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Joe Middleton · No Longer a Wean Joined: 04 May 2006 Posts: 81

It's with a sense of wonder that anyone who cares about Scottish socialism witnesses the SSP tearing itself apart over Tommy Sheridan's court case. Anyone from outside can see clearly how much damage is being done to the party with their statements and counter statements denouncing each other.

I have to say though that I think Tommy Sheridan's statement was right. I've came in contact with a lot of SSP people and whenever Sheridan's name is mentioned, shortly after he ends up being accused of something outrageous, the only thing consistent being that no two stories are ever the same.

Kev Williamson wrote an excellent article on the Sheridan case which has sadly been spiked by the Scottish Socialist Voice. In it he tries to look at the bigger picture and concludes that it was in the British state's interests to orchestrate a character assassination on Sheridan. He has published this on his own blog and it is an interesting and thoughtful read.

Since Sheridan's kniving the party has undergone a disastrous drop in popularity and the Scottish Socialist Voice, once an excellent paper, hardly even mentions the word independence any more (except when Allan Armstrong writes in to slag of the SNP with inaccurate speculations) and the words socialism, internationalism and independence have been moved from the front to the back pages.

Obviously the decision to admit the arch Brits in the SWP was a disastrous miscalculation. The SWP love to wax lyrical about Ireland and the IRA but they hate Scotland with a passion. Why can't they see that their international campaigns are meaningless without freedom and democracy in Scotland? They can't claim it's never been pointed out, I was writing to these characters almost twenty years ago making the same points I'm still having to make now (see my discussions below with John Wight) and the only logical answer to their obstinacy is that they are in fact a political front for the secret service. Maybe not all of them, but a good proportion and enough to keep the left hopelessly divided in England, and now the same thing is happening in Scotland.

Sheridan's letter was a harsh and biting effort but it was 100% accurate. He has been getting stabbed in the back on a regular basis as have others on the pro-independence left of the SSP.

Some SSP branches hate the SNP more than the Labour party, why because they are now obviously run by the SWP. Donald Anderson's branch in Maryhill is one, the one in Dundee which opposed the plan to go only for the second vote is another.

When Sheridan led the SSP they were in the vanguard of the pro independence left. While the SNP were weak under Swinney, the SSP could capitalise oin their mistakes and paint themselves as a genuine alternative for the pro independence vote (which is growing fast and is still a lot larger than the SNP). The SSP took votes of the SNP by showing them up and by contrasting Sheridan's political honesty with the actions of some within the SNP who (at the time) were trying to steer it in a number of different directions.

Under Salmond of course the SNP are no longer divided and their political positions have clarified. Both their MP's at Westminster and their MSP's in the Scottish Parliament are singing from the same hymn sheet and as a result the SNP appears a lot more credible.

Meanwhile Colin Fox, within months of being selected showed his contempt for Scotland and Scottish culture by attacking St Andrew and the Saltire, an incredible act of political stupidity that his desperate denialas did nothing to avert. Fox had pulled his trousers down and exposed his union jack pants and no-one would ever really trust the SSP on Scottish independence again.

Of course there is no doubt that McCombes supports independence and that he and Sheridan are both genuine Scottish republicans, but that is not coming through in their paper or their press releases and subsequently it's not being seen any more by the public.

The tragedy is that the SSP are still working with the SNP and Greens in the Convention and the potential is there to have a united pro-independence campaign in 2007 if they take up the 1M votes initiative provided by Independence First.

Kev's column hit the nail on the head, and was replied to by some loon who calls herself Mary Whitewash, she proved Sheridan right by spouting out a huge amount of spurious allegations, naturally anonymously. She even admitted she's tried to get Sheridan removed early on in his career within Militant. Obviously his talent was spotted early by the British state.

Of course up untill relatively recently (before the formation of the SSP) Sheridan was one of the good Brits, and it was only once he had his new party and it became successful that he was marked for removal.

Sheridan says that the party is obsessed with gender issues and Kev confirmed that by suggesting in an answer to Whitewash that he personally favoured all woman candidates lists with no men allowed! I like Kev and admire his work in keeping promoting the independence arguments withen the SSP through his column but this particular political stance is quite absurd.

Inadvertantly Kev has proven Sheridan right, if this kind of bollocks can be treated seriously by a leading thinker in the SSP then they are indeed completely out of touch with the Scottish people and their interests. Disenfranchising the male population by removing their rights to stand as candidates is political correctness gone mad.

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