First Published: Vanguard, Vol. 4, No. 6, November-December 1967.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba and Sam Richards
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19th Nov. 1967
The Central Committee of the C.D.R.C.U. at its meeting today condemns the policy of the Workers’ Party of Scotland on the National question as being anti-Marxist, a petty-bourgeois deviation and opportunist.
Stalin’s formulations of what constitutes a nation have universal validity, and those who deny them are guilty of revisionism. Britain is in an advanced stage of evolving historically as one nation from England, Wales and Scotland inseparably with the historic development of capitalism. To refer to the time when the three national constituents were separate as a justification for separatism is to ignore subsequent historical development.
What remains of the past language and culture of Wales, Scotland and England are remnants of the past, are not the possession of the mass of the people, but are the preserves of the bourgeoisie. Britain has one language and a common culture. This does not deny specific feudal cultural expressions etc. The condition of Wales, Scotland and England are due to the economic exploitation by the British monopoly ruling class, and not due to the domination and exploitation of so called “English Imperialism”. The same conditions as exist in Wales and Scotland also exist in the industrial parts of the north of England.
The national question is a class question, and the Workers’ Party of Scotland is substituting petty-bourgeois nationalism for revolutionary class struggle against the British monopoly capitalist ruling class, and in so doing weakening the struggle of the British working class. To talk of a republic of Scotland and Scottish nationalism is to tail on to petty-bourgeois nationalism, and a betrayal and abandonment of the duty of a Marxist-Leninist party to mobilise the forces of the working class of Britain against the British capitalist class.
The support for Scottish nationalism has resulted in the stagnation and decline of the Workers Party of Scotland, since this nationalism is a petty-bourgeois manifestation. To support it is to support the petty-bourgeoisie and reduce the working class to a minor and insignificant role, instead of playing the vanguard role, which if not fulfilled cannot win support amongst the working class.
After reading the declaration of the Workers’ Party of Scotland of the 4th Nov. 1967 and noting its national socialist nature, the Central Committee of the COMMITTEE TO DEFEAT REVISIONISM FOR COMMUNIST UNITY hereby expels the members of Workers’ Party of Scotland from their positions in C.D.R.C.U. This committee is convinced that the solidarity of all British Workers will inevitably assert itself in a single British Marxist-Leninist party.
Central Committee C.D.R.C.U.