Workers' Liberty

Gaza is “the world’ s largest concentration camp”, something to be compared to “the Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazis.” The position of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories “resembles that of Jews who once lived in the ghettoes of Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.”

In mid-December of last year Tommy Sheridan, former Scottish Parliament member and leader of the Scottish Socialist Party was arrested and charged with perjury.

In 2006, after the News of the World had carried articles alleging that he had engaged in extra-marital affairs and visited a swingers’ club in Manchester, Sheridan took the newspaper to court and was awarded £200,000 in damages after the jury found in his favour.

According to SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, Scotland will be independent by 2017.

Salmond’s claim follows earlier SNP predictions which came and went but left the Union unscathed. The SNP’s best known prognostication was its slogan of the early 1990s: “Scotland Free by 93.” As the then Scottish Labour Party leader, Donald Dewar, commented in a rare moment of humour: “It’s a good slogan. It rhymes, and they can revive it every ten years.”

Around 150 delegates and members turned up to the Scottish Socialist Party’s 2007 annual conference, held in Dundee last Sunday (21 October).

Kelvin branch of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) has submitted a motion to the 2007 SSP conference calling on the party to support the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and its campaign for a boycott of Israel. Unremarkable? Not when you know about the SPSC.

Just nineteen motions have been submitted for the 2007 annual conference of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), being held in Dundee on 21 October.

Just nineteen motions have been submitted for the 2007 annual conference of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), being held in Dundee on 21 October. Four of the motions have been submitted by the party’s Executive Committee. The Republican Communist Network (RCN) platform in the SSP and the SSP Assistant Secretary (website) have each submitted one motion.

In the Scottish Parliamentary elections held in May this year the Scottish National Party emerged, albeit by the narrowest of margins, as the biggest single faction within the Scottish Parliament.

In the Scottish Parliamentary elections held in May this year the Scottish National Party emerged, albeit by the narrowest of margins, as the biggest single faction within the Scottish Parliament.

By Stan Crooke

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is a bourgeois political party committed to the achievement of an independent capitalist Scotland. And it does not pretend to be anything other than that.

by Stan Crooke

“Over the past three years, the SSP has been supportive of George Galloway in his battles with Blair and the New Labour hierarchy over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq… Despite our disagreements, the SSP supported George’s moves to form a broad, leftwing, anti-war party in England after his expulsion from New Labour in 2003,” explained an article in Scottish Socialist Voice (paper of the SSP – Scottish Socialist Party) in December 2004.

The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), within which Scottish supporters of Solidarity and Workers’ Liberty are active, did very badly on 3 May.

Its vote went down from 128,000 in 2003 to 12,731 this year, and it lost all its seats in the Scottish Parliament.

AGAINST AN SNP GOVERNMENT

The SSP must be clear that the likely Scottish National Party (SNP) government, pro-capitalist and pro-independence, is no advance on a pro-capitalist and pro-Union Labour (or Labour/Lib-Dem) government. As the SSP has pointed out, "the SNPÅfs increasingly pro-business vision of an independent Scotland... promises hundreds of millions of pounds in corporate tax cuts to big business. This could only be achieved by plundering our public services".

From Workers' Liberty supporters in Scotland.

“Bad result in those elections a week ago? Nothing to do with us, guv. It’s all the fault of that bloke over there. You know the one I mean - the one with the dodgy sun tan. Real chancer, that geezer. Gets people like us a bad name.”

The Scottish Socialist Party has been using its campaign for the 3 May Scottish Parliament and local elections to win back some of the ground lost when Tommy Sheridan split to form his personality-oriented “Solidarity” group last year.

On 3 May, when voters in Scotland, Wales and some parts of England go to the polls to elect local councillors and regional assembly members, most will face a very limited choice. In many council seats, the only choice will be between Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems; in only a handful will there be independent working-class or socialist candidates standing.

By Keir Lawson, Glasgow SSP and Scottish Socialist Youth student organiser

The Scottish Socialist Party is currently in the midst of campaigning for both councillors and MSPs in the upcoming Scottish elections.

Unlike Tommy Sheridan’s Solidarity, the SSP is standing on an explicitly socialist platform, while emphasising our key demands of free public transport for all, scrapping the council tax and opposition to the occupation of Iraq.

RMT has disaffiliated from the Scottish Socialist Party, by request of its Scottish regional council. This follows Tommy Sheridan's split from the SSP, after he prioritised his personal reputation over the party and the socialist cause with disastrous results. If he had shrugged off the News Of The World's scandal-mongering, we might still have a united SSP making progress in Scotland, and RMT still affiliated.

By Amina Saddiq

Ken Livingstone’s wonderful world

Ken Livingstone, god bless ’im, is holding a conference on 20 January under the title “A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations”.

We publish for information and comment this article from the website of the Industrial Workers of the World - to visit their website, click here.

I have to admit this when I'm bored and have nothing better to do, I go into UK Left Network, a Yahoo list usually filled with unbridled sectariana. My excuse is that it can be useful to search through that list to find out what some people say about the AWL.

On 26 October the RMT voted to reverse its 2003 decision to affiliate to the Scottish Socialist Party.

By Elaine Jones, Dumfries SSP

The SSP is holding its conference on 7-8 October at Glasgow Caledonian University. This is the chance for the SSP to discuss the way forward after the split with Tommy Sheridan and the SWP. There are some important lessons to learn.

Stan Crooke reports from the Scottish Socialist Party conference which took place at Glasgow Caledonian University on 7-8 October.

Letter to SSP trade-unionists from Richie Venton

Dear comrade,

I write to you as a socialist and trade unionist whom I value, in sorrow and in anger at the wreckage being done to the party I helped to initiate, organise and build.

SSP Executive statement on the Sheridan split, 20/08/06