Raising the Tartan Flag

Alex McKenna

The Scottish Socialist Party originally wanted to replace the Labour Party and lead the masses to Socialism. Since the Scottish Parliament elections in May the aim is now to replace the Scottish National Party and lead the poor oppressed Scots to Independence. It is the latest opportunist lurch from a party who seem incapable of making the transition from shouting slogans to serious analysis, never mind orchestrating a transition from capitalism to socialism.

The Scottish Parliament election did not turn out quite the way the SSP had hoped. Whilst they exceeded their own private (as opposed to publicly) expressed expectations in winning six seats Ð and came close to two more, the way the votes splintered amongst other parties was as big a shock to them as it was to the variety of MSPs who suddenly found themselves jobless.

Prior to the election the SSP leadership's thinking was to position themselves as junior coalition partners to the SNP after a Labour defeat in 2007. The disastrous showing of the SNP (down 4.9% in the constituency vote and 6.4% in the regional list vote) has prompted a swift rethink. Instead in a move that is as bold as it is devoid of principle, the SSP are attempting to claim the leadership of the nationalist struggle. The SSP will aim to set up a coalition of pro-Independence parties, an Independence Convention similar to the Constitutional Convention, which provided a focal point for the Devolution campaign in the 1990s.

The argument runs that, the SNP, Greens and SSP all support Independence Ð with a combined showing of some 33% of the vote in May - support for Independence has never been higher. A combined effort and strategy can lead us to FREEDOM. This simplistic nonsense been endorsed by a wide variety of people, some of whom should really know better.

Firstly support for Independence has been higher. The peak vote ever for the SNP was in October 1974, at which point they managed 30% of the vote Ð on a 72% turnout. More votes than 33% on a 49% turnout obtained by the combined "Independence Parties" achieved this May. And then there is the far from insignificant point that not everyone would have voted Green, or SSP or even SNP out of a support for Independence. Presumably a concern for the environment will be the primary motivation for many Green voters; Socialism might even motivate some SSP voters. Doubtless some people in Ochil voted SNP less because of Scotland's supposed status as a colony, and more because of a desire to punish Dr Richard Simpson for his "fascist bastard" remark about striking fire fighters.

A more accurate reading of the election might be an acknowledgement that whilst some support for Independence exists, amongst supporters of all parties. It is, of itself, a motivating factor for very few. The SNP has always been a repository of protest votes Ð the extent to which this is the case is perhaps only now becoming clear. An electoral system allowing for more pluralistic outcomes allows other outlets for protest - smaller parties and single issue candidates and the main casualty has been the SNP.

The Greens, to their credit, are aware of this and are having nothing to do with the SSP's Convention scheme preferring to concentrate on other matters. But why is the SSP pursuing the tartan illusion of separatism so determinedly?

The answer is, of course, Building the Party. With the SNP keen to separate itself from its "Scotland Free or a Desert" (and we don't mind which) past, and re-invent itself as a "credible party of government" i.e. not so much "Independence nothing less" as "Devolution? We can do that". A gap appears in the political market to be THE Scottish party. This is a strategy that won't conquer the world. In reality it won't even conquer Scotland. But what it might do is attract support from that element of the SNP vote who are adamant about Independence. If this amounts to even a quarter of the SNP's support it would see the SSP double its support. And then there are the SNP members less than impressed with John Swinney's Nationalism Lite who might be tempted into what despite advertising itself as "Scotland's fastest growing political party" is still a fairly small organisation. Of course the result of all this will be an even greater focus inside the SSP on finding a Scottish Road to Socialism - a determination to find Scottish solutions to UK wide or European problems and further mythology about the innate radicalism of Scotland compared to England.

Some of course might wonder just how a Party whose leadership, and a substantial part of its membership, are (ex?) Trotskyist revolutionaries found itself rushing with such alacrity down a Nationalist cul de sac in the first place. The answer is again, opportunism, but a fuller explanation will have to wait for another time.