SPGB Glasgow Day School, Saturday 10 May 2014

[The Idler]

http://i.imgur.com/5FyvOAr.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/5FyvOAr.jpg)
SPGB Glasgow Day School
Date:
Saturday, 10 May 2014 - 1:00pm - 5:00pm



Venue: Maryhill Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow G20 7YE
Directions: About 7 minutes walk north from St.George's Cross SPT subway station
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/event/glasgow-day-school-100pm-0

(http://i.imgur.com/5FyvOAr.jpg)

[The Idler]

I might go to this, anyone else fancy it?

[Xena Warrior Proletarian]

I went to the CPB young communist league one in Glasgow just a couple weeks ago :) I would love to have a discussion at some point with some other Scottish leftists about their thoughts on independence. The disgraceful lying/dogmatic one-liners/petty squabbling on this has somewhat scarred me...

My party members seem to be arguing as if Salmond's year of neo-liberalism will last a century and condemn the country to a banking republic of Holyrood for eternity - while the Trots seem to completely ignore that Salmond and the SNP will be in control even briefly, that the EU is going to have us by the short and curlies just as much as Westminster, and that a currency union would be a disaster (which they know very well).

It's all very disheartening. Good news though, the enigmatic Gordon Brown is on hand in Glasgow to defend the No campaign xD I'm sure that come September the YES will prevail...

[The Idler]

Weren't you impressed with what the CPB/YCL said?

[Xena Warrior Proletarian]

Weren't you impressed with what the CPB/YCL said?

No-one is telling the truth. To be honest I'm way out of line with even M-L at this point so the quoting of comrade Stalin wasn't really going to convince me of anything. My comrades mock the Trots and then take infantile to a whole new level with their justification of NO campaign.

Apparently there will never be a socialist majority in Scotland on account of 'Trotskyite Opportunism'. 'Neo-liberalism' is repeated over and over again in Orwellian fashion until I'm not sure if it's Eurasia/neo-liberalism that we are fighting or supporting.

[whichfinder]

Comrade John Cumming, who will speak at the Day School on the referendum, provides a précis outlining the SPGB's position.

"The referendum on Scottish independence will ask: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" From now until polling day you will be subjected to politicians and commentators agonising over this question on television and in other media.

The Scottish National Party government is exhorting you to vote "yes". Its argument is that the interests of the "people of Scotland" can be served best by a government in Edinburgh rather than one in London. But what people do they mean? To nationalists, the nation, or nation-state, is an entity to which we should have automatic allegiance. But what exactly is a nation, and in whose interests does a nation-state operate?

The nation-state is a convenient vehicle by means of which a local (national) capitalist class can exploit the workers within its boundaries; it brings no benefit to the workers. Instead of independence for a nation, the workers should seek independence for themselves: independence from the tyranny of capital and silly flag-waving nations! To do anything else is - just like the coming referendum - an exercise in futility!"

[The Idler]

This is this Saturday.