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The Scottish Socialist Party United Left

Mustafa Tubevis | 21.06.2006 17:03 | Analysis | Repression | Workers' Movements

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=pp4.htm
 http://www.socialistunitynetwork.co.uk/news/sspcourt03.htm
 http://www.ssp-ul.org/signatories.php
 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76628?author_name=Mark%20Tubev&comment_limit=0&condense_comments=false#comment154755
 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/ukfs_news/hi?redirect=fs.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nol_storyid=5046330 Video Link
 http://rwillmsen.livejournal.com/31493.html
 http://www.mfaw.org.uk
 http://rebelinkcolumns.blogspot.com/2006/05/may-26th-context-is-everything.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Williamson_%28politician%29
 http://www.scottishsocialistvoice.net

Mustafa Tubevis
- Homepage: http://www.ssp-ul.org

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

bullshit

22.06.2006 20:34

tommy has not being betrayed by the party he has betrayed it this article was obviously written by a swip who have their own agenda in all this

pissed of socialist


An Open Letter's now been published as well

22.06.2006 20:35

I see that an SSP Members Open Letter has now been published as well.

 http://hometown.aol.co.uk/sspmajority/myhomepage/newsletter.html

It says that it's a call for unity.

John Pringle


iffy

23.06.2006 09:31

that open letter is a little but iffy mainly because to have a majority you need to have 1500 signatories also some of the names on it are spelt wrong and id suggest most comrades now how to spell their own names so its being looked into currently as to weather all these people now their on the list just to clarify i heard the majority part of the name was because the sherindists are claiming they have a majority at the NC

pissed of socialist


SSP UL statement

23.06.2006 10:26

SSP UNITED LEFT STATEMENT 11/6/06
This is not a time to rage, but a time to reason. Not to fight within ourselves, but to unite behind the fight for a better world. A time to keep our heads, and hold fast to our principles.

We are a substantial group of Scottish Socialist Party activists from across Scotland and across the party, who have a number of concerns with the current direction of our party.

The SSP, since its inception, has been a beacon of hope to the workers movement in Scotland and internationally. In establishing the SSP, we achieved the impossible - uniting the left into a working, fighting political party with a radical agenda and strong, innovative ideas for campaigning and recruiting.

Working together in this unprecedented way, we made real gains, not just electorally, but at a grassroots level. We can, if we unite as a strong socialist party, create a generational change in society, putting socialist ideas back on the mainstream agenda, and engendering further, deep-rooted change. This is no small matter, given the domination of free market ideology and the pessimism and disillusionment this has bred in two, even three generations. We must always remember that the enemy is without, not within.

But we are deeply concerned that the party's community activism, socialist education and internal unity have failed to match our electoral success. We are concerned that individuals, branches and even regions are susceptible to external interpretations of the SSP's internal politics, created via the media. We want our elected representatives to be wholly accountable to the party, putting the collective interests of the party before individual concerns. We are concerned by a growing culture of indifference, even hostility, to our commitment to gender equality. Finally, we are committed to a united and non-sectarian Left, and in favour of a transitional approach to socialism, where no struggle, whether based in a community, workplace, or around a gender or race issue, can be ignored. We actively support and participate in all such work.

It is with all this in mind that we feel now is the time to launch an open, democratic, pro-SSP network, open to SSP members and informed by the following points:

Building the SSP

Our network is for activists whose aim is to support, promote and build the SSP as a broad, outward-looking socialist party, working within communities and workplaces, trades unions and colleges, in the streets and on the march, as the party that fights for peace, justice and socialism.

We seek the transformation of society through workers' democratic control of the means of production. We understand that the dismantling of the UK state, and the creation of a Scottish, socialist republic, is an essential part of this process.

Accountability and Participation

Our network aims to build a grassroots leadership of the SSP. We believe in participative democracy, where activity and engagement are encouraged and supported, and where democratic decisions are made by active participants.

Instrumental to this is the SSP's constitution, which we recognise and whose sovereignty we defend. We will campaign within the SSP for full accountability of all elected representatives and bodies, including the commitment to take the average wage of a skilled worker.

Gender Equality

Our network is committed to the principles of equal representation and gender equality at all levels of the party and remain dedicated to the hard-won, ground-breaking policy of 50:50, which facilitates the participation in socialist politics of women who might otherwise, through poverty and shouldering the burden of family care, notably working-class and ethnic minority women, be excluded.

Self-organisation

Our network values and encourages self-organisation amongst oppressed and marginalised groups, and recognises and celebrates these groups' contribution to the political development of our movement. Self-organisation is essential to raising the consciousness and confidence of those whose voices may not otherwise be heard.

Education

Our network will promote socialist education within the network itself and in the SSP, using progressive and inclusive educational techniques, to encourage critical thought and thinkers throughout the party.

Our Network

Our network is built on the principles of openness, inclusiveness, equality and respect, where all contributions are valued and comradely debate is welcomed.

We are a grassroots, bottom-up organisation and as such, promote participatory meeting techniques, where all members are encouraged to speak up and have their say, without fear of being ridiculed, intimidated or shouted down.

We, the undersigned, invite comrades who share our principles and ethos to join us and raise an SSP standard for all socialists to rally round.




View Signatories




Sign our statement and join the network

Rikki Reid


Punctuation, Punctuation.

23.06.2006 16:03

I can see why Pissed Of Socialist might have think there is a problem with the spelling of the names on the SSP Majority List. I think John Knox's ambition of a school in every parish and a university in every town obviously didn't make it after all. Two (2) f's in off and we need to do some serious work on our punctuation, don't we?

Dave W


Pedantic, Dave W, Pedantic

23.06.2006 19:00

-Contacted the author of the letter and the reason for the odd misspelling is that the names are being put in manually - which also explains the delay as names are being put in. As regards the numbers on the list not being a majority - over 70% of this country is against the war in Iraq yet the online petition to free the principled and heroic Malcom Kendall-Smith has less than 3000 signatures out of a population of 64,000,000. Does this mean we're all in favour of this present bout of military adventurism, I think not. Online petitions are not a great guide to mass opinions

John Latham


counciousness

24.06.2006 19:58

for a start i write in a stream of conciousness so no insulting my lack of punctuation and your right online petitions dont say much at all which is why id suggest that the sherindists dont hold the majority regardless of their signatories and do you know that an ex comrade has being added to that list because his whole branch was added and they used an out of date list of names

pissed of socialist


Accept the SSP's demise

26.06.2006 20:47

I can't imagine a worse kiss of death than the SWP offering their backing to Sheridan.

The SSP must accept that they just aren't up to competing with the spooks.

Either the SSP is full of freaks, geeks, oddballs, weirdoes, and middle class, politically correct whinging feminist wankers or MI5 have done an excellent job of making them look like that.

Roll on 2007 for the SSP to be put out of it's misery!

Uncle Joe


proud to be a member of the United Left

13.07.2006 17:34

the reason tommy was asked to resign as convenor was over differences in strategy for dealing with allegations not over factions and no-one can provide any evidence to say otherwise here's what tommy said at the time :  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4048711.stm

Andy R
mail e-mail: arossetter@hotmail.com


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