[Marxism] The Scottish Socialist Party: the biggest small party | Links

[Jscotlive at aol.com]

Stuart:
 
The blaming of the SSP for perjury charges is ironic, since that is  exactly
what the SSP members called to testify in Sheridan's argue they were  being
demanded to open themselves up to - to open themselves up to perjury  charges
and jail sentences.

Reply:
 
They were asked, and expected, to stand shoulder to shoulder with a fellow  
socialist against the most vile, anti-working class news corporation on the  
planet. It's called class consciousness, the same mindset of the picket line.  
And what do we call workers who cross said picket lines? We call them  scabs.
 
It was as a result of their decision to give evidence on  behalf of the 
Murdoch Press against Sheridan that this group introduced the  possibility of 
perjury charges being brought. Interesting how in the original  case the only 
witnesses revealed to have lied were News of the World  witnesses.
 
Despite the collusion of these former socialists, a jury of 11 men and  
women, listening to all of the evidence presented in the course of a five week  
trial, found against the News of the World. And yet it is Sheridan and his  
witnesses being investigated for perjury. Doesn't this stink even a little to  you?
 
Go and read some of the articles on the Defend Tommy Sheridan website. This  
is the first time in Scottish legal history that a perjury investigation has  
been initiated in the aftermath of a civil case. Too, the sheer amount of  
resources applied to this investigation by the police in terms of money and  
man-hours is also staggering.
 
In short, this is the mother of all witchhunts, driven by the establishment  
against a man whose real crime in their eyes is that he's spent his entire  
political life speaking truth to power. 
 
And the SSP, so called socialists, have lined up on the side of  the 
establishment! 
 
All the intellectual gymnastics in the world cannot change what is nothing  
more than the crossing of class lines.
 
Stuart:
 
If the SSP is such a poisonous rump, why did they receive more votes  (just)
than Solidarity in the Glasgow East by-election? The combined vote of  the
two would have seen the socialist left come fourth, beating the  Liberal
Democrats and scoring a combined percentage marginally higher than in  2005
SSP result (marginally lower raw number ofv otes).

Reply:
 
What a joke this is. They win 43 votes more than Solidarity and you'd think  
they'd won the seat. I won't attempt to point out the obvious - i.e., that 
with  two candidates with the last name Curran, one of them the SSP candidate and 
one  New Labour, there was always going to be an element of confusion. No, I 
won't  point this out as that would be churlish. 
 
But go back and read my original post re the FBU, re the Defend Sheridan  
rally at which the likes of Paddy Hill and Gerry Conlon, men whose  credentials 
within the progressive movement are inarguable, two men  who understand very 
well what solidarity means, and who described the SSP  leadership as scumbags. 
Look at the petition in support of Sheridan and some of  the names who've 
signed it, inc Bob Crow, and then tell me that amongst the most  politically 
conscious section of the left, the SSP are not considered nothing  more than a 
poisonous rump.
 
Stuart:
 
The key problem is not that the SSP is a "poisonous rump", but that  the
socialist forces are divided - which I suspect is more off-putting  to
working people than any of the wild allegations thrown around.  This
destructive division of the Scottish left is not helped in the slightest  by
labeling a key section of it the State Security Party.

Reply:
 
The SSP are now and will forever be known as scabs.
 
And rightly so.