Scottish Referendum
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At its meeting yesterday, the EC adopted the following statement on the 18 September Scottish referendum for use by comrades in Scotland (and also as a press release):
Quote:Most of us don’t own a single square inch of Scotland.It doesn’t belong to us: we just live here and work for the people who do own it.
In or out of the Union, that won’t change.
In Scotland, society is run in the interests of those who own the wealth. They argue among each other over billions of barrels of oil, GDP rates, profits and exports, because where the borders lie matters to them. Every border is an opportunity to wring cash out of other property owners.
Scotland will remain dependent upon their whims and interests whatever the outcome of the referendum.They’ll try to sway us one way or another with crumbs (or the promises of crumbs) but we’ll only get what they feel they can spare to protect their privilege and wealth. We will remain dependent upon their investments making a profit for them before we can get our needs and interests seen to.
The only way to stop this dependency would be for us to take ownership and control of the wealth of the world into our own hands. We could, together, use the wealth of the world to meet our mutual needs and grant the true independence of being able to control our work and our lives in free and voluntary association of equals.
Though the outcome of this referendum is irrelevant, it is an opportunity for us to tell our fellow workers that this is what we want. We don’t have to suffer in silence, we can go to the ballot stations and write “NEITHER YES NOR NO BUT WORLD SOCIALISM” Across it. Then, join The Socialist Party to fight for an independent world.
We will also be printing a number of ballot paper stickers saying "NEITHER YES NOR NO BUT WORLD SOCIALISM".
Re-published on the nationalist website Bella Caledonia to the to-be-expected displeasure of the comments http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/08/03/all-hail/#comments
Revealing insight into the mind of the petty nationalist. They really do seem to think that a change of venue where decisions to put profit before needs are made (or rather imposed by the workings of capitalism) will make a difference. And what about the really naive one who thinks that a separate Scottish state could end the need for food banks.
I noticed that the Bella Caledonian website links on its blog-roll to a certain Brooklyn comrade's personal blog.Must be his taste in music and books rather than his politics.
Statement posted at the left wing no websitehttp://socialismfirst.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/moving-right-the-scottish-left-and-the-indy-ref/#comments
Socialist Party Head Office wrote:We will also be printing a number of ballot paper stickers saying "NEITHER YES NOR NO BUT WORLD SOCIALISM".Here's what it might look like:
Thinking about it more, wouldn't it be better to go with Socialist Courier's 'Neither Holyrood Nor Westminster'?http://socialist-courier.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/neither-westminster-nor-holyrood-but.html
The fact that a struggle for independence can today be expressed in a vote as opposed to a violent uprising………………..says a lot about the claim that revolution can be peaceful
Not sure about that. If we want to go down that road it would have to be 'Neither Edinburgh nor London' since we haven't got anything against the elected assemblies as such that sit in Holyrood or Westminster (have we?). But I still say it makes more sense, for a write-in vote (since this is what it is), to reject the two choices on offer on the actual ballot paper.
Of course., but they won't be available for a week or so. We'll be sending one (or two) to all members, sympathisers, subscribers and contacts in Scotland.
ALB wrote:Not sure about that. If we want to go down that road it would have to be 'Neither Edinburgh nor London' since we haven't got anything against the elected assemblies as such that sit in Holyrood or Westminster (have we?).I would have thought so, yes.
Brilliant article in today's Times by David Aaronovitch entitled "The glory of independence is just a mirage" and subtitled "As a separate nation Scotland would end up with less autonomy as it dragged along in the tow of its bigger neighbour". Unfortunately you have to register or pay to read the Times on line.The best part is where he imagines the arguments a fictional Marxist used to put against Scottish independence:
Quote:Let us imagine a true Scots Marxist of the old scholarly school and call her Catriona Lenin. Subjecting what has happened since the 1960s to a "class analysis" she would doubtless conclude that the Scottish bourgeoisie found its interests imperfectly represented by British Toryism and so gradually went over to the SNP.Catriona would have no trouble in showing how the Scottish elite has got behind nationalism and independence, disguising (as it always does) its own interests in the language of idealism. Imagine how that part of the Scots establishment that doesn't live in London or Los Angeles stands to gain from independence! Think of all those new ambassadors to the US, Paris, and Buenos Aires! The new Scottish Broadcasting Corporation with its own DG and parallel bureaucracy! All those government contractsgoing to Scottish architects, subsidies to Scottish artists and so on. Valhalla with better food.Meanwhile nothing else, predicts grumpy Catriona, will change. She points out the cake-and-eat-it character of Salmondism, in which no difficult choices are made, almost nothing is actually altered — not the Queen, taxes, currency or property — yet everything is somehow different. Young people will be better off with a Yes! There'll be no austerity in Scotland with a Yes! And no bill.One of his arguments is that his neighbours who used to put this argument no longer do but have gone over to supporting independence as they imagine that an independent Scotland would be able to pursue a more reformist policy (but which he convincingly argues they wouldn't be able to because independence for small countries is a mirage). Would could his neighbours be? Tariq Ali for one?Bring back Catriona (Marx) !
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