19.12.1996

Class alliances in Scotland

SLP branch reports

Socialist Labour in Scotland has put itself in a very odd position by not being part of the Scottish Socialist Alliance. The SSA is the major left force in Scotland, uniting revolutionaries in different organisations to carry out joint work and debates towards a common platform and theoretical understanding.

Leaders of the SSA have been trying to involve the SLP in the Alliance ever since they withdrew from the initial discussions around the formation of Socialist Labour, after the majority in those conspiratorial meetings decided to exclude other organisations from the SLP and also rejected any form of autonomy in Scotland.

Now it seems some of the - very few - members of the SLP in Scotland have been labouring under the false illusion that the SLP actually forbids membership of the Alliance.

This is not true. A section of the SLP has been openly hostile to the Alliances, notably Carolyn Sikorski in East London, but others have been involved in them enthusiastically, or at least have not taken the overtly sectarian attitude of Carolyn.

Some elements of the SLP in Scotland are nevertheless looking towards electoral negotiations with the SSA. Given the size of the SSA in comparison to the SLP in Scotland, the weight it carries and the number of candidates it hopes to field, it would indeed be absolute folly for the SLP not to, at the very least, discuss its election plans with the SSA.

Surely this points to the absurdity of the SLP standing outside the SSA. This sectarian approach is already being rejected by many members of the SLP throughout Britain, who are discussing the elections locally with other working class organisations. As well as carrying out joint work with other organisations, many SLP members would like to see working class organisations allowed into the federal structure of the SLP. The present constitution absurdly allows trade unions to affiliate, but not revolutionaries.

Members of the SSA may be interested in obtaining back copies of the Weekly Worker which quote SLP members involved in Alliances in Britain. It may help to persuade your SLP comrades in Scotland that working class alliances are not an original sin.