Power to the People

 “Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.” - Arundhati Roy

Many, many times, the Socialist Party has been asked to join in support of Scottish independence. Our reply in refusing to do so has always been that not only would such support result in our being side-tracked from our work of socialist propaganda but that the aims and results of the Scottish nationalist movement at best were concerned with pushing forward the local and nascent ruling interests and at worst could be and usually were actively anti-working class. We have not been afraid to point out, too, that the independence movement which speak so much of “freedom," “independence,” “liberty,” etc., were they to come to power and were they to find unwelcome opposition or criticism, would not hesitate to act in the same despotic and dictatorial manner against which they were the erstwhile protesters.

What is socialism without a country? People should have their national home before they become socialists we are told. The Socialist Party stand for a united world society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the resources of the Earth by all the people who live in it. The Socialist Party aim to create a united world free from all national divisions. As socialists we’d like to end nations, not to create new ones.

The future of society rests with the world working class. If they want to, they can make a world of peace and happiness, in which men and women can live in freedom. This is more than a dream; it could so easily become reality. The Socialist Party does not stand aside from the struggles of nationalism. These struggles are a potent force for the delusion of workers, for the promotion of divisive, anti-working class theories, for the diversion from the essential object of the establishment of socialism. So we cannot stand aside from them; we must expose their basic fallacy, we must be undyingly hostile to them and we must strive to replace their theories with the idea of the united, co-operative world of socialism.

What then has independence done for people? Without going into details we can say that national independence is good for local politicians and business men. It opens up careers and money-making opportunities for them.  National differences are fostered by the capitalists for their own ends, based ultimately on the pursuit of profit and power by the minority capitalist class. The only way out of this impasse is that workers to join together for the socialist objective of overthrowing capitalism and establishing socialism. When will workers learn that the only liberation that counts is from the wage slavery of capitalism?

We stand for a society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means of wealth production and distribution. In this society wealth will be produced for use instead of for profit; it will be freely available to everyone instead of for sale to those who can afford it. It will be a society in which all human beings will be together with the single aim of making life as abundant, free and pleasurable as possible. There will be one people, working together for one object.

In socialism, the national divisions of capitalism will fade into history. From the experience and the learning will come the free world—peaceful, abundant and united.

 

 “You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let us use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.” - Charlie Chaplin