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Scottish Socialist Party United Left
The Scottish Socialist Party United Left (or SSP United Left for short) is a new grouping in the Scottish Socialist Party. An appeal to launch this grouping took place on 13 June 2006. The appeal describes the new grouping as a network, although in terms of SSP terminology it might be better described as a platform. As of 21 June 2006, no electoral mandate or ratification for the existence of the grouping has as yet been made by the overall party membership, it's elected council or executive. The networks entire constitutional and legal basis within the party thus remains unclear.
The groups formation follows a crisis within the party and publication of an open letter by former SSP convener Tommy Sheridan, distributed to members which detailed a long-standing slander campaign conducted against him, allegedly led by senior party figures, MSP's and some grassroots activists. Many senior party figures and three of the parties four female MSP's, Carolyn Leckie, Rosie Kane and Frances Curran have since joined the list of SSP United Left Signatories. Many see the groups formation as being an early indication of a self-initiated purge of the voices of disunity and calumy from the party some see as responsible for both the crisis and the apparent schism, which has reached a head this summer in the wake of the approach of the much-publicised high-profile libel trial involving Tommy Sheridan and British pro-war, right-wing scandal sheet, the 'News of the World'.
When these rumours - strenuously denied by Sheridan - of an alleged extra-marital affair were published in the newspaper in Autumn 2004 (which many grassroots activists and party members regarded as highly inflammatory and exaggerated, and indeed of little consequence or bearing on Sheridan's political position) many senior party figures saw political opportunity - and position for themselves - to be gained from both the story and securing his removal as convener. In the aftermath of this - and due in no small measure to a dearth of support from the party executive - Sheridan was effectively ousted as convener in November 2004.
Since then, party membership and public support, as well as the party's direction and impact on the political scene and in the anti-war movement in Scotland has continued to plummet. A substantial reversal in 2007 of their success in the last Scottish Parliament Elections, which saw his party's representation in the Scottish Parliament in his period as convenor increase from just himself to six members in 2003, is widely predicted by many political commentators
The groups founding statement was distributed in the name of Pam Currie, SSP LGBT spokesperson, and three rank-and-file members. However, signatories include three SSP MSP's (the aforementioned Curran, Kane and Leckie), co-chair Morag Balfour, and both the SSP councillors, Keith Baldassara and Jim Bollan.
Reminiscent of the campaign to undermine Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1980's, revealingly recounted in Seamus Milne's ground-breaking 1994 investigation, The Enemy Within: MI5, Maxwell and the Scargill Affair, the ongoing crisis has led to mounting speculation in some quarters regarding the exact extent of the role of the British state in the party's recent troubles, which has been at the forefront in Scotland of opposing the war against Afghanistan and Iraq and spearheading the rapid growth of the highly successful Military Families Against the War campaign.
On 26th May 2006 - in an unprecedented move - an article titled 'Context is Everything' by internationally renowned, award-winning 'Rebel Ink' weekly columnist, Kevin Williamson, which attempted to question whether the News of the World story was simply a prurient, salacious sting or part of a calculated political attack against a perceived threat to the British state, was pulled from the party's in-house newspaper, Scottish Socialist Voice.
Links/references:
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2006/442/index.html?id...4.htm
http://www.socialistunitynetwork.co.uk/news/sspcourt03.htm
http://www.ssp-ul.org
http://www.ssp-ul.org/signatories.php
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76628?author_name=Mark%...54755
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/556/scotland.htm
http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2004/11/23scot.html
http://www.workersliberty.org/node/6438
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Apr140/x-apr06-gall.htm
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id...=8929
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nolavconsole/u...46330 Video Link
http://rwillmsen.livejournal.com/31493.html
http://www.mfaw.org.uk
http://rebelinkcolumns.blogspot.com/2006/05/may-26th-co....html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Williamson_%28politi...an%29
http://www.scottishsocialistvoice.net
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worker & community struggles and protests |
opinion/analysis
Wednesday June 21, 2006 19:40
by Mustafa Tubevis
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Comments (10 of 10)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10In the immediate aftermath of attempts to form a new factional network (SSP United Left) within the party, a progressive counter call for peace and unity within the party has been made in a grassroots letter.
This SSP Members Open Letter, which is calling for signatories, continues to garner substantive, countrywide, grassroots support, including many leading party heavyweights, thinkers and academics.
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/sspmajority/myhomepage/newsle....html
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/sspmajority/index.html
This isn't a call for peace and unity, its an open declaration of war by the unholy alliance of London based sects and the regional organiser fiefdoms against the new platform. Note their failure to make any serious into Glasgow, which has always been at the heart of the socialist struggle in Scotland, where the most radical and class conscious elements of the SSP are found.
No. This is a broad movement which has significant support within the party including 3 MSPs. It would be wrong to see it as manipulation from London or anywhere else.
I did'nt say it was a London based initiative, I said it was an unholy alliance between the London based sects (SWP and CWI) and regional fiefdoms led by opportunistic local bosses. This explains why hardly any of the signatories are based in Glasgow other than a tiny bunch of middle class SWP apparatchiks. The sects would ditch Tommy in an instance if they felt it was to their advantage but they see this split as an oppurtunity to strengthen their influence and, in the case of the SWP, to prepare the ground for a RESPECT takeover of either the whole SSP or its 'Tommy Sheridan' faction.
I detest the SWP but have some respect for the SP. There is no way that the SWP could take over the SSP through RESPECT. The "politics" of RESPECT would be laughed at in Scotland. Hate the SWP all you want, its healthy. But do credit the CWI with having some cop on. Now if only they would ditch Taafe...
Wallace is correct regarding the sects and their attempts to boost their position in the SSP. If they are successful, it will be the end of the road for the party. Anyone who believes that a movement headed by Sheridan and guided politically by the SWP will achieve anything worthwhile is deluding themselves. Sheridan is an effective propagandist, but can't think for himself; McCombes did that for him for years. It was a set-up that worked ok, because McCombes is not a middle-class, died-in-the-wool sectarian, in the fashion of people like Mike Gonzalez. With these types guiding Tommy Sheridan--who will be more than happy to go along with this as long as his ego is regularly massaged, in the fashion that the SWP do with Galloway--the results will be disastrous for socialism in Scotland.
Don't know who the people posting here are, but I reckon they are right wing trolls because they obviously know NOTHING about Scotland. Wallace says there are very few signatories from Glasgow to the "Members Open Letter". I had a look at the letter (which seems perfectly reasonable to me) and at the signatories to it. It is true that only 3 or 4 people put their location as Glasgow. But Wallace and others do not seem to realise that Dennistoun, Pollockshaws, Cathcart, Anniesland and many of the other locations listed for signatories are all part of Glasgow! So, stop spouting about things about which you know nothing. And let's hope the SSP manage to stay unified.
Yeah Saoirse, I reckon people need to keep their eye on the big picture here, it doesn't matter which faction wins if the whole organisation collapses. Socialists outside Scotland should probably be doing their best to encourage a bit of calm. I made the point on another thread and I'll repeat it, it's very unlikely that one camp in this dispute is entirely right and one camp entirely wrong. And it doesn't seem to have much of a political basis - it seems more like the row the PDs have been having lately.
This whole situation is disastrous. The more the story comes out the more it seems that Tommy did not do anything wrong. He may or may not have had an affair but that is not the point. The SSP or Tommy never claimed to be a family values party. Unfortunately it is this kind of personal shenanigans that is bringing the party into disrepute.
There are real issues of policy that do inhibit the SSP's development namely the slogan for independence in which independence is held to be a principle. Further it is unfortunate that only a slight swing of .5% which may have happened anyway without the split, could leave the SSP without an MSP.
It is very difficult to see how they can recover. The issue is dominating the party internally and externally.
When I read the name above I was left a little startled as I'd come across Rebel Inc publishing years ago, when Hot Press gave away a free sampler the publishing house did containing many short extracts from classics of contemporary Scottish literature to Bukowski and Jack London. Never realised the head honcho behind it all was a socialist. The article the above author refers to about contextualising the News of the World shit stirring can be read here: http://rebelinkcolumns.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_rebelink....html