18.11.2004

Rumours and leadership crisis

On Thursday November 11 the news that Tommy Sheridan had stepped down as Scottish Socialist Party convenor was somewhat overshadowed in the media by the death of Yasser Arafat and the battle for Fallujah. However, the headlines since have been too sensationalist to be ignored and, if nothing else, prove that not all publicity is good publicity.

Last Thursday some doubted the reason Tommy gave (and still maintains) for his stepping down: to spend time with his wife, Gail, in order to support her through her difficult pregnancy and to be a good father to their child when it is born. Others admired comrade Sheridan for his decision and wished him well in his new role as a father.

Many SSP members would have first heard the news on BBC Reporting Scotland on the morning of November 11, as the reports of Tommy’s decision was brought forward after a rushed meeting of the party’s executive on Tuesday November 9 in Glasgow. The SSP released a press statement two days later that said very little, but did indicate that there were pressures that led to Tommy’s resignation.
Since then the story just keeps on getting more and more complex and bizarre. The first ‘sex scandal’ broke in the Scottish papers on November 12 alleging an affair between Anvar Khan, a gossip columnist for the News of the World, and comrade Sheridan - the story having been started by a rumour posted on a nationalist website. Tommy responded by telling the Scottish Mirror and Daily Record that he had had a relationship with Ms Khan, but that was back in 1992 - before he met his wife. The rumour that sparked the story said the events took place in 2001.

Then another story emerged in the Scottish News of the World which took up the first five pages. The first part of the story alleges that Tommy had an affair with an SSP activist from Aberdeen who happened to be a former sex worker. This person is said to have attempted to commit suicide. Duncan Rowan, the north-east organiser, contracted the Scottish News of the World and made a string of allegations. We can only guess at why. He has since been suspended from office.

It is not unusual to see the tabloid media making a great fuss over the sex lives of various politicians and, if nothing else, the fact that they have given the story such prominence says something about the SSP’s standing. It would, however, be profoundly wrong to follow the agenda of the Scottish News of the World or any other such scabby rag. Sheridan’s private life is his own business and the business of those close to him. Not the tabloid media or anyone else. And it is not as if there are not bigger issues at stake in the world than what sexual relationships one individual does or does not strike up.

After all, even if all the stories happen to be true - and there are many of them according to what we have been told - Sheridan does not stand accused of bombing the crap out of some unfortunate Arab state or of any of the other ‘acceptable’ activities that respectable politicians get up to. Either way, comrade Sheridan has declared that he intends to take the Scottish News of the World to the cleaners and wring out of them as much in the way of libel damages he possibly can. Incidentally the SSP is said to be in debt to the tune of some £200,000.

The second aspect to this story is that elements of the press are suggesting that this story broke as the result of factional manoeuvring within the SSP in order to oust him as convenor. Besides the Socialist Worker platform we are told there is a Colin Fox faction. But there does not appear to be any truth in these particular rumours. This was no coup d’etat. Nobody was standing ready to claim the crown. However, stories of tensions - including within the SSP parliamentary group - supposedly exac-erbated by the way comrade Sheridan was handling the media allegations, persist. We are even told that within the parliamentary group Sheridan is being treated as a pariah.

According to the Sunday Herald, while factional manoeuvring was not an issue, comrade Sheridan was “forced out” by the November 9 executive meeting, attended by 19 comrades. Far from voluntarily handing in his resignation, as his statement claims, he was unanimously called upon to go. The EC had wanted Tommy “to ‘deal differently’ with the allegations surfacing about his private life - in other words, make a confession, or say nothing to the media. The second part of the vote called on him to resign. The party executive then issued a statement confirming that Sheridan had resigned voluntarily, a tactic designed to protect him” (Sunday Herald November 14).

From afar, it would appear that the SSP executive has swallowed hypocritical bourgeois morality hook, line and sinker. Faced with press allegations of extra-martial relations, it went into a moral panic. Instead of treating the matter as purely private what we have seen is the bigoted and mean-minded attitudes of presbyterianism triumph over rationality and common sense.

Tommy Sheridan is a charismatic politician who has been an activist for around 20 years. He was first elected as a Glasgow councillor in 1992 after running his campaign from jail. His election as MSP in 1999 was integral to the SSP becoming as prominent as it is now. The fact that Tommy looks set to take a back seat, or even disappear from the scene altogether, does not put the SSP in a good position.
The SSP leadership now has to make some important decisions. First and foremost, it will have to elect a provisional, or caretaker, convenor. The News of the World fancies MSP Colin Fox for the position, as “probably the most moderate SSP member” who will appeal to those put off by the SSP’s “spiky image” (November 14). The other four MSPs are in a better position than most to put themselves forward for the post and many SSP members might want to see a woman as convenor. Caroline Leckie and Frances Curran have both been suggested. Since 50-50 gender representation for candidates is official policy, gender could well play a role in deciding who will fill the post.

Of course, if the SSP’s policy coordinator, Alan McCombes, took on a more public role, that would bring the SSP’s public face into line with the reality of the situation, given that he is the principal strategist and therefore bears prime responsibility for the party’s overall trajectory.

Whatever the immediate rearrangements, the membership of the SSP has got to ask itself some serious questions. Adopting the warped morality of the tabloids offers no way forward at all. Given human nature, it can only leave the SSP vulnerable to further media sensationalism and secret service stings. Indeed it is not impossible to see the hidden hand of MI5 in the present fiasco.

The SSP has two sides to it. One good, the other bloody awful. The SSP has united the serious left in Scotland, impacted on the electorate and has something like a partyist culture. It has recruited from outwith the left, developed some roots in the working class and earned the allegiance of a section of trade union militants. Unfortunately, though, the SSP has rejected working class unity against the state and has increasingly moved in an out-and-out nationalist direction. It even attempts to outdo the Scottish National Party in terms of campaigning for independence.

Obviously the SSP owes much of its electoral success and public profile to comrade Sheridan. While wishing him and his wife well with their baby, our main concern at the moment is with those who launched or have joined the media crusade against him. If it is true that the SSP executive demanded his resignation, then they must come clean. We need to know the facts - not about Tommy Sheridan, but the agenda of a leadership which now seems to be combining petty nationalism with petty moralising