I was emailed about an excellent article by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement on Scottish Republicanism which appeared in the
Sovereign Nation An Náisiun Ceannasach.
For over 300 years the nation of Scotland has been shackled
to the political union of unequals that is the British
state. For centuries prior to this forced union Scotland
fought a gallant series of wars of independence against
English attempts at subjugation and annexation. That her
Sovereignty was betrayed by the parcel of rogues in a
nation which were a supine section of the Scottish landed
nobility cannot be disputed, but the British revisionist
historians who claim that this union was popular in anyway
shape or form couldn't be more wrong.
Riots broke out against the signing of the Act of
union the length and breadth of Scotland, indeed the very signatories
to the union had to meet in secret in a cellar in
Edinburgh - such was their fear of the Scottish peoples reaction.
England achieved its union by bribery and coercion
("the rough wooing" as it was called). The signing of the treaty
was conducted with an English Fleet off the Scottish coast and
an English Army massed at the border - the threat to Scotland
should the traitors not sign the Act of Union could not have
been more explicit.
Since the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 (which
made the point that ultimately Scottish sovereignty resided
with the people who had the right to overthrow any King of
Scotland should they bargain away or sell Scottish independence)
there has been a thread running through Scottish politics
that Republicans of today can relate to.
Like all subjugated peoples the Scottish have had
imposed upon them an official history of the victors that has
sought to obscure any understanding of resistance and rebellion
and that has sought to give them a historical amnesia that
prevents them from challenging the myths of the British state.
Religious sectarianism and all manner of divide and rule has
been used by the Anglo/British state and its mis-educators to
weaken and avoid a united Scottish challenge to their rule.
In such a way the Jacobite Rebellions have been
portrayed as doomed romanticism on behalf of a foppish and
effete King when in fact they had as their foundation a sincere
desire on behalf of their clansmen and others for Scottish
independence. Many a Jacobite sword had inscribed on its
blade for Scotland and no union, in English and in Gaelic.
Even more denied and obscured by the Brits and
their academic mouthpieces is the later struggle of Thomas
Muir, a radical Scottish republican and contemporary of Wolfe
Tone, who led the United Scotsmen and had excellent fraternal
relations and practical solidarity with the United Irishmen.
Just as Wolfe Tone can be said to be the Father of Irish
Republicanism so too can Muir be called the Father of
Scottish Republicanism. The British and their lackeys in the
Scottish establishment worked ceaselessly through lies, force
and spies to defeat the plans of the United Scotsmen for revolution
and the re-establishment of Scottish independence
and a Republic in the late 1790s. Muir himself had to flee to
France where he became the first non Frenchman given citizenship
in the French Republic.
The Scottish Radicals of 1820 attempted armed
rebellion and a detachment were captured on route to Carron
where they hoped to seize the cannons of the Brits at the
major cannon producing ironworks there. Hardie and Baird
died on the scaffold and the rest of the leaders were rounded
up and deported to Australia as convicts. In Greenock the
British militia opened fire on the crowd, killing many unarmed
civilians, who had risen in support of the rebellion. In the
Highlands and Gaeltacht resistance broke out sporadically
against the near genocide of the clearances and the latter
parts of the 19th century saw land grabs and the simmering
Crofters War. Michael Davitt was instrumental in helping
organise the Highland Land League. By the late 19th Century
following An Gorta Mor, Scotland saw an influx of Irishmen
and women as a direct result of the genocidal policies of the
Anglo/British state. Combining with the hundreds of thousands
of cleared from their land, Gaels of the Highlands who
had been forced into the urban industrial central belt, particularly
around Glasgow, fired an angry working class with rightful
grievance and a sense of injustice against the British state
and its ruling class. Thus they emerged with an innate dslike,
distrust and hatred for the Anglo/British state and a strong
desire for Irish and indeed Scottish independence. Out of this
working class came two of the greatest Republican socialists.
In Edinburgh was James Connolly and in Glasgow John
MacLean. They took the fight for independence and the
republic of the workers to a new plane of struggle.
Whilst Connolly was organising Irish workers and small farmers
for revolution in Ireland, MacLean was developing the
forces for revolution in Glasgow and on Clydeside. MacLean
broke with the British left due to their supine acceptance of the
imperialist slaughter of WW1 and came out for a Scottish
Workers Republic. In 1919 English soldiers and tanks were
placed in Glasgow in order to quell the growing rebellion that
was known as a Red Clydeside. He himself was jailed for
“Despite the best efforts of the unionist Labour
quislings in Scotland and their masters in
London, the question of independence runs
throughout modern Scottish history. It truly is
the elephant in the room on all political matters
in Scotland. Recently the twin tectonic plates of
independence and unionism have collided and
the attempt by the Brits to "kill independence
stone dead through devolution" has done
nothing of the sort.”
sedition on a number of occasions and his popularity
amongst the workers of Glasgow and Scotland can be
gauged by the 200,000 who came out to meet him from the
train on his release from Peterhead Gaol.
Despite the best efforts of the unionist Labour quislings
in Scotland and their masters in London, the question of
independence runs throughout modern Scottish history. It
truly is the elephant in the room on all political matters in
Scotland. Recently the twin tectonic plates of independence
and unionism have collided and the attempt by the Brits to
"kill independence stone dead through devolution" has done
nothing of the sort. In fact devolution has merely whetted the
appetite for independence in Scotland and the one party state
hegemony of the unionist Labour Party, which stretches over
50 years, has been broken with the election in 2007 of the
first Scottish National Party Government. As republicans we
can confidently say that the SNP whilst being a constitutional
nationalist party, has at its base thousands of republican separatist
members and supporters and indeed even amongst its
elected representatives a good few solid republicans and
republican socialists. Salmond himself was once a member
of the expelled republican socialist 79 Group.
From our perspective and given the political terrain
and conditions the SNP is the credible democratic electoral
challenge to unionism and the British state. Whilst we maintain
a revolutionary republican perspective towards independence
we should urge all Scots and Irish Republicans living
in Scotland to support the SNP in elections and campaign
and vote in any upcoming referendum put forward by the
SNP for full Scottish independence.
The anti colonial and anti imperialism of the struggle
for Irish independence and Scottish independence and
the fact that both struggles and nations have so much commonality
against English dominion mean that the 32 CSM in
Scotland and our Vol Charles Carrigan Cumann have not
neglected to fully engage in the struggle for Scottish independence
alongside our support and solidarity for our comrades
and their struggle for Irish sovereignty, independence
and the 32 County Republic.
The 32CSM have worked alongside and supported
efforts by the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement including
attending the John MacLean March and Rally in Glasgow
and the Anti Sectarianism march and rally at Glencoe. We will
continue this work for a Scottish Republic which we believe
could be the closest ally for the 32 County Irish Republic.
Whichever nation first gains a victory against Anglo/British
imperialism and their continued denial of our national sovereignties
will have a profound effect on the struggle in the
other. Not least because of the crisis it will create in the false
identity of British unionism that exists in both Ireland and
Scotland.
