| red_rebel2 Posted on 22/8 23:17 | |
| FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
Here comes the split. By this time next week there will be all kinds of shyite flying around. Punches too. Watch out for an unprincipled alliance of Millies and SWP to back Sheridans new party then a faction fight ripping it apart again within a year. Scotland on Sunday... TOMMY Sheridan yesterday vowed to turn his back on the Scottish Socialists and to set up his own party, after admitting he had no future in the organisation he founded. Mr Sheridan urged those in the SSP to join him in a new movement, which his supporters said could be called the Solidarity Scottish Socialist Movement - a reference to the shipworkers' opposition movement in communist Poland. Yesterday, Mr Sheridan made his own preference quite clear. "The reality is there's no place for me. Some people will stay with the SSP but I hope that some will come with me and help form a new movement," he said. He also denied reports any new party will form an alliance with George Galloway's party Respect. "I'm sure George will support what we do here in Scotland but it won't be a version or a form or an extension of Respect." Steve Arnott, SSP organiser of the Highlands and Islands and spokesman for the SSP Majority, said a number of suggested names had been put forward for a new party including Solidarity, the Socialist Majority, the Democratic Green Socialists or Independent Scottish Socialists. However, no final decision will be made until a vote is put to supporters in early September. | |
| TeessideCleveland Posted on 22/8 23:18 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
Hard left/hard right parties always seem to split into factions | |
| red_rebel2 Posted on 22/8 23:23 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
And yesterday's internal bulletin justifying the move for a split..... Comrades and friends, I’d like to make a short contribution to the debate now raging about the future of organised socialism in Scotland. We came very far in a short period of time with the SSP, but that party may have reached its historical limits. The ULN faction has come to dominate key positions out of all proportion to its weight in the SSP and has abused our democratic structures. Individuals within that faction have ignored the will of the National Council. They have crossed the class divide in siding with the NOTW against a socialist and, consequently, have turned the party we have built together into a colossal train wreck. They have tarnished the SSP banner – perhaps beyond all repair. At meetings with comrades individually and collectively over the last few days I have raised the following points for consideration, which I would now like to raise with you – the 360 signatories to the SSP Majority. I have no doubt we could recapture the party apparatus and leadership at our conference in October – but we must ask ourselves what would be we be recapturing? The ULN will remain a constant thorn in our side, its extreme gender politics, fixation with personalities and infantile ultra leftism dragging the name of the party through the mud. Its obsession with rewriting the verdict of my defamation trial would continue to be a stone weight around our necks. The policy and press co-ordinator of our party, Alan McCombes, declared in the Herald last week that the EC is now “at war” with me. I thought the only war we were interested in conducting was the class war against injustice and inequality. Do we really wish to spend our energies and talents fighting an incessant internal struggle with these people for the next two months and beyond, without an end in sight? Or would it perhaps be better to make a clean break and begin anew, with a fresh, untarnished vehicle for socialist politics in Scotland? Is the best use of our time fighting an internal enemy while thousands of people out there in the real world want to build on the victory over Murdoch? Would we not perhaps be better to take the best of our number – the trade unionists, members and branches who have stood united around principled socialist politics – and build a new party of the Scottish left that would be the kind of broad, open, campaigning party working people and their families can once again believe in? I have in mind a new movement that would continue the battle for the vision we all hold dear – of an independent socialist Scotland free from poverty and want, of internationalism, of freedom from environmental destruction, of opposition to Bush and Blair’s imperialist wars – but bigger, bolder and better than anything that has gone before. I raise these questions with you in the most serious manner and ask that you ponder over them over the next few days and weeks. I hope you will come to the All-Scotland meeting called by Rosemary and myself and have your say on these issues. The meeting will be held at: The Central Station Hotel, Glasgow. 1.00pm on Sunday 3rd September. We have a historic decision to make. Whatever that decision is to be we must make it and take it together, standing and fighting as one. Tommy Sheridan. | |
| red_rebel2 Posted on 22/8 23:26 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
And more debris in the Sunday Herald.... 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. Sheridan, who was awarded £200,000 damages earlier this month in his case against the News Of The World, said in an interview with the Sunday Herald that he wants to start a new socialist movement. “It’s time to build a new organisation out of comrades, not collaborators. I am confident we can build a new, bigger and better socialist vehicle,” he said. He claimed that David McKay and Martin McCardie, both Glasgow-born actors, writers and directors, will join him forming the new unnamed party. Sheridan said: “Peter Mullan, Davie McKay, Martin McCardie are among those I’ve had consultations with and they have said they want to be part of something new, along with miners, nurses and everyday workers. “I predict hundreds, maybe thousands, of ordinary, everyday workers will fight for equality and justice. The war is with inequality, not with fellow socialists. And Scotland is big enough for more than one socialist party.” In the weeks since Sheridan’s court case ended, the SSP has descended into civil war, with Sheridan branding some members of the party as “political scabs”. However, in an interview with the Sunday Herald’s sister paper The Herald yesterday, Sheridan claimed he regretted his use of the word “scabs”. Last night he added: “It was the only term I could think of at the time. It was how I felt. But I damaged my dignity by lowering myself to the level of the name-callers. It should have been kept for an internal meeting.” But Sheridan insisted some party members were “vile” and that the atmos phere within the SSP was “poisonous”. He said several members, including a retired female teacher, had told him that they were frightened to go to branch meetings because of the level of intimidation. The fighting within the SSP has became so bad that one party member physically attacked another in a street brawl in Edinburgh two weeks ago, according to an anonymous caller who contacted the Sunday Herald. Sheridan said: “The atmosphere a faction in the SSP has created is poisonous and unacceptable. “It’s obvious that those who are involved with the faction, which has hijacked the SSP and all its apparatus, have hatred for me as their motivating factor. “The SSP have been bastardised, they’re now a grotesque caricature of what we had hoped. It’s time for them to fight among themselves. It’s time to make a clean break. “The new party will share some of the political ideology of the old SSP and the internal regime will be one of tolerance, friendship and genuine solidarity.” It is not known whether Sheridan will lead the new party. He said it is a decision that will be made by the electorate. He said: “I don’t know who will lead it. Those who join it will decide who, but it has to be grassroots and will concentrate on politics, not personalities. “The electorate of Scotland are intelligent enough to make up their own mind. In nine months’ time we will wage war on poverty and inequality. The party will be bigger and better.” The politician, who received more than 1000 e-mails, 460 cards and 260 letters during and since the defamation action, does not believe the court case has damaged him politically, but that it might have damaged the SSP. He said: “A theme running through all the correspondence I have received isn’t just congratulations at beating Murdoch’s empire, but about an SSP that is damaged, with backstabbers bereft of solidarity and dignity.” Sheridan also revealed new details for plans to discuss the new party at a public meeting. “There will be a public meeting on September 3 at Glasgow’s Central Hotel for those who want to build a new vehicle in Scottish socialism and promote peace and tolerance.” But current SSP leader Colin Fox has said there is no room for another socialist party in Scotland, that it would confuse the public, and claims he is confident voters will stick with the SSP. He said: “Tommy has got it badly wrong. There is no scope for another socialist party; there is only space for one. And we will get the support of the voter on the basis of our political programme, not personalities, however exalted they may be.” But Sheridan said: “It’s clear I’m not welcome at the SSP. I could fight and maybe win. That would feed the media frenzy but do nothing for socialism. “The electorate will know from the bile-infested comments that Tommy Sheridan has nothing to do with the Scottish Socialist Party. “The new party will be about solidarity, against poverty and inequality, working to help asylum seekers and promoting independent, nuclear-free social independence.” | |
| boro_newjersey Posted on 22/8 23:33 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
TC - you're right. I did my dissertation at uni (this was way back in the 80s) on the Millie / SWP split and concluded (much to the agreement of the examiner, thank god) that the need for purity of thought and adherence to a single message or program meant that such factions kept splitting into smaller and smaller groups as they couldn't cope with debate or argument (unless you were brutal about policing it like Militant or SWP). Happy days... | |
| Revol_Tees Posted on 22/8 23:42 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
Cheers for that, r_r. "The fighting within the SSP has became so bad that one party member physically attacked another in a street brawl in Edinburgh two weeks ago, according to an anonymous caller who contacted the Sunday Herald." F***ing hell. Looks like it's already started. A taster for up-and-coming events maybe. Is this a disaster or what? I still can't understand why Sheridan's done it, because if they really are the "SSP Majority" then why split from the SSP? Is it because he doesn't really he has enough support to take on the leadership at the national conference? This seems like a sudden change in direction compared with the fighting talk of previous weeks. And the stuff about forming a party all about politics and not personalities - why does he think anyone will follow him from the SSP into a new party for reasons other than personalities? It's such a mess I can hardly bring myself to think too deeply about, but I watch with morbid interest even if it is depressing. PS. I see the Socialist Worker have been gunning against the SSP leadership big-style for a few weeks now. Sheridan is getting 110% support from them. | |
| red_rebel2 Posted on 22/8 23:50 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
*ding* BNJ, tell me more about your dissertation. I am genuinely interested. In fact, I am probably the only person ever thatis likely to engage in it. Your examiner never gave a shat. What split? The Militant and SWP were never organisationally linked. Are you going furtherback to the Grant/Cliff/Healy grouping of the 40s? What examples of splits did you use to show that "purity of thought" was important? What brutal policing? How far is that normal political processes and how far is it a product of democratic cenralism and the bastardisation of the marxist method? What level was it at? What degree? Have you got a copy? --- Post edited by red_rebel2 on 22/8 23:52 --- | |
| TeessideCleveland Posted on 22/8 23:52 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
WAs Eastenders on tonight? | |
| red_rebel2 Posted on 22/8 23:58 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
Revol: As I hinted a few weeks back this is more about how Militant and the SWP are shaping up to carve up the SSP. Both hope to capture Sheridan as a trophy trot in order to boost their own fledgling new parties. The party was always a fragile alliance and I think it will shatter several ways and leave the without any MSPs. There is no going back for Sheridan. For all his pompous bluster it is he who made the issues personal, boosted obviously by his recent encoragement of a cult of the personality. He will keep his seat on the back of the trial victory and personal capital but will be left with a rump organistation with far less political weight or widespread powerbase. Expect to see him on Celebrity Big McBrother next year | |
| TeessideCleveland Posted on 23/8 0:00 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
In other words you are saying Hard left/hard right parties always seem to split into factions 
| |
| red_rebel2 Posted on 23/8 0:06 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
All parties split into factions everytime there is a problematic issue until they get into power. Then they stick together but split into unofficial factions. | |
| boro_newjersey Posted on 23/8 0:09 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
I have a copy somewhere but not electronically - it was all typing in those days. It was called "Prolier Than Thou — Comparative Strategies of Postwar British Trotskyism". I was going to call it "Go FOURTH and Multiply" and you might be the only other person who gets that joke. TC's right, we should watch Eastenders... University of Hull, Politics and History (2:1) 1990 I went back to the Grant / Cliff / Healy grouping and showed how they grew apart (amongst other things) in their different approaches to the Labour Party. Nothing earth shattering really, but I just loved the fact that one tightly knit group could develop into three distinct organizations who HATED one another. It was full of quotes from "Life of Brian" ("Splitter", "People's Front of Judea" etc). I was actually at Uni with both Paul Foot's son and Tony Cliff's daughter, so we had quite an active SWP on campus. Foot's son was a really nice lad and at least you could talk to him about footy... I'll see if I can dig it out. | |
| TeessideCleveland Posted on 23/8 0:11 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
Agree with that RR2 but the Labour/Tory parties (while having defections)manage to keep the overwhelming majority inside the party rather than totally splitting into ever more close-knit sects --- Post edited by TeessideCleveland on 23/8 0:11 --- | |
| boro_newjersey Posted on 23/8 0:16 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
I mean that the desire for ideological purity often means that the smaller organizations can't / won't tolerate dissention. What would be a reasonable policy debate within a "traditional" political party often sends huge ructions through smaller organizations and over time they have become smaller and smaller. | |
| TeessideCleveland Posted on 23/8 0:17 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
Agree with that boro_newjersey | |
| red_rebel2 Posted on 23/8 0:20 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
I am *considering* writing a book about British Trotskyism's triangle of hate. I have personal experience of the methodology of Cliff and Grant and know people who were scalded by Healy and have done long years of heaps of research with red flag patches sewed neatly onto my anorak The dynamics and U-turns of the group are fascinating although I don't think it was ever a tightly knit; they were ordered together by the main man and never gelled politically or personally. It was an accident waiting to happen. What sources did you use? I got to know Bornstein and Dan Smith quite well and between them they knew everything. | |
| red_rebel2 Posted on 23/8 0:32 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
BNJ: The specific problem on the leninist one dimensional vanguard left is that 'Marxism' is presented as 'scientific socialism'. The logic is that as a science it always produces the right answer. The party represent the highest state of scientific Marxist consciousness so by definition they will be right on issues of political principle. By extention, if you disagree with the party then you are wrong, unscientific and anti-Marxist so must be driven from the workers' movement and exposed as theoretically bankrupt. That explains why parties split, becuase there is no agreeing to disagree over whether to join the Labour Party or on the position of Cuba, it is black and white and if you don't agree then you must leave or be driven out. It has lead to a left that is a mosaic of grouplets who agree on 98% of political principles but who believe a tactical difference is a fundamental philisophical difference. These things to do invalidate Marxism but are a massive indictment of the quality of people applying it. | |
| moxzin Posted on 23/8 8:29 | |
| re: FAO Revol - Tommy Sheridan | |
"I have in mind a new movement that would continue the battle for the vision we all hold dear....of internationalism...." Blimey, this is something new then isn't it? | |
