Socialist Resistance

An archive of socialistresistance.org, 2002–2022

Scottish Socialist Party in focus

Socialist Resistance no8  |  page 8

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

THE BREAKTHROUGH of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in winning 6 seats in recent elections has thrown unprecedented spotlight on to the party and its activities.

Some left commentators have raised concerns about comments made by MSP Tommy Sheridan since the election campaign (see box). It has further been alleged that on a number of occasions during the Scottish election campaign references were made by SSP representatives to the SSP's support for the "mixed economy".

In May John Throne, a leading supporter of the US journal Labor's Militant Voice, sent a letter to the International Socialist Movement's (ISM's) platform in the SSP, raising scottish socialist voIce Subscribe to the Voice You can't afford to miss it

ame Address

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ve enclosed... L E5 for 6 issues • E10 for 12 issues • E20 for 25 issues Low income discount rate 65 for 10 issues E10 for 20 issues Solidarity rate... • E5 for 5 issues [ E10 for 10 issues • E20 for 20 issues

Fill in this form and send to: Scottish Socialist Voice, 73 R Or telephone us: 0141-221 7714 asrow G2 BOD vacuum on the left and it is the Scottish Socialist Party who will fill it.

he Voice will be carrying regular reports from the SSP's concerns about Sheridan's comments and more widely about the development of the SSP

Whilst acknowledging that the SSP's election results have been an "inspiration" to the left throughout the world, Throne raised a number of issues:

• That the SSP will be under increasing pressure to make compromises with capitalism.

That Sheridan's comments represent a capitulation to the pressures of big business

That the SSP is making concessions to nationalism and capitalism -with its direction increasingly being to see its day-to-day politics within the boundaries of Scotland and within the boundaries of capitalism

been a retreat from internationalism as politics of the SSP attention is being given to building the Marxist group within the SSP and that the ISM is no longer functioning as a revolu• tionary Marxist group inside the SSP Alan McCombes, editor of SSP publication Scottish Socialist Voice, has responded to Throne's letter. Here we publish an edited version of that Crable to ScottiS in l

response. If you want to read the full text of The Labour Party has created a Throne's letter and

McCombes' response email KEN LOACH, IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE VOICE

[email protected] and we will send it to you.