The other point about the Glasgow East bye election

As made in Neil Davidson's excellent meeting at this year's Marxism on nationality, in an age of neo-liberal uniformity (1) reformism can seem radical and (2) the pull toward reformism can get channelled into nationalism and/or regionalism. Along with other radical ideas, the idea of creating our space away from neoliberalism will gain ground (another underground link between reformism and autonomism).

The Labour party is on the way out. It cannot save itself before 2010. The only other party able to take power is the Tories. There is not a movement back in favour of neo-liberalism, in fact, if anything, the Tories, for the time being, are trying to tack to the left of the Labour party. Meanwhile the SNP are building a movement that reaps the social democratic vote in Scotland.

With a Tory government and a social democratic electorate represented by nationalists in Scotland, the SNP's moment will arrive. They will have the best, maybe only ever chance to separate the United Kingdom by constitutional means.

Where we (socialists, the revolutionary left) come in depends on the specific conditions. There is no automatic 'right' of nations to self-determination because there is no superarbiter to confere that right. If the thrust of radical politics at the time is about breaking up an imperialist state then we're for Scottish independence. If there was a huge, border straddling strike movement at the time, if independence threatened to divide that movement we'd have to think again.