Rise and Rise Again in Scottish
The 'RISE' of the Scottish left is challenging the SNP'south hegemony in Scotland
The SNP under Nicola Sturgeon'due south leadership are sweeping all before her, and are on class to win comfortably at the Scottish Parliament elections, held next May. Jenny Morrison looks at the mail-plebiscite increase in left-wing action, placing it in the context of the independence movement and the ballot of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.
This piece first appeared on our new Democratic Audit – Scotland site
Scotland is said to have undergone a political earthquake in the twelve months since the September plebiscite. Following their 'defeat' the Yes movement swung behind the SNP which is now the dominant political force in Scotland. Attempting to challenge SNP hegemony in the independence movement is the new left wing pro-independence party RISE-respect, independence, socialism, environmentalism-which will contest the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections. However, while Rising declares it aims to be the principal opposition to the SNP , information technology is also reticent in criticising SNP policy instead arguing for unity in multifariousness in the independence movement. A continuing emphasis on the unity of the Yes movement until independence is thus limiting the ability of the left to build a socialist challenge to the SNP.
The SNP and the Yes move: a left alternative?
The six months after the referendum saw SNP membership quadruple to over 110,000 members or around 2% of the Scottish population. While mass disillusionment with Labour already existed across the UK, the alliance with the Conservatives in the 'Better Together' entrada rapidly accelerated Labour'due south demise in Scotland. In dissimilarity the SNP, grasping onto the anti-thrift rhetoric of the Yes movement, was able to merits the mantle of the truthful guardian of Scottish social commonwealth. The event is well-known: the May British full general election saw the SNP win 56 of 59 Scottish seats while Labour utterly collapsed gaining only one seat in Scotland. Since May the SNP have continued to successfully position themselves as a progressive alternative to Labour and the Conservatives.
The surge in SNP membership is predominantly working class and broadly left fly-the SNP trade wedlock group now has more members than the entire Scottish Labour Party. Still, the cadre politics of the national party provide for little substantial social and political change. The SNP vision has been called a Scottish version of Third Way politics enacted under New Labour. National cohesion is promoted through the linking of supply side reforms, such as the much vaunted childcare policy, with an underlying commitment to global competitiveness and economic growth. In other words, the SNP exemplify 'talk left, walk right' politics where their anti-austerity rhetoric obscures their actions which cater to a neoliberal calendar. Thus while the SNP are likely to support tokenistic reform to eternalize their left fly image, they offer little platform to claiming the British neoliberal consensus.
Independence, Ascent and Corbyn
Officially launched on the 29 th of Baronial, RISE is an electoral alliance formed by the Scottish Socialist Political party (SSP) and the Scottish Left Project (SLP) which aims to provide a pro-independence socialist vocalism in Scotland. While in that location is little doubtfulness the SNP will win the upcoming 2016 Scottish elections, it is unlikely to exist a repeat of the British general elections. The peculiarity of the Boosted Fellow member System (AMS) in Scotland ways the more constituency seats a party gets, the less chance it has of gaining listing seats. Small parties such as Ascent, therefore, have a far greater take chances of gaining seats than under outset by the post. Having united the fragmented pro-independence Scottish socialist left, red-green alliances are at present being tentatively mooted opening the possibility of the development of a broad left challenge in Scottish politics. Together with a strong motion across parliament, this left could claiming the SNP vision of Scotland and connect independence to a transformative movement for social and economical change.
Still, Ascension has been clashing in its attitude towards the SNP. While on one hand the socialist alliance explicitly aims to oppose the SNP , on the other RISE activists position themselves as role of a united, if diverse, independence movement which includes the SNP . In this 2nd understanding, RISE seeks only to hold the national party to account rather than straight criticising their positions. The SNP, 1 supporter states, are not the enemy . Every bit Ascension must gain the second listing vote of left wing SNP supporters if it is to win any seats, the muted criticism is possibly a logical electoral strategy. Even so, the pro-independence left risks being positioned as a radical younger brother of the SNP. Rise could perform a useful function for nationalists, permitting the advent of diversity and bringing in more working class or left wing voters nonetheless never challenging SNP buying of the independence motility.
The ballot of Jeremy Corbyn raises an even more difficult question for the pro-independence left: why independence at all? The left case for independence was predicated on the inability to enact modify in a gridlocked pro-neoliberal Westminster . Independence is not an a priori progressive option and Corbyn sits essentially to the left of the SNP. Nonetheless, with a Conservative majority and the challenge of the right inside Labour, Ascent argues the independence movement all the same offers more fruitful terrain for radical change. Moreover, a staunchly Blairite Scottish Labour Political party is unlikely to win back substantial support leaving the majority of left wing activism in Scotland outside the Labour party. Yet if the independence movement remains the best vehicle for social transformation, socialists must break the binds of the SNP and connect to the roots of pro-independence radicalism .
A United Motility
Many in Scotland, including on the left of the SNP, have celebrated the Corbyn win every bit expanding the spirit of the Yes motion into England. Even so, the SNP cannot provide the vehicle for alter which much of the independence and pro-Corbyn movement desire. If Rise is non to act but as a fringe grouping for the SNP information technology must directly confront the politics of the national party. The course an independent Scotland takes volition be adamant by the form of the movement which guides the independence process. Therefore, the pro-independence left must become beyond arguing for unity in diverseness and challenge the political core of the SNP. If independence is to mean more than the restating of the neoliberal status quo, the SNP must be as much the enemy every bit Scottish Labour is.
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This slice also appears on our new Democratic Audit – Scotland site
Annotation: this post represents the views of the author, and not those of Democratic Audit or the LSE. Please read our comments policy before posting.
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Jenny Morrison is PhD candidate in Politics at the University of Glasgow. Her research is on feminist organising within the Scottish independence motion. She is also a campaigner with the Radical Independence Campaign and a supporter of the Scottish Left Project.
Source: https://www.democraticaudit.com/2015/11/04/the-rise-of-the-scottish-left-is-challenging-the-snps-hegemony-in-scotland/
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