HOW DARE THEY SPLIT THE SSP!
from Richie Venton SSP national trade unionorganiser
35 years an organised socialist and organiser of
workers 70 Stanley St, Glasgow G41
Dear comrade,
I write to you as a socialist and trade unionist whom
I value, in sorrow and in anger at the wreckage being
done to the party I helped to initiate, organise and
build. I am not a member of any faction; I am a loyal,
committed SSP member who appeals to you to save the
SSP as Scotland’s class-struggle socialist party, the
vehicle for working class struggle and socialist
change, for an independent socialist Scotland. Tommy
Sheridan and a few others are threatening to wreck the
party of socialist unity that hundreds of decent,
honest socialists have built through years of selfless
commitment. The SSP remains the natural home for the
cream of Scotland’s trade unionists and working class.
Look at our unrivalled track record of struggle,
solidarity and socialist leadership in every major and
most localised strikes and struggles for better
conditions since the day we were formed. The
firefighters; nursery nurses; public sector pensions
battle; railworkers’ campaigns; NHS workers’ rights;
postalworkers’ jobs, conditions and privatisation;
civil service jobs and pay; BBC jobs, pay and
pensions.... to name but some. Look at the SSP’s
policies - £8 minimum wage, shorter working week,
abolition of anti-union laws, public owner-ship, union
democracy, MSPs on skilled worker’s wage, etcetera is
no place for two socialist parties in Scotland -no
political justification in Tommy or anyone else
split-ting away to form a new party with policies
shamelessly stolen from the SSP’s manifestos. The only
winners from such wrecking tactics would be the
pro-market parties that abhor trade unionism and
socialism. Tommy’s proposed split-off is an act of
utter disloyalty and irresponsibility to the hundreds
of thousands of working class people whose hopes have
been raised by the Scottish left uniting into the one
party - the SSP. It would be a particularly cruel
deceit of those courageous trade unionists who fought
for and won affiliation of the RMT and CWU to the SSP.
These workers did not affiliate to Tommy Sheridan -
they affiliated to the PARTY whose working class
socialist policies and fighting record matches their
aims and aspirations. Why should they be dragged off
into the wilderness by a split-off from the SSP? Hot
on the heels of his legal victory against the dirty
tabloid rag News of the World, Tommy Sheridan declared
he would challenge Colin Fox as SSP convener - a
divisive act of revenge towards those decent, honest
socialists with the courage to tell the truth. Tommy
was contracted by the anti-SSP, pro-New Labour tabloid
Daily Record, paid £30,000, put up in a top hotel, and
whilst in bed with these enemies of socialism,
launched his front-page diatribe that he intends to
‘destroy the scabs’. This thuggish language has failed
to intimidate those of us with the courage and
integrity to tell the truth - however unsavoury the
truth might be. Now, because he has no confidence that
he would win a democratic election for SSP convener,
he wants to split the party built by those whose
blood, sweat and tears put him into parliament. In his
statement calling for a split-off, he accuses others
of a fixation with personalities”! Why should the
principled socialist unity of the SSP be wrecked for
the sake of one man’s career? Since when should one
individual’s control and power take precedence over
the greater good of the socialist party that has
stormed Scotland with our open, honest, democratic
socialist vision ?The SSP remains the champion of
socialist unity. We remain Scotland’s only trade union
party. Our policies and principles remain unchanged,
untarnished and as urgently relevant as ever in the
class war against poverty, inequality, war and
capitalism. It takes courage to be honest, but only an
honest, open, campaigning socialist party is capable
of winning mass support for the vision we all hold
dear - of an independent socialist Scotland. Far from
being ‘scabs’, ‘liars’ or ‘conspirators’ in ‘the
mother of all stitch-ups’, I and others have upheld
the honesty and integrity of the SSP, refusing to
rewrite history. We have refused to add fuel to
Tommy’s ‘mother of all inventions’ that the SSP is a
party indulging in frame-ups, forged minutes and
monstrous methods that Stalin would have envied. We
refused to join him in scorching the very earth the
SSP stands on. Read the real facts of the choices we
faced once Tommy defied all friendly advice from me
and others and forged ahead with his court case. By
doing so he put the party on trial as much as News of
the World. I am a loyal, dedicated socialist who does
not have a penny to his name because of working for
the socialist cause for decades. I appeal to you to
read on and join us in defending the very integrity
and existence of the SSP. No split-off! Yours in
solidarity, honesty and socialism, Richie Venton
