tommy has not being betrayed by the party he has betrayed it this article was obviously written by a swip who have their own agenda in all this

I see that an SSP Members Open Letter has now been published as well.

 http://hometown.aol.co.uk/sspmajority/myhomepage/newsletter.html

It says that it's a call for unity.

that open letter is a little but iffy mainly because to have a majority you need to have 1500 signatories also some of the names on it are spelt wrong and id suggest most comrades now how to spell their own names so its being looked into currently as to weather all these people now their on the list just to clarify i heard the majority part of the name was because the sherindists are claiming they have a majority at the NC

SSP UNITED LEFT STATEMENT 11/6/06
This is not a time to rage, but a time to reason. Not to fight within ourselves, but to unite behind the fight for a better world. A time to keep our heads, and hold fast to our principles.

We are a substantial group of Scottish Socialist Party activists from across Scotland and across the party, who have a number of concerns with the current direction of our party.

The SSP, since its inception, has been a beacon of hope to the workers movement in Scotland and internationally. In establishing the SSP, we achieved the impossible - uniting the left into a working, fighting political party with a radical agenda and strong, innovative ideas for campaigning and recruiting.

Working together in this unprecedented way, we made real gains, not just electorally, but at a grassroots level. We can, if we unite as a strong socialist party, create a generational change in society, putting socialist ideas back on the mainstream agenda, and engendering further, deep-rooted change. This is no small matter, given the domination of free market ideology and the pessimism and disillusionment this has bred in two, even three generations. We must always remember that the enemy is without, not within.

But we are deeply concerned that the party's community activism, socialist education and internal unity have failed to match our electoral success. We are concerned that individuals, branches and even regions are susceptible to external interpretations of the SSP's internal politics, created via the media. We want our elected representatives to be wholly accountable to the party, putting the collective interests of the party before individual concerns. We are concerned by a growing culture of indifference, even hostility, to our commitment to gender equality. Finally, we are committed to a united and non-sectarian Left, and in favour of a transitional approach to socialism, where no struggle, whether based in a community, workplace, or around a gender or race issue, can be ignored. We actively support and participate in all such work.

It is with all this in mind that we feel now is the time to launch an open, democratic, pro-SSP network, open to SSP members and informed by the following points:

Building the SSP

Our network is for activists whose aim is to support, promote and build the SSP as a broad, outward-looking socialist party, working within communities and workplaces, trades unions and colleges, in the streets and on the march, as the party that fights for peace, justice and socialism.

We seek the transformation of society through workers' democratic control of the means of production. We understand that the dismantling of the UK state, and the creation of a Scottish, socialist republic, is an essential part of this process.

Accountability and Participation

Our network aims to build a grassroots leadership of the SSP. We believe in participative democracy, where activity and engagement are encouraged and supported, and where democratic decisions are made by active participants.

Instrumental to this is the SSP's constitution, which we recognise and whose sovereignty we defend. We will campaign within the SSP for full accountability of all elected representatives and bodies, including the commitment to take the average wage of a skilled worker.

Gender Equality

Our network is committed to the principles of equal representation and gender equality at all levels of the party and remain dedicated to the hard-won, ground-breaking policy of 50:50, which facilitates the participation in socialist politics of women who might otherwise, through poverty and shouldering the burden of family care, notably working-class and ethnic minority women, be excluded.

Self-organisation

Our network values and encourages self-organisation amongst oppressed and marginalised groups, and recognises and celebrates these groups' contribution to the political development of our movement. Self-organisation is essential to raising the consciousness and confidence of those whose voices may not otherwise be heard.

Education

Our network will promote socialist education within the network itself and in the SSP, using progressive and inclusive educational techniques, to encourage critical thought and thinkers throughout the party.

Our Network

Our network is built on the principles of openness, inclusiveness, equality and respect, where all contributions are valued and comradely debate is welcomed.

We are a grassroots, bottom-up organisation and as such, promote participatory meeting techniques, where all members are encouraged to speak up and have their say, without fear of being ridiculed, intimidated or shouted down.

We, the undersigned, invite comrades who share our principles and ethos to join us and raise an SSP standard for all socialists to rally round.




View Signatories




Sign our statement and join the network

I can see why Pissed Of Socialist might have think there is a problem with the spelling of the names on the SSP Majority List. I think John Knox's ambition of a school in every parish and a university in every town obviously didn't make it after all. Two (2) f's in off and we need to do some serious work on our punctuation, don't we?

-Contacted the author of the letter and the reason for the odd misspelling is that the names are being put in manually - which also explains the delay as names are being put in. As regards the numbers on the list not being a majority - over 70% of this country is against the war in Iraq yet the online petition to free the principled and heroic Malcom Kendall-Smith has less than 3000 signatures out of a population of 64,000,000. Does this mean we're all in favour of this present bout of military adventurism, I think not. Online petitions are not a great guide to mass opinions

for a start i write in a stream of conciousness so no insulting my lack of punctuation and your right online petitions dont say much at all which is why id suggest that the sherindists dont hold the majority regardless of their signatories and do you know that an ex comrade has being added to that list because his whole branch was added and they used an out of date list of names

I can't imagine a worse kiss of death than the SWP offering their backing to Sheridan.

The SSP must accept that they just aren't up to competing with the spooks.

Either the SSP is full of freaks, geeks, oddballs, weirdoes, and middle class, politically correct whinging feminist wankers or MI5 have done an excellent job of making them look like that.

Roll on 2007 for the SSP to be put out of it's misery!

the reason tommy was asked to resign as convenor was over differences in strategy for dealing with allegations not over factions and no-one can provide any evidence to say otherwise here's what tommy said at the time :  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4048711.stm