Tariq Ali gives his support to the SNP
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An Interview with Tariq Ali on Why Scottish Independence Matters
What really struck me was this comment by him
"the advanced capitalist world is a situation where the political class does not represent the needs or the views of the bulk of the population."
Come on , is he inferring that there was some time in the past that class politics did not prevail?http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/scots-undo-union-of-rogues-independence-1707-honourAnother pro-nationalist article by him in advance of meetings he will hold in Glasgow and Edinburgh universities.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/scots-undo-union-of-rogues-independence-1707-honourI have cut certain comments i originally had here and re-posted on SPOPEN which may be more apporopriate.
What is wrong with these people? Can't he see that the only people who would gain anything from Scottish independence would be local politicians who would become big fish in a small pond? "Petty nationalism" is the right word. Even the capitalists there are against it. As far as workers are concerned, it will either make no difference or make them worse off. My own view is the latter. Just look at what happened in Ireland. I can't think of a single reason in favour of it. Anyway, I don't think most workers in Scotland are going to be stupid enough to vote for it.
That reminds me. Following an EC decision last year we sent the following declaration to the Electoral Commission on 10 January:
Quote:DeclarationWith regard to the Scottish Referendum of 18 September 2014 and with a view to being designated a “permitted participant” in it, the Socialist Party of Great Britain hereby declares that it will campaign for the outcome to be “Neither YES Nor NO” on the grounds that whether or not Scotland is an independent country is a non-issue for the majority as whether they are governed — and austerity imposed — from Edinburgh or London is irrelevant.They replied:
Quote:In your letter you declared for neither Yes or No. The legislation requires that a permitted participant identifies the outcome for which you are campaigning. In the referendum there are two outcomes Yes or No.In a further email they explained that if we registered to campaign for, for instance, No we could then campaign for what we wanted. In fact, it appears that you can register for No and campaign for Yes and vice versa:
Quote:Any campaigner registering as a permitted participant in the referendum has to identify the outcome for which they are campaigning. You will see that the form has a Yes or a No option and PEF online has the same. Clearly it will be up to you which outcome you identify with. There is no requirement in the legislation that you then have to campaign for the outcome you have identified.We haven't taken the matter any further yet. It's due to be discussed at our Conference over Easter in AprilThere is no requirement to register as a "permitted participant" unless you plan to spend over £10,000. Which I don't suppose we will be. So in any event we will still be able to distribute leaflets putting over the socialist position on the referendum, whether vote NO and write WORLD SOCIALISM across the ballot paper or just write WORLD SOCIALISM across it.
The following links come from a very funny comedy sketch show in the early 1990's, portraying a caricature of Scottish nationalism.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5cUxawA_6whttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MnD7q7EFt0
A caricature! I thought this was real life? Oh bugger, well thats another part of my world view down the swannee!
My intention was, depending on the actual ballot pape,r to write "Neither of those" and "worldsocialism".Capitalised.
I really don't want to put ..No or be connected in any way with the No or Yes option.There should be no spuriuous connection or connotations possible with either campaign.
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