AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 ----- BODY:

Following his sensational libel victory in the courts against the News of the Screws this week, Tommy Sheridan has now been nominated for the leadership by John Aberdein, novelist and chair of the Orkney branch of the Scottish Socialist Party (where, funnily enough, my dad is the branch sec). He will challenge Colin Fox for the leadership in October, on the proviso that he gets a majority of the party's branches nominating him. It is pretty obvious at this point that only his return to the leadership position can save the SSP from sinking beneath the political waves at this point. The current leadership have been in essence labelled perjurers by the courts' verdict, and clearly do not have the support of either SSP members or supporters.

The behaviour of the SSP leadership around Colin Fox has been extraordinary, and I think its worth recapping how the situation developed. The situation broke when reports appeared in the News of the World that Sheridan had visited a sex club - allegations that led to an emergancy meeting of the SSP's Executive Committee. According to the controversial minutes (PDF file) of the fateful meeting back in November 2004, Sheridan planned to deny the accusations and was already at that stage considering legal action. This was in fact the obvious response to the allegation, constituting a direct challenge to the News of the World, which was clearly intent on a character assassination job similarly to the ones levied against Galloway over the past few years. Like Galloway, Sheridan believed that he could take on the tabloid press and win, and his strategy has been proved correct.

However, not only did the SSP leadership refuse to go along with this idea, their response was to sack Sheridan. This, remember, was in response to two allegations. Not only that, but when the case came to court, the SSP EC members trooped up to testify on behalf of the NotW and against Sheridan. This followed a ridiculous attempt to prevent the minutes of the November meeting being handed over to the courts, after they had admitted that they existed, which led to Alan McCombes being jailed, and also apparently threatened to lead to the sequestration of the party. As the man himself has stated, this constitutes a form of political scabbing - possibly the worst possible form of betrayal. The behaviour of the current leadership has been one of political cowardice, backstabbing and total incompetence.

We can assume Sheridan's re-election in October, I think, with some confidence. However, there are major political questions concerning the party's direction that remain open. I was privy to a speech by Frances Curran during the Gleneagles counter-summit which was, frankly, barmy, filled with hazy visions of an independent Scotland expelling Coca-Cola from the country and planting crops on the Scottis mountains to feed the hungry. Their drive for independence has led them to take part in the Independence Convention alongside the openly pro-business SNP, while their appears to have been only a limited attempt to form relations with other far left parties in Europe. They have declared that the 2007 Scottish parliamentary elections are to be the 'independence election' despite the fact that support for pro-independence parties slumped at the general election. The wayward nature of their thinking is confirmed by this awful analysis of the current Lebanese conflict, which describes Hezbollah as vicious terrorists and implies that Israel should attack Syria and Iran! This deterioration continued under the post-Sheridan leadership but did not begin there - it was Sheridan who first proposed the idea of an Independence Convention back in 2003. The roots of this political deteoriation lie in the ideological basis behind the SSP's formation. The SSP was set up in 1998 on a platform of an 'independent socialist Scotland', a stance that from its start involved a rejection of socialist internationalism in favour of left-nationalism. This was married to an insistence that the historical difference between reformism and revolutionary socialism was now buried, and that Labour is now an openly capitalist party. As a result, the whole idea of revolution is off the agenda, and instead the party's conceptual starting point is that there will one day be a fracturing of the British state, as Alan McCombes puts it, and a free Scotland will be able to become a kind of Cuba in Europe, only more democratic. Any idea of revolution to achieve this appears to be off the agenda altogether - and indeed the reasons given in the minutes for firing Tommy back in 2004 stink of electoralism, of the prioritising of winning and keeping votes and seats over and above class struggle in communities and workplaces. If the SSP is to do more than retain some MSPs at the next election, and is to become the genuine voice of the anti-capitalist left in Scotland rather than just the SNP's left conscience, then it needs to fundamentally rethink its political strategy.

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Julaybib COMMENT-DATE:11:59 AM COMMENT-BODY:Interesting to read an article the G yesterday intepreting the Sheridan case as macho men vs women:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1839419,00.html

But today's G has a letter furiously rebuffing that interpretation of events:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,,1841122,00.html

On another topic, I've never done much searching for Aspie/Autie blogs, despite being a dad to a lad with ASD and a former Special Ed (autism) teacher and self-diagnosed 'loner'. Perhaps I might do now...

Wasalaam

The Muslim Anarchist -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:23 PM COMMENT-BODY:Julaybib - go to the Aspies For Freedom website and look at the Autblogs section at the bottom of the page. There's oodles of them. Then there's also the Ballastexistenz page if you haven't seen it already. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: bat020 COMMENT-DATE:7:30 PM COMMENT-BODY:Good analysis - especially re the way that Scottish nationalism and reformism have dovetailed here to produce such absurd behaviour by the anti-Sheridan clique. Not so sure that one can be complacent about kicking the cuckoos out of the nest though, sounds to me like there's a battle ahead. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: bat020 COMMENT-DATE:7:33 PM COMMENT-BODY:Oh - and damn right about that Lebanon piece in SSV - truly truly awful. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:4:24 PM COMMENT-BODY:While I am at some distance I find your cut and dried summation rather shallow.

It seems to me that some time back outfits like the CWI and the SWP signed on with Sheridan -- but then both have been hostile to the SSP from Day One --and at heart this Sheridan base of support is that alliance plus some others not so in platforms. Now we get nodding heads saying as you do or Weekly Worker does that the problem is after all Scottish nationalism --and really, didn't we tell you so all along that, like McBeth, the SSP had a fatal flaw.

Golly we get a laugh out of that one here in Australia. Be wary, the London far Left insists, of Scots bearing gifts!

But what does Galloway and the SWP do? Tells Tommy to forget all about this Scottish lark and sign on with the real McCoy, and be the front runner for Respect across the border when it claims what is rightfully their's from those horrid nationalist hell bent on dividing "OUR" working class.

Well, tell Grigor Gall that --and lets' see some reasonable polemic against his take on the political dynamic of Scottish nationalism -- despite the fact that he shared the London left's consensual distrust of on the SSP project in the first instance.

Last weeks' GLW carried this report --
Sheridan sparks crisis in the Scottish Socialist Party
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/679/679p22.htm

and at least that coverage had the credence of recognising that there was another side to this especially that carried in McCoombes report to the SSP membership in the latest newsletter/bulletin. Something you don't refer to. Why? It's salient is it not?

In case you may want to read this document, you'll find it here:

http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/pdfs/Bulletinsummer06pdf.pdf

Then there is the review of the case by Andy Newman --who came out of the SWP after the SWP strangled the English Socialist Alliance for fear it would take the left down the Scottish road.(That's true isn't it?)

He wrote this review of the politics in dispute here:

http://www.socialistunitynetwork.co.uk/voices/ssp_debate01.htm -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:8:27 PM COMMENT-BODY:David: I have to be honest and say that, although I have heard of Gregor Gall, I have read very little by him. He put forward a trenchant critique of the SWP in 'What Next?' in which (I think this is what you may be talking about in your comments) he argues that the SSP is not nationalist. Of course, it may be true that adopting Scottish independence as an aim might have made sense as a tactic in the absence of a substantial all-British left, but the de facto alliance with the SNP and Greens that they made after the 2003 elections suggests to me that it has gone way beyond that.

The rest of your comment doesn't make a great deal of sense as far as I'm concerned. Galloway may very well want Sheridan to ditch the SSP and join Respect, but there's no evidence that I can say that Respect as a whole would want that. Mind you, I just can't see the point of a separate left in Scotland, to be honest. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:8:48 PM COMMENT-BODY:In the article Dave Riley refers to i argue on the independence issue that it is more about party and class, than nationalism:
http://www.socialistunitynetwork.co.uk/voices/ssp_debate01.htm

To build a mass party: a party that is deeply entwined through every muscle and sinew of the working class, a party that unites all progressives, whether or not they believe in a revolutionary or constitutional approach, requires plausibility. This is a question of symmetry. As Tony Cliff used to argue, if you are fighting someone who is armed with a stick you only need a stick, but if your opponent has a gun you need a gun. The task is no less than to replace the Labour Party as the political representation of the working class. This therefore requires a fully developed set of policies so that the party's representatives and spokespeople can hold their own in parliament, on election hustings, etc. A broad socialist party must be able to represent itself as a potential party of government, as well as a party of class struggle.

The issue of Scottish independence fits this like a glove. It allows the SSP to argue a coherent set of policies that transcends the limitations of the devolution settlement. What is more, the prospect of unshackling Scotland from Westminster rule inevitably opens a huge debate about what sort of country Scotland should be.

The SWP argues that: "the Cathcart and Livingstone by-elections have shown once again that independence is a non-issue" but that is to miss the point. The constitutional settlement between Hollyrood and Westminster inherently raises the question of independence. Consider the standoff between Ken Livingstone and the GLC and the Thatcher government over subsidized public transport. The Tories took the GLC to court and won the principle that subsidies were ultra vires, and ultimately the GLC was abolished. Neither of these options would be easily available for Westminster to discipline Hollyrood. Scotland has an independent legal system and the sovereignty of Hollyrood, while formally devolved by Westminster legislation, resides politically with the Scottish nation, and cannot be reversed. We cannot foresee what conflicts may exist in the future, where strikes and mass protest at the gates of Hollyrood, could allow the workers' movement in Scotland to compel Hollyrood to exceed its powers: but that possibility exists. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:12:27 PM COMMENT-BODY:Gringo

perhaps you should read some books yourself. For example Marx is someone you presumably would recognise as an internationalist, but he argued vehemently for a united German nations, includiing the demand for a revolutionary war against Russia to achieve it.

The SSP are internationalists and also argue for scottish independence.

I have no idea what you mean by them being "reformists". presumably you are in your own eyes a "revolutionary". How many revolutions have you been in?

Currently the issue of reform or revolution is not on the agenda, and the division in the workers movement is between the class struggle left, and the social partnership left. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:12:34 PM COMMENT-BODY:Also gringo, whe you write; " the argument that you can "reach" people better by playing to their ignorance"

is surelly what the Sheridan camp advocate, that the SSP's vote is tied up wth the charismatic leader figure, to the extent that they are prepared to collude in an uttellry hypocritical self promotion by Sheridan of himslef as a perfect family man (given the fact that most working cllass people do not live the hello magazine lifestyle of married bliss, this colluding in an oppressive idealisation of the family). the assumption sesm to be that working class voters are to backward and ignorant to vote socialist without a perma-tanned media freindly figurehead.

Of course of it were true then there would be no hypocrisy, and that would be Tommy and gail's choice, but in essence the allegations against Sheridan are true, so it is all bullshit.

So it is whether the party had a duty to lie to protect Sheridna's right to be a hypocrit. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:12:44 PM COMMENT-BODY:And bat020 ands Redaspie,

I don't want to get into a distracting dispute about the contents of the lebanon article, but remember that Scitish socialist voice is the paper of a broad party, and different views are presneted.

However, it is easy to pick individual articles from any left publication that are poor. ASt least to my knowledge SSV has never printed an article from the United Nations, and then calimed copyright on it, unlike socialsit Worker:
http://socialistunity.blogspot.com/2006/07/socialist-worker-on-somalia_12.html -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: bat020 COMMENT-DATE:1:59 PM COMMENT-BODY:You think Lebanon is a distraction from the real issues? Jesus wept. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:3:31 PM COMMENT-BODY:No lebanon is ot a distraction from the current political situation, which is why i organsed a protest at RAF Brize Norton last saturday that led to the gates of the base being shut for hours, and 4 arrests, in protest against the base being used for refuelling.

But clearly a newspaper article about lebanon in SSV is neither here not there with reagrd to the faction fight between Sheriidan and the United Left.

it is facile of you and an undergraduate debate trick to suggest otherwise. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:3:53 PM COMMENT-BODY:Ok so my challlenge to you is this.

the fundamental political difference is the contention by the SWP that "Genuine unity in action depends on separation on matters of principle such as reform and revolution. We cannot properly determine those immediate issues on which we can unite unless we also properly, and organisationally, separate over matters of principle"
John Rees, The broad party, the revolutionary party and the united front By John Rees International Socialist Journal, Winter 2002 http://www.swp.org.uk/ISJ/REES97.HTM

why should this be the case/

And why has failure to maintain this seprataion led -0 in your view - to "sectarianism"

This is a faction fight, so argue your politics! -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:8:20 PM COMMENT-BODY:I don't think I actually argued in my post that the SSP was sectarian.

However, I have to say, Andy, that your counter-arguments, such as they are, don't amound to much do they? Basically, the allegations against Sheridan were true, irrespective of what the court decided, and because of that and the fact that Tommy & Gail appeared in the Daily Record, Tommy is clearly an evil lying hypocrite. Case closed. That's not an adequate response to my central charge, which was that the entire political strategy of the leadership was a complete failure and a monumental cock-up (I'll leave aside any talk of conspiracies against Sheridan and what not, which would be as speculative as my part as your insistence that Sheridan was guilty). And a cock-up driven by the fact that the leadership has succumbed to electoralism i.e is prioritising electoral concerns such as whether they'd lose votes above movement building.

Oh and on the division between reformism and revolution - have a look at Rifondiazone Communista, another broad left party which didn't take a clear stand on the issue of revolution. It has now jumped into bed with the Democratic Left and had voted for troops to be sent to Afghanistan. That's what happens when you gloss over the distinction between revolution and reformism, as you do with your talk about how revolution isn't on the agenda right now so it's an irrelevant distinction. You slide into reformism. It's the centrifugal pull of the system.

On a final note, I *really* love all this cult of personality nonsense that you anti-Sheridan types are bringing up, as if the man is trying to stick statues of himself everywhere. I suggest you read Trotsky's 'Russian Revolution' to see the extent to which Lenin was lionised by the Bolsheviks and their supporters. Charismatic leaders are by no means the exception among revolutionary socialist parties. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Tom COMMENT-DATE:10:44 PM COMMENT-BODY:Yuk. The SNP are really horrible people.

Can't believe so many of the SSP were ready to turn against Sheridan rather than support him, against a nasty little rightwing rag. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: bat020 COMMENT-DATE:10:22 AM COMMENT-BODY:"But clearly a newspaper article about lebanon in SSV is neither here not there with regard to the faction fight between Sheriidan and the United Left."

Of course, it was thoroughly facile of me to suggest that one's attitude towards imperialism and resistance could possibly have any bearing on the future of the left in Scotland. What was I thinking? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:12:59 PM COMMENT-BODY:On a totally irrelevant note, isn't anyone going to post any supportive comments about the Raytheon Nine in the post about them above this one? I think you'll agree they deserve it! -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:1:22 PM COMMENT-BODY:Redaspie, who except you is arguing that Sheridan isn't lying? Don't the revelations from Charlie mccartney, and 5 other SSp members this week - totally unconnected with the UL - that they knew the storiies were true have any bearing on your faith in that?

All your arguments seem predicated on the assumption that Sheridan may have been telling the truth. BUt even in the IST document from gonzalez and Fergusson they don't deny that the stories are true, instead they say it is none of anyone's business.

It is not speculative that Sheridan lied, it is the central issue, and your comrades in Scotland know it to be the case. because it meant that Sheridan went to court intending to perjure himself, and thereofre jeopardising the party. Unless you understand that (as your SW platform comrades do know) then the whole course of events is inexplicable. this also reinforces the point that lying to the court allso means lying to the party's supporters and members - those like you who believe the lies.

Do you doubt Katrina Trolle's evidence, backed up by her phone recoords and the testimony of her flat mates? A woman who took no money from NOTW, and refused to talk before being summonsed to cort, a woman totally unconnected wiith the UL or SSP leadership?

You misunderstand Rifonazione: the issue of reform or revolution is an seprate issue (though not totally unconnected) from the issue of participation in coalition governments. In any event your comrades in germany are (correctly) promoting merger between the PDS and WASG, despite the PDS's participation in the red-red coalition in Berlin. this suggests that Cristina Bucholz has a rather firmer grasp of this distinction than you do.
the issue is about class struggle or call collaboration, which is orthogonal to the debate of refrom/revolution (especiallly given that many "revolutionaries" spend more time proapagandising than being involved in the movement)

The charge against the SSp leadership that they prioritise elctions is exactly the opposite charge to that Sheridan is laying at them. what is your eveidence for it?

Are you aware of the debate through the SSp about how to turn outwards, backed by the decision of conference for non electroalist campaigning over 10 core socialsit issues? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:1:29 PM COMMENT-BODY:bat020

of course there is *some* connection between all parts of people's politics, but whether one particular newspaper article from someone whose position on the Sheridan libel trial is completely unkown has any bearing on the debate is stretching it a bit.

None of you have acknowledged the objective difficulties of the SSP's situation. the low level of class struggel making it hard to counterbalance electoralism, the limited infrastructure of the party for supporting 6 MSPs, the lack of any comparable organisation in England or wales, etc. the fact that 6 MSPs creates expectations that cannot be realised as they don't have enough support to get bills passed, and the fact that the parlaimanetary timescales are out of their control.

All of these issues would also have created problems for the SWP had you been running thr SSP. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: bat020 COMMENT-DATE:3:04 PM COMMENT-BODY:Oh pur-lease. SSV is run by the anti-Sheridan faction, a fact that is blindingly obvious to anyone who's read the miserable rag of late.

And the fact that it uncritically retails Zionist propaganda about Hizbollah being a "ferocious terrorist group" that "kidnaps" Israeli soldiers is not some passing coincidence - it is symptomatic of a wider political degeneration inside that faction. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:3:16 PM COMMENT-BODY:so Bat202

can you explain to me how an incorrect position on the relationship betwen party and class would translate itself into a mistaken position on Lebanon?

Or is your mind-set that "our side" are all brillaint and "their side" are a shower of bastards? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:9:35 PM COMMENT-BODY:"None of you have acknowledged the objective difficulties of the SSP's situation. the low level of class struggel making it hard to counterbalance electoralism, the limited infrastructure of the party for supporting 6 MSPs, the lack of any comparable organisation in England or wales, etc. the fact that 6 MSPs creates expectations that cannot be realised as they don't have enough support to get bills passed, and the fact that the parlaimanetary timescales are out of their control."

This just supports what I've been saying. In an atmosphere where there is a low level of struggle, a broad party of the type the SSP represents will clearly be dragged towards electoralism. The other problems you mentioned would face any small party having to sustain a small number of parliamentarians on a tiny budget. Mind you, I'm not sure class struggle in Scotland is that low, unless you are defining it purely in terms of workplace/ trade union activity, rather than include also the wide range of anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist battles also going on.

And you really need to look at the debate over at Lenin's Tomb over this issue to see why there was sufficient doubt over the truth of the allegations for TS to win his case. The fact is, we don't know. And it's also the case that, yes, as other have said, it shouldn't matter. What matters is that, as I said before, when faced with allegations about Sheridan's personal life, they responded by flinging him out of the leadership because they were worried about losing votes, and then went and testified against him in court. They and not Sheridan brought the crisis on the SSP. You just have to read the language they use in their own minutes. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: AN COMMENT-DATE:10:22 PM COMMENT-BODY:what do you mean we don't know?

we don't know why the jury delivred that verdict.

But we do know what happened in Scotland, and we do know who is telling the truth and who is lying. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:10:20 AM COMMENT-BODY:Well I surely started something, didn't I? I came here after Lenin's Tomb recommended this analysis of the crisis in the SSP as "brilliant" and I read it and the commentary and thought " what the...!"

I am a a veteran of regroupment projects here in Australia and I know what the deal is BUT you cannot tell me that the CWI and the SWP signed on with Sheridan for the good of the SSP. But that's the crap being served up here.

That's the absolute shallowness you are trading in.

I don't mean to suggest that the CWI or the SWP are inherently duplicitous but you cannot tell me that outfits that have opposed the SSP process from Day ONE are now determined to save the party from itself and this is why they have aligned themselves with Sheridan.

I don't make light of the crisis that confronts the SSP but surely what future is there for the party if it follows the "three cheers for Tommy our hero "and bugger the rest.

Is that the sort of party you'd want to be a member of -- where winner/ media-hero takes all?

No doubt Sheridan can sway a layer in the SSP and I don't doubt he has immense skill and appeal and as far as I know I have no reason to question his politics ( but I gather Andy Newman is better informed on that score)-- but consider what is being asked of the SSP membership in terms of black and whiteness for Sheridan to return to the top spot. A clean sweep is being demanded so that Sheridan can resume his rightful place and his detractors are to be sent to Coventry.

Do you really believe that? Do you actually think that the leadership of the SSP are a bunch of lying scoundrels who warrant execution by a triumphalist Tommy gun?

But that is what you write in your posts.That possibility is what you celebrate.

I find this almost incomprehensible coming from registered leftists.

I fear that the SWP's Galloway manoevre is being projected as the new all in Marxian tactic -- that the far left in its quest to move toward relevancy must jump on a populist somebody,and defer slavishly to their politics in order to proceed?

We used to call that 'opportunism' -- but maybe you have another word for it? Is this what you mean by "united front of a special kind"?

I defend the SWP's orientation towards the Muslim community in Respect -- I think that's been a very important exercise and I think we have drawn encouragement form that aspect here in Australia. But there are many elements in the RESPECT template I don't agree with and that comes down to the way the SWP has engineered its involvement and the debris it has left in its wake as a consequence.

But I guess that's your business. The local SWP franchise here thinks it has a formula for a Downunder version so I guess we have to wish them luck (as they certainly will need it).

But to actively and aggressively pursue a course designed to wreck the SSP is something that warrants protestation.

So up goes my hand.I say : don't! -- because that's what the SWP is trying -- either consciously or by default --to do.

dave riley -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: bat020 COMMENT-DATE:1:10 PM COMMENT-BODY:"can you explain to me how an incorrect position on the relationship betwen party and class would translate itself into a mistaken position on Lebanon?"

No I can't, because I do not believe that this is a matter of an incorrect position on X mechanically translating itself into an incorrect position on Y. It is your "analysis" that is trapped in this sort of sterile reductionism, not mine.

As stated above, the ULN political failings on specific questions are symptoms of a much wider political failure on their part.

"Or is your mind-set that 'our side' are all brillaint and 'their side' are a shower of bastards?"

Spare me the liberal moralism. There is split in the SSP, this split is fundamentally political in nature, moreover it is perfectly clear that the two rival factions cannot exist within the same organisation.

Everyone takes sides in such a situation - the difference between you and me is that I am open about it, whereas you are not. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:22 PM COMMENT-BODY:Dave Riley - I don't think whatever is good for the SSP is the issue here, and I don't think the SWP (don't know about the CWI) ever thought about it in those terms. The SSP, like the SWP and all other parties and orgs, are merely vehicles for a greater purpose, and should not be fetished. Apparently, the word from the SSP Majority camp is that they may all decide to ditch the SSP anyway. This is hugely premature in my view, as I still think the SSP is not irrecoverable. And as for the comments about "Tommy our hero" I repeat my previous comments about the high regard in which Lenin was held in. Charismatic hero-leader types are not new in the left. In fact the hostility to such leaders emerging now among the anti-Sheridanites smacks to me of the same pseudo-anarchist thinking that informs the Greens' no-leader policy. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:9:28 AM COMMENT-BODY:Malcolm - you make a very good point, which has I think been raised elsewhere. The fetishisation of the party by the UL faction is an important aspect of the ideological drive behind their actions.

Good luck on your new blog btw. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:10:45 AM COMMENT-BODY:Then if what "Malcolm W" says is true then the SSP 'leadership' is to be rolled for being conniving and lie-ing. That's what they are, aren't they, Malcolm -- a bunch of scoundrels in your estimation? And Tommy is...what?

A martyr? A working class hero? Victimized by not only the bourgeois press but his own comrades?

On this point: "I wonder if Mr Riley he is falling into a ‘sources’ issue and relying heavily on information by those SSPers who have now crossed numerous political lines."

What on earth do you mean? What political lines are you inferring? I recognise that there are political issues at stake here -- but you have insinuated them and not justified this allegation one bit. I'm not psychic -- I am a some distance from my Scottish forbears. So throwaway lines like this are of no use to me.

You continue: "I know that prominent members of the UL ( an anti-Sheridan pro McCombes faction that provided supported for the NOTW case) correspond regularly with GLW (but I’m happy to be proven wrong on this)."

Not with me mate. I've seen some SWP documents but that's it. I'm not party to insider knowledge. I just do homework.

But I stand by my original perspective that the assessment being shared here is shallow. Even "Malcolm W" has indicated this with his determined allegations of lies and slander. But describing this dispute as a war of good versus evil isn't the way we cadre types are taught to think. Gee I'd hope that's so.

I've been in a few faction fights, even in the Alliance here and back over 35 years -- and I know all about allegations of "lies and slander"-- but that simply is not enough verbiage for Marxists to build an argument on.

Now you say that the SWP has been a keen proponent of the SSP --" in terms of practice or contributions to debates at conference."

I've heard arguments exactly like that one before....word for fucking word.

Unfortunately I don't believe you. I don't believe you primarily because I have had experience of how the IST thinks in regard to its preferential activities and its universal strategies. You talk about a poll result of significance as a credit to the SW platformists but our host -- "readaspie", a SWP supporter I guess- has this to say;"That's not an adequate response to my central charge, which was that the entire political strategy of the leadership was a complete failure and a monumental cock-up ...And a cock-up driven by the fact that the leadership has succumbed to electoralism i.e is prioritising electoral concerns such as whether they'd lose votes above movement building."

But to hear Malcolm W tell it the SW platforman's major contribution to the SSP has been in... electioneering.

Hello! What is actually being advocated here? What is the point you simply fail to develop? That the SSP is non revolutionary? (Is that WITH or WITHOUT Tommy Sheridan in charge?)That the SSP is building a party and not just building movements? Is that your drift?

It's obvious that I am at some distance -- but that doesn't mean that I can't offer commentary that may be of relevance by dint of my own experience in like mode.

And I'm saying to you that you are dancing around the underlying issues in this dispute -- because, I think, you cannot relate to the political dynamic of the SSP process. Your strategy seems to be simply this: support Tommy.

I want to know why? Because he's good and wholesome and the other side are a bunch of demons? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Sport Selections COMMENT-DATE:2:20 PM COMMENT-BODY:I've has to alter my new blog address to

http://left-ward.blogspot.com/

I've stolen and edited down all lenin's work on SSP and the Sheridan case. It may helps people respond to incessant waves of united Left flawed reasonong being allowed to pass thru partyu meber's letter boxes.

I'd encourage Dave Riley to give it a read if he has not seen the stuff it already - it better sums up where I'm coming from.

Malcolm W -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:1:54 AM COMMENT-BODY:Just a thow away comment in the wake of latest news: THIS is what the SWP is all about in their support for Tommy Sheridan --ad it comes clear smack bang with the sort of political issues underscoring it that Andy Newman has talked about.

But you lot what to ignore all that. You've got righteousnes on your side.

You lot want to talk about the colour of the wallpaper in the house of Scotland...I repeat again and maybe finally : your analysis is so superficial that I wonder what sort of naive political planet you are on. Who feeds you all this political fluff?

The problem is that IF this is the sort of political fronts that the SWP now advocates in the wake of its successes with gorgeous George Galloway -- then it owes the rest of us, including me in Australia, an explanation.

Because I tell you now no one decides to build a new political party like Sheridan is now advocating unless he has the officers , the cadre, to build it -- the celebs are merely glitter. And I wonder where they are supposed to be recruited from?

No one denies the talent and skills of Galloway or of Sheridan ( we celebrate GG here, screen videos of his performances)but it DOES in the last instance come down to what sort of alliances you are building around the issue of who controls them.

I've been there I know what individual talent and skill and a high media profile can do to an organisation's stars -- especially when the underlying politics involved is obscured.

This is a totally cynical, egotistical and unforgivable move on Sheridan's part. And you know what, it will be the SWP who sign up first to support it because THIS is their Scottish tactic going to plan.

But what did I say in the first instance: that the smell on Sheridan was indicated by the fact that his key backers were the SWP and the CWI. And you know what else I said --- I said that it was gross opportunism to do so.

The way I read it the SWP had a hand in executing the English Socialist Alliance.I believe that was a conscious deed in order to go REPECTful. Well, here's more blood on its hands...

‘Scotland is big enough for more than one socialist party. I predict
thousands will join us"
http://www.sundayherald.com/57447

"FORMER Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) leader Tommy Sheridan has revealed that several Scottish celebrities, including actor and director Peter
Mullan, are to join him in forming a new political party." -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:7:57 AM COMMENT-BODY:I haven't finished with you lot yet. I've got some more , I hope, salient points to make, but I'll wait for any response you may want to give as obviously, since I'm so far away from Caledonia I'm open to any amount of abuse that you may want to throw my way and I need take no umbrance because,quite frankly, I know none of you from Adam or Eve.

But my motivation is primarily this: your argumentation is so shallow and so full of contradictions that I can spot them from thousands of miles away. Thats' the REAL tragedy-- that skilled political activists, such as yourselves, with a determined aptitude for polemic and critical thinking should be so handicapped at least in this instance by what seems a chronic myopia. Thats' what rails me so much. You wallow in this and pass it off as political discourse -- when in fact it rises very little above the level of school yard banter.

Don't take offense(despite my words) -- but since I'm here I'll continue:

Lets' assume that these UL types are the gang of pack raping bikies you say they are. Lets assume I agree with all your accusations about them such that myself am numbed by it all....Lets' assume that.

But what sort of political process is it where Sheridan announces before a party conference is held that he intends to form a new political party if -- or because -- the ranks of that party don't support him?

What sort of cubby hole does tactics like that crawl out of that you would want to support them? Is that the sort of politics you want to celebrate? Is that the democratic standards you seek to espouse?

Support me or else! Support me or I will DESTROY you!

Some may call that 'political terrorism' -- (I don't, of course, because I put it inverted commas.Huh!)

In fact the key arrogance of your position is stated in one of the docs listed from Lenin's Tomb by LeftStuff:

" I think I said elsewhere that part of the problem here is "party fetishism" - the "my party right or wrong" attitude. Quite frankly, as others have said, the SSP leadership have led the party up a blind alley since 2003 with their sectarian antics, of which the Sheridan witchhunt is only the most offensive example. Building a broad socialist party which isn't run by creeps like that is the priority. If that means splitting the party, then it's a
tragedy considering the high hopes the SSP was founded with, but not
the end of the world."

Excuse me, while I puke!

Surely you can see through unadulterated crap and hypocrisy like this! I thought Marxism was a fuckin science! So where is the logic of bullshit like this!

What if I said that within the context of my membership of the SWP: "mere party fetish"--get over it!

IF the SSP leadership has led the party "down a blind alley" then get rid of them -- vote them out. Take your politics to the membership. Live or die under such scrutiny!

But hey! Tommy Sheridan, at least, is not prepared to do that is he? He is letting the pres do his work for him.

No. Tommy Sheridan is forming a new party already before any democratic process is allowed to unfold.

As for this:"Building a broad socialist party which isn't run by creeps like that is the priority..." I gotta say "come off it!" Such unadulterated hypocrisy is herein embraced. "Building a broad socialist party.." coming from the SWP corner -- an outfit who has opposed the SSP process from Day One -- makes me think that some people have disengaged their brains in this instance. . -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Sport Selections COMMENT-DATE:9:07 AM COMMENT-BODY:Dave,

Start with class and all else will follow.


If you think that a democratic process is unfolding in the SSP right now then please think again. What is democratic about united left inside the EC repeatedly ignoring demands of the mass membership as expressed thru Conference and national Council to pursue a personal agenda, cross political lines, and use members money to slur (including indirectly accuse one platform of indirectly supporting predatory sex and paedophilia), attempt to cancel national council meetings, changing locks to block nationally elected members out of party offices etc.? I could go on. But these actions are all explainable by an understanding of the politics and process of party fetishisation


I’ll restate an earlier quote “my loyalty has ultimately never been to a political party - or, indeed, to a particular leader. It has been and will always be to the working class, to justice, to equality and to peace. Any party to which we attach ourselves and work with, therefore receives our loyalty only in proxy form, as the most effective vehicle toward those ends. Therefore once the SSP is no longer that vehicle, breaking with it is a fulfillment of loyalty rather than a betrayal of it.”



Malcolm W -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:9:21 AM COMMENT-BODY:David - I'm afraid I'm finding it rather difficult to take your post too seriously. You sound like one of those people who write to newspapers in green ink.

Anyway, if you would't mind stopping ranting for a second about how the SWP are evil opportunists and actually deal with the issues? And you call *our* analysis shallow! Malcolm has I think made a pretty good summing up of what the issues are I think, but let me throw in a question. Do you actually think a separate party in Scotland from the rest of the UK is actually a good idea? Cos I don't. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:3:35 AM COMMENT-BODY:I finish my argument with this(fresh off the press I gather)below. You talk about "democracy"-- but what's
democratic about this?:

"Mr Sheridan said last night that there was an "unstoppable momentum
building up" for the creation of a new socialist party in Scotland to
replace an organisation that had become "grotesquely distorted".
He said two groupings within the SSP, the SWP (Socialist Workers) and
CWI (the former Militant) had voted to leave the existing SSP, as had
the South of Scotland regional committee, where Ms Byrne is based.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/68365.html


But you say "Do you actually think a separate party in Scotland from the rest of the UK is actually a good idea? Cos I don't..." OF COURSE YOU DON'T thats' obvious and thats' the point because you see the SSP as a political aberration.That's your starting point in this -- a particular shibboleth embraced by most of the British far left that, in your/their thinking, is the MacBethian fatal flaw that "explains" everything else...

I find this so absurd that I have to wonder what brand of Marxism you're smoking. Because it offers, does it not, justification for any actions that may be a carried out in the SW platform's name --any actions.

In the bud here is a RESPECT franchise-- that's the core political thrust being engineered -- thats' bleedin obvious as Galloway has been promising as much these last 8 months to a year with his initial overtures to Sheridan --BEFORE this shit hit the fan.

IF these issues were as consciously political(and nay shallow) as you seem to believe then why aren't they being addressed and taken to the SSP membership -- why be fearful of such a process?

Because the party is so corrupt it's wasted effort? Say that if you think that is the case. You've more or less said it several times already -- that any gesture toward negotiating democratic debate within the SSP is fruitless.So what does that say about "your" or anyone's else attitudes to the SSP ranks? "We won't bother with them -- this is about Tommy versus the UL --and we're taking our bat and ball and shoving off..."

So let's recap, shall we -- sort of anyway --:

(1) You support trial by media instead of democratic debate within the forums of a political party.
(2)The SSP was sentenced to fail because of its obsession with Scottish nationalism was a genetic predisposition to today's events and they're only getting their just desserts.

I told you, did I not, that Tommy Sheridan was not going to be talking about a new political party unless he had booth captains in his pocket. And what is this news than an affirmation of that very thing.

My view is, and I'm not asking you to accept it, but my view is that because Sheridan and his platform cohorts could not control the SSP they decided to cynically destroy it. You'll say that the damage is on the part of the UL -- but aside from that dispute -- what is this than an attempted coup de grace? The preferred option, is it not, that there be ONLY ONE socialist party in Scotland -- Sheridan's/Galloway's.

If Sheridan has a case against the leadership or the UL why doesn't he take it to the ranks rather than the Sunday papers? What if one of you lot handled your dissent vis a vis the SWP that way?

I said initially that I couldn't accuse the SWP of duplicity. I take that back. I'm not asking you to accept that point. However, and this is why I stick my nose in despite my distance -- I have to wonder what sort of cognitive processes you share that you can rationalise the way you have done in this forum.

Thats' why I'm so annoyed. Have you disengaged your political brains in this instance so that you can trade in this level of argumentation?

It reflects poorly on your political culture. Thats' the terrible thing. You cannot ascend to the level of politics around this issue., preferring instead to indulge in a scenario driven by personalities - evil doers and the like. Thats' not the Marxism I know.

But I guess if you cannot see that I guess there's nothing I can do about it.

dave riley -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:34 PM COMMENT-BODY:David - I really find some of your arguments pretty amazing. Your claim that my analysis is driven by personality politics, and has nothing to do with Marxism, beggars belief. It is precisely the analysis of the UL, which amounts to the claim that Sheridan is a lying sexist hypocrite, that is personalised and a-political. And if you can tell me on what *Marxist* basis supporting Scottish independence is a good move I'm all years. It is people like you that have developed a shibboleth of an independent Scotland, something that will do nothing to advance socialism at all.

As to your argument that Sheridan is opposing democracy, and your question as to why the membership have not been consulted about this affair, let me remind you that the policies of the EC - a committee of only 19 people - were overturned by the much larger NC, which I think you'll agree is a much more representative body.

It's very clear that you are one of these people that is motivated by conspiracy theories about the SWP. Your suggestion that this whole saga is a plot by Sheridan, the SWP and the CWI to destroy the SSP is absolutely ludicrous, and just goes against the basic facts. I'm really not hearing any Marxism in your arguments, notwithstanding your attacks on my credibility as a Marxist. All I can see is complete detachment from reality on your part. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:4:46 PM COMMENT-BODY:I better finish off as I am repeating myself I know.

My argument wasn't about so much the core thrust of nationalism in Scotland but that the SWP used that as a shibboleth with which to beat the SSP. (The irony is of course the question -- how much of a nationalist is Tommy Sheridan? Especially now that the SWP has thrown in their lot with him )

I'm sure there are many mistakes , misjudgements and the like being played out here by all stakeholders -- BUT, the end result is what the this business is all about. It's a question of the dynamic and where it leads and who heads off in what direction.I see the SWP and the CWI signing on with Sheridan in an unprincipled fashion, devoid of politics while hiding behind a dog's breakfast of rationales-- with the INTENTION of destroying the SSP and displacing it in Scotland with the RESPECT franchise.

You can cry foul! Ok, fine -- but thats' exactly what is going to transpire -- regardless of any amount of rhetoric you try to dress the 'debate ' up in. AND WHAT"s MORE you know that I'm right. Because whether it is said or not -- thats' the main game. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Sport Selections COMMENT-DATE:9:26 PM COMMENT-BODY:dave,

the current debate in the SSP has very little (probaly zero) to do with question of nationalism in scotland and all to do with the process and dynamics of party fetishism and its ideological roots.

As perhaps probably deeply poltically pissed but intelligent and committed comrades caught in the middle ground and raking forlornly over the party ashes are saying (in the obvious hope of reigniting some kind of flame) : "Prior to Tommy Sheridan's case against the News of the World, the EC adopted methods (wilfully calling an EC meeting to demand a personal statement, making a dodgy minute, leaking its existence to the press etc) that needlessly involved the party in the court action. The EC’s methods have brought about the split.



The EC have also brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. Thousands of pounds in legal costs were incurred because of the totally misguided way the EC reacted to the demand by the court that the so-called minutes should be handed over. That was on top of around £30,000 in fines imposed after the stunt in the parliament. As a result of these methods the party has no fighting fund to contest next year’s elections.



Since the court case, the methods adopted by the EC majority have been even worse. Socialists throughout Britain cheered Tommy Sheridan’s court victory over the News of the World. But the EC disagreed. Leading members have demanded (their term) perjury trials; a demand that opens up the possibility of the criminal prosecution of party comrades. Others have threatened the livelihoods of comrades, by questioning their eligibility for their jobs or by demanding they should be sacked.



The EC majority, as a whole, has hi-jacked the party apparatus to the point where they have even changed the locks and security codes at the party's office in Stanley Street. They have produced a so-called members' bulletin, using around £1000 pounds of party cash, that was nothing more than a factional statement, completely unrepresentative of opinion in the party.



Exploiting the lack of standing orders, they have openly used the party apparatus for factional purposes by attempting to gerrymander the membership of the party (not processing membership applications in breach of paragraph 2.2 of the constitution) and by calling into question branch delegations to the National Council.



Individual members of the EC have launched a string of personal attacks in the capitalist press which have served to lower the standing of the party in the eyes of the working class and to demoralise party members. These personal attacks have also assisted the News of the World in its appeal against the decision of the recent court case."

"At the time of writing the EC has gone well beyond its powers by proposing, bureaucratically, to abandon the meeting of the National Council on 27 August. Rather than face up to the consequences of its political mistakes before the party, they are attempting to use their control of the apparatus to dodge the question; to put off the day of reckoning. They seem to be doing everything possible to engineer a formal split.



Reject these Methods



Calling in the capitalist state to adjudicate on internal political differences is a serious breach of basic socialist principles. We call on the party convener, all individual party members and all branches to condemn this unequivocally. No member of the EC must be allowed to dodge this question. Is the capitalist state an instrument of class oppression or neutral? What is your attitude to anyone who “demands” that the police carry out a criminal investigation of party comrades? Do you accept the Marxist analysis of the state as the instrument by which Capitalism rules? You will be judged on what you do now, in this crisis situation, and not on what you have done in the past.



Using the party apparatus for factional purposes is symptomatic of a serious bureaucratic degeneration. We call on the party convener, all individual members and party branches to condemn this practice. We call on the EC, even at this late stage, to abandon these methods."

And further in a clear attack on former Militant, SSP TU organiser and NOTW testifier Richie Venton

"The Trade Union Committee has done nothing to bring together rank and file trade unionists to let them discuss the problems of the organised working class from a socialist perspective. Since the party conference, the Trade Union Committee has not met. Things have got so bad that it is reliably reported that the RMT is refusing to have any further discussions with the party's trade union organiser."

And tis non-aligned comrades who are pushing these qoutes who support Dave's call for keeping the SSP together (note nothing is to do with national question tho dave)! That's how bad it got.

Anyway I'm free (free at last) now and think the 3rd September meeting in Glasgow is full of something potentially much broader, blacker, and troublesome for the state.

Malcolm W -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Dave Riley COMMENT-DATE:2:42 AM COMMENT-BODY:OK . Let's leave it there.We will watch expectantly while the SWP & the CWI work together in the spirit of left unity to create the Tartan RESPECT around a one point platform -- Tommy Sheridan.

I've read the Sheridan blog and such so I'll try to keep up to date with events.

The problem with all factional disputes is that despite how bitter they become and despite any number of accusations, claims and counter claims, the politics involved usually becomes self evident in the light of hindsight and later events.

I leave you with the first sentence of the SW platforms' statement of August 21 which I believe is a misrepresentation of the SWP's activity and perspective in Scotland:
"This aggregate of the Socialist Worker Platform recognises with some sadness that the SSP is no longer the broad and open mass party of the left we committed ourselves to building when we joined it some five years ago...." -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Anonymous COMMENT-DATE:9:04 AM COMMENT-BODY:Very cool design! Useful information. Go on! Bmw 330 ci performance package allegra deville bathroom faucet grohe How+to+use+compaq+1200+recovery+disk Mpeg hot tub sex http://www.delta-how-to-faucets.info/Franke-faucet-series-600.html 3d video cameras http://www.accutanecrohns.info/Zyban-suicide.html Neuropathy topamax tires pni radar detectors ebay Water faucet for dog Bosch shu43co dishwashers http://www.terryclothloungechaircovers.info/Affordable-memory-foam-for-mattress.html Bleeding ford ranger clutch -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Anonymous COMMENT-DATE:8:01 PM COMMENT-BODY:That's a great story. Waiting for more. Instant+online+business+insurance+quotes best online soma in fioricet free huge tits pornstars F78 15st trailer tires Middle eastern dance entertainers fort lauderdale fl Big breast body builder Mandalay+area+rugs Camera home internet security --------