22.05.1997

Fight for real democracy

An unholy alliance has been formed to campaign for Labour’s sop parliament in Scotland

If Scotland Forward (the united campaign for a ‘yes, yes’ vote in Labour’s rigged referendum) is the only show in town, then the working class in Scotland have good reason to be sceptical about who will benefit from Blair’s sop parliament. Within Scotland Forward we can see the genuine democratic aspirations of the Scottish people watered down, and all elements of passion or revolutionary fervour siphoned out to create a bland concoction which will only satisfy the Scottish bourgeoisie.

Amidst an atmosphere of jingoism and cross-class collaboration, we heard Labour MP Henry McLeish call on all present at the launch meeting last Saturday to put the interests of “the country” before the interests of their parties. Around 600 people, representing Labour, Liberals, Greens, Communist Party of Scotland, big business, the trade unions and civic life, all gave each other a pat on the back for bringing about what Canon Kenyon Wright, figurehead of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, called “a great day for Scotland”. It was significant that the event was chaired by businessman Nigel Smith. Tories present were received with rapturous applause and SNP speakers with knowing smiles as their party is almost certain now to support Labour’s proposals after the referendum questions have been pushed through parliament.

One could not help but feel the well-meaning sincerity of many of those present, but the underlying feeling of blind acceptance was almost frightening. McLeish in his opening remarks called for a debate to take place throughout Scotland. This was a welcome call, even if he is trying to keep the debate within his own well-defined parameters and if at the end of it the options before people have been pre-determined by a Labour majority of 179 MPs.

This is in contrast to the Sottish Socialist Alliance, who are now adopting, a heads-down approach and seem reluctant to take this important political question out to the Scottish working class. Only ‘bread and butter issues’ for the workers. The national question for many SSA members seems a matter for political activists alone.

Such an attitude is incredible. This issue may have become boring for leading comrades within the SSA, but working class people are discussing the national question for Scotland in every pub and housing scheme in the country. Nationalism will not be defeated by just getting rid of all the Tory MPs: it will only begin to die when the people of Scotland win their full democratic rights and have the right to self-determination up to and including the right to secede. This will facilitate the revolutionary unity of the working class in the whole of Britain.

Socialists and communists should be fighting for the maximum democracy and the maximum unity. The struggle for a federal republic involves the entire working class throughout Britain in the fight for democracy. How this struggle is carried out will determine what is won.

If Tony Blair had set out to render the campaign for Scottish self-determination impotent, then he has been ably abetted by Scotland Forward. What an unholy alliance it is. So-called communists and socialists in bed with representatives of the churches and business, all saying this will be good for us. I don’t think so!

The CPGB was criticised for initiating the active boycott campaign because it would put us in the same camp as the Tories. Well, it is the SSA and Scottish Militant Labour who are aligning themselves with the right by going along with this carnival of reaction. There is no leadership coming from the left in Scotland, as they sit like small, frightened birds, begging to be fed the crumbs. Surely the working class of Scotland deserve much more than this, and surely we must take a lead and differentiate ourselves from these pious hordes who perceive themselves to be the keepers of morality regarding the Scottish question.

This campaign does not represent working class interests. It represents the interests of the Scottish establishment. The dangers of nationalism lurk potent and strong beneath such a movement if it is not given a serious working class and internationalist perspective. The Labour Party, having rigged the referendum, now hypocritically accuses anyone who does not support it of being to the right of them. And the SSA has fallen for it.

The Scotland Forward campaign has a lot of money to spend. Posters and stickers are already available for those who want them. Money is flooding in, but for all the glitz there is no passionate enthusiasm: merely a sense of a job that has to be done and the sooner it is over and settled the better.

All those who genuinely believe in democracy for Scotland must now have the courage to stand against this stream of opinion. We must show that there is an alternative to this insulting referendum. We must have the courage to work to build the active boycott in such a way that it cannot be ignored. 

By fighting for genuine democracy in Scotland we can make this a movement which challenges the whole basis of Britain’s constitution. Only in this way can the struggle for democracy in Scotland develop into a struggle for democracy throughout and against the UK’s monarchical state. Acceptance of Labour’s sop only disarms the class in Scotland, delivering it into the arms of reactionary nationalism.

Mary Ward