About
Independence Captured: A weekly newsletter on Scottish politics
This project began in February 2022 as a Substack newsletter. It continues in such a format, and is now integrated into this website. Its objective was to provide a critical analysis of the SNP and to propose some potential insights into how Scotland is run, and how the independence movement had been captured by a corporate and party interests. It felt necessary for such a perspective to emerge from a pro-independence perspective.
I dedicated a great deal of time along with thousands of others in campaigning for a Yes vote between 2012 and 2014. During that period I was a central organiser of the three major conferences of the Radical Independence Campaign (which I helped co-found) in 2012, 2013 and 2014 to demand, among other things, “a break with neoliberalism.” A demand that stands in stark contrast to the approach of the SNP - now more so than ever.
These involved thousands of people. And we didn’t just talk. We mobilised on the ground too, helping to cement the idea that working-class Scotland was voting Yes and abandoning the Labour Party on the national question. Like most who carried out this work - we were not paid. On the contrary, many thousands of people gave money towards the cause. We received no big financial backing. Everything was achieved with a shoe-string budget - because we believed in the potential of independence.
That campaign was just a small part of a far bigger movement. Catalysed by anger about austerity, a Tory government Scotland didn't vote for (again) and by the failures of New Labour - a mass movement confronted the might of the British State.
In this vein, I wrote in The Scotsman as part of a series of essays which covered the broad spectrum of the national debate, that class was at the heart of the referendum and the rising support for independence. The independence movement in mass form was a modern development - enthused not by the dry constitutional arguments, but by the possibility of real change.
Part of the work of the Yes movement was to engage with hundreds of thousands of Scots who either don’t vote regularly in elections, or who were not on the electoral roll at all. In this sense it really was an inspiring democratic exercise. Stalls were inundated. Just for once, the idea that votes could change something fundamental about society, gripped the imaginations of so many of those who had been systematically alienated from the political process.
Without doubt, in those last weeks where “Project Fear” ramped up to 5th gear, the British establishment looked on with a deep anxiety - and not a little amazement.
That movement didn’t win the referendum. But it did propel the SNP to a position of near absolute political hegemony. In the sections below, I outline some of the key areas which are under examination.
The prospectus for independence has been captured by corporate interests.
I have written extensively about this in the Scottish press, and in particular about the Growth Commission. In addition, I have argued that Scotland requires full economic control, and not the disaster of Sterlingisation. This has been explored in detail, and you can find key texts in the Core Reading section.
The political process to achieve Scottish independence has been captured.
The SNP prefer to keep the national question on the boil, but not for it to overflow. For a broad overview on the reasons for this see previous writing here and here. We take a look at how this has impacted Scottish politics, and assess the strategic problems this raises for the Scottish left. We also delve into the complexities around EU membership and - importantly - the need for that to be subject to the democratic will of the Scottish people.
The domestic policy agenda has been captured.
The paralysis that has gripped Scottish politics has had a direct impact on policy making. Even when SNP members vote for initiatives, they are rarely seen through if they amount to real reform. In other cases, their concerns are ignored. Recent examples include the Scottish National Energy Company and "Green Ports.” But there is a wider picture developing which shows the Scottish Government are at the behest of foreign capital and the corporate lobby, and not the democratic impulse that ran through the independence movement of 2014.
“Jonathon Shafi, the author of a pro-independence newsletter called Independence Captured, argues that the SNP has been “captured by corporate lobbyists”.
He accuses the Scottish government of embracing neoliberal economic policies which prioritise capital over labour by, for example, flogging off national green energy resources on the cheap, and forming an alliance with the Conservatives to create freeports, which he derides as “tax havens”.”
Jonathon Shafi
Jonathon is a socialist campaigner and writer based in Glasgow. He is a columnist for The National, and is the co-editor of Conter. Feel free to get in touch to make enquiries, ask questions or to provide critical feedback to the posts on this site.