Friday 8 May 2015

Scottish Labour routed, bittersweet morning

It's a bittersweet Friday morning.

Wonderfully, Labour are extinguished in Scotland. Harris, Curran, Alexander, Davidson and even Murphy all now gone as the Better Together collaborator party are consigned to oblivion.

Who would have even thought it possible, after the painful dawn of September 19, that a 20 year-old feisty-talking student, Mhairi Black, could have trounced one of Labour's leading lights by such a staggering majority? And what pleasure to see the Blairite warmonger Tom Harris finally removed.

Scotland stands this morning a truly different political country. It's not just an SNP cascade. It's a revolutionary moment for the ascending Yes movement.

And yet, there's the awakening thought that we still live under that yoke of UK establishment rule. How prescient now the warnings that we might pass-up the golden opportunity of independence only to see this own-goal day of an enduring Tory government. How cruel the double twist of that establishment knife, to mug us with menace and now impose this extended sentence. The emotions today of many in Scotland will be as mixed as these messy metaphors.

Still, it's an establishment now damningly exposed and heroically rejected. Cameron has no legitimacy in Scotland. Labour are utterly beyond repair, their betrayals now a haunting reminder of what ultimately becomes a quisling party. We now need to use this rising in Scotland, this crushing defeat of the Labour sub-master class, as the next, confident step towards radical independence.

And with that will come new conditions for radical change across this archaic, elite-ridden state.

Despairing people in England and Wales can take comfort from the tsunami of resistance that's been unleashed in Scotland. Bereft of meaningful choices, the crushing of Labour may be hard to take, but the Miliband lifeboat was really just another pirate neoliberal ship, corporate owned and dutifully captained. Take heart from its sinking, and remember all those 'radical' apologists who tried to sell it as a seaworthy vessel for meaningful change. 

We also need a new assault on every part of the establishment-serving media, from the simpering Guardian to the gutter Sun.

Isn't it remarkable that the people of Scotland still managed to resist the onslaught of such a massively-weighted corporate-establishment media, from the ever-subservient BBC to the shabby, Labour-protecting Daily Record? Nothing in radical history ever came without struggle against the elite protectorate as well as the elite.

This morning is a truly historical moment in that process. It shows just what a resilient movement of people, not just a party, is capable of achieving. It's a massive adrenaline boost for Scotland. And it's a vital reminder to others that, beyond everything hurled at us from the propaganda armoury, the possibility of real political alternatives and the independent, compassionate society is still very much alive. Onwards.

8 comments:

  1. 'radical' apologists who tried to sell it as a seaworthy vessel for meaningful change

    Good stuff John - and well-stuffed Labour!

    Cheers Fred

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  2. If only this was true! Unfortunately, the SNP was supported by the Murdoch owned Scottish Sun. Their success can hardly be described as a victory against corporate propaganda.

    The question that has to be asked is this: could a truly progressive party ever earn the support of the Murdoch machine? It seems unlikely, doesn't it? For the Scottish people, a vote for the SNP might bring independence a little closer, but it isn't going to bring about a new kind of politics. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss is probably more like it.

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  3. Woefully wrong. Murdoch would advocate for any party anywhere as long as it suited his profit-first objectives. A radical Yes movement, be assured, needs no support or encouragement from this corporate villain and its gutter rag. The answer to Murdoch and the rest of the corporate-establishment media is to build an entirely new one. But, as said, it's immense that people in Scotland still resisted the mass propaganda inflicted by the entire media.

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  4. I don't really understand the logic of your reply. It seems that you accept two propositions. (1) That the Murdoch owned Scotland Sun supported the SNP; and (2) That the people in Scotland resisted the mass propaganda inflicted by the entire media. It seems to me that these propositions can't be true at the same time. If (1) is true, then it follows that it can't be the case that the Scottish people resisted the "entire media."

    As for Murdoch's motives: naturally, he has to take into account sales and profits. But this doesn't change the fact that he did, indeed, support the SNP. You claim he would advocate ANY party, as long as it suited his profit-first objetive. But there is no evidence of this. Globally, he has never supported a left-wing party. Ever. It seems very unlikely that he would put his weight behind a progressive movement, even if that support might lead to more sales.

    Finally, my main point is that you are a little too optimistic about the meaning of the rise of Scottish Nationalism. Nationalism is not, in itself, a progressive cause nor is there any reason to suppose that it will lead to one. Nationalism is, in a sense, a kind of pre-ideological position. It is a foundational issue, which permits the building of just about any edifice: anything from straight fascism to outright Stanlism. The fact that Scottish people are voting in that direction does not mean that they are moving towards a more progressive system. Indeed, the evidence - of the SNP's past policies and their current ones - just does not suggest that is likely to be the case.

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  5. What happened to my earlier post? Do you only put up posts which agree with you?

    So much for Radical politics! It would be funny if it wasn't tragic.

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  6. Thanks, I've just read and published your posts. I have to pre-moderate comments now, after getting bombarded with spambots and other malicious posts. I would never refuse a post unless it resorted to serious abuse.

    Regarding your points:

    Just because Murdoch's Sun declared for the SNP doesn't mean that people supported the SNP just because the Sun told them to. Resisting mass media can also include seeing through Murdoch and his self-interested motives.

    Don't confuse, either, Murdoch's (profit-driven) endorsement of the SNP with any approval of the wider left Yes movement.

    Alas, you seem to have no real comprehension of what lies behind the progressive, civic-based indy movement that you generically label 'nationalism'.

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  7. Labour are utterly beyond repair, their betrayals now a haunting reminder of what ultimately becomes a quisling party.

    So true of our corporatist-controlled Democratic party here in the U.S.
    ~

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  8. Anon, you make some superficial points, however, your substance is misplaced, Matt Carr put's it well:

    Whatever you think of the SNP’s ability to deliver on its social democratic credentials, its appeal to the Scots electorate is clearly based on very different premises than the beligerent, rancorous, flagwaving, royal baby worshipping, foreigner-hating nativism that is driving English nationalism in its current manifestation.

    In Scotland, ‘nationalism’ produced a movement in which a 20-year-old student can overturn a Labour majority of 16,000 in Paisley and Renfrewshire South. In her victory speech Mhairi Black promised that she would fight to end austerity cuts that are hurting communities ‘ both north and south of the border.’

    Anon2

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