THE crisis of capitalism, which provided the context and to some extent fuelled the vibrant Yes campaign described by Coll McCail in his excellent article on Wednesday, is still with us.

The question which has haunted the Scottish left before and since the referendum is how we can maximise unity in order to challenge the power of capital in Britain and Scotland. 

The referendum took place during what Costas Lapavitsas in his book The State of Capitalism calls the “interregnum” that followed the great financial crash of 2007-08. The crisis, which was created, primarily, though not exclusively, through an excess of speculation by unregulated banks, was “resolved” in the core capitalist countries by state intervention — a bailout — leading to a massive expansion of the public debt.