In England during the referendum, members of both the Left Unity Party (LUP) and the Republican Socialist Alliance organised meetings in London, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield. In the aftermath of the September 18th, Steve Freeman (RSA and LUP\/Scottish Republic Yes Tendency) provides his analysis of the campaign and its political consequences.<\/p>\n
On Thursday 18 September Scotland stood on the brink of an historic change by ending the 1707 Act of Union. But when the votes were counted a majority of Scottish people voted no by 55% to 45%. This \u201caverted the biggest constitutional crisis in the nation\u2019s history\u201d. (Mick Brown Daily Telegraph 20 September 2014). Instead of Scotland\u2019s democratic future passing into the hands of the people, the no victory handed the power back to Cameron, the Coalition government, the Whitehall machine and the Westminster parliament.<\/p>\n
The power had already drained away from Scotland as Cameron emerged from Downing Street the following morning to tell us what would happen next. Scotland would be handed down more powers. Then he seized the opportunity to torpedo the Labour Party and undermine UKIP with the slogan of \u201cEnglish votes for English laws\u201d. He played the card of reactionary English nationalism. He had \u2018saved\u2019 the country from predatory Scottish nationalists. He had seen off Alex Salmond. Now he would make England an offer it could not refuse and harvest the votes in the general election.<\/p>\n
Later that day the \u2018no\u2019 victory was crowned by Her Majesty. With victory in the bag, she emerged from behind the scenes to address the nation. This was reported on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. The headline proudly proclaimed \u201cThe Queen\u2019s pledge to help reunite the Kingdom\u201d. This was above a regal photo of the monarch standing beside Gelder Burn on the Balmoral Estate wearing the robes of the \u201cMost Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle\u201d (Daily Telegraph 20 September 2014). She called on her subjects to respect the outcome and appealed for a \u201ccoming together again in a spirit of mutual respect and support\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The referendum campaign was a real step forward for the democratic movement in Scotland, despite ending in defeat. We have to understand the weaknesses to work out next steps. Viewed from England the campaign in Scotland seems to have been very successful in mobilising working class support. There was a mountain to climb. Nearly reaching the summit is very commendable given the powerful forces trying to block the path.<\/p>\n
There has to be a discussion on the aim of \u2018Independence under the Crown\u2019. This SNP plan failed. The Republican option was not on the ballot paper. Full sovereignty was neither put to the people nor rejected. Republicans are not bound to some morality that says we have had our chance and must wait a decade for another chance. There are many reasons to think the time for another campaign will not be too distant. But next time the option of full sovereignty, the Scottish republic, must be on offer.<\/p>\n
Divisions are likely to open up between those who settle for Devo-Max as a new stage towards a \u2018Free State\u2019, and those who want to dump the \u2018Free State\u2019 idea for a republic. Scottish republicans must work to make their option the front runner. This cannot be done unless there is a republican party. RIC can claim to have represented a republican alternative. It is more like the beginning of a republican movement. It can\u2019t simply convert into a party without internal divisions with those loyal to pre-existing parties.<\/p>\n
There is a need for a republican party to complement RIC to be built both within and outside and independent of the broader (RIC) republican movement. The establishment of a republican socialist party must mark out the next stage of the struggle. It is not a matter of waiting for another referendum but continuing to re-define popular politics in Scotland with the voice of an openly republican party.<\/p>\n
There is a much bigger problem to be addressed. Eighty five percent of the UK population lives in England. London has a larger population than Scotland. The largest section of the working class is in England. England carries massive social and economic weight in determining the political future. Public opinion and public action in England can support, strengthen and encourage Scottish democracy or it can act as a conservative dead weight holding it back. Both sides of this dilemma exist in the politics of England.<\/p>\n
Thatcher understood that to defeat the miners in 1984 it was necessary to try and keep the rest of the trade union movement out of the struggle. Cameron knew that to win against the yes campaign either England must actively support no or simply be neutralised. This is what the Labour Party could deliver through its trade union links. Of course Labour is pro-Union and pro-monarchy. Its prospects for government are tied to the Union and its arcane constitutional arrangements. Leaders, past and present, rallied to the British flag in the name of the Welfare state and in the language of \u2018proletarian internationalism\u2019.<\/p>\n
Defending the Union in the name of \u2018internationalism\u2019 was of course a sham. It came from the same \u2018internationalist\u2019 and \u2018democratic\u2019 stables as Blair justifying the Iraq war. It was even more disgusting to see the ultra left version of \u2018no\u2019 peddled by George Galloway, the Communist Party of Britain, and the Alliance for Workers Liberty and Workers Power.<\/p>\n
The Labour party machine serves up a demoralised working class at the dinner tables of the rich and powerful. The trade union movement is the transmission belt between working class people and the Crown state. The Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) was the only trade union which balloted members and came out for \u2018yes\u2019. The exception proves the rule. In England the trade unions maintained neutrality and kept out of it.<\/p>\n
This was the best Cameron could hope for. The trade unions in England (and Scotland) would sit on the fence and concentrate on economic issues like pay and the NHS. Passivity was reflected in and reinforced by those organisations which claimed to oppose Labour. England\u2019s new left parties, the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and Left Unity, encouraged by Weekly Worker adopted abstention positions and sat watching Scotland\u2019s democratic movement go down to defeat.<\/p>\n
Hence an important factor in the defeat of the democratic movement in Scotland was the passivity of the working class in England. The English working class movement took no part in the struggle to end the Union. There were no mass protest actions or petitions. There were no political strikes or solidarity demonstrations. In England, Labour\u2018s conservatism, combined with trade union passivity and neutrality, left Scottish democracy isolated from its natural allies south of the border.<\/p>\n
The gap in political consciousness between the two countries has long been identified. Whereas the Tories have most of their support in England, especially the South East, Labour has been more strongly supported in Scotland. Scotland has a long tradition of trade union membership and activity. After the defeat of the miners Thatcher\u2019s attempt to impose the poll tax on Scotland produced mass resistance. The struggle against the poll tax fed directly into popular support to re-establish a Scottish parliament in 1998.<\/p>\n
The Scottish working class has become much more conscious of the need and importance of political change and political reforms. England is imprisoned by the sloth of economism. This gap is not permanent and neither is it an ethnic dimension. The gap can narrow and England could even overtake Scotland. The class struggle and the political consciousness it generates is not fixed for ever. However the referendum campaign has widened the gap. The activity and politicisation of the Scottish working class stands in sharp contrast to the passivity of the working class in England.<\/p>\n
The widening gap is very dangerous. It opens up more space for right wing and reactionary politics. UKIP has exploited this space to draw people to a reactionary form of English nationalism. Although UKIP stands for Unionism or British nationalism, beneath its cover lurks an English nationalism which is feeding, and feeding on, resentment against Scotland. On the present course Scotland is on a left trajectory and England is lurching to the right. The defeat in the referendum will add some rocket power to the process.<\/p>\n
It is not all doom and gloom about England. There were signs of opposition and solidarity. In Left Unity there was a significant minority that raised the slogan \u201cScottish Republic Yes\u201d. They called on workers in England to support a \u2018yes\u2019 vote and argued for a Scottish Republic. It supports yes but contains an implicit criticism of the Scottish SNP government\u2019s proposal for a Scottish Free State (or Independence under the Crown). This slogan was the most advanced slogan to appear in the English left during the referendum.<\/p>\n
It was a democratic not a socialist slogan. It recognised the national question as a democratic issue and proposed an independent democratic demand. It contested the SNP\u2019s constitutional proposals on the same terrain of democracy by demanding full sovereignty for the Scottish people. It did not make an abstract call for world socialism nor promote the idea of national socialism. However as Lenin emphasised democratic demands and advances do not divert or delay the struggle for socialism. They bring socialism closer.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Scottish Republic Yes\u2019 as a slogan in England is an internationalist slogan. At first it might seem odd that the working class in England should support a Scottish Republic. Yet with a moments consideration we can see a link between greater democracy in Scotland and England. The working class in England have much to gain from acting in solidarity with the democratic demands of the advanced part of the Scottish working class. It is an internationalist slogan because it tells Scottish workers that there are people in England who are not English nationalists thinking only of English \u2018interests\u2019.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Scottish Republic Yes\u2019 was not simply about voting. If there was a yes victory it points to the next step \u2013 the fight for a Scottish Republic. Behind this is the idea of \u2018permanent revolution\u2019. The revolution does not stand still. It must move on from one phase to another. A yes vote majority is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of a new stage in Scotland\u2019s peaceful revolution. The call for a Scottish republic is ahead of the current situation but not too far. It proposes a discernable \u2018line of march\u2019.<\/p>\n
The \u2018no\u2019 majority is not the end of the struggle \u2013 far from it. It is time to reflect and re-organise. Attention is now switching to the constitutional future of England. The right will try to build up resentments that England is left behind and encourage chauvinism against Scotland. The left in England must try to counter this by building support for democratic change and closer links with the left in Scotland.<\/p>\n
On 19 September when Cameron promised \u201cEnglish votes for English laws\u201d, he triggered more constitutional speculation over English regionalism, an English parliament and federalism. It was a smart or opportunistic move. It put Labour on the back foot. Labour and Gordon Brown helped save Cameron and the Tory government from a humiliating defeat. Cameron then stabbed them in the back.<\/p>\n
It was an irony that Labour supporters in England opposed Scottish independence because they would no longer have Scottish Labour MPs. Now after a no vote Cameron was threatening the same. If Cameron presses on, he will use the resentments caused by the absence of a parliament in England as the way of mobilising English votes in the 2015 general election. On this Cameron and the Tories are well positioned to make the running with the slogan \u201cEnglish votes for English laws\u201d.<\/p>\n
UKIP is not going to be out-flanked by Cameron appealing to English nationalism. Immediately a \u2018pro-England\u2019 publicity stunt began with Farage posting letters to Scottish MPs which called on them not to vote on \u2018English\u2019 issues. The same theme was taken up in the UKIP conference. David Coburn told delegates he wanted to see a Scottish government \u201cbehaving responsibly with the money they raise\u201d. He called on First Minister, Alex Salmond, to accept the result of the referendum. He added \u201cit doesn\u2019t pay for Mr Salmond to abuse the English\u2026..that is not the way to treat Scotland\u2019s largest trading partner and oldest best friend\u201d. (Huffington Post 27 September 2014).<\/p>\n
However there may be other straws in the wind. A recent People\u2019s Assembly \u2018Question Time Panel\u2019 meeting was held in the East End of London on 9 October with 1,200 people present including Russell Brand on the panel. Mention of the Yes campaign was met with enthusiasm and cheering from the audience. Last week\u2019s BBC Question Time had Alex Salmond and Len McCluskey (Unite) on the platform. McCluskey spoke in glowing terms about the Yes campaign mobilising popular action for change. So he looked more than embarrassed when asked about Unite\u2019s position which he called \u201cPositive neutrality\u201d.<\/p>\n
If political struggle is turning to England, then Scottish republicans should not be stuck north of the border. Perhaps the next stage in Scotland\u2019s march to sovereignty is buried in England. If so it is time to dig for the \u2018English Republic Yes\u2019. Building an internationalist\u2013republican party in Scotland and narrowing the gap between progressive democratic forces in both countries is now very important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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