The National Rights of the Scottish and Welsh Must Be Upheld!

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The National Rights of the Scottish and Welsh Must Be Upheld!

It is being raised by Jack Straw, as Justice Minister, and others as to the possibility of a written constitution for Britain. At the same time, Gordon Brown and the whole government are suggesting that the union of England with Scotland and Wales is sacrosanct, and in fact should be strengthened. In this connection, the "think-tank" the Institute for Public Policy Research, in two reports published on February 25, called on the Prime Minister to set up a commission as part of a consultation on the constitution, examining the governance of England, so that English public opinion would not threaten the future of the Union.

To call for strengthening of the Union flies in the face of the national rights of the Scottish and Welsh peoples. If this is the case then the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly can be considered no more than a sop to the national aspirations of the respective peoples, and not a step on the road to the affirmation of the sovereignty of these peoples. Equally, the issue is not that these are "regions" of Great Britain that deserve peculiar treatment. The countries of Wales and Scotland fought many battles with England before being incorporated into a United Kingdom by force or by guile.

In fact, the institution of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly has given an impetus to the objective reality of national aspirations and steadily underlined the issue of national rights. The demand for modern sovereign states is thus posing itself once more, in the context of how the people’s struggles may find reflection in a modern constitution based on modern definitions, and not imposed on the whole polity from the perspective of vested interests and the cartel of the parliamentary parties.

The issue poses itself in the context of democratic renewal, and not of the "break-up of the United Kingdom". It is a class question insofar as the working class is the champion of rights, and must take centre-stage in fighting for modern sovereign states. Therefore its role on the scene of history at the present time must be to take the lead in social revolution, which in Britain necessarily includes self-determination for the nations of Wales and Scotland. This is not to preclude a voluntary union between England, Scotland and Wales as the working class takes up the task to constitute itself as the nation, vesting sovereignty in the people. Indeed, a sovereign island of Ireland might also join such a voluntary union in order to deal a mortal blow to the class in the United Kingdom which has sought violence against it for so long. But those that raise the interests of the workers as paramount as a feint to condemn or marginalise the national rights of the Welsh and Scottish people are doing a disservice to both the working class and the social progress of the peoples of Britain as a whole.

The question of sovereignty of nations and peoples is one of the foremost questions of our time, and it is one which is crucial to ending the criminal interference and aggression of the ruling elite in Britain and its political representatives. To uphold the sovereignty of the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance, is to uphold the principle that occupation is not liberation. Liberation is not a "gift" bestowed by an occupier, but is an act of a people itself. A sovereign Scotland and a sovereign Wales would be states where the respective peoples are the decision-makers. It is important that the workers in Britain take up this discussion seriously in the course of fighting for their interests, and resolving the crisis of working class representation at Westminster.

The principle is that the right to self-determination can neither be violated nor compromised. It is a vital principle to be defended in the course of fighting for an anti-war government which will uphold the sovereignty of peoples and nations, and upholds as equal all nations big or small. This runs directly counter to the chauvinist arrogance of those that claim to stand for "universal values", in the sense of attempting to advocate and impose an anachronistic and increasingly dictatorial system of "representative democracy". This system serves the interests of those who wish to block the progress of society, up to and including its own destruction, and prolong the retrogressive and crisis-ridden life of so-called neo-liberalism, that is, the unfettered rule of the monopolies through "monopoly right".

The point is that the people have the right to determine their own affairs, be the decision-makers, control their own resources, without interference, and upholding that right for all peoples, and engage in nation-building to ensure self-reliant national economies and relations of equality and of mutual benefit with other modern nation states. It is a project that includes building one’s own culture and national identity, and the flourishing of languages as part of affirming the identity of peoples and national minorities.

The peoples of Scotland and Wales have a right to affirm their sovereignty, and it is a right they alone can decide to exercise. In fighting to assume positions of political power and establish an anti-war government, the working class in Britain must also fight a modern constitution that guarantees the rights of all, including enshrining the national rights of the Scottish and Welsh. The people must decide their own future!