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The future should rest in the hands of the Scottish people

KATE RAMSDEN of Unison’s Scottish committee explains the challenge in the face of the demands for a second independence referendum and how the union is approaching it

AS those of us on the left reel under the outcome of a terrible election defeat and struggle to understand why so many working-class people, especially in England, voted against their interests and rejected the best opportunity in decades for a government that would have bettered the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable, it feels like a sliver of optimism that those of us north of the border might just have an alternative to more years of Tory rule.

Many of our colleagues across England envy us the opportunity to vote to go it alone — to carve out for ourselves a different kind of society, one that is hopefully more caring and compassionate and above all more equal.

Because there is no doubt about it, however much Boris Johnson’s first Budget panders to the people who voted for him and gives what will be – if it happens – a welcome rise in funding for the NHS and other public services, his is still a government that is deeply rooted in inequality and casual discrimination. 

Other colleagues in England, and in Scotland, are less enthusiastic. 

Within Scottish Labour there are still many voices speaking out against independence, pointing out that solidarity is about class, not geographical boundaries, and that the working class divides at our peril. 

It is a debate to be had within our union and its seeds will be sown this weekend at our Scottish council of branches, when representatives from across Scotland will consider a motion submitted by our Scottish committee.

The motion reminds us that Unison Scotland was a party to the Scottish Constitutional Convention, Claim of Rights, which held that it was the Scottish people’s right to choose the form of government that best suited them (a long-established principle, first formally stated in the Declaration of Arbroath, 1320) and which also recommended the establishment of a convention to discuss this.

The convention was established and eventually led to Scottish devolution. In Unison Scotland we supported participation in the Constitutional Convention through the Scottish Trade Union Congress and campaigned for devolution. 

Since then, we have remained actively involved in the process, supporting the devolution of additional powers to the Scottish government following the failed independence referendum in 2014.

At the time of that referendum we consulted members and took no position, preferring instead to focus on what kind of Scotland we wanted to see, whether as part of the UK or as an independent country, and to encourage our members to consider this when casting their vote. 

The motion being considered by our Scottish council still doesn’t recommend a position on Scottish independence. That is a debate for the future. 

What it does do is support the call for a second referendum, at a time to be determined by the Scottish Parliament and through the legal means of either a Section 30 order or an amendment to the Scotland Act. 

In other words it supports the principle that decisions about Scotland’s constitutional future should rest in Scotland and should not be blocked by a Westminster government.

This is consistent with the position taken by Unison Scotland in the devolution debate back in the day. However it also reflects the changing nature of politics in Scotland and of our membership.

It is impossible to ignore the gains that the SNP has made in Scotland. These were writ large in the UK general election where the first-past-the-post system skews the vote and also allows for tactical voting of various sorts. 

No doubt some of that was geared to getting rid of the Tories where the SNP candidate was the closest challenger. 

That was certainly true in my constituency in Aberdeenshire. But we shouldn’t forget that it was the Tories in Scotland that billed this election as a vote on Scottish independence. 

They lost more than half their seats, one more even than Labour, and all those seats went to the SNP. 

And this has been the trend in Scotland for a while in many different elections. The system of voting in the Scottish government elections was set up so that no one party would ever gain control. 

In the first few years of the Scottish Parliament that is exactly what happened with a pleasing range of MSPs participating in Scottish democracy. 

That has gone. The SNP has a minority government at present but in 2011 Scotland bucked the intent of the additional member system and voted in a majority SNP government under Alex Salmond.

It is the move to the SNP of many working people who would previously have voted Labour that is the real issue for our union in Scotland. 

Many of our members are in the SNP. Many more support independence. There is no doubt that it is time to take stock.

So the Scottish council of branches will be invited to do just that. To debate and reaffirm our existing principle that decisions about the future of the people of Scotland should rest in the hands of the Scottish people. 

A principle we have defended since 1320. We will see what the delegates say.

But it is if and when we have a second referendum that we will need to have the real debate in our union. That’s when we will need to develop our position and seek to influence the debate so that, whatever the outcome, it offers a real alternative to austerity.

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