PROFESSOR ALF BAIRD BACKS SALVO.

Salvo and the Road to Scotland’s National Liberation

Alf Baird​

Who would have guessed it, the jolly old British State trying to wipe out Scottish constitutional history by eradicating the fact that the mankitTreaty of Union was always conditional upon the Claim of Right, the latter functioning as Scotland’s constitutional ‘get out’ clause. And with an evercompliant UK ‘Scottish’ Government and its SNP administrators seemingly none the wiser, the latter handing the Scottish constitutional ball to the UK Supreme Court, or so they think.

Salvo and the its probing research intellectuals and Scottish patriots behind it have uncovered Scotland’s ‘get out of the union’ veto –  our own Scottish constitution. And boy do we need it, considering we must have the most hopeless dozy bunch of ‘nationalist’ politicians ever, who couldn’t deliver a pizza never mind independence. So what next?

Perhaps a Salvo movement rather than any daeless political party is what is really needed to deliver National Liberation. In this task there is a need to gain the trust of the people, something politicians and political parties find ever more difficult to do. Liberation of the people is not just another policy add-on to any old party manifesto. Independence is a very special unique purpose so maybe we really need a special purpose vehicle to deliver it? And maybe we have one!

In terms of Scottish independence, we have another challenge, and that is the need to appoint and elect Scots who have the right skills necessary for the primary task ahead – that is, to withdraw Scotland from the continually violated and mankit Treaty of Union. That Treaty stinks to high heaven just as much if not more than any other deceitful one-sided colonial contract in history. Except in one way, perhaps, which is in the ‘condition’inserted by some savvy Scots which guarantees our veto, and perhaps the only veto we have to end over three centuries of ethnic oppression and exploitation.

Independence is never a job for career politicians anyway, the latter always looking for soundbites and with a propensity for developing party structures in the traditional sense, and diverting their attention towards pet policies for this and that. Scots can no longer afford such diversions, more blind alleys, more posturing and prevarication. Independence is ultimately delivered by the people rather than the politicians anyway.

Our people and nation are perishing, which is the inevitable outcome and aim if colonialism is allowed to continue. Every day we get closer to losing our sense of belonging, our identity, based on what remains of a moribund culture and a rusting Scots mither tongue deprived fae us and oor bairns through the forces of Cultural and Linguistic Imperialism, and population shift. Once the indigenous language and culture goes, the national identity disappears with it, and the reality of the nation withers awa.

Much as Iain Lawson’s example from Estonia demonstrated in his Salvo address last weekend, a people’s national culture and heritage is essential in removing an oppressor power. So much of the cultural heritage we see in Scotland is not Scottish, but rather is imposed on us to remind of our subordination. From the Duke of Sutherland statue in Golspie, to the very name ‘Cumberland’ on a street sign in Edinburgh, and hundreds more similar examples throughout our land, this is a legacy of Imperial oppression. As is being deprived o oor ain braw Scots langage!

Scots are still mired in what we might term the decolonization phase, sowe hiv tae gresp the thistle at some point to make progress. The 2014 Independence Movement is history, the SNP since hijacked by a colonial complicit parcel o’ rogues masquerading as nationalists in the pay of the Imperial Power. Their so-called ‘Civic Nationalism’ franchise never delivered liberation for any oppressed ethnic group, it’s all a deceit, and now we have another needless diversion and delay up a section 30 blind alley, to be decided in a furrin coort an aw!

The dominant national party elite has made its decision to cooperate with the Imperial power, a development which postcolonial theory reminds us has been played out in numerous former colonies. They feather their nests and build up their pension pots. They appoint their friends, and spend two thirds of their time looking over their shoulder, the other third mystifying the people with irrelevant policies and oppressive bills. They attack the real independence campaigners, aided by Imperial forces who are more than happy to persecute any voices shouting for a more rapid route to independence. And this is where the scourge of colonialism, which is racism and prejudice, sinks deeper into its fascist roots.

Despite the sickening realisation of deceit, the people’s understanding improves bit by bit and their focus then changes to that of National Liberation. This is necessary to rid the people of colonial Manichaeism, the embedded corruption and blatant injustices which, if allowed to continue, may descend into barbarism. Liberation Movements ultimately depend on the people to be mobilised, and to better understand their oppression. Such a task seems beyond the function or capability of any political party in its traditional form.

Here we need to consider the great anti-colonial liberators and movements from Mandela and the African National Congress, to Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, and so many more the world over, freeing their people from oppression. Poet and playwright Vaclav Havel’s Civic Forum Party played a key role in the Velvet Revolution that brought an end to the Communist system in Czechoslovakia. The priority in all cases is to have the right organisation or vehicle to liberate the people and to enable their self-recovery to begin. 

Salvo and the Claim of Right represent Scotland’s own distinct ‘model’ which is fortunately also part of our thus far hidden constitution. That is the Convention of the Estates (Assemmly o the Communities), which is our equivalent Scottish National Congress, and to be reconvened soon(SSRG Conference, Dunfermline 29-31 July). Salvo and SSRG will set out the violations, the misuses of power (whit is, the uise o pouer tae the injuro the cowmon guid) and by whom, and the remedies we have at our disposal as oor constitutional richt. 

The Convention represents the creaution an mainteenance o extrae-pairlamentary, representative bodies authoreesed tae applee the constitutionally available remeedies agin an abuissive, governing pouer.These remedies are built into our Scottish Constitution which has been hidden for so long by our oppressor. We must use them as they were intended, as is our lawful right.

We therefore need to support and elect people intent on and capable of delivering National Liberation, people who are able to negotiate the route out of oppression and transport our people a very considerable distance away from colonial exploitation. These are not necessarily the same thing as political skills, depending more on constitutional rights and obligations. 

This is an aspect Salvo (and SSRG) are already leading on and which could become the vehicle for our National Liberation, having found the main mechanism to end the union, and hence the means to deliver it also. What is necessary now is to build an organisation capable of delivering and securing a just conclusion to what is an unjust situation. 

And as the Estonian people confirmed, here there is also an urgent need to ensure the leadership of the nation’s key social institutions is changed upon independence, if not before. Key positions in a new independent Scottish state must be held by people holding an allegiance only to the newly independent state and not to other states, that stands to reason.

Fowk cannae ser twa maisters; thay aye luve ane ane laith the ither! An independent Estonia no longer recruits its heid bummers from Moscow and an independent Scotland need no longer appoint its senior people from London Imperial Metropolitan HQ. In an independent Scotland, Scots fowk wull dae juist fine, thank you very much!

There is no room for prevarication or naïve belief that everything can stay the same after independence. If everything stays the same then nothing will change, and the people will remain oppressed (doun-hauden) and exploited. The truth is that a great many things will have to change in order to eradicate our longstanding and ongoing oppression, economic exploitation and injustices, failing which true liberation and self-recovery of the people will never be fulfilled.

Here there is a need to change the prevailing culture from that of a dominant and oppressive colonial Cultural Hegemony, which is Anglophone and Unionist (i.e. colonialist), and where the values of the colonizer are always sovereign. Such a Cultural Hegemony will always view indigenous Scots speakers as inferior, depriving us as it does of our right to our own language and more, and the right of Scots to again be in control of our own land and destiny without external interference.

Liberation of a people therefore requires a cultural and behavioural transformation, and a change in the prevailing imposed values and direction, as well as a change in flag or political leadership. National Liberation cannot mean ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’! Liberation also requires a movement of a people to coalesce around a common cause, vision and leadership. Scottish Independence therefore means National Liberation, full, total and complete, and nothing less. That is what Salvo aims to achieve and with the peoples support, will deliver.

MY COMMENTS

My thanks to Alf for this excellent article. There is probably nobody in Scotland who understands the colonial mindset better than Alf and has the ability to explain it in more understandable terms. He recognised the potential of Salvo as a grassroots powerhouse in the Independence battle capable of going to the areas political parties are either too feart or self interested to tackle. Well Scotland have you joined yet? http://www.salvo.scot

I am, as always

YOURS FOR SCOTLAND.

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