Series Introduction: Successful self-determination and secession

In a series of blogposts, I will outline a number of self-determination and secessionist movements which have succeeded in their aims. These writings should be considered in the context of the ongoing situation in Scotland. I will mostly focus my analysis to post-1945 Europe. It is hoped that this will maintain the relevance for comparison to present-day Scotland. Given this spatiotemporal scope, much of the series will focus on the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence.

 

Highland Wilderness: then and now

An updated version of this was featured at: https://republicansocialists.scot/2020/12/the-case-for-socialism-in-the-highlands/

Introduction

Though the Clearances turned the Highlands into a wilderness, it is argued in the first part of this article that they can be understood as a transitionary period in Scotland’s socioeconomic development between tribal feudalism and industrial capitalism. The article goes on to outline how, nearly 200 years later, through underdevelopment, the Highlands remain a place of wilderness. The focus in this second part is on the sorry state of the renewables industry, and of land ownership.