Which side are you on?

by Ken Ferguson, editor, Scottish Socialist Voice After the long campaign, the scares, the experts and the claim and counter claim as 18 September approaches, the question is increasingly clear and increasingly simple. Which side are you on? The Tories were rejected by Scottish voters an age ago as the people who brought the long years of Thatcher’s class war on working people with it closures, sackings and the detested Poll Tax.

The Lib Dems, once the mister nice guys of Scottish politics, sold their souls for a few crumbs from the Westminster Tory government and are reaping the whirlwind of rejection from disgusted voters. The more this gruesome pair tell scare stories about a Yes vote the more the independence vote grows.

However the most shameful role in the anti-Yes campaign has been that of the party once the natural home of progressive voter favouring justice and peace—Labour. Trashing their honourable past they have spent the campaign in bed with the Tories against the interests of their loyal voters.

In the Tory funded Labour fronted Better Together alliance they have sung the same tune as parties detested by Scots voters with a mixture off fear and threats in desperate drive to maintain the cosy Westminster world in which they enjoy a life insulated from the world of insecurity and deprivation facing thousands of those who elect them.

It is the decision of those Labour voters which will be decisive on 18 September—will they back a Yes vote and take the power to defend the NHS, create real well paid jobs, scrap Trident and back a people before profit Scotland, or the pretend socialists currently lined up with the Tory austerity and cuts?

In this Voice, we offer the views of a range of Labour trade union and Yes activists on why the answer has to be a Yes vote. This referendum is not about parties but about creating a democracy in which we get the government we vote for and open the way to a new just, equal and peaceful Scotland.