Marx and Engels supported only certain nationalist struggles
on the basis that it would help further development of the capitalist mode of
production and opposed others which would retard that development. However,
capitalism has now spread to every corner of the globe and every country is
ruled by the laws of capitalism whether they wish it or not. For left
nationalists, though, independence and “socialism” go together and that this
struggle must be waged simultaneously because, according to their logic,
independence is essential to socialism (in fact, some rank it above socialism).
The Left nationalist puts the question of socialism on ice, shelving the struggle
for socialism and replacing it with demands for reforms. Many of the Trotskyist
groups, for example, have become Scottish separatists. The Trotskyists say they
want to “radicalise” the movement for independence yet can we forget that one
of the promoters of RISE sat alongside business leaders on the Yes campaign
during the referendum debate.
One telling characteristic of the Left is that, although
they are forever dividing, they always end up uniting to divide the working
class movement. They become in favour of Scottish independence because this
point of view is currently popular among Scots. As far as they are concerned
the working class is too retarded in political consciousness to take up the
socialist struggle. It needs a transitional programme of wishful promises. RISE’s
basic belief is that the Scottish worker is more radical than his or her English
counter-part. But being anti-Tory doesn’t necessarily correspond to being more
socialist. Yet many of workers’
struggles in Scotland and England have been linked together and the victory of
each often depends on the other. The Scottish,
Welsh and English working class have not developed separately but, because of
capitalism, have developed as part of one united working class. Independence
may rupture the united British working class movement at trade union level.
Scottish independence would disrupt the unity of the working class fueling the
myths of national brotherhood between exploiters and exploited. In reality, a socialist transformation of
Scotland could only take place in a British (European and World) context. Mass
movements would take place also in Wolverhampton and Walsall, as well as in
Glasgow and Greenock. A socialist transformation would be on a world scale.
There is no Scottish road to socialism. For there can be no socialist Scotland,
socialism is global or it is not socialism. The Scottish working class is
exploited in the same way as the English working class: by the English,
Scottish and international capitalist class. The bosses organises
internationally and those sympathetic towards RISE want to ensure our class
doesn’t do the same.
The task before workers in Scotland and the UK is to join in
struggle against their common enemy, whether they wave the Union flag or the
Saltire. The overriding goal is not to build new, smaller states but to end the
nation state system through social revolution. The Socialist Party stands for
the overthrow of capitalism and a precondition for this is the unity of the
working class in this common struggle for socialism. RISE offer the same stale
promises of the old Labour Party all dressed up in new clothes. Although they
speak of “socialism” against “capitalism,” they do not propose the overthrow of
capitalism, the working-class conquest of power, the expropriation of the
capitalists; their basis is still the same basis of capitalism, of capitalist
democracy, of the capitalist State, and therefore the outcome can only be the
same. Their only proposals are for the constitutionally re-organisation of
capitalism by re-locating the Parliament and government. This is precisely its
value to capitalism, to act as a diversion for workers in the name of phrases
of “socialism.”
Socialists must tell the workers the truth. And the truth is
that nationalism, regardless of how it is camoflaged with Marxist terminology,
represents no way forward for the working people. The establishment of a
separate Scottish state is the creation of a capitalist state. Scotland
envisage by RISE (and particularly if in coalition with the Green Party) would
be thousands of small businesses thriving. There's no virtue in being a small
business. They make their money the same way as large ones, by paying workers
less than the value that they produce. Often the working conditions of small
businesses are no improvement on bigger enterprises: wages tend to be lower,
insecurity of employment higher, less health and safety oversight making the
work riskier, the pollution worse. Left nationalists such as RISE are simply
spouting populist rhetoric. Being against big business but in favour of small
business shows little understanding of capitalism or of class.
Somehow in this "socialist" Scotland profit would
no longer be the raison d'être
of businesses (even if they were cooperatives).
The logic of capitalist production is the preservation of the capital invested
and the creation of surplus-value – the origin of profits. This is a logic
which is fundamental and cannot be suspended. Instead of being siphoned off to
shareholders (who would of course receive fair compensation for their loss),
the surpluses produced by workers would be used to increase wages, reduce
hours, improve working conditions. Socially owned companies such as workers
co-operatives or council-owned. Banks
would become more like building societies again or nationalised. The creation of community banks or credit
unions is not really doing anything that is in anyway revolutionary. It's
definitely not challenging capitalism and property ownership. It is not
questioning the parasitic relationship of capitalist production which is all
about money -- money expanding into more money, the accumulation of
capital. Yes, their vision of a
"socialist Scotland" is a nice and not a nasty capitalism. Left-wing
nationalists imagine that businesses in
their " socialist" Scotland will no longer be concerned with costs or
competition or commercial confidentiality or market share. But capitalism is
now more than ever a global system of production. Competition is a fact of life
for the capitalist mode of production. It has destructive effects upon the
lives of working people. However, competition is also frequently destructive to
capital. It is so destructive that large capitalists try to eliminate
competition by buying up competitors, ruining them in various ways or forming cartels
and monopolies. For one country to be competitive means having a higher
productivity, lower labour-costs and lower infrastructure and taxation costs
than another country. Capital looks for
places where production can be set up with low wages, low taxation, low levels
of regulation and few restrictions on pollution. To be such a competitive
location for capital investment – on any serious scale – would require that
advanced capitalist countries such as Scotland will have to lower wages,
taxation, regulation, welfare provision and pollution regulations to a standard
level or below the current average available in Asia, Eastern Europe elsewhere.
Or increase productivity to such a high level that massive levels of relative
over-production would occur and increase pollution and resource destruction.
Competition on the world level requires mass-production and mass-production
conducted with fewer and fewer workers. And if each country adopts this path –
a competitive race to the bottom of welfare standards will ensue. So increased
competition will lower wages, lower environmental standards, lead to more
exhaustion of raw material resources and more crises down the competitive road
of economic growth.
Of course, the solution RISE will present to save their
"socialist" Scotland will be by increased taxation. Taxation, is
revenue extracted from wages, salaries, profits and sales of commodities. Under
capitalism wages and salaries come from the payment for two main types of
labour – productive-labour and unproductive-labour. Productive-labour is that
which is employed by capital and preserves value as well as creating
surplus-value. This value and surplus-value is the source of money-capital from
which, wages, profits, rents, interest and those taxes collected from these
sources, is paid. In other words surplus-value is the source of direct tax
revenue for governments. Even the taxes paid on consumption also comes out of
the wages and salaries of workers which have their origins in surplus-value.
The oppression and
exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only
be removed by the genuine socialist transformation of society, not pretend
state- or municipal- “socialist” imaginations of a make-believe Scotland. This
requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nation, colour, creed, sex
or language. It is our role as socialists to put across the case for socialism
openly and honestly and not try to dupe our fellow workers into joining through
the advocacy of so-called "transitional demands" and the like. The
only way capitalism will come to an end is if a majority of workers decide to
consciously replace it with non-market, non-statist alternative. Members of the
Socialist Party understand well the urge to do something now, to make a change.
That makes us all the more determined, however, to get the message across, to
gather together our fellow workers to clear away the barrier of the wages
system, so that we can begin to build a truly human society.