Labour's "resurgence" in Scotland comes from voters keen to support Corbyn in the belief that he represents new and socially radical policies.
Scottish Labour have spent the last two years miscrying Corbyn at every opportunity. The ungrateful Dugdale and Murray persist in thinking they've won seats by being the minor partner in the unionist machine rather than opportunistically gaining votes garnered for them by a leader they hate.
They continue to be the third party in Scotland.
They continue to be the "Fakers" that John Maclean called them in the 1920s.
The Tory "victories" are simply unionist votes. The unionists ran an anti-indy campaign. they talked about nothing else. They had a free field of fire.
The SNP and other pro-indy forces did not run a pro-indy campaign. This was the dog that didn't bark. Despite the one-sidedness of the campaign (and the relentless buy in to the premise by 95% of the media) the unionists failed.
They still couldn't win. Independence is still more popular than the SNP. Who are still the majority party in Scotland.
The unionists had a free shot at goal and still couldn't score.
So how to explain the Tory vote in rural Scotland?
Social elements who fear for their precarious privileges in an indy Scotland voted in terror to kick the poor. It was easy for them to vote Tory.
These elements are slaves in spirit because their paltry privileges over the poor are more dear to them than justice.
The redundant oil workers who had fat wage packets in the good times now see their savings dwindle to nothing. The Farmers fearful for the future of CAP subsidy. The retirees whose pension buying power is decreasing by the day.
Everything that had these guys a step above the poor and able to look down on them is slipping away before their eyes. These elements fear the prospect of a socially just indy Scotland where they will not be privileged.
Their choice is stark. Their privileges are under attack. Not from the poor but from social forces that only want (and in this case got) their vote. Most of those who think they protect their privileges by voting Tory will be thrown under the bus.
Farmers, fishers and petty bourgeois elements can wriggle as they might, they are doomed to increasing pressure from austerity and have the forlorn hope that it won't apply to them, that it will only be the poor who continue to pay the price.
Their solution now is to be unionists, to throw in their lot with the Ruth Davidson Party. This is a problem that voting unionist will not solve for them.
Rather than strike out for a new just society for all, these elements despairingly throw in their lot with the reactionary British state establishment. That state stands for war, profit, austerity (for the poor only), fear of foreigners and theft.
That sclerotic state still trumpets its right to ride roughshod over the world. It totters on deluding itself with former dreams of empire. Its leaders are the subject of derision like May or contempt like Johnson.
Those elements who voted Tory in the north east of Scotland have duped themselves into believing they will somehow be safe, that their privileges will be protected. It's not the SNP they fear. They fear an independent Scotland making its own decision to be a socially just society.
For we Republican Socialists who are inspired by Connolly and Maclean independence is not an end. For us it is a beginning.
Breaking up the British state (and breaking with it) is a necessary condition for progress to a just society. Not just in Scotland but everywhere in the world that the British state robs and bombs and enslaves for profit. #socialistrepublic Not just a slogan.
Scottish Labour have spent the last two years miscrying Corbyn at every opportunity. The ungrateful Dugdale and Murray persist in thinking they've won seats by being the minor partner in the unionist machine rather than opportunistically gaining votes garnered for them by a leader they hate.
They continue to be the third party in Scotland.
They continue to be the "Fakers" that John Maclean called them in the 1920s.
The Tory "victories" are simply unionist votes. The unionists ran an anti-indy campaign. they talked about nothing else. They had a free field of fire.
The SNP and other pro-indy forces did not run a pro-indy campaign. This was the dog that didn't bark. Despite the one-sidedness of the campaign (and the relentless buy in to the premise by 95% of the media) the unionists failed.
They still couldn't win. Independence is still more popular than the SNP. Who are still the majority party in Scotland.
The unionists had a free shot at goal and still couldn't score.
So how to explain the Tory vote in rural Scotland?
Social elements who fear for their precarious privileges in an indy Scotland voted in terror to kick the poor. It was easy for them to vote Tory.
These elements are slaves in spirit because their paltry privileges over the poor are more dear to them than justice.
The redundant oil workers who had fat wage packets in the good times now see their savings dwindle to nothing. The Farmers fearful for the future of CAP subsidy. The retirees whose pension buying power is decreasing by the day.
Everything that had these guys a step above the poor and able to look down on them is slipping away before their eyes. These elements fear the prospect of a socially just indy Scotland where they will not be privileged.
Their choice is stark. Their privileges are under attack. Not from the poor but from social forces that only want (and in this case got) their vote. Most of those who think they protect their privileges by voting Tory will be thrown under the bus.
Farmers, fishers and petty bourgeois elements can wriggle as they might, they are doomed to increasing pressure from austerity and have the forlorn hope that it won't apply to them, that it will only be the poor who continue to pay the price.
Their solution now is to be unionists, to throw in their lot with the Ruth Davidson Party. This is a problem that voting unionist will not solve for them.
Rather than strike out for a new just society for all, these elements despairingly throw in their lot with the reactionary British state establishment. That state stands for war, profit, austerity (for the poor only), fear of foreigners and theft.
That sclerotic state still trumpets its right to ride roughshod over the world. It totters on deluding itself with former dreams of empire. Its leaders are the subject of derision like May or contempt like Johnson.
Those elements who voted Tory in the north east of Scotland have duped themselves into believing they will somehow be safe, that their privileges will be protected. It's not the SNP they fear. They fear an independent Scotland making its own decision to be a socially just society.
For we Republican Socialists who are inspired by Connolly and Maclean independence is not an end. For us it is a beginning.
Breaking up the British state (and breaking with it) is a necessary condition for progress to a just society. Not just in Scotland but everywhere in the world that the British state robs and bombs and enslaves for profit. #socialistrepublic Not just a slogan.
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