Tommy Sheridan to speak in Belfast

by bootboy Wed Oct 25, 2006 21:03

"t tried to sling mud at Tommy Sheridan hoping to discredit him and damage the socialist movement in Scotland - but this attempt backfired when Tommy Sheridan courageously took them to court and when a jury of working class people found in his favour."

Oh my god. The attempt backfired???

Sounds to me like somebody has drifted off into the outer fringes of wishful thinking and hero worship.

Whatever one thinks about the rights and wrongs of the whole sorry affair, it is impossible to deny the fact that it has left the socialist movement in scotland in tatters. There has been a massive and bitter split. Sheridan is facing perjury charges. Most of this has been fought out not in meetings, or conferences, but in the tabloid media (and Tommy is certainly not innocent of that himself - posing topless for the record!!).

If the NOTW aimed to damage the socialist movement in Scotland, it certainly didn't backfire!

Do the SP really believe this? If so, it truly is amazing how people who often seem intelligent and sensible can adopt really really ridiculous positions en masse when the party requires it.

by Michael Sun Oct 29, 2006 19:46

Delighted to hear that the SP now recognises that the left in the North need to unite - or at least cooperate - when it comes to the North's elections. During both the last Assembly elections and the last local elections, they would not even cooperate to ensure a 'non-aggression' pact in relation to places that the (tiny) NI left was standing.

Now, we are told that "We need a new party to represent the united interests of working class people and to fight for socialist change. What has happened in Scotland has many lessons for us in attempting to build such a party." In Scotland, the SP is working closely with the SWP in the new Solidarity party. Will they do the same now in the North or will Peter Hadden ensure that they don't follow the Scottish example??

by Cian - SY & SP -personal capacity Sun Oct 29, 2006 20:34

Editor's Note: Comment concerning editorial action edited out - against editorial guidelines which should be read

Basically the point was: there was a success in so much as Tommy beat the NoW, inspiring fresh layers of workers and young people to get involved in Solidarity, but yes, the SSP leaderships actions scandalously forced a split in the movement in Scotland by running the SSP into the muck and losing the support of the working class. Solidarity now has a great oppurtunity.

There are big differences between Scotland (and Germany) and Ireland. Yes, the socialist party has long said ireland needs a new workers party. We have also recognised, though, that such a party must encompass new forces, not just a regroupment of the existing Left. Such a move would just become a sectarian circus and would become a false start which would have negative impacts on the prospects of a new mass workers party. Scotland actually reaffirms what the CWI/SP have warned - a new party needs a broad layer of new, fresh workers and young people. Otherwise it is just revolutionary socialist hiding their socialist banners and chopping off the last paragraphs of their leaflets to get percieved short term gains (generally in Ireland in elections), when in the long run these movements will be greatly weakened due to an absence of a socialist and marxist leadership. This is proven in Scotland, where this is precisely what happened the SSP after Fox, Sheridan etc split from the CWI and the recognistion that big business must be taken out of the hands of the super rich elite and in order o do this a fundamental break with capitalism, and a party willing to do lead that, is needed.

Thanks,
Cian

by Bootgirl Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:35

Yup, completely delusional alright. You might as well plug 'em all into a computer in party headquarters and you'd get the same line barked out, without the slightest bit of embarrassment at the glaring contradictions. Can you just save us the trouble and write "the CWI is always right, the CWI is always right!" instead of pretending to engage in dialogue?

The ins and outs of the Sheridan affair have been discussed elsewhere on this site, anyone who wants a corrective to this pro-Sheridan line should just look up the "Tommy Sheridan wins" and look at the contributions from two honest SP members, Francie McCafferty and hs, who weren't willing to swallow the official line.

by erin go bragh Mon Oct 30, 2006 15:48

Just a line to those of you which are throwing pathetic comments against the SP et al, will you be there at Tommy's address in the Holiday Inn?
Come and create change instead of hurling insults from your keyboard.

by Eamon Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:01

As a member of the SSP now living in Ireland, I find the SP's 'analysis' of events within that party, as outlined in the poster for this public meeting, to be completely dishonest and devoid of principle. I have no desire to go over once more the truth of what has taken place in the SSP over the past 2 years--that has been covered in another post--but find it simply incredible that a supposedly serious socialist organisation can write this type of absolute rubbish about another socialist party.

The SSP members who testified honestly in court--and they were all in court against their will-- did not do so to assist the NOTW, but to uphold the integrity of our party. They told the truth while others did not. Unlike those who perjured themselves, the SSP members who acted honestly did not believe that the sex life of one party member could or should be elevated to the position of a class principle. They were not prepared to lie to their own members in order to assist in the cover-up of someone else's personal life.

As for Solidarity--it won't last. With the truth about what actually did take place within the SSP 2 years ago now coming more and more to the fore, it is now increasingly likely that the leader of that party will be heading towards jail.

One wonders where that will leave the insignificant CWI in Scotland (2 men and a dog, in reality). Hopefully it will result in the end of this organisation, which once was an important socialist party, but now which is little more than a cult, chock full of brain-dead members all parroting lines handed down to them from above.

by the latest Tue Oct 31, 2006 13:47

One of the issues that will undoubtedly come up at the Tommy Sheridan meeting will be the recent decision by the RMT union to disaffiliate from the SSP (although the union is not affiliating to Solidarity).

Here's one account of this development from the AWL site:

Quote:

"RMT has disaffiliated from the Scottish Socialist Party........It reflects very badly on the SSP's leadership majority that it had not convinced even one RMT branch in Scotland of the justice of its stance on this issue. It makes me wonder - from a distance - about how well the SSP built a real relationship with its only trade union affiliate at rank-and-file level. I strongly suspect that the answer is: not nearly as well as it should have done."

Link: