Alex Miller
In an August 29 statement, former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan confirmed his plan to set up a rival breakaway group to the SSP. The group, "Solidarity — A new movement for socialism in Scotland", will be launched at a rally in Glasgow on September 3.
Sheridan will be joined by fellow MSP Rosemary Byrne and members of the Socialist Worker and Committee for a Workers International platforms of the SSP. On August 4, a court awarded Sheridan £200,000 damages against the News of the World. Since then, Sheridan has been attacking members of the SSP for refusing to lie on his behalf in court about his admissions regarding visits to sex clubs in Manchester. During the trial he accused leading members of the SSP of participating in a conspiracy to ruin him.
After the court case, Sheridan initially announced his intention to stand for re-election as national convener of the SSP at the party's October conference. SSP members have attributed his decision to form a rival group to his failure to secure strong enough support for a leadership challenge among grassroots SSP members.
In an August 19 statement commenting on the (then-anticipated) split, the SSP executive committee rejected "the claim by Tommy Sheridan that Scotland is big enough to accommodate two socialist parties. The creation and building of a unified Scottish Socialist Party represents an inspiring break with the petty division and conflict that has for generations weakened the left internationally."
The statement described Sheridan's "political irresponsibility" in undermining "the most successful socialist unity project in Europe" and argued that "There is absolutely no justification for this damaging split which is a betrayal of the hopes of tens of thousands of people who have looked to the SSP as a beacon of hope for the future." Rather than being based on political principle, the statement described the split as "a vehicle for the out of control ego of an individual".
Sheridan's August 29 statement listed the formation of "an independent socialist nuclear free Scotland" as one of the aims of the breakaway group. In a press release issued that day, the SSP argued that the document largely restates SSP policy, "and in so doing writes its own redundancy notice. However its authors fail to explain how their plan for a Scottish socialist republic can be delivered by an organisation largely composed of bitter opponents of Scottish independence in the London-controlled Socialist Workers Party and the Committee for a Workers International."
The SSP will be holding a rally for "Unity, Integrity and Socialism" in Glasgow on September 2.