REPUBLICANS ADDRESS THE ‘NO TO THE COUP’ DEMOS IN DUNDEE AND EDINBURGH ON AUGUST 31st – Emancipation, Liberation & Self-determination

On Saturday 31st August demonstrations were held throughout the UK to protest at ‘Boris’s coup’. Mary McGregor addressed the rally held in Dundee. Allan Armstrong addressed the rally held in Edinburgh.

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Speech by Mary McGregor

Comrades and friends,

We are living through extraordinary times. We live in a time where children go hungry, where the poor go to food banks to get by, where many live in despair and succumb to addiction, where mental health problems have reached epidemic proportions and where we are ruled over by a privileged, unelected elite.

The uncertainties over Brexit are resulting in fear of medicines and basic commodities being stockpiled and where migrants are demonized and are living in fear.

We know it doesn’t have to be like this we know another Scotland is possible.

The events of the last few weeks have shown that the idea that we live in a democracy is an illusion. The unelected house of lords, the monarchy and the crown powers are remnants of a feudal past but anyone who thought that the crown powers were just harmless tokens have had their eyes wide open.

To see Jacob Rees Mogg and other privy councillors jetting up to Balmoral to get the queen’s approval to prorogue parliament is like something out of the 16th century or the opening chapters of a handmaid’s tale.

But this is neither an historic time loop nor a dystopian nightmare. This is 2019 and our futures are being decided in the most bizarre fashion. We are treated as subjects not citizens. Our so called democratic structures have failed us. Our politicians have failed us. We are treated like feudal serfs; voiceless, powerless and worthless.

But we are here to say we will not accept this. We have a voice and we will use it to say another Scotland is possible.

We have the power to take to the streets and create our own genuine democracy. And where we be valued and value every person regardless of race or creed or sexuality.

We can create an inclusive, society where no child goes hungry where no person lives in fear of poverty. Where we welcome our brothers and sisters seeking a better life.

Where we live as citizens and are not at the whim of an unelected head of state and a parliamentary system which creates the illusion of democracy..

A society where the power rests with the people! A society where sovereignty rests with the people. We can have to oppose this coup by Johnston and his cronies but we have to use this moment to crate something better – genuine republican democracy. We start now! Forward to a democratic socialist Scottish Republic !

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also see Mary speaking at the 2nd Radical Independence Conference in Glasgow in November, 2013

http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2013/11/25/2nd-ric-conference-after-the-uk-the-future-of-4-nations/

http://youtu.be/gPz_MobFNIA

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Speech by Allan Armstrong

Edinburgh RIC banner takes the lead of the impromptu match form Holyrood to The Mound on 31.8.19

I am Allan Armstrong from the Edinburgh Radical Independence Campaign. If you turn round you will see our banner above you at the back. It reads:-

Another Scotland is Possible

Another Europe is Possible

Another World is Possible

I think these are sentiments which unite a lot people here today.

We have heard many politicians talking about the unconstitutional and illegal nature of Boris’s coup against Westminster. But Westminster quite constitutionally and legally presided over centuries of chattel slavery. When slavery was abolished, they compensated the slave owners not the slaves. When the City bankers helped to precipitate the 2008 Financial Crisis, Westminster ensured that, instead of these people facing jail sentences, they continued to receive massive bonuses. Their debts were offloaded on to us in an austerity offensive. When Westminster presided over the 2012-14 Scottish independence referendum campaign, it was quite consistent with their duplicity to make a ‘Vow’ sanctioned by David Cameron and Gordon Brown, which they had no intention of honouring. When Westminster presided over the 2016 EU referendum, it excluded EU residents and 16-18 year olds. They had been allowed to vote in the Scottish independence referendum. And in this year’s Euro-elections, Westminster presided over the removal of a large number of legally entitled EU voters from the electoral register.

And one of the key features of their anti-democratic Crown-in Westminster set up is the Union – the United Kingdom. This, along with the Crown Powers reinforces the position of reaction. Therefore, a key part of our struggle for democracy is to break the Union. This would benefit not only the people of Scotland, Wales, a united Ireland, but yes, of England too. It is the unionist state that has given such power to slave-owners, landlords, bankers and bosses across the whole of the UK. The UK state unites them but divides us.

Our reply to their anti-democratic constitutional sovereignty of the Crown-in-Westminster is our republican democracy – the sovereignty of the people. Our reply to their legal attacks on our rights is the demand for social justice. Our reply to their imposed UK is our self-determination.