{"id":16319,"date":"2007-11-18T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-18T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=16319"},"modified":"2021-03-03T18:30:40","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T18:30:40","slug":"whatever-happened-to-the-independence-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2007\/11\/18\/whatever-happened-to-the-independence-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Whatever Happened To \u2018The Independence Election\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u2018National Conversation\u2019 prepares the way for further reform of the
\nUK<\/acronym><\/h2>\n

What do the results of the recent elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies, and the Irish Dail, mean for the future of the UK<\/acronym>? What is the political significance of Salmond\u2019s \u2018National Conversation\u2019?<\/p>\n

This is a contribution by the Republican Communist Platform in the SSP<\/acronym> to the debate. It questions the SSP<\/acronym> leadership\u2019s approach through an examination of two Frontline<\/cite> articles – Scotland\u2019s Independence Election by Andrew Grey<\/cite>, and Celtic Tigers? The SNP<\/acronym> In Government by Nick McKerrall<\/cite>, both members of the former ISM<\/acronym> Platform.<\/p>\n

The ISM<\/acronym> and the SSP<\/acronym><\/h3>\n

How does the SSP<\/acronym> leadership view the current situation in Scotland? Since the old ISM<\/acronym> platform folded, in March 2006, you have to look to key articles in Frontline<\/cite> to find out more about their underlying thinking. ISM<\/acronym> members formed the majority of the past leaderships of the old SSA<\/acronym> and the SSP<\/acronym>. Ex-ISM<\/acronym> members form the majority of the current SSP<\/acronym> leadership. Frontline<\/cite> represents an ISM<\/acronym> political afterlife of sorts – a \u2018Continuity ISM<\/acronym>\u2019.<\/p>\n

ISM<\/acronym> politics have dominated the SSA<\/acronym>, the united SSP<\/acronym> and, despite the ISM<\/acronym>\u2019s demise, still dominate the post-split SSP<\/acronym>. They also still inform Tommy Sheridan\u2019s views about Scotland. He is the only public voice of the 2006 SSP<\/acronym> breakaway, Solidarity, when it comes to their line on Scotland. This remains the case, despite any reservations held by his current CWI<\/acronym> and SWP<\/acronym> allies concerning Tommy\u2019s Left nationalism.<\/p>\n

Left nationalism sees any moves to devolve power from Westminster as a useful step towards an independent Scotland, whatever class makes the proposals, for whatever reasons. Left nationalists claim that an independent Scotland would allow the Scottish people\u2019s more left-of-centre politics to naturally assert itself, leaving the way open for a \u2018Scottish road to socialism\u2019.<\/p>\n

ISM<\/acronym> splintered over the years of its existence for a number of reasons. One reason, of course, was that, since it dominated the SSP<\/acronym> leadership, some of its prominent members felt no need for a distinctive Platform to argue their politics. Another, though, was the political trajectory of those who had come from the Militant\/CWI<\/acronym> tradition.<\/p>\n

Originally, Militant had rooted itself in the Left Labourist milieu. It proclaimed itself – in public anyhow – to be in the tradition of the \u2018good old Labour Party\u2019, as established by Keir Hardie[1]<\/sup><\/a>All Hail the Workers\u2019 Republic and the Struggle for a Communist World \u2013 A contribution to the debate on Scotland in the Scottish Socialist Alliance (AHtWR) pp. 3-23, The Communist Tendency in the Workers Republican Movement, 1998<\/cite><\/span><\/span>