Labour must ditch its toxic unionist alliance says Bob Thomson Having been a member for over 51 years, the actions of the Labour Party have been disappointing to say the least. Joining forces with the Con-Dem government, which is dismantling the welfare state, in the unionist Better Together campaign was plainly wrong. Instead of having nothing to do with these toxic allies, they’ve tried to outdo them in running down Scotland’s economy and our dignity as a nation state. Watching Labour form a pact with the Tories and Lib Dems to refuse a currency union was sickening. Sterling is the British currency and the Bank of England is the central bank. They are both the property of all constituent countries—any change should be subject to democratic negotiations. Whether people vote Yes or No, this collaboration will have serious negative consequences for the electorate for the Scottish Labour Party. The unionists have spent the last 18 months rubbishing Scotland’s economy and questioning whether the European Union would want us as members. The impartial observer might ask if Scotland is such a basket case, why are they so desperate to keep us in Britain? The biggest threat to Scotland’s prosperity is remaining within Britain. Britain’s economy has been in steady decline since the 1970s with the balance of payments in deficit, national debt increasing and sterling depreciating. As recently released 30 year old government papers show it has only been kept afloat by oil revenues and selling national assets. Interesting that British governments only publish civil service advice which suits them! Decimated Once our biggest export, manufacturing industry has been decimated. Hundreds of factories are long gone with the loss of tens of thousands of highly skilled, highly paid jobs. Strategic industries in energy, transport, steel and now Royal Mail have been privatised and are mostly foreign-owned with profits exported abroad. The three unionist parties are all committed to more austerity. Their record shows there is no possibility in the foreseeable future of any radical economic or social changes at a British level. A Yes vote gives an opportunity to create a better, fairer, prosperous country which could act as a beacon for the rest of Britain. Some comrades on the left argue that supporting independence is a betrayal of fellow workers in the rest of Britain, condemning them to perpetual right wing governments. However solidarity has always been national and international and will continue whether the worker is in Glasgow, Grimsby or Gdansk. The nature of direct solidarity has changed because of the increase in multinational corporations and in Britain, where public sector wages and conditions have been devolved. I am not a Scottish National Party (SNP) supporter though they have been socially progressive. A modern democracy does not have a hereditary head of state. We should only keep sterling for a transitional period and not join Nato. The SNP has been too centralising and authoritarian—more power should be handed back to local authorities and communities. The referendum is about the future of Scotland, not the SNP. The Yes campaign includes socialist parties, the Scottish Greens and non-aligned individuals as well as the SNP. Many comrades in “Labour for Independence” will be encouraging over 800,000 Scots who voted Labour in the 2010 general election to vote Yes.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:21:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015