SNP’s addiction to entrepreneurial capitalism won’t deliver a recovery for the working class
Fight for socialism
Philip Stott reports
The SNP/ Green Scottish government last week unveiled their strategy for the “economic transformation” of the country over the next decade. If anything was designed to show the world, the EU in particular, the SNP leadership’s continued support for the capitalist market this was it.
Coming in the wake of the devastation of the Covid pandemic, a cost of living crisis that is shredding the incomes of working class and middle class people amid rocketing levels of fuel poverty, these ‘solutions’ are a sick joke.
The last thing working-class communities and trade unionists wanted to see was the SNP doubling down on support for capitalism, again. It comes after all in the wake of their recent decision to hand offshore wind capacity to the global energy giants and embrace of the Tory Freeports policy, albeit with a bit of greenwashing thrown in.
Every page in the ‘National Strategy for Economic Transformation’ document mentions “entrepreneurship”. Sometimes there are two mentions in a single sentence. For example this gem of an aim to: “establish Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation founded on a culture that encourages, promotes and celebrates entrepreneurial activity in every sector of our economy”
Now hold on a minute, they are not finished yet. There was much more to be said about how the SNP leadership vision the joyous future we could all live under the rule of the billionaires.
Their plan, we were assured, would “strengthen Scotland’s position in new markets and industries, generating new, well-paid jobs from a just transition to net zero….make Scotland’s businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services more productive and innovative…be a magnet for inward investment and global private capital”
And just in case we had forgotten the importance of entrepreneurs in the few sentences where it had not been mentioned… “We will now go further by working to embed an entrepreneurial culture and by engaging more people in entrepreneurship right across society……We will foster entrepreneurship from an early age, recognising that today’s young people are our entrepreneurs of the future.”
(So Lenin was right after all: They who have the youth have the future. Although it it’s an ideological battle for the hearts and minds of young people facing low pay, insecure work, student debt and no way to afford a home to live in then good luck with that attempt to convince that capitalism has the solution)
Excellent work, Kate Forbes and Nicola Sturgeon. That was four mentions of the E word in just two sentences. That’s exactly the kind of commitment that will, without question, eradicate the scourge of child poverty and social deprivation in Scotland.
So crucial are the new class of entrepreneurs that they will need a special place in government. A ‘chief entrepreneurship officer’ will be appointed. No doubt to ensure that every SNP/Green document will include the necessary number of references of said entrepreneurs to maintain the need for a dedicated post in the government.
There is not a single mention of the need for public ownership, despite the rampant profiteering of the energy companies. Nothing on taxing the rich and big business. No recognition of the damage done after more that a decade of the SNP passing on Tory cuts in local government, the NHS and across the public sector.
The “National Strategy for Economic Transformation” is a pipe dream. The scale of the crisis facing capitalism in Scotland and globally rules any such transformation. Indeed the SNP document limits its ambition to improving Scottish GDP by around 5% by 2032. Itself a recognition of how feeble capitalism is today.
socialist recovery
Only a struggle for socialist policies, public ownership, wage rises that at least match rampant inflation, massive investment in council housing and services, and trade union struggle for a £15 an hour minimum wage can forge a socialist recovery for the working class after Covid.
These are some of the policies that the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition will be standing on in the May 2022 council elections.
And don’t expect anything different from Scottish Labour either. Anas Sarwar’s speech to the party conference last weekend sought to bury Corbynism. “Let me state this load and clear; under my leadership, Scottish Labour will be unashamedly pro-business, pro-growth and pro-jobs party.” Clearly the Labour and SNP leadership agree on much.
A new workers’ party in Scotland is essential. The trade unions can play a critical role in that task by calling a conference to discuss how to build independent working-class political representation in the form of a new party.
Socialist Party Scotland fights for an independent socialist Scotland. We also stand for a united struggle of the working class to build a socialist confederation with England, Wales and Ireland as a step to a socialist Europe and world.
