[illegible] gains in the Scottish elections has subsided, it is appropriate for socialists to take a cool look at the new political situation in Scotland. [illegible] to the S.N.P. was massive, yet one [illegible] protest against the Government - the fact that it was Labour which suffered overwhelmingly, and the failure of the S.N.P. to make headway in former strongholds, e.g., Stirling, West Lothian and Hamilton.
This is the first lesson, that so long as the Wilson Government keeps up its anti-working class policies, and no deep-rooted alternative on the left appears, the S.N.P. will make the running in Scotland. The unprincipled way in which the right-wing in the Labour Party fought the campaign is also worth noting: with no policies which they could defend, they concentrated upon name-calling and puerile "exposures", such as the fact that [illegible] opposing everyone [illegible] branches. They also indulged in the "battle of statistics" (since Scotland's economic statistics are not available separate from U.K. ones, by judicious arithmetical acrobatics, literally anything can be proved from them), confirming Mark Twain's dictum: "There are lies, damned lies and statistics."
SEPARATISM NOT NEW
But is SUPPORT for separatism the main basis of the S.N.P.'s gains? It is difficult to say how widespread such feeling is, although it has undoubtedly grown considerably. It is not, [however,] a new factor in Scottish politics. In fact, until the mid-thirties, it was a central plank in every popular, radical and working class movement; from the "United Scotsmen" of 1797; through the Chartists to the I.L.P. The surge forward of the S.N.P. echoes the General Election of 1922, when Scotland returned sixteen I.L.P. M.P.s, ten of them from Glasgow. These historical precedents can be related to the parochialism which has always been a feature of Scotland's political and cultural life.
An exception to this parochialism, however, was John McLean, the great Clydeside revolutionary, whom Lenin made the first Soviet consul in Britain. McLean raised the slogan of a "Scottish [Wo]rkers [Rep]ublic" [illegible] his friend and companion [illegible]
However, the S.N.P. bears no comparison to even the vaguely left I.L.P. Its recent conference [illegible] The conference was opened by the party's veteran chairman, Arthur Donaldson, with a call to the party to act "responsibly" (a familiar word to Labour Party members!), and the conference went on to pass a resolution committing the first Scottish Government to accept a "fair share" of U.K.'s debts. Other notable resolutions passed called for the removal of Polaris, and foreign military bases, and equal pay for women in an independent Scotland.
TWO VAGUE TENDENCIES
What emerged from the [conference] was the identification of two major, if vague, tendencies in the party. One, a right-wing middle-class [illegible] Donaldson and William Wolf; the other, of a left tinge, containing people who are relatively new to the party, and having a background in the [illegible] Winnie Ewing, and [illegible] was one of the new Glasgow councillors, who was prominent in the Young Socialists in the early sixties. They are held together by their extreme vagueness, and the sheer momentum the party has gained.
NOT FASCIST
They are quite clearly distinguished from fascist nationalism, which in a period of capitalist crisis bases itself on an inverted return to the early days of the formation of the "nation state" and seeks to solve the problems of the ruling class by a grotesque reflection of the achievements of Napoleon, Garibaldi and Bismarck, i.e. the extension and consolidation of the territory of the capitalist state.
To date the left has, in the main [illegible] the whole issue, and although the C.P. [illegible] made an [illegible] that it has "always" campaigned for a Scottish Parliament, and the tiny Maoist group, the Workers Party of Scotland, is raising once more McLean's slogan of a "Scottish Workers Republic", the main response has been to regard any separatist demand as a diversion. The more marxist-inclined elements point out that socialists' support for national movements is only appropriate to nations which are the victims of imperialist domination, Scotland not being into this category the S.N.P. is labelled "fascist."
This label might be appropriate were the S.N.P. [illegible] actually a nationalist [illegible]. In [a certain] sense, its roots are in the contradictory historical formation of capitalism in Scotland, which became fully developed as part of BRITISH imperialism. Scotland's ruling class is indistinguishable from England's. But the traditional carriers of culture in a nation, the middle class, never became absorbed to the same extent, and maintained a distinct Scottish culture and consciousness [wh]ich it transmitted to [the wor]king class [illegible] are in [illegible] and Wallonia (the French-speaking part of Belgium). These tendencies, which are most accurately described as "separatist" are the result of the decay of capitalism and [illegible].
All sections of society are plunged into confusion and some middle class elements see their salvation in breaking away from the imperialist state, which even in good times they had heartily defended. Given the petit-bourgeois utopian nature of these [illegible] and disoriented workers [illegible] (though [not], in the S.N.P.'s case), and the widespread [support] they gain from the workers, there is nothing, in principle, wrong with socialists supporting the right of separation, provided this is done in the form of transitional demands, which make no concessions to backward prejudices and which aim to detach the workers from the middle-class elements.
There has not yet been a deep-going discussion and examination on the left in Scotland, which could work out the relevance to the Scottish workers of separatist demands. It is to be [illegible] that this article will help to stimulate such a discussion.
Bob Purdie