In a doorstop of a White Paper published this week, Scotland 's SNP government promises an
opportunity for people to be involved in drafting a new constitution for Scotland .
We should seize this rare chance to identify where power actually lies and map out what real self-determination would look like.
The SNP government has to propose a new constitution,
because how could you have a new country without one? The other main political
parties must oppose the whole idea – because they believe the British
constitution and the union of England, Wales and Scotland is the last word on
democracy. Were it so!
Scotland's
Future promises "an open, participative and inclusive constitutional
convention" to "ensure that it reflects the fundamental
constitutional truth - that the people, rather than politicians or state
institutions are the sovereign authority in Scotland ". The convention will
have a direct role in shaping the constitution following the approach of the US
constitutional convention of 1787, the SNP government claims.
But the truth is that the draft people will be consulted on is
certain to consist of a robust defence of the status quo, where profit-driven
growth invariably trumps the needs of people and the environment. It will
enshrine capitalist property “rights”, support company law and leave
land in private hands. Political power will remain firmly out of reach for the
majority.
And it won't be the people living on estates and battling
poverty that are consulted, but the bodies that make up Scotland's close-knit
elite. So in order to discuss the kind of revolutionary constitution that shook
the world in 1787, we will need to draft it ourselves. We should establish
People's Assemblies across Scotland
to ensure that the people, not the corporations and not the professional
politicians of any stripe, decide matters.
Most of the White Paper is a referendum day shopping list of
childcare, inflation-proofed pensions and wages, and an end to the hated
bedroom tax and universal credit. All this is promised in the midst of a global
economic crisis and Scotland
would have no immunity to a renewal of the banking crash. In fact, with RBS in
line to be the trigger of the next financial crisis, Scotland would be hit hard.
Further, fiscal independence is a myth whatever the
currency. With the SNP government determined to remain in the pound, its room
for manoeuvre will be minimal, to say the least. In any case, the Bank of
England, which decides money supply, interest rates and so on, does so in the
interests of the bankers and the corporations. If an independent Scotland is
compelled to join the euro as the price of European Union membership, it wil be
a case of out of the frying pan into the fire.
The White Paper points to the eurozone as an example of a
single currency operating well in many independent states. Where has the SNP
been for the last five years? What price Greek, Spanish or Irish independence
when it came to defending people from horrifying austerity, mass unemployment
and poverty imposed by Europe in the name of defending the euro?
In 670 pages and 170,000 words the SNP
outlines a social democratic paradise to emerge fully formed from a “Yes” vote.
First minister Alex Salmond says it is "a mission statement and a
prospectus for the kind of country we should be". But we all know what
happens to company mission statements and prospectus's when the market
crashes and the economy slumps!
Opening up a discussion about what a new constitution should
contain is very important. But to use all this flannel (from the Celtic
"wlana" wool - as in pulled over eyes) as our starting point would be
accepting a nationalist and mostly illusory explanation of the future.
The referendum creates an opportunity to adopt a fundamentally different approach to independence,
self-government and self-determination and we should take it up now, not allow
ourselves to be hoodwinked by the SNP's false dawn.
We have launched a discussion about an alternative view of
self-determination for Scotland on A World to Win’s network. Let us know what you
think.
Penny Cole
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