04.09.1997
Self-determination for Scotland now!
Only the Campaign for Genuine Self-Determination has voiced the national aspirations of the Scottish people
Even before the suspension of campaigning because of Diana’s death, concerns were being expressed by the media at the degree of apathy towards the referendum. A Scotland on Sunday straw poll conducted last weekend showed that little more than half of those interviewed knew the date of the referendum and only a third knew what the two questions were.
Many actually thought that the referendum was about independence. Although only a snapshot, the confusion and lack of enthusiasm is reflected in other surveys and reports. People throughout Scotland are clearly bamboozled about what is going on. The debate so far has really only taken place among the chattering classes, in the letters page of the Scotsman and the Herald. The mass of the people, despite their desire for self-determination, do not feel themselves to be part of the process.
The SNP, Sir David Steel and some leading Labour Party members have argued that the official umbrella campaign, Scotland Forward, has been the biggest disaster. With lacklustre and unimaginative events - ‘fizzy drinks in the park’ fund-raisers and Munroe climbing have hardly set the heather ablaze - it has an even more boring and bumbling national organiser in Paolo Vestri. At the launch of the official campaign, with Salmond, Dewar and Wallace on the platform, Vestri came unstuck at the barrage of questions directed at Dewar over the Tommy Graham affair. He lost control and tried to close the conference down several times, much to the amusement of the press and the annoyance of Salmond and Dewar.
Since then - unsurprisingly - he has been effectively sidelined. It has been left to Scottish Labour Party general secretary Jack McConnell - also implicated in the Graham scandal - to fill the space. The speed with which the government has pushed the referendum through, especially as the main campaigning period has been during the summer holidays, has also been blamed for the limp reception. The suspension of campaigning this week will also have an impact.
Overall, I believe the problem is down to the fact that the government has failed to capture the mood of the Scottish people. Poll after poll since 1979 has shown increasing majorities for self-determination, with almost a third wanting full independence. Blair, in his eagerness to buy off the national question with a sop, has quite possibly dampened down the mandate he hoped to get for that sop. All will become clear on September 11, but at the moment it does seem that, in the absence of a parliament with full powers, the turnout will be far from overwhelming.
The aim of the Campaign for Genuine Self-Determination was certainly not to achieve a sit-at-home apathy. We have fought for an active approach to the national question. We have argued that calling for a ‘yes, yes’ vote for Blair’s puppet parliament allows him to pour cold water on the democratic aspirations of the masses. To what extent he has done so remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that the mood has subsided. The national question will not go away. But what may well have passed is a moment when it could have been diverted from constitutional nationalism into a mass movement. It was not so long ago that Scottish Militant Labour was describing Glasgow as a “city in revolt” around the council cuts.
Labour is perceived by even those within its own ranks as corrupt and undemocratic. The junketing and privileges of many Glasgow city councillors has provoked anger among working class people. It is precisely this layer of tinpot politicians who are lining up for a place in the Edinburgh parliament. By supporting a ‘yes yes’ the majority of the left are in effect helping these types fulfil their career ambitions. It will be more of the same, but this time from Edinburgh. The aspirations of working class people do not matter a jot.
It has only been our campaign which has put forward an independent voice. We have fought in a principled and courageous way to voice the aspirations of the mass of the people. We use the self-activity of the working class to gauge what is a step forward. And a sop handed down from above to a passive mass cannot be claimed as such.
On polling day those for a parliament with full powers should make their protest heard - write ‘Self-determination now’ across your ballot paper. Don’t be sold out!
Anne Murphy