SNP warns of Tory devolution attack as independence campaigners march

Thousands of supporters of Scottish independence were set to march in Glasgow this Saturday, in a demo called by the All Under One Banner group.

It comes at a time when serious questions are being posed to Scottish Labour’s new leader Richard Leonard.

Labour not only opposes independence but also will not accept the Scottish parliament’s right to decide whether and when there should be a second independence referendum.

Some dismiss all Labour members and supporters as right wing “unionists”.

But this does nothing to forge a radical movement for independence.

Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon accused the Tory government last week of a Brexit “power grab”.

She said, “After Brexit the UK government has made clear it wants the final say on many devolved policy areas which are currently subject to EU law.”

Sturgeon is right to say that the Tories are “completely demolishing the principle at the heart of the devolution settlement endorsed democratically by the people of Scotland more than 20 years ago”.

Alternative

But SNP leaders are not putting forward a fighting alternative.

They were rightly critical of May’s involvement, at the behest of US president Donald Trump, in the bombing of Syria.

But its own claim to have an ethical foreign policy has been undermined by recent revelations.

Sturgeon has refused to clarify the role of Scottish government-owned Prestwick airport in the recent airstrikes in Syria.

The airport has previously hawked its services to the US.

In May 2017 a US Air Force Stratotanker—an air-to-air refuelling aircraft—was based at Prestwick for three weeks and operated several sorties.

At that time Trump ordered airstrikes in Syria that killed civilians.

Scottish independence has to be allied to a radical anti-austerity, anti-racist and pro-working class movement.