We recognize that Scottish republicanism has been rekindled and that Scotland has long been home to one of the most radicalised working classes of any nation. These two elements cannot help but combine to ensure that the working class of Scotland will not be content with the sham "independence" granted by the so- called "Labour Party" imperialists in London.

Devolution was London's answer to the surging tide of Scottish republican sentiment, and we trust that the Scottish working class knows that when your enemy gives up something to you, it is because he is afraid of what you might otherwise take from him. It is a sign of relative weakness, and that weakness must be exploited.

Sadly, in too many nations around the world, when the revolutionary forces were confronted with the sudden willingness of their opponents to compromise were taken in by the ploy. Rather than drive forward to claim what was rightfully theirs, they went to the "bargaining table" like lambs to the slaughter. In Palestine, Guatemala, even South Africa, the ruling class succeeded in retaining what had been stolen from the working people of those nations by sitting down at that ill-fated table, offerring compromises of their own.

The working class, however, has no need to compromise. It is we who have created every penny of value; we who have created every necessity of life; we who represent the vast majority of the populace; and we who held within our ranks all that was necessary to create society anew. In the face of our enemy's weakness, we must demand more, continously more, until we have it all. For it is all ours to claim.

No false and shackled "independence" can meet the needs of Scottish workers. No, not even the exchange of the British ruling class for one composed of Scotland's own bourgeoisie in an independent bourgeois republic can do so. The workers of Scotland, like the workers of Ireland, need a independent socialist republic, and nothing less.

We trust comrades, that there are at least one hundred Scottish revolutionaries present today, and bearing that in mind, it is worth recalling the Treaty of Arbroath today. Will you, so long as so many of your comrades stand here with you, allow Scotland's freedom to be taken out of your hands through the clever machinations of one of the world's most experienced liars--the British government? Or will you stand like your forebears, bravely and united in purpose, and gain not only the freedom of your nation, but of your class as well?

We believe that Scottish workers will continue to struggle for the twinned goals of national liberation and socialism, just as we do in Ireland, and we look forward to a 32-County Irish Workers' Republic someday embracing the government and people of an independent Scottish Workers' Republic. But, until that day arrives, know now that you have the profound solidarity of our movement with you at all times.

STATEMENT ENDS

ENDS