>============================================================ >The Herald > >Socialist ranks rise by 400 as workers' party joins en masse >ROBBIE DINWOODIE======================= > >THE Scottish Socialist Party yesterday overwhelmingly approved >negotiations to allow some 400 members of the Socialist >Workers' Party to join en masse and build strength in the run-up >to the general election campaign, which will see it contest all 72 >seats in the country. > >Tommy Sheridan, party convener, said he was delighted at the >successful outcome to the negotiations which will see the SSP >membership rise from around 2000 to 2400 at a stroke, coupled >with a further recruitment campaign. > >The SWP south of the border is merging with the Socialist >Alliance, but this development is some three years further >advanced in Scotland, with the alliance having given way to a >fully-fledged party. Mr Sheridan welcomed the influx of activists, >saying this would boost the general election campaign. > >He will today join hundreds of other campaigners, including >other politicians and church representatives, in a mass sit-down >protest at the Faslane base on the Clyde. > >He linked these events yesterday, citing the growth in the party's >strength as a sign that support for socialism remains healthy. > >The SSP reckons it needs £100,000 to cover the costs of fighting >a full-scale general election campaign, including the inevitability >of many lost deposits at £5000 each, but Mr Sheridan said: "The >reason why we must stand in every seat is that there are very >many socialists out there who want to vote for a party that >believes in redistributing wealth but who feel disenfranchised by >the changes in the Labour party over the last four to five years. > >"It's incredibly bad that we are talking about a democratic >election but the question is asking whether you can afford to >stand. It shows you how weak our democracy is." > >Rejecting the idea that his participation in today's Faslane >protests was a stunt, he claimed that there were 400 there a year >ago, when he was arrested and later served five days in prison. >This year there could be three times that number, proving that >the argument was being won. > >The Rt Reverend Andrew McLellan, the moderator of the Kirk's >general assembly, will be among those blockading the Faslane >Trident submarine base. The demonstration, which aims to >close the base for the day, has been organised by anti-nuclear >weapons group Trident Ploughshares and Scottish CND. > >------------------------------------------ >The Scotsman > >Tommy's socialism is a hopeless cause > >Robert McNeil >ABOUT 250 people gathered in Glasgow at the weekend for a >political seance. They had gathered to resurrect the spirit of Karl >Marx. > >Their medium was Tommy Sheridan, who spent some >considerable time on a platform trying to breathe life into the >coma-stricken body of socialism. > >He claimed some success and, for the willing believer, there >may have been signs of twitching in the corpse. > >But, to many objective observers, while these optimistic or >deluded or dangerous or well-meaning people are not to be >lightly dismissed or scorned, their cause remains hopeless, >their language out-dated, their bookish splits and schisms >comical. > >Red flags still flap in their heads, and across their imaginations >march masses of proletarians, abandoning Who Wants To Be A >Millionaire? to take to the streets for some struggling. > >The Scottish Socialist Party, buoyed by a recent council >by-election result, was in fighting mood. Still bracketed among >"others" in opinion polls, its aim is to become the significant >other of politics. > >Its main weapon is the charismatic Mr Sheridan, whose iconic >image - fist-raised as he is sworn in as a member of the >Scottish parliament - decorated the slogan-plastered posters >around the room at Glasgow Caledonian University. > >Tastefully dressed, with a television light throwing a larger than >life shadow behind him, he addressed his "comrades" >(pronounced "komradds" in the American manner). > >"We are not a party of preachers. We are a party of warriors - >peace warriors," he told them, his eyes ablaze like picket-line >braziers. > >The chosen battlefield is electoral politics, but only as "a >complement to the class war". A recent skirmish had proven >successful: 300 votes at the aforementioned council by-election >in Irvine. > >It gave them third place, but it could have been second if Arthur >Scargill's schismatic Socialist Labour Party had not taken 48 >votes. > >Mr Sheridan plugged the book Imagine, by Alan McCombes and >himself: "If comrades haven't yet purchased the book, you can >get it today." Available at all good capitalist bookshops. > >The party, which has only 2,000 members, plans to fight all 72 >Scottish seats in the general election. Though one speaker >feared they might end up like the Natural Law Party - "subject to >derision" - a fighting fund of £100,000 was set up. > >A remarkable £14,850 was raised from the conference, ranging >from £1,000 donated by a well-heeled Edinburgh member to £50 >from an unemployed Glasgow man. > >The SSP, as the treasurer frequently pointed out, has no big >business backers, unlike the four main "free-market" players, >among which it includes the Scottish National Party. > >In parliament, Mr Sheridan is probably closer to the SNP than >any other party. But, while independence for Scotland is the >SSP's official policy, it does not command unanimous support >from the ranks. > >A claim that Scottish Nationalists were "socialists at heart" >brought scornful laughter. The "Celtic tiger" model of Ireland's >economy was ridiculed. All it had brought was more exploitation >and a heroin crisis. Still, at least the party was having healthy >disagreement (or "crisis splits" as they are known in political >journalism). > >As Mr McCombes put it: "The SSP is not a party of cloned sheep, >but a vibrant party of intelligent men and women." > >This much is true, but it is also a party of sects and factions. >Speakers identified themselves as members of affiliated >groups: the Republican Communist Network; the Campaign for >a Federal Republic; the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement; >the Committee for a Workers' International; Workers Unity; >groups from which voters would instinctively flee. > >These were the guys spouting Edwardian talk of "imperialism" >and displaying a deep-grained desire to remain a >holier-than-thou minority. > >One earnest young fellow, steeped in the minutes and footnotes >of the fourth congress of the Third International (Bognor Regis, >1952), warned repeatedly of the "slippery slope to populism". > >There is also the prospect of the barricade-obsessed Socialist >Workers Party signing up. A speaker from the SWP spoke of how >much they had in common (whereas beforehand, sitting in the >back row, they had made snide remarks about various speakers >- "sectarian", "reactionary" - and pointedly declined to applaud). > >These factional tendrils bind the SSP in exclamation-mark >politics, forever tempting it away from democratic engagement. > >They pickle the collective brain in aspic, leaving it with decayed >dreams still dominated by the cogs and wheels of old industries, >by shafts and shunters, by welding sparks and the clank of iron. > >The upshot is that the SSP will forever remain on the margins, >the political equivalent of the Wee Frees: moralistic, idealistic, >unrealistic. > >One speaker said red-blooded socialism was forever being >pronounced dead. "But, like Tom Jones, it will be making a >comeback," he added. > >People are always trying to breathe new life into socialism. They >get so far. > >They get a few twitches from the body. But it never gets up and >walks. > >So, they start falling out with each other and forming sects. And >that's the trouble with revolutionary politics. Nothing changes. > > >============================================================
