S C OTLAND Thatcher celebrates the millionth council house sale, in Scotland. for Scotland? What attitude should socialists have to the demand for Scottish self-determination, and to the campaign for a Scottish assembly? Here JIM NIBLOCK, a member of Glasgow Central CLP, argues that socialists throughout Britain should back the right for self-determination, and will be outflanked by nationalists if they fail to take a principled stand on this issue. take in the struggle for a future socialist Britain, which I will argue will not be based on a 'unitary' British state but on a socialist federal republic.
The question of Scottish
determination comes up sharply in the long debate in the Labour movement over a Scottish assembly. Today the Labour Party is formally committed to supporting a Scottish assembly. Indeed Neil Kinnock concentrated on this issue at the last Scottish Labour Party conference, to the surprise of many of the delegates. But since until 1979 at least Kinnock was opposed to a Scottish assembly, there must be some doubt as to what brought about this change of heart, and what the powers and functions of the Scottish assembly he proposes will be.
The answer to this seems to be that Labour envisages a Scottish assembly carrying out an expanded version of the present role of Scottish Secretary of State. All the major economic and political powers will be retained at Westminster and the Scottish assembly will rubber stamp decisions affecting its 'provin-
This may be a feasible client relationship if the same political party is in power in both Westminster and the Scottish assembly, but self- how would it work out, for example, if the 15
Glasgow's necropolis — will another Tory government sound Labour's death
Tories were in power in London, and the Labour Party in Scotland? For example, it is quite inconceivable that if a Scottish parliament had been established as Harold Wilson
the last seven Thatcherism would have taken place without a major challenge emerging from the Scottish
Labour's sell-out on a Scottish assembly in workers. It left us without what would have been a crucial instrument of defence against the ravages change of heart, although it reflects strong feelings in the Scottish labour movement, also has a more pragmatic function. That is to head off the main challenge to Labour's vote in Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP). This party has been challenging Labour recently, especially through more consistent backing for labour movement struggles. Although Kinnock has managed temporarily to steal the SNP's thunder, the SNP and not the Alliance remains the main threat in ScotRoh Cowi knell in Scotland?
Labour has traditionally blown hot and cold on the question of a Scottish assembly, reflecting the ups and downs of support for the SNP. But if Labour's leadership and right wing have an opportunist policy on this question, that is no excuse for the left to do the same. We have to start from the merits or otherwise of self-determination, and not from the ups and downs of support for the SNP. If Thatcher comes back to power and Labour fails to use its majority in Scotland to actually set up a Scottish assembly to articulate the demands of the Scottish people, then Labour will be outflanked by the S.NP.
One of the paradoxes of the political situation in Scotland is that despite Scotland having one of the most militant sections of the working class in the British isles, 'Bennism' is relatively weak and the Campaign group shows few signs of taking off. Several factors explain this.
First, paradoxically, is the very strength of 116 the Labour Party in Scotland (it's more diffi-
SCOTLAND cult to challenge a leadership which is winning most elections by large majorities). Second is the stranglehold of the LCC in the Labour Party and the Communist Party in the trade unions as the traditional and dominant part of the left. Although these forces are closely aligned to Kinnock, they live off a 'left wing' reputation, gleaned from the past 'glories' of the CP and the previous Bennite sympathies of the LCCers. Thirdly, of course, is the reluctance of the Campaign group to organise for their policies at the base of the labour movement, which would cut across their attempts to influence the bureaucracy
But a fourth and specifically Scottish factor is the existence and strength of the SNP whom most disillusioned, Labour voters turn to. It may seem at odds with the facts to suggest that the increasing success of the Labour Party in Scotland and over the past period may be transformed over the next period into one of the reasons for its decline, but this looks likely for the following reasons.
Since 1967 when Winnie Ewing first won a seat from Labour in one of their Scottish strongholds, the SNP have been led by a layer of middle class nationalists whose disdain for class politics (a British discase which an independent Scotland would transcend) forced ther to escape from political reality and concentrate on issues of national pride.
The SVP peculiarly combines praise for pre-working class leaders like Bruce and Wallace at Bannockburn rallies, with a playing down of the heritage of MacLean and the Red Clydeside which smack of 'outdated' class politics. This strange logic is presented with the slogan 'it's Scotland's oil'.
This 'strategy' of the SP evaded the central problem facing them - how to break Labour's grip on the Scottish working class. To do this they must turn their party clearly towards the working class, both to its organisations and concerns.
Labour's success in Scotland combined with the stagnation of the SP will have the effect of dragging the petty bourgeois nationalists to the left and strengthen the left in the
SVP. To counter this, the Labour left must make the demand for a Scottish parliament a key aspect of its programme, not something tagged on to a list of priorities. However with Tam Dalyell as one of the leaders of the Campaign group a serious question mark hangs over this issue.
Today the Labour Party in Scotland has reached the peak of its authority, the Tory vote has all but collapsed and the SDP/Liberal Alliance is confined to the backwoods. This has given the leadership a false sense of security. False because the Labour Party is based on a unitary British state and Labour's position in England is much weaker. False because Kinnock's politics will continue the assault on the conditions of the working class.
The left of the party must be consistent in its politics. If we support the demand for a Scottish assembly, then that policy must be pursued on its own merits, not for the sake of undressing the SNP.
To raise this demand as a key aspect of programme, it is necessary to say that irrespective of the outcome of the British general election we stand on the platform of support for a Scottish parliament. If a majority of Labour MPs are returned in Scotland at the clection, we will call a constitutional assembly to establish a Scottish parliament.
Anything short of this approach will be a half-baked compromise and can easily be
'irrespective of the outcome
of the election we support a
Scottish parliament' sacrificed on the alter of priorities or abandoned through the revolt of English-based Labour MPs. Many of these MPs from the depressed North and Midlands see a Scottish parliament as a sort of super regional council which can demand a bigger slice of national resources and further undermine their constituencies.
The right of Scotland to self government is a democratic demand which should be supported by all socialists. This doesn't mean we give up the fight for a British socialist party, but rather that the fight must be to establish a socialist federal republic and the vanguard of this struggle may well exist in Ireland, in Scotland, in Wales rather than the south east of England.
We have to combine the fight for socialism with the right to self-determination and not counterpose them or place one in front of the other.
National self-determination is impossible under imperialism, this is why today this demand can only be fully achieved within the context of a socialist programme, not just in the oppressed countries of South America and Africa, but also in the small nations which form part of the imperialist states or are on the boundaries of those states.
Today the national struggle is a class issue and can only be resolved in the context of the fight for socialism. i
International No 9 March/April 1987
LIBERATION 1987 MORE THAN 15 years after the modern women's liberation movement emerged, there are those on the left and right who are anxious to sound its death knell. Its left critics in particular claim that the movement has been co-opted. Feminists, they argue, have turned into 'femocrats' in the hands of local government and trade union bureaucracies while mass demonstrations of women are now few and far between. have been out on the streets in Britain and as black women are organising to fight ...After women have taken a lead in France's recent student revolt... claim publicly that they had undergone illegal abortions and thousands more ...After women's mass actions against the missiles have shaken Western ...After Denmark's All-Women Union made the running in the 1985 'Easter liberation movement brought profound changes directly or indirectly for so many people, that movement - defined in its broadest sense — is still very much alive. Forms of organisation have indeed changed from the early days but feminist ideas continue to spread and have been been assimilated by a wide section of society. Women who once saw gender as the determining factor in the pattern of their lives have come to understand that class, race and sexuality also have to be taken into This supplement looks at some of the changes, debates and political issues
Refugee from a devastated squatter camp in Cape Town WOMEN'S ...After thousands of women from mining communities ...After membership of the National Organisation of Women in the US has reached 250,000... ...After 30,000 women in Spain have been prepared to Rebellion' of near-general strike proportions... ...As Women in South Africa and Central America challenge apartheid and imperialism...
Gideon Mendel/Refle› Yet this is being said... racist laws... demonstrated against the socialist government's legislation... Europe... Because the women's account. confronting the women's movement in 1987.
jerny Matthews Format TO HEARMS RACE dence was won to staying at home previously lacked. 18
Women have mobilised across the world for peace