Re: [A-List] Re: Scotland: SNP disintegration

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Donnie

There are two problems here. Firstly I'm pushed for time which means I
cannot properly clarify matters in order to sort out the second problem,
which is the need for clarification.

You appear to treat the matter of Scottish independence as independent from
the topic of UK eurozone membership. I believe that the latter is something
that should be pushed for in pursuit of the end of the British state, whose
weakening would hasten Scottish independence. If the SSP intends, on
achieving independence, to establish an independent currency, then it makes
little difference if it has to be done by switching from the pound or the
euro. The advantage of doing it from the euro would be that, by then, with
yet another economic and ideological pillar of British state control
removed, the length of time it takes to achieve independence would be
reduced.

I think it far more likely that the question of eurozone membership will
arise before that of Scottish independence. Much work needs to be done to
achieve the latter, for reasons partially alluded to yesterday. The SNP's
disintegration is making the question of independence a much clearer issue
of socialist struggle, since the class realignment taking place illustrates
exactly what is at stake. (This is what makes Tom Nairn's political
trajectory so ironic, that he should revert more squarely to bourgeois
nationalism just at the point that the bourgeois nationalists of his
favoured party are abandoning their former nationalism.) This means that the
forces ranged against any movement for independence are going to be much
more broad than they would have been were independence to be achieved by the
kind of coalition that was involved in the constitutional convention of the
1980s. Class alliances, however fleeting, will perhaps not be necessary, but
would certainly be useful, if they help to advance the cause of
independence. Thus forming such alliances that, however unwittingly for the
participants, take aim at the institutions of the British state, and expose
the contradictions of that apparatus (so well described by Nairn) such that
support for these is glaringly untenable, is what is going to make the
pursuit of independence more successful in the medium term. For the British
state is such an anachronism that for it to be laid bare would be fatal.
That it is cloaked in mystificatory garbage concerning "democracy", "mother
of all parliaments", "parliamentary sovereignty", civilisation and empire,
etc., means that our struggle must be as much ideological as political.

Related to this is, from what is Scotland to be independent? This question
is not as simple as it sounds, but it is vitally important. Too many people
in Scotland want to be "free from England", when in fact the English too
deserve to be free of the British state. Ours ought to be part of a pan-UK
struggle, and we should be doing our best to link up with comrades in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We ought also to remember that in
waging this struggle there will be potentially very important consequences
for those elsewhere in the world who are the unlucky subjects of British
imperialism -- what better gift to internationalism could we offer than the
end of their and our very own oppressor?

If greater UK integration in Europe is more immediately possible than
absolute independence for a Scottish socialist republic, which itself would
be assisted by the diminution in importance of the UK state via greater
integration in Europe, then we really must be supporting UK membership of
the eurozone. That we replace one monetarist master with another is not in
question -- it's a question of what is the better means to the end. The
eurozone is in no condition to support institutionalised monetarism anyway,
as its economic non-performance and the chorus of criticism (including
Prodi's "stupidity pact" outburst) make clear. That it has done so this far
is because of the euro's intended position as a counter to dollar hegemony.
That Saddam Hussein was trading in euros rather than dollars has been
factored into reasons why the US regarded it as imperative to unseat him --
at least on this list. It is clear to many that the very worst thing that
could happen to the US economically speaking is the rise of an alternative
currency hegemon -- hence the policy straitjacket administered in the
eurozone.

However the same is true of the UK -- the story of Gordon Brown's "iron
chancellorship" has been of manufacturers screaming about an overvalued
pound, whilst inward investment dries up and capital relocates to the
eurozone (e.g. Toyota from Derby to Valenciennes, France; Toshiba from
Portsmouth), and all at the expense of the working class in Britain.
Membership of the eurozone would, in certain respects, have proven a lot
better for the working class of Britain than an independent pound, which
serves to perpetuate the illusion of British policy autonomy and thus the
hegemony of the British state, when in fact it is performing a service for
US imperialism in denying the eurozone credibility, splitting the European
Union and thereby putting a brake on integration, ensuring US access to UK
military hardware and personnel, and thereby prolonging US domination of the
British state to service US ends. When you are up against this sort of
adversary, class alliances, however fleeting, might indeed be more than
advisable, but very desirable. Hence my location of the struggle at a
European level, because this is the context in which we are engaged in the
struggle -- it is not, and will not, and cannot be about merely delinking
Scotland from the rest of Britain and setting up Cuba, mark 2.

Mark Jones and I discussed these matters in some detail (not enough,
unfortunately) when we were discussing the idea of a European Workers Party
a year ago. Sifting through the list archives will give you some flavour of
what we were thinking of, and I intend to trawl through these and my own
private records in order to put together a more comprehensive rationale for
the position I have taken. These are absolutely crucial issues requiring
serious debate and analysis, and that means time. The information is out
there, it simply needs to be assembled in a way appropriate to your
questions. I'll get to it as and when I can. Meanwhile I hope you stick
around and keep on doing what you are doing.

Michael