The Spirit of John Maclean and the Euro.

Lenin wrote of the 1916, Easter rising in Ireland. ''To imagine that social revolution is concievable without revolts by small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without outbursts by a section of the petty bourgeoisie without all its prejudices [italics in the original] ,without a movement of the politically non-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against the oppression of the land owners, the church , and the monarchy, against national oppression,etc to imagine all thesis to repudiate social revolution. So one army lines up in one place and says,"We are for socialism", somewhere else and says "We are for Imperialism", and that will be a social revolution.
Only those who hold such a ridiculously pedantic view would vilify the Irish rebellion by calling it a "putsch."
The British left have maintained this pedantry when it comes to Scotland, while recognizing the rights of nations to self determination. They argue that it shoud not be advocated.
Maclean's view that movement towards self determination in Scotland could divide imperialism is dismissed as left nationalism. Macleans view that Scotland is more ready for social revolution is not so incredible either. Many Englishmen and woman who have settled in Scotland have joined the ranks of the 'nationalists' asserting that if roles were reversed the English would be up in arms. Scots according to them do not know any better and this is borne out by the Scottish intelligensia's fetish with Scottish cultural inferiorism.
Lenin pointed to the Swedish case were the right of sucession.
"The close alliance between The Norwegian and Swedish workers, their complete fraternal cass solidarity, gained from the Swedish workers recognition of the the right of the Norwegians to secede.........The dissolution of the ties imposed upon Norway by the monarchs of Europe and the Swedish aristocracy strengthened the ties between the Norwegian and Swedish workers.''
The recognition of the right to self determination can only be truly meaningful if the advocacy of that right is respected.
To dismiss Maclean's notion of dividing up imperialism as left nationalism is disingenuous, it imputes sinister motives outside of his political strategy, as asking Scotsmen to stand by Ireland is an internationalist position that goes to the very heart of Marx's thinking on Ireland, who saw the struggle for Irish self determination as prerequisite for social revolution in Britain. "A nation that oppresses another cannot itself be free".
In advocating support of the Euro, I speak from a republican historical tradition which
eschews sectarianism, which is part and parcel of the political scene in Scotland and also has roots in Ireland. The lifting of the border in Ireland is all but real already but what would make the north and the south indistinguishable as an economic unit would be the introduction of the Euro.It would be another nail in the coffin of British Unionism whose political reason to be is being undermined by the Good Friday agreement.
In a larger sense I am pro-European in the present epoch, the reason for this lies in the nature of American Imperialism.
Leftist's who talk of inter-imperialist rivalry are way of the mark. The US is by far the world's only superpower. It's interventions through out the world strike fear into the progressive movement in every country. This has to be faced as a reality.
The position of the US as the world's cop has to be undermined. It acts as the biggest State influence on the international working class.
The euro is not merely an economic issue, it is not merely opportunity for a didactic campiagn in Marixan economics. It is a vital political question in the struggle against imperialism.
Let us fight for a multi-polar world with an equal voice for Scotland among the nations of the world as part in parcel of sound socialist objectives in a pre-revolutionary situation.





(Edited by peaccenicked at 10:03 am on Nov. 10, 2002)