Launch of Scottish Republican publication - Spairn

The new Scottish Republican organisation "Saorsa" have launched their publication on the web according to their website.

It will be interesting to see if they can add anything meaningful to the struggle for a Scottish Republic. If so then their existence should be welcomed.

This weblog will however recognise the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement (SRSM) as the main organisation to struggle for a Workers Republic. The SRSM have recently expanded with a new N.England branch.

Below is taken from the Saorsa website

Launch of Scottish Republican publication - Spairn

31 October 2010

Saorsa is pleased to announce the launch of Spairn, a web-based Scottish republican publication. Whilst the decision to launch the publication has been taken by members of Saorsa it is our objective to provide in Spairn an open-forum whereby all strands of republicanism in Scotland can organise and debate in a fraternal manner.

By our reckoning there are eight Scottish Republican organisations of varying size and activity, plus many other individuals in other organisations or none, most notably the SNP.

We believe that there are around the same number of Irish Republican organisations active in Scotland who likewise support the establishment of an independent Scottish Republic as part of a wider strategy against British Imperialism.

Whilst recognising that in some cases long-standing political and personal differences will continue to exist - we believe that it is in the interests of the wider progressive working-class movement in Scotland that common-ground be found and built upon between these groups, to work together, where possible, in a spirit of mutual co-operation and respect.

We hope that through Spairn we can play a role in this objective and accordingly place Spairn at the disposal of the wider, progressive republican and socialist community in Scotland.


The Future

It is our hope that if Spairn is to be a useful tool for Republican politics that it can, over time, become a means for bringing some form basic unity around a set of common demands such as;

Establishment of an Independent Scottish Republic
Support for a Unified 32-County Irish Republic
Opposition to all manifestations of British Imperialism.



However we also hold to the position of the Edinburgh-born revolutionary James Connolly that the struggles for national and social freedom are inseparable, and paraphrase him that; “The cause of labour is the cause of Scotland, the cause of Scotland is the cause of labour. They cannot be dissevered.”

In the face of the Capitalist banking crisis, services being slashed and 100,000 public sector job losses in Scotland republican politics must also, in our opinion, be immersed in community politics, empowering working-class communities and building a campaign of resistance to Imperialism from the bottom-up.

Given that the Socialist Left in Scotland is about to engage in the worst round of sectarian bloodletting for many years this will become an even greater necessity for progressive republican politics.

However such matters are for the times ahead. We hope to show our commitment to these goals through our actions. In the meantime we welcome all submissions to Spairn be they articles, notices or reports of events/ rallies and so on.


Remember it is YOUR paper. Please use it.



Spairn – (A’ Ghaidhlig – Struggle)

Re: Federal Republic of Scotland?

The Republican Socialist analysis in Ireland of Eire Nua's federalist advocacy (that is, the position of the IRSP, when this position was first advanced) was that it was a sop to the loyalist/unionist community of the six counties and was contrary to the realities of contemporary Irish society and potentially harmful to the nationalist communities of the six counties.

By advocating a four province, federal state, Sinn Fein seemed to think, the loyalists might perceive themselves as retaining significant influence within the province of Ulster, even were the province restored to its original nine county status, instead of the abbreviated six counties retained by Britain in order to gerrymander a loyalist majority. Insofar as the loyalists had since the creation of the six county statelet used their dominance to oppress and terrorize the nationalist population, advocacy of anything resembling a continuation of this situation could be called reckless at worst and ill-conceived at best.

While Scotland has experience of the sectarian 'orange and green' divide, it is one that immigated to Scotland along with the Scotish populace formerly resident in Ireland and lacks the geographic concentrations that exist in Ireland. Were there a sectarian community resident in the highlands or islands hostile to the populace of the central belt, for example, one might be able to see why such a proposal was being advanced, but the reality is that to the extent a sectarian divide exists within the Scottish populace, both sides of that sectarian divide are more likely to be found in Glasgow than in any hinterlands of the nation.

An argument could be advanced that the divide between the speakers of Lallans and the speakers of Scot's Gaelig (essentially a lowlands/highlands divide) or the division between the pockets of Scottish Catholicism and the Kirk (essentially a division between small pockets in the islands and the mainland of Scotland) could provide a basis for some form of federalism. However, in the latter instance, there are probably far more Catholics in Glasgow than in the rest of Scotland combined and, in regard to the former, the extent to which the gaelig-speaking communities remaining in Scotland provide a viable base for federal division is clearly open to debate.

When one considers the significant difference that still exist between the highlands and islands and the lowlands, a strong case could be made that the populace of the highlands and islands might benefit from some constitutional protections being erected to secure their interests from being trampled upon by the far larger populace of the central belt and southern lowlands, but this doesn't necessitate the move to federalism to ensure. Scots should bear these legitimate concerns of those living in the highlands and islands when drafting a constitution after winning an independent Scottish workers' republic, however--even within a workers' republic the cultural, geographic, and historic differences between Scotland's highland and lowland populace argue for safeguards that will protect those characteristics most desirable, without preserving the reactionary attributes that have sometimes accompanied them.

More important than consideration of whether or not to adopt a federal approach to Scottish independence is consideration of the class orientation followed towards Scottish independence. Scottish independence must reflect a genuine national liberation for it to have meaning for the masses of the Scottish people and in contemporary times real national liberation is impossible without breaking the fetters of imperialism and globalized capitalism that undermine the national sovereignty of all peoples. For Scottish workers to remain oppressed by foreign imperialists and native capitalists in an independent Scotland is to have won nothing worth having. The imperative of Scottish national liberation is rooted in the reality that it is only through the break up of the archaic British state that the working class of all the nations of the islands or Britain and Ireland will be able to win their liberation as workers and as human beings. That said, the Scottish working class would be fool-hardy to support any two-stage argument that calls upon them to support the creation of an independent capitalist Scotland as an intermediate step towards building socialism.

The central tenet of the republican socialist tendency, that the struggles for national liberation and socialism are inseparablly intertwined remains as true today as it did in the time of James Connolly or John MacLean. The majority of Scotland's people are workers and those Scottish workers must insist that the creation of an independent Scottish republic is also the creation of a workers' republic.

Peter Urban
International Republican Socialist Network

Republican Socialism in an International context

Certainly any Republican Socialist agenda in this part of the world and on these islands has to include the need for unity of socialists and maximising opportunities to compare experiences and work together. At least some credit can be given to the Scottish Socialist Party individuals who organised a Republican Socialist Convention on the anniversary of Scottish revolutionary John MacLean's death.

Mike Davies, calling himself a socialist republican and Welsh internationalist, outlined the problems faced by the Left in Wales, trying to deal with the sectarian manoeuvring of the British Left, which had sabotaged every unity project. He pointed out that there would be a referendum in Wales seeking more powers for the devolved Welsh Assembly.

Dan Finn, from the Irish Socialist Network, outlined the difficulties faced in trying to unite the Left, in the face of the sectarianism of the co-thinkers of the British Left. Nevertheless, some real unity had been achieved in the referendum to defeat the neo-liberal Lisbon Treaty. The ISN is an all-Ireland organisation producing its own news sheet, Resistance.

Tommy McKearney, a former republican prisoner in the Maze, now an activist in the Independent Workers Union and editor of Fourthwrite, outlined the situation in the Six Counties, after the Good Friday Agreement. This had copper fastened partition and entrenched sectarian divisions. Yet, most of the earlier economic underpinning of state-backed sectarian had disappeared. Objectively, there were grounds for overcoming past divisions, but this would mean opposing communitarian politics and challenging the current divided political set-up on class grounds.

The platform speakers briefly outlined what they had got from the day, and the possibilities for future joint activities. There was common agreement that despite differences of viewpoint, the whole day was conducted in a very comradely manner, in marked contrast to the participants’ experiences in gatherings dominated by the British Left and their co-thinkers in Ireland. Their methods seemed to duplicate some of those used by the UK state, to ensure its continued domination over the working class and peoples of these islands. Participants were optimistic that there was a real basis for organising by uniting on socialists in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England on ‘internationalism from below’ principles.

See more on a talk prepared by Allan Armstrong for the Republican Socialist Convention by clicking here

Well I don't disagree with what individuals in the SSP have been attempting to achieve but in the absence of a Republican Socialist Party in Scotland we also have to learn about Republican Socialist unity in Scotland to assist others in working class struggle and the break up the British state. What genuine Republican Socialists will realise that some of the worst obstacles to unity come from within. However Internationalism from below is a sentiment worth echoing. And the platform for Republican Socialists must be broad based.

Also theoretical analysis is all very well but follow up on the Convention proposals or a co-ordinated plan is needed which would be better in the longer term.

Republican Socialists must always follow up ideas which precede with action.

Join reds4justice forum

Click here to join reds4justice

This group is an Independent Republican Socialist news and debate forum. We support a 32 County Irish Socialist Republic and Scottish Socialist Workers Republic. Support for national liberation struggles for small nations to include all Celts, Basques and Breton peoples to secure Independence.

This forum is in Solidarity with the IRSM, Irish Rights Watch, while also being supported by Civil Rights Vets and the Irish Political Status Committee. We urge immediate active support for the Capt.Kelly Justice Campaign, and the urgent repatriation of Irish citizen Noel Maguire to Ireland from Whitemoor Gaol.

We also support human rights and assistance for political prisoners and their dependants particularly those presently detained in Irish, British and US Jails.

To join please provide your real name, location eg: Scotland, Ireland or USA etc..And political affiliations and or beliefs.