So
much to do, so little time, it’s changing for the worst.
You see I'd gone to sleep in my
own country, albeit 'governed' against the democratic mandate with a single
representative MP here. But then I woke up to find rampant xenophobia coming
from the rUK government. It can only mean I’ve time warped. Back to main land
Europe circa late 1930s. Such hatred, such bile.
Ironic
then isn’t it that we have just seen the anniversary, 4th October
1936, of The Battle of Cable St London and how ordinary, everyday people took to the
streets to protest when fascism threatened.
Party
politics didn’t seem to feature on that occasion. I wonder if they had
committee meetings to plan the Battle, , or delegations going between the
groups, making sure they all got a say, or equal billing.
But
it happened and it was acknowledged that
they came, they joined up: communists, anarchists (yes, happy to be known by
that tag) Labour and Jewish groups, individuals, the women hanging out their
windows pelting the fascists with I hate to think what!
They
all came together since it was acknowledged who the shared enemy was: Mosley
and his Black Shirts.
Today
that threat of extremism may appear more subtle, but 'lists', identification
centred around names and appearances, the colour of your passport, or lack of
one, is no less threatening. The tag that the Westminster government is
promoting: ‘the foreigner’, the
‘outsider’ and the theme: ‘taking our jobs, unemployment, services not able to
cope’, all being blamed on you know who, you know what! It’s all beginning to coalesce in the use of
barely disguised xenophobic terminology.
Where
next…’coming over here, marrying our women? ‘ Sorry Dad, that would be you
then!
Oh, and then the next generation, my sons, ‘polluting the blood
line’….another old tag, 20th century! Well, try telling that to the
Angles, the Danes. And don’t even ask.... what have the Romans done for us? Settling
here and forgetting to leave!
Seriously
and apart from the vileness of this, we cannot be allowed to forget the underlying
reasons.
The
Tory party is attempting to divert attention away from their own ‘nasty party’
image…cleverly ascribing that to a self destructing Labour…and their own on-going
internal divisions. A division that their hierarchy…Cameron, Osborne et al …hoped
to end once and for all thru (winning) their EU referendum. One that they did
not need to put into their last manifesto. T’was nothing more than a vanity
project on Cameron’s part, to establish his authority in an attempt to finally
lance the boil of EU division in his own party.
Instead,
the Tories find themselves with a new PM, unelected by the voters, pushing thru
a new – hastily- put -together -on –the- back -of -a -fag -packet –programme,
neither a mandate nor a manifesto. And
Cameron and his cronies? A foot note at the moment, waiting for history to
judge them more kindly sometime in the future. As for policy and direction post
referendum. What policy? Out one day….Amber Rudd, that list, scuppered a few days later on Peston on Sunday by Justine
Greening.
And
now? No matter my admiration for the Cable St Battle and what every day folk
did, I am not advocating counter - flag waving - placards –and - in your face -
-marches. When I see the Union Jack in the flag totting crowds, I know how I feel. So let’s be honest, if I was out there, wrapped
in my Saltire, I believe I understand the feeling of others, not yet of my
persuasion.
So
I fervently hope that there will be the acceptance that internationalism is no
bad thing. Narrow inward looking right wing nationalism is.
And
that narrow minded, blame Johnny Foreigner is what Westminster is now pursuing
in its efforts hold its party together, at least in the public gaze, and to
stem any possible seeping of votes to UKIP. Hang on though, could they now be a busted flush? (Forgive me for that
one, please! I couldn’t resist it.)
I
don’t have the solution. But I passionately believe that politics is too
important to leave to politicians. It's time then to put party political
differences behind us. It's time to reach out and take constructive discussions
to the nos, the maybes and the undecideds to secure a Scotland that thrives, trades, welcomes, prospers and
shares that prosperity.
For
that Scotland, we need to confirm the shared purpose : to de-couple from this
union of ' Unequals'.
This
time round as we organise and then enter into the pre indeyref2 timescale,
let’s be more prepared, let’s have positive questions and discussions ready to
take out to the population.
‘What
sort of Scotland do you want?’
And
take their answers, show how rUK govt isn’t delivering, or isn’t delivering
well enough, and how an inde Scotland could and will be different.
We
need to be open and confident on all issues including finance, the currency, and
immigration, not on the defensive, on the back foot.
And
now, post Brexit, we need to counter so much of the negativity, fears and threats.
So much, so much to do…and a good start was this past weekend and IdeaSpace brain child of commonspace.scot. So
many people, stalls, fringe meetings: ideas discussed, exchanged, debated; contacts
made and renewed; looking at innovations, changing for the better. Delighted to say it was so busy at the WFI stall over the three days: a
reaffirming treat!
But that's all packed away, and now, it's time to re engage the debate.
Drawing
board time? Absolutely! #WFI womenforindependence.org and local groups such as edinwfi edinburghwfi.org will again be part of the
backbone of the Yes movement. We're not re running indeyref2, neither are we re running it differently. so let’s
start the process, locally-nationally, debating what we can do and how
we will do it. What mutual support can
we offer across Scotland, one locality to the next ? What lived experiences can
we share and learn from that will demonstrate the positive need for
independence?
They said post Sept 2014 the genie was out the bottle and politics would never be the same. Same again, post Brexit. But we're ready, even more ready than 2014.
Selma
Rahman, Internationalist, Edinwif-er/WFI-er/ Edinburgh
