It is difficult to decide which camp in the Scottish independence debate makes the stronger case for voting the opposite way.

Some dire weaknesses in the SNP-led Yes campaign have been ruthlessly exposed over the past few weeks and may prove fatal at the ballot box on September 18.

What kind of "independence" would exist in a Scotland whose foreign and military policies are largely decided by the European Union and Nato?

What kind of "independence" is possible in a Scotland whose economic and financial policies are tightly circumscribed by the British Treasury and Bank of England and by the neoliberal treaties and institutions of the EU?

The sight of bankers, English politicians and EU commissioners ganging up on the Scottish people, warning them of the consequences of voting Yes, is an ugly one.

But Alex Salmond and his party should have anticipated that this would happen sooner or later. Yet, in the face of this co-ordinated bullying, they have failed to produce a convincing response.

Indeed, Scotland's First Minister has displayed uncharacteristic naivety in hoping that the representatives of monopoly capital in London, Brussels and Frankfurt would give him an easy ride to independence.

He points out that an independent Scotland would have a seat at the top table in the European Council of Ministers, helping to decide EU policies. But these are mostly shaped by the unelected EU Commission and the unaccountable European Central Bank.

And it cannot be seriously argued that Scotland's voice will command equal authority with that of Germany, France or England. In fact, as the supplicant in a sterling union, Scotland would be largely spoken for by England in most financial matters.

Of course, there are left and republican forces in Scotland who insist that breaking free from Britain will create more favourable conditions for achieving a genuinely independent, socialist Scotland.

How and why this should necessarily occur has still to be explained in concrete terms. Certainly, there are no signs that a separate Scotland would be governed by anything other than an SNP-Labour duopoly for the foreseeable future.

On the other side, the unionist arguments deployed against a Yes vote have been reactionary enough to drive any progressive-minded democrat into the independence camp. Like Chicken-licken, Turkey-lurkey and Ducky-lucky, the doom-mongers want the Scottish people to believe that a falling acorn means the sky is coming down.

They speak for British and European monopoly capital, which prefers to maintain the union with England but would nevertheless find a united response to a Yes vote as well.

The unity of the capitalist class on this question demands a united response from the working class. The new Scottish TUC report and the work of the Red Paper on Scotland collective begin to map out just such a position.

The organic, organisational unity of the labour movement across Britain is one of its greatest strengths. It is potentially the most powerful force in any anti-monopoly alliance to secure left governments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and London.

Enhanced devolution guaranteed by a federal Britain would enable such governments to undertake the policies needed by workers and their families everywhere.

These would involve economic planning, public ownership and progressive taxation, which Salmond advocated in a previous political life - but which a sterling union and EU membership make all but impossible for a small nation with only nominal independence.