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"I don’t care who makes the laws as long as I make
the ballads".
So Andrew Fletcher once said, or
something along those lines.
And a later poet asserted that
"One man with a
dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a
crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample an empire down"
and, as if to support his point of view, there is
the tradition that ‘‘Lilli burlero" was "the tune that whistled a king
out of three kingdoms". A political cause worth its salt will have
tunes and songs to help spread its ideas and enthuse its supporters.
Labour have not quite managed to make "A Man’s a Man" their own but
they have come so near that we should be very careful how we set about
trying to share in its
reflected glory.
Mr Galloway, in his Dundee days,
tried to popularise "Avanti Populo"; while in one generation Spain
and, in another, the USA inspired a whole repertoire of songs and
music supporting political purposes. Even in student days, looked back
on with affection, many
hours of political debate ended with the singing of the songs of a
frequent coalition of underdogs — the "Internationale". "The Soldier’s
Song" and "Scots Wha Hae". Now, as we learn of the death of Hamish
Henderson, I wonder if Agnes and Duncan remember our time spent in
instructing the patrons of a London pub in the words and music of
"Freedom Come All Ye".
That was a long time
ago, before — long before — the many columnists who have written about
the song in recent days had heard it or heard of it. For the informed
minority it meant something, and for Nationalists on principle, it
carried the great truth that their cause was international and
injustice their enemy. Not least of our opponents’ rotten
characteristics is their refusal to contemplate for a moment that we
might share decent impulses with them. Another recent death, that of
John McGrath, brings back to all who were there memory of that
marvellous Oban performance of The Cheviot, when the
enthusiastic response of Nationalist Conference
delegates confused and, alarmed some of McGrath’s colleagues.
Perhaps our opponents, denying
us the right to claim decent impulses, are to be excused. As Andrew
Carnegie once observed, "Pioneering don’t pay"; and the truth of his
judgement, borne out by the
economic history of Scotland
and now rust-belt USA, is accurate in politics too. "Right from the
start" was the slogan chosen by Senator George McGovern, and in his
choice he peeved all those who had taken the side of the good guys
only in their own good time.
Because we ought to recognise
this kind of response, we have to deny ourselves the pleasure of
soliciting admiration. On the other hand, it would be nice if all
those who were not
right from the start could bring themselves to offer an occasional
sign of humility and gratitude. Outsiders can’t be expected
to know all our ins and outs, but
many misunderstandings among ourselves have been wilful or needless.
People whose age, or duration of membership, impose a limited memory
bank, might benefit from developing some interest in an awareness of
things past, and feel that bored irritability is not the only possible
response to reminiscence. Recollection and repetition are necessary
weapons for a political movement. Those who try to deprive us of them
are rarely our friends. We now move, our leaders have just indicated,
back to our preoccupation with independence. Let us hope they mean it,
and that they will stick with it, because they will hear much ridicule
and abuse from within and without.
Mr Macaskill did us a valuable
service some time ago by pointing out that gradualists sought
independence too. That was well said, and could usefully have been
said by other powerful personalities in our ranks as years seemed to
pass while the Party’s official priorities seemed focussed upon other
matters. It is a great pleasure and relief gladly to acknowledge
gradualist commitment to independence. In return can I assume that
gradualists will equally acknowledge that we fundamentalists share
their commitment to social and economic justice? |
