09.12.2004

Keep off our turf

Letter to Respect national council from Tommy Sheridan and SSP national secretary Allan Green dated December 7

Dear sisters and brothers,

We are writing as a direct result of the article, ‘Galloway to team up with Sheridan for assault on Labour seats in Holyrood’, in the Mail on Sunday (Scottish edition, December 5). Other mainstream newspapers in Scotland have also followed up on this article.

In this article, George Galloway, a prominent Respect spokesperson and member of the Respect officers’ group, is directly reported as saying:

“I would certainly like to contend in Glasgow for the Scottish parliament elections. Tommy and I would be a great double act, a dream ticket, and people would vote for us.”

“Tommy is still fighting his corner in the SSP, but I fear that he will have to accept they have betrayed him and move on.”

“The Scottish Socialist Party has made a catastrophic blunder. It is my estimation that much more than half, maybe even much more than three quarters, who voted for them, did so because of Tommy Sheridan. The idea that these unknown Trotskyite apparatchiks who have done him down are going to get the same kind of vote that they did when led by Sheridan seems to me inherently improbable. These people who have done him down are not fit to tie his shoelaces.”

In addition the report attributes to George Galloway but without directly quoting him:

“The MP [George Galloway], who vowed the Labour Party would ‘rue the day’ it ditched him over his anti-war views, said Respect had already started to explore the best way to use the proportional representation list system to win Holyrood seats at the 2007 elections.”

“Yesterday, Mr Galloway said he had discussed the extra-marital allegations about Mr Sheridan with the former SSP leader, who claims never to have met the women at the centre of the reports - now the subject of a legal action. Since the story appeared, there has been bitter division within the SSP and members have admitted they are in crisis.”

George Galloway’s implied premise - that Tommy Sheridan’s resignation as party convenor has something to do with the party’s handling of an extra-marital allegation that is now subject to legal action - is simply wrong. Many media commentators have also wrongly assumed this premise to be fact and have also engaged in negative speculation. To some extent it was predictable that the enemies of socialism would use this opportunity to attack the SSP. However, it is extremely disappointing that George Galloway should choose to use the confusion in the media to actively promote divisions in the SSP and the left in Scotland. He did not even seek the views of the SSP before talking to the Mail on Sunday.

We enclose, for your information, a statement that was overwhelmingly agreed, with the active backing of Tommy Sheridan, at the SSP national council meeting the previous weekend (Saturday November 27) and a press statement from Tommy Sheridan issued after the meeting [see Weekly Worker December 2 - ed]. It had become apparent in the days before this meeting that the SSP had been the victim of a malicious and systematic campaign to provide the media with misinformation designed to sow confusion and division around issues concerned with Tommy Sheridan’s resignation as party convenor. The NC meeting heard a detailed report of the events of the previous weeks. The SSP were able to draw a line under the issue and sought to move forward in a positive and united fashion to campaign for troops out of Iraq, for equality, peace and socialism.

Tommy Sheridan had also published an article in the Morning Star on December 3, where he stated:

"Let me state clearly from the outset that the Scottish Socialist Party remains united and determined to wage war on poverty and obscene inequality in Scotland and throughout our world. We will continue to campaign against the brutal, illegal and unnecessary wars which have so scarred our planet in Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq over the last three years. Those in the anti-socialist and anti-trade union press who hoped to witness the funeral of the SSP have been forced to mourn elsewhere.

“My socialist colleague in parliament, Colin Fox, recently announced his intention to seek election to the convenor’s post I have vacated. He said: ‘The best days of the SSP are ahead of us, not behind us.’ He is absolutely right. I have resigned as SSP national convenor. I remain a proud member of the party and its parliamentary team. A combination of private and family circumstances makes the decision of our party’s executive committee to accept my letter of resignation absolutely correct.”

Especially in these circumstances, it was very disappointing to read the ill informed and inaccurate article in the Mail on Sunday (December 5), largely based on quotes from George Galloway. This article is clearly an attempt to break down the impressive left unity that has been achieved in Scotland in recent years and, in particular, to try to rubbish the Scottish Socialist Party. The general tone and content of George Galloway’s descriptions of our party’s executive and national council are also dismissive and even contemptuous of the SSP. His choice of language in the article is barely distinguishable from the way that the right wing attempts to caricature SSP activists (and probably also Respect activists).
The SSP has already stood on a national all-Scotland basis five times in five years and is again preparing for a nationwide challenge at the Westminster election next year. The SSP has always been supportive of Respect, seeking to develop positive links. Tommy Sheridan, representing the party, has spoken at several Respect meetings. The SSP cooperated to enable a Respect party political broadcast to be screened throughout Britain for the Euro elections this year, even although Respect does not operate in Scotland and even although we did not support Respect standing against Forward Wales.

We had thought we had a mutual agreement, where we recognise that Respect organises in England and the SSP in Scotland. We have sought to build links based on solidarity and mutual respect. We have congratulated Respect on every electoral advance made in England. It is therefore extremely disappointing that George Galloway is now reported as saying that Respect has already been considering standing in Scotland at the next elections for the Scottish parliament.

We would be grateful if you could provide the SSP members with an explanation of where Respect stands in relation to George Galloway’s comments. Are George Galloway’s reported comments about Respect considering standing in Scottish elections accurate? Do George Galloway’s comments about the SSP represent the views of Respect or are they his personal views?

If these comments are George Galloway’s personal views, we appreciate that Respect may not necessarily be responsible for them. Nevertheless, it would help clarify the position of Respect towards the SSP if you could provide us with a clear statement of your position with regard to standing in elections in Scotland now or at any time in the future.

In particular, we would appreciate a straightforward written statement which made it clear whether or not Respect recognises that in Scotland there is a separate and distinct party for socialists to join, the SSP, and whether or not Respect has any plans to organise in Scotland in the future. It would be helpful if you give us a categorical assurance that you will not organise nor stand in elections in Scotland at any time in the future.

In the past we have pointed out that the Respect entry on the electoral commission website states it will contest elections in England, Scotland and Wales. If you have no intention of standing in elections in Scotland, could you please now quickly arrange with the electoral commission for the reference to Respect standing in elections in Scotland to be removed from their public website?

We hope that you will be able to respond quickly and positively to our requests for clarification on these matters and that mutual positive relations between our respective parties can be maintained and improved in the future.