Scottish National Congress
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The Scottish National Congress was a small Scottish nationalist campaign group, focussed on direct action.
The group was founded in 1950 by Roland Muirhead and supporters including Oliver Brown, who became its first president.[1] Other leading members included Robert B. Wilkie, Archie Lamont, David Murray, Kenneth McLaren and Matthew Somerville.[2]
Although Muirhead was already 82, he was prominent in the Scottish nationalist movement as President of the Scottish National Party,[1] remaining a party member while creating his own opposing organisation.[3] The new group launched its own journal, Forward Scotland, and adopted a socialist perspective, with loose links to the Independent Labour Party,[1][3] calling for direct action rather than standing in elections.[4] However, Brown resigned in 1954, disapproving of its submission to the Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs,[5] and it increasingly came to focus on the question of a Scottish constitution.[1] Other activities included a campaign advocating the purchase of Scottish products.[5]
In 1962, the Congress launched the Scottish Provisional Constituent Assembly, which published a proposed constitution in 1964, shortly before Muirhead's death.[1] The group dissolved shortly after.[6]
