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Scottish Socialist Party August 2006 All-Members’ Bulletin crisis in the party the fight for the truth For 20 months the party has not put in writing the sit- JULY 2006 and Israel has launched a uation regarding Tommy Sheridan’s resignation as series of murderous air attacks against national convener. Lebanon. Rivers of blood continue to flow through the streets of Baghdad and Now the court case is over, Alan McCombes, national other Iraqi cities. policy and press coordinator, has prepared this article In Afghanistan the Taliban is back in to ensure that party members hear the true situation business. In Africa, one year after the from the party. extravagant promises of the G8 leaders to Along with this members’ bulletin, you will find a copy end world poverty, nothing has changed of the Executive Committee minutes of 9 November for the poorest people of the planet. 2004. At the end of this meeting there were 19 people In the UK, the Blair government has in attendance who all agreed that Tommy should be swung so far to the right that even the asked to resign. The following members, who were at Tory Party has given up trying to com- the meeting can verify that Tommy admmitted to pete. The Lib Dems, under new leader, Menzies Campbell, are going nowhere. attending Cupids Club in Manchester and that he In Scotland, the old order is crumbling. intended to lie about this: Carolyn Leckie, Jo Harvie, Polls show there is now a pro-independ- Felicity Garvie, Colin Fox, Catriona Grant, Rosie Kane, ence majority in Scotland. The SNP look Keith Baldassara’ Allan Green, Frances Curran, Richie set to become the biggest party at Venton, Steven Nimmo, Alan McCombes, Barbara Holyrood after 2007. The break-up of the Scott, Allison Kane and Kevin McVey. British state looks a more realistic prospect than at any time in the past 300 years. By rights, the SSP should now be Tommy Sheridan is today £200,000 venor of the SSP. preparing to emerge as a major force in richer. His reputation as a clean-cut, On the face of it, and from a distance, Scottish politics. But instead of looking whiter-than-white pillar of decency has this might appear like a victory for the forward to spectacular advances in next been restored by seven people on a jury in SSP and for socialism. But there was no year's Holyrood and council elections, the Edinburgh. His halo back in place, possible outcome of this trial that could party is now on the brink of destruction. Tommy has declared his return as con- have had anything other than disastrous a decade later. Tommy was an ment that his reputation had to consequences for the SSP and bomb who could be blown up outstanding figurehead for the be defended at all costs, by the cause of socialism in at any time in the future. SSP, eloquently promoting the whatever means necessary, Scotland. The trial could even There is no question that cause of an independent including lying, deception, spell the death knell for a party individual leaders can at times socialist Scotland, as well as fraud and character assassina- which was founded on clean play a decisive role in politics. range of specific policies. tion. socialist principles. It could set Nor is there any disputing the But neither the anti-Poll Tax Star-struck by fame and back the cause of socialism by charisma and talent of Tommy movement, Scottish Militant celebrity, they have elevated years if not decades. Sheridan, whose media and Labour, the Scottish Socialist Tommy Sheridan into a super- In order to win his case, oratorical skills were vital in Alliance nor the SSP were ever hero whose public image is so Tommy Sheridan openly establishing the SSP as a cred- one-man bands. Many people important to the future of denounced 11 honourable men ible force in Scottish politics. played a less visible, but simi- socialism that it is legitimate to and women from the SSP, who However, every individual larly vital role in developing destroy the reputations and the have between them centuries has strengths and weaknesses, the influence, the structures, privacy of many others to pro- of political struggle behind qualities and flaws. There are the strategy, and the politics of tect that fake image. In them, as perjurers. These peo- times when the strengths and the SSP. essence, it is the Orwellian ple, he declared, were respon- qualities of individuals prevail, Tommy was essentially the notion that some are more sible for the "mother of all but then new circumstances front man for socialism in equal than others. stitch-ups". arise - and the weaknesses and Scotland, the talented striker It is an elitist and politically Whatever the intentions of flaws are propelled to the fore. of the movement. But without corrupt philosophy. It flows the Court of Session jury, these It is a tragic fact that individ- the midfielders, the defenders, from an almost childlike belief 11 people, and others, now uals who have played an out- the coach, the goalkeeper, that the destiny of socialism in stand condemned as perpetra- standing role in the socialist Tommy could have achieved Scotland rests entirely on the tors of a monstrous political movement can end up playing nothing. shoulders of one charismatic crime. We are also accused - an obstructive and even Nonetheless, it is also true personality. and in effect have been found destructive role. Derek Hatton, that his talents were indispen- Yes, Tommy Sheridan had guilty - of serious criminal for example, was a talented sable in putting the SSP on the come to personify the SSP in charges which could lead to and charismatic figurehead of political map of Scotland. His the public eye. It is precisely long term prison sentences. the Liverpool City Council oratorical powers and media for that reason that his behav- Those accused cannot struggle against Thatcher in skills were harnessed to pow- iour was reckless to the point remain silent, because to say the 1980s. Later, as the strug- erful effect, particularly of irresponsibility. His actions nothing would be an admis- gle subsided, Derek's personal between 1999 and 2003 when and subsequent court case sion of guilt. We now have no and political weakness caused Tommy was the sole Scottish have seriously undermined the option but to fight to clear our problems for the socialist left, Socialist MSP. toil and sweat of thousands of name. And to clear our name, to the point where a breach Yet there is a fatal dividing others who have invested vast we need to bring out every rel- became inevitable. Derek is line between utilising charis- amounts of time, effort and evant piece of information. now a successful DJ in his ma and descending into the money over the years to create From a scratch to the danger native city. corrupt cult of the Great a credible socialist party in of gangrene, says an old For a period of time in the Leader. It is ironic that plat- Scotland. proverb. The nightmare that mid-1980s and into the 1990s, forms that claim to stand on But those who fear that has engulfed the SSP in recent Arthur Scargill was the hero of the traditions of anti-Stalinism without Tommy Sheridan months began with a few mun- Britain's mining communities and Trotskyism have been the Scottish socialism is dead in dane lies. But over weeks and and the scourge of the political most abject in their adherence the water are profoundly mis- months, the deception escalat- establishment. Thousands to the philosophy of "my taken. They have swallowed ed out of control. Tommy would pack meetings the leader right or wrong". hook, line and sinker the cyni- Sheridan might today be length and breadth of the UK In what can only be inter- cal and superficial analysis of hailed as a hero by sections of to hear his powerful oratory. preted as a desperate bidding those mainstream political the media. Yet today the man who once war to ingratiate themselves to commentators who cannot So too was Jeffrey Archer inspired millions presides over Tommy Sheridan, the two conceive that tens of thou- when he won his defamation a burnt-out sect of a political London-controlled platforms sands of people in Scotland case back in 1987. But Archer party, a cult based around his in the party, the SW and the vote SSP because they actually was eventually exposed as a increasing egotistical person- CWI platform jostled with support the politics of social- liar, a fraud and forger. ality. each other to win Tommy's ism. Tommy Sheridan may well Whatever may have hap- favour to the point where they Clearly, Tommy has been a be re-elected as convenor of pened over the past few years, became putty in his hands. key figurehead of the move- the SSP. That's up to the mem- Tommy Sheridan deserves Taking as their starting point ment and a powerful messen- bership. That is democracy. recognition for the outstanding the fact that Tommy has been a ger. But it is patronising and But voters, like juries, make historical role he has played, popular public leader, these insulting to the 150,000 plus mistakes. The brutal fact of the from the Poll Tax battles of the two groups, plus others, decid- people who have voted for the matter is that Tommy Sheridan late '80s and early '90s through ed his standing was so indis- SSP over the years to write is now a walking, talking time- to electoral success of the SSP pensable to the socialist move- them off as nothing more than 2 a Tommy Sheridan fan club.