https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/02\/the-british-left-the-uk-state-.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n _____________<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ______________<\/p>\n The first thing needed to develop a Socialist strategy to counter the continued slide to the Right in these islands is an appreciation of the political forces that are leading this attack, and how they are preparing to meet the challenges they still face. \u00a0One of the most significant of these challenges comes from the national democratic movements in Scotland, Northern Ireland\/Ireland and potentially in Wales too.<\/p>\n Since the 2016 Brexit vote, with the rise of Right populism, its victory in the UK reaffirmed by the December 12th<\/sup> Westminster general election results, the constitutional nationalists of the SNP and Plaid Cymru no longer face a confident liberal UK state. \u00a0When 800 lawyers sign a petition accusing Boris Johnson and Priti Patel of endangering them,[1]<\/a> it is clear that the old liberal UK political order is being hollowed out, as in several other, particularly East European states (e.g. Poland and Hungary). \u00a0The Right populists are putting a new British authoritarian order in place.<\/p>\n In Scotland, the SNP leadership has no effective strategy to defy Boris Johnson and Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack\u2019s continued denial of the right to hold \u2018IndyRef2\u2019. \u00a0Neither the SNP\u2019s December 12th<\/sup>, 2019 Westminster electoral surge (vote up 8.1%, MPs up 13), nor any further electoral advance at Holyrood in 2021, is likely to make any difference in shifting the Tory government. \u00a0The SNP leadership is concerned that any popular mobilisation around a new independence campaign could fall out of its hands \u00a0and frighten its existing and potential business backers. \u00a0Above all else, its strategy is to keep Scottish business on board. \u00a0Scottish independence supporting \u2018Business for Scotland\u2019 has two fronts. \u00a0One, \u201cthe Saltire Club offers a powerful networking opportunity for leading pro-independence business leaders. \u00a0Saltire members meet approximately ten times a year over intimate and informal lunches in some of Scotland\u2019s most exclusive hotels and restaurants.\u201d[2]<\/a> \u00a0Nicola Sturgeon has attended.\u00a0 Another word for \u201cnetworking\u201d is lobbying.<\/p>\n However, \u2018Business for Scotland\u2019 has another front, \u2018Believe in Scotland\u2019, to try and control the political agenda of existing \u2018Yes\u2019 groups.\u00a0 A key part of this is keeping independence supporters on board with the First Minister\u2019s cautious strategy (but even \u2018Business for Scotland\u2019 thinks that Andrew Wilson\u2019s Sustainable Growth Commission proposals are too blatantly right wing to convince most independence supporters!)[3]<\/a>\u00a0This constant emphasis on the need to work within the limits of the UK\u2019s anti-democratic constitution is continuing to block even the SNP\u2019s \u2018Indy-Lite\u2019, under the Crown, British High Command and NATO.<\/p>\n Divisions have opened up in the SNP. \u00a0This has led to the emergence of a possible alternative leadership around Joanna Cherry and maybe Alex Salmond. \u00a0However, they also accept the need to work within the limits of the UK constitution. \u00a0It was under Salmond that the SNP\u2019s \u2018Indy-Lite\u2019 proposals were first adopted. \u00a0However, Joanna Cherry wants to mount a stronger legal challenge through the Supreme Court, following her \u2018success\u2019 in getting Johnson\u2019s attempt to prorogue Westminster ruled as illegal. \u00a0However, this did not stop Johnson going ahead with his Brexit plans anyhow. \u00a0Salmond, a natural populist, might be prepared to go further, and call for some legal extra parliamentary action to increase the pressure on the UK government. \u00a0But as someone just as committed to serving the needs of Scottish business, with his close links to the Royal Bank of Scotland, his record of trying to out neo-Liberal, Gordon Brown before the 2008 Crash, any public derring-do will be linked to behind-the-scenes reassurances to Scottish business. \u00a0And if it proves necessary to rein in any civil disobedience, Salmond will throw his weight behind such moves.<\/p>\n Nicola Sturgeon is a competent, centre social democrat and social liberal, but one whose independence strategy has stalled in the face of Tory reactionary unionism. \u00a0Alex Salmond may be a more maverick character, prepared to take chances, but his underlying politics are right social democrat, with a socially illiberal streak, shown by his 2008 attempt as MP to rein in abortion rights[4]<\/a> and his personal attitude towards women. \u00a0He is also a strong supporter of the queen. \u00a0Salmond will certainly not be wanting to put any immediate economic and social demands at the centre of any Scottish \u2018Indy-Lite\u2019 campaign. \u00a0He may well, though, make all sorts of \u2018promises\u2019 to be considered after independence.<\/p>\n By that time, the SNP leadership\u2019s carefully nurtured Scottish ruling class-in-the-making, formed round \u2018Business for Scotland\u2019[5]<\/a> would be in control, if their \u2018Indy-Lite\u2019 policy was ever to be implemented. \u00a0And, as in Ireland from 1921, with the emergence of the \u2018Free Staters\u2019, former unionists would \u00a0rush to join them.\u00a0 Together they will demand that workers tighten their belts. \u00a0Under the SNP\u2019s constitutional monarchy within the British Commonwealth, the UK\u2019s Crown Powers will still be available to them. \u00a0These have a long reach as Gough Whitlam\u2019s mildly reforming Australian government found, when it was toppled in 1974. \u00a0But an SNP run, \u2018Scottish Free State\u2019 is unlikely to make such challenges.<\/p>\n And furthermore, with Salmond\u2019s \u201csex pest\u201d record, acknowledged by his court defender, Gordon Jackson,[6]<\/a> and his earlier attempts to curtail abortion rights; along with Cherry\u2019s attempts to undermine transgender rights (even accepted by an earlier Cameron government and by the Irish government), their rightwards slide opens the door to anti-gay, anti-women and anti-English, Scottish nationalists. \u00a0They were marginalised during \u2018IndyRef1\u2019 by its rainbow alliance nature and civic national approach to Scottish independence. \u00a0But some of these Right nationalist political forces have become more vocal, whether online, e.g. \u2018Wings Over Scotland\u2019, or hovering around potential \u2018Indy only\u2019 slates for the 2021 Holyrood elections.<\/p>\n But some on the Left in Scotland, sometimes unwittingly, can also provide a conduit to socially conservative and ethnic nationalism.\u00a0 The journalist, Kevin McKenna has attacked the SNP government\u2019s promise to honour its commitment to legally entrench transgender rights.[7]<\/a> \u00a0Using the language of the Right Populists he has dismissed this as \u2018woke\u2019 politics.[8]<\/a> \u00a0Many of McKenna\u2019s articles do make trenchant criticisms of the SNP leadership, over civil liberties, support for neoliberalism and its\u00a0 attitude towards the Scottish working class.\u00a0 Mckenna is\u00a0 a Catholic who has not been not afraid to criticise the church hierarchy.\u00a0 A former Labour supporter, he has become a strong supporter of Scottish independence.<\/p>\n After \u2018IndyRed1\u2019, Scottish workers from an Irish Catholic background have been seen to be very much part of the emerging Scottish political nation and no longer outsiders. \u00a0They were key to Dundee, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire voting to secede from the Union.\u00a0 However, this dramatic swich in allegiance from Labour unionism to Scottish independence could only come about because of the multi-ethnic, non-sectarian, civic national nature of the \u2018IndyRef\u2019 campaign. \u00a0And in addition, \u2018IndyRef1\u2019 was a rainbow alliance, attracting those from an LBGT background. \u00a0McKenna\u2019s attacks on the transgendered people, invoking the sort of prejudices once raised\u00a0 against gays (over toilets) represent an attempt to exclude some from the Scottish nation. \u00a0Others would go much further in their exclusions as the influential \u2018Wings over Scotland\u2019 shows.<\/p>\n However, McKenna\u2019s view on transgendered people feeds into a wider Left view which counterposes class to identity politics.\u00a0 But such economistic thinking has not been able to get beyond its own identity politics. \u00a0Whenever its proponents have tried to imagine their \u2018pure\u2019 working class politics, its ideal worker soon appears to be male, white, straight, manual and a trade unionist. \u00a0Sometimes, they might have tolerated, women, gays, ethnic or religious minority workers. \u00a0But it was only through struggle that these other workers have gained recognition by those workers who were once more dismissive. \u00a0Class and particular oppressions (the only \u2018identities\u2019 with political significance for Socialists) may be conceptually distinct but are united in real people.\u00a0 Thus, the working class that Socialists should be supporting is one united in its diversity.<\/p>\n Another indicator of the growth of exclusionary politics on the Left is Tommy Sheridan, Left (but for how much longer?) Populist Brexit\/Scoxit supporter and sexist.\u00a0 He is \u00a0trying to make another bid to become an MSP and has joined Action for Independence.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 This has been formed \u00a0for the 2021 Holyrood election by ex-SNP MSP, Dave Thompson, opponent of same sex marriage. [10]<\/a><\/p>\n The mounting anger over Johnson\u2019s refusal to concede \u2018IndyRef2\u2019 could well be overshadowed by his reactionary unionist attempts to roll-back the existing post-1998, liberal unionist, \u2018Devolution all-round\u2019 settlement\u2019 in Scotland. \u00a0Growing numbers of unionists in Scotland have been more impressed by Sturgeon\u2019s public handling and use of the limited powers the Scottish government has to deal with Covid-19, than by Johnson\u2019s shambolic handling of the problem. \u00a0However, the Tories\u2019 post-Brexit, Internal Market Bill (IMB) is designed to considerably rein in the powers already devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. \u00a0This is, of course, entirely consistent with Brexit\u2019s \u2018bring back control\u2019 to the British ruling class.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not only the constitutional nationalist SNP and Plaid Cymru that can see the nature of the IMB attack, but the liberal unionist, Labour-led Welsh Cardiff Bay government. \u00a0It has described the IMB as \u201can attack on democracy and an affront to the people of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland\u201d.[11]<\/a> \u00a0And the broadly Labour supporting, STUC, WTUC as well as the NIC-ICTU have all issued a joint statement condemning the IMB. [12]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus, far from trying to cement wider political support behind the Tory government, Johnson is pushing liberal unionists towards the constitutional nationalists. \u00a0At the same time, he is infuriating rank and file independence supporters even more. \u00a0This further highlights the SNP government\u2019s lack of any effective strategy to deal with the Tory government.<\/p>\n This could well will precipitate civil disobedience and possibly mass popular action, way beyond the limits which might be suggested by the Plan B advocates within the SNP or by Salmond. \u00a0Should this occur, the British ruling class may have to reassess its \u2018No IndyRef2\u2019 stance. \u00a0It could turn to the Labour Party or to the Lib-Dems for an alternative strategy to derail Scottish independence. \u00a0With the Left trounced, Sir Keir Starmer has indicated Labour\u2019s willingness to act as the British ruling class\u2019s \u2018fire and theft\u2019 insurance party, should the Tories lose too much support.\u00a0 Labour could dream up various schemes to try to derail any \u2018IndyRef2\u2019.\u00a0 This could involve imposing a higher voting threshold in a future referendum or resorting to the UK state\u2019s last ditch option \u2013 the \u2018promise\u2019 of federalism. \u00a0However, this can never amount to more than \u2018Devo-Max\u2019 under the UK\u2019s Crown-in Westminster constitution and can always be rolled back later.<\/p>\n Despite Johnson\u2019s hard line approach towards \u2019Devolution-all-round\u2019, the even Harder Right want to go further. \u00a0Johnson\u2019s strategy would marginalise the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly by weakening their devolved powers. \u00a0However, the institutions would still be kept in place.\u00a0 Increasingly reduced to \u2018talking shops\u2019, they could still offer second or third incomes to Tory politicians. \u00a0MSPs and MWAs can attend Holyrood or Cardiff Bay when their other interests don\u2019t interfere. \u00a0Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross has set the pattern with his rugby refereeing job.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n However, the former leaders of UKIP and the Brexit Party in the Welsh Assembly have reconstituted themselves as the Abolish (the Welsh Assembly) Party, ready for the 2021 Cardiff Bay elections. \u00a0They have also attracted the Tories\u2019 former Welsh depute chair.[14]<\/a> \u00a0With Johnson\u2019s lackadaisical approach to Covid-19 leading to a surge of new cases, and forcing him into an England-wide lockdown, he is no longer able to highlight his support for less restrictive measures compared to the more cautious Holyrood and Cardiff Bay administrations. \u00a0This leaves the Abolish Party open to an alliance with Farage\u2019s latest political reincarnation, the anti-lockdown, Reform the UK Party. \u00a0And it\u2019s revealing that Farage has returned to the use of \u2018UK\u2019 found in his first political incarnation \u2013 UKIP.\u00a0 The Hard Right have a more \u2018internationalist\u2019 strategy than the British Left.<\/p>\n Farage has just returned from the USA, and campaigning for Trump\u2019s re-election.[15]<\/a>\u00a0Trump has used Covid-19 to try to broaden support for \u2018America First\u2019 politics with a \u2018Me First\u2019 appeal beyond his reactionary base. \u00a0This has been countered by the Democrats with a more social liberal approach to Covid-19. \u00a0In the UK, this sometimes invokes the wartime spirit of \u2018We are all in this together\u2019.\u00a0 Of course, Socialists point to the very evident class divide in Covid-19 regulations and want to take the social approach further by invoking active working class solidarity. \u00a0But judged from either a socialist or liberal, social responsibility stance, Farage and his \u2018Me First\u2019 backers look like an updated version of the Second World War spivs, defying official policy for their own very selfish ends. \u00a0And this mentality extends deeply into a British ruling class, with its constitutionally underwritten, offshore tax havens, their tax avoidance lawyers and accountants, and their own private education, health and care services. \u00a0And when it comes to maintaining their profits, the social aspect of some neo-liberals also soon becomes less social, with calls to return to \u2018business as usual\u2019. \u00a0So, as with Brexit, the British ruling class is hedging its bets over how far Right \u2018Me First\u2019 politics can be pushed.<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s plans for a post-Brexit North and Midlands are designed to bypass local authorities, a point he has made against Andrew Burnham, Labour\u2019s\u00a0 right wing, mayor of Manchester, in their conflict over Covid-19 regulations in the city. \u00a0The Tories are also preparing to end the already pretty limited local planning regulations.[16]<\/a>\u00a0 They are promoting \u2018free ports\u2019 to cut business rates, undermine workers\u2019 rights and environmental regulations. (It should come as little surprise that SNP controlled Dundee City Council is looking at the prospect favourably).[17]<\/a>\u00a0 The common feature of all these Tory policies is to remove any remaining official democratic accountability, whether in the form of Devolution, Local Councils or planning appeals procedures. \u00a0Control of future economic and social developments will be in the hands of businesses which have given large enough donations, i.e. bribes, to the Tory Party. \u00a0They will be able to proceed with their chosen projects without taking any account of people\u2019s needs, health or environmental concerns.\u00a0 When their projects go pear-shaped, they will expect public bailouts.<\/p>\n Northern Ireland\/Ireland is an area where Johnson\u2019s Tory government faces a one of its biggest challenges.\u00a0 Johnson courted the Right Populist and reactionary unionist DUP in his bid for the leadership of the Tory Party. \u00a0However, as soon as he had achieved this, the DUP was unceremoniously dumped.\u00a0 Its delusions of grandeur were pricked in the December 12th election.\u00a0 Now Johnson is every bit as concerned as the DUP for the UK to hold on to \u2018Ulster\u2019\/Northern Ireland. \u00a0A British ruling class, which cannot hold on its own state\u2019s territory, cannot hope to maintain its position in the global corporate order as the US\u2019s \u2018Britain Second\u2019. \u00a0It would be very publicly exposed as the third rate imperial power it is.\u00a0 But the Tories know that the DUP has nowhere else to turn.\u00a0 It has no international allies, other than US Protestant fundamentalists, who even under Trump have not been able to undermine US state commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. \u00a0This was unanimously backed by the US House of Representatives on December 3rd<\/sup>, 2019.[18]<\/a>\u00a0 In January, following the DUP\u2019s poor Westminster election results, Johnson\u2019s new Tory government was able to push the DUP into rejoining the Northern Ireland Executive and Stormont, on the UK government\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n Furthermore, British capitalists have considerably greater economic interests in the Republic of the UK than in Northern Ireland.\u00a0 Therefore, the Tory government will not be moved by any unnecessary Loyalist promoted, Orange-flagged, lambeg-drummed provocations, supported by the DUP. \u00a0The Tories are exerting their own pressures on the Republic of Ireland.\u00a0 Compared to the UK\u2019s bargaining position with the EU as a whole over Brexit (the EU is the destination of 43% of UK exports, whilst the UK is the destination of only 18% of EU exports[19]<\/a>), the UK is in a much stronger position in relation to the Republic of Ireland (which is the destination of 5.9% of UK exports,[20]<\/a> whilst the UK is the destination of 10.3% of exports from the Republic[21]<\/a>). \u00a0Last October, Irish, Fine Gael, Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, buckled in the face of such economic pressure and signed up to Johnson\u2019s calculatedly vague UK\/EU \u2018border in the Irish Sea\u2019 provisions in his Brexit deal.[22]<\/a><\/p>\n With Johnson\u2019s position reinforced by the December 12th<\/sup> 2019 general election, he is proceeding with his hard Brexit course, which has major implications for the Border and all the\u00a0 destabilising consequences that brings.\u00a0 The Tories have now openly reneged on their October Brexit deal and the Good Friday Agreement with their Internal Market Bill.\u00a0 This reopens the prospect of a land border between the UK and EU within Ireland.<\/p>\n There have been a lot of reassuring media comments in the UK, dismissing the prospect of any hard land border.\u00a0 But the threat of a hard border in Ireland is real.\u00a0 The Border could quite quickly become a violent place again with smugglers and people traffickers, dissident Republicans wanting to bomb border posts, armed Loyalists trying to mark UK state territory. \u00a0Even during an earlier period, when both the Republic of Ireland and the UK were still within the EEC\/EC\/EEU, successive British governments were quite prepared to enforce a very hard border and have a military occupation and repressive policing.\u00a0 Then the \u2018border in the Irish Sea\u2019 meant something rather different\u00a0 – the quarantining of the political situation in Northern Ireland\/Ireland and the attempt to keep its consequences out of Great Britain.\u00a0 And as long as that remains the situation, few Tories are not going to show much concern.<\/p>\n On February 8th<\/sup>, 2020, the Dail general election took place in the Republic of Ireland.\u00a0 Unlike the UK, the Republic of Ireland did not pass over to Right populist control. \u00a0There is little doubt that sections of the Irish ruling class were unhappy with the loss of the longstanding Fine Gael and Fianna Fail monopoly over Irish governments; just as the British ruling class were shaken by the size of the \u2018Yes\u2019 vote in IndyRef1.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the Irish ruling class was able to exert the pressure to create a new, but still essentially neo-liberal, Fianna Fail\/Fine Gael\/Green coalition government. \u00a0This coalition is also of a decidedly conservative constitutional nationalist hue. \u00a0It does not want to rock any boats. \u00a0With Johnson ditching his deal with Varadkar (who is still Tanaiste in the coalition), the new Irish government has been left high and dry. \u00a0It is looking to the EU and a hoped-for Joe Biden-led Democratic government, to deal with Johnson\u2019s reneging on the Irish border deal.<\/p>\n Despite Sinn Fein\u2019s remarkable election result, it is in no position to dictate politics in the Dail. \u00a0It only holds 23% of the seats. \u00a0Even if the short-lived fantasy, Sinn Fein \u2018Left\u2019 coalition government had come about, Sinn Fein faced major problems in trying to push its manifesto commitment to Irish reunification.\u00a0 And these weren\u2019t confined to the lack of Dail allies committed to Sinn Fein\u2019s Irish reunification proposals.\u00a0 The Irish ruling class does not want to take responsibility for running Northern Ireland anytime soon.\u00a0 Even economically powerful West Germany took about ten years to absorb economically run-down East Germany, and this was with the overwhelming support of those in the East.\u00a0 The ruling class of the economically crippled, post EU \u2018bailout\u2019, Republic of Ireland has no wish to absorb the economically run-down Northern Ireland, nor is it wanting to deal with Loyalist intransigence. \u00a0There is little prospect of getting a vote for an Irish reunification referendum in the South through the Dail. \u00a0And this feat has to be pulled off with a Stormont vote for a simultaneous Irish reunification referendum in the North.<\/p>\n Sinn Fein\u2019s own election manifesto made no attempt to win over Northern Irish unionists or others from a non-unionist Protestant, other religious or non-religious backgrounds, but looked to \u201cdemographic trends {which} suggest a nationalist voting majority in the north is close.\u201d [23]<\/a>. \u00a0This head count view mirrors the longstanding Loyalist sectarian view of how to ensure Northern Ireland remains part of the UK (which is why Partition was first introduced).\u00a0 Sinn Fein\u2019s claim is based on the changing relationship between the percentage of Protestants (down 4% to 41.6% from 2001 to 2011) and percentage of Catholics (up 0.6% to 40.2% over the same period) in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n What was entirely missing from the manifesto was any mention of the most significant cross-border, cross community social movements, which could contribute to \u2018Irish \u2018reunification from below\u2019. \u00a0These movements have been around gay and abortion rights, and in opposition to reaction North and South.\u00a0 But in the Dail election, it was more important for Sinn Fein to hold on to its socially conservative voters in the South. \u00a0Nor does the Sinn Fein manifesto mention EU migrants or asylum seekers living in Ireland. \u00a0They are also likely to be key supporters of Irish reunification. \u00a0(More worrying, \u201cSinn Fein does not want open borders\u201d,[24]<\/a> not making it clear which borders it is talking about \u2013 Ireland\u2019s or the EU\u2019s. \u00a0This seems to be a calculated evasiveness, after the racist Peter Casey\u2019s ability to win socially conservative Sinn Fein votes in the 2018 Irish presidential election).<\/p>\n Furthermore, Sinn Fein\u2019s own poor election results in Northern Ireland in the December 12th<\/sup> Westminster elections (down 6.7% in the vote), and the rise of the Northern Ireland Alliance Party (up 8.8%) and the return of the SDLP (up 3.1% and now with 2 MPs), places renewed attempts to reform Stormont in a stronger position amongst constitutional nationalists and liberal unionists in Northern Ireland. \u00a0However, Alliance\/SDLP hopes of significant Stormont reforms are unlikely to meet much success either, in the face of continued DUP intransigence, and the Tory government\u2019s dependence on the officially recognised \u2018Ulster\u2019 unionists of all hues to maintain the defence of the Union (along with a \u2018blind eye\u2019 turned, whenever unsavoury Loyalist methods are used).<\/p>\n The dire economic and social implications for the working class of Sinn Fein\u2019s continued attempts to keep the Stormont Executive on the road through its acceptance of \u2018Fresh Start\u2019, may lead to some rhetorical stepping up of a call for Irish reunification in Northern Ireland by the Left. \u00a0But with the Unionist constitutional veto over any Irish reunification referendum, the prospects for this happening in Northern Ireland by adopting a constitutional nationalist approach are very unlikely.\u00a0 And support for Irish reunification has to be won in two simultaneous referenda, North and South, the latter also being opposed by the ruling class in the Republic, who control the coalition government there.<\/p>\n But in Northern Ireland, and in the Republic of Ireland, unlike Scotland and Wales, there are other political forces, beyond the constitutional nationalists.\u00a0 which have a toehold in the parliamentary and local council institutions. \u00a0Dissident Republicans hold local council seats in Derry City and Strabane, Fermanagh and Omagh, Mid-Ulster, and Newry, Mourne and Down in Northern Ireland, and a councillor in Connemara South and TD for Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. \u00a0Although dissident Republicans, they don\u2019t all necessarily hold the same attitudes to armed struggle or to Brexit\/Irexit.<\/p>\n Those looking to an early return to armed struggle support Irexit on Irish nationalist grounds.\u00a0 For them, it is the likely return of a hard border (precipitated by a hard Brexit) which justifies armed attacks on border posts and personnel. \u00a0But the ability of British intelligence to penetrate armed Republican groups, was highlighted by its role at the time of the Omagh bombing and the death of 29 people in 1998.[25]<\/a> \u00a0And the dead end \u2018politics\u2019 of those dissident Republicans, who give priority to the use of arms, were highlighted in the tragic killing of the journalist Lyra McKee in Derry on March 31st<\/sup>t, 2019.[26]<\/a><\/p>\n The dissident Republican, 1916 Societies take an alternative political path and do not support Sinn Fein\u2019s constitutional road or advocate the dissident Republican military organisations in their plans to bring about Irish reunification.[27]<\/a>\u00a0 They have called for a 32 Counties Citizens Initiative referendum.\u00a0 However, the 1916 Societies\u2019 publicity and activities are still framed in a very Irish nationalist way.\u00a0 Their self-description as being a \u201cseparatist movement\u201d[28]<\/a> seems to apply not only to Ireland being free of British control but also being separate from the sort of cross-community and international campaigning which could bring about Irish reunification.\u00a0 The issues of cross-community opposition to social reaction, of the role of migrants and asylum seekers in Ireland, and an \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 strategy involving those opposing unionism and the UK state in Scotland, Wales and England (other than appeals to traditional Irish-Scots, London-, Liverpool- and Manchester- Irish Republicans) do not appear on their online media.<\/p>\n Although both the pro-EU Sinn Fein and the anti-EU dissident Republican oppose a hard border, they draw different conclusions.\u00a0 Where there is a political overlap is that whilst both support the free movement of Irish people, they are much more ambiguous about those who will be even more harshly affected \u2013 migrant workers and asylum seekers.\u00a0 This despite the long history of the Irish as migrants and of Irish Republican fighters as asylum seekers.\u00a0 This narrow Irish nationalist approach also goes for those in or close to the CPI.\u00a0 The CPI still carries some weight in the Irish trade union bureaucracy.\u00a0 In a similar manner to their CPB counterparts, they support \u2018Irish jobs for Irish workers\u2019 and argue for the chimera of \u2018non-racist\u2019 migration controls.<\/p>\n People before Proft (PbP) is the Socialist group most likely to tail Sinn Fein\u2019s constitutional nationalist, twin-track, Dublin Dail plus Northern Ireland Stormont road to Irish reunification.\u00a0 Having given support to the SDLP\/Alliance attempts to get Stormont back on the road in 2017, PbP has now switched its support to Sinn Fein\u2019s Irish reunification campaign, following the latter\u2019s success in the Irish Dail general election.\u00a0 This also enables them to put their earlier, unpopular Brexit\/Irexit stance behind them in Northern Ireland. \u00a0They can join a wider shared, anti-hard border campaign, which has much more resonance.<\/p>\n However, there is still a common political factor underlying PbP\u2019s 2017 support for a restored Stormont and its 2020 support for Stormont and Dail organised, Irish reunification.\u00a0 Rather than put forward their own immediate democratic or constitutional aims, they tail-end those put forward by others, falling back on the argument that they can only support a Socialist Republic.\u00a0 This leads to an abstentionist attitude, e.g. tail-ending the constitutional demands of the SDLP\/Alliance in 2017 and Sinn Fein since 2020.\u00a0 Where they differentiate themselves is not over the immediate aims of these constitutional campaigns (as was also shown by their British SWP counterparts in Scotland over \u2018IndyRef1\u2019) but in their call for more extra-parliamentary action, e.g. demonstrations. \u00a0This is usually accompanied by a rhetorical call for trade union action, which, given the ICTU-NIC and affiliated union bureaucracies\u2019 support for \u2018power-sharing\u2019 and social partnership, is unlikely to happen. \u00a0Nevertheless, no matter how much extra-parliamentary action is mounted, this still amounts to external pressure to implement others\u2019 constitutional \u2018solutions.\u2019<\/p>\n In contrast to Sinn Fein, most dissident Republican \u00a0and Left social democrat\u00a0 approaches to Irish reunification, a socialist republican reunification campaign would be based on \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 principles.\u00a0 As well as supporting cross border community defiance, this could also assist in the cross-border movement of migrants – perhaps a new version of the American Civil War, ‘Underground Railway’. And cross-border mobilisations against reactionary social legislation have already shown their ability to mobilise young people both from former Catholic and Protestant backgrounds.\u00a0 Such political practice would internationalise the campaign for a united Ireland, rather than nationalising it.\u00a0 And it would be good to see Scottish Socialists and others joining these campaigns, and not just leave it to the Orange Order to march in each other countries\u2019 streets.<\/p>\n Sadly, the majority of the British and Irish Left have taken a \u2018national exceptionalist\u2019 stance to the emergence of the issue of national democratic self-determination.\u00a0 This had been especially the case in Northern Ireland\/Ireland and reappeared in their response to \u2018IndyRef1\u2019.\u00a0 This in turn has also led to a Left nationalist response, longstanding in Ireland, but more recent in Scotland, e.g. the Scottish Socialist Party. \u00a0A shared characteristic of British, Irish, Scottish and Welsh exceptionalism\u2019 is its inability to conceive of an overall strategy to counter the UK and partitioned Irish state or their \u2018internationalism from above\u2019 allies.<\/p>\n Central to any socialist republican, \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 would be a strategy try to match and surpass the \u2018internationalism from above\u2019 opposition. \u00a0This opposition includes the reactionary unionists – both the Right populists, who extend their campaigns across the whole of the UK, and the Tory Hard Right, which uses its control of the UK state to stymie any democratic challenges (On occasions, both have been prepared to further extend their campaigning to the Republic). \u00a0It includes the British Labour Party and its conservative unionist defence of the UK state (sometimes disguised by liberal unionist \u2018promises\u2019).<\/p>\n A socialist republican \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 strategy would also challenge those British Left unionists and the Left nationalists with their, disconnected and \u2018national exceptionalist\u2019 approaches to the crisis of the UK state. \u00a0A socialist republican-led, \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 campaign to break-up the UK and reunify Ireland, would extend beyond Great Britain, and the wider UK, to cover the whole of these islands. \u00a0But with migrant workers from the EU, and asylum seekers fleeing the barbarism inflicted by corporate capital, its imperialist state military backers and their local allies, there is also a need to offer the possibility of an immediate new constitutional order to defend the rights that still exist.\u00a0 These cannot exist in a Right populist dominated global order. \u00a0Nor can they be defended adequately in a neo-Liberal order, which far from promoting the free movement of labour, has erected more draconian migration controls and walls in this world than have ever existed before.<\/p>\n If the remaining EU internal freedom of movement for migrants is rolled back, there is far less possibility of moving forward to the free movement of people throughout the world, which is central to any international socialist vision.\u00a0 During the 1984-5 Miners\u2019 Strike, some Right wingers argued that support shouldn\u2019t be given to \u2018well-off\u2019 miners when there were many less well-paid workers. \u00a0When the miners were defeated, their lost wages certainly didn\u2019t end up in the pockets of the less well-paid.\u00a0 Instead, the miners\u2019 defeat immensely strengthened the hand of all employers.\u00a0 The new Immigration Bill may allow more migrant workers from outside, but only if they accept far worse pay, conditions and far fewer rights (including no right to vote) than British subjects and their enforced return when the employers decide they are no longer needed for their current job, or they have found even cheaper labour. \u00a0In immediate terms, just as with the miners in 1984-5, the attacks on EU migrants represent an attempt to worsen all workers\u2019 pay, conditions and rights.<\/p>\n However, the EU bureaucracy\u2019s \u2018internationalism from above\u2019 imposed \u00a0by member states has led to an \u2018internationalism from below \u2019response. \u00a0Migrant workers, their families and students have moved from one member country to another, formed nationally-mixed personal relationships, made friends from other nationalities, joined trade unions and community organisations, participated in political organisations and have created elements of a new multinational culture. \u00a0Therefore, the material base already exists for a federal, democratic, secular, social and environmentally sustainable, social European Republic.<\/p>\n The socialist republican call for the break-up of the UK state and for Irish reunification is also a call for a higher level of internationalism initially at a European level, which the EU bureaucracy no longer even pretends to uphold.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 8.11.20<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n 1. More than 800 signatories to letter condemning Johnson and Patel\u2019s attacks on lawyers<\/a><\/p>\n 2. The Saltire Club<\/a><\/p>\n 3. Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s Referendum Announcement Tactics Explained<\/a><\/p>\n 4. Goodbye Alex Salmond<\/a><\/p>\n 5. Business for Scotland<\/a> and The Saltire Club<\/a><\/p>\n 6. Alex Salmond\u2019s QC Gordon Jackson described him as a \u2018sex pest\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n 7. Opinion: Kevin McKenna: Has push for independence been sidelined by Hate Crime and Gender Recognition fanatics?<\/a><\/p>\n 8. Kevin McKenna: How \u2018woke\u2019 has been weaponised by those who fear it<\/a><\/p>\n 9. Tommy Sheridan confirms ties to new Scottish independence party<\/a><\/p>\n 10. Dave Thompson (Scottish politician)<\/a><\/p>\n 11. UK Internal Market Act (Wales)<\/a><\/p>\n 12. Joint statement on the Internal Market Bill<\/a><\/p>\n 13. Douglas Ross will quit referee job – \u2018if elected\u2019 First Minister of Scotland<\/a><\/p>\n 14. Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party (History)<\/a><\/p>\n 15. Nigel Farage heaps praise on Donald Trump at Arizona rally<\/a><\/p>\n 16. Boris Johnson cries ‘nimbyism’, but his planning changes will be disastrous<\/a><\/p>\n 17. Claims freeport could turn Dundee into hive of criminal activity<\/a><\/p>\n 18. US Congress reaffirms support for Belfast Agreement<\/a><\/p>\n 19. UK trade with Ireland<\/a><\/p>\n 20. United Kingdom\u2019s Top Trading Partners<\/a><\/p>\n 21. Ireland\u2019s Top Trading Partners<\/a><\/p>\n 22. BREXIT MARK 2 \u2013 BORIS DISPELS THE FOG TO REVEAL CLASS WAR \u2013 an Irish perspective<\/a><\/p>\n 23. SF GE 2020 Manifesto<\/a>. p.12<\/p>\n 24. SF GE 2020 Manifesto<\/a>, p.70<\/p>\n 25. Intelligence on Omagh bomb ‘withheld from police’<\/a><\/p>\n 26. THE IMPACT OF THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM ON IRELAND AND CATALUNYA<\/a><\/p>\n 27. 1916 Societies<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019d like to thank Suzanne Wright for alerting me to \u2018Business in Scotland\u2019s \u2018Believe in Scotland\u2019 campaign.<\/p>\n ______________________________ FROM PRE-BRIT TO EX-BRIT: The forging and the break-up of the UK and Britishness<\/a><\/p>\n FROM GREY TO RED GRANITE<\/a><\/p>\n THE SCOTTISH LEFT PROJECT<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018BRITAIN MUST BREAK\u2019 TO DEFEND \u2018REAL LABOUR\u2019 or \u2018THE BREAK-UP OF THE UK\u2019 TO ADVANCE REPUBLICAN SOCIALISM?<\/a><\/p>\n RIDING TWO HORSES AT ONCE \u2013 The SWP and Scottish independence<\/a><\/p>\n LABOUR AND SOCIALIST LEFT UNIONISM IN THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE DEBATE<\/a><\/p>\n SCOTTISH SELF-DETERMINATION AND THE \u2018ACTUALLY EXISTING\u2019 LABOUR MOVEMENT<\/a><\/p>\nFrom the British Left\u2019s \u2018national exceptionalism\u2019 during the \u2018IndyRef1\u2019campaign to acting as Left outriders for the UK state during the Brexit campaign<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nContents<\/h3>\n
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CHALLENGE THE UK AND PARTITIONED IRISH STATES, THEIR ‘INTERNATIONALISM FROM ABOVE’ ALLIES AND THE DISUNITED LEFT’S ‘NATIONAL EXCEPTIONALISM’ WITH A SOCIALIST REPUBLICAN ‘INTERNATIONALISM FROM BELOW’ STRATEGY<\/h3>\n
\nAlso see:-<\/p>\n