Their Sovereign Scotland or Our One World?

 

A powerful and potent force for dividing the working class is that of nationality. All over the world workers are taught that the artificial boundary which separates “their” country also confines special qualities like courage, verity and intelligence which are denied to those across the frontier. 

The problem is that wealth is owned and controlled by a tiny minority of society in an undemocratic and unaccountable fashion. This obscene concentration of wealth in a few hands lies at the heart of all major social problems which confront us today. Far from being irrelevant, as some argue, the property question is the most important social question of the modern age. It cries out for an answer.

The Scottish nationalists say everything would be better with independence: the NHS, the environment, the economy, business efficiency, productivity, road safety, more tourists, etc. On top of all this there would be savings of many millions, even billions, of pounds, giving us all more spending power as well as big savings for businesses. The source of these riches is the surplus value wrung from the working class but the SNP seem not to have noticed this. The SNP's aim is really just the same as all the other reformist parties - they try to solve capitalism's problems by merely re-organising.  We support no nationalist movement. Socialism and patriotism are irreconcilably antagonistic. Nationalism is anti-working class.

True, it is not easy to oppose mass patriotic movements but that difficulty is not removed by closing one’s eyes to it, nor is it lessened by postponing it until after independence has been achieved. If those who wish to organise and educate Scottish workers lend themselves to nationalist propaganda now, they will find it immeasurably more difficult to return to working-class principles after they have won for their masters the reality and for themselves the illusion of Scotland’s independence. Our advice to fellow workers is to build up organisations to fight their own capitalist class—they will need them soon enough. Our advice to Scottish  workers is to acquaint themselves with their own class interests.

Scotland is only a small bit of land and a tiny part of an economic system which embraces the whole world. It could never enjoy any real autonomy or self-sufficiency in the face of the world market. From day one of independence it will be buffeted by hostile economic forces entirely beyond its control. We'd still be living in a money-driven, buying and selling economy, still working for wages, still insecure, being hired and fired, still chained by capitalism. What the Socialist Party campaigns for is a worldwide, money-free, production for use society in which  goods and services would be accessible and available to all.

The World Socialist Movement sprung from a handful of workers who understood the capitalist system and the need for its replacement by socialism. An essential clement in this understanding was that of capitalism’s class structure, of the interests which defined that structure and of the role of capitalism in forming those interests. As that understanding spreads, so will the socialist movement grow and branch out.

This movement must be based on a unity which is conscious. It does not rest on blind faith in some super-intelligent vanguard or a manipulative elite who aim to lead the rest to some other, so far undefined, social system. Working-class understanding and acceptance of socialist ideas will be international, just as their present support for capitalism infects the entire world.

For socialism, then, human unity is vital—a unity for the majority in society to establish a system based on majority interests. Socialists have had enough of division, of human beings opposing each other without reason, when the world is desperate for them to unite to change the basis of society.

So we struggle to persuade the working class that all of them—in the words of our Declaration of Principles “without distinction of race or sex”—have the same interests to work together to rid the world of capitalism with its artificial and destructive divisions and replace it with socialism. That will be a society of common ownership and democratic control of the means of life, abundant production and free access to wealth.

For the first time in its unhappy history, humanity will in a socialist society satisfy its needs. Socialism will be abundance, freedom and unity.

Arise Ye Workers From Your Slumber

 We wage slaves are still bent double bearing our weighty burden, and it is becoming increasingly plain that our exploiters have no intention of lightening the load we are called upon to carry. We make our stand for socialism. Our cause is the cause of all those who live by selling their labour power, and no matter how chaotic the conditions or how eloquent the appeal of those who would divert us from our goal, we call upon the working class to make the means of life common property and establish a system of production solely for use. We are wholeheartedly in the fight for freedom—freedom from capitalist bondage. This is the only way in which a world worth living in can be brought into being: Socialism and socialism alone guarantee permanent peace. Socialism gives economic security and prosperity to all; Capitalism offers poverty, insecurity and war.

We are opposed to dictatorship in any form, but the enemy of the labouring class is the capitalists, and we should be unfaithful to our class and our class interests if we have cause to forget this historic fact.

When capitalism's economy is booming then some sections of the working class can make considerable gains. This, reformists assure us, is proof that their strategy of “getting something now” is more rewarding than our insistence on the need for socialism. But what happens when the economic climate changes? Then many of the gains inevitably come under attack and will be completely lost. “Getting something now" is difficult enough in capitalism but hanging on to it is the really tricky bit.

The productive resources of the world have long since reached the point which would allow mankind to go over, in a very short time, to free distribution of the things needed to life and to enjoy life. The technical problem of producing enough wealth for all to enjoy has been solved long ago. However, there could be temporary problems in supplying certain things — but at least, if there are to be problems, this is what they should be. How to provide more and not how to cut down consumption as is the case today. The Socialist Party is suggesting a world community where wealth is produced by voluntary labour and is available to all free of charge. 

What we mean by free access is that no section of society will monopolise access to the means for producing wealth. These will belong to no-one and so will be the property of the whole of mankind to use as they think fit.Mankind will control the use of the means of production through democratic institutions. The capitalist system may have nominally democratic institutions, but it relies upon working class compliance, passivity and lack of involvement in the process to carry out its worst and most illiberal functioning. Real democracy can only be achieved on the basis of the common ownership of society’s means of living. Nationalism allows the politicians to limit democratic choice on the grounds that there is only one national interest and therefore only one general programme, one set of policies to be followed. However, one of the basic points about liberal democracy is that, as we put it in our declaration of principles, “all parties are but the expression of class interests”. This has long been a guiding principle in British politics, with the different interests of different sections of the ruling class being represented by the different parties. 

To remove poverty the workers must by class conscious activity take from the master class their means of life. They must commonly own these means which to-day are the private property of the capitalist few. To enjoy the leisurely life, the modern powers of wealth-production make possible, social revolution is necessary. In order to change the basis of society from a production for profit to a production for use one, the workers themselves must first have the revolutionary outlook. No amount of capitalist evolution can bring the change to socialism that is necessary to free the workers. Capitalism has the seeds of its own destruction, but the workers must be the seeds.

Democracy is not a set of rules or a parliament; it is a process, a process that must be fought for. The struggle for democracy is the struggle for socialism. It is not a struggle for reforms, for this or that political system, for this or that leader, for some rule change or other—it is the struggle for an idea, for a belief, a belief that we can run our own lives, that we have a right to a say in how society is run, for a belief that the responsibility for democracy lies not upon the politicians or their bureaucrats, but upon ourselves.

 

The workers being content with the scraps and the offal, the gloomy hovels, and excluded from life’s real pleasures, have allowed their masters to take full advantage of their contentment. Blame or sympathy in either case is waste of time: nothing but the recognition that the removal of all social evils is their mission, and theirs alone, can rid society of such glaring contrasts in wealth and squalor. Experience is a hard and often a slow teacher, but there are signs that it has slowly but surely been doing its work.

Awaken, workers, to the possibilities of socialism, so that you may join with us for the social revolution.

What we say to IndyRef2

 

The SNP is promising a referendum in 2023. What an irrelevant waste of time and energy that would be, but it’s their alibi. As the regional government of Scotland their excuse for not delivering (as capitalism won’t let them) has been that their hands are tied and that their promises can only be able to be honoured after separation. Basically, the SNP is just another reformist party angling for support on a programme of reforms and even styles itself on the Scandinavian social democrats. Should Scottish sovereignty eventually be established the nationalists will discover that they cannot legislate away the problems of capitalism. No country in the world, no matter how independent or rich in resources, has yet succeeded in eliminating poverty, unemployment, insecurity, etc. Separatists and unionists share the complete acceptance of capitalism and hold a blind belief, despite all the evidence, in their ability to tame it. Capitalism's problems are the result of non-social ownership of the means of life in the field of social production: more diversity of government or of ownership cannot alter this fact. Nor can the national identity or location of the legislature have much effect on our standard of living.

Scotland, whether independent or united with England, is divided into classes, as is society elsewhere. It is this division which accounts for the existence of the evils from which the Scottish workers suffer. English rule did not account for the fact that the depopulation of the Scottish Highlands led to the congestion in its industrial slums. The Scottish chieftains themselves turned out their own clansmen in order to make way, first for sheep and later for deer, in order to fill their own pockets. The notorious Duchess of Sutherland, for example, had 15,000 people hunted out in the six years 1814-20, and called in British soldiers to enforce the eviction. The political union merely facilitated the development of capitalist robbery with violence.

Thus the history of Scotland, while differing in detail from that of England, followed the same general course. By their divorce from the soil, a nation of peasant cultivators were converted into wage-slaves, exploited by a class ready to convert the world into one gigantic market. The forces of competition thus let loose may be held in check to some degree by national legislatures, but no final solution for the havoc they create can be found along such lines. The problem is essentially an international one, and must be internationally solved. That, however, calls not for nationalist parties, but for parties in all countries which clearly recognise the common interest of the workers of the world, namely, to achieve their emancipation as a class.

What it all boils down to, is that the SNP just don’t understand the world around them. It is time to reject the notion that there are "Scottish problems” which apply exclusively to Scottish workers and which can be solved by an independent parliament of their own. The Socialist Party echo Robert Burns desire for the day 'That man to man the world o’er shall brothers be for a' that”. This will be a fact when the world's wealth, owned in common, can be utilised for the satisfaction of all mankind. 

The Socialist Party does not want nor care about Scottish independence (any more than we care or support a “United Kingdom” or an “independent Britain” during Brexit) so it’s not our business to advise those who really want this how to best go about getting it. But we do want world socialism and do know that the way to further this cause is to advocate it and it alone and not seek support on any ‘minimum’ programme of reforms. That way, support for a socialist political party will be support for socialism and not for something less. When a majority for this has evolved, socialists would have no fear of a referendum on the single question of “Capitalism or Socialism?”  

The Socialist Party’s aim is to abolish masters of every nationality and to organise the production of wealth for their common good.

An appeal to fellow workers

 

We address you not as citizens of one country to citizens of another but as world socialists to fellow members of the world working class.

The basis of present-day society is the class monopoly of the means of living, that is, the land, factories, railways and so on. Accumulated wealth is monopolised by a privileged minority. The rest, separated from the means and instruments of labour, are forced to work for those who own them. This inequality, poverty and slavery are capitalism.

We reject frontiers as artificial barriers put up by governments. All men and women are brothers and sisters and the world should be theirs. All people should be social equals with free access to the plenty that could be if only the means of living belonged to a socialist world community. We oppose governments everywhere, all nationalism, racism and religion, all censorship, all wars and preparations for war.

We support all class struggles for better wages and conditions against the employers and governments. Do not be misled by those who say that universal suffrage is a fraud. Learn from your masters. You too must organise to win political power if you want a new society. Do not let cunning politicians retain power on your backs. Ignore those who would be your leaders. Rely on your own understanding and organisation. Turn universal suffrage into an instrument of emancipation.

We share your wish for a new society with no exploitation of man by man. But do not underestimate what a task it will be to change society. It will be a hundred times more difficult than changing the government. A democratic world community, based on common ownership with production for use not profit, can only be set up when people want it and are ready to take the steps needed to get it up and keep it going. Democratic political action is the only way to socialism. There are no short cuts. We must have a majority actively on our side. Do not be misled by left-wing demagogues, those who praise Trotsky, Mao or Che Guevara, who would use you for their own mistaken ends. They think that an elite should use unrest to gain power and then set up a class-free society. What dangerous nonsense! Look at the former state capitalist Soviet Union where a new privileged class ruled, with police intimidation and censorship, over an increasingly restless population. Look at state capitalist China where power-hungry bureaucrats cynically manipulate the people in their own sordid squabbles. Learn the lessons of history: elite action leads to elite rule. No socialism unless by democratic political action, based on socialist understanding.

What, then, do socialists suggest? In the past, we were accused of wanting equal sharing and dividing up amongst the poor the wealth of the rich. This, of course, was a lie. What we do advocate is the social ownership and democratic control of the already socially-operated means of living.

The task we all share is the same that we face in Britain and our comrades in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas and all other countries: to build up a strong world-wide movement for socialism. What is needed more than anything else in this period of social unrest is a clear, uncompromising statement of the case for a socialist world community.