JUST IN CASE there was still any reason to believe that somehow Scotland does not harbour an anti-immigrant and racist right, this last year has demonstrated beyond doubt that such assumptions are very wide of the mark. The evidence has not only come in polling forecasts, and actual votes, but from the streets
For 58 weeks there was a stand-off outside of Erskine’s Muthu Glasgow River hotel, where around 150 refugees were housed.
As covered faithfully by the Morning Star, members of the right-wing Patriotic Alternative and Homeland Party protesting about the presence of the refugees were faced down by Paisley and District TUC supported by Clydebank TUC, Stand Up to Racism, the local Young Communist League and many other individuals.
The rise in support for the right in mainstream politics is also worrying. With almost no visible campaigning at all and with largely anonymous candidates, Reform UK managed to get 7 per cent of the vote in the July general election in Scotland.
Compare that to the Greens’ 3.8 per cent or Alba’s 0.5 per cent. On August 22 there was a local government by-election in Armadale and Blackridge in West Lothian — both formerly mining villages. On a turnout of only 20.7 per cent (itself a comment on political alienation) Reform UK took 18.9 per cent of the vote, coming third to the winning Labour Party which took 28.9 per cent, narrowly beating the SNP by 0.6 per cent.
Further evidence of an emerging political threat from the right was a recent Norstat poll for the Sunday Times on likely voting intentions for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections. Reform polled 9 per cent on both the constituency (first-past-the-post) and regional list (PR) forms of voting. This would give them eight seats in the Scottish Parliament.
The historical roots of racism in Scotland, as in England, lie in imperialism and colonialism. For more than 200 years, Scotland and its economy were closely tied to imperial domination providing merchants, colonial administrators, soldiers and, of course, missionaries. Worse than that, Scotland also played a significant role in the slave trade. By the late 18th century, Scots owned nearly 30 per cent of the estates in Jamaica and by 1817, 32 per cent of the slaves.
Even our Scottish Enlightenment thinkers played their part in constructing a white supremacist ideology.
The philosopher David Hume wrote in an essay Of National Characters: “I am apt to suspect the Negroes [sic] to be naturally inferior to the whites. There scarcely ever was a civilised nation of that complexion, nor even individual eminent in action or speculation…”
The longevity of such ideas, sustained by the West’s continued economic global domination, can be seen in research published in 2022 by Reframing Race: “The study shows that around 40 per cent of control group participants in both nations (England and Scotland) think that ‘some races or ethnic groups are naturally harder working than others’.”
The Reframing Race report also makes some interesting observations about another of their findings — that the Scots participants in their study do not think the issue of race is as pressing as the English participants.
Their suggested reasons as to why this may be so are: “the relative predominance of white populations and ethnic homogeneity compared with other parts of the UK; a self-image as a socially progressive and enlightened nation; an idea that racism is (mostly) an English problem.”
Surely the last two explanations of Scottish diffidence offered here must now give way to the experiences of minority ethnic groups in Scotland and asylum-seekers. And while it is a long road to challenge racism as a structural issue in its personal, social and institutional manifestations, it seems to me that at long last there is a growing understanding of the nature of the problem. But it isn’t enough.
It is important to recognise that racism is often not the only or even the main driver of support for the ultra right.
Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute considered the link between support for Reform UK’s predecessor party Ukip and deprivation.
It concluded that supporters of right-wing, anti-Establishment parties were more likely to live in more deprived constituencies, although they acknowledged that often such supporters held more left-wing views on some issues than Ukip.
Ukip supporters were motivated by a desire to ditch parties “that are perceived to represent the political Establishment.”
Similarly, research in France suggests that group relative deprivation — when your own group is perceived to be benefiting less than, for example, immigrants — is likely to influence members of that group to support ultra-right, anti-immigrant parties.
Deprivation is something that we can and should do something about and in a comparatively short time scale, both to address the misery of those suffering from it as well as reduce its impact on other social ills like racism. Unfortunately, that is not the direction of travel being offered either by Westminster or Holyrood, whatever they may say about their hostility to racism in our society.
On Saturday September 7, there will be a “Pro UK rally” in George’s Square, Glasgow. The organisers appear to be unidentified, but it is believed that far-right groups such as the Patriotic Alliance are behind it and it has been promoted by Tommy Robinson.
The left and trade unionists will surely be there in their thousands to show solidarity with immigrants and asylum-seekers and make the fascists feel uncomfortable. However, we should not mistake the symptoms for the disease.
In Scotland there must be a mobilisation against the austerity threatened by both Holyrood and Westminster, austerity that can only help feed right-wing ideology.
And we must also continue to scotch the myths about Scotland’s role in empire and slavery and the noxious ideological heritage it has left us.
This article appeared in the Morning Star on Tuesday September 3, 20204
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