Many people in Scotland are burdened unnecessarily whether it be by poverty, racism, ageism, sexism or unemployment, but how does a nation unempowered like ourselves tackle the essential tasks when the nation as a whole is oppressed and passive? The people in our land, regardless of ethnicity, are prevented from attending to the maintenance of the nation in its distinctive ways because the total thrust of the controlling powers is towards dividing and annihilating our authentic cultural identity. The new orthodoxy must be unity and, however nascent at present, it is there and will inevitably surge to the fore. The time to debate our re-emergence as a functioning nation, and to examine in rigour and honesty what has befallen us in the years since the union with England is here.

What is the nature of our terrible oppression? For years the prevailing concerns amongst politicians from Scotland have been economic (job losses, etc.), this has suited the unionists because it has kept the arguments away from the real issues. When the Scots eventually wake up to their terrible betrayal, the anger and sense of loss will be profound, and the effects will be as nothing yet seen.

Meantime we can learn from others whose oppression has been fierce - the Australian Aborigines, the North American Indians and many others who have suffered in a similar fashion. Genocide has been practiced in our land, and assimilation goes on, as does cheque book ethnic cleansing. Our history has been relegated to a section of the curriculum and it is highly unlikely that a Scottish student can be educated in the medium of Scots or Gaelic.

While it is important that we look to others to broaden our knowledge and understanding of being an oppressed people, it is only through ourselves that sustainable knowledge, argument and action will come in the defence of our nation and its' future.

It is quite evident that many Scots are blind to the situation , while it is not unusual for interested outsiders with a most superficial glance to discern policies which result in Scots being disadvantaged in their own land. Many non-Scots thrive here however; without allegiance to Scottish values or mores, they grasp opportunities, introduce feelings of an English class system, and in typical colonial fashion exert control, if not of whole villages then of committees, boards or top jobs, and with an English hierarchical expertise cut through our society like a knife through cheese; and we have no protections.

The present political leadership in Scotland must be condemned. It consists of marginal men and women who ape their rulers and sit in a foreign parliament. They should be despised for their intellectual and emotional treason. Future generations will examine the nadir of this moment - what could be more bizarre than individuals who want Independence voting for blatantly unionist parties like Labour and the Liberal Democrats, while the only political party standing for Independence attaches itself, with umbilical-like security, to the European placenta of largesse?

To "rise and become a nation again" requires us to first recognise our common humiliation and then to act against it. How dare an English voice speak for us in the world? How dare an English parliament decide for us? But they do, and with the ready compliance of not only Scottish unionist politicians but many other Scots as well. Only when this is spelt out, understood and acted upon can we claim to be principled people who value one another's worth before self-aggrandisement elsewhere.

Our strange behaviour, however, is not unlike others who have been oppressed by those with greater status, power and wealth. In our case the dominant culture has been English, and it has been powerful and influential enough to establish its norms and values as the correct ones in Scotland. Many Scots have internalised the values of the oppressor and can never measure up to them without changing dress, speech or aspirations. If we change, as many have done, there is a conflict with our ancestral voices, but if we acknowledge our authentic cultural selves then we live in conflict with the oppressor.

Let us not understate the toll that internalisation of foreign values has taken of our people - hatred of our Scottish natures, low self-esteem and feelings of inferiority. The hatred has been such that many Scots have turned on their own people in an attempt to destroy Scottishness. For example, children speaking Scots or Gaelic were beaten, the Scots language labelled as "slang" or "corrupt" English, and Scots were recruited in droves to serve their colonial masters' ends.

Those of us who recognise the oppression also recognise that it can be dangerous to go up against the oppressor - for example, the judicial murders of Baird, Hardie and Wilson, and the death of Willie MacRae. The fight will be hard because many Scots will know of their past only through a divided perspective. A pitiful example of the present state of our children's knowledge is when, after a history lesson on the Celtic people, a child (Glasgow Secondary School) said to the teacher: "When are you going to tell us about the Rangers people?".

Dominance of our country will continue until we become absolutely clear that:-
· Our nationhood is denied
· Our languages are ridiculed
· Our rights are infringed
· Our values are distorted
· Our minds are colonised
· Our worth is unrecognised
· Our future is jeopardised
· Our country is artificially divided

After this we must throw off and expel the myths and mechanisms which maintain this control. We must reject the negative images of ourselves so that we grow in justified pride and freedom. We must seize what is ours, and only ours – that is being Scottish.

We will say who we are and where we are going.
· The English are foreign neighbours
· The Scots who act as colonial administrators are traitors, as are those who sit in an English parliament
· We reclaim our heritage
· We reclaim our right to define ourselves
· We reclaim our history
· We reclaim our community
· We reclaim our right to create our own ways of tackling poverty and suffering
· We reclaim our right to forge our own relationships with other lands
· We reclaim the right to educate our children as citizens of a free Scottish nation
· We reclaim the right to stop foreigners entering our land to buy it

We must uncover the events and weaknesses in our past which affected us so dearly, for example the Bible being written in English, so that English had to be learnt and "God" became and "Englishman". If we don't know about our land, about Wallace and Bruce, the Clearances and the actions and works of Scottish men and women and our unique society, then we can offer no argument against the complete assimilation of Scotland to England. This has been the essence of the failure of the SNP.

The time is near: we will create an incredible country, we will create our own story - the story of the New Scotland.

© Siol nan Gaidheal, 1993