I’VE never accepted the label of “nationalist” for the modern independence movement. While there are certainly nationalists within its broad membership, the goals of Scotland’s constitutional reckoning have rarely fallen under what I’d constitute as a nationalist project.

Rather than appeals to the more typical trails of nationalism, the Yes movement concerned itself with the democratic deficit and constitutional reform over the kind of “rah, rah, Rule Britannia” exceptionalism of the south.

“Nationalist”, rather, has been used as a handy byword (and occasional smear) to describe a movement that seems to have picked up the designation by dint of its historic association with the Scottish National Party – another entity whose contemporary identity as a “nationalist” entity is equally off-kilter.

To quote an oft-repeated comment of Colin Fox’s during the referendum: “Supporting Scotland’s democratic right to self-determination doesn’t make you a Scottish nationalist, it makes you a democrat.”

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“Scottish civic nationalism”, as it has come to broadly be defined, is a different beast entirely from the racist, nationalist violence that has broken across England. Perhaps that is why, in part, there is still complacency from commentators over the rise of the far-right in Scotland; or worse still, the total dismissal that the far-right have a foothold here.

I wonder how much of that is a hangover from the independence referendum itself. A long-term Labour tactic through 2014 was to intentionally blur the line between the violent ethno-nationalists of the English Defence League and the “civic nationalism” of the Yes movement.

The consequence of which is that, for years afterwards, reports of far-right nationalism in the Scottish press were viewed with the suspicion of an activist base who had too often been unfairly maligned with the connection. But there is a far-right threat in Scotland – and the lack of street violence akin to England’s is no proof to the contrary. While our own home-grown fascists are perhaps biding their time ahead of the expected rally in Glasgow on September 7, the movement’s organisers have still been busy.

England’s fascist mobilisation is being used as a recruitment tool in Scotland by the blood and soil nationalist group Homeland; a splinter group that broke away from Patriotic Alternative. They might not be punching their way into a Greggs near you, but they are recruiting using the same far-right rhetoric and talking points of their compatriots to the south.

Riot police form a line during a far-right riot in BelfastRiot police form a line during a far-right riot in Belfast (Image: Peter Morrison/PA Wire)

This has included sharing misinformation around the Southport murders, and calls to effectively seize the momentum of the past week; a Telegram group message from Active Club Scotland (ACS) – a far-right fight club which meets at gyms in central Scotland – reads “The time is now white man”.

It is right, then, that the independence march that was supposed to be meeting on the same day as the fascist gathering in Glasgow’s George Square has been postponed, with marchers encouraged to come to Scotland’s largest city to make a stand.

This is not, as some have described it, a move that brings England’s hellish divisions to Scotland’s shores; the division is long here, and must be crushed wherever it rears its head. Fascism has always flourished when left to spread unchecked; and for a movement with such interest in the future of Scotland, it behooves us all to grapple with its antagonists today.

It is not a pause to the indy project, but akin to extinguishing the flames of a burning building over prioritising throwing water on the house next door. Urgency is the call to action.

When we show up, we remind the far-right agitators and media personalities that their warped worldview is not the “just common sense we’re all too secretly afraid to say”. It’s a reminder that when authoritarianism rears its head, it is beaten back.

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Every video of fascists outnumbered 300 to one by anti-fascists, pinned to a street corner surrounded by a protective shield of police, is a moment of abject humiliation for any organiser that dares to pretend they speak for a silent majority.

Scotland’s “civic nationalism” does not cancel out the existence of the same, dark strain of nationalism that has been worked into mainstream discourse over the past decades.

The Daily Mail is delivered to stores in Scotland just as it is in England. We all exist under the same hostile environment built by the same media personalities who are now cheering on the rise of fascistic marchers on the streets (and the same ones too who, having set the fuse, now behave like they had nought to do with the fire).

None of this is to say that both Scotland and England are on an equal playing field, however.

It could be argued (fairly, I believe) that Scotland is culturally less hostile to immigration and less inclined to place power into the hands of the Conservatives at elections than England has been.

But that means little when violent racists are mobilising here too. Better than. Worse than. Doesn’t matter. The rise of the far-right calls us all to action.