Scotland

Three hundred years since the Act of Union

Three hundred years ago, on 16th January 1707, the Scottish Parliament voted in favour of ratification of the Treaty of Union with England. On 28th April the Scottish Parliament was dissolved by proclamation. Three days later, with the opening of the first session of the new British Parliament, the state of Great Britain formally came into existence. Stan Crooke examines the background and the immediate results of the Act of Union. Earlier proposals for some form of closer union between England and Scotland – in the immediate aftermath of the Union of the Crowns in 1603, and again in 1667,1670...

Socialism and Kilt-Wearing Soldiers

Hat tip to Stan for this one, but I am struggling to believe it is actually true ...

'Solidarity' motion to Scottish Parliament

"S2M-05356 Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (Sol): That the Parliament believes that the Royal Regiment of Scotland should use the highest quality woollen cloth for...

Was it wrong to wrong to video Sheridan?

I have to admit this when I'm bored and have nothing better to do, I go into UK Left Network, a Yahoo list usually filled with unbridled sectariana. My excuse is that it can be useful to search through that list to find out what some people say about the AWL.

Usually the contributors are obsessive...

Keep up the pressure to free Ahmed Batebi!

Following the threat of protests when former Iranian president Muhammad Khatami visits St Andrew's University to receive an honorary degree on 31 October, jailed Iranian student activist Ahmed Batebi has been temporarily freed. When it became known that Khatami would be visiting St Andrew's, activists from Education Not for Sale and Scottish Socialist Youth issued a statement calling for solidarity with Iranian workers and students against both the Islamic Republic and the US's threats of war - and promising protests. This received widespread press attention, and quickly a majority of the NUS...

Don’t mourn organise! Rebuild the SSP!

By Elaine Jones, Dumfries and Galloway SSP Saturday 2 September saw the launch of Tommy Sheridan’s new organisation Solidarity — Scotland’s Socialist Movement (sic). This new organisation has been set up not because of serious political differences, but because of personal differences over Tommy’s court case, in which he successfully sued the News of the World. The SWP and the Socialist Party are opportunistically backing Sheridan in the hope of being able to create more space for recruitment and for their own pet projects (Respect and the Campaign for a New Workers’ Party) in Scotland. For...

SSP conference and independent working-class politics

Stan Crooke reports from the Scottish Socialist Party conference which took place at Glasgow Caledonian University on 7-8 October. “Three hundred years ago next year, the English ruling classes and a section of the Scottish ruling classes began the colonisation of Scotland. The Scottish people lost their democratic rights. Since then, Scotland has been plundered. It bankrolls the Westminster Treasury. And it provides young men to die overseas.” This was how a member of the “Pro-Independence Platform (Temporary)” began his speech motivating a pro-Scottish independence motion at the Scottish...

Defend the SSP!

In an interview with the Daily Record on 7 August, leading Scottish Socialist Party member, Tommy Sheridan, fresh from the surprise victory in his defamation case against the News of the World, attacked his opponents in the SSP as “political scabs” and vowed retribution against them. Before the interview, a split in the SSP looked possible; now it looks very likely indeed. The AWL’s political criticisms of the SSP — its nationalism, its support for Castro’s Cuba, its failure to do serious work in the unions and its general softness and lack of independent working-class focus — are well known...

Scottish Socialists move towards split?

by Stan Crooke Tommy Sheridan’s libel action against the News of the World was really two trials for the price of one. One trial was the libel action itself, triggered by Sheridan’s decision to sue the News of the World for £200,000 over articles which the paper had published in 2004 concerning his private life. According to the articles, Sheridan had cheated on his wife, attended a swingers’ club, and engaged in group sex. The other trial involved the future of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). Sheridan won the first trial. By seven votes to four the jury decided that Sheridan had been...

SSP “on the precipice”

Tommy Sheridan spoke to the Daily Record on 7 August. Sheridan told the paper that he might stand in the election for convenor, due in October. If he wins that election he plans to quit and demand a re-run based on one-member, one vote postal ballot, in order to strengthen his position. “There is no way I could be convenor of a party with its apparatus controlled by those who have tried to politically undermine me. I think the SSP stand on the precipice of either a great new beginning or virtual oblivion.” “...When a socialist takes on one of hte most ruthless anti-union and anti-socialist...

A fight for the heart of the SSP

By an SSP United Left supporter Whilst Tommy Sheridan's victory in court undoubtedly strengthened his supporters’ position within the Scottish Socialist Party, the core issues of the fight remain the same. Sheridan’s victory, 7 jurors to 4, is surprising, since the evidence was mounting up against him as the trial progressed, we can only assume that the jury fell for Tommy’s conspiracy theories. Whilst a split now seems likely, with two completely different and contradictory versions of the truth being on offer, both sides still seem determined to fight for the heart of the SSP. Whilst tactics...

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