Party
Struggle Solide Tommy Sheridan (right) marching for socialism with Denis Canavan MSP
Reply from Alan McCombes of the ISM to Labors Militant Voice, USA Dear John, cism of Tommy's quote. The leadership of the SSP, including Tommy himself, would have similar criticisms of the statement. People do make mistakes, and I will attempt to put the comment in context. straightforward interview with a journalist but in front of an audience of several hundred people. The entire event lasted several hours with the transcript subsequently edited down to a fraction of its original length, distorting the significance of the quote in question. During the interview, most of Tommy's comments towards putting the case for public ownerThat there has ship and for socialism.
socialism. But when you're dealing with a the central core of the
mass audience - as we are doing day in and day out - a long term and abstract vision of • That insufficient
the future is not enough. ISM as a revolutionary will do. That is especially acute in Scotland,
where, because of the role of the SSP socialist consciousness is far in advance of England, Wales and Ireland, most of Europe and indeed most of the world. number of quite serious insinuations, including suggestions that the SSP leadership has I'm not surprised at your specific critiSSP The comment was not made in a
were directed We can talk about the need for global
socialism. We need to also be able to say what we Unfortunately your email contains a either Tommy, the ISM or the SSP leadership. At an SSP National Council this week, Tommy himself supported a resolution which expressed criticism of the remark and restated the SSPs support for democratic public ownership of the economy. Myths about the Let's get a few points clear. There is a myth perpetrated by some internationally which I'm afraid you appear to have swallowed whole. According to this myth, the SSP is good at local campaigning and agitational work but neglects the big issues such as challenging the ideology of capitalism and promoting the case for socialism
This is utter garbage. Tommy alone has probably spoken at 1000 public meetings over the last four years on the case against capitalism and for socialism in Scotland and
We have produced a book, Imagine -which has sold many thousands of copies in Scotland and which has converted countless young people and workers to the cause of
We have also sold and distributed thousands of manifestos raising our socialist and internationalist vision. Prior to this election we distributed door-to-door half a million copies of a four-page newspaper presenting the case against war and imperialism and the case for socialism as well as explaining some of our detailed policies for, for example, for wealth redistribution and against privatisation.
The fact is that few parties anywhere in the world have had a bigger impact in challenging capitalist ideology and converting huge swathes of the working class to socialism. And, I would add, few individuals anywhere in the world have done more than Tommy Sheridan to help shape socialist consciousness on a mass scale.
In summary, neither Tommy, the ISM, nor the SSP has sold out to reformism, capitalism or nationalism. Exactly the opposite. Finding socialist answers Frankly we don't have all the answers right now. Old slogans from the 70s and 80s are not adequate to deal with, for example, the problems that would face a transitiona socialist regime in a small country like Scotland operating temporarily within a global capitalist environment. Yes, we can take the main levers of the economy including land, oil, energy, transport, finance and big swathes of industry into public ownership under democratic workers control. But there are problem areas and that's what Tommy misleadingly tried to deal with.
For example, what do you do about branches assembly plants of multinationals? What do you do about call centres? These are essentially offices with banks of telephones operated by low paid workers on behalf of companies based outside Scotland How do we win these workers to social ism? We have many call centre workers in