07.12.2006
SWP accommodates to Scottish nationalism
The Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity are striving to become junior partners of the Scottish National Party, writes Jim Moody
Anticipating the May 3 2007 elections to the Holyrood parliament, Scottish nationalists of every stripe are claiming that they will be the 'independence elections'. Their spirits have been lifted by the strong showing of the Scottish National Party in recent opinion polls, which show a slight lead over the Labour Party in Scotland. The SNP is committed to staging a referendum on independence toward the end of its term if it forms the next Scottish government.
It is a sad reflection on the Scottish Socialist Party and, more recently, the Tommy Sheridan-led breakaway, Solidarity, that they are firmly in the nationalist camp. They too want an independent capitalist Scotland - and hang the consequences in England.
A vague English nationalism has undoubtedly grown as a reaction to Scots separatism. This has delighted Scottish nats such as Alex Salmond, who commented on the so-called 'West Lothian question' (whereby MPs from Scotland can vote in Westminster on issues affecting England only, whereas equivalent issues north of the border are dealt with by the devolved Scottish parliament). According to Salmond, "People quite rightly resent Scottish Labour MPs bossing them about on English domestic legislation. England has as much right to self-government as Scotland does" (The Sunday Telegraph November 27).
Salmond is quite happy to encourage anti-Scots sentiment in England if the end result is separation. No doubt he was delighted with the results of an ICM poll in the same paper, which found that 68% of people in England answered in the affirmative to: "Are you for or against England having its own parliament with similar powers to those of the Scottish parliament?" Similarly, 59% said 'yes' to "Should Scotland become an independent country?" This is a higher percentage than that given by respondents in Scotland, indicating an element of 'good riddance' in response to those ungrateful Scots.
Blind to the reactionary repercussions, Scottish Socialist Voice remains adamant that its strategy has Blair on the run, with an article on the front page of the November 30 issue headlined, "Support for Scottish independence is rising and Labour is getting scared." While bolstering the SSP case for supporting independence and attacking Labour, it fails to address criticism of the SSP's (and, equally, Solidarity's) national socialist stance, which sets out to divide and therefore weaken the British working class. Rather it declares: "Now Scots, and even English voters, are calling time on the union that has fed generations of working class people into its war machine, and driven down wages and conditions in order to power up profits."
Despite SSP and Solidarity glee that opinion polls are going their (nationalist) way, the reality is bleak. 'Socialism in one country' is a dead end, promising only abject poverty and privation, were it ever to come about in Scotland. In point of fact, both groups have moved and are moving further and further toward becoming the junior partners of the SNP. In the case of the SSP leadership it is quite possible that the likes of Alan McCombes will follow the logic of their recent trajectory and take out membership of Salmond's party (not least if the SSP loses all come May 3).
Back in 1997, Blair had a top-down answer to the evident democratic deficit that existed in Scotland. He gave the Scots the Holyrood parliament, a parliament without the right to exercise self-determination up to and including separation. It other words, a sop.
After all the Scots had for many years overwhelmingly voted against the Tories, only to see Thatcher and her successors form the government in Westminster. While the Tories virtually disappeared from Scotland's political landscape, Britain's government continued to impose Tory policies in every part of the United Kingdom - including Scotland. With the sharp decline in levels of class consciousness resentment took a national form. That is still the case, with disappointment over the failures of New Labour - above all over the lies about Iraq, WMDs and the rest.
Comrade Sheridan and his Scottish Militant had been in the forefront of the fight against Thatcherism, well remembered for leading the battle to defeat the hated poll tax, which was tried out on the working class in Scotland before being inflicted everywhere else in Britain. It was against the backdrop of this militancy and combativeness that first the Scottish Socialist Alliance and then the SSP was formed.
However, the opportunity to engage the state that rules over all of us in the United Kingdom in unity with the rest of the British left was squandered. Imagining that splitting Scotland, including its working class, from the rest of the UK should be the strategic primary aim, the SSP adopted the disastrous call for an 'independent socialist Scotland'.
The bitter fruits of this divisive left nationalist turn are now in evidence, as in practice 'socialist' was dropped from the slogan and the two left nationalist outfits will compete against each other, standing rival lists in every region in May. But neither will contest the first-past-the-post seats, giving at the very least tacit support to the SNP in almost every constituency.
While neither the SSP nor Solidarity has come out openly for a vote for the SNP in May's elections, individual leaders of both groups have stated their intention of backing Salmond's party. Their tactics amount to the same thing in any case. Further down the line, there is every indication that both sets of left nationalists would be prepared to help the SNP form a government through their votes in the Scottish parliament (assuming, of course, that either the SSP or Solidarity will have any MSPs after May 3 - neither is registering enough support at the moment, even in Glasgow, although comrade Sheridan's own persona may see him re-elected after his success in the defamation case against the News of the World).
It probably should have come as no surprise that the Socialist Workers Party, which in Scotland operated as the Socialist Worker platform in the SSP until it joined forces with Sheridan in the Solidarity split, accommodated to the whole "independent socialist Scotland" trajectory. Instead of fighting the SSP's left nationalism head on it raised secondary objections or made excuses.
Where this leads can be seen in a recent article, written "in a personal capacity" by Neil Davidson, a leading SWP member of Solidarity. So in other words this is the official SWP position. The article is "in a personal capacity" in relation to Solidarity.
Responding to opinion poll figures showing 51% of Scots supporting independence and 36% likely to vote SNP (as against only 29% for Labour), comrade Davidson warned: "It is tempting for socialists to uncritically welcome these figures as a blow against the empire - given that 'Britishness' is currently being used as an ideological weapon against muslims, and Britain is currently using actual weapons against Afghans and Iraqis. But more analysis is needed" (Socialist Worker December 2).
Comrade Davidson went on to say: "Socialists support Scots being able to choose whether or not they want to be part of Britain (the 'right of self-determination')." Quite correct. But then in mealy-mouthed manner he argued that it might be correct not to oppose independence in a referendum, as it "would effectively be a judgement on Britain's role in the new world order, and New Labour's record more generally". For that reason, "there would be a strong case for refusing to vote for the continued existence of the British state. But note that this is quite different from actively supporting the dissolution of Britain on a nationalist basis." These are weasel words, designed to square the circle of appeasing left nationalism while pretending to adhere to internationalist socialism.
Davidson goes on to list several reasons why the ruling class in Britain might not be bothered by such an outcome as an independent Scotland. And, while he correctly counters current left illusions in left-led independent South American states, when he deals with the disastrous SSP and Solidarity aim of splitting the British working class he is quite brief: "For some socialists the demand for independence reflects an absolute pessimism - of the sort that became quite common during the 1980s - about the possibility of the working class movement reviving across Britain. But if we effectively write off the English working class, then grand-sounding declarations about the 'destruction of the British state' lead, at the very least, to encouraging dangerous illusions in a Scottish reformist road to socialism."
What is missing from this account in Socialist Worker is how, in what constitutional form, revolutionary socialists should both side with Scottish self-determination and champion the unity of the working class. In our view this is best done with the demand for a federal republic of England, Scotland and Wales. Without that one has to presume that the SWP is either quite content to support minor reforms in the existing UK state, or is prepared to put off self-determination to socialism (in other words, it refuses to use it as a weapon in the interests of our class).