Friends and Comrades
It is our pleasure to announce the formation of a new political alliance – made up of comrades based in Scotland initially, but hopefully to expand to include comrades based in Ireland, Wales and England – that can bring together those forces throughout the UK who believe that only through the dismantling of the British State, a state formed in the interests of the British ruling class and sustained in their interests up to the present day, can we ever hope to break the neo-liberal stranglehold in the North Atlantic and bring about the material conditions under which socialist democracies can be established in its place.
A vital component part of the global neo-liberal project headed by the US , the British State performs the same role for the US in Europe as Israel in the Middle East, South Korea in Southeast Asia and Colombia in Latin America – each a regional bastion of free market fundamentalism backed up by US military might, where necessary. The respective ruling classes in each nation or state is granted in return a share of the spoils in the form of either aid and/or trade credits – as with Israel and Colombia – or access to markets and resources – as with the UK and South Korea.
The 26-County Irish State government plays a junior partner role to British imperialism in these islands. Both governments have provided military bases for the current US-led imperialist war against Iraq. The Irish government is aiding the UK state’s attempt to provide a New Unionist political settlement, with devolution-all-round for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to roll back the national democratic challenge. This settlement is designed to make these islands a profitable haven for the global corporations. Both the British and Irish governments are pursuing a policy of social partnership, which involves trade union leaders in the neo-liberal privatisation and deregulation drives.
The struggle for national liberation and socialism in these islands must be waged under the banner of anti-imperialism. Stuck within the narrow parameters of a nationalism rooted in the past, this struggle will only ever come to grief on the rocks of opportunism. Now is the time to realign our struggle with anti-imperialist struggles currently taking place all over the world – in Palestine, Iraq, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. It is time to reassert solidarity and form alliances with the oppressed black, Latino, Chicano and Native American communities in the United States, in short to seek alliances with all peoples and/or organisations that are engaged in resistance to global capital and international imperialism, headed by the US.
Deriving our doctrinal foundation from the ground-breaking New Unionism paper produced by the Republican Communist Network platform within the SSP, we are holding our first event as part of Socialism 2005, organised by the Scottish Socialist Party, which will be held in Glasgow from 8 to 9 October.
Fraternally
John Wight, Allan Armstrong, Raphael De Santos, Gerry Corbett.