Doug Lorimer
Some 400 members and observers attended the sixth annual conference of the Scottish Socialist Party, held in Edinburgh over the weekend of March 27-28. It was the first SSP conference since the election of six SSP members to the Scottish Parliament last May, when the party won more than 130,000 votes.
Just as important for the SSP's development has been the affiliation of the local branches of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers' union and moves towards affiliation from other unions. The SSP gained credibility from its role in the 2002 fire brigade workers' strike and the current strike by 5000 low-paid nurses, many who have joined the SSP.
In his keynote speech to the conference, SSP national convenor and MSP Tommy Sheridan demanded the Scottish Trades Union Congress call a national demonstration for the striking nursery nurses even if the leadership of public sector union Unison, which the nurses belong to, opposed it.
"We, in this party, will continue to support those nursery nurses while other unions affiliated to New Labour are not because that is what working class solidarity is all about", Sheridan told the conference, according to a March 28 BBC News report.
The SSP's website reported that thousands of striking nurses marched through downtown Edinburgh on March 29. They rallied outside the offices of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, where they were addressed by speakers from Unison and SSP MSP Colin Fox.
The conference reaffirmed its commitment to campaign for Scotland's independence from the United Kingdom. The SSP will attempt to bring together all supporters of an independent Scotland in a convention to campaign for this aim.
In the debate on the motion, Alan McCombes, editor of the Scottish Socialist Voice, the SSP's weekly paper, announced that the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Greens had officially endorsed the call for the convention.
Calls for the SSP to advocate the banning of religious schools were rejected after a strongly contested debate. According to the March 29 Glasgow Herald, the conference "backed a motion agreeing that the SSP wanted a secular Scotland but calling for a nationwide debate over the next 12 months to help deliver a detailed policy". It upheld the party's existing policy of accepting religious schools where these had strong local support.
The conference also passed a motion welcoming the establishment of the left-wing Respect electoral alliance in England. It committed the SSP to support any common slate put together for the European Parliament elections by the Anti-Capitalist Left — a Europe-wide network of radical socialist parties.
The SSP is running six candidates in the June 10 European Parliament elections. Heading the list is 49-year-old mother of two, Felicity Garvie, who has worked as office manager to Sheridan for the last six years.
"The Scottish Socialist Party will be launching our distinctive European election campaign in opposition to the xenophobic, Union Jack waving Tories, but also in opposition to New Labour, the SNP and Liberal Democrats, who prostitute themselves before the bankers of Frankfurt. They support a big business Europe; we support a people's Europe", Garvie said in a media release, posted on the SSP website (<http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org>).
From Green Left Weekly, April 7, 2004.
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