The Scottish National Liberation Army Marzipan Gang Or Real Terrorist Threat?
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The Scottish National Liberation Army Marzipan Gang or Real Terrorist Threat? A case study of the Scottish National Liberation Army and the reasons why they did not become a large terrorist movement during the years 1979-1997 Lara van Dijken (0639001) Masters dissertation History Political Culture and National Identities Dissertation supervisor: Dr. J. Augusteijn Second reader dissertation: Dr. D. Bos Leiden, June 2016 Inhoud Preface ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 5 1. Theories on terrorism and counterterrorism strategies .................................................................. 14 1.1. What is Terrorism? ................................................................................................................ 14 1.2. The emergence of terrorism................................................................................................... 18 1.3. Counter-terrorism and performative power ........................................................................... 22 2. Scotland and Scottish nationalism 1979-1983: Prelude to Referendum, outcome of the Referendum and the first years of SNLA .............................................................................................. 29 2.1. Scotland 1979-1983: Referendum and Tories elected ........................................................... 29 2.2. The SNLA from 1979-1983: Start-up and organisation ........................................................ 32 2.3. Terrorism, Relative Deprivation and Resource Mobilisation ................................................ 43 2.4. Counterterrorism: Minimising social utility and Performative Power .................................. 47 2.5. Thoughts and concerns .......................................................................................................... 51 3. Scotland and Scottish Nationalism 1984-1992: Anti-Thatcherism, the decline of the Scottish heavy industries and the restructuring period of the SNLA .................................................................. 53 3.1. Scotland 1984-1992: Cuts in Scottish heavy industries and the poll-tax .............................. 53 3.2. The SNLA from 1984-1992: Reorganisation and disregard ................................................. 56 3.3. Terrorism, Relative Deprivation and Resource Mobilisation ................................................ 64 3.4. Counterterrorism: Minimising social utility and performative power ................................... 65 3.5. Thoughts and concerns .......................................................................................................... 70 4. Scotland 1993-1997: Prelude to second Devolution Referendum ................................................. 72 4.1. Scotland 1993-1997: The rise of pro-European sentiment and anti-English settler campaigns 72 4.2. The SNLA 1993-1997: Adam Busby and the decline of the SNLA ..................................... 75 4.3. Terrorism, Relative Deprivation and Resource Mobilisation ................................................ 84 4.4. Counterterrorism: Minimising social utility and performative power ................................... 86 4.5. Thoughts and concerns .......................................................................................................... 90 5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 91 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 96 Literature ........................................................................................................................................... 96 Books ............................................................................................................................................. 96 Articles .......................................................................................................................................... 97 Internet .............................................................................................................................................. 99 Newspaper articles .......................................................................................................................... 101 2 Preface In January 2011 I went to Scotland to study at the University of Edinburgh through the Erasmus Exchange Programme. During my time there I came to love the country, its nature, the City of Edinburgh, and especially its people. When I came back and finished my Bachelor’s degree at Leiden University that summer, I knew that I wanted my Master’s dissertation to be about Scotland. In September that year I started the Master ‘Political culture and national identities’ at Leiden University and the course that really interested me was ‘Revolutionary Movements in Modern Western Society’. What interested me most about the subject were the mechanisms that are at work when a movement arises and especially why one movement does resort to violence while another movement tries to achieve its goals through non-violent means. When I needed to choose a topic for my dissertation, it was clear to me to me that I wanted to combine my love for Scotland with the interest I have in the creation and perseverance of violent movements. Lucky for me there was this obscure violent movement in Scotland, The Scottish National Liberation Army, which had not been researched on an academic level before. I was even more lucky when Dr. Joost Augusteijn wanted to be my supervisor. Above all I would like to thank you for your advice, your clear feedback, your excellent guidance and endless patience, but above all for the confidence that you gave me that I could finish it. I would also like to thank my family and friends, who were always there if I needed a shoulder to cry on or an ear to talk to. A special word of thanks goes out to Erik and my parents. Erik, thank you for being so patient, for giving me the time and space to develop and write, thank you for letting me vent and for still loving me, even though I can only imagine how obnoxious I sometimes may have been. Mom, thank you for supporting me, for your kind and motivating words which I did not always want, but definitely needed to hear. Dad, thank you for being my tower of strength, for being my sparring partner and for always believing in me. My student days are now finally over. I did my best to let them last as long as possible and develop myself in every way possible, with committees, theatre education and a full-time job, but I am also very glad that the end is now really in sight. So bring on the future! Lara van Dijken Leiden, 2016 3 Summary The Scottish National Liberation Army was, and still is, a very small violent Scottish nationalist movement with the aim of establishing an independent Scottish Republic. From their inception in 1980 they knew how to make the headlines of the newspapers through an insistent campaign of letter bombs to important figures like Lady Diana, Margaret Thatcher and even the queen. They planned bomb hoaxes and were even responsible for some actual bombings. Somehow they were, however, never really (visibly) taken seriously by the media or the authorities. And that might just be one of the reasons why they did not become a large terrorist movement. The aim of this study is to contribute to wider terrorism research by looking at the factors that kept the SNLA from becoming a large terrorist movement. By figuring out what kept the SNLA from becoming the Scottish equivalent of, for example, the IRA we might be able to recreate these conditions and policies in our societies today and reduce the number of people joining such a movement resulting in the gradual decline of terrorist movements. Beatrice de Graaf’s theory on performative power proved to be of crucial importance to answer the research question of this paper: Why did the Scottish National Liberation Army not become a large terrorist movement during the years 1979-1997? By building on a firm theoretical framework of new and proven terrorism research and investigating newspaper articles and parliamentary debates from that period for anything relating to the SNLA this study has come to the conclusion that one of the major factors that contributed to the SNLA remaining a small and obscure movement was (1) the low performative power of the British Government. By publically ignoring the SNLA and letting the infiltration be done by local authorities and intelligence agencies thus not involving the public in the terrorism discourse, the British government minimised the performative power and thus the influence of the movement. Other factors were; (2) the way the media reported the actions of the SNLA, which was usually with disdain; (3) errors from within the SNLA itself, like failed attacks or other actions and; (4) there were other alternatives for the SNLA, movements like the trade union or political parties which were more successful at achieving the same goals as the SNLA but through legal means.