18.04.1996

SLP constitution in limbo

On Saturday the Socialist Labour Party held its second Scotland-wide meeting in Glasgow. The meeting was primarily called to discuss policy papers for the forthcoming conference in London on May 4. However, before this a number of other items were raised following a report from the Scottish steering committee.

The most controversial was the attitude of the SLP to the Hands Off Our Water campaign. After some debate the meeting adopted a position of anti-privatisation, anti-quangoisation and defence of all nonpayers, but held off from backing the Boycott the Bills campaign. This is despite Scargill’s support at the HOW demo a fortnight earlier.

Allegations of entryism against two members were raised formally by members of the steering committee, but the allegations were dismissed by the meeting. This position was reinforced by the chair, who commented that “The constitution was in limbo ... we are not yet a constituted political party”.

Due to time constraints, there was only a very limited discussion on policy documents for the conference. This meant there was no real in depth debate, just time to skim one or two of the papers, and to start discussion on the national question.

At the start of the meeting I asked for an item on the Scottish Socialist Alliance to be added to the agenda. Despite the reluctance of the chair, this was accepted, but unfortunately it fell off the end due to lack of time. However I think it is crucial that the SLP membership actually discusses its attitude to the Alliance, and does not rely on diktats from the self-appointed London steering committee. All SLP members should attend and intervene at the SSA conference in Glasgow next Saturday.

The disappointing attendance on Saturday shows that a lot of groundwork needs to be done if the SLP is to have any influence among the working class in Scotland. This is not helped by some comrades in the organisation who appear to have a sectarian attitude to the SSA and paranoia towards other left organisations.

Nick Clarke