First Published: Vanguard, Vol. 3, No. 3, May-June 1966.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba and Sam Richards
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WHAT IS Scotland though? Is it the remarkable scenic beauty of its highlands and lowlands, its beautiful and its ugly towns and villages, its great shipyards, collieries and steelworks, its commercial businesses, its transport system and its handsome or ugly houses and academic and cultural buildings? No, not at all.
Scotland is 5,204,000 people, mostly born here, but including welcome immigrants, vigorous men, energetic women, lively boys and girls, the elderly and the babes in arms. This is Scotland, a Nation? No, two nations.
The vast majority are the underprivileged wage and salary earners – the working-class – the “have-nots.” By contrast, the highly privileged minority – the “haves,” whose God is profit, enjoy such wealth as gives them security from all fear of want, unemployment, bad housing, or the necessity of leaving Scotland in the hope of steady and lucrative employment.
The workers of Scotland are talented, their productive capacity is enormous and the actual and potential wealth of our country is quite adequate to provide security and a rising standard of living for everyone. Why then the annual emigration from Scotland of between forty and fifty thousands of our young people, and, despite much trumpeting about new industries for Scotland the actual number of new jobs gets less? A gloomy picture, but true.
Much is said about “Democracy,” “The Will of the People,” and the workers are the vast majority. Yet, in fact, they do not rule themselves. Scottish self-government, dominated by the majority, the working-class, is essential. Any notion that the United Kingdom Parliament can solve their problems is obsolete, it never was true. London-based financial control of Scotland’s economy, coupled with a growing financial and military invasion by the imperialist U.S.A. must be rejected outright. There can be no free Scottish self-government whilst United Kingdom, American and West German military units occupy and use Scottish territory.
The Marxist scientific view of the CLASS structure of society, and the nature of THE STATE, and taking special account of the teaching of such great Marxists as John Maclean, Lenin and Mao Tse Tung, applies to Scotland, as to every other country, with the same force today as ever and in the context of a rapidly changing world.
Regardless of the activities of the few Scottish members of the U.K. Parliament it is an absolute right of the workers of Scotland to secure such changes in the class relationships, the structure and the methods of THE STATE, as THEY deem necessary and by whatever means THEY may choose. THIS IS VITAL AND MUST BE THE CENTRAL GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. No pre-conceived forms must be allowed to mar the freedom of choice of the basis and structure of self-government, and in no circumstances must there be any interference with the absolute right of the workers to give or to withdraw their labour when THEY find this to be necessary for any purpose.
The Scottish people must be completely free to control and negotiate its own foreign relations, to ally itself with the workers of England, Wales and Ireland and with all other countries and to play the part of a sovereign state in all international organisations.
Not one of the established political parties in Scotland today supports these basic requirements: The Tories – organ of the landlords, the capitalists and the ultra-monarchists; The Liberals – a degree more flexible than the tones; The Labour and Co-operative Parties –social democrats who long ago deserted socialism; The Communist Party of Great Britain, with its Scottish “ District” – deserted Marxism to embrace “Brittannia,” and the Scottish National Party – an expression of a healthy and rapidly growing dissatisfaction with the present situation, but accepting without question, The U.K. Parliament, The NATO and the Monarchy, with all that these imply in continued capitalist domination and frustration of the great longing of our people in common with the masses of mankind, for lasting peace and economic security.
In Scotland a new Marxist Party is urgently called for. A Party which will serve to express the aspirations of the majority in Scotland, which will provide realistic leadership, which WILL HAVE ITS ROOTS DEEP IN THE RANKS OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS. It must also be a Party which will attract those sincere and courageous people, who may regard themselves as middle-class and outside the ranks of the working-class, but who are deeply concerned to gain security for themselves and their families and to uphold the creative aspects of Scottish traditions, culture and intellectual self-expression. Such a Party must, of course base its programme on public ownership of the means of production, distribution and- exchange of commodities.
Whilst recognising that freedom of thought and religious belief are the private rights of all individuals, a Marxist party condemns outright those wealthy Scottish Catholic and Protestant capitalists, who, whilst jointly pocketing the profits the workers produce, nudge each other and snigger with pleasure at the ludicrous but tragic sight of workers fighting each other “Billy” and “Dan,” instead of linking arms to unite in opposition to their common enemy. An enemy whose common God, profit, controls their practical activities whilst they amicably agree to differ on their lesser religions.
There is A COMMON BASIS FOR THE UNITY OF ALL THE WORKERS OF SCOTLAND in their demand for full, well paid and secure employment, generous provision for the veterans, loving care for every child and a spacious and attractive home for every family. This common basis exists at all times and in all circumstances for the workers, regardless of quite honest differences of view on religious, philosophical, artistic, moral or any other subject.
Ample funds, produced entirely by the workers of Scotland, but over which they have no control whatever, exist to enable all their immediate aspirations to be realised right now. At present these resources are diverted into the pockets of Scottish, English, American and other profiteers. Vast sums of Scottish wealth are spent on the enormous U.K. Arms bill and the maintenance of the great banking, finance corporations, stock exchange and other money-lending institutions, whose functions are neither necessary nor desirable in a Socialist State, and over which again the people have no control whatever. These are powerful organs of capitalism, the present system of the private ownership of the means of life, and are carefully protected by a system of laws, built a structure of “legality,” created over a long period by these same private owners, and having no basis in a people’s democracy. Not only do they exploit the workers in Scotland but they are used extensively to exploit the natives of many colonial and other subject peoples abroad.
These capitalists will not surrender willingly or voluntarily. Their displacement and the establishment of Socialism by the workers is a REVOLUTIONARY POLICY. This fact must be faced, OTHERWISE THE TYRRANICAL CLASS RULE OF THE FEW MUST CONTINUE. There is no evidence in the whole of history that the dictatorship of a ruling minority, however camouflaged by “Mother of Parliaments,” has been overthrown, except by the united political and physical efforts of the people.
The remarkable extent to which “Social democratic,” “British Road,” “Chauvinistic Nationalist” and other such-like nostrums influence the workers of this country is the measure of the agitational, organisational tasks which confront a Marxist-Leninist Party today. This must be faced by those who are convinced of their urgency, with all the conviction and power derived from knowledge and understanding based upon dialectical and historical materialism.
All in general agreement with these views must create, with confidence and energy, the new Marxist organisation and launch an inspiring campaign of the people to save themselves from recurring crises. Our people must establish a sovereign Scotland, placing it firmly in the revolutionary ranks of the peoples of the world whose advance, in this twentieth century, has been unprecedented.
COMMENTS ARE INVITED – Ed.