SSP Posting

azzuri · SSP Posting

Taken from another forum:

Culled from a recent (July) posting on the UK Left Network, this is a rather instructive attempt at humour by a member of the Britleft. Try to keep telling yourself it's humourous, after all we wouldn't want to be accused of being unable to take a wee joke....

[UK Left Network] Platform of the clown Tendency of the SSP

Platform of the clown tendency of the SSP

1) Scotland is an oppressed nation

2) The Scottish people are engaged in a war of national liberation even if they don't realise it yet

3) All Scots must unite to defend the interests of Scotland. An independence convention is key to advancing the interests of all Scots and must be open to all Scottish patriots.

4) The British working class does not exist. It is an invention of the Brit left. This is a key point for the clown tendency. Once the existence of the British working class is conceded the logic of the call for a British wide socialist party is inescapable so it is essential to deny and denigrate the existence and potential of the British working class. Some clowns deny the British working class ever existed and others claim that it did but disappeared in the 1980s. We are not sectarians and our tendency is open to all clowns as long as they are opposed to the unity of the British working class.

5) We take every opportunity to push nationalism rather than class politics. We take every opportunity to push national identity rather than working class identity. We emphasis the difference between the workers of Scotland and the rest of Britain and not what they have in common.

6) Scottish is good. British is bad.

7) We ridicule the idea that the working class of Britain can establish, through common struggle, a workers government in order to forward the interests of the British working class. We believe that the answer to the problems of workers in Scotland is a Scottish government. We will unite in common struggle with all Scots who agree with the need for Scottish Independence. We are for a Scottish government not a workers government. We are for the unity of all Scots not the unity of all workers.

We promote all manifestations of Scottish identity as being progressive.

9) We continue to call ourselves socialists while rejecting the history of the Marxist movement in Britain and internationally. We have no interest in Marxist theory other than to attack it from any angle we can. We only study the history of the struggle of the British working class against British capital (Chartism, general strike, miners strikes etc) in order to deny that these were united struggles of the British working class.

10) We hate those who call for the unity of British workers and designate them as the Brit left, controlled by London and by the British State. We avoid debate with these people, as our arguments are pathetic and can't stand up to intelligent scrutiny.

11) We believe that the English working class holds the Scottish working class back and we blame workers in the south for any workers class defeat (if at all possible).

12) Thatcherism was anti Scottish. Blair is anti Scottish. Brown is anti Scottish. Scots are systematically discriminated against in Britain and are denied career advancement due to wide spread anti Scottish sentiment down south.

13) We support a "Scottish six" news programme on the BBC as a demand that the Scottish working class should Champion and we also think that the Scottish working class should take up the call for an independent Scottish entry into the Eurovision song contest.

11) We call on all our supporters to dress as clowns at all political events and carry our flag - the saltire.

what are SSP supporters views on this? Surely even the UK left realise that the SSP have a better chance of promoting Socialism in an Independent Scotland?

gordon899

just found this, very funny. even funnier is that after the election NO-ONE actually cares what the loony left says. the results showed how heartily sick we all are of their antics. funny all the same.

Holebender

Substitute "British" for "Scottish" and "European" or "World" for "British" in the above article and you see how hypocritical the Brit Left are. They refuse to recognise any differences within Britain but have no trouble distinguishing Britain from the rest of Europe/the World. If their arguments re Britain/Scotland had any merit they'd be just as true for the rest of the World. They may pay lip service to some sort of World socialist workers' collective government, but they never argue that British socialism should wait or be subordinated to this World movement.

I know it's meant to be humourous, but it is also revealing of Brit Left thinking.

gordon899

well said sir.