A GUEST POST BY MAGGIE CHETTY.
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.β β Antonio Gramsci
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.β β Antonio Gramsci
Reflections on political times
Last night was a very poignant occasion – a celebration of Internationational Workers Day, with a wonderful cultural and political line up, and a hall with visible portions of empty seats-in Glasgow.Rab Noakes, Iona Fyfe and STUC secretary Rozanne Foyers, it seems could not fill the Oran Mor space for International Workers Day.
It came to me, forcibly, that the quote from the prescient Gramsci was appropriate and I felt sad.
The Labour Party in Scotland is dead on its feet, and hence the trade union movement has little life about it. Although Rozanne Foyers, made an excellent contribution last night just after the STUC annual gathering, there were those empty seats where, even six years ago, people fought to get tickets to attend such an event!
But it is not only the Labour Party and trade union movement that is struggling, the Scottish National Party also finds itself in serious difficulty with its membership loss and its policies, as local elections loom.
Emergence of Alba
Alba has emerged into the field, in the most difficult political circumstances and captured some of the SNP’s most active supporters.
Those of us Scottish political activists who have been involved in struggle for all our political lives see a new phase of struggle.
For myself, I am accustomed to Communist Party methods, ideology and shared levels of commitment. Other parties bring different methods, behaviour and ideas to the table.
When the Communist Party of Great Britain collapsed after the demise of the Soviet Union,
We set up the Communist Party of Scotland committed to Scottish independence. The great Mick Mcgahey of the Scottish miners and Hugh Wyper of TGWU were members and I was the Chair person for the last decade of our existence which ended about 2015 through the ill health and deaths of party members.
I have never been in the Labour Party which I defended for decades as a workers party. Or in the SNP which I have also defended for a couple of decades as a social democratic party with Scottish sovereignty at its heart.
I spent my life attacking racism and imperialism, blind to the issues close to home that smacked of both. The person who argued against the all pervasive cultural imperialism entrenched in the Scottish psyche, was the CPS secretary ,the late Eric Canning, who had a clear-sighted view of the tasks ahead.
Continuity of Thatcherism
I remember the sense of exhilaration in 1997 when Tony Blair and New Labour came to power. And then the excitement when we at last, got our Scottish Parliament.
There has been continuity of Conservative ruling class policies in UK politics since the early 1950’s with Thatcherism tearing away the last vestiges of Keynesian post war achievements.
The ravages of neo-liberalism have brought about some monsters in the shape of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Victor Urban in Hungary and Marine Le Pen in France. Meanwhile Israel makes further encroachments into Palestinian territory and the Middle East is set alight by the relentless progress of the US military industrial complex with its UK lapdog.
English Political Dominance
The relentless attacks on medieval Scotland following the incorporation of Ireland and Wales reveal the English need for absolute rule and dominance in these islands
The UK ruling class bring very unique skills to bear in the political field having built an Empire from the sixteenth Century onwards-blackmail, intimidation, bribery corruption and false promises-perfidious Albion!
Sadly the labour and trade union movement have been incorporated into the nexus of UK corruption and intrigue of Westminster politics. The power and strength of the trade unions in 1970s Britain put out warning signals to Margaret Thatcher who with her B movie pal , Ronald Reagan, made it her mission to incapacitate them and the forces of progress.
Scottish Independence progress
The 2014 bid for Scottish independence frightened the UK establishment with the vibrancy and progressive nature of the Yes movement led ably by Alex Salmond. After Nicola Sturgeon took over, they found a way to stop the progressive movement in its tracks and to incorporate the leadership of the SNP into the establishment.
The plot against Alex Salmond will unravel in time and be exposed for what it is.
This sounds like a very gloomy reflection of where we are now.
Of course Covid has cast a long shadow politically but nevertheless it is difficult to be optimistic about the current situation.
But there are bright spots.
I have been very heartened by the wonderful Yvonne Ridley and her forays into Afghanistan with the Al Khair Foundation. Her efforts to bring honest reporting from Afghanistan and to establish respectful relations with the Taliban leadership are a joy to behold.
In my experience the progressive grassroots movement always put out new shoots and new ways of organising. Alba has done well to develop a base so quickly and put out a positive message of action against poverty in Scotland. The next period will determine it relevance and strength.
The only way to deal with the endemic and longstanding poverty in Scotland is independence. We need to use our outstanding creative artists, thinkers and innovators to put together industrial/development strategies and effective nationalisation such as Clement Attlee and J M Keynes did in the post-war period of the late forties.
The nightmare and waste of Eton run billionaire government has to end and we have to begin to build a nation with an ethos of peace, tolerance and empathy for our neighbours and those further afield in an independent Scotland.
So thankful for the bright spots! They’re much needed.
It is easy with this article to recall the immense stretch of common ground upon which so many of us still stand. For example, I’ve always despised titles and avoided describing myself as anything (Scottish nationalist excepted) but I think this article is an absolutely spot on summation of the political situation in Scotland today. A great article.
Labour the party of home rule , of Keir Hardy and John McLean taken over by Unionists Millionaires, Sawar and Starmer. This is how the British state ensures its survival it infuriates corupts and Waters down their opponents in a fake pretend democracy and turns political parties into a mirror of the Torys, Unionists rats all of them . Tethered together in a reluctant corupt to the core Union. You have no real choice they are one and the same and are only interested in the wants and needs of the British moneyed elites. Everything is for the profit of the crime syndicate and its feudal cabal. The SNP have under Sturgeon have embraced the British state and have taken their gold becoming part of it , they shall get their reward like Labour did.
Dissolve the Union.
Alastair – it’s ‘Hardie’ – but you’re not alone in making the slip.
Of unions, my attitude if not Scots-born, they have no right invading Scotland to agitate we abandon our wish for self-governance. They are an English party on a colonial mission. A new Scotland should disallow such incomers who might destabilise the nation’s progress. Register in Scotland and represent members in Scotland, but not be a UK branch.
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Fine article Maggie .
In these times when being a Communist is akin to leprosy it’s good to be reminded of what that actually means .
My grandfather set the political worldview for subsequent generations of the family ; Gorbals born and bred choirboy turned fervent Communist , he instilled in his sons and daughters an understanding of the Class Struggle and the power of a unified Working Class . Also that same class’s tragic propensity to self-sabotage and/or falling under the spell of false prophets of one kind or another . Witness the current blindness regards Sturgeon/ScotGov
Communism is – still – a set of noble ideas/ideals , and something like it might just be the only way of saving the planet , and ourselves .
It can never be achieved at the point of a gun though , or enforced/maintained by State Power and corrupt Judiciaries .
Good luck to all the ALBA candidates tomorrow . We could all do with something positive occurring
Many of the finest, most compassionate and brave people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in my life were Communist Party members; wise comrades, all dearly missed. Where’s their like today, when Scotland, so desperately, needs their kind?
Indeed Josef , and likewise .
As you’ll know , most people’s sense of Communism is distorted by the terrible example of Stalinist Russia , the pogroms , gulags , famines and KGB oppression – encapsulated by Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 – the latter more a general warning about State Totalitarianism .
Personally , I don’t consider myself ” a Communist ” per se , but do have sympathy with the political philosophy that informs it : as I said above , it can never be brought about by coercion and it’s once main energy source ie the mass of industrialised Working Class is no longer what it was .
The ideas of addressing need at the expense of greed , mutual aid rather than survival of the * fittest * and the decentralising of power are still resonant ideas nonetheless
Spot on as Alastair Bryan
Well said, Maggie.
This is what politics is about for the mass of humanity. On a different plane from the social engineering that dominates the corrupted MSM driven agenda while the neolibs get on with lining their pockets. Politics is now no more than a career choice crawling with talking heads who have never had a real job.
Oh my god, here’s an article that has brought the reds from under our beds into the open. It’s commie this and pinko that, all huggy, fluffy this and that. The next we know the Stasi will be hailed as a fine institution dedicated to the preservation of law and order. I, as one born, brought up and educated, to university level, in Scotland have come to hate the place…because it is so left-wing.ie wanting something for nothing…..the government ‘ll do it. Are their any Scots that still subscribe to the virtues of self-help and thrift, as in days of yore?
Never, “What can I do for my country?” It’s always,” What can my country do for me?”
….but that’s the very problem with Scotland…….it’s gone all huggy, fluffy pinko…..and therefore can never get independence……for if you love and respect the outside world as much as yer ain folk….then what’s the point?
No. You’ve got to,……like or not, put SCOTS FIRST and I MEAN REAL SCOTS, not false English immigrants.
Once you’ve got independence( an unlikely scenario) and re-established a Scottish culture ….then you can relax a bit…….. and play the generous huggy-fluffy, we-love- ye’se a’, big man……..BUT NOT BEFORE.
What an angry little Britnat bigot you are!
@Andrew Wilson Lees
I wasn’t speaking for ScotlandβI was speaking for me and only me, based upon my personal experience of the Communist Party and its Scottish cadres.
“angry little Britnat bigot”
Angry? No doubt about that. The lack of enthusiasm for independence,the lack of enthusiasm for Scottish culture, and the progressive Anglification of Scotland makes me very angry.
Britnat? I’ve been arguing for Scottish independence since the sixties. I met many of the leading lights of the SNP and Plaid Cymru in my own living room in the sixties and seventies
Just because I left Scotland in search of greener pastures(like yourself) doesn’t mean I stopped being a Scot or an advocate for Scottish independence.
Bigot? Someone with entrenched views that won’t budge under any circumstances.
Not so in my case. When it comes to ideas on an independent Scotland, I’m open to any suggestions as long as there is no chance of sliding into totalitarianism, for I saw that in East Germany with the Stasi and an army of snitching informers…..the veritable workers’ paradise.
Whatever you want , take it from me you don’t want that…..yet from what I’ve read you are sliding into that very trap…ie Sturgeon/Murrell……closet communists bringing you a police state.
I’d rather turn English than live under the rule of those two scheming thugs.
…….and who put them there but hero Alex Salmond
Aye , Maggie’s excellent article has brought out Keyboard Commandos like you ya numpty .
” Huggy , fluffy pinko ” LOL ! I’m the product of a background and culture that knew what struggle was , knew what strength was – the ability to provide for family , look-out for friends and have a sense of solidarity with working people , and their similar struggles , wherever they live , in circumstances the likes of you could not even imagine .
Spare us your kid-on hard man act pal , seen/heard it all before .
Hope the weather’s nice in Milngavie
” Iβm the product of a background and culture that knew what struggle was”
That would be the struggle over the wall at lunchtime and taking the afternoon off boozing down the pub. Aye we know all about you ‘working’ classes, adept at theft, fiddling and skiving. All this romantic nonsense about the working classes! Grow up and face facts. The last thing you ‘working’ class dreamers want to do is work.
When I started my first job at the Post office, I was surrounded by a threatening gang of your great workers and was told to “Tone it down pal. Nobody here works like that” I’d done two deliveries by 9 in the morning, when apparently ‘working’ class regulations stipulated that only two deliveries were to take place before 12 midday.
That’s your great Scottish ‘working’ class for you. Where does all this romantic twaddle come from?
Small wonder all the steelworks and shipyards are gone with an attitude like that.
“Spare us your kid-on hard man act pal , seen/heard it all before.”
….and you spare us your romantic view of the great Scottish working classes . You’re living in fairyland, dreaming of a communist paradise when anyone who has taken the trouble to find out about communism knows that it ends up, not as a paradise, but as a nightmare.
“Hope the weatherβs nice in Milngavie”
Hope so too….but I can tell you the weather is very nice in the Thames Valley…. a place that rewards hard work and is devoid of pinko Scottish workers that threaten you for working too hard.
What a wonderful site this is. Full of ‘reply’ buttons, but when one replies, nothing comes forth.
For a site that prides itself upon free speech, one wonders why the right of reply is denied.I replied to both ‘Roddy and the traitor Hughes
‘Tis most strange, methinks…..but if one assumes all posters and host are closet commies. living in their little cosy bubble, then it becomes more under-standable.
Roddy is a freemason, after all.
I will allow you to remove your comment. If I have to remove it,I will remove you too
“Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.”
Say no more…….nudge ,nudge, wink, wink.
I thought I’d been ‘cancelled/censored’, but no, the redoubtable Roddy let me have my say….and I am grateful.