{"id":19373,"date":"2021-07-31T22:40:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T22:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=19373"},"modified":"2022-08-13T23:00:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T23:00:38","slug":"the-swp-and-scottish-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2021\/07\/31\/the-swp-and-scottish-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"The SWP and Scottish independence – part 1, Breakin’ up is so hard to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following \u00a0post includes the Contents and the Introduction of the first part of the review by Allan Armstrong of\u00a0Breaking up the British state \u2013 <\/em>Scotland, Independence & Socialism, <\/em>editors, Bob Fotheringham, Dave Sherry and Colm Bryce. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The full review of Part 1 can be read at:<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/07\/breaking-up-the-british-state.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE SWP AND SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 1 – Breakin’ up is so hard to do<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part One \u2013 \u201cBreakin\u2019 up is so hard to do\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Murray Armstrong, one-time IS and SWP member, reviews ButBS <\/em>in bella caledonia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Setting the scene \u2013 the SWP from anti-devolution to pro-devolution, then from anti-independence to pro-independence<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. The SWP, some of its breakaways, IndyRef1, the Radical Independence Campaign and the problem with \u2018national exceptionalism\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a04.\u00a0<\/strong>The SWP promotes anti-imperialist arguments to support the SNP\u2019s constitutional proposals just as the leadership moves to a closer embrace of US and British imperialism<\/strong><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0<\/strong>Scottish independence – a product of working class defeats or the decline of the UK\u2019s imperialist and unionist state?<\/strong><\/p>\n

6. Maclean and the similarities and differences between Scotland and Ireland and some overlooked contradictions <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a07.\u00a0<\/strong>The problems associated with dropping old British Left arguments on Maclean without understanding his republican socialist perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a08. M<\/strong>issing out the significance of cultural resistance and its relationship to the legacy of John Maclean<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a09. A<\/strong>n attempt at an orthodox Leninist defence of the right of national self-determination and a failure to appreciate the Norwegian precedent<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a010.\u00a0<\/strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The review of Part 2,\u00a0To party or not to party<\/em> can be read at:-<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/08\/breaking-up-the-british-state-part-2.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

_________________<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) has recently published a book entitled Breaking up the British State \u2013 Scotland, Independence & Socialism (ButBS), <\/em>[i]<\/a>\u00a0edited by Bob Fotheringham, Dave Sherry and Colm Bryce. \u00a0This book has an extended introduction and nine chapters on a variety of Scottish-related topics. \u00a0It includes a lot of interesting material, particularly on Scottish trade union struggles, racism and anti-racism in Scotland, and on the SNP government\u2019s neo-liberal (with a social bent) record.<\/p>\n

This review of BuBS<\/em> is in two parts.\u00a0 The first part, Breakin\u2019 up is so hard to do,<\/em>\u00a0[ii]<\/a> examines the thinking and theories which have led to the SWP adopting Scottish independence. \u00a0It points to some of the ButBS <\/em>shortcomings, when applied to the political situation we confront today.\u00a0 The UK is facing a long-term crisis.\u00a0 The majority of the British ruling class now give their backing to Boris Johnson\u2019s authoritarian populism. \u00a0They are imposing a reactionary unionist clampdown on the existing \u2018Devolution-all-round\u2019 and Irish \u2018Peace Process\u2019 settlement. \u00a0This was put into place, after 1997, when neoliberal New Labour (and later David Cameron\u2019s Conservatives) adopted a liberal unionist strategy to maintain the UK in the face of recent challenges, particularly in Ireland and Scotland.\u00a0 This led to the devolution referenda in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the referendum in the Republic of Ireland, which dropped its constitutional claim over Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

British Labour, which has always been divided between liberal and conservative unionist approaches to the UK, is now further divided on national lines too. \u00a0Only in Wales does Labour still cling to a liberal unionist, \u2018extend devolution\u2019 agenda. \u00a0For the UK as a whole, and in Scotland in particular, Labour has become conservative unionist, unable to challenge Johnson\u2019s undoing of New Labour\u2019s liberal unionist settlement.<\/p>\n

But constitutional nationalists, particularly the SNP, have also been stymied. \u00a0Previously they were able push liberal unionists further along the devolutionary road, and even obtain IndyRef1. \u00a0Today, constitutional nationalists, like Nicola Sturgeon, whilst putting on a better display of opposition than the liberal unionists, are also thwarted by reactionary and conservative unionists who make no real concessions.<\/p>\n

ButBS <\/em>ignores the underlying nature of the UK\u2019s unionist and imperialist state.\u00a0 This state is based on the sovereignty of the Crown-in-Westminster, with its armoury of anti-democratic Crown powers. \u00a0ButBS <\/em>also doesn\u2019t recognise the political nature of the changing strategies., liberal, conservative and reactionary unionist,[iii]<\/a> the British ruling class has adopted to maintain its direct control over the UK and its indirect control over the Republic of Ireland.\u00a0 The first part of this review goes into the political reasons why the SWP is unable to devise an immediate republican, \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 strategy\u2019 to resist Johnston\u2019s reactionary unionists and to offer an alternative to the constitutional nationalists\u2019 floundering attempts to bring about constitutional change.<\/p>\n

There is also a deep-seared economism to the thinking behind ButBs<\/em>, which leads its contributors to prioritise trader union struggles. They don\u2019t appreciate the issue of oppression, and the nature of the democratic political struggles arising from this.\u00a0 They ignore the issue of alienation, and the cultural resistance this has given rise to in Scotland. \u00a0This review highlights the significance of these issues in the ongoing struggle for Scotland\u2019s self-determination.<\/p>\n

ButBS<\/em> upholds what it sees as Lenin\u2019s theory of national self-determination.\u00a0 This claim is found to be wanting as it misses the most obvious parallel.\u00a0 Lenin looked to the case of another unionist state – Norway. In any international comparison Norway was low on oppressed nation criteria, but nevertheless, was denied the democratic right of national self-determination by the Swedish imperial and unionist state.\u00a0 The SWP\u2019s failure to ground support for Scottish self-determination upon the democratic principle of opposition to oppression (even if this has not yet become overt oppression) leaves ButBS <\/em>dependent on less firm grounds in its support for Scottish independence.\u00a0 This part of the review concludes by looking at contested arenas where such debates are already taking place.<\/p>\n

The second part of this review, To party or not to party?<\/em> will look into the SWP\u2019s long-standing claim that it provides the Socialist party alternative to the constitutional parties – particularly the social democrats, be they Labour or the SNP.\u00a0 Social democracy has changed its meaning over time[iv]<\/a>, and can now mean little more than a commitment to state intervention in the running of the economy. \u00a0The SNP adopted such social democratic thinking under Alex Salmond.\u00a0 This has been taken further under Nicola Sturgeon. \u00a0Far from being incompatible with neo-liberalism, it amounts to a social neo-liberalism, first developed under New Labour.<\/p>\n

The second part will take up the issue of political organisation raised in ButBS<\/em>. \u00a0It looks at why ButBS<\/em>is muted in making any party claims for the SWP. \u00a0It makes a criticism of the wider social democratic legacy, which has had such an impact on the British Left. \u00a0Whilst wanting to reject British Labourism, ButBS<\/em> is still mired in an acceptance of much Left social democratic thinking.<\/p>\n

The SWP is one of the larger British political organisations claiming to be revolutionary socialist, adhering to what it claims to be Leninist methods of organisation.\u00a0 Therefore, in upholding the need for a revolutionary party, ButBS <\/em>contributors want to embrace Vladimir Lenin (and Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky too). \u00a0In an attempt to appear orthodox, ButBS<\/em>uncritically invokes the Bolsheviks\u2019 1917 Declaration of Rights. \u00a0This declaration addressed the oppressed nations in the new state inherited from the Tsarist Russian empire.\u00a0 However, for various reasons, this declaration has not left Socialists a legacy which we can champion today.\u00a0 The Bolshevik\u2019s failure to embrace an \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 strategy contributed to this.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the second part of this review concludes by advancing the case for a different sort of party – a socialist republican party, developing the strategy of \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 first promoted in these islands by James Connolly and John Maclean. \u00a0And they were part of a wider tradition, with representatives in Poland and Ukraine too.\u00a0 Their thinking and strategies were to be tested in the 1904-7 and 1916-21\/3[v]<\/a> International Revolutionary Waves. Their thinking retains considerable relevance today, especially when some Socialists, understandably anxious to oppose the imperialist designs of the US and British ruling cases, end up giving support to the spurious anti-imperialist claims of Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia, a declining imperialist power, and Xi Jinping\u2019s China, a rising imperialist power.<\/p>\n

I have written an earlier and fuller analysis of the IS\/SWP (and other significant Left political organisations in Scotland) and their relationship to the issue of Scottish self-determination, in my tribute to Neil Davidson.[vi]<\/a>\u00a0 Neil was an SWP member from 1978-2014.\u00a0 I have used the same method in this article of adding substantial footnotes, which further develop points made in the main text, and also provide examples from my own direct political experience and writings.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Endnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[i] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Breaking up the British State \u2013 Scotland, Independence & Socialism (ButBS) <\/em>edited by Bob Fotheringham, Dave Sherry & Colm Bryce (Bookmarks, 2021)<\/a><\/p>\n

[ii] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With apologies to Neil Sedaka<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From Pre-Brit to Ex-Brit- Understanding the Unionist nature of the UK state and the reasons for its ongoing demise<\/em>, Allan Armstrong https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files. wordpress.com\/2021\/ 07\/from-pre-brit-to-ex-brit-4.pdf, p.31-33<\/a><\/p>\n

[iv] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/the-difference-between-social-democracy-official-and-dissident-communism-and-a-politics-based-on-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination\/<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In retrospect it can be seen that this International Revolutionary Wave ended in 1921, marked by events in the fateful month of March. \u00a0However, there were still hopes that this revolutionary wave could be revived in Germany.\u00a0 The failure of the Hamburg Rising in October 1923 ended this possibility.<\/a><\/p>\n

[vi] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/07\/from-grey-to-red-granite-2.pdf<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

_____________<\/p>\n

also see:<\/p>\n

1. Riding two horses at once – The SWP and scottish independence _ Allan Armstrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riding Two Horses At Once – The SWP and Scottish independence<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n