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Own defence forces, especially the navy protecting 16,940 miles of the Scottish coast, territorial waters and natural resources of the Scottish North Sea; rebuilding formations once disbanded by the British Government, such as the Royal Scots, The Argyll and the Sutherland Highlanders, and the Black Watch Regiment; as well as the unequivocal support for global disarmament and non-proliferation – these are the basics of the security policy for independent Scotland, proposed by the social-democratic-national ALBA Party, led by the former First Minister Alex Salmond.
The Second National Convention of the ALBA Party (represented in the UK House of Commons by two MPs) strongly opposed the NATO membership, demanded liquidation of the British nuclear submarine base in Faslane near Glasgow, which is part of the TRIDENT system, and the removal of nuclear weapons from the territory of liberated Scottish state. According to the ALBA Party, the basis for international relations should be the strengthening of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Discussion at the Convention emphasised unanimously approved program based on the analysis of many hundreds of years of imperialism (especially English / British), as well as the experience of the current war in Ukraine and NATO involvement in that conflict maintaining.
Red Jackets strike back
Before the 2014 Referendum I had supported belonging of independent Scotland to the NATO. However the NATO of over a decade ago is not that of today. As an independent country that is a member of NATO, the risk of Scotland being dragged to conflicts we do not support would be real. The increasing seduction of our politicians by NATO forces would inevitably lead to a roll back of the speed at which Scotland removed Trident from the Clyde. ALBA will not support an Independent Scotland’s membership of NATO. An Independent Scotland’s defence should exist to keep our people safe and to be an ally only of the voices for peace in the world. That is the principals of which we have set out today – argued Chris McEleny, ALBA Party secretary general.
This politician himself, a former Inverclyde councillor, already had the worst experience with the British military complex. In 2017, by the decision of the Ministry of Defence, Mr. McEleny, who works in the DM Beith was suspended from his duties and as a justification there have been pointed his views of independence and opposition to the TRIDENT program. The Brave Scotsman then won a case before a labour tribunal, but the British Army / RAF / Royal Navy garrisons remain foreign bodies in Scottish territory, like the “Red Jackets” after the Jacobite uprisings. The situation is even aggravated by the growing presence of the US Army, not only in the formally used RAF Lakenheath base.
Who always wants to invade Scotland?
Scottish independence supporters recall the determination shown by anti-war circles, which for 40 years have maintained a permanent, rotating picket near the Faslane base. This position of the ALBA Party clearly differs from the inclinations of the ruling Scottish National Party elites. This once radical independence formation now evidently resembles the British establishment, also about NATO and security questions. During a visit to Washington in May 2022, Scottish First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon unexpectedly backed Scotland’s NATO membership, although she sustained the announcement of removing elements of the TRIDENT system after independence. That turnaround sparked some protests, even within the SNP, and a clear activation of anti-war and anti-imperialist circles.
Exactly to such radical tradition referred during the ALBA Party Convention Craig Murray, a former diplomat, former rector of the University of Dundee, Julian Assange’s friend and a recent political prisoner of the British Government, who served four months in prison in 2021 for exposing details of failed attempt of discreditation of the ex-First Minister, Alex Salmond, with false allegations of a sexual nature. Unbreakable by prison, Mr. Murray called in a stormy applause speech “not to hand over nuclear weapons to the imperialists, only to destroy them!”. He also warned: “If any country wants to attack Scotland, it will not be Russia, but our old neighbour, who has tradition of hundreds of years of imperialism, aggression and racism!”.
Independence or NATO
Scotland’s strategic importance places its independence regaining in a geopolitical context, despite the Scots would prefer to stay outside of the globalist games. Military bases, relations with military pacts, Scottish security policy after independence – all can be bargaining element for international recognition for a liberated Edinburgh. However, these elements can also become limiting factors, making the acquired sovereignty purely illusory. There is considerable and varied debate on this in Scotland. The Scottish nationalists and the left have no illusions: you cannot remain independent while belonging to NATO, bringing foreign troops into your territory and begging for the location of someone else’s nuclear weapons.
Independence or NATO.
There is no third option.
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Konrad Rękas is a renowned geopolitical analyst and a regular contributor to Global Research.
