Is there a Scottish Road to Socialism ? A Debate with SSP, Labour and Communist Parties of Scotland and Britain

This debate reflects the variety of views on the Left in Scotland about the question of independence and  Democracy and Class Struggle does not endorse any of the speakers views.

We publish this old debate to provide background to the current Scottish Referendum from a reformist socialist and revisionist communist view and we express our own revolutionary Maoist communist view in opposition to these views.

We think that the speaker from the Communist Party of Scotland Eric Canning comes nearest to the central question, that should be addressed by those interested in a Scottish Socialist Republic namely that of the British State and its smashing which we have addressed here.

The spokesperson for the Communist Party of Britain Professor John Foster has still not reputured from the revisionist Parliamentary British Road to Socialism that emerged in the 1950's which is why they have become increasingly irrevelvant over time not only in Scotland but Britain has an organisation.

Democracy and Class Struggle says that it is delusional if the Scottish Left think that an Independent Scottish Socialist Republic can be legislated through the Scottish Parliament or any other bourgeois institution .

The Scottish people will have to create new Scottish institutions of direct democracy like a Scottish Republican Congress if they want to challenge the British State.

The Scottish Road to Socialism discussed by the speakers above sounds like another version of the Parliamentarism of the British Road to Socialism also known as the revisionists road to obilivion.

If we look at Norwegian or Irish Independence in the 20th century in Western Europe Scottish Socialists and Communists will need at minimum to create a Scottish Citizens Army to support the Scottish Republican Congress if they truely want to introduce independence and Socialism in Scotland.

Socialism in Scotland will be opposed by the British State with all the perfidiousness it can muster which has been on display to the world for centuries and no one should be ignorant of it least of all socialists and communists.

John Maclean Scotland's great son and inspirer of the idea of an Independent Scottish Socialist Republic was a victim of that perfidy.