Issue 23 July/August AFTER THE WAR peace, protest and human rights in Scotland scottishleftreviewIssue 23 July/August 2004 Contents Comment ........................................................2 Human rights in Scotland.............................12 Amnesty International Feedback.........................................................4 The world thing.............................................14 Briefing ...........................................................5 Tom Nairn A permanent state of terror?..........................6 Pill tax ...........................................................16 Colin Fox Aamer Anwar Scotland the grave ..........................................8 A Europe against workers?...........................18 Bob Thomson Liz Law Prepare to protest.........................................10 That was the Euro election that was ............20 Henry McCubbin Gill Hubbard of great change in one direction or the other, and it is the US Comment presidential election which is at the heart of it. But it would be wrong to think that what has been done will be easily undone. he Greeks think there are too many Albanians coming to Kerry might be more subtle about it, but he isn’t about to let Ttheir country. The Germans worry about too many former America lose out to China in the battle for the soon-to-peak Eastern Bloc economic migrants. The French seem to be global oil supply. And global fury and humiliation are not getting increasingly hostile to their large Muslim community. about to disappear because of the election of another wealthy The British think there are too many foreigners full stop. So we patrician American. Global conflict is not slowing, and Scotland are now staring ID cards in the retinally-scanned eye, people isn’t ‘somewhere else’. seem prepared to accept the idea that we’re going to have to So what can we do? Well, there are actually a lot of valuable things give up basic human rights if we are to be saved from terror that Scotland could do if it could shake its political myopia and and ‘intellectuals’ are now suggesting that perhaps torture isn’t the members of the ruling party could escape their collaborators’ such a bad thing after all. America is being run by right-wing mentality. It might sound unlikely but Scotland has the potential extremists and yet a large part of their constituent vote seems to to play a major role in addressing the twin problems which are think that they’re too liberal. Europe is being undermined from driving this global conflict; the fear and the fight. within by a coalition of Blair and accession states desperate for American patronage. Political decision-making and public The fear is the most obvious problem. The population of the opinion have never seemed so far apart. The people of Iraq are west is being manipulated and controlled by fear. In fact in an being ruled by a CIA operative whose power stems from a band almost perfect tautology it is fear of terror which is at the root of foreign fighters and mercenaries (the Americans) who have of what is happening. So Scotland could play a role. We need decided that there is no law in the world under which they can to develop a new kind of internationalism in which the dialogue be tried no matter what crimes they perpetrate, who have taken between nations is not perpetually subverted by the oil-suckers billions of pounds from the international community to rebuild (big business, neo-cons and the rest). This could be started in the country and to all intents and purposes kept it for themselves Scotland if there was a will. Closer relations with Scandinavia while failing to get electricity supplies back to where they were and the Baltic countries could be a start; the Benelux countries before they started. And they call this liberation. International might join, and then other countries of the East. A genuinely law has been shredded, hatred, fear and extremism are growing New Europe might be a start, and there is no reason why everywhere like weeds and no-one is in any doubt that only Scotland might not take a lead. violence brings change in the 21st century. At home we can set an example by opposing the continual If this is ‘after the war’ it feels very much like a 1932 sort of erosion of civil liberties which Blunket is intent on. We could ‘after the war’. prevent ID cards from crossing the border, we could do everything in our power to hold Scots law firm on the issues So what does this mean for Scotland? Well, we can at least of civil liberties. We could at last take a serious step to begin cling on to the hope that things here do not seem quite as educating our population about the world and its history so we bad as they are elsewhere yet – at least we haven’t seen the no longer stare at foreign lands with blank suspicion. Hell, we same rise of support for parties like the BNP. Equally, there is could even spend some money. Jack would have us believe that something less desperate about our view of the world. Perhaps he wants to bring ‘Fresh Talent’ into Scotland. Well, anyone it is completely wrong but people in Scotland do no seem to who has been anywhere near this initiative cannot help but feel feel like terrorist targets to the same degree that those in some that what Jack really means is ‘Fresh White Talent’. Why not of the big international cities do. But this isn’t much to cling use some of this money to bring people to Scotland to work or to on to. The next year or two seem to hold out the possibility 2 3 Editorial Committee Aamer Anwar Jacqueline Kelly Andrew Noble Mark Ballard Isobel Lindsay Jimmy Reid (Convener) The price of influence ...................................22 Bill Bonnar John McAllion Robert Sharp Moira Craig Gregor Gall Robin McAlpine (Editor) Tommy Sheppard Roseanna Cunningham Henry McCubbin Alex Smith Reviews .........................................................24 Colin Fox David Miller Elaine Smith John Kay Tom Nairn Bob Thomson Kick Up The Tabloids ....................................27 Articles for publication: [email protected] Illustrations: Letters and comments: [email protected] Cover: Sandy Wood Website: www.scottishleftreview.org Tel/Fax 0141 424 0042 [email protected] Scottish Left Review, 741 Shields Road, Pollokshields, Glasgow G41 4PL Pages 16: Robin McAlpine Printed by Clydeside Press (TU) All other illustrations: Nadia Lucchesi [email protected] study from some of these places we fear. Why not rebuild links t is symptomatic of the state of Scottish politics that John with the Middle East and Africa? Will trying to capture more ISwinney has just suffered one of the most prolonged Australians and Americans for our ‘economy’ really make a demises we have seen and yet a cornucopia of politicians and difference? Diversifying the cultural experience of Scots might. commentators are unable to provide a persuasive diagnosis. Perhaps we could even send some of our young people over He was too grey. He wasn’t a strong enough debater. Scotland there for a while. has lost all interest in independence. Labour has been too effective. All utter nonsense. Scotland’s role in addressing the fight might seem less promising, but this is not the case. The fight is for natural No, Swinney’s demise came from the almost pathological resources; that is above all what is underpinning this perpetual inability for modern politics to recognise what was effective war. So why don’t we take a decision in Scotland to be serious about the Blair revolution. It wasn’t about ‘spin’ – the about our role in developing the technology which could calm presentational skills of New Labour were not only overrated the fight. Scotland has both the intellectual expertise and the but overemphasised. What Blair did he did only by taking a natural resources to be a serious player in developing new very firm ideological grip of the Labour Party and shaping the renewable energy technologies. This is in the end the best whole into his image. The slick advertising came second; first chance we have to ensure that China and the US don’t end of all he created a party which had a purpose. It is simply a up entirely reliant on the same barrel of oil – and potentially matter of great regret that the purpose was to wrap neo-liberal therefore the same gun barrel. If we stopped spending economics in the guise of social democracy. money on imaginary schemes to ‘create’ entrepreneurs and then mollycoddle their (almost always) mediocre service- Ideology is not dead but is very much alive and well. The problem sector outcomes then we could invest in **real** economic the SNP has faced is that it simply has too many of the damned development. things. Against PFI but desperate to cut business tax? Opposing the war while following an otherwise neo-con economic agenda? And given that no-one else seems particularly interested in With such a contradictory psyche it is certainly hard not to credit developing a proper discipline of conflict resolution, why don’t we the SNP with maintaining a fine Scottish tradition… just get on and do it? There are starting points, and surely there has never been such a big global need so inadequately met. The answer is much simpler than any of this. The SNP vote actually held pretty solidly between 1999 and 2003 – it was the These are only a few quick ideas, and others will have many disillusioned Labour vote which was volatile. In 1999 the SNP more. Scotland’s array of lacklustre offered a redistributive agenda based on social provision. And the disillusioned Labour vote liked it. In 2003 they offered the commentators will, if they have nothing else to misinterpret, same pro-business (and by extension anti-people) agenda as repeatedly turn back to berate us – the Scottish people – for the rest.