\’The Need for More than Just Opposition\’

Jim Wyke

I have always believed that, like Rudolf Rocker – the German-born Anarchist without adjectives – political rights do not originate in parliaments but have to be forced upon the state from outwith. It therefore leads me to despair that the left-wing parties of Europe, traditionally the great sources of positive world social change, have been so paralysed in the neo-liberal era by the defeat of Marxism-Leninism that they are content only to oppose change and not propose it.

In the great Austerity Struggle it is all too common to see a left-wing party sign up to a policy demanding \’fiscal responsibility\’ or propose a £25 benefit cut rather than £50, all in the name of moderation. I share concerns with many of my left-wing colleagues over fracking, sky high rents and nuclear weapon renewal, however I am more concerned by the lack of any attempt to provide a viable alternative to the deeply destructive capitalist system in which we live. It is all very well to complain about rents being out of control but instead of putting an arbitrary cap on property profiteering should we not get to the root of the issue and ask who owns the land and why?

Reality dictates that we don\’t have as much ability to change the world as we would wish, however we do have the ability to change our communities and our country. Change starts at home as they say. The Scottish left has been just as infected with a neo-liberal oppositional malaise as the left in any other European country, one may need look no further than the fall of the once great Scottish Labour party. It\’s time to do something about the lack of a viable alternative economic model to global capitalism, and I believe that projects like the SNP Socialists group are a start to that.

We can work constructively within the SNP, already in many ways a deeply radical party, and with each other to present an alternative vision of Scotland that appeals to those left behind by the status-quo. Community co-ops, a focus on Paul Mason\’s theories surrounding info-tech, and citizen\’s income are all good starts. In the Enlightenment Scottish science, economics and philosophy led the world, fundamentally reshaping it in the process.

Let\’s work together again to present a new, better way of living for the people of Scotland.

Jim Wyke is a campaigner, volunteer and activist. A graduate of International Politics and Military Intelligence from Aberystwyth University, he moved back to Edinburgh in 2015 where he promptly joined the SNP. Previously the Vice-Convener of YSI Lothians, he now devotes his time equally to Stop the War, the CND, the YSI, the SNP and various other \”lefty, pacifist nonsense\”.

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