Graphic by the late Ken Skeel
Independence And Socialism
By John McAllion
THE class struggle in Scotland has always been both nationalist and socialist.
The 1787 massacre of striking Calton weavers by British soldiers near what was then Glasgow is generally recognised as marking the beginning of an organised, effective Scottish labour movement.
The weavers’ banner on that day, and subsequently on many other
days up to its seizure by Tory magistrates in 1819, showed
Scotland’s national hero William Wallace striking down the beast
of tyranny.
Scots Wha Hae, Scotland’s unofficial national anthem penned by Robert Burns in
1793, deliberately sided with early working class struggles against the reactionary
Pitt government in London and its despotic manager in Scotland
Henry Dundas.
The Scottish radical uprising and general strike of 1820 united behind the slogan
“Scotland Free or a Desert”. So, from the very beginnings of the labour
movement in Scotland, there has existed a radical tradition that consistently
connected the struggles for workers’ rights with the demand for Scottish
independence.
That tradition was carried into the 20th century by the likes of Keir Hardie who
throughout a parliamentary career in which he represented only English constituencies
remained a passionate believer in the cause of Scottish home rule.
Most notably, of course, it was upheld by the great internationalist John Maclean
who was calling for an independent Scottish Socialist Workers’ Republic
at a time when Ramsay MacDonald was priming the British Labour Party
for its historic role as a safe and respectable alternative to Tory government
trapped within a capitalist, imperialist and constitutional monarchy.
Today Scottish socialists like Jimmy Reid, one of the leaders of the 1970’s UCS
workers’ struggle, continue to campaign for socialist change from within
the SNP, while the bulk of the Scottish nationalist Left carry on the fight
for Maclean’s socialist republic as part of the SSP.
They represent a continuing tradition of libertarian and democratic struggle from
below that stands in stark contrast to the Westminster model of a parliamentary
elite making change happen from above.
Breaking free from the stranglehold of that Westminster model remains one
of the key challenges facing the Left across Britain today.
Genuine popular control over state institutions and the economic levers
of power cannot happen in a British state in which the people are designated
as subjects and political sovereignty rests with the Crown-in-Parliament.
The radical participatory politics that characterise revolutions in Venezuela and
other Latin American countries are ruled out here by a British two-party electoral
system that effectively blocks radical change and restricts political choice
to voting for either of the two big pro-business parties committed to defending
the neo-liberal status quo.
A democratic revolution cannot happen in a Britain in which an hereditary
monarchy and an unelected House of Lords keep a tight political rein
on a Commons majority elected last time with the support of less than a quarter
of those entitled to vote.
It cannot happen either in a Britain without a Bill of Rights and where citizens
can be arrested and held without hard evidence or charge for up to 6 weeks.
It is time to recognise that the breakup of the authoritarian British state
is now a precondition of securing progressive socialist change for
the peoples of this island.
The national struggles that will follow the break-up of Britain open up opportunities
for the Left to force a radical political agenda that otherwise remains
excluded from mainstream politics and forever stymied under the ancient
regime of the British constitution.
The ending of the British warfare state, constitutional guarantees of civil liberties,
republican citizenship, participatory democracy, genuinely popular
control of public services, an economy run for the people rather than for
profit - these and many other important areas of policy will be thrown into
the melting pot from which people’s republics in Scotland, England, Wales and
Ireland will emerge.
The alternative is to remain ensnared within the carefully contrived limits
of a constitution that for more than 300 years has been successfully
blocking all threats of radical change in order to preserve the stability
of the oldest capitalist state form in the world. Socialists owe no kind
of loyalty to that Britain.
We do have a responsibility to help its peoples escape from the chains of British
history.