The Scottish National Congress was a small

Scottish nationalist Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and national identity. Scottish nationalism began to shape from 1853 with the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights, progressing into t ...

campaign group, focussed on

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

. The group was founded in 1950 by

Roland Muirhead Roland Eugene Muirhead (24 July 1868 – 2 August 1964) was a Scottish businessman and Scottish nationalism, Scottish nationalist politician. Muirhead was born in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, the second son of Andrew Muirhead, a businessman and ...

and supporters including Oliver Brown, who became its first president.H. J. Hanham, ''Scottish Nationalism'', p.177 Other leading members included Robert B. Wilkie,

Archie Lamont Archibald Lamont (21 October 1907 – 16 March 1985) was a Scottish geologist, palaeontologist, Scottish Nationalist writer, poet and politician. He named the trilobite genus '' Wallacia'' after William Wallace. Life Born on 21 October 1907 a ...

, David Murray, Kenneth McLaren and Matthew Somerville. Although Muirhead was already 82, he was prominent in the Scottish nationalist movement as President of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

, remaining a party member while creating his own opposing organisation.Christopher Harvie, ''Scotland and Nationalism'', p.122 The new group launched its own journal, ''Forward Scotland'', and adopted a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

perspective, with loose links to the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, calling for direct action rather than standing in elections. However, Brown resigned in 1954, disapproving of its submission to the Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs,Archie Lamont, ''How Scots opposed the peace time call-up'', p.23 and it increasingly came to focus on the question of a Scottish

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

. Other activities included a campaign advocating the purchase of Scottish products. In 1962, the Congress launched the Scottish Provisional Constituent Assembly, which published a proposed constitution in 1964, shortly before Muirhead's death. The group dissolved shortly after.Peter Barberis et al, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations'', p.402

References

Scottish nationalist organisations 1950s in Scotland 1960s in Scotland Organizations established in 1950 Organizations disestablished in 1964 1950 establishments in Scotland 1964 disestablishments in Scotland {{Scotland-org-stub