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Produced for the STUC anti-austerity demo on Sat 20 October.
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hope that there is a future for workers and welfare in Scotland. If we
stick with Westminster, all we can expect is more cuts, more
unemployment, more privatisation, more inequality, more anti-trade
union laws. But, some of you may ask, what if we vote a Labour
government into Westminster in 2015? Johann Lamont, Scottish Labour
leader, made it quite clear in a recent speech that principles of universal
welfare like free education, free bus passes for the elderly and free
prescription charges are no more - devolution has only created a
'something for nothing' culture in Lamont's world.
Is this really the best we can hope for? It is unless you are willing to look
beyond the stale cuts consensus in Britain and start asking some more
fundamental questions about society: why can't we tax the rich more
and close down tax loopholes and offshore tax avoidance? Why can't the
state invest in green industrialisation to create jobs and save the
environment? Why can't we scrap trident and wars abroad and retrain
workers in jobs that are useful for everyone?
All of this is possible - but only through independence. And not just any
independence - a radical break with Britain must be based on the sort of
values we want represented in a new Scotland - welfare, peace,
education, equality, environment, and more.
The Radical Independence Conference on November 24th in the
Radisson Blu Hotel, Glasgow will bring together all of the progressive
movement – Greens, Trade Unionists, journalists, authors, students,
anti-racist campaigners – who support independence to discuss how we
can achieve independence on a radical basis.
What’s wrong is that the British State has been
captured almost entirely by one social class. Let’s
call that class ‘Big Money’.
It has a simple goal – to make sure that power
and wealth flows from us to it forever. It is the
war business, which talks about security but is
really about transferring public money to the
arms industry and using our army to protect
commercial interests abroad. It is the finance
business, still twisting national policy to make
sure that its scheme for siphoning cash from
people to it is protected at all costs. It is the
deregulation business, using its ideology of ‘free
markets’ to make sure the interests of big
tobacco, big pharmaceuticals, big oil, big
supermarkets and all the rest are always put
ahead of our interests and that they are free to
use their power to exploit us. It is the privilege
business, where a tiny network of institutions like
private schools reserved for the children of the
wealthy are given almost total control of all the
top levels of decision-making. It is the
privatisation business, working every day to
undermine the public realm and dismantle the
welfare state for the profit and ideological
pleasure of the few. It is the crooked media
business, using wealth to own and manipulate the
way the public is supposed to learn about what is
happening to them. It is the anti-democracy
business, the web of lobbyists, private
consultants, quangos, think tanks and senior civil
servants which work to make sure that as many
decisions as possible take place behind closed
doors where democracy can’t get in the way of
wealth.
We know what's wrong. The question is what do
we do about it?
In 1995, when I was still a wee boy (well, 22), I
went to work as the press officer of the Leader
of the Scottish Labour Party. I packed my cases
for London in the excited belief that what I would
find there was a mass of people who wanted to
change Britain, to make it a fairer and better
place. That's not what I found. Instead I found the
London Elite, an interchangeable queue of upper-
middle class people who believed that what
Britain needed was, well, them. And what they
needed was power. Sometimes they talked about
reform, but mostly they talked about not rocking
the boat.
The question was put in my mind there and then
– will Britain ever really change? And if it is to
change, can it come from inside this rotten core?
I saw nothing to make me believe it. I watched as
the Labour Movement's best chance of reforming
Britain for a generation was not only squandered
but actually subverted.
Then I thought our best chance was devolution. It
was; it protected us from the worst of the
dismantling of the Welfare State and from the
worst of the neoliberal policies of Westminster.
But now the problem is deeper. The very nature
of Britain is under attack and devolution isn't
enough to protect us anymore. And much as I
wish it was different, I can see no democratic way
to reverse this long, slow death of the British
Welfare State.
Well, there is one way. I believe that it is possible
for Scotland to save Britain, but I no longer
believe we can do it inside Britain. What we can
do is leave amicably and show the working people
of England, Wales and Northern Ireland that it
can be different, that the way of the London Elite
is not the only way. I have come to believe that
independence is not the only option for a better
Scotland, it is the only option for a better Britain.
Lots of us feel the same way. You must have
noticed that the real independence movement is
now almost indistinguishable from the movement
for social justice in Scotland. These are the only
people willing to talk about a Scotland different
from the one we are being given by London. This
is the only vision of a better Scotland anyone is
talking about, or that anyone believes any more.
So come and hear people who feel like you talk
about that vision, about that chance to change
Scotland, and to help the rest of Britain to believe
that it can change itself.
If you believe the British State is close to being
ready to reform itself, to remove the power of
Big Money from its corridors, then you have no
need to be at the Radical Independence
Conference on November 24th at the Radisson
Blu Hotel in Glasgow. For everyone else, join us:
PHOTO: JOHN LANIGAN
Editor of the Scottish Left Review Robin McAlpine lays out why breaking with the worst vestiges of the
‘Big Money’-dominated British state is a chance that must be seized by those fighting for a fairer Scotland
Cat Boyd, an activist in the PCS union
in Glasgow, argues that a new Scottish
state could break with the Thatcherite
anti-union laws
The Anti-Trade Union laws of 1979-1995 have served as a leash,
choking the trade union movement in the UK. Thatcher’s anti-
union legislation has gagged workers’ power to strike – the one
weapon we have against ruthless employers. However, as a
young trade unionist, my first encounter with the anti-union laws
was from a Labour leader. Tony Blair once celebrated the anti-
trade union legislation as “the most restrictive on trade unions in
the Western world”. No Labour leader has shown an appetite to
reverse this, and the Tories have made it clear that further
attacks on trade union rights are coming.
These laws do not just hamper workers’ right to strike – they
crush democratic and economic expressions of political dissent.
Bosses constantly threaten ‘capital flight’: taking their businesses
elsewhere if workers don’t do as they say. But when we threaten
our own forms of solidarity action; it is illegal. They are anti-
democratic laws, specifically targeted to hurt the working class
and weaken collective struggle.
Independence will create a massive opportunity to challenge these anti-democracy laws. We cannot go on, as a trade union
movement, inside a system which saps energy and force from our
democratic right to strike, and to show solidarity across our
class. Scottish independence could reinvigorate the workers’
movement. Workers have the chance to make specific demands
about what they would want from a new Scottish state: an end
to anti-labour laws should be a priority. The rights of workers to
organise, agitate and take action are more likely to be achieved in
a new Scotland than an old Britain.
In order to challenge capitalism in a global world, a national labour movement must coordinate across borders: there is no
reason why workers in an independent Scotland and workers in
the rest of the UK could not be a spectacular example of
international solidarity. Workers should not be divided by
nations or borders wherever they are drawn. A Scotland free
from the shackles of British anti-trade union laws can provide an
example to those in the rest of the UK of what is possible, and
will be a spark that lights the bonfire, burning forever the
legislation that has dampened our struggle.
PETER MCCOLL Rector, Edinburgh University
“I’m delighted that so many committed people are coming together to create the
Radical Independence Conference. We have to seize the chance to have the
independent Scotland we want. That means resisting the corporate interests that
have totally seized the British state. There is a better future for Scotland, where
we have a chance to free ourselves from the control of entrenched capitalist
interests. But that requires us to make the argument that we can keep the NHS
public in Scotland, free ourselves of weapons of mass destruction, leave
belligerent organisations like NATO and create a better country. Scotland could
be a world leader in promoting peace, the most socially just country in Europe
and power itself renewably.”
On November 24th, hundreds of people will come together
from across Scotland for the Radical Independence
Conference. Here, some of the figures backing the
conference explain its importance, and the radical
potential of independence.
PATRICK HARVIE MSP Scottish Greens
“Independence is an inherently radical step to take; we should not be ashamed
to say so. If we can turn the independence debate into an opportunity to
advance a radical policy platform, we can offer Scotland a real choice and the
opportunity to build a better society. We risk failing an entire generation if we
allow independence to be portrayed as just another form of the status quo or,
worse still, simply as an end in itself.”
“As a trade union activist I see independence as an opportunity – to maximise
the voice of workers throughout the debate and to build a Scotland that rejects
austerity. Breaking the unity of the British state does not mean breaking the
unity of workers. Let’s repeal the anti-trade union laws, and make issues
affecting workers a central theme of the discussion over the coming years.”
SUKI SANGHA STUC Youth Committee (pc)
JOHN MCALLION former Labour MP & SSP
“Scottish independence is a means to an end, never an end in itself. Changing
the colour of the national flag that flies over neo-liberalism would be an
exercise in futility. The point is to use independence and the break-up of Britain
as the opportunity for real change and for a radical socialist and green overhaul
of the political, social and economic structure of Scottish society.”
“For us anti-nuclear campaigners, nuclear weapons are the defining feature of
our potential to achieve real change and international influence through
independence. We want to discuss and inform people about the case for
independence concerning the full and speed removal of the Trident nuclear
weapons system from Scotland.”
LEONNA O’NEILL Faslane Peace Camp
The Radical Independence Conference will take place on Saturday 24
November at the Radisson Blu Hotel on Argyle Street in Glasgow city
centre. The first conference session will take place in the mid-morning,
followed by a break for lunch, and it should be wrapped by late afternoon.
The conference will hear from a range of speakers over the course of the
day, alongside workshops covering a broad range of topics – from refugees
and immigration to the fight against austerity, republicanism, the environment
and more. The full line-up will be announced ahead of the conference. A
number of international speakers, from the Quebec & Basque pro-
independence lefts, Front de Gauche (France) and Syriza (Greece) will be
appearing at the conference.
Tickets are easily available at radicalindependence.org, or by emailing
[email protected]. We are looking into transport
arrangements from across Scotland. Sign up to our mailing list for details.
The conference was launched earlier this year in a statement signed by
figures from across the progressive movement in Scotland, committed to
organising a conference to found a grassroots campaign for independence
which puts forward a vision for Scotland that is:
Green and environmentally sustainable
Internationalist and opposed to trident and war
For a social alternative to austerity and privatisation
A modern republic for real democracy
Committed to equality and opposed to discrimination on grounds of
gender, race or sexuality
We want the conference and subsequent campaign to be as open and
inclusive as possible. Organising meetings are publicised through our social
networking pages and our mailing list, which you can sign up for on
radicalindependence.org
A number of local RIC groups are being established in different areas – get in
touch for details or check out the ‘Local Groups’ section of our website. If
you want to help build the conference – by selling tickets, organising a local
meeting or distributing promo materials, we can help you out. Email
[email protected] or call Jonathan on 07983 537187
CRAIG MACLEAN PHOTOS (FRONT & BACK PAGES):