At its AGM on January 22nd 2012 the RCN agreed to withdraw as a Platform within the SSP. This decision was not taken lightly as many of us in the RCN were founder members of the SSA and in turn the SSP. We agreed from the start that the project of bringing together the Left in Scotland was important, exciting and very necessary. We publicly declared, upon the formation of the RCN, that our role was to act as a communist pole of attraction for Socialists, Republicans and those interested in the emancipatory and liberatory possibilities of Communism.
It is our assessment that the SSP no longer unites the majority of the Left in Scotland, so that a new organisation will be needed to bring about such unity in the future. We believe there are many current SSP members and ex-members, who also think that it no longer can perform this role, but are interested in the creation of such an organisation.
Some RCN members will remain members of the SSP, where they feel it continues to play a beneficial role in working class struggles, whilst other RCN members have left. For these reasons we have concluded that it is no longer appropriate to be a Platform within the SSP.
We wish to assure you that this decision should in no way be taken as support for the sectarian Solidarity project – it remains our view that it was wrong for all the reasons we have publicly stated elsewhere.
In the coming months, we in the RCN look forward to joining others in on the Scottish Left, including SSP members, in evaluating the past, assessing the present, and debating the future.
(also see:- Beyond The SSP And Solidarity – ‘Forgive And Forget’ or ‘Listen, Learn And Then Move On’?)