{"id":23965,"date":"2023-04-25T21:11:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T21:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=23965"},"modified":"2023-09-07T09:29:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T09:29:26","slug":"challenging-the-constitution-a-review-of-peter-cannells-scotland-after-sturgeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/04\/25\/challenging-the-constitution-a-review-of-peter-cannells-scotland-after-sturgeon\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging the constitution – a review of Pete Cannell’s ‘Scotland after Sturgeon’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allan Armstrong writes a review of Pete Cannell’s Scotland after Sturgeon<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

CHALLENGING THE CONSTITUTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Anyone reading Pete Cannell\u2019s Scotland after Sturgeon<\/em> will acknowledge his fair-minded approach to Nicola Sturgeon.\u00a0 In terms of mainstream politics, Sturgeon, whilst leader of the SNP and Scotland\u2019s First Minister, was \u201ceasily the most popular politician in the UK\u201d. \u00a0Pete is also right to emphasise how Sturgeon used this position \u201cto ride above the tensions between the aspirations of the party\u2019s base, the consequences of centralising, pro-business policies and the limitations a constitutional approach to independence in the face of a hard-line unionist Westminster government.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Pete\u2019s article is based on a key aspect of the rs21\u2019s politics dating from its members\u2019 prior membership of the SWP. \u00a0Those from the SWP tradition are keen to promote economic, social and more recently environmental issues, but they are ambiguous about political issues, especially state constitutions. \u00a0They tend to see these as the concern of the \u2018chattering classes.\u2019\u00a0 But anyone looking at the history of Ireland or Northern Ireland, or the 2012-14 \u2018IndyRef1\u2019 campaign can see the weakness of such thinking. \u00a0Constitutional issues can mobilise large numbers.<\/p>\n

However, whenever the idea of \u2018constitution\u2019 is raised in Pete\u2019s article it is in a negative sense, e.g. \u201cthe limitations of a constitutional approach\u201d, \u201ca less constitutional approach.\u201d \u00a0This does recognise that the SNP, like any constitutional nationalist party (e.g. the SDLP, post-Good Friday Agreement Sinn Fein, and Plaid Cymru), seeks to win independence using the existing UK constitution. \u00a0However, Pete makes no mention of the constitution which independence supporters, be they SNP, Scottish Greens, Alba and Socialists, actually confront.\u00a0 The UK constitution is based on the sovereignty of the Crown-in-Westminster, backed by a whole host of anti-democratic Crown powers.\u00a0 It is a unionist and imperialist constitution and the two have always been closely connected.<\/p>\n

The SNP\u2019s 2012-14 \u2018Indy-Lite\u2019, White Paper proposals offered no real challenge to this UK constitution.\u00a0 If a \u2018Yes\u2019 vote had been won, the SNP government would not have seen this as the assertion of the democratic principle of the sovereignty of the people, but as backing for their political position in the UK\u2019s state\u2019s devolved Holyrood. \u00a0Hence the SNP government was going to bring all the parties in Holyrood, including the unionist, \u2018Better Together\u2019, Labour, Lib-Dems and Tories into their negotiating team. \u00a0Starting from the SNP government\u2019s already weak constitutional proposals, the outcome of such negotiations would have been the setting up of a \u2018Scottish Free State\u2019, very much subordinate to the Crown, the City of London and NATO.<\/p>\n

The rejection by some Socialists of any concern with the \u2018constitution\u2019 leads to two failings. \u00a0The framing of any new Scottish constitution is left in the hands of an SNP government.\u00a0 Meanwhile, there is a marked tendency amongst such Socialists to end up giving advice to the SNP (and for others Alba, or the SNP and Alba) over which economic and social issues they should take up to win Scottish independence, or, in the case of Alba, which socially progressive policies \u00a0should be dropped.<\/p>\n

There is a strong hint of such an advisory approach in Peter\u2019s comments on the election of Humza Yousaf as new SNP leader and First Minister. \u00a0Yousaf \u201cpledged to focus on the cost of living, the NHS and a well-being economy.\u00a0 He also talked about continuing to oppose net-zero carbon emissions and ending fuel poverty.\u00a0 Most strikingly in the context of the rest of the UK he argued for increased immigration and the importance of migrants to society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pete is right that all these progressive demands come up against Yousaf\u2019s \u201cunchallenged commitment to the private sector\u201d. \u00a0To which he then also adds, \u201cneither Yousaf nor his defeated rivals had a serious strategy for winning independence.\u201d\u00a0But Pete does not reveal what this \u201cindependence\u201d – \u00a0a constitutional issue – amounts to.\u00a0 And this becomes further blurred in his concluding list of Socialist tasks \u2013 \u201cpay, the cost of living, climate action, self-determination<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 How do you \u201cpatiently build a vibrant new left\u201d, which also champions self-determination, \u201cbased on networks of solidarity and revolt\u201d, when you can offer no idea of what a new Scottish constitution would look like?<\/p>\n

The need to see the importance of the constitution has become even more important, as growing numbers in the Independence Movement have become \u00a0aware of the nature of the UK state. \u00a0The people of Scotland have been slower than in most nations to understand this. \u00a0The Union and Empire brought economic gains, even if very unevenly distributed, as long as the Empire remained a powerful player on the global arena .\u00a0 And indeed, even as the British Empire declined, Scottish-British unionism still looked to the UK state to maintain Scotland\u2019s economic position, either through more administrative devolution, or later through political devolution.<\/p>\n

So, in 2012, many Labour supporters, who were beginning to consider Scottish independence, thought that the Cameron government\u2019s concession of \u2018IndyRef1\u2019 created a constitutional level playing field.\u00a0 The issue would be decided through democratic debate.\u00a0 However, it soon turned out that it was only the official \u2018Yes Scotland\u2019 campaign which was bound by the 2012 Edinburgh Agreement\u2019s rules.\u00a0 The UK state and its \u2018Better Together\u2019 leaders followed a long-standing imperial tradition – \u2018Britannia waives the rules.\u2019<\/p>\n

But an increased questioning of the UK state came about following the unionists\u2019 blatantly partisan use of the BBC (living up to its first initial \u2018B\u2019 for British).\u00a0 Others also began to see the City of London (with its privileged position under the UK constitution) operating in openly political manner to undermine the economic prospect of Scottish independence.\u00a0 Some also became aware of the MOD\u2019s behind-the-scenes manoeuvring to annex the nuclear bases at Faslane and Coulport in the event of a \u2018Yes\u2019 vote, creating a \u2018Guantanamac Bay\u2019 enclave on the Clyde. (Jackie Baillie might even have been made governor-general!)<\/p>\n

Once the \u2018No\u2019 vote had been obtained, all the promises made of \u2018Devo-Max\u2019 in 2014, and after the Brexit vote in 2016, all the guarantees of continued EU membership, were abandoned. \u00a0And in the process, the liberal unionist mask for the conservative unionist defence of the UK\u2019s constitutional status quo fell way. \u00a0By 2019 we were faced with Boris Johnson\u2019s authoritarian populist, reactionary unionism. \u00a0This has been upheld by all his successors. \u00a0And it will be by Sir Keir Starmer in their shared \u2018Brexit Britain\u2019, unless challenged by a massive democratic movement.\u00a0 The Tories\u2019 rolling back of Scotland\u2019s limited post-1998 democratic gains are merely part of a much wider offensive to undermine all democratic rights, workers\u2019 job security, pay, conditions and environmental safeguards. \u00a0The UK\u2019s anti-democratic, unwritten constitution well serves the British ruling class, giving them the power to make it up as they go along.<\/p>\n

And the Supreme Court, another prominent institution of the UK state\u2019s anti-democratic state, has revealed its British ruling class-supporting role. \u00a0On November 23rd, 2022, it denied the right of the SNP\/Scottish Green government, to hold \u2018IndyRef2\u2019, which it had been elected to do in May 2021. \u00a0The Tory government will be pushing the Supreme Court to overthrow Gender Recognition Reform voted through by a large majority at Holyrood (including four \u00a0Tories). Indeed, the Tories have gone as far as threatening to use the Supreme Court to veto any proposed future Holyrood legislation they don\u2019t agree with.\u00a0 One reason they aren\u2019t closing Holyrood down altogether, is that it provides well-paid, sometimes second and third jobs, for the likes of Douglas Ross.<\/p>\n

Pete can see the frustration of many Scottish independence supporters with the inability of the SNP, under either Sturgeon or Yousef, to produce a viable strategy to challenge the Tories( or more fundamentally the UK state). \u00a0But he confines his proposed alternative to \u201cshift{ing} the locus of activity from the ballot box to the workplace and the streets.\u201d But in contrast to Pete’s vague independence or self determination hints, all of the more successful economic, social and environmental campaigns have developed a clear set of demands. And all eventually come up against the constitutional limits of the UK state and its devolved Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the approaches now widely discussed in the Scottish Independence Movement are profoundly about the UK constitution and its limitations.\u00a0 Widely aired proposals include a 1918-style Sinn Fein breakaway by a pro-independence majority of Scottish MPs at Westminster, or by MSPs at Holyrood.\u00a0 This is a debate Socialists, \u00a0who wish to be part of any challenge,\u00a0 should want to participate in. To do this we \u00a0need to act as republican socialists, both in our proposals and actions. \u00a0This means we need to offer our own approach to the constitutional issue.\u00a0 The constitution should be seen as a political or democratic issue, offering an even greater challenge than economic and social campaigns, which still accept the existing state as the framework for winning their demands.<\/p>\n

To the UK\u2019s sovereignty of the Crown in-Westminster (and its devolved offspring at Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont) we should counter the \u2018sovereignty of the people.\u2019 \u00a0This is the essence of republicanism, not the absence of a monarchy. \u00a0This is why we also oppose the republicanism represented by the imperial presidencies of Trump and Biden’s US Republic and Macron\u2019s French Republic; Putin\u2019s \u2018One and Indivisible\u2019, oligarchical Russian Federated Republic, the one-party bureaucratic police states of Xi Jinping\u2019s Chinese Peoples Republic and Kim Jong Un\u2019s Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea; and the theocratic republicanism of the mullahs of Iran.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Pete\u2019s saddest comment is that \u201cRIC has shrunk to a tiny group on the Left\u201d. Pete was very active in Edinburgh RIC bringing his valued organising experience.\u00a0 However, rs21 had a working relationship with ISG-S, now the majority on the conter <\/em>EB. Their method of organising has been very undemocratic and centred on behind-the-scenes manoeuvring.\u00a0 rs21 never challenged this. \u00a0conter <\/em>has little understanding of the nature of the UK state, or the British ruling class\u2019s changing strategy to uphold it. \u00a0So, following the ISG-S\u2019s completely opportunist and failed RISE electoral bid at the 2016 Holyrood election, they quickly dropped any real commitment to campaigning for Scottish independence. Some \u00a0switched to supporting Jeremy Corbyn, a very British social democratic figure. This has undoubtedly weakened RIC’s \u00a0presence and allowed others to take a lead on the streets.<\/p>\n

Some ISG-S members have looked more to advance their careers or \u00a0to raise their profile amongst the intelligentsia, hence conter.\u00a0 <\/em>A revived RIC was a challenge to this, hence the Terminators\u2019 attempt to close it down.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 But the RIC Revivers[2]<\/a> went on to produced two important principles, which can provide Socialists with our own alternative to the constitutional proposals still addressed to a future SNP, SNP\/Scottish Greens or SNP Alba government.<\/p>\n

1) A democratic, secular, socially just, environmentally sustainable, Scottish Republic<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) Action based on the sovereignty of the people not the UK <\/strong>Crown, leading to the setting up of a Constituent Assembly \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If this is all that the RIC Revivers achieved, it would still be a considerable advance on any proposals or lack of them coming from rs21 or conter<\/em> when dealing with constitutional issue.<\/p>\n

Pete recognises the danger of the Independence Movement accommodating to the Right authoritarian populists\u2019 offensive.\u00a0 \u201cThe candidacy of Ash Regan has shown the socially reactionary links between a minority of SNP members and Alba.\u201d\u00a0 And there are other leading socially reactionary SNP members who do not depend on an Alba link, e.g. Kate Forbes and Joanna Cherry (and the further Right, John Mason MSP).<\/p>\n

Pete clearly understands that attacks on GRR reform currently constitute the Right\u2019s main battleground. \u00a0Yet, despite having two rs21 members on the conter <\/em>EB, where are the rs21 articles in conter<\/em> challenging this? \u00a0conter <\/em>also peddles the Campist apologetics for Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0 Again, there has been no challenge to this, despite the STUC successfully throwing out \u2018Stop the War\u2019s Campist motion at its recent congress in Dundee.<\/p>\n

The theoretical underpinning for the ex-ISG-s members\u2019 politics has been provided in the book Scotland after Britain<\/em> written by James Foley and Ben Wray. Despite the book\u2019s claim to be co-written by the sadly missed rs-21 member, Neil Davidson[3]<\/a>\u00a0rs21 has provided no review.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Drawing up principles, drafting motions, writing articles and reviews are the \u2018bread and butter\u2019 of any political organisation or campaign.\u00a0 But to have a significant impact, they most also go on to mobilise people in action.\u00a0 This is why RIC initiated the 2023 Declaration of Calton Hill<\/a> to challenge the coronation of \u2018Not Sae Bonnie Charlie\u2019 on May 6th<\/sup>. \u00a0It is good to see that some rs21 members have signed up. \u00a0It would be even better if rs21 published the Declaration and a called for its members and supporters to attend the rally organised by Our Republic. \u00a0RIC has further proposals for action, discussed at its National Forum in Stirling on April 15th<\/sup>, if this rally is well supported. \u00a0RIC\u2019s Six Principles<\/a>\u00a0have be drawn up to maximise support for the civic national and rainbow alliance, which contributed so much to Scotland’s unfinished democratic revolution in 2014. \u00a0Pete and rs21 \u00a0would be most welcome to rejoin..<\/p>\n

25.4.23<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/bellacaledonia.org.u.k\/2021\/02\/03\/freedom-come-all-ye\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/bellacaledonia.org.uk\/2022\/02\/05\/ric-revived\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files.wordpress.com\/2023\/03\/from-grey-to-red-granite-1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>[4]<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A republican socialist review can be found at<\/p>\n

https:\/\/allanarmstrong831930095.files.wordpress.com\/2023\/04\/a-review-of-scotland-after-britain-3.pdf <\/a><\/p>\n

___________<\/p>\n

also see:<\/p>\n

Announcing the 2023 Declaration of Calton Hill<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n