Following the announcement of the trial verdict, Alan McCombes, the SSP‘s policy and press coordinator wrote an assessment entitled The fight for the truth, which was reproduced in an SSP Members’ Bulletin. We did not have enough space to reprint it in the magazine, so present the extract we published SSP United-Left statement in response…
Scottish Socialist Party Split by Sheridan
Socialist Resistance statement (August 27 2006) Former convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party Tommy Sheridan won the first round of his defamation action against the News of the World in (the Scottish Court of Session in early August, on a majority (7- 4) decision of the jury. He was awarded his claimed £200,000 in damages.…
International Platform Against Isolation
Steve Kaczynski reports on the IPAI symposium held in Paris in December 2005 In December 2005, I attended a symposium in a cinema in north-eastern Paris, organised by the International Platform Against Isolation. The event sprang from solitary confinement and other forms of state repression – a major fact of our time. Since 2002, these…
Choreography of the Pratfall
by John McAnulty (Socialist Democracy, Belfast) ‘Independent’ Monitoring Commission blasts Provos – Paisley lays out agenda for ‘new’ Ireland Commentators on the various ‘historic turning points’ meant to restore life to the corpse of the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland often use the word ‘choreography’. Translated the term means that the agreement, and all its…
Hard Truths
John Wight argues that the anti-war movement has failed to live up to the challenge After four years of existence it is time to face some hard truths with respect to the anti-war movement in this country. And in facing those truths it becomes impossible to deny that by and large this movement has failed…
Imperialism’s Nuclear Hypocrisy
Nick Clarke exposes Labour’s double standards when it comes nuclear issues Nothing better illustrates the hypocrisy of imperialism and its apologists at the United Nations than the nuclear issue. The break up of the Soviet Union and the subsequent diplomatic thaw ended the Cold War. The peace dividend that was supposed to flow from this…
Which Way Now For The SSP?
Allan Armstrong sees recent setbacks for the SSP as part of the wider international Left’s retreat in the face of an imperialist, ‘liberal’ counter-offensive Why have the SSP retreated? It is three years since the massive international demonstrations, held on February 15th 2003, in protest against Bush and Blair’s’ impending war in Iraq. These were…
A Chance To Vote Socialist At Every Opportunity
Mary McGregor analyses the current debate taking place in the SSP over the party’s electoral strategy First-Past-The-Post: to stand or not to stand There is a debate raging within the SSP which, like so many others, actually goes far beyond the superficial topic of the debate, and goes to the very essence of the nature…
Emancipation & Liberation Index 12
Emancipation & Liberation, Issue 12, Spring 2006 A chance to Vote Socialist at every opportunity, Mary McGregor Which way now for the SSP, Allan Armstrong Imperialism’s nuclear hypocrisy, Nick Clarke Hard truths, John Wight Choreography of the pratfall, John McAnulty Glasgow commemorates Bloody Sunday, Jim Slaven An electoral alliance for the 2007 Local Elections?, Scot…
Sierra Leone – Britain’s Other Invasion – 5 Years On
Reprinted from Issue no. 64, Nov/Dec 2005, of Class Struggle, produced by the International Communist Union (Trotskyist) More than 5 years ago, on 7 May 2000, British troops landed in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. This was the first major intervention by the British army in sub-Saharan Africa since the end of its bloody…