SNP majority - what on earth happens now?
by Jo Harvie, 10-05-2011
Having fallen asleep just as the pundits were saying, ‘we have to wait to see if there is a specific local factor affecting South Lanarkshire’s results’, it took a very strong cup of tea on Friday morning, and then another one, before I could begin to comprehend the enormity of the SNP landslide.
I still don’t really have words for it. People on the news keep saying ‘tsunami’. Stop it. But I know we’ve got work to do, right now.
Something has fundamentally changed. Scottish Labour no longer holds exclusive rights to the votes of working class Scotland. People have had a lick of a different ice cream cone, and found it doesn’t taste of puppy dog tails.
We know the SNP vote doesn’t directly translate into support for independence. But it does indicate a new willingness to be open-minded to independence, open minded enough to vote for a party for which, at least notionally, independence is the raison d’etre. It doesn’t show enthusiasm for independence, but it does show apathy for the union.
With a referendum probably the one almost-certainty we can point to in our immediate political future, that open-mindedness seems a no bad point from which to start. So where do we go from here? And who on earth do I mean by ‘we’?
Forces out there who want a progressive independent Scotland, a feminist Scotland, an environmentally just Scotland, a Scottish republic, are many. They’re organised in all kinds of ways, some in political parties, be they SNP lefties, Greens or SSP, others in equality networks, community settings, student groups, single issue campaigns.
I’m a Scottish Socialist Party member, and the SSP’s formation was based on bringing groups of the radical left in Scotland together on a common programme. A new spirit of open mindedness was the key then.
Our 2011 election results were dire, though not shockingly so, unless you haven’t been paying attention recently. And looking elsewhere, it could have been worse.
The SSP has come through a tough time, but come through nonetheless, and we’re now faced with an opportunity to play a role in building the movement for a Scotland which makes equality the very core of its construction.
Those of us in the SSP need to look beyond our party boundaries in the same way we did when we founded our party. Not to the groupsecules of the nasty left – neither those who remain subject to the rule of London-based bureaux, nor those who have carped from ideologically pure clusters of two or three since the SSP was founded, nor those in the ‘free tommy’ tshirts with ‘burn the scab witches’ on the back. Radical Scotland has little in common with those organisations, and its formations are not always obvious - but if we look, we'll find each other.
A movement for a progressive yes vote has to focus on open discussion about what kind of Scotland we see, combating the negativity which will be relentless from the unionist institutions. There are formations already in existence where we can raise the possibilities for an independent progressive Scotland, and where we’ll find others doing the same. Feminists will be blethering (at an official blether) at the occupied Hetherington in June, and I for one would like to talk there about women and patriarchy in an independent Scotland. Refugee Week, also in June, could be a good time to talk about a Scotland with open borders which welcomes and celebrates migrants, whether they’ve been forced to Scotland for safety or chosen to make their life here.
The time to talk ideas is now - we just have to seek out the people who want to talk, and make a bit of space, online and in the real people world. And we need to get our arses in gear, before this chance to build the foundations of a better world right here in our own back court skites right past us.