Respect Split

Ed Walsh, (Irish Socialist Network) gives his personal views on the recent split in Respect Originally printed at http://www.irishsocialist.net The British Left has now experienced two acrimonious splits in the space of eighteen months. After the grim transformation of the Scottish Socialist Party into two bitterly-divided camps (The SSP split has been covered in back…

Prospects For Socialists In Scotland

Allan Armstrong interviews Alan McCombes, a key influence on the theoretical direction of the SSP and a member of the SSP national executive. He gives us his views on Salmond’s SNP government, the future prospects for socialist unity, and the SSP’s constitutional conference. How do you assess the current situation with the new SNP government?…

The Role Of Platforms In The SSP

Platforms, tendencies, factions – call them what you will – exist in all organisations, not just in political parties. Sometimes they are suppressed (by the controlling and usually undeclared, leadership faction, of course), sometimes they are tolerated and occasionally they are welcomed. This article argues that not only are platforms inevitable, but that they are…

SSP – Learning The Lessons

As the SSP’s 2008 conference approaches, our party is still feeling the effects of the long running perjury investigations and charges linked to the libel trial brought by Tommy Sheridan against the News of the World. The reality is whatever the outcome of any future court case, the fight for socialism has not been made…

Emancipation & Liberation Index 15

Emancipation & Liberation, Issue 15, Autumn 2007 Setback or disaster: Can the SSP survive?, Mary McGregor The SNP’s ‘National Conversation’ prepares the ground for reform of the Union, Allan Armstrong Consensus politics or an unprincipled lash-up?, Bob Davies Past mustn’t stand in way of future Irish election: Downturn in workers struggle means Teflon Bertie rides…

Lyrical Delicacy and Political Toughness

Allan Armstrong interviews socialist activist and poet, Jim Aitken, about his life, politics and works. Could you please give us some background information about your life? I was born and raised in Edinburgh. My mother was from Wick, one of a family of six. She left Wick to work in service in London. She never…

What Socialists Stand For

Scottish Socialist Youth Review by Andrew Weir Available from: scottishsocialistyouth@hotmail.co.uk for The Scottish Socialist Youth (SSY) have put together the pamphlet What Socialists Stand For, adapted from a similar pamphlet published by the Democratic Socialist Perspective in Australia, to serve as an introduction to socialist politics. The idea is a very good one; a pamphlet-length…

Internationalist Spirit

Allan Armstrong reviews two albums, which address the world of migrant workers – dispossession and discrimination, longing and hope, oppression and resistance. The Road of Tears Battlefield Band, £9.50 Battlefield Band released their 26th album, The Road of Tears, last year. The theme is emigration and immigration. The album makes the link between the experience…