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…