A Message for Scottish Workers

 Let every socialist face the fact that ‘patriotism’ is not socialism, and that the achievement of independence nationality, even up to the highest professed ideals of patriotism, namely the complete political separation of Scotland from Britain, would not ‘free Scotland’ one iota in any sense satisfactory to the international socialist and absolutely demanded by socialist principles. This age-long struggle of  ‘patriots’ to ‘free Scotland’ is, therefore, from the Socialist Party's point of view, an utter chimera which, if it could be achieved, would be to the wretched wage-slaves of Scotland. The international socialist who happens to be a Scot can, and does feel profound sympathy for all the struggles of his or her countrymen and even their pathetic efforts to achieve the utter futility—from the strictly socialist point of view—of sovereignty, which can excite pity for their useless sufferings, even though he or she cannot take part in their misdirected exertions. 

In common with the rest of capitalism's half-baked left-wing. Nationalists  are utterly blind to the real problem. They see all evils only in the shape of private capitalism — the source of working class poverty is not to be found in the fact that we, as wage workers, are exploited by capital, but in the identity of capital's owners. Nationalists are concerned with the shadow of exploitation not its substance. Despite the wealth of evidence to the contrary, collected over the past century and more in every country in the world, they maintain that capital in the hands of the state performs the miraculous feat of transforming itself from the exploiter of wage labour into its servant.

Would the working class be worse or better off with independence? Would there be anything to choose between the two “solutions”? Surely, in both a sovereign Scotland  or a United Kingdom, the workers’ standard of living would be much the same. So would the slums, the unemployment and the other problems of capitalist society. And world socialism would remain the only solution to these problems. The only difference would be the colour of the flag that would fly over the government buildings in Edinburgh: Union Jack or Scottish Saltire?

The problems of the working class in Ireland were, and remain, the problems of the working class of the world and originate in the class stratification of capitalist society. Given capitalism, these problems were inevitable; they could not then, no more than they can now, be “planned” out of the system. They did not arise out of the “evil” intentions, nor the blundering or stupidity of governments, “home” or “foreign”, no more than they could be planned, prayed or fought away by brave, sincere or wise men. They were the facts of capitalism and would continue to exist for as long as the working class, the only class with an economic interest in bringing about a real change, accepted that system.

Our sincere urging to our fellow Scottish wage-slaves is, to let them use their remaining strength to shake off the leeches of capitalism, that are sucking their lifeblood, instead of hastening their destruction in a mad effort to set up Tweedledum in place of Tweedledee.