ALLIANCE
MARXIST-LENINIST
(NORTH AMERICA) NUMBER 39:
ISSUE MAY 2001:
PART THREE: SCOTLAND FROM
ERA OF FINANCE IMPERIALISM TO 'GLOBALISATION'
i) Scottish Industry
Inside the British State
Synopsis: After the 1707 Union
with England, there was a rapid growth of Scottish commerce and industry.
Scotland became the 'world's workshop' leading Britain in heavy industry,
especially ship-building. All British industry became dominant in the world,
up to the First World War, due to Britain's colonies.
Following the Union of 1707, there
was a rapid increase in population. At first, the primary growth was in
the rural areas where new farming techniques could be applied after the
new landowners expropriated the communal land. But the industries soon
grew as well:
"The increase in population in Scotland during the
18th century is closely related to the quickening of economic
activity following the Act of Union. In contrast to the pre-1700 era… the
record of the 18th century is one of almost continuous growth.
The net gain recorded during the century was about 600,000 …… The major
part of this increase in population was absorbed by the countryside, reflecting
the impact of new forms of land use. There was also significant growth
in the big towns."
Burgess, Keith: in Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p.91.
Burgess
argues that the terms under which Scottish capital became wealthy, were
one of avoiding competition with English capital. It is his contention
that this "complementary" rather than
directly "competitive" means of production
gave it a "client status". However,
for capitalists it makes sense to avoid competition if the capitalist cannot
directly wage competition. That Scottish entrepreneurs took newer technology
and instituted heavy industrial patterns to avoid competition, does not
constitute its status as a "dependent capital". It was admittedly a "shrewd
capital". As Burgess himself points out:
"What was crucial to Scotland’s rapid rate of industrialization
after 1830 was the singular abundance of opportunities for forms of economic
activity that were complementary to developments in England, created not
only by the growth of the British market as a whole but sustained by the
opening up of markets abroad. This had significant implications for the
product mix of Scottish industry, including its product cycle. After 1830,
the Scottish economy became increasingly geared to the manufacture of a
highly specialised and intricately related mix of heavy industry products…An
examination of the phasing of Scotland’s industrial development shows a
recurrent pattern of innovation, the rapid saturation of the domestic market,
and rising export volumes: a pattern that typified consecutively, the textiles,
pig iron and shipbuilding industries."
Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism. Class, State
and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980; p.90.
Ship-building in particular ‘relied
on’ an expanding world trade that Britain as a whole was ideally placed
to develop. Not only was the growth in Scotland purely an industrial growth.
Indeed by 1850, Scotland had become a financial power as well:
"An important exporter of capital in its own right";
Burgess K; in Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p183.
The English and Scottish economy was
becoming welded into one British whole:
"The growing commitment of Scots capital to heavy
industry tied its fortunes very closely to the unique position of ascendancy
enjoyed by British capitalism in relation to the world economy. Paradoxically
therefore the increasing integration or assimilation of Scotland to a system
of internal trading relation, controlled effectively by the City of London,
served to intensify Scotland’s distinctiveness as a region of the British
economy."
Burgess K; In Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p.90.
Scottish capital had some advantages
to English capital in the years up to 1900. Firstly,
for the textile trade in the early 1800’s, the unemployment rate in Scotland
was higher than in England:
"The combined effects of depopulation in the Highlands
resulting from the Clearances…. And the beginnings of the waves of migration
form Ireland swelled the labour supply ready to work at low wages in the
cotton manufacture of the Glasgow –Paisley area…There is little doubt that
it was the abundance of the ‘reserve army’ of the labour which enabled
capitalists in the Scottish textile industries to obtain workers at a lower
wage that was the case in England, and this helps explain hwy the domestic
system survived relatively late in Scotland… lower money wages in Scotland
were offset by lower living costs."
Burgess K; Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p.185-186.
Secondly:
Although early on in the pig-iron industry after 1830, there was a large
deposit of iron ore in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, this was inferior to Welsh
and English pig-iron which relied on iron ore that was purer. However,
James Beaumont Neilson, manger of Glasgow
Gasworks, pioneered the injection of ‘hot blast’ air in the Clyde Ironworks.
This "at one stroke":
"Overcame the problems caused by the Scottish iron
industry’s high fuel costs with the result that the Scots iron-masters
acquired an important cost-advantage over the their English and Welsh competitors…
the hot blast was capital-saving, reducing capital costs in Scotland by
as much as 25%… The Scots ironmasters also benefited from the earlier development
of local joint-stock banking with the Western Bank of Scotland."
Burgess K; in Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p.187-88.
Finally,
this predominance led to an increased specialty in ship-building based
on the Clyde River:
"The rise of Clydeside as the single most important
ship-building centre in the UK……. The natural advantage of a river location
opening up on the North Atlantic trade routes was combined with the abundance
of cheap local iron that was fed form the furnaces of Lanarkshire to the
Clyde by the Monklands Canal, Expertise in machine making, and especially
the development of steam power had been [already] acquired…. Again the
large reservoir or labour in the West of London in contrast to London".
Burgess K; in Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p191-192
By the 1870’s a finance-imperialist
group of capitalists were established in Scotland, and they
are "rentiers", who are exporting both
commodities and capital:
"The innovations in shipbuilding created an integrated
world market for commodities labour and above all capital. Thus by the
1870’s it is possible to discern a group of identifiably rentier Scots
bourgeoisie, with holdings overseas in a diverse range of activities like
US railroads, Australian land companies and Indian tea plantations."
Burgess K; in Dickson T (editor): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p.93.
Lenin
apparently agreed that the "rentier" class had taken hold of Scotland,
and did not dispute its being part of a united
Great Britain:
"The Creditor State is laying a deep imprint on some
parts of Great Britain. Free trade or financial reform is, in a certain
way, an issue of struggle between the industrial state and the creditor
state, but, at the same item, it represents the contradictions the ‘surbubia’
of Southern England with its villas, where industry and agriculture have
been forces into second place, and the productive factories regions of
the North, Scotland, too, has been largely taken over by the rentier class
and shaped to serve the need so the people who go there for 3 to 4 months
in the year to play golf, travel in cars and yachts, shoot grouse and fish
for salmon. Scotland is the world's most aristocratic ‘playground’. It
has been said with some exaggeration… lives on its past."
Cited By Lenin from Hobson; See Notebook "Lambda";
in Volume 39; ‘Notebooks on Imperialism"; Moscow; 1968;p. 454.
"Between 1870 and 1900 Scottish capital exports amounted
to approximately 10 percent of the net national product and was proportionately
far greater than its English counterpart. Moreover it was in Scotland that
exporters of capital pioneered a device to tap the savings of the petty
bourgeois for foreign investment, the investment trust";
Dickson T: In Dickson T(Ed): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p. 249.
Still it is often heard that a Scottish
capital was impeded as it was so "specialized".
But this was consistent with the operation of the law
of uneven development. This universal law dictates capitalist
development and cannot be ignored in favour of a supposed ‘colonial relationship’
in Scotland’s industries.
By 1914-5, there had been an effective
fusion of the economies of the two countries. But the special
nature of its industry meant that Scotland would be vulnerable should there
be a decline in Britain’s share of the world markets:
"The process of fusion between the economies of Scotland
and England was already well advanced. Although Scottish capital had been
very much the junior partner of English imperial power, Scotland in the
19th Century still constituted a distinct national economy. The Scottish
economy probably had a greater economic autonomy at that time than have
many industrializing countries today. Some companies had transferred their
headquarters to London or had amalgamated with English concerns, but others
notably Coats and Distillers were dominant in the British and world markets
for their products. Nevertheless the changing international balance of
economic power and the encroachment of English capital were beginning to
make themselves felt on the Scottish economy. While the period up to 1914
can be characterized as a story of ‘success’ of Scottish capital, this
success was laying the seeds of the problems which were later to mark the
development of the Scottish economy,. The over-dependence on heavy industry
and the massive flow of capital abroad meant that Scottish capital failed
to move into the newer growth industries which were to become so important
after the First World War."
Scott J and Hughes M. "The Anatomy of Scottish Capital";
London; 1980; pp.54-55.
Undoubtedly the depression
following First World War was more heavily felt in Scotland, than in the
rest of Great Britain. As British industry struggled to keep pace with
the German and USA imperialist, it tried to re-tool and begin re-mechanisation.
This led to the struggle over ‘dilution’ – the process where unskilled
labour was allowed into the work-place alongside the previous skilled workers.
Engels discusses this process as having
been resisted by the old ‘aristocratic’ workers, and how it was challenged
by the New Unions (See "May 4th in London" 1890; "Letter to F.A.Sorge April
19, 1890"; at: http://www.geocities.com/hari6kumar/engels_finaluk.html
).
At the end of the First World War,
the whole of British industry was in decline and needed to catch up with
‘newer’ more modern imperialist states, as the Comintern recognised:
"29. The British Empire seems to be at the height
of its' power. It has maintained its former possessions and gained new
ones. But it is precisely now that the contradiction between England’s
predominant position in the world and its real economic decline becomes
apparent." Comintern; July 1921: "Theses on World Situation and the Tasks
of the Comintern"; adopted Third Congress Comintern; Cited by Jane Degras;
"The Communist International, Documents 1919-43"; London; Volume 1"; 1971;
p. 235.
This struggle in part, led to the Scottish
attempts in Clydeside to shore up the position of the skilled workers by
a widespread strike movement. It was this movement that brought John
MacLean to prominence, as Lenin gave him the title Honorary
Consul for the Soviet Republic. Despite MacLean’s admiration
of both Lenin and the CPSU(B), he turned his back upon Lenin’s explicit
advice both to himself and to William Gallacher,
to help build the Communist Party Great Britain
(CPGB). Gallacher joined the CPGB, but MacLean set up the Scottish
Workers Republican Party, which advocated separation
from England because of a strategic possibility of spoiling England’s later
war with the USA:
"Britain may soon be in a war with the USA, and it
will be worse than the last….. The preparations to use the Scottish coast
and Scottish lads in John Bull’s fight with Uncle Sam forces us the policy
of a complete political separation from England. Hence a Scottish Communist
Party." John MacLean; Cited in McLean, Iain
: "The Legend of red Clydeside"; Edinburgh; 1983; p. 150.
Again, Lenin did not counsel the CPGB
to adopt a policy of separation. The decline was not unique in Scotland,
and it was part of a more general crisis within British Capital. Stalin
identified this readily, when discussing the causes of the great
1926 General Strike.
As Stalin recognised in 1926, the
Scottish working class was only one part of the British working class,
and he saw its actions in the General Strike of 1926 as a united single
struggle. The causes of the strike were the same causes of the depression
in the Scottish economy. Namely the decline of British imperialism:
"Britain formerly occupied a monopoly position
among the capitalist states. Owning a number of huge colonies, and having
what for those days was an exemplary industry, it was able to parade as
the "workshop of the world" and to rake in vast super-profits. That was
the period of "peace and prosperity" in Britain. Capital raked in super-profits,
crumbs from those super-profits fell to the share of the top section of
the British labour movement, the leaders of the British labour movement
were gradually tamed by capital, and conflicts between labour and capital
were usually settled by compromise.
But the further development of
world capitalism, especially the development of Germany, America and, in
part, of Japan, which entered the world market as competitors of Britain,
radically undermined Britain's former monopoly position. The war and the
post-war crisis dealt a further decisive blow to Britain's monopoly position.
There were fewer super-profits, the crumbs which fell to the share of the
British labour leaders began to dwindle away."
Stalin J. V. : "The British Strike & The Events
In Poland"; Report Delivered at a Meeting of Workers of the Chief Railway
Workshops in Tiflis, June 8, 1926"; In 'Works'; Volume 8; Moscow 1954;
pp. 165; or at: http://www.marx2mao.org//Stalin/BSEP26.html
The situation for British capital got
considerably worse post Second World War. The
Scottish industrialists were loathe to move into new sectors where investments
would have to be needed first. Instead they were complacent , made so by
a previous dominance:
"Lack of overseas competition which distinguished
the (shipbuilding) sector at this period encouraged obsolescence and complacency."
Dickson T (Ed) "Scottish Capitalism. Class, State and
Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980; p. 248.
This complacency was a general problem
for British – ie English and Scottish capital. However Scottish capital
was at this time, less resilient than English in switching gears to the
new situation. The English capitalists developed previously small industries
like food processing, domestic electrical goods, aircraft, motor vehicles:
"Overall industrial output in England actually expanded
in the interwar period in spite of the depression, rising by 20 percent
between 1907 and 1930. Orientated as they were to domestic rather than
export markets these industries localizing themselves along the London-Birmingham
axis, did not emerge in Scotland and that country’s industrial bourgeoisie
did not renew itself by shifting its’ bases."
Dickson T "Scottish Capitalism. Class, State and Nation
from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980; p.257.
In fact the problem was one of under-capitalising
of the entire British industry, and this accelerated post-Second World
War. The Brookings Institute noted that over the period of 1950 to 1963
the average:
"British worker is supported by an exceptionally
small amount of capital";
Cited Dickson In Dickson T (Ed): "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p. 291.
"By the 1930’s the two economies were greatly inter-dependent
with English capital taking the dominant part. All these features were
to become even more marked in the post-war period…. Functional and financial
links , even less than in the earlier periods were no longer confined to
other Scottish companies, as more and more companies became tied in directly
to the Scottish economy."
Scott J & Hughes M. "The Anatomy of Scottish Capital";
London 1980; p. 108; 154.
It was in this climate
that the British bourgeoisie adopted three primary Tactics to fix their
decline:
The 1947 Labour Government nationalized
coal, and in 1948 the railways buses and electricity; and then coal and
steel. In addition large segments of the cotton, shipbuilding and aircraft
industries received governmental supervision. IN this process Scotland
lost some of its ‘private’ heavy industrial base to a larger national group
of capitalists. As Engels had pointed
out, the motivation of capitalists to undergo nationalisation of an industry
is to ensure that no sectional interest rakes in profits at the expense
of the entire capitalist class, or to build up a new or failing essential
industry that requires State financing. This is of course not equivalent
to Socialism as Engels pointed out in relation to the railway development
under Bismarck.
What effect
did nationalisation have on Scotland?
The leading section of the Scottish
heavy industrialists were essentially relived of their tasks:
"The dominant force in Scottish heavy industry in
the 1930's was the Colville-Ltihgow-Nimmor group, but this dominance had
been upset by the post-war nationalisation. The heavy industries to which
the Scottish economy was heavily committed were those to which had been
most affected by nationalisation";
Scott J & Hughes M. "The Anatomy of Scottish Capital";
London 1980; p. 138.
Despite the Tory re-privatisation of
this sector, the industry never recovered. Besides, its subsequent re-nationalisation
in 1967 led to the same phenomenon of a section of private capitalists
whose interests were well compensated by state expropriation to be turned
aside (Anatomy of Scottish Capital. p.202).
2) Second Tactic: Converting
colonies into neo-colonies
We have previously detailed this aspect, in the case of
India [See The Role of The Bourgeoisie In Colonial Type Countries: What
is the Class Charactar of the Indian State? Changing The Line, Revisionists
Distort Lenin and Stalin"; at http://www.geocities.com/hari6kumar/alliance5table.html).
3) Third Tactic: Seeking External
Financial Support
There was a turn, initially to
both of the European Economic Community and
to the USA. However, under Churchill
a fundamental decision to align the British state with the USA was taken,
which was maintained thereafter by both the Tory party and the Labour Party.
This period was examined by Alliance in an earlier issue (Crises In Capital
And Their Solution - Free
Trade & Protectionism In Developed Countries;
Alliance 3 1993; See:
Countires
http://www.geocities.com/hari6kumar/ALLIANCE3.HTML)
, and is not re-examined here.
Suffice it to point out that the
dominant factions in the British ruling class aligned themselves to the
USA, and a major investment influx came from the USA into Britain. The
resulting inflow of foreign capital was concentrated in Scotland – but
it was not exclusive to Scotland. However it warped Scottish society more
than society in the South:
"The increased role of foreign capitals in Scotland
after 1945 was encouraged by the attraction of low wage levels, a relatively
high level of unemployed workers as British capitalism failed to re-invest….
Of all American companies established in the United Kingdom after 1945
one-third were sited in Scotland. Between 1958 and 1968 overseas companies
accounted for 30% of all new employment created by new enterprises in Scotland…..
Together with investment controlled from England, this resulted in a situation
where by 1975, only 41 percent of manufacturing employment in Scotland
was controlled from within the country; by 1968 58% of total employment
in the Central/Clydeside conurbation was in plants where ultimate control
lay outside Scotland." Dickson T "Scottish
Capitalism. Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present";
London 1980; p. 295.
Just as in England, but more so in
Scotland – a progressive de-industrialisation took place. Despite the militancy
and trade union organisation of the workers, they could not prevent a determined
onslaught. The last major militant stand taken was perhaps the 1971-2 battles
of the Clydeside shipworkers. This was then followed by the great coal
miners strike which was organized over the whole of Britain including Scotland.
It was in this overall context that the Scottish National Party – the SNP
– came to the fore.
ii) The Split In The
Scottish Capitalist Class - The Scottish National Party
As both Alliance and the Communist
League have previously discussed, the prior unity of the industrial wings
and the financial wings of capital have been to some extent splintered
in the period 1970 onwards, as the crisis of capital became increasingly
more difficult to reconcile. The financial wing was represented in England
by the Tory party and Mrs. Thatcher, and the Labour party was supported
by the industrial wing. Neither could solve the problem of avoiding inflation
while maintaining growth of industry [See Alliance 3 at
http://www.geocities.com/hari6kumar/ALLIANCE3.HTML
].
In Scotland a similar split between
the two wings of capital occurred over this time. As heavy
industrial capital waned in Scotland, given the post-war slump
and the nationalisation of key industries, there was a rise in financial
capitalist interests:
"During the 1960’s the movement of concentration
in Scottish banking continued and this process led to a clarification of
the relationship between the Scottish and the English banks….. By the beginning
of the 1970’s the number of Scottish commercial banks had been reduced
to three, all being subject to English ownership…… A notable feature of
the 1960’s and 1970’s was the growth of merchant banking in Scotland, an
area where the Scottish economy had always been weak…… The rising star
was undoubtedly Noble Grossart which was formed in 1969 by Ian Nobel and
Angus Grossart together with Sir Hugh Fraser… .
The economy itself became more bank-centred and more
integrated with the English economy but the controlling directorate of
the major companies was drawn from a long line of prominent [Scottish-editor]
business families."
Scott J & Hughes M. "The Anatomy of Scottish Capital";
London 1980; p. 168; 171-172; 223.
"Nationalisation and the take-over of Scottish companies
by outside interests have however, also opened up possibilities for Scottish
capital by making available large sums of money to the former owners of
the companies involved. By and large, it would seem that this wealth has
not found its way back into the industrial sector; instead it had gone
into the financial sector. Indeed the investment trusts had their origins
in the 1870’s as a way of channeling the surplus funds of the jute industry
into more profitable channels, and this process seems to have continued.
And perhaps the one area where Scottish registration and Scottish identify
have consistently been most important, and particularly in the most recent
period, had been the financial sector".
Scott J & Hughes M. "The Anatomy of Scottish Capital";
London 1980; p.261.
The interests of the Scottish financiers
were attracted to the Scottish National Party
(SNP):
"The conversion of a section of Scottish finance
capital to the SNP.... Thus Sir Hugh Fraser, followed by Ronald Macneil
of Dalsuit Merchant Bank, Ian Noble of Seaforth Maritime Investments, Sir
William Lithgow and Lord Cydesmuir all publicly backed the SNP as part
of a strategy of developing new financial institution backed by a Scottish
State which could utilize the oil revenue for foreign investment and so
change a natural asset into a financial asset. This section was a minority
group and faced the opposition of the dominant sections of Scottish capital
who were better integrated into British capital and found the relationship
sufficiently profitable. This dominant sections was itself somewhat divided
over the attitude to take towards independence.’ Dickson T "Scottish Capitalism.
Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present"; London 1980;
p.313.
The SNP has won its first parliamentary
seat in 1945, but had all but disappeared over the next fifteen years,
numbering in the 1950’ less than 1,000 (Devine TM. Ibid; p. 565). Other
expressions of Scottish Nationalism, such as the Scottish Convention (led
by John MacCormick) did take a lead in expressing a sentiment for "Home
Rule". The new ‘national covenant' of 1949 collected 2 million signatures
for Home Rule (Devine Ibid; p. 566). But this never translated into electoral
significance. Fears that nationalisation would enable Westminster to control
Scotland more, were fueled by the Conservative Party, and Sir Winston Churchill’s’
remarks that :
"labour centralisation threatened to absorb the Scottish
nation in a ‘serfdom of socialism’ run form London, in conflict with the
Treaty of Union of 1707";
Devine; Ibid; p. 568.
Over the following years, the call
for Home Rule was raised several times,
once by the Scottish miners in 1949. However it generally did ton find
a reverberation. Until the discovery of oil in the Scottish highland off
shore waters. Despite enormous subsidies from the British state, industry
in Scotland had continued to decline. By the time of the 1967 general elections
in Britain, the SNP had won back a place in elections. In that elections
Winifred Ewing won her seat against
Labour in Hamilton Lanarkshire with 46% of the vote.
Both Conservative party leaders
such as Edward Heath in 1968 (Declaration
of Perth) [See Devine Ibid; p., 575] and the Labour Party in
1974, began to accept devolution of powers to the Scottish parliament (Devine
ibid; p. 575). Th Scottish Trade Union executive, having in 1950 rejected
the call of the Scottish miners, now in 1974 overwhelmingly supported devolution.
The decline in Scotland of the Conservative Party aided the SNP as it took
over the positions of the anti-Labour vote:
"A basic cause of the growing prominence of the SNP
in Scottish politics was the decline in the Tory Party as the most effective
challenge to the hegemony of Labour in Scotland. The Conservatives had
stood above all for Unionism…. Now the decay of the party gave Nationalism
its chance. The vote against Labour, which earlier had gone overwhelmingly
to the Unionists, now went to the SNP……[especially since] the Heath government
of 1974 tried to mount a radical assault on the interventionist economic
policies that had sustained both Labour and Tory parties alike since 1945….
[including previously] low rents in Scotland… More serious was the plight
of Upper Clyde Shipbilders ……. Secondly the credibility of the government
was undermined by economic crisis and industrial action. Heath’s Industrial
Relations Act …. Swiftly unleashed an unprecedented wave of unrest in the
workplace.."
Devine Ibid; pp 581, 584-585.
The SNP proposed that the an independent
Scotland would take control of the resources of North
Sea Oil. There had meanwhile been an inflation of oil prices.
However when a referendum on the matter took place under the next Labour
government in march 1979, the vote was:
‘Yes’ – 51.6%;
‘No’ – 48.4%.
Only 63 % of the electorate had voted,
and the ‘yes’ vote was less than a prior stipulated 40% of the entire referendum
vote. (See Devine Ibid; pp. 587-88].
When the SNP tabled a motion of
no confidence in the Labour Government, a new general election was held.
This led to a landslide Conservative
government under Mrs.Thatcher. The
SNP lost 9 of its 11 seats. As Mrs. Thatcher’s government wreaked the will
of the Financial oligarchy-section of the ruling class, Scottish industry
declined further. In 1992 the Ravenscraig Steel
mill was closed in Lanarkshire Scotland, and triggered further
closures. This precipated a "service" economy spurt::
"The number of workers in manufacturing agriculture
fisheries fell by nearly a half between 1979 and 1994, while the total
numbers of workers in financial and public sectors has expanded dramatically.
By the 1990’s the service sector had become the most dynamic part of the
economy and this is a development that Scotland shares with other advanced
countries in western Europe and North America. ‘Services’ are complex and
include hotels and catering, transport, tourism, business services, education
and health.";
Devine Ibid; p. 595.
"In the private sector the jewel in the crown is financial.
In terms of turnover, 10 of the 15 largest Scottish companies in 1993-4
were in finance and Scotland is reckoned to the fourth in Europe in the
provision of financial services after London, Frankfurt, and Paris. In
1992, no fewer that 220,000 people were engaged in this area of employment."
Devine Ibid; pp. 596-6.
But new growth was emerging in industry
in both the North Sea oil and gas industry and in electronics. Much of
this was however owned not by English cpaital or by Scottish capital -
but USA capital in partnership with Scottish capital:
"By the 1990’s Grampian region had emerged as on the
most prosperous areas in the UK and Aberdeen became the oil capital of
Europe… In addition Scotland was now as famous for electronics manufacture
as it had been for shipbuilding earlier… ‘Silicon Glen’, stretching from
Ayrshire to Dundee, now included one of the largest concentrations of high-technology
industry outside the USA and by the early 1980’s Scotland was the recognised
leader in Europe of semiconductor manufacture…. Overwhelmingly the new
plants were the fruit of American, Japanese and then Asian inward investment,
brought to Scotland by government aid, custom built-facilities, a favourable
location to penetrate the European market, … labour cost that were around
half the going rate in California in the later 1980’s";
Devine Ibid; pp. 596-596.
However, this was dynamic, and much
of the financial sector became well able to compete with both English and
American capital:
"Scottish capital in finance has been more dynamic
than industrial capital and has not suffered so greatly from nationalisation,
Anglicisation, or Americanisation, though the relationship between the
English and Scottish banks has become very close. Scottish capital, had
it might be argued, a relatively over-developed financial sector. While
this may have been a sing of weakness in the past - with capital flowing
abroad.. rather than being invested in local industry - it has proved something
of a strength in relation to the recent challenge posed by North Sea Oil.
the ability of Scottish capital to move into oil and compete with foreign
capital derived from the expertise which the finance industry had developed
over the course of the present century." Scott J and Hughes M. "The Anatomy
of Scottish Capital"; London; 1980; p. 262.
By the late 1980-1990’s then the Scottish
economy was faring better than many
parts of England.
However a further series of disillusions
took place with the Poll Tax (1987)
of Mrs. Thatcher that was levied in Scotland before it was in England,
and the Miners Strike of 1984. The
conservatives threatened further harsh measures for Scotland, as Mr.
Nigel Lawson then Chancellor said:
"Scottish life was ‘sheltered from market forces and
exhibits a culture of dependency rather than that of enterprise’.
Cited Devine Ibid; p. 605.
The Conservative victory of 1987 led
to resurgence in the Home Rule movement. This time led by a United Front
of Labour, Liberal Democrats, and the SNP – called the Campaign
for a Scottish Assembly (CSA).
It bore
the nature of a revolt against Thatcherism. In the 1992 election,
when Mr. John Major retained the seat
of Prime Minister, the Scottish vote for home rule was supported by 75%
of the Scottish electorate (Devine Ibid; p. 613).
Labour’s 1997electoral victory
under Mr. Tony Blair led to the White
Paper on devolution. Business was quietly supportive:
"Scottish business which had vociferously condemned
devolution in 1979 was mainly silent….. major Scottish companies such as
the insurance giants Standard Life and Scottish Widows, declared they were
comfortable with the proposal."
Devine, Ibid; p. 616.
In a new referendum, 74.3 % of voters
supported a Scottish parliament and 63.5% agreed that its should be able
to vary and levee tax. The Scottish parliament hereafter would have:
"Power over all matters apart from foreign policy,
defence, macro-economic policy, social security abortion and broadcasting.
IT could rise or lower the basic rate of tax by 3 pence, or Pounds Sterling
450 million in total. Although Westminster would continue to have responsibility
for relations with Europe, there would also be a Scottish representative
office in Brussels and Scottish ministers could be expected to take part
in the UK delegation to the EU Council of Ministers."
Devine Ibid; p. 617.
iii) The Marxist-Leninist Strategy
to Be Advocated For Scotland now
The Marxist-Leninist movement in
Britain has long urged that the proposed entry into the COmmon Market was
adjacent the interests of the working class of Britain, as ceding their
potential of control to an even more distant bureaucracy. It is therefore
unsurprising that we should support the class for devoltuion. But this
is not the same as calling for Separation as an independent nation. This
latter we cannot support and believe it is incorrect. Our grounds are below:
Firstly we have
argued in this essay, that economic integration has proceeded to the point
where disentanglement is not viable. As
"Political Union between England and Scotland happened
in 1707, but economic union is only now being completed... This .. has
reinforced the tendency towards a progressive integration of the Scottish
and English economies and has further narrowed the sphere of Scottish capital.....
While political union can be subject to a devolution
of power, economic union cannot be so easily disentangled. Britain is part
of an increasingly internationalised world economic system , and ti is
difficult to envisage an unraveling of the chains of interedependence while
the prevailing international relation of production remain unchanged."
Scott J and Hughes M. "The Anatomy of Scottish Capital";
London; 1980; p.260; 261.
This militates against
Stalin's definition of a nation, of which Stalin says all must be present
to achieve a national definition:
"A nation is a historically constituted, stable community
of people and formed on the basis of a common language, territory,
economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture."
J.V.Stalin; "Works"; Moscow; 1956; Vol 2; "Marxism
and the National Question"; p. 307. or at: http://www.marx2mao.org//Stalin/MNQ12.html#c1
Secondly,
we believe that the movement towards Home Rule
was fueled by a profound alienation
of the working peoples of Scotland. One that took an especial character
in Scotland due to the nature of the "remnants" (In Marx and Engels phrase).
That especial character was that of a movement towards an impossible nationhood
complete divorced from England. We believe this is at best un-wise, and
at worst, a deliberate obfuscation of the urgent need for unity of the
working class under one Red Banner.
At this time in its hisotry, the
working classes of Scotland need their Workers Party built on Marxism-Leninism.
Supporting the bourgeois nationalism of the capitalist and financiers who
have come to an accomodation with the British capitalists and the EEC financiers
- is not serving the interests of the Scotttish workers.
As Stalin cautions:
"Whether the proletariat rallies to the banner of
bourgeois nationalism depends on the degree of development of class antagonsisms,
on the class conciosuness and degree of organisation of the proletariat.
The class-concious proletariat has its own tried banner, and has no need
to rally to the banner of the bourgeoisie";
Stalin J.V.: 'Marxism & The National Question";
Volume 2; p. 317, or at http://www.marx2mao.org//Stalin/MNQ12.html#c2
"The policy of nationalist persecution is dangerous
to the cause of the proletariat .. It diverts the attention
of large strata from social questions, questions of the class
struggle, to national questions, questions 'common' to the proletariat
and the bourgeoisie. And this creates a favourable soil for lying propaganda
about 'harmony of interests', for glossing over the class interests of
the proletariat and for the intellectual enslavement of the workers. This
creates a serious obstacle to the cause of uniting the workers of all nationalities".
Stalin J.V.: 'Marxism & The National Question";
Volume 2; p.320-321. http://www.marx2mao.org//Stalin/MNQ12.html#c2
"There is no need to mention the kind of "socialist
principle of
nationality" glorified by Bauer.... True such nationalism is not so
transparent, for it is skillfully masked by socialist phrases, but it is
all the more harmful to the proletariat for that reason... But this
does not exhaust the harm caused by national autonomy, It
prepares the ground not only for the segregation of nations, but
also for breaking up the united labour movements. The idea of
national autonomy creates the psychological conditions for the
division of the united workers' party into separate parties built on
national lines. The break-up of the party is followed
by the break-up
of the trade unions and complete segregation is the result.
In this way, the united class movement is broken up into separate
national rivulets".
J.V.Stalin 'Works'; Moscow; 1956; Vol 2; 'Marxism
and the
National Question'; p. 342-343. http://www.marx2mao.org//Stalin/MNQ12.html#c4
Even if we are to assume that Scotland
is truely a nation in its own right, that does not
confer upon the Marxist-Leninist the duty to insist automatically on its
independence.
Certainly it is true that the position,
of Lenin and Stalin, was always that Nations - if a national status did
in fact exist (by definitions provided by Stalin) should have the full
Right to Self Determination:
"The right of self-determination means that a nation
may arrange
its life in the way it wishes. It has the right to arrange its life on
the basis of autonomy.
It has the right to enter into federal relations
with other nations. It has the right to complete secession. Nations
are sovereign, and all nations have equal rights."
Stalin; Ibid; p.321.http://www.marx2mao.org//Stalin/MNQ12.html#c4
But even if there is a nation, NOT
all claims to nationhood are strategically defensible from the workers
perspective. For example the Marxist-Leninist will not necessarily support
all claims to nationhood if they obstruct the working peoples. For instance,
the resurrection of the influence of the beys and mullahs, in Transcaucasia,
would not have been in the best interests of the toiling strata. The best
answer for the workers and toilers, depends upon the precise historical
situation. It must be carefully found by looking at the precise facts:
"A nation has the right to arrange its life on autonomous
lines. It even
the has the right to secede. But this does not mean that it
should do so under all circumstances, that autonomy or separation,
will everywhere and always be advantageous for a nation; ie. For its
majority, ie for the toiling strata. The Transcacausian Tartars as a
nation may assemble , let us say, in their Diet and succumbed to
the influence of their beys and mullahs, decide to restore the old
order of things and to secede from the state. According to the
meaning of the clause on self-determination they are fully entitled
to do so. But will this be in the interest of the toiling strata of the
Tartar nation? Can Marxists look on indifferently when the beys
and mullahs assume the leadership of the masses in the solution of
the national question?.. Should not Marxists come forward with a
definite plan for the solution of the question, a plan which would
be most advantageous for the Tartar masses?.. But what solution
would be most compatible with the interests of the toiling masses?
Autonomy, federation or separation? All these are problems the
solution of which will depend on the concrete historical conditions
in which the given nation finds itself.. Conditions like everything
else change, and a decision which is correct at one particular time
may prove to be entirely unsuitable at another."
Stalin; Ibid; p.324; or at: http://www.marx2mao.org//Stalin/MNQ12.html#c4
CONCLUSION
Those claiming that the process in Scotland of a penetration
of modern industry, and merging with England of capital, have claimed that
this was a "colonial process". One who fostered this call was C.M.Grieve
– known also as Hugh McDiarmid:
"Scotland is unique among Scottish nations in its
failure to develop a nationalist sentiment strong enough to be a vital
factor in its affairs… no comprehensive enough agency has emerged; and
the common-sense of our people has rejected one-sided expedients incapable
of addressing the organic complexity of our national life";
C.M.Grieve, Albyn or Scotland and the Future (1927);
Cited by Harvie C, "Scotland and Nationalism"; London; 1977; p. 34.
This has been echoed more recently by those academics
who have inspired the Trotskyite wings. The prominent academic who is often
cited is Michael Hecter:
"The movement of peripheral labour is determined
largely by forces exogenous to the periphery…. Economic dependence is reinforced
through juridical, political, and military measures, There is a relative
lack of services, lower standard of living, and higher level of frustration….
[And] national discrimination on the basis of language, religion, or other
cultural forms";
Michael Hecter; Cited by Harvie C, "Scotland and Nationalism";
London; 1977; p.43.
But as Harvie rebuts Hecter:
"Something like this certainly happened in the Highlands
after 1746, but the internal colonisers were Scots."
Harvie Ibid; p.44.
Of course Marxist-Leninists do not
support national movements on the grounds of "nationalist sentiment".
As has been shown, the ruling classes
of Scotland as a whole joined this movement for Union and gained enormously
from it. They cannot by any stretch of a Marxist-Leninist analysis – be
termed a comprador bourgeoisie.
While Scottish [and Welsh] devolution
is supported by Marxist-Leninists - this is a tactic to increase local
working-class attempts to exert a control and accountability. It is not
a national movement.
We will examine the question of
the Welsh movement next.
For now, however we return to wehre
we started, with a consideration of Marx and Engels. We are told by S.S.Prawer
that one of Marx's favourite poets was Robert
Burns, whose poem "For a' that and
a' that" was rendered inot German by Ferdinand
Freiligarth, which Marx "repeatedly referred to"[SS Prawer:
"Marx and World Literature"; Oxford; 1975; p. 157]. It
is fitting to end with Burn's song that praises the thought of international
brotherhood.
"Is there for honest poverty
That hings his head , and a' that ?
The coward slave, we pass him by -
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
Our toils obscure and a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.
[gold]
What thought on hamely fare we dine,
[homely]
Wear hodding grey and a' that?
[coarse grey woolen]
Gie fools their silks and knaves their wine-
A man's a man for a' that.
Their tinsel show, an' a' that
For a' that, an a' that,
The honest man, tho' e'er sae porr,
Is king of men for a' that............
Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a' that)
That Sense and Worth o'er the earth
Shall bear the gree and' a' that!
[have the first place]
For a' that and' a that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man the world o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that";
[brothers]
From "Scottish Songs Illustrated"; Published 1890;
Adam & Gee, West Smithfiled, London; Cited by Andy M.Stewart "Songs
of Robert Burns"; CD 1991; Edinburgh.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR PART THREE
- Burgess, Keith: in Dickson T (editor): "Scottish
Capitalism. Class, State and Nation from Before the Union to the Present";
London 1980;
- Comintern; July 1921: "Theses on World Situation
and the Tasks of the Comintern"; adopted Third Congress Comintern; Cited
by Jane Degras; "The Communist International, Documents 1919-43"; London;
Volume 1"; 1971;
- Devine T.M.; "The Scottish Nation 1700-2000"; London
2000.
-Engels, Frederick: "May 4th in London" 1890;
- Engels, Frederick; "Letter to F.A.Sorge April 19,
1890";
- Harvie C, "Scotland and Nationalism"; London; 1977;
-Lenin V.I.; "Notebook "Lambda"; in Volume 39; ‘Notebooks
on Imperialism"; Moscow; 1968;
- McLean, Iain : "The Legend of Red Clydeside";
Edinburgh; 1983;
- SS Prawer: "Marx and World Literature"; Oxford;
1975;
-Scott J and Hughes M. "The Anatomy of Scottish Capital";
London; 1980;
- Stalin J.S.; 'Marxism and the National
Question'; 'Works'; Moscow; 1956; Vol 2;
- Stalin J. V. : "The British Strike & The Events
In Poland"; Report Delivered at a Meeting of Workers of the Chief Railway
Workshops in Tiflis, June 8, 1926"; In 'Works'; Volume 8; Moscow 1954;
pp. 164-182.
- Stewart Andy M; "Songs of Robert Burns"; CD
1991; Edinburgh.
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