Nationalism is no solution

Various little bands of quasi-socialists in a patriotic effort try to persuade the working class that Scottish independence would mark a step forward towards its own liberation, a step towards socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. With the conditions that prevail today, the independence of Scotland would not mean a step forward towards socialism. it would be a step backward. The people who parade behind the banner of “Scottish sovereignty and socialism” catch the attention of Scotland's workers by perpetuating a number of falsehoods.  lf Scotland gains its constitutional sovereignty, it will not be independent. The reason is quite simple: it goes against the interests of the native capitalists.  the unity of capital and commerce goes from sea to shining sea, for the good of all of the capitalist class. The SNP is a capitalist party. It works on behalf of the capitalists. The difference between the SNP and the other capitalist parties is not that it is calling for a different social system. What’s different is that they are looking for a new sharing of powers. The sharing will just be between groups of capitalists. Keep it in the family. But that’s not fair, the supporters of left-wing independence and socialism declare. “What we want is real independence. What we want is freedom from imperialist domination.” Our left-nationalists should stop playing with words.

Working class unity is a must right now if effective resistance is to be mounted to the crisis measures imposed by the capitalists. Unity is necessary to stand up against all the austerity attacks upon our fellow workers across all the borders. Unity is the key to putting an end to capitalism.  The working class faces a powerful and aggressive enemy which is solidly united despite the real contradictions within its ranks. The people are not going to win by dividing themselves along national lines. Those political activists who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalists. The “left” nationalists would have us believe that the welfare demands of the people can only be met through independence. Thus, they claim, the task is to transform bourgeois home-rule into a socialist independence. In reality, they find themselves in the camp of those promoting division of the working class.

Supporting Scottish independence in the name of socialism is a monumental hoax.  It is the same pattern of thinking which leads some to preach nationalisation as the cure for all our ills. It is up to the working class to show it will not be duped by political nonsense and deceitful rhetoric. 

Rise Up and Go Around in a Circle

ROUND IN CIRCLES

The left nationalists in Scotland having suffered a set-back by the referendum defeat where they propped up the SNP now seek to offer themselves as the left opposition to their former allies.

 RISE – Scotland’s Left Alliance is a coalition formed by the SSP and various other groups with the noticeable exception of Sheridan’s Solidarity. http://www.rise.scot/

They have taken a cue from George Galloway’s party RESPECT by using an acronym to name itself:

Respect Independence Socialism Environmentalism

And similarly to “Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement” they require to add a qualifier on what they are – “RISE - Scotland’s Left Alliance”.

The RISE party logo is very appropriate, as you can see for yourself,  for a political organisations that is going around in circles. 

The SSP have said that they will not stand any candidates next year in order to maximise the attention upon RISE, although, of course, its leading lights such as Colin Fox will be favourites to stand as candidates for the new party.  It is a marketing re-brand offering voters the same old same presented as something different. It’s not. RISE offers very little new in its policies and positions from all the previous political alignments of the Scottish left-wing such as the Scottish Socialist Alliance. RISE are merely re-packaging previously flawed ideas and faulty analysis. 

The left nationalists urge Scottish workers to reject this historic solidarity with their English and Welsh fellow-workers, on the grounds that it is impossible to achieve progress at a British level; only in Scotland. But they are wrong if they think that a more radical, more socialistic agenda will emerge in an independent Scotland. The new Scottish state would find its policies constrained exactly the same sort of undemocratic and technocratic rules of globalisation that left nationalists stringently oppose. As with the formation of the Irish Republic, the political landscape will be dominated not by a consciousness of class but of “national interest”. Working people will be spun the line that sacrifice for the good of the nation is the symbol of patriotism despite the pain and privation. A new Scottish state would have an overwhelming incentive, like Ireland, to cut business taxation to gain a competitive advantage over its larger neighbour and would actively discourage collective co-ordinated action by workers across all of the nations of the United Kingdom. Scottish English and Welsh workers do not respond to an abstract appeal for “international solidarity”, they don’t need one, they act out of their already existing unity. The fact is that we live in a single state with a single economy and trade unions have created an organic unity with identical interests and a common consciousness. Independence will tear the fabric of unity apart. In Britain a division of the working class along national lines would be a huge step backwards for the workers movement, even from the weakened state it is currently in.  For though class struggle is at a very low level, those struggles that have taken place, including in Scotland, have arisen out of nationwide disputes.  The creation of an independent Scotland would break that unity and make the task of advancing the workers movement more difficult.

The left nationalists must ask themselves if the possibility of a few seats in a Scottish Parliament is a worthwhile exchange for an abandonment of basic socialist principles. Is such miserly gains worth draping themselves in the Saltire rather than the Red Flag. The truth is that there are "socialists" of the RISE-ilk who regard vote-getting as of supreme importance, no matter by what method the votes may be secured, and this leads them to hold out inducements which are not at all compatible with the uncompromising principles of a revolutionary party. They seek to make their propaganda so attractive— eliminating whatever may give offense to bourgeois sensibilities— that it serves as a bait for votes rather than as a means of education. Votes thus secured do not properly belong to socialism and do injustice to the movement as well as to those who cast them. These votes do not express socialism and in the next ensuing election are just as easily swing to another political party. Socialism is a matter of growth of understanding by education, but never by obtaining for it a fictitious vote. We should seek only to register the actual vote of socialism, no more and no less. In our propaganda we state our principles clearly, speak the truth honestly, seeking neither to flatter nor to offend, but only to convince those who should be with us and win them to our cause through an intelligent understanding of the Socialist Party's mission.

There is an alternative to nationalism and spreading false hope amongst workers in Scotland. It’s called class politics and it comes with working class unity and being honest with the working class, even if it’s not what some want to hear, rather than peddling cynical opportunistic shortcuts up deluded blind alleys to gain some supposed influence amongst workers. The Socialist Party rejects the idea that Scottish independence represents a way of advancing the interests of the working class.  All the arguments for independence are in essence nationalist and pro-capitalist whatever the left-wing gloss may be placed upon them. Our opposition to independence is not support for the status quo but for the unity of the working class. The workers movement would be weakened by a process where regional capitalist classes try to corner local resources and endeavour to win the workers over to defend them. The task for socialists in all countries, whether that be Scotland, Britain or Ireland, is indeed independence - not of nations or of regions - but of the working class political action. This class independence, in terms of politics and organisation, is the very foundation of the struggle for socialism.  It is because Scottish nationalism and the call for independence throw up yet more barriers to this unity that we urge workers in Scotland to reject the siren song of separatism

Our task as socialists is to try to provide clarity on the class basis for taking a position. And our position must always be based on what is going to be in the interests of the working class movement. We socialists want to show workers that their interests lie in the maximum unity of all workers against all oppressors. We want them to identify their interests with the oppressed everywhere, to discard the blood-stained Saltire along with the blood-stained Union Jack. But we will not do that without understanding clearly who our friends are and who are our enemies. Our job is to propagate a class-conscious understanding in order to help workers discard harmful popular prejudices. If we don’t do that, then there’s really not much point to our existence, since it is only through discarding the beliefs that keep us shackled to capitalist ideas that we will be able to build a movement capable of building socialism. The fact that good, well-meaning people have been misled must not prevent us from seeking truth from facts. The fact that left-nationalists Scots wish to see British capitalism weakened, and hope that by voting for independence they will achieve this aim, does not prove that that is what will actually happen.

Put your class first, not your country. The world is a “global village”. Each region may have its own particular traditions and distinct customs, but they are part of a greater system of society that is world-wide.

That "the emancipation of labour is neither a local nor a national but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists…" (From the rules of the First International) should be the guiding principle of the working class of the world.

John Lennon sang “Imagine no countries and the world will be as one” RISE and the left-wing nationalists who constitute it lack imagination.

RISEN FROM THE DEAD 

For Working Class Independence

We accept neither the Union Jack nor the Saltire,
For the workers unity grow stronger everyday.
One weapon that we need is the peoples’ unity,
And we’ll build socialism from sea to sea.

 Nationalism is indeed reactionary because it serves the preservation of existing power relations once they have been successfully implemented. The rise of nationalism was the capitalist class way of routing feudalism during the rise of capitalism. Capitalism was the great integrating force that broke down the barriers of feudalism. From the very beginning, therefore, the nation was a particular development of class struggle. In its origin, the fight for the nation was fundamentally a question of whether political power would rest in the hands of the new class of merchants in the sea-ports or remain with the aristocratic land-owners – could the rising capitalist class overthrow the feudal state, replacing it with their own particular state form, ruling over a creation that was essentially their own: the capitalist nation.

Marx and Engels supported 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 like it or not.

 Every country is a capitalist country in this day and age for the simple fact that to survive, they must play by the rules of the capitalist system. If a nation is no longer exploited, in order for the national bourgeoisie to continue existing, they must exploit other nations. The fact that an oppressed nation is no longer dominated by American capital (lets face it, in most cases anti-imperialism is actually often another name for anti-Americanism) doesn't make the socialist revolution closer by one single step. Organising around "the nation" instead of your class is inherently class collaborationist, and doesn't advance working class liberation a single step. Whether foreign or local, all employers have the same interests and their relationship towards the workers is no different. Foreign or local, it is the same struggle.

Nationalism is a crucial means of suppressing the animousity between workers and employers so that the working class would put aside its “sectional” class interests and instead identify with the business and the nation’s interests. The unity of the nation becomes the lofty goal to which all special group and class interests have to be subordinated. We are lectured that what is good for the economy is good for the worker.

Capitalism, due to its competitive nature, breeds the narrow and intolerant spirit of nationalism. This is caused by the fact that the capitalist class of the various nations, in seeking profits in foreign markets, have to depend upon their national States to back them up. Capitalism created the nation-state and the interdependence of world economy as one single unit  but in a contradictory fashion. On the one hand the capitalist nations are dependent on one another. But on the other hand they compete against one another. America doesn't invade and make war on countries or overthrow foreign leaders to replace them with leaders favourable to American capital because America is mean-spirited. It is because America is the home of the greatest concentration of capital, especially finance capital, and in order to survive the ruling class MUST do these things. China is the biggest threat to American imperialism today not because of its supposed Maoist socialist ideology but as a capitalist competitor in the control of cheap labour, raw materials and world finance.

It is the propaganda of the employers and their allies that promotes national chauvinism, the idea that people of one nation are superior to the people of other nations. This is the same national chauvinism that, along with male chauvinism, is used to promote divisions among workers in this country. It is national chauvinism, a false patriotism, that in effect advocates that workers from the various nations should compete with one another for the sake of profits ... profits that go to the very people who exploit all workers! We oppose those ideas that seek to divide the peoples of the nations! The worldwide struggle for socialism is also a worldwide struggle. The unity of all workers, across national boundaries, is truly celebrated with the Internationale not the Flower of Scotland.

Nations and the concept of nationhood are not eternal phenomena that have always existed. New ones have arisen, old ones have disappeared. National states did not exist before or under feudalism, for feudal conditions were not conducive to the development of large national communities. Oh, we know the instant response - What about William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in the Wars of Independence (wars are named by historians many years later to fit in with a desired image). The power in these times was the king and he demanded the fidelity of the nobility. The Scottish peasantry that made up the foot soldiers of any Scottish army fought not for the king, certainly not for his nation, but his clan chief. A look at Scottish civil wars will demonstrate that loyalty to ones clan came before obedience to the crown.

For left nationalists, though, independence and “socialism” go together and that this struggle must be waged simultaneously. But if they speak so often of independence it’s because, according to their logic, independence is essential to socialism and in fact, some rank it high above socialism. They put the question of socialism on ice. They shelve the question of socialism and replace it with immediate struggles and 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 the SSP convenor sits alongside business leaders in the Yes campaign. One telling characteristic of Trotskyists is that, though 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 quite popular among Scots but also because they believe that it is an easier way that they can enter through the back-door of various organisations, a favourite technique of taking control. As far as they are concerned the working class is too retarded to take up the socialist struggle. It needs a transitional programme of wishful promises. When they recommend national independence they merely pass a capitalist tool of exploitation from the hands of a foreign corporations to those of a Scottish boss.

The argument that the Scottish people will benefit more from independence is a fallacy. It is as if the folk in Edinburgh’s Niddrie or Pilton benefit by having the financial centre of Charlotte Square on their doorstep. It is the question of who owns and controls these resources which matters: otherwise the argument becomes one of whether we want our exploiters to have an English or Scottish accent, or a mid-Atlantic drawl. A Yes vote at the referendum is simply handing the keys of Scotland Inc. to its Edinburgh offices. We should not over-look the fact that the savagery of establishing capitalism in Scotland were perpetrated by Scot upon their fellow

 None of our natural resources will be put to a sensible or beneficial use until the working class itself has gained control of the use of these valuable and irreplaceable resources. No socialist would suggest that the idea of one world state/government would be desirable or practicable but a network of cooperating yet autonomous geographical local communes, districts and regions with bottom-up structures alongside federated industrial unions of workers’ councils is a feasible possibility beyond the concept of nations.

Everything will change but stay the same.

WORLD SOCIALISM

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions” - Michael Collins, Gemini 10 & Apollo 11 

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’ ”- Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 

 “Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our hometown or even to ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man, and number one, the planet at large. This is our home, and this is all we've got."— Scott Carpenter, Mecury 7


The Socialist Party’s Scottish branches admit its limitations in the independence referendum debate. All we can do is educate ourselves and as many people as we can, giving them the means and the methods to educate others so they too can change other people's minds. This is the continuous educational process that the Socialist Party of Great Britain engages in. Our immediate task is to counter all this nationalist propaganda, either for separatism or maintaining the union. It is painful to watch otherwise intelligent people lend support to something that’s such an obviously bad idea. Too many live in denial and it is time for the rest of us to proceed towards a rational discussion about the real solution. The only real option is a sane social system.

The SNP has been promised that Scotland will keep the same queen, the same single market and same regulatory regime of the Bank of England , the same currency and EU membership. Separatists pledge the same TV programming and continued membership of Nato. Yet, in Scotland,  as in all other parts of the globe, capitalism and the quest for larger profits control every single part of our lives – from the day we’re born, until we take our last breath. Throughout our lives, we are forced into wage slavery. Capitalism has a stranglehold on our entire existence, and it has turned our entire lives into a profit-making venture. It has  commercialised everything that we do and turned ourselves into actual marketable commodities. An independent Scotland won’t change that, although it may change the person who holds the chains. The SNP is a capitalist party. It works on behalf of the capitalists. Nothing could be further from the truth when Left-Nationalists claim the independence of Scotland would not mean a step forward towards socialism. It would be a step backwards.  Whatever twists and turns lie down the road in the fight for socialism, one thing is certain: the success of that struggle depends on achieving the greatest possible unity of the working class, it is utterly ridiculous to argue that the working class ought to divide itself into two different countries in order to accomplish this unity. It is completely absurd to justify this with the false argument, disproven many times, that the battle for socialism would be easier if it were led by a more militant, nationally pure and homogeneous working class. People are not going to win by dividing themselves. The Left- Nationalists would have us believe that the national demands of the Scottish people can only be met through independence. Thus, they claim, the task is to transform bourgeois independence into a socialist independence. In reality, they find themselves in the camp of those promoting division of the working class. Supporting independence for Scotland  in the name of socialism is a hoax.

Nationalists promote a romantic picture of the future. In their ideal scenario, in a ‘free’ Scotland the economy would bounce back into a robust recovery, jobs would be plentiful, and all those paycheques would bolster a lively and politically stable economic scene with the Edinburgh government aiding entrepreneurial ventures with tax incentives. They would like us to believe and have others accept that home-grown national monopolies are somehow less exploitative than foreign monopolies and less subject to the impact of the general capitalist crisis. Capitalist enterprises, inevitably move towards becoming monopolies, regardless of the nationality of their owners.

The real referendum question is this - “Do you want to take your chances with fake promises of a better Scotland through independence or work towards a positive socialist future through revolution?"

At the onset of 2014, many people are now anticipating the prospect of a ‘global revolution'. There is no way of predicting where a mass protest movement will kick off next or what form it will take, but expect it to be an even larger-scale version of an Occupy movement. There is a  growing understanding among everyday people that we cannot rely on governments to affect the necessary transformation. In the now-famous words of Russell Brand there will be a “total revolution of consciousness and our entire social, political and economic systems”. In short, a revolution in our sense of self as global citizens , in which we equate our own interests with those of people anywhere in the world and we no longer conform to the capitalist vision of society in which we are forced to compete with everyone else as ‘others'. The Socialist Party is for a revolution in every sense of the word – in our values, our imaginations, our lifestyles and our social relations, as well as in our political and economic structures. The growing call for revolutionary change is shared beyond national borders and is for the common good of all people in all countries.

 Realistic proposals for planetary change do exist, as individuals and groups everywhere are discussing the necessary objectives for how the economy should be run democratically at all levels, from the local to global. An abundance of  thinking outlines the need for changes in every aspect of our economic and political systems which altogether articulate a basic but an effective blueprint for a new and better world. The Socialist Party calls for global revolution, not devolution. It is up to the working class to show that it will not be duped by nationalist nonsense and deceitful rhetoric.

 “The view of the earth from the moon fascinated me—a small disk, 240,000 miles away. It was hard to think that that little thing held so many problems, so many frustrations. Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don’t show from that distance. I’m convinced that some wayward stranger would certainly know instinctively that if the earth were inhabited, then the destinies of all who lived on it must be inevitably interwoven and joined. We are one hunk of ground, water, air, clouds, floating around in space. From out there it really is one world.” 
“When you're finally up at the moon looking back on earth, all those differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend, and you're going to get a concept that maybe this really is one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people."— Frank Borman, Apollo 8

Scottish nationalism looks much like any other nationalism

The World Socialist Movement was created in recognition of the fact that the world was not a patchwork quilt isolated national states, but a chain of interlinked nations in which events in a single country could have worldwide consequences. The capitalist class has faced up to the historical obsolescence of the nation-state by, for example, forming international trading blocs and global alliances. From an opposite class standpoint, socialists also strive to overcome national barriers as we strive towards our ultimate goal of a new world based on international socialist cooperation. We rightly reject any political ideology which preaches solidarity on the basis of race, language, culture or geography as incompatible with socialism and instead promote solidarity on the basis of class, irrespective of nationality, religion or ethnic origin. For socialists the objective is the unity of the working class across nations.  If it is not united, by definition it cannot act on behalf of its interests as a whole.  National divisions often prevent this unity. 

 For the Socialist Party, the struggle for national sovereignty can never be elevated over and above the struggle for socialism. While there has been a heightening of Scottish nationalism and a growth in support for independence, the Socialist Party has been prepared to swim against the tide of popular sentiment, declaring support for Scottish independence is essentially backward, an isolationist or xenophobic development, and it is incumbent upon us to stand against it. If the Socialist Party were to abandon the principles of class struggle, internationalism and workers' unity in favour of independence, that would amount to political surrender to the ideas of nationalism. We have, to be honest at all times and explain that it is not possible to build and sustain an oasis of socialism in the middle of a worldwide capitalist desert. Even the most industrially advanced countries in the world would be unable to survive as isolated outposts of socialism, shut off in permanent. quarantine from the rest of the world.  is vital, therefore, that the socialist movement avoids any appearance of timidity or confusion on the question of independence: our slogans and policies have to be clear, unambiguous and powerful.

Of all the nations to achieve ‘independence’ how many of the workers in these countries have had their basic needs and interests resolved by the ‘independence’ of the countries they live in? The interests of the working class, however, lie in an international unity of the class irrespective of nationality.  While those who wish to reform capitalism seek to get their hands on governmental office through operating the levers of the capitalist state, and sometimes see opportunities to achieve this more easily by making the state smaller – by having a separate Scottish state for example – this is not socialism. Solutions to unemployment and poverty; to insecurity and stress; to ignorance and powerlessness cannot be found in any nationalist programme, either left or right. They arise from the nature of the economic system not the nationality of the politicians and employers who preside over it. Class grievances are portrayed as those of a people, of Scots against ‘London’. Through nationalism, the class exploitation of workers either disappears or is rendered secondary to the more immediate demand for national ‘freedom’. At a certain stage, the true class character of nationalism becomes clearer when the new nation trumpets its cause as competitiveness with other nations in the battlefields of lower wages, lower business taxes, and willing workers.

The bigger sections of the capitalist class support the UK state, and also the European Union, because it provides the widest area within which they can advance their interests of accumulating capital with minimum obstacles to this process. While capitalism needs the state to defend its interests, and small capital might favour small capitalist states because they appear to better fit its narrower horizon (represented politically for example by the SNP or UKIP), it also seeks to internationalise its activities and have international state bodies that can support it in a way that a small nation state is less able to do. The SNP positioned themselves as the party of national interest.

The Socialist Party accepts the UK state because it is the widest area within which the working class can currently organise relatively freely without the divisions caused by national borders and the attendant nationalist politics and ideology which divides it and its organisations. Nationalism, no matter how left it is, always confuses action by the state for socialism, so it calls upon the state to redistribute wealth and take control of resources ‘for the people’, whereas socialism calls upon workers to take ownership of production itself and build the power of its own organisations so that one day these can replace the state.  Internationalism is not the solidarity of one progressive state with another but is the international action of workers – from organising in parties and unions internationally across borders, not favouring the population within certain lines on a map. Nationalism acts as a permanent brake on the aspirations of the working class. Independence will not advance the cause of socialism.

The Left-nationalists justify their support of the SNP as some way similar to the capitalist state being ‘smashed’ (the usual term used), but setting up two capitalist states where one previously existed is clearly something entirely different. It is not even that smashing the capitalist state is the primary goal of socialists.  What socialists want is not to replace one state with another, even a workers’ one.  What socialists want is a society where the state withers away and all the functions that are carried out by the State are carried out by society itself through mechanisms of workers’ and popular self-organisation.

The Socialist Party holds no interest in any nationalism and certainly not in the preservation of the Britain Ltd or the creation of Scotland Plc.

Independence without independence!

Aince there was a king, wha sat 
Scrievin’ this edict in his palace haa’ 
Til all his folk: ‘Vassals, I tell ye flat 
That I am I, and ye are bugger-aa’.
Robert Garioch, 

Common Weal is an old term meaning "shared wealth," but in todays political parliance it means policies aimed  to abolish poverty in Scotland through higher pay, higher taxes, and a beefed-up welfare state based on the policies of Scandanavian countries, particularly promoted by  Radical Independence Campaign (RIC), a loose coalition of Scottish left-wingers, environmentalists,  militant trade unionists, republicans, and veterans of the anti-nuclear and anti-war movements.

 The RIC’s basic  belief is that the Scottish worker is more radical than his English counter-part. But being anti-Tory doesn’t necessary 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 they want to ensure our class doesn’t do the same.

The SNP are a capitalist party, orientated towards the EU, who have tactically positioned themselves to the left of Labour as defending the interests of Scotland against the Tories, with high profile signature policies such as free prescriptions and care for the elderly. The largest force outside Labour and the SNP is the Scottish Green Party, which is explicitly anti-cuts and anti-NATO, with two MSPs and 4.4 per cent of the vote in 2011. The combined vote of SLP, SSP, and Solidarity in 2011 was 1.62 per cent. These left  nationalists offer a fake veneer in an effort to sell a capitalist and nationalist agenda as some ill-defined step towards a Scottish “socialist republic”. With the domination of capital in Scotland as throughout the world, such a solution would not offer true autonomy. The independence put forward by the SNP is one which includes the Queen as head of state, retaining the pound sterling, British military bases to remain as well as continued membership of NATO and the continuance of the BBC as the mouthpiece o the ruling class.

Independence would offer no way out under capitalism and would only serve to foster divisions in the working class.  On the basis of continued capitalism in Scotland and the rest of Britain, Scottish and English workers would be placed in direct competition. This is especially true if we consider SNP plans for a more “business friendly” environment, with lower corporation tax and other incentives, in an attempt to encourage businesses to relocate from England to Scotland. The whole approach would be to drive down costs, i.e., wage to become more competitive. They would encourage a race to the bottom and pit worker against worker. Such competition between Scottish and UK businesses would result in a driving down of wages on both sides of the border. Such competition between Scottish and UK businesses would result in a driving down of wages on both sides of the border. A loss of jobs or fall in wages would also be used by the British ruling class to stoke up resentment south of the border, and vice versa.  England would dominate the Scottish economy. The ownership of Scotland’s economy, including its banks and trade, will still  be controlled from the City of London. Scotland would still be at the whims of international capital.

A recent study by the Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR), a Glasgow University-based think tank, has underscored that the biggest cuts in day-to-day spending on public services will come in 2016-17 and 2017-18. Only half of the intended austerity measures have been implemented in Scotland, and most of these have been made at the expense of capital spending. Writing in the Scotsman, CPPR economist John McLaren dismissed the claim that Scotland would be insulated from spending cuts by independence. This “ignores the reality that, in practice, similar fiscal circumstances are almost bound to exist for an independent Scotland, and so greater clarity would also be needed in terms of a medium-term to long-term budgeting strategy, with or without any oil fund.”

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. We stand for the overthrow of capitalism and a  precondition for this is the unity of the working class in this common struggle for socialism.  Nationalism is on the rise in Europe with the strengthening of  Fortress Europe as well as a rise in the far right within member states.

 All nationalisms are based upon sweet seductive fairy tales about the great destiny of this that or the other people, their historic unity and the beautiful landscapes that surround them.  We want unity and friendship – but with all the peoples of the world. We are stirred by our history and natural beauty – but by the history of our class and natural beauty of all countries, not just our own. We have to resist the ideology of nationalism. Every effort is put forth by the exploiting capitalist to prevent workers from seeing the class struggle. The Scottish bosses insists that there is no such struggle, just the national interest. The hired editors in the employ of the capitalist echoes “no class struggle.” The academics dependent upon the capitalist for the chance to make a living, agree that there are no classes and no class struggle. In unison they declaim against class agitation and seek to obscure class rule that it may be perperuated indefinitely. We insist that there is a class struggle; that the working class must recognise it; that they must organise economically and politically upon the basis of that struggle; and that when they do so organise they will then have the power to free themselves and put an end to that struggle forever.

Socialism Not Separatism

The ruling class of Scotland have long been merged with that of England and the working-class of Scotland, Wales and England has long been one homogenous working class. We cannot tag along with, follow behind, or try to lead these nationalist movements or parties – we must resolutely struggle against them while propagating socialism. “Self-determination” is a slogan that can be used to justify any project, no matter how reactionary. It was the call for self-determination for the national minorities of Yugoslavia in the 1990s that laid the basis for the bloody civil war. It is the call for self-determination in eastern Ukraine that is creating the conditions of civil war there today. “Self-determination” in reality means granting the ruling elite free rein to set its own economic and political agenda to meet their own needs, skilfully masked by socialist phrases.

Nationalism is always the tool of the capitalist class. There was a brief period in history where there existed an identity of interest between the national bourgeoisie and the working class against aristocratic feudalism, and hence even Marx recognized nationalism had a progressive role to play. However, now that the progressive role of the capitalists is long finished, so too is the progressive role of nationalism. In essence, supporting nationalism nowadays amounts to a switch from socialist which hold that the working class is the sole agency for the liberation of humanity, to nationalism, which effectively is a movement in support of the local “national” capitalist class.

 From being a tiny inconsequential entity with a few members the Scottish National Party became suddenly the dominant party in Scotland. How did this startling transformation come about? Disappointments, defeats and disillusion have been the left’s constant companions for many a year. The SNP increasingly began to seem like an attractive and viable alternative to many people given the background of growing disillusionment with Labour. The SNP was tailor-made for the job of providing the reformism traditionally offered by the Labour Party. This trajectory is essentially a product of despair following successive defeats of the working class and the destruction of large sections of the organised working class. The SNP has successfully tapped into widespread anger and a sense of injustice. Nationalism is being fomented now in Scotland in order to provide an alternative to austerity.  A series of Labour governments have now convinced even some Trotskyists that the Labour is nothing but a pro-capitalist party, and they are now deserting the Labour Party like rats from a sinking ship and rushing to fill the life-boat of left-nationalism. They are blind to the fact that they are jumping from the frying pan into the fire. They still do not understand or opportunistically refuse the anti-socialist role of nationalism. The Trotskyist movement naively simply switched their opportunistic slogan “vote Labour without illusions” to vote “Independence without illusions.”

 Let us also be very clear and state the patently obvious. Scottish nationalism has no intention of challenging capitalism.

At present Scottish nationalism and the SNP have the appearance of a progressive left-wing movement to some honest people who read the promises of their election policies. Deceived by manifesto pledges, sincere people will work in and around the nationalist movement only to discover, in some years’ time, that they have been most cruelly misled, have been wasting their time and worse – have been advocating ideas which they will then have to destroy to establish socialist principles. Instead of tragically wasting their time fostering nationalism those seeking a socialist society must stand firm to socialism. We must do work to popularise socialism alone in order that people shall not be side-tracked. Socialism and nationalism are mutually exclusive. Nationalism abandons notions of workers solidarity and seeks an outcome that necessitates the dividing of workers, denying any role for English or Welsh trade union activists. The history of the British labour movement is the history of the intertwined fates of the Scottish, English, and Welsh working class, for example, the legendary Keir Hardie was an MP for a London and then for a Welsh constituency. The links between Scottish, English and Welsh working people have forged through common struggles and shared experiences a potentially powerful political force. Rising support for nationalism means Scottish workers are turning their back on class unity and joint struggle with their brothers and sisters south of the border, and strengthening reformist illusions that hope lies in a new constitution and a sovereign Edinburgh parliament.

The left nationalists urge Scottish workers to reject this historic solidarity with their English and Welsh fellow-workers, on the grounds that it is impossible to achieve progress at a British level; only in Scotland. But they are wrong if they think that a more radical, more socialistic agenda will emerge in an independent Scotland. The new Scottish state would find its policies constrained exactly the same sort of undemocratic, technocratic, neo-liberal rules of globalization that left nationalists stringently oppose. As with the formation of the Irish Republic, the political landscape will be dominated not by a consciousness of class but of “national interest”. Working people will be spun the line that sacrifice for the good of the nation is the symbol of patriotism despite the pain and privation. A new Scottish state would have an overwhelming incentive, like Ireland, to cut business taxation to gain a competitive advantage over its larger neighbour and would actively discourage collective co-ordinated action by workers across all of the nations of the United Kingdom. Scottish English and Welsh workers do not respond to an abstract appeal for “international solidarity”, they don’t need one, they act out of their already existing unity. The fact is that we live in a single state with a single economy and trade unions have created an organic unity with identical interests and a common consciousness. Independence will tear the fabric of unity apart. In Britain a division of the working class along national lines would be a huge step backwards for the workers movement, even from the weakened state it is currently in.  For though class struggle is at a very low level, those struggles that have taken place, including in Scotland, have arisen out of nationwide disputes.  The creation of an independent Scotland would break that unity and make the task of advancing the workers movement more difficult.

The left nationalists must ask themselves if the possibility of a few seats in a Scottish Parliament is a worthwhile exchange for an abandonment of basic socialist principles. Draping themselves in the Saltire rather than the Red Flag, left- nationalists act as a recruiting sergeants for the pro-business SNP. During the referendum vote many on the left tried to disguise the unpalatable policies that the SNP was preparing to implement by claiming that a Yes vote did not mean support for the SNP and that a move to independence would not necessarily mean an SNP government. Clearly this was deceitful as there was no other political party capable of forming a government if the Yes campaign had succeeded and the SNP’s economic policies and corporate-friendly pledges would have entailed a race to the bottom for tax rates on capital and for workers’ living standards in Europe. The Left-nationalists could merely counter with an idealist social democratic utopia in a very small state vulnerable to the economic blackmail of the bankers as we witness in Greece today.

There is an alternative to nationalism and spreading false hope amongst workers in Scotland. It’s called class politics and it comes with internationalism and working class unity and being honest with the working class, even if it’s not what some want to hear, rather than peddle cynical opportunistic shortcuts up deluded blind alleys to gain some supposed influence amongst workers. In reality the short-cut to socialism turned out to be a short cut to nationalism. The Socialist Party reject the idea that Scottish nationalism (or any nationalism, for that matter) represents a way of advancing the interests of the working class.  There is no basis for socialists to be advocates of Scottish independence.  All the arguments for independence are in essence nationalist and pro capitalist whatever the left-wing gloss than is placed on them. Our opposition to independence is not support for the status quo but for the unity of the working class. The workers movement would be weakened by a process where regional capitalist classes try to corner local resources and endeavor win the workers over to defend them. The task for socialists in all countries, whether that be Scotland, Britain or Ireland, is indeed independence - not of nations or of regions - but of the working class. This class independence, in terms of politics and organisation, is the very foundation of the struggle for socialism.  It is because Scottish nationalism and the call for independence throw up yet more barriers to this unity that we urge workers in Scotland to reject the siren song of separatism

"merchants have no country. the mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Thomas Jefferson

You Can’t Beat the Enemy While Hoisting His Flag

“The workingmen have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself THE nation it is, so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.” - Marx

There is certainly good reason to recall this elementary truth that Marx and Engels put forth in the “Communist Manifesto”, for it is a truth that capitalist ruling classes are always seeking to camouflage. We live today in an era of populism – simplistic solutions to complex questions. All kinds of nationalism pervade the world today, especially in countries that have nothing to offer their people but ideologies, hopes and promises.

Although the SNP have successfully jettisoned their "Tartan Tory" image for a more radical garb it would be mistaken to make an alliance with a political party that threatens the unity of the working class. Scottish nationalism divides the working class before its common enemy, the British capitalist class. It chains Scottish workers to the interests of “their” bourgeoisie. Only socialism can guarantee an end oppression.  An independent Scotland would be intrinsically neither better nor worse than any other capitalist state. Scottish independence is something that the capitalist class can live with and it is not intrinsically contrary to the interests of the bourgeoisie. The truth is that nationalism (no matter how it is dolled up with pseudo "socialist" phrases) represents no way forward for the working people.  Without class unity, there is no way forward for the Scottish workers. That should be our starting point. The Socialist Party sets out to defend the common interests of the workers of Britain, Europe, and the entire world against the common enemy — the Scottish, English and Welsh and global capitalist class. The unity of the Scottish, English, and Welsh workers has been forged in common struggle and organisation for generations.

There is wholly false assumption that Scottish people are automatically more left-wing than the English. There is no separate "Scottish Road to Socialism". It is the false demagogy of the "left" wing of the nationalists. The Tories were the only party ever to achieve an absolute majority in a general election in Scotland, as recently as 1955, even if they came close to meltdown in the Thatcher years. And when it comes to working class militancy, the Scottish record is by no means one of automatically being better than England. The militant heart of the great mining strikes of 1972, 1974 and 1984–85 was Yorkshire, not Scotland, while the language of separate Scottish interests was used to keep the Ravenscraig Steel Works operating on scab coal through the 1984–85 strike. The Tory Industrial Relations Act of the early 1970s was defeated by the defiance of London dockers. The Poll Tax was finally destroyed by a riot in Trafalgar Square, even if the non-payment campaign that started in Scotland played a role. Neither national group of workers has an intrinsically higher class consciousness than the other.

Nevertheless, some argue, Scottish independence on a left wing basis, with a government majority of Solidarity, Scottish Socialist Party, Green, and Labour left MSPs would surely pose a challenge to capital. In fact, even if a majority of MSPs were socialists, an independent Scottish Parliament would no more be able to introduce socialism than the Westminster parliament.  The State would not be destroyed simply by transferring its functions from London to Edinburgh, any more than it was destroyed after these functions transferred from London to Dublin in 1922 and a very conservative Irish government.  If the scenario of a left-wing breakaway is to occur, it could only happen in conditions of massively heightened class struggle, but in what possible circumstances would this take place in Scotland and not the rest of Britain? And if the main reason why Scots are attracted to independence is precisely because it promises a road to socialism, why would they embrace independence at the very point when this appeared to be happening across England and Wales also. The only conditions under which the scenario is possible are the same ones that would render separation irrelevant.

Nationalism and socialism are antagonistic ideologies. The SNP is not at all interested in destroying the capitalist system – far from it. They want to make much more profit for the “national” capitalists and profit is extracted from the unpaid surplus labour of the working class. The SNP pushes independence to protect the interests of our national capitalists, to build up the illusion that by fighting against “foreign” capitalists in order to put “our” economy in the hands of “our own” bosses

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The struggle against nationalism within the working-class movements must be intensified and this struggle is an integral to rebuild a genuine socialist party, without which the social revolution is impossible. Many in the media rejoice that nationalism has triumphed over socialism – it is time to prove them wrong. We live in the epoch of potential social revolution – the rise of world socialism and the overthrow of global capitalism. In this epoch the capitalists are counter-revolutionary, and its ideology, including nationalism, is completely reactionary. There is now only one class capable of overthrowing capitalism: the working class. There is no middle road between the capitalist system and socialism. There is no ideology that serves the interests of both the bourgeoisie and the working class. The results of socialists burying their class independence beneath the mantle of national independence has been disastrous. The exploitation of wage labour, competition, the squeezing out, suppressing and swallowing of rivals among the capitalists themselves, the resorting to war and even world war, the utilisation of all means to secure a monopoly position in its own country and throughout the world - such is the inherent character of the profit-seeking bourgeoisie. This is the class basis of nationalism. At home, the capitalist subordinates the interests of the nation as a whole to its own class interests. It places its class interests or the interests of a certain top stratum of society above the interests of the whole people. Moreover, it tries to monopolize the concept of the nation, posing as the spokesman of the nation and the defender of national interests in order to deceive the people. Abroad, at the same time, it counterposes the interests of its own nation (in essence, of its bourgeois top stratum) to the interests of other nations. The bourgeoisie strives to place its own nation above other nations and, whenever possible, to oppress and exploit other nations, completely disregarding their interests. Such is the nationalist concept of the nation and the class foundation upon which it is based.

I got no flag. I got no country.

 “The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one of uniting all working people of all nations, tongues and kindreds." Abraham Lincoln

So the Yes and No camps have had their big TV spectacular. Salmond and Darling engaged in what was called a debate, exchanging facts and figures, throwing the occasional spanner into the  other’s arguments, and hoping we all fall their respective spin. The Socialist Party members were not taken in by the clever sound-bites and many workers, too, will see through the charade.

No country is yours or mine. The ruling class use nationalism to side-track the aspirations of the workers. Nationalism is by no means struggles a way forward to the liberation of the working class but represents local capitalists wanting a larger slice of the profits from exploitation of local workers - “their” workers. Left nationalists preach class collaboration with proponents of private property, contributing nothing but division and confusion. Independence is an empty vessel which demagogues eager to fill with false and even dangerous content. They ally with the bosses. Their political principles can be summed up as: first independence, everything else after. “Everything else” is class struggle, revolution, and socialism. Those supposed radicals present the fallacious case that political independence would constitute a step which is not only necessary but revolutionary in and of itself. Nationalist demagoguery is still with us, here and elsewhere, to deceive the people.

 How many peoples are now paying a heavy price for having put their faith in the pretensions of their nationalist leaders? In spite of their “independence”, countries are still governed according to the rules of capitalist exploitation. Once the nationalists are victorious, at the first important conflict we see the “national” police clubbing the “national” workers by order of the “national” state whose legality is maintained at all costs by the “national” judges and the “national” industrialists maintain their profit level and the “national” finance companies do a great business.
The nationalists have taught us well. We now all know who is responsible for all the economic troubles and political instability in Scotland. It isn’t capitalism at all but the 1707 Union! Scottish workers, however, understand only to well the different task before them. It is to unite to resist the attacks upon them, regardless of the passport of the employer. The class enemy of Scottish workers is identical with the class enemy of the working class as a whole. The global domination of capital means that a nationally-located socialism is an illusion, and so the only way to overcome this problem is through world revolution.

Since the days of Marx, socialists have challenged the capitalists’ national chauvinism with our own appeals for the international solidarity of the working class. We have opposed the attempts of capitalists to enlist the workers in their nationalist strivings with our own appeals for class struggle of the workers of all countries against world capitalism. History has proven that independence is not the objective interests of the working class. The workers will not win victories in the struggle against capitalism  if it fights in dispersed formation against the same enemy. All it will do is make a “breach” in its own defences.

  It is the slogan “world socialism” which must be raised by revolutionists from the first. This slogan serves not only to distinguish the Marxists from the nationalist fakirs of all shades, but also to express the deep-rooted aspirations of the workers movement. The Socialist Party is fighting for the victory of the working class and for a world society that will see an end to all artificial national boundaries. We are out to develop the international struggle of workers, and to unite workers, not to reinforce mistaken identification with the oppressor. Governments need nationalism to make people obey them. They use nationalism to make people think that they are not just obeying a particular group of men but that they are doing their duty to “the nation”.

The Ref..errr? ..end...ummm?

 The left nationalist case invites Scottish workers to cast aside their historic solidarity with their English and Welsh allies, on the grounds that it is only possible to achieve progress towards socialism in Scotland. Collective action co-ordinated across all nations presents the best prospects of success. Our Left nationalists should stop playing with words. For starters, they should quit pretending that sovereignty would be a step towards working class emancipation and recognise instead that what socialists want is real independence. What we want is freedom from capitalist domination.

Love your little bit of what is called Scotland, your street, your neighbourhood, your town or village, but love the human family, all life, and the planet Earth more. There are no countries (or gods), just the human family and kindred species, sharing the fruits of one living biosphere. From the tiniest creatures to the global ecosystem, we are all part of the same natural evolutionary journey, and we must love all life like kin. It is absolute madness that the human family can't take responsibility for its actions and instead learn to share and live in peace in order to avert a possible and increasingly probable ecological apocalypse. The human family must come together globally or else all is lost. Capitalism is causing increased war, pestilence, poverty and the rise in authoritarianism. We face an unprecedented global emergency as life-giving ecosystems collapse. Either humanity immediately comes together to embrace liberty and socialism or we each face a violent end.

Whatever choice the Scottish people make, the Socialist Party will continue the fight for working class liberation, border or no border. What is the “independence” they yearn for, if it means being trapped within national borders - jail-cells inside the bigger prison of capitalism?

the Independence Referendum

Nationalism and the referendum increasingly dominates Scottish politics and its newspapers. We now have the date of the referendum which will be the 18th September 2014when Scot voters will be asked the Yes/No question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"


By re-drawing the map the nationalists promise economic prosperity. The unionists prophesise economic catastrophe. Socialists say experience shows that either way, the working class will lose out.

Independence is nothing but a dead-end. It doesn’t bring us closer to socialism, only farther away from it. Separation is no stepping stone to socialism, despite what phony “Marxist” theoreticians may say. It maintains and reinforces the divisions within the working class – a real boon for the capitalist class which do their best to keep us divided. The people on the Left who are pushing this option fall right into class collaboration. Under capitalism there is necessarily a division between rich and poor, a ruling class and the ruled, the class of capital and the class of wage-workers, and any attempt at uniting them must involve the acceptance of exploitation and oppression. It is glossed over with much talk of the shared culture. The experience of the poor living in a slum council estate is very different from that of the rich living in their country estates. Anyone on the Scottish Left who, therefore, combines the working class with the ruling class, calling on capitalist and worker to unite and fight for independence is not a Marxist or a socialist. Nationalism places the working class under the control of its ruling class and this means that socialism is abandoned. This process has been observed many times resulting in the the conclusion that national feeling is somehow stronger than socialism. The repeated triumph of national consciousness does not however prove that class consciousness is incapable of transcending national consciousness.

Some Scots claim that the Scottish nation has been a victim of English rule but the working class throughout Britain has been the subject of capitalist oppression. Nationalism divides our forces before our common enemy. The fight against the bosses has been a united struggle with workers joining together across all the regions of the UK. Nationalism is about organising and mobilising people on the basis of their national identity. Socialism is about organising and mobilising people on the basis of their class identity. It is class war between employers and employees not Scottish versus English.

Those who say that the main enemy is the English ruling class mislead workers in Scotland into thinking we have less to fear from the Scottish capitalist class. But the truth of the matter is that Scotland’s capitalists have been an integral part of the British bourgeoisie ever since the Union, a union to advance the interests of the aristocratic land-owners and the developing merchant and capitalist class. The Scottish ruling class sold out the rights of the people in Scotland for a hare in the spoils of the Empire. Scottish capitalists, be they big or small, are not any less a part of the British bourgeoisie than English capitalists. Now they simply want a re-division of the pie by re-writing the constitution. Those who would subordinate the class struggle to the struggle for independence, those who counter-pose national unity to class unity, help keep capitalism alive. Independence divides the working class against the international bourgeoisie and it chains workers to the interests of “their” bourgeoisie. No-one seriously considers that the SSP or Sheridan’s Solidarity constitute in any sense an independent political force. They are, in effect, merely propagandists for the Scottish bourgeoisie and its chosen party, the SNP.

An independent parliament has no answers for the working class and would continue to be used by the millionaires and multi-nationals to control and rule.There are no common interests between workers and their exploiters, whatever flag is waved. Nationalism and class struggle are irreconcilably opposed. A nation is simply capitalism with all its exploitation and alienation, parcelled out in a single geographical unit. It doesn't matter whether the nation is 'small, 'colonial', 'semi-colonial' or 'non-imperialist'. In Scotland some businesses has found new roots, hoping to be effective in getting workers to sacrifice themselves for the false goal of “building the national economy” through independence from Whitehall. Multinational interests can just as much thrive on smaller centralised interdependent states, rather than through the old concept of the powerful nation. Separatism only reproduce the same problems on a smaller but no less savage scale.

All nationalisms are reactionary because they inevitably clash with class consciousness and poison it with chauvinism. Working class co-operation, especially in this global age of capital movement across all borders, is necessary for a real defence of our co-workers, neighbours and communities. Socialists have long maintained that people have the right to live, work and travel wherever they choose. As internationalists, socialists oppose national borders, which serve to divide and segregate people. It is important to remember that this view has always been central to the international labour movement from its very beginnings long ago. It is time for labour to remember this vital part of its history.

In the Scottish independence referendum there will be two different forms of nationalism on offer. The British nationalism of a “No” vote. The Scottish nationalism of a “Yes” vote. We will be advocating a third choice - a spoiled ballot with the words “world socialism” written on it. The Socialist Party is committed to destroying the capitalist system, the root cause of all oppression. It aims to unmask the irrationality of nationalism and work to show up the void that is national self-determination. Only by ending capitalism and building a democratic socialist future can we end the nightmare of war, environmental chaos, national and ethnic division, poverty and inequality that capitalism thrives on. The Socialist Party aspires to liberate all humanity, across the boundaries of national identity.

Together against the bosses

It is true that socialists are not indifferent to the nature of the capitalist state and must struggle constantly to democratise that state. We count every one against us who is not with us and opposed to the capitalist class, especially those “reformers” of chicken hearts who are for everybody, especially themselves, and against nobody.

In the Independence referendum it would be folly and utterly useless to conduct any kind of a campaign other than a revolutionary socialist one. And that means a campaign the fundamental purpose of which is to teach the necessity of the destruction of the capitalist system and the substitution therefore of a socialist society. Failing that there is no conceivable justification for the participation of our party in this campaign. To distinguish ourselves fundamentally from all reformist groups by carrying on a campaign for socialism is not only theoretically correct but in this case also coincides with the demands of “common sense.” It must be clearly recognised that if we don’t conduct such a campaign there is no use having one at all. The campaign affords us an opportunity to teach thousands and tens of thousands of workers the meaning of socialism. In spite of handicaps socialists are in a position to conduct a revolutionary campaign and thereby increase the prestige and membership of the party. The activities in the Socialist Party must see in this campaign an opportunity to increase our numbers and influence.

Some of the unions have put forward all sorts of dubious ideas dreamed up by various little bands of Trotskyists in a patriotic effort to persuade the working class that Scottish independence would mark a step forward towards its own liberation, a step towards socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. With the conditions that prevail today in this country, the independence of Scotland would not mean a step forward towards socialism. it would be a step backwards. However, this is not obvious to everyone, and warrants some attention. The people who parade the banner of “independence and socialism” around, to catch the attention of Scottish workers, are hard at work perpetuating a number of falsehoods. The referendum is not about independence. If the Yes side wins, Scotland will not be independent. The Scottish capitalists, even the most nationalist among them, never held to the idea of separating from London and Brussels Wall St. The reason is quite simple: it goes against their interests. A “socialist” Scotland will still face the same enemies regardless of whether Scotland is part of the rest of the UK or not. The working class faces a powerful and aggressive enemy which is solidly united despite some contradictions within its ranks. The people are not going to win by dividing themselves. Working class unity is a must right now if effective resistance is to be mounted to the austerity measures imposed by the capitalists. Unity is necessary to stand up against all the attacks on our democratic rights. Those who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalists.

Supporting independence in the name of the light for socialism is a monumental hoax. It flows from the same kind of logic that leads others to preach the nationalization as the cure for all our ills.  It is up to the working class to show we will not be duped by  political nonsense and deceitful rhetoric.

Say No To Nationalism

Nationalism is a malignant disease that appeals to our most primitive and basic instincts. It divides people and therefore has no place in modern and developed society. We have to point out to nationalists that "freedom" and "sovereignty" i.e independence, is not the solution to their problem. We want all countries to be free from capitalism and are not in favour of encouraging the illusions fostered by parts of the propertied class. The Socialist Party and the World Socialist Movement are not enthusiastic about smaller nations forming their own states. All over the globe, nationalism is on the march and the battle cry is either “Independence” or "Defend the motherland", separatists or unionists, demanding that political power be turned over to them and this, they say, would allow them to set about the problems of poverty, unemployment and housing shortages which they say have ignored . Offering this as the main reason for their nationalism, they attract a lot of support and sympathy. What many people forget is that this newly won political power will be used to administer capitalism—with all the problems which already faced them.  Saner people should be more worried about the necessities of life: putting food on the table, a roof over their head, and other such mundane—and ultimately far more important—considerations, than the constitutional status of the place they happen to live in.

“Independence" is a word used to stir up emotions but the current economic system doesn’t play favourites based on national, ethnic, or cultural sovereignty. Capital investment and migration is based upon the likelihood of making better profits, not upon which of the largely irrelevant politicians form the government. Nationalist- ' quasi-racist' - issues are not the issues that will solve the problems that working class people face every day. The working class will never be served by nationalism. Sovereignty is a capitalist business, the factional feuding of the self-same class to win and control regions for profit, for the benefit of their local capitalists,  politicians, media chiefs and other self-serving functionaries.

The search for markets, sources of raw materials, cheap labour power and most profitable locations for business gave rise to "globalisation", no matter what nationality, religion or language for capital is not a personal but a social force. Independence solves none of the problems resulting from exploitation.  Nation-states governments remain wedded to the same set of priorities and subject to the same constraints as any other capitalist government. Poverty in the midst of a potential for plenty remains a running sore, massive disparities of wealth continue to exist and environmental degradation continues virtually unabated.

Socialists do not ask people to demand their "right of self-determination". Instead we urge them to forget the crumbs from the dishes of their masters’, but instead, organise under the slogan "One World—One People". The obstacle only lies in our minds. The only way out is to establish Socialism, which will organise the world so that everyone, whatever their sex or colour of skin, has free access to the world's wealth and stands equal to the rest of humanity. Independence cannot solve working-class problems, only the establishment of socialism will do that. 

The world's working class doesn’t need a change in politicians. Independence simply means the exchange of one set of exploiters for another. We need an end to class division. The joys of becoming an independent country are, by and large, illusory for the mass of the people and not worth the effort and sacrifice so often involved in achieving it. The message of socialism is a universal one. It reaches across the artificial borders built by men and it is for the ears of all workers. The real issue is capitalism or socialism. That is the lesson for workers to learn all over the world.

RISE is risible

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.