AN ACT OF UNPARDONABLE FOLLY? SNP Now A Pro NATO Party

I was invited to attend the SNP conference on Friday in Perth as SSP national spokesman and member of the Yes Scotland Advisory Board to watch the party debate its attitude to NATO membership for an Independent Scotland. And I would like to thank the SNP for the welcome and the courtesy they extended to me throughout.

For anyone interested in politics it was an outstanding debate, which I feel sure, will be talked about for years to come. The atmosphere inside the Perth conference centre was heady and the debate produced a cocktail of fine speeches and high drama displaying principles, tactical arguments and even the odd insult all delivered with passion and guile. The audience played its part with partisan cheering, standing ovations and even booing at times. Although I obviously do not share the conclusion reached the debate was a credit both to the SNP itself and to politics as a whole. It was a master class in rational discourse showing once again why politics is so invigorating and important to the civic life of our nation.  

Moving the motion to abandon the existing SNP policy of withdrawing Scotland from NATO Defence spokesman Angus Robertson MP was keen to re-iterate the SNP's anti-nuclear commitment. But, he argued, the existing policy was in need of review and that after speaking to 'Scotland’s neighbours' in Iceland, Denmark and Norway he felt the existing policy let them down. His main argument centred on a poll commissioned by the party which apparently showed 75% of Scots wanted to remain in Nato fearing Scotland’s security was otherwise threatened. He claimed this was 'powerful evidence’ the SNP needed to change policy otherwise it would lose the 2014 Independence Referendum. He insisted that an Independent Scotland would make removal of Trident nuclear weapons on the Clyde a precondition for joining NATO.

Seconding the motion Angus McNeil MP insisted that 'Scotland in NATO is good defence'. He also cited the 75% poll mentioned by Angus Robertson and felt 'our neighbours in Iceland, Norway and Denmark' wanted this change and he concluded that demanding the removal of Trident was no impediment to NATO membership.

Opposing the motion Bill Ramsay from Glasgow moved an amendment which argued NATO membership put an Independent Scotland under pressure to accept Trident and to cheers he proclaimed 'Lets consider NATO membership only when the last Trident submarine sails away down the Clyde'. His seconder John Finnie asked who Scotland was at risk from? He argued that the leaderships motion means 'you will never get rid of Trident'.

Brian Stewart from Aberdeen moved an amendment supportive of the motion and asked conference to 'Give NATO a chance to accept our nuclear free policy between 2014 [and a successful referendum outcome] and 2016 [the first Scottish General Election thereafter]'

Jamie Hepburn MSP moved another amendment rejecting the motion and insisted joining NATO made getting rid of Trident 'impossible' and cited the experience of the German people who were compelled to accept US nuclear missiles stationed on their soil by its NATO membership. He insisted there was no morality in the motion, that NATO was not a force for peace in the world, and asked why the movers did not mention the views of other neighbours such as Ireland or Sweden who were not members of NATO.

In asking for the motion to be remitted Rob Gibson MSP asked for proof that being in NATO gives Scotland greater leverage in getting rid of Trident. It’s the reverse he insisted and he called for the motion to be remitted to allow further debate over the issues involved.

In the open debate Keith Brown MSP, a former marine, argued that the best way to get rid of nuclear weapons on the Clyde was to stay within NATO. He suggested that there was 'No chance of getting rid of Trident without Independence and there was no chance of securing Independence without staying within NATO’. This motion he insisted helps secure Independence.

John Swinney MSP said 'we have a responsibility under Independence to be good and responsible citizens and a responsibility to fully defend our country and its citizens and to work with our neighbours in Iceland, Norway and Denmark [again] in a common alliance. He concluded that 'we can only get rid of nuclear weapons by passing this motion.'

Delegate Duncan Ross pointed out how the Labour Party had been castigated for abandoning its principles and now SNP was ditching 'our principles'. 'It is dishonest' he insisted to warm applause 'to say we can join NATO and get rid of nuclear weapons.' 

Next Dillon Johnston from Aberdeenshire argued that if the motion helped secure Independence then conference must support it.

Speaking next Sandra White MSP received the widest applause of the day so far when she asked 'why are we having this debate now?'  Scotland was on the verge of Independence she insisted and suggested that the Scottish people should decide themselves whether they wanted to be in NATO after 2014. She accused the movers of 'hypocrisy' and argued that NATO is a nuclear alliance with a first strike policy and Scotland would not be able to change that. She ridiculed the 75% support poll saying it was bogus and asked for the evidence; the question asked and the breakdown of its result, suggesting since this was not forthcoming the polls should be disregarded as unreliable evidence. To loud applause she finished by claiming the 'grassroots of the SNP don’t want to be in NATO'.

Then in the contribution of the day without question Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill MSP rose with a bravura performance. Beginning with the acclamation that 'I aint no US poster boy!' to cheers and stamping of the feet adding 'Nobody in this hall today is pro-Trident. The question is how do we get rid of it?'. The answer, insisted the former anti-poll tax rebel, was 'via NATO membership!' [to widespread, if partisan, cheering]. 'Winning in 2014 is our be all and end all' he insisted,’ this policy helps us win.' He then argued that 'Nato has changed and moved on'. And finished by proclaiming 'We are a party of power and not protest. The people of Scotland seek security and we need to allay their fears. NATO membership does that. We will not be standing shoulder to shoulder with our neighbours in the Rest of the UK, Poland, and Spain etc if we do not join NATO. I'm tired of marching. I want a seat at the table of power for an Independent Scotland!' His speech was roared to the rafters and received by far the biggest ovation [albeit very partisan] of the entire debate.

Christine McKelvey had the unenviable job of following McAskill but feared this motion would make Scotland a paler version of the UK.

Natalie McGarry then spoke to oppose the motion and argued that NATO were warmongers the SNP should not touch with a bargepole attacking the motion as 'dishonest and wrong' and asked 'where is the evidence we can force NATO to do anything?'

Bruce Crawford MSP said we have 2 years to the Referendum and a huge responsibility to win it insisting that the motion was needed otherwise the Referendum would be lost.

Lachie McNeill from Argyll said there was no need to change existing policy arguing that the motion undermined SNP's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Replying to the debate Bill Ramsay quipped that NATO's charm offensive had worked wonders on the SNP leadership and insisted that a nuclear 1st strike capability was 'hard wired in to NATO'. Scotland, he said, would be compelled to accept Trident and to suggest otherwise was nonsense. The movers might as well ask the Labour Party to support Independence'

Brian Stewart from Aberdeen insisted that motion said 'we will only join NATO if they agree to get rid of Trident.' And insisted that Scotland, with others, can reform NATO.

Jamie Hepburn ridiculed the idea of Scotland reforming NATO, as it was in effect a US organisation.

Summing up Angus Robertson MP accused conference itself of hypocrisy [to some booing] and re-iterated his claim that an Independent Scotland will not join NATO unless they agree to get rid of Trident. He ended by starkly warning that 'As Campaign Director of the SNP he had led the party to 2 election victories in 2007 and 2011 and I tell you we cannot win a Yes vote in 2014 without this policy change!' [This met with loud booing] 'This vote, he added, is about carrying the country and we need to carry the country to get a Yes vote in 2014. 75% of people believe Scotland should be part of NATO and the diplomatic community and our neighbours want it too....' and ran out of time.

My immediate impression was that this was an utterly engrossing debate, a fabulous piece of political theatre. It was clear the vote was on a knife-edge with no one sure which way it would go.

The Chairman’s call for a show of hands was visually inconclusive and after 45 minutes of tense waiting and counting later the crucial vote was revealed - 394 for the leadership’s position and 365 against. The leadership had prevailed by just 29 votes out of 800 delegates!

In the immediate aftermath some people tore up their party cards in disgust claiming they no longer wanted to be part of a pro-NATO party.  

Their despair was of course understandable. In another move to the right the SNP had just abandoned a principled opposition to NATO and opted to join the warmongers. SNP leaders have been courted by NATO diplomacy and have in turn been too amenable to ludicrous arguments that they can persuade the US to give up its nuclear weapons. It is just not credible. And for me this change in SNP policy will not protect their commitment to shelving Trident but undermine it. Moreover the move does not improve the chances of winning the 2014 Referendum it jeopardises it.

The Scottish Socialist Party is to say the least not convinced that the SNP's 'steady as she goes' approach to Independence will be successful. Victory in the 2014 Referendum will as far as we are concerned be secured instead by stressing the transformative attractions of Independence - no more Trident missiles, no more imperialist wars where Scottish soldiers die for oil or other imperialist interests, no more cuts to lifeline public services to pay for wars abroad, no more of the worse economic recession in 80 years, no more fuel poverty in Scotland, no more neo-liberal economic policies of privatisation and financialisation of our society. We can persuade Scotland’s working class majority their best interests will be served by supporting Independence but that means inspiring them with a vision of change and improvement.

The SSP's position on NATO has not changed. Nothing in Perth these last few days has persuaded us our policy needs 'reviewing'. We opposed sending Scottish troops to invade Iraq and occupy Afghanistan to die under NATO's banner. We did not support NATO's illegal 'regime change' campaign in Libya nor do we support its threatened intervention in Syria. But most of all we do not accept that Scotland inside NATO will ever persuade the warmongers to remove Trident from our shores.

The Scottish Socialist Party remains committed to an Independent socialist Scotland that is not in NATO, not beholden to the Bank of England or the IMF, not a tax haven for corporations or billionaires and not governed by an unelected and unaccountable monarchy. And I suggest our vision is less and less likely to be mistaken for that offered by the ever-rightward moving SNP.   

SPEAKING TO THE INDEPENDENCE RALLY

YES SCOTLAND PUBLIC MEETING - THE FIRST TEN YEARS

COLIN FOX & CAMPBELL MARTIN AT THE 2012 MARCH & RALLY IN EDINBURGH FOR SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE

MY SPEECH TO TODAY'S RALLY FOR INDEPENDENCE IN EDINBURGH

Friends, I bring you greetings from the Scottish Socialist Party and I am proud to be part of this wonderful occasion and this vibrant movement as Scotland again asserts our inalienable right to self-determination and Independence.

Look around you. It might be September but this, this is the beginning of the Scottish Spring. Let the world take heed from Edinburgh today that we Scots are marching for our freedom and we are equally determined to secure our full democratic rights.

And we re-assert today that supporting a country’s right to self-determination does not make you a nationalist per se, it makes you a democrat. And as a democrat, a democratic socialist, one question interests me more than most today – will working class people in Scotland, who make up the vast majority here, be better off with Independence or not?

To that question, which millions of people rightly demand a straight answer, we can stoutly reply YES SCOTLAND – For if all the revenues, taxes, duties, profits and wealth generated here in Scotland stayed here, rather than be transferred to the UK Treasury or boardrooms abroad, it stands to reason we would be better off. That is what Independence means. 

But working class people understand we have to stand up for ourselves and so I urge you to join with us in this great cause.

There are of course many shades of opinion gathered here today and I respect that, but I want an Independent Scotland that is a modern democratic republic, where we the people decide our own future, freely, democratically and without interference or constraint. 

This great movement gathered here today seeks the same goals as billions of other people throughout the world, the chance to secure our Independence and realise the economic emancipation and social progress we are capable of. 

Jimmy Reid famously distinguished ‘Scotland is a nation. Britain is a state’. And the British state today is in decline. It is at the epicentre of a worldwide financial ‘racket’ that exploits the world and goes to war regularly to protect its ‘operations’. That connection brings shame on Scotland.

An Independent Scotland by contrast could be a beacon to the world. We would never send our sons off to die in wars motivated by imperial plunder. An Independent Scotland would declare peace with the world not war, nor threaten our fellow human beings with nuclear annihilation or environmental destruction.

So let us today resolve that we are building a new Scotland, where no one gets left behind, 

where wealth is not the measure of greatness or nobility,

where helping others wins more gold medals than helping yourself,

where prejudice and ignorance are eradicated like the Tuberculosis my grandmother and so many others like her died of in the 1930’s,

where Independence brings economic emancipation and freedom to everyone not just a select few and where all these are inalienable rights belonging to all those who chose to live here.

That then is our message today ringing out loud and clear to our fellow Scots and to the world.

MY ARTICLE IN THE MORNING STAR ON INDEPENDENCE

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 5^th 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.

SCOTLAND: WHY YOU WILL BE BETTER OFF WITH INDEPENDENCE