Scottish Independence
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I was thinking of writing to Weekly Worker stating the SPGB position is to vote no to the referendum asking Should Scotland be an independent country?
Sorry but I would have thought that a NO vote in the referendum is NOT our policy (but perhaps conference decided otherwise, but i somehow doubt it as would go against a long-standing principle)I thought it was to spoil our ballot paper as a NO vote is a de facto vote for British Capitalism, while a YES is one for Scottish Capitalism. My thoughts was that the party decided we draw others into this positive boycott, urging people to go to the polls and spoil their ballot paper. I believe there are plans in the pipeline for stickers to make this easier done.Once we have sorted out our strategy , WW i think will be happy enough to conditionally support it as i believe it reflects more or less their own view. Our position as i said in my letter to WW is the third option to yes or no..
That isn't/won't be our position. Whilst we might formally register for the no camp, just to keep ourselves legal, we'll be calling for a write-in vote for World Socialism, AFAIK
This was discussed at Conference, when the "Vote No and write World Socialism" idea was shot down in flames. All will become clear when the Proceedings are out, soon.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27732503You will note that in the photos it is not the Scottish Saltire flag the protesters carry but Shetland's own flag, a sign, i think of, of rising localism..If in the case of Yes independence vote, Shetlanders as they did in 1979 vote contrary to the majority of Scots and demand status of a crown dependency (IOM, Channel Is,) then the major plank of the SNP case falters…North Sea oil most productive wells are not Scottish but Shetland's.They would also be in a stronger position than even an independent Scotland that would be still be a monarchy. The Scottish the sea shore is crown property whereas it is recognised that Shetland ( even if it still retained the queen as would Scotland) , the shoreline is under local control under Norse Udal law, upheld by the highest courts in Scotland. Our own blog Socialist Courier long ago raised this "independence" prospect before local Island councillers themselves began to co-ordinate a case for Island Devolution which of course Salmond is publically accepting now but i am damn sure will renege upon in a "free scotland"http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/01/independence-for-shetland.htmlOther blog posts athttp://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/?q=shetland(The fact that my late mother was a Shetlander and this may possibly entitle me to a Shetland passport to add to my present UK, and a possible future Scottish passport so to provide me with a total of three to help overcome all the visa regulations i presently come up against is not clouding my sympathies in anyway )
"Salmond has said it would be "very foolish" to rely on promises of more powers for the devolved Scottish Parliament ahead of the referendum."Indeed, this is exactly what i say in regards to Salmond's pledges of more powers to the Island councils. "the Scottish first minister said the parties had "form" "And indeed Salmond already has his own form for over-ruling local democracy when he feels other issues "Trump" them on the golf course!"Salmond reiterated his belief that the referendum was a "once in a political generation" event."Politician's talk that if the referendum goes against independence, when he thinks he can win there will be another later referendum appealing to another new "political generation" Sadly Scottish independence is not a question that will disappear with a No Vote. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-27753059
A prominent member of the RIC recommends Braveheart in a pamphlet on Scottish historyhttp://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/scottish-history-dissolved-into-fantasy/
I tried to watch Bambery video but had to stop . He was making a very successful businessman's case for devolution. Economic growth…and i suppose workers gain from the trickle down effect because of it. He went on citing Alaska that had to bribe the people with an annual pay-off for permitting oil pipelines to crisscross pristine wilderness as an example to emulate. He promoted the Norwegian Sovereign Fund and ignored just where they invested their oil money …dictatorships like the ex-soviet-stans for the high returns, naturally. Not read his book and unlikely to but since the Scottish working class only grew after the union it is difficult to separate them. Our socialist courier blog highlights the failure of independent unions in scotland with a CP front breakaway unionhttp://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/05/red-union.htmlThe link you gave makes a brief mention of Jacobites as our own bloghttp://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/05/right-proper-charlie-he-was.htmlAnd the clearance were instigated by Scotshttp://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/05/clearing-away-scots.htmlSadly, the Socialist standard couldn't publish a full socialist version of Scots history just a few highlights
A section of Left Unity throw their weight in support of Scottish separatismhttp://republicancommunist.org/blog/2014/06/26/7269/
Joyfully the LU faction is mostly Steve freeman, whose letter in weekly worker revealed that the faction is almost entirely english. The Scottish LU being insufficiently Leninist, and overwhelmingly rejected the delights of Caledonian Capitalism
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/scotland-independence-referendum-2014799520299309.htmlFor those not up-to-date, the nationalists are using the socialist slogan made popular by William Morris and the Sociaist League magazine " Common Weal" even claiming the Scottish derivation when i am sure it is much wider usage in the past. (That could be one debunking that our literary experts can expose)
Quote:"Whatever unfolds, the demand for "wealth shared in common" will remain the benchmark by which the Scottish government will be held to its promise of democracy by the people, for the people."Sadly this demand is translated into the usual mish-mash of what they take to be radical reformism. A four-day week and a citizens' income, to be paid for and supported by higher taxes on land, the rich and cutting defence spending and nuclear weapons. A national investment bank capitalised at 5bn British pounds.I'll take it as a piece of journalistic creativity when the article claims
Quote:No political party in Britain could gather 600 people together on a weekend in the silly season to "celebrate" a policy paper. Yet this kind of turnout is now the norm for the independence movement, who are holding meetings, rallies and festivals up and down the country on every day of the week.But there is a lot of propaganda opportunities that we should be taking. As others said about Occupy and LU it has created space for us to discuss politics with people who usually remain distanced.
Apart from letters from myself and another in th latest issue of WW, there is a couple on the contunuing Scottish Independence referendum debate that i think makes interesting reading since they overlap with our own position in their fundamentals (but of course not identical)http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1019/letters/
Quote:there are no instances of struggles for national liberation within the last 70 years that have advanced the struggle for socialism. On the contrary, they have retarded or actively destroyed it.Latest poll No 51% Yes 39%Not Voting 2%Projected vote56% No44% Yes Between 700,000 and 1 million Scots may not participate in the decision to decide the country's future. John Downie, director of public affairs at SCVO, said: "We know that the top 20% of income earners are the most likely to vote, and as many as half of people in the bottom 20% don't vote."
Via Libcom, this Commune article is a good article exposing the SWP stand on the Independence ref..er?…en..dumb.It is another call for a boycott of yes or no. http://thecommune.co.uk/2014/07/20/is-a-yes-vote-for-an-independent-scotland-a-revolutionary-tactic/It is a shame that the boycott/spoil ballot position couldn't have been a bit more coordinated by more cooperation.
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