Scotland Bucks the Trend

The recent European elections took place amidst the worst recession in over sixty years, and according to recent forecasts things don’t look like getting any better. The results reveal that across Europe there appears to have been a swing to the right. England is a case in point, where it was a good night for the far right in the form of UKIP and of course the BNP. It was also a good night for the Tories. There is the very real possibility that David Cameron will be forming the next British government. Labour in Westminster is in complete disarray and seem to be bereft of any coherent strategy that will get them out of their current mess. Getting rid of Gordon Brown is nothing more than swapping deck chairs on the Titanic. In England, it appears the Right are winning the battle on the electoral front at the present time.  

Much of the analysis of the far left has focused on the British context and the breakthrough of the BNP. But we should not forget that once again Scotland is bucking the trend. In Scotland the SNP has for the second time defeated Labour in a national election. That is historic. The SNP, in the minds of ordinary Scottish people, represent a credible centre left of centre alternative to Labour. Just look at the evidence. It is the SNP who have opposed New Labour’s war in Iraq and also the presence of Nuclear weapons on the Clyde. On the domestic front it has been the SNP who have opposed the Council Tax, or supported keeping the Post Office public, whilst arguing for universal free school meals and supporting the abolition of prescription charges, demands once made by socialists when in parliament. In every one of these policies the SNP have been opposed by Labour. There is in Scotland a left-right split between Labour and the SNP and it is the SNP that is winning the battle of ideas.  

In the European elections the SNP won 22 out Scotland’s 32 council areas including historic victories in Edinburgh, Dundee, Stirling and South Lanarkshire. They managed to defeat Labour in Alistair Darling’s seat and also in Iain Gray’s seat in East Lothian (Gray is the leader of Scottish Labour).

If these results were repeated in a general election Labour would be annihilated. But the SNP’s continuing success also has implications for the left. It is at least partially the success of the SNP in occupying the centre left ground in Scotland which has resulted in derisory results for the far left in recent elections. The other key factor has been the continued unwelcome division of the left at an electoral level.

The DGS would also argue that it is not enough for the left to stand on the sidelines and say somewhat crudely that the SNP is a ‘bosses party’. Of course it is true that the SNP is a mixed bag. It is true it operates within the realms of a neo-liberal economic framework – but Scotland finds itself trapped in a political and economic straightjacket known as devolution. Devolution allows Scotland to follow any road it wants so long as it happens to be the road of neo-liberalism. We can only buck this trend by campaigning for the Scottish Parliament to have full control over the economy.

Therefore for anyone, including the far left, who wants to reverse the tide of neo-liberalism, the obvious conclusion to draw is that Scotland needs independence. Without full control of the political and economic levers of power any Scottish Government, whether the existing one or a even future one that leans further to the left, can only tinker at the edges.

Independence is fast becoming the issue that links all of the other issues together. And with the prospect of the Tories returning to power this means that independence will be more important than ever.

We also have to remind ourselves why we support independence. For too long now the far left has been stuck in an internationalist versus nationalist debate in the context of Scottish politics which actually serves to hold back progressive politics. The reason the DGS supports independence is not because we are left nationalists as some on the far left may allege. It is because we want to bring decision making closer to ordinary people. In Scotland this means transferring political power from London to Edinburgh.

We also recognise that Scotland is a nation, with the same legitimate aspirations and national rights as any other, including the right to democratic sovereignty over its own affairs. It seems extraordinary that many on the Scottish left will struggle might and main to support the right of the Palestinian people, or the Irish people, to a nation of their own, but expect the Scots to lie down to a unionist agenda and continue to submerge themselves in the British state..

Whilst supporting independence let us be clear that the DGS is not advocating  electoral support for the SNP – although many pro-independence socialists vote SNP where there is no clear and credible left pro-independence alternative. We do acknowledge that the SNP is often an all things to all people party. We do not forget that for many people the experience of the SNP in local government has been cuts to essential public services alongside the threatened closure of public facilities. We are also highly critical of their attempts to attack public sector workers. John Swinney, the Finance Minister has referred to a ‘bloated public sector’. Let’s be clear that his so called efficiency savings is really just a bureaucratic term for making cuts. We do not forget the ways in which the SNP wooed the billionaire Donald Trump and encouraged him to tear up parts of the Scottish countryside in order to make even more money. We do need to remember, however, that the primary political enemies of real socialism and the Scottish working class at the present time are New Labour and the Tories.

The DGS will constantly remind the SNP of the contradictions of trying to build progressive social democratic policies on the back a neo-liberal economic model. And it is precisely for this reason that there is still, potentially, a massive role for the pro-independence left to play in Scotland. But if the pro-independence left is to have any future then it has to get its own house in order. Sadly, the recent news about the Glasgow North East by election, where the SSP have appeared to reject calls to come together and find a unified single left or left green candidate to stand, suggests that some socialists are still intent on pursuing sectional party interests rather than thinking about the bigger picture.