Sept 30th: The long march for Scottish Independence took to the streets of Edinburgh today
Today was the first time in a generation that a march for Scottish independence had taken to the streets of the Scottish capital. It was a fantastic sight to see this historic march make its way through the centre of Edinburgh to converge on the Scottish parliament.
Considering today had been organised on a shoestring, with practically no posters, and spread mainly by word of mouth and just 5000 leaflets it was a very succesful start to getting the independence movement orgisanied, mobilised and visible. All of Scotland's political parties (who support Scottish Independence) sent along speakers and representatives.
It begged the question though: if this can be done on a shoestring, organised and promoted by just a handful of activists around Independence First, imagine what could be achieved if the parties of Independence collectively pooled their resources and actively mobilised their huge supports, instead of sending along token contingents?
Nevertheless, the countdown to what could/should be the Independence Election of 2007 has now begun in earnest.
posted by Kevin Williamson at
2:30 PM
12 Comments:
Dunno if yer reading this dude, but I was wanting to come over and say hello today but, well, didnt for whatever reason. Hope you enjoyed the day. Carolyn's plug for IF was most appreciated too.
8:10 PM
Good start. the independence parties need get there fingers out though.
8:36 PM
Good to see you there today Kev. Not the greatest turn out in the end, but the speakers and musicians did their bit. Wait now for the inevitable unionist backlash...
10:12 PM
I have no say, but should I being saying -YAY!-?
10:35 PM
Today was a great success for IF especially considering its shoestring budget and lack of resources as you say Kev.
The Scottish left seems to be getting over its Marxist Leninist induced paranoia on the national question and I expect to see a greater involvement by the left in the independence movement in the near to mid term future.
Steve
11:39 PM
Interesting wee piece in the Times online, wonder what the majority of those on the March would make of Michael Fry’s support?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-1506-2383413-3047,00.html
5:35 PM
Fuck Michael Fry and his falsification of Scottish history: "Clearances? What Clearances?" Aye, right.
9:55 PM
I haven’t read any of Fry’s stuff but I may give Wild Scots a read just to see what slant he puts on the clearances. I have read Prebble and did have a feeling that the subject was kind of “romanticised”……..may the truth will lie somewhere in the middle. I don’t think there can be any doubt they occurred, so it will be interesting to see how he tackles it.
4:55 PM
I've not read Fry either but I have been reading Alan Dershowitz's The Case for Israel recently. One of the two main arguments deployed against describing Zionist immigration to Israel/Palestine as colonisation appears to be that most of the land was bought legally from absentee Arab landlords... as if the ethnicity of those who sell land according the rules of finance and absolute property rights regardless of the consequences of disposing of those assets... makes any difference to the 'ethical content' of your actions.......
Traditional ways of life and rights of use and access are undermined by changes in ownership of the local infrastructure/land... globalisation anyone?
It's possible Fry's analysis will follow similar finance/might is right .... 'scots nobility done it and ran away' .....lines.....
Of course in Israel the demographic and historical background is very very different and there were many jews fleeing mistreatment in neighbouring arab countries so the paralell ends there. But the notion of financial correctness and contractual 'legality' conferring legitimacy on colonial abuses is a kind of blind spot in the victor's mentality that I think is widespread....
xx,a.
4:01 PM
I once heard a college lecturer (this should be tempered with the fact that he was a lecturer in Economics/Business Studies et al…..and the college was Thurso Technical College), state that he considered the clearances to be a benevolent act, as the conditions the people were living in was so bad. There could be a smattering of truth in that, however when you go to places like Badbea (on the edge of a cliff, where the kids had to be tethered while playing for their own safety) and see where some were relocated to, it does not really ring true. A more modern analogy would be St Kilda I suppose…..really need to study more on the subject.
7:39 AM
The "where people were moved to" is really the point..... and if something is better people will move there voluntarily and don't need to be cleared' as I think there is eviodence a plenty of in the fact that people will try and come to countries that seem better tied to the bottoms of trucks in airless boxes that often turn into coffins.
The point if you're looking economically is that traditional ways of living - and modern social democracy is arguably one of those - come as a result of some kind of distibution of LOCAL resurces through local authority structures that will allow exploitation, but ony such exploitation that allows the people to LIVE becuase local wealth and profit extraction is based on living people doing the work to create it. Some kind of a long term accomodation between power and justice sometimes more just, sometimes more tyrannical.
Once you are in the realms of the international free movement of capital though exchange rates determine that absolute property rights can be most profitably exercised by either exterminating the locals or totally disenfrachising them of 'traditional' ie... not necessarily contractual but long accepted rights of use and access to land and infrastructure.
So that what was once accepted as everyone's suddenly becomes 'someone's' when a bag of manoey arives that can get the impoverished and bored authoritoies out of their disliked backwater and off to the big city..... for exapmle London, New York, wherever there's shopping and "CULTURE".....
The clearances were not a benevolent act and to interpret history in that way is to have no understanding that the powerless are not 'incapable' or 'unlucky' or 'ignorant' and needing the assistance of the rich.... they are the people who's work makes others rich and are kept in their place with violence/imprisonment/eviction and enforced contract law regarding property.
xxx,a.
3:00 PM
Also.... I suspect that the international free movement of capital here is an entirely appropriate way to interpret finance crossing the scots english border at the time of the clearances. Not 'to' Scotland.... to save us from ourselves.... but from Scotland to LONDON so that the scots great and good could prove their cultural credentials at London parties full of 'enlightened' bores.
3:05 PM
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