The coming year will see the debate on Scotland's constitutional future intensify. There is every danger that this debate will be conducted on terms that assume a continuity of neo-liberal, free market policies whether or not Scotland chooses independence.
This autumn's Morning Star conference poses the need for an alternative basis for this debate: how to secure for Scotland the type of democracy traditionally demanded by the Labour Movement -- powers by which a Scottish parliament could begin to take control of the country's wealth and productive potential on behalf of working people. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s it was this vision that mobilised the movement for a Scottish parliament -- in face of the increasing and unaccountable power of finance and big business over people's lives.
This autumn's Morning Star conference poses the need for an alternative basis for this debate: how to secure for Scotland the type of democracy traditionally demanded by the Labour Movement -- powers by which a Scottish parliament could begin to take control of the country's wealth and productive potential on behalf of working people. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s it was this vision that mobilised the movement for a Scottish parliament -- in face of the increasing and unaccountable power of finance and big business over people's lives.
