist Party members in our Scottish branches who still treat the separatist campaign for a sovereign Scotland as an anathema. We still view our goal as to end economic exploitation, to join together to establish a world without frontiers in which the resources of the planet will have become the heritage of all, so that there can be production to meet needs and not for profit. One world, one people, where cultural differences will still be celebrated, but where we’ll all be citizens of the world. World socialists reject allegiance to any State.
An independent Scotland, no matter who governs, would still have to operate within the constraints of the world capitalist system. It would still have to ensure that goods produced in Scotland were competitive on world markets and that capitalists investing in Scotland were allowed to make the same level of profits as they could in other countries. In other words, it would still be subject to the same capitalisic laws as the existing London-based government to promote profits and restrict wages and benefits. There is no truly independent country in the world, because international capitalism has made sure of this.
It was disappointing that our fellow-workers should still be wasting time over a question like nationalism and secession. It has of no consequence to the working class. While capitalism continues the workers will not be any better off even if national sovereignty is achieved. Independence will simply mean a transfer of power to a new group of politicians, while the structure of state and society is but little changed.
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