The Week the Music Died?
The prospect for another cohesive independence movement died last week. The level of bile and conspiracy theory bullshit that has been flung around has been off the scale. If independence is not about standing up for the vulnerable, the marginalised and the impoverished, and standing in solidarity with those fighting back, then it is nothing. We now have a major fault line running through the movement between those who get this and those who don’t. It is the latter who will drive people away from indy in droves.
Let me start by putting my cards on the table. I support Scottish independence because I am a socialist. Self-determination and an empowered people cut free from a dying imperial state are central to my outlook.
When I see fellow workers in struggle, my starting point is solidarity. Yet, from other parts of the independence movement, we have seen suspicion, conspiracy theories and even outright hostility. The most common line as that the 3000 strking workers in Glasgow have been duped by nasty union bosses to attack the SNP on behalf of the Labour Party.
Let’s examine that assertion. In the face of grossly hostile anti-trade union legislation, 8000 poorly paid women workers voted to lose 2 day’s pay simply because they were asked to. Never mind that they have been waiting for this for over a decade. Never mind that many of these same women will have been the ones that voted Labour out and SNP in on a manifesto that promised to resolve this and hasn’t (yet). Similarly the 30,000 teachers and supporters who marched through Glasgow on Saturday have also been descriibed as som sort of yoon plot, again ignoring the levels of discontent which have been growing within the education sector for some time.
The purpose of this article, however, is not to examine the detail of either case but to look at the response and what it means for the indpendence movement going forward. As David Jamieson has written:
The SNP has now found itself in a series of conflict with important elements of Yes support. Teachers, football fans and trade unionists to name but a few. These conflicts are inherent and essential to society — wishing them away between now and indy wont work.
The success of the movement up to 2014 was baced on a tolerance of diversity. Sure there were differences, some of them considerable, but those were never seen as hostle to the overall objective. Since 2014 this has eroded significantly.
The abilty of the SNP to suck in a large chunk of the movement in the immediate aftermath of the referendum has also been its curse. Increasingly, criticism of the SNP has been seen as hostility to independence itself, with two different manifestations.
First of all, there has been the weesht for indy brigade. Let’s put everything to the side and wait until independence is achieved. Everything else is divisive and is never so iimportant that it can’t wait.
Essentially this is depolitcising the discourse. Unlike the pre-referendum period, diversity is now a problem and must be suppressed. Any desire to wrestle with complexites is seen as exposing weakness, and so on.
Secondly, there are the true believers who are awash with conspiracy theories, ranging from thinking that the 2014 result was a stitch-up through to thinking that anyone taking a contrary view must be in league with the yoons. One favourite target is the BBC, which is seen as being uniiquely hostile to independence and the SNP, never mind what other groups are also misrepresented by it, such as Corbyn supporters.
Last week brought both of these front and centre and in polar opposition to those of us in the movement whose first and correct response was to side with the striking women workers and march alongside the teachers. We did so for the same reason we support independence
I have written previously that, in the absence of a focussed campaign, the independence movement has begun to consume itself. This week that consumption accelerated. Whether we can ever march again together under one banner is an idea that is fading.
I close with a quote from an article by Eve Livingston:
When Glasgow’s women have taken their rightful place in the history books for spearheading this monumental change, the narrative around them will be one of workers’ rights and women’s liberation. For now, they do as we do, and they battle diligently despite accusations of political infighting, overstating their worth and being silly gormless women, because they know that what they’re asking for is the least that they deserve. This city’s working-class women haven’t been wrong yet.
