RADICAL INDEPENDENCE -  AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME

I was looking forward to the Radical Independence Conference in Glasgow yesterday and I was not disappointed. Conference organisers billed the event as ‘a one day conference to discuss Independence and the way forward for Scotland’ and they are to be congratulated on presenting a stimulating event, in comfortable surroundings with modern facilities, conducive to thinking, discussing and learning from others. Moreover with delegate passes priced at just £4 [unwaged] they also succeeded in keeping the event within everyone’s reach.

Inevitably with several important and attractive sessions and 800 people attending throughout the course of the day the conference was tightly timetabled and often too unwieldy to decide very much, some ‘workshops’ had 300 people in them. But rightly the events emphasis was on beginning the process of deliberation over the many important issues in front of the entire Independence movement in Scotland.

The thing that struck me most was that just as the Independence movement which covers a multitude of philosophies we too had a wide range with socialists, greens, trades unionists, social democrats, nationalists, internationalists, feminists and single issue campaigners all content to describe themselves as ‘radicals’. Equally we learned to accept, as more than one person said in the 10 workshops, there are presumably radicals who support the union out there too! The word ‘radical’ in itself means almost nothing if we are honest, its like the phrase ‘the people’.

Nonetheless the 800 people who gathered yesterday will have been greatly encouraged by what we have in common, and no one put this better than my ‘Yes Scotland’ Advisory Board colleague Patrick Harvie who said, inter alia, that ‘people who like the status quo will vote no, what we need to win a majority for Independence is a transformational agenda with more democracy, more redistribution of wealth, more public ownership and more co-operation’. And this unanimity was echoed in the packed workshops. I attended one on the case for a Scottish republic. Here each of the arguments for monarchy were abjectly dismantled and ridiculed. Conference accepted there was nothing democratic, progressive or modern about the principle of a hereditary Head of State. And whilst we were all able to agree that republics are not, in and of themselves radical, there can be no doubt that achieving a modern democratic republic for Scotland would be both a huge blow for the British ruling class and a seismic advance for democracy.

I was able to mention how the burgeoning ‘Yes Scotland’ movement has advanced in recent weeks during the session on strategies for Independence. I tried to infuse it with the sense that we are part of a powerful mass movement which compares with the anti-poll tax campaign of 25years ago. And there was a widespread acceptance that the place for the Radical Independence Campaign is inside the ‘Yes Scotland’ coalition helping to ensure our transformational agenda has maximum impact and influence. This is certainly the role myself, Patrick Harvie, Pat Kane, Elaine C Smith and others advance on its Advisory Board. Clearly the addition of thousands of others would be pivotal in shaping the future strategies of the Independence coalition.

In drawing the day long conference to a close Robin McAlpine of the Jimmy Reid Foundation stressed how powerful and persuasive ideas themselves are in the world today saying ‘we [the RIC] are above all an idea and we need to turn that into a story the Scottish people can understand and support’. How true. For here were echoes of Karl Marx’s wise words. ‘Philosophers’ he reminded us 150 years ago, ‘philosophers have merely interpreted the world, the point however is to change it’. For me the most refreshing aspect of yesterdays conference was that these powerful and persuasive ideas, so powerful and challenging, now have greater semblance to gain traction among the Scottish people in 2014. 

Yes to Independence - Public Meeting

THE SSP MARCHES IN EDINBURGH IN SUPPORT OF JUSTICE AND EQUALITY FOR THE PALESTINIANS

EUROPEAN WIDE AUSTERITY PROTEST

‘From Scotland to Spain, the struggle is the same’ chanted the crowd over and over as it weaved its way through Edinburgh city centre in the early evening darkness. ‘From Scotland to Greece, no justice no peace’ they added.

Around 600 of us marched in support of workers in 23 other European countries who had themselves been protesting against Governments austerity cuts.

The Edinburgh city centre traffic snarled up behind us as we snaked slowly along Princes Street.

And for SSP activists carrying our party colours it was remarkable to be on a demonstration where English was not the main language spoken. These young people mainly from Spain chanted mainly in Spanish. They work here in Edinburgh albeit in low paid, casual, temporary and largely part time work because they had to leave Spain to get work and they consider themselves to be the lucky ones because compared to their compatriots back home, they reasoned, they were far better off.

So delighted were these young workers to see Scottish Socialist Party members standing shoulder to shoulder amongst them that several asked to have their pictures taken next to our banner to send, via email, to their folks back home.

‘The workers united will never be defeated’ translates beautifully into Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, French……. 

PRESS RELEASE

FOX: PROSECUTE POWER COMPANIES

GUILTY OF PRICE FIXING

Scottish Socialist Party leader Colin Fox has called on the Government to prosecute any of the big six energy companies found guilty of manipulating gas prices by the ongoing OFGEM/Financial Services Authority enquiry.

Speaking after Energy Minister Ed Davey announced an enquiry into allegations of manipulation of wholesale gas prices in a market worth £300bn Mr Fox told us

‘With one in three families in Scotland shivering in fuel poverty and unable to afford their gas and electricity bills – bills which have doubled in the past 5 years - these allegations [of price fixing] will be met with widespread outrage.

‘Clearly we have to await the outcome of the OFGEM/FSA investigations but if these allegations prove to be true there will be uproar, and not least from those whose voice this debate has so far lacked, millions of working class families suffering the daily indignity of fuel poverty.

‘I call on David Cameron and Alex Salmond to make the abolition of fuel poverty their number one priority this winter. The Warm Home and Energy Conservation Act of 2000 promised every household the legal right to affordable fuel and yet that promise is further away than ever.

‘Millions of people already believe these bills are too high and that the energy companies are profiteering. Moreover the winter fuel allowance is utterly inadequate and so is Government investment in insulation and energy saving schemes. But above all the provision of this vital utility needs to be returned to the public sector to end multinational energy companies making billions in profits whilst driving millions and millions of families in Britain into fuel poverty and an early grave.’

ENDS

Note; The SSP pamphlet ‘END FUEL POVERTY AND POWER COMPANY PROFITEERING’ is available from SSP, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2. Priced £3.00

Leith Public Meeting On The SSP's Case For Independence

This Article Will Appear In The MORNING STAR Newspaper Shortly

‘An Act of Unpardonable Folly’ *

SSP national spokesman Colin Fox attended the SNP Conference last week in Perth and reflects on the vote to join NATO and the contrasting philosophies within the Independence movement

The resignation of two MSP’s in the wake of its vote to enlist an Independent Scotland in NATO last week has shaken the SNP. The decision to overturn existing party policy has been described as its ‘Clause Four’ moment. That may be overstating it since the Labour u-turn saw it ditch its defining commitment altogether. A truly equivalent action therefore would mean the SNP abandoning Independence itself. Nonetheless the SNP has taken another significant step to the right and it is clear that Jean Urquhart MSP and John Finnie MSP will not be the only ones to leave the party.

The SNP apparently believes Scotland can be a member of NATO and force it to abandon its weapons of mass destruction on the Clyde. Good luck with that, you might say!

The SNP now wants an Independent Scotland to keep NATO, keep the Queen, keep the Pound Sterling, keep the EU, keep neo-liberal economic policies and keep close links with Rupert Murdoch. The French have a phrase for it ‘plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose’. Indeed it can appear the only thing the SNP wants to change in an Independent Scotland is the level of Corporation tax for big business, which incidentally they intend to cut in half!

And yet if you took away the ‘payroll vote’ of its MP’s, MSP’s, MEP’s, Councillors and their staff the leadership would certainly have lost the vote last week. Their decision to overturn existing policy and keep an Independent Scotland in NATO was carried by just 29 votes [394 to 365]. Defence spokesman Angus Robertson MP, in moving the motion, argued somewhat spuriously given the lack of evidence, that without the change the 2014 Referendum on Independence could not be won.

Yet as many commentators have pointed out over the past week the SNP is not the only party to support Independence. The Scottish Socialist Party and The Greens are also in favour and yet neither of us intends to change our anti-NATO stance in the face of the SNP’s decision. 

Whilst the SNP believe the way to win the 2014 Referendum is to present a conservative narrative that ‘nothing much will change with Independence’ the SSP by contrast believes working people in Scotland are desperate for changes; an end to Tory rule, no more obscene inequalities, no more fuel poverty, an end to neo-liberal economic policies of privatisation, austerity, cuts, casualisation, no more billions spent on nuclear weapons and no more young Scots ‘economic conscripts’ sent to die in Imperial wars abroad.

And as a poll published in The Sunday Times this week has tantalisingly shown there is everything to play for in this debate. Asked how they would vote if the Tories appeared likely to win the UK election of 2015 some 55% of Scots said Yes to Independence. All of which presents an enormous problem for Scottish Labour. Not only are they part of the ‘three in a bed’ ‘No’ campaign with the treacherous Lib Dems and hated Tories but in a ludicrous desire to placate corporate interests they have launched a full scale assault on the welfare state in Scotland. Lets be clear all the most important and popular achievements of devolution, free prescriptions, free care for the elderly, free travel for the over 60’s and the abolition of student tuition fees, cherished by voters here, have been targeted by Labour and branded unaffordable "Freebies" by its Scottish leader Johann Lamont.
 
The ‘No to Independence’ camp are now predominately, but not exclusively, on the right with
Scottish Labour now outdoing the Daily Mail in its anti welfare rhetoric. Like Churchill they appear to have ‘nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears’ to save the bankers. Not to be outdone the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has branded the vast majority of voters as ‘unproductive and lazy’. This seems unlikely to hasten their revival. The Tories lets recall have only one of Scotland’s 56 MP’s.

So as the worst recession in 100 years bites further and further and takes an appalling toll on the living standards of working people the ‘No’ parties each insist there is no alternative to brutal cuts and austerity, these the supposed benefits of being ‘Better Together’.
 
The key economic and social arguments on cuts, benefits, pensions and jobs see the ‘Yes’ campaign on the high ground in tune with public opinion and this is increasingly the crucial battleground for the Independence debate.

And yet the SNP’s vote on NATO is emblematic of a difference of the approach within the Independence movement. In common with other progressive forces in the ‘Yes’ camp the Scottish Socialist Party takes the view that Independence means transforming Scotland. Why for example should fuel poverty exist in an energy rich Scotland when public ownership of our resources could end it at a stroke?
 
The demand for independence goes hand in hand with a break with the pro market, pro war consensus embraced by all the unionist parties. Do we really want to be governed by an un-elected, unaccountable monarch who considers us her ‘subjects’ rather than equal citizens of a modern democratic republic?
 
The SNP NATO vote does not determine what an independent Scotland will do anymore than Salmond's policy of bribing the rich with tax cuts. These issues will be decided by the voters in the first Scottish General Election after independence, an election which will be fought on territory in which left policies in tune with Scottish mainstream opinion will have a major influence. The prospect of transforming Scotland into a modern democratic republic putting people before profit is part of this Independence struggle.

 

* SNP leader Alex Salmond famously used an SNP Party Political Broadcast to attack Tony Blair’s 1999 military attack on Serbia as ‘an act of dubious legality and unpardonably folly.’