WHY SOCIALISTS SHOULD SUPPORT INDEPENDENCE?
Tommy Docherty the legendary wit
and manager of Manchester United once quipped after his team had suffered a
humiliating defeat ‘We lost 4-0 and frankly we were lucky to get the nil.’
The Tories in Scotland know just
how he felt for they are so hated that out of 56 MP’s they have just one, and
they were lucky to get that! And yet, as incredible as it may seem, their
Coalition partners are despised even more. The Liberal Democrats now have no
constituency MSP’s in mainland Scotland and were ‘mauled’ in last year’s local
elections for ‘joining’ the hated Tories at Westminster.
All of which presents Labour with a
real dilemma. As cheerleaders for the ‘No to Independence’ campaign they are in
coalition with the Tories and Lib Dems. Former MSP Charlie Gordon, who lost his
seat to the SNP expressed the widespread unease in Ed Miliband’s army when he
tweeted recently ‘Tory millions and Labour activists ‘Better Together’!!*??’
This is the political opposition
facing the exuberant Independence movement as it rallies in Edinburgh this
Saturday. It will be the first time supporters have had the opportunity to meet
since the launch of the ‘Yes Scotland’ campaign in June. And it promises to be
quite a day. First Minister Alex Salmond will speak for the SNP as will Patrick
Harvie of the Greens and myself for the Scottish Socialist Party. Our three
parties – founders of the Scottish Independence Convention in 2005 - will be
joined by thousands of people from across Scotland including many from civic
and cultural communities.
It is noticeable that the terms of
this debate have shifted significantly since the 1990’s. ‘Unionists’ now accept
Scotland is a nation with an inalienable right to self-determination. They also
accept Scotland is perfectly capable of running our own affairs and even
concede we would be one of the world’s richer nations. It was not always so.
But they insist ‘we will be even wealthier as part of the UK’. I will come back
to that claim but first it is important that socialists also recognise
supporting self-determination does not make you a nationalist. Lenin for
example supported the rights of nations to self-determination, so did Rosa
Luxemburg, John Maclean and James Connolly. No one familiar with their work
would call them ‘nationalists’.
Independence is not divorced from
the class struggle it is part and parcel of it. And for the Scottish Socialist
Party Independence means Scots will be free from the neo-liberal stranglehold
of financial speculators who dominate the world economy today. The SSP sees
Independence as a stepping-stone to a better society not an end in itself. We
strive for an independent socialist Scotland, a modern democratic republic. And
that vision is enjoying greater and greater support as this debate unfolds.
The Scottish Socialist Party
contends that if all the income, revenues, taxes, levies and duties raised in
Scotland, and currently transferred to the UK Treasury, were to stay here it
stands to reason Scotland would be a wealthier place. But we also accept that
working people will only be better off if we fight for our share of that
wealth. There will be no automatic gains from Independence. Only the working
class will improve their collective living standards. And improve them they
must because Scotland endures some of the worst social conditions in the UK.
With 225,000 people officially unemployed and a further 800,000 in part time,
casual or insecure temporary employment earning the national minimum wage
[£6.08] or less there is much help needed. One in three households now shiver
in fuel poverty as standards of living and the quality of life plummets like
the temperature gauge. Scotland’s obscene inequalities are widening not
narrowing as we stare down the barrel of the worst economic recession in 80
years. The 1,700 jobs lost at meatpackers Halls of Broxburn this week were
merely the latest in a long line of setbacks for communities like West Lothian.
The debate so far has been widely criticised for being too
focused on procedural issues; whether there will be one question on the ballot
paper or two? Which Parliament has the legal power to call the Referendum?
Which bodies will oversee the electoral operation? These matters look likely to
be settled soon allowing the debate to focus on the most substantive issue,
whether working class people will be better off with Independence or not?
‘Better Together’ argues that
Scotland reaps rewards from the Union. The truth is British capitalism holds
working class people in Scotland back. It denies them opportunities and is now
carrying out swingeing cuts in their living standards vital public services.
Equally warmongering Britain, with the 5th biggest military budget
in the world brings shame on us all as it is used to occupy Afghanistan having
invaded Iraq and bombed Libya.
All of which poses an increasingly straightforward question
for progressive Scotland. Do we pin our hopes on another useless Labour
Government or set sail for Independence? Ed Miliband promises more cuts, more
warmongering, more tax breaks for the rich, more tax hikes for the working
class, more privatisation and more assaults on civil liberties. We’ve have had
plenty of that. Scotland’s social democratic character manifests itself in
other decisions – the abolition of NHS prescription charges, free elderly care,
free university education, free travel for our senior citizens. These
provisions signify Scotland’s commitment to collectivism and rejection of
austerity, cuts and most of all the Tories.
The Independence movement has a striking opportunity to
transform Scotland and provide the country with the political settlement it
needs. The way to win the Referendum is to embrace this ‘transformational
agenda’ and promote an alternative vision for Scotland one which rejects the
neo-liberal, warmongering capitalist model currently on offer.
Colin Fox sits on the 'Yes Scotland' Advisory Board.
