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Communists on Scotland’s National Question in 2020
Young Communist League general secretary JOHNNIE HUNTER addresses the question of Scottish independence and the options for working people in Scotland as we approach 2021

EVEN in the depths of this Covid-19 pandemic, the question of Scottish independence has remained at the top of the mainstream political agenda in Scotland.

The referendum result in 2014 has continued to divide working people and the labour movement. 

It’s gathered a new pace following, or perhaps because of, the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party in 2019.

  • On currency, continued membership of the sterling area would have subordinated Scotland to Tory policies without any power to change them.
  • Membership of the EU would have forced Scotland to implement even harsher austerity than Greece in the years following independence if it was to be part of the EU which the SNP only admitted after the referendum.
  • Scotland was to remain a member of the Nato aggressive nuclear first-strike alliance, meaning US bases in Scotland and Scottish soldiers and funding still going towards imperialist wars abroad. 
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