Scottish Left Review Issue 78 September/October 2013 £2.00 September 18 A Year To Go Photo: Murdoch ferguson WHATEVER SCOTLAND’S FUTURE NO CUTS Janice Godrich National President Mark Serwotka General Secretary Lynn Henderson Scottish Secretary Public and Commercial Services Union | pcs.org.uk OY R R AL U M O A E I L V A S g r w .o ww.cwu 2 Scottish Left Review E: [email protected] Issue 78 September/October 2013 W: www.scottishleftreview.org Photo: Murdoch ferguson T: 0141 424 0042 Contents A: Scottish Left Review 741 Shields Road, Pollokshields Comment ........................... 3 A giant of the movement ..16 Glasgow G41 4PL A marathon, not a sprint ... 4 Len McCluskey Dennis Canavan A privatisation too far .......18 Editorial Committee John Brown Malcolm Balfour Henry McCubbin Better Together ................. 6 Cat Boyd David Miller Blair McDougall Democracy behind bars ....20 Moira Craig Gordon Morgan We will not disappear ........ 8 Lucy Blackburn Gregor Gall Tom Nairn Cat Boyd The not-working programme .22 Isobel Lindsay Jonathan Shafi John McAllion Pauline Bryan Tommy Sheppard Class, not nation ...............10 Robin McAlpine Elaine Smith Dave Watson Reviews ............................25 (Editor) Bob Thomson Peter McColl (Convener) Regret, bitterness, apathy ....14 Kick Up The Tabloids ........26 Michael Gray Printer by Clydeside Press Ltd, WHATEVER SCOTLAND’S FUTURE NO CUTS 37 High Street, Glasgow G1 1LX Janice Godrich National President Mark Serwotka General Secretary Lynn Henderson Scottish Secretary Comment Is utopia of any use in the modern world? Public and Commercial Services Union | pcs.org.uk e had planned that this issue something better than had we not tried. allegation that an independent Scotland Wof the Scottish Left Review Or, to put it more lyrically (in would be neoliberal by default? would have a sort-of ‘utopia/dystopia’ Samuel Beckett’s words): “Go on failing. To those who pose a federal solution theme linked to one year to go to the Go on. Only next time try to fail better.” to Britain and to those who believe referendum. The idea had been that by Promising an ideal future is patently that only class politics at a UK level OY asking different sides in the debate to ridiculous, but debating it makes us can change lives, how is that going to R R AL U M talk about the best and worst outcomes think about what it would look like happen? What mechanism leads to a O A they can imagine and by asking them to and how we might get there. These are federal Britain or to a radical reforming E I L talk about how these outcomes (in their both important questions - too many Westminster government? What does a V A views) can or would occur, it would help in the left have become adept at finding radical Westminster look like and what S people to think about the potential - the failure in everything but have not would it do? g both bad and good - to change Scotland’s properly engaged with the questions Yes, these are utopian questions. Yes, r ww .o future through their referendum vote. ‘what next? What now?’. they ask us to predict a future. But you w.cwu It hasn’t quite worked out like that. Whatever the independence debate are in politics - predicting a future better This is a shame - if for no other reason has done it has put those questions to us than today is your purpose. Or at least than that it rather scuppered the concept in stark terms. What next? What now? it should be. ‘It cannae work’ or ‘trust for our cover art... If we want to make our best choice we us, somehow it just will work’ are not But there is a strong reason not to need to think about what happens after good enough. Allowing some time for dismiss utopias altogether. As George that choice. If there is no consideration wounds to be licked, by the start of 2015 Bernard Shaw famously wrote, “a map of of what actions we take after 2014, we need a way forward in Scotland. If all the world that does not include Utopia we cede the future to others. All sides that remains is fragments of everyone’s is not worth even glancing at”. Utopia in the referendum campaign have a hopes lying useless around us as we have may quite literally mean ‘No Place’, but responsibility higher than winning. They deconstructed every possibility in a fit while it is no place that exists, that most have a responsibility to the future. of cynicism, replaced only with sage certainly doesn’t mean it has no place. So, to the Radical Independence comments about why we should all lower This is because we need to be Campaign, to the pro-independence our expectations, who then is victorious? able to think about the best possible groups advocating a ‘Common Weal’ At the Scottish Left Review we outcome if we want to think about our future; how do we achieve it? If there is will keep pressing both sides to talk us path forward. That you do not achieve a Yes vote, what practical, realistic and through their versions of the immediate everything you’d like to is the curse of effective steps can be taken to make future and how this takes us to the land humanity’s ability to imagine things that an independent Scotland something they believe we deserve. We take our do not exist. Of course we fail in our different from the neoliberal mess in idealism with a dose of reality and visa biggest ambitions, but in the process of which we find ourselves? Can you versa. Surely we deserve nothing less than failing, hopefully we manage to create mount a serious argument to counter the an answer? 3 A marathon not a sprint ver the past year, the YesScotland the conclusion that Westminster is increasingly different from the preferred OCampaign team has been working completely out of touch with the agenda of most Scots. This divergence of hard to win the argument about people of Scotland, whereas the Scottish agenda has been going on now for some independence. Opinion polls suggest Parliament responds more readily to the time. that we have much more work to do but values, the needs and the aspirations of I recently came across an old this campaign is like running a marathon the people of Scotland. election leaflet which was used by me rather than a short sprint. On issues like land reform, free as a Labour candidate during the 1979 Over the next twelve months, care for the elderly, financial support for General Election Campaign. It began: we aim to redouble our efforts to win students and free prescriptions for people “The result of this election will the hearts and minds of the people who are ill, the Scottish Parliament has determine the kind of society we of Scotland by persuading them that proved to be far more radical and far shall have for many years to come. independence will improve their lives. Of more progressive than Westminster. Do we want a greedy, grasping rat- course, we have a massive job to convert If the Scottish Parliament can be race where only the strongest survive enough people to our cause but I have responsible for important things like and the weakest go to the wall? Or every confidence that our YesScotland Education and the National Health do we want a caring, sharing society team is up for it. Service, why should it not be responsible based on the principle that most I myself am a convert to the cause for deciding whether we should have help should go to those who are and my conversion is not based on nuclear weapons or whether we should most in need?” emotion. It is based on my experience, be involved in illegal wars or whether In that General Election, Scotland voted particularly my Parliamentary we should allow bankers to ruin our for the latter option. The UK as a whole experience. Having spent 26 years as a economy ? voted for the former. We all got a Prime Member of the Westminster Parliament At present, too many important Minister who told us that there is no and eight years as a Member of the decisions are taken at Westminster but such thing as society. Scottish Parliament, I have come to the Westminster agenda is becoming In twelve months time the people “A coherent vision of a wealthier, fairer, more equal Scotland” - the Herald The independence referendum is a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-imagine and reshape Scotland. In the few months since the Jimmy Reid Foundation launched the Common Weal project, we’ve moved our vision of a high wage economy with universal benefits to the centre of the debate about Scotland’s future. Now, with the referendum just over a year away, we need your help to make the vision a reality. We’ll be publishing a series of reports mapping Scotland’s path to a fair society with a strong, high wage economy. We need your support: You can donate on our online indiegogo campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the- common-weal-we-need-you-to-build-a-better-scotland/x/4518115 If you would prefer to contribute by post, you can send a cheque to The Jimmy Reid Foundation, PO Box 8781, Biggar ML12 6AG. www.scottishcommonweal.org 4 We asked both YesScotland and Better Together to contribute articles on the state of the independence campaign so far. Dennis Canavan writes for YesScotland.