Issue 275 lg

—front page—

THE TRUTH ABOUT TOMMY SHERIDAN:

He won his case but lost the party...
How it got to the point of no return for Tommy and the SSP

See pages 3, 5, 6&7

NEW LABOUR’S STATE OF FEAR

Thousands of people across Scotland took to the streets this summer to protest against the British government’s support for Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon and Gaza.
While Bush and Blair sat back and let the carnage unfold, ordinary people of all ages, from all nations and walks of life, stood shoulder-to-shoulder in condemning the so-called War on Terror that brings only violence and murderous fear. A fear that the government is doing all it can to encourage.
Witness the 24 arrests on 10 August, following the foiling of an alleged terror plot. The government and police have released unprecedented detail of their investigation into this alleged plot, before anyone has been brought to trial, never mind found guilty.
Whatever the truth of the matter, its reporting is designed to make us fearful, and therefore more inclined to support US-led invasions of ‘rogue’ states.
Ours is a government that sanctions unjustified, random acts of terror yet seeks to condemn others as terrorists.
Many people are jittery and it is mostly members of Muslim communities who are paying the price, through being victimised, suspected, singled out.
But non-Muslims pay the price too, as lives are impoverished by fear and distrust. But this summer’s anti-war marches prove we can fight together for a better society, in which war and racism have no place, and people come before profits.
The Scottish Socialist Party has always been at the forefront of the anti-war movement, from the bombing of Afghanistan in 2001 to this latest abomination in Lebanon.
The SSP will never cease to oppose the oppression of peoples, whoever they are and wherever they come from.
Join us in the struggle for peace and justice.
UNITY! The socialist weapon that strikes fear into the stony hearts of the powerful
Across the globe, military and economic war is raging.
In Scotland, the vast majority of the population is confronted with attacks from the powerful minority who wield power.
Whether it is fighting for jobs and pensions at home or against bloody war abroad, the people have one key weapon: UNITY.
United action swept away the Tsar in 1917, defeated Apartheid and freed Mandela in South Africa, smashed the Poll Tax and holds the key to winning an independent socialist Scotland.
The need for unity spotlighted by the bitter battles around the miners strike, mass unemployment and the danger of nuclear annihilation plated an important part in the formation of the Scottish Socialist Party in 1998.
UNITY was right then, and it is right now.
The struggles waged by the SSP in support of civil servants, nursery nurses and firefighters among others have underlined the key combative role of the party.
Work on free school meals, against prescription charges, for the end of the Council Tax, lift the curtain on how things might be.
It is not a choice of working in communities and workplaces set against working in parliament but a commitment to work where socialist ideas can be advanced and there is a job to be done.
That’s why we will be marching against the war, supporting CND’s peace activity in September and standing in next year’s council and parliamentary elections.
Those dividing the unity that makes such work possible are doing the bosses’ work for them and no amount of bluster and posturing can hide that fact.
The SSP will stand united to meet the challenge of those who would split the left and, more importantly, the rich and powerful who bring war, misery and poverty to the world.
Unity is Strength!

RALLY:
Unity, Integrity, Socialism
Scottish Socialist Party rally
Saturday 2 September, 4pm-6pm
Central Station Hotel, Glasgow,
Music and bar: 6pm-8pm

—page two—

news

Child deportation condemned

by Wullie McGartland

The UK government has drawn up plans to deport up to 500 Vietnamese children.
The Home Office’s Immigration and Nationality Directorate has been hatching plans to forcibly remove children who have no family in Britain, sending them back to countries with deplorable human rights records and even to countries ravaged by war.
The Guardian newspaper, which broke the story, said minutes from a Home Office Consultative meeting in May revealed a change in Government policy on children whose asylum claims have failed.
At the moment, unaccompanied minors are granted discretionary leave to remain in the UK until they are 18.
The Guardian reported that a civil servant told refugee groups at the May meeting: “Problems have arisen with discretionary leave. Many under-18s are under the false impression they have a right to stay indefinitely. This needs to be addressed.”
The Home Office plans admitted that there will be occasions when children are removed for the purposes of “immigration control”, no matter if returning them to their country of origin is against their best interests.
Many of the Vietnamese children being considered for forced removal are girls in their early teens smuggled into this country by human traffickers and forced into prostitution and slave labour jobs.
Bali Hothi, of Dost, a project that works with young refugees and victims of trafficking, including Vietnamese children, condemned the Home Office proposals saying that children could be returned to the families and communities that sold them into trafficking gangs in the first place.
This, she said, was in clear “violation of basic human rights.”
Discussions at the meeting also exposed the Home Office is considering forced returns of children to war-torn countries such as Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat UK, a coalition of children’s charities, also condemned the plans, saying:
“We are deeply concerned that the government has agreed to a programme of forced returns that places vulnerable children at risk of exploitation and trafficking.
“It is counter to all UK and international obligations on child protection.”
The move comes a year after the government announced a trial scheme to return asylum seeker children without parents to Albania.
At the time, the Home Office vowed it was “determined to tackle the unacceptable practice of unaccompanied children and young people being left in the UK, separated from their families and communities”.
However they had to scrap the plan due to resistance from the Albanian authorities.

UK Government separates mothers from their babies

The UK Immigration service has also come under attack for its treatment of breastfeeding mothers.
Earlier this year, a Vietnamese mother had her Birmingham home raided by Immigration Officers without any notice. She was removed and locked up at the immigration removals centre at Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire, without her six-month-old baby.
She was then told she would be sent back to Vietnam, even though she was married to a British citizen and the authorities were aware that they had a child.
She was only reunited with the baby after a last minute reprieve allowed her to stay in the UK to challenge the decision. She was not allowed any contact with the baby for four days.
The case caused uproar and forced immigration minister, Liam Byrne, to make a statement claiming that this was an isolated incident, and admitting that the correct procedures on the treatment of families had not been properly followed.
However it has now emerged that the same thing happened to a Turkish mother.
Known only as Mrs P, she was taken to Yarl’s Wood and told she was to be deported after a routine weekly visit to sign on at an immigration centre in central London. She did not take her 15-month-old boy, after being asked on previous visits not to bring him to the centre, and had left him with a minder. They took her into detention despite the fact that her husband, also Turkish, had been granted refugee status.
She had been advised to keep breastfeeding her baby by her doctor as the child had a kidney condition.
She spent two nights in detention before being reunited with her child after a last minute reprieve allowed her to stay in the UK to appeal.
In a statement via her lawyer, Mrs P said: “I have had terrible experiences in Turkey, but this was worse. I thought constantly of my son. I cried all the time. It has taken my son some time to settle down after my return. His sleep pattern was disturbed and his behaviour deteriorated.”
While in detention, immigration officials even made comments about her top being damp because she was leaking milk from her breasts.
Annette Elder, the solicitor for both women, stated that if the women had been involved in criminal proceedings, before the children were separated from their mothers, proper childcare arrangements would have been made.
Patti Rundall, of the charity Baby Milk Action, said both cases “fly in the face of a number of UN resolutions and conventions.
“There seems to have been no regard for or understanding of the needs and rights of the child or mother.”

Arms companies profiting from mayhem and misery

Anti-war activists have demanded a ban on brutal cluster bombs after reports that at least seven Lebanese people have been killed by unexploded munitions since the latest ceasefire began.
Sean Sutton, of the charity Mines Action Group (MAG), says that it is “absolutely impossible” to tell how many explosives have been dropped by Israeli forces.
“This is an emergency situation. It won’t be solved overnight.”
The charity said that seven villages that it had visited around Nabatiyeh had reported deaths and injuries from unexploded munitions, including cluster bombs, aerial bombs, ground-launched artillery and mortar bombs.
“We (heard) about a 13-year-old boy who was picking grapes when a cluster bomb in the branches exploded and killed him.
“Cluster bombs...are in houses, on balconies, roofs and fields. We’ve seen villages completely covered in them.”
Cluster bombs are often designed to look attractive to young children who play with what are in effect booby traps which then explode to deadly effect.
A researcher for Land Mine Action, long-time campaigners for a complete ban on this vile weaponry, commented:
“Even before this latest war, Lebanese people were dying from cluster bombs left over from the last war with Israel. This shows the long-lived impact of such weapons...(which) kill civilians indiscriminately because of the vast area they cover.
“They have an especially disproportionate effect on children, who make up 60 to 70 per cent of cluster bomb casualties.”
Meanwhile anti-arms trade campaigners condemned the government’s decision to sell the repressive Saudi Arabian regime a new fleet of Tornado jets, complete with the new Eurofighter, made by a consortium including BAE systems.
The widespread welcome from unions and business for the grisly deal, reportedly worth £10billion, shows how deeply embedded the weapons trade is in UK industry.
But the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) insists such deals do us little good.
“The people of the UK have lost out, as selling arms to a volatile area can only add to an insecure and unstable world.
“The government speaks of security one day and undermines it the next.”

Airport staffing levels and cost-cutting risks lives

by Ken Ferguson

Responding to the latest security crisis at UK terminals, the main civil aviation union the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) are demanding an urgent assessment of staffing levels in UK airport security.
Brendan Gould, TGWU national secretary for civil aviation, warned that airline pressure to speed up security checks could compromise security.
“As the largest union in the industry, we are acutely aware of the problems facing aviation, but the industry must not dictate the way we fly according to business-only considerations.
“Staff have carried out a difficult job well, yet have been bearing the brunt of staffing levels cut to the bone.
“Whilst the security threat has been downgraded for now, the aviation industry has to recognise that an intensified security regime in airports will remain in operation.”
The union intends to bring its concerns to the Department of Transport, the airlines and the airport authorities as a matter of urgency.
Meanwhile, talks to avert a strike by baggage handlers and check-in staff at Stansted over the coming bank holiday weekend are continuing between the TGWU,
GMB and Swissport, the ground-handling agent for airlines at the airport.
Workers, disgusted at a ‘miserly’ pay offer, have voted three-to-one for industrial action to win an improved deal.
TGWU regional industrial organiser Maureen Byrne commented:
“The company is trying to drive down costs by attacking our members’ pay, which is already low, (starting) on salaries of between £11,500 and £14,000 a year, working in a
difficult and pressurised environment.”

—page three—

Editorial Comment

THIS IS OUR TRUTH

I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
- John Lennon

How did it come to this? The SSP - the most successful socialist party in Scotland since World War II - is on the verge of a split.
Tommy Sheridan - one of the most monumental figures in Scottish socialism - is standing on the outside of the party trying to hurl grenades in, writing off the SSP as a “colossal train wreck”. He plans to launch a new party next week, and two platform groupings within the SSP have announced they are to join him.
This has not occurred because the SSP, which just a few months ago had the vast majority of socialist traditions in Scotland united under the same banner, has ruptured through political disagreement.
We face this schism as a result of a sleazy little story in a newspaper no-one trusts anyway.
The differences within the SSP centre on what is true and what is lies, on one man’s battle to preserve his personal reputation at the expense of the reputation of his party.
The Voice has not commented on the events surrounding Tommy Sheridan’s resignation for the last year and a half, other than to recognise the huge contribution he has made to building socialism in Scotland, and to correct news speculation that his resignation was caused by infighting or a leadership coup.
Our editorial at the time, in Voice issue 198, was agreed with the entire Executive Committee of the SSP, and Tommy himself. The Voice said:
“There is not one particle of truth in any of the allegations of internecine battles or political manoeuvring running behind what’s happened...
“Tommy tendered his resignation after a meeting that was extremely difficult. Not one member of the Executive Committee voted on it without questioning themselves again and again.
“But the Executive emerged from the meeting unanimous and united.”
In the following editions we got on with the job of covering the too often ignored campaigns against poverty and inequality which spring up daily on Scotland’s streets and all over the world, and the slaughter that has been unleashed by the American and British governments.
Despite Tommy’s allegation in June this year - when he launched his diatribe in the mainstream media against the “cabal” he claimed was out to destroy him - that the Voice “has been a tool of the undeclared faction over the last 18 months”, we never once referred to his court case, with the exception of reporting the SSP’s battle to keep confidential party documents out of the court.
Moreover, the Voice has given equal coverage to the hard work carried out by all six of the SSP’s MSPs since their election in 2003.
But after the shabby pantomime that Tommy Sheridan directed in the Court of Session - which became the daily focus of every newspaper in Scotland, not to mention media throughout the world - and with the SSP on the brink of a split, the Voice cannot ignore the situation before us and is therefore forced to comment.
Our centre pages this week sets out, in chronological order, the events of the last year and a half. Everything we have documented there can be corroborated from other sources - none of it is the invention of a ‘faction’ driven by jealousy or personal hatred. It is an accurate and honest record of a deeply traumatic period in our movement’s history.
We also re-print the minutes of the 9 November 2004 Executive Committee meeting. While some have claimed these minutes are fake, they were ratified by an EC meeting on 24 November 2004. It has also been said that the minutes are unnecessarily salacious, containing more detail than ordinary EC minutes and kept with the intention of being used against Tommy.
In fact, they are briefer than usual EC minutes, containing only the bare bones of a four-hour discussion.
They record the reason the SSP Executive asked one of the most outstanding campaigners for socialism in Scotland to resign from his position as convenor - failure to do so would have been a criminal betrayal of the SSP membership’s right to hold its leadership accountable for its actions.
It has been said, and bears repeating, that the decision to ask Tommy to resign was never about whether or not he went to swingers clubs, or cheated on his wife. It was always about his attitude to the truth, in that he thought it was dispensable, and that comrades should collaborate in a cover-up. He saw no contradiction in being a ‘working-class hero’ while lying to the working-class. But the EC did, and voted accordingly.
Since then, he has spun a tale about a ‘vicious faction’ that sought to undermine him and in so doing, put the SSP itself on trial.
He has talked at length in the press about this faction, which he claims controls the machinery of the SSP and enjoys a majority on the Executive Committee.
The EC was elected by SSP members at conference less than six months ago. The vast majority of SSP members are not members of any platform within the SSP - even the misnamed ‘SSP Majority’ faction, set up to support Tommy, comprises only a small minority of SSP members.
In fact no network, platform or grouping within the SSP held a majority on the EC - yet Tommy and his supporters decided, in the wake of his court victory, to walk away from the SSP nonetheless.
The two groupings within the SSP who have decided to exit with him - the Socialist Workers’ Platform and the International Socialist Platform (CWI) - have handcuffed themselves to a deadweight, who will sink them like a stone.
In leaving the SSP, they are leaving the most democratic political party in Scotland.
At our conference in just six weeks’ time, party members can hold EC members to account for any mistakes they believe they have made in the handling of this situation. SSP members can hold the editor of the Voice to account for this article if they so wish.
That is the nature of democracy - we must all take responsibility for our actions and face the consequences.
But rather than take responsibility for his actions, Tommy Sheridan has lied his way through his court case, screeched “scab” at those who refused to support his corrupt effort to clear his name, and now, realising that he was unlikely to reclaim the convenorship of the SSP and lead an expulsion purge of those who have told the truth, he has chosen to establish his own party, in opposition to the SSP.
He pleads victimisation, claiming to have been hounded out, but in truth, he is running from those who would not allow him to rewrite history - he is running from the truth.
Tommy Sheridan is attempting to build a new party on a landfill site of lies, and it is destined to sink into the muck on which it is founded.

—page four—

one world

GIE’S PEACE
– Morag Balfour

Morag is a long term activist in the peace movement and is the SSP’s peace and disarmament spokesperson

Arrested development

The other week I attended the Trident Ploughshares camp. It was the usual mix of serious work and play for us anti-nuclear activist - and a great opportunity to put my pal Barbara’s spanking new hip to the test. Her state of the art ceramic hip is actually called a trident.
We set out for camp tooled up with cans of spray paint and the trident replacement hip.
We did our first action on Monday 7 August.
We arranged to get picked up from our B&B at 10pm by a mate who was passing the door anyway.
In case you’re wondering, the battle to camp outdoors was lost by me many moons ago so I have to put up with looking decadent.
To our surprise, we saw no MoD Police patrols when we approached our target railway bridge.
With some help we decanted from the car and set to work. I was attempting to write ‘Jesus hates bombs’ AGAIN!!
I guess my biggest concern was being nicked too soon as it would be shameful to leave ‘Jesus hates’ - although I know he isn’t in a position to sue me for libel. Miraculously, I completed my phrase and Jesus doesn’t have to sue me!
Meanwhile, Barbara used up a can of paint and vented spleen impressively.
Then we sat and waited.
After a wee while, I phoned the Trident Ploughshares legal support phone number and asked them to inform the Coulport MoD Police that we were waiting to be arrested.
I made a couple more phone calls before they arrived.
They were bemused and confused when we explained that we’d called in our own criminal activity.
One of the things I’ve always loved about our movement is its level of accountability.
I’m not ashamed of what I do so I don’t mind proclaiming it to the rafters. Anyway, we told them that we didn’t get out much, had no friends, were miserable decrepits and only spray paint stuff so we can have some company.
Barbara ate far more wheat than she should’ve that week, which lead to some comic farting. She let me know when they were on their way and then we fell about laughing.
Wednesday 9 August was Nagasaki day.
We followed much the same evening routine but went for a different bridge, this time near Faslane.
We got everything painted that we wanted and then a wee police car drew up beside us.
I went this time for ‘No nukes! Not now! Not ever!’ and put down my spray can expectantly.
They parked the car next to me but didn’t get out. I asked Barbara why we weren’t getting nicked and she didn’t know either, so we just picked up our cans and set to again. These were MoD police new to the job.
Senior officers who arrived shortly afterwards expressed audible incredulity at their decision to sit watching us. I wasn’t arrested or charged properly. The wee souls were reading off laminated cards.
Coming back to the subject of accountability, I must admit I tend to be a bit of a hard-liner. If people are not prepared to take responsibility for their particular behaviours they should change their behaviour. I joined the Iona Community for similar reasons.
Their economic accountability is very disciplined and I find it quite challenging. I benefit from robust accountability structures. I get suspicious when people shy away from the truth. I become incensed when people distort or pervert the truth for their own selfish reasons.
Understand this folks, I’m pro-truth, not anti-Sheridan.
It’s a work of great malevolence to label honest people as scabs.
I woke up in a parallel universe the other week. Apparently deceit and slander are now noble and righteous.
Now that is perverse.

Coke told to can it

by Ken Ferguson

Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, those iconic symbols of the all-American way, have been banned in the South Indian state of Kerala.
The Left Democratic Front government has banned the production and sale of the toxic fizzies throughout the state.
The companies will be asked to close their operations entirely.
As seven other Indian states consider following Kerala’s example, the state’s Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan told journalists that the ban was being imposed in order to combat the health hazards posed by the products.
He commented:
“We have arrived at the decision to ask both Coke and Pepsi to stop production and distribution of all their products, based on scientific studies which have proved that they are harmful.”
The government was also clearly influenced by community campaigning in Plachimada on the issues of falling water levels and soil and groundwater pollution associated with Coca Cola’s bottling operations.
Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Plachimada has remained shut down since March 2004 because of community opposition.

Toxic
Both government and independent studies have found the presence of toxic waste around Coca-Cola’s bottling plants across India.
“We will take steps to close down the Pepsi factory in Puddussery village in Palakkad district of Kerala,” the chief minister added.
Environmental campaigning body the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a research and advocacy group in India, released a study that found a “cocktail of between three to five different pesticides in all samples” of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products they tested in India.
On average, their study said, the pesticide residues were 24 times higher than European Union (EU) standards and those proposed by the Bureau of India Standards (BIS), the government body responsible for standardisation and quality control.
Coke and Pepsi have now been banned in government buildings and educational institutions in many states in India, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi.
R Ajayan, of the Plachimada Solidarity Committee, a statewide coalition that has been campaigning on the water depletion and pollution issues, praised the Kerala ban saying:
“We welcome the move to completely ban the manufacturing and sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in Kerala.
“The cola companies have inflicted a lot of damage to the fabric of the community in Plachimada, by destroying lives and livelihoods.
“We are now putting the companies on notice that they must make reparations to the affected community members, and the campaign will move to a new stage.”
Across India, work is now underway to develop regulations to govern safety standards for soft drinks to ensure consumer safety.
Campaigners at the CSE have accused the Coca-Cola company and Pepsico, as well as “powerful interests in the government”, of blocking the adoption of the standards.

Regulations
Amit Srivastava, of the India Resource Centre, an international campaigning organisation, spelt it out:
“The government of India must also ensure that there are laws that protect our groundwater, and that regulations are in place to put an end to the kinds of rampant pollution that we have seen with the Coca-Cola company.”
The Supreme Court of India has also ordered Coca-Cola and Pepsico to reveal the ingredients in their products in six weeks, or face a potential national ban
* For more information, visit www.IndiaResource.org
R. Ajayan, Plachimada Solidarity Committee (India) Tel: +91 9847142513
Amit Srivastava, India Resource Center (US)
+1 415 336 7584. Email: amit@indiaresource.org

Coca-Cola: the charge sheet
Drought: Coca-Cola leaves you thirsty. The company uses so much water, even building pipelines to divert water supplies direct to its bottling plants, that local communities go short.
For ordinary people, this means long journeys for fresh water, while for farmers, it’s certain death, as no water equals no livelihood.
Pollution: Coca-Cola is a dirty company. The company is guilty of distributing toxic waste, including cadmium and lead, to farmers, claiming it was fertiliser. The long-term effects this may have on human health are as yet unquantified but likely to be devastating.
Sickness: Coca-Cola makes you ill. The sugar content is the least of it. In India, Coke contains high levels of pesticides, including DDT. These poisons would not be permissible in foodstuffs sold in the EU and US.
Violence: Coca-Cola doesn’t pull its punches. In Mehdiganj, near Varanasi, a 1500-strong anti-Coca-Cola protest, in November 2004, was met at the gates of the bottling plant by armed police, brought in to ‘protect’ the premises. Many protestors were severely beaten up.

—page five—

your voice

Tommy admitted that he confirmed sex club visit to EC meeting
On Friday 4 August 2006, Tommy Sheridan left the Court of Session after receiving £200,000 damages over allegations about his private life that were printed in the News of the World.
It was presented as a victory for truth and justice.
During the case, 11 leading members of the Scottish Socialist Party stated that Tommy Sheridan attended an SSP executive meeting on 9 November 2004 and admitted visiting a sex club in Manchester with a News of the World journalist, but would deny the allegations. In court, Tommy Sheridan accused them of being liars and perjurers, and of trying to frame him in “the mother of all stitch-ups”.
According to press reports, he has subsequently sold his story to a tabloid newspaper owned by Trinity Mirror PLC, pocketing a further £30,000 in the process.
The Daily Record front page headline of 7 August 2006, reads, “I’ll destroy the scabs who tried to ruin me”.
The 11 people Tommy Sheridan wants to “destroy” have spent their entire adult lives in the labour and trade union movement - including Richie Venton, the party’s industrial organiser, and Colin Fox, the party’s convenor. Yet, all they have done is stand in court - against their will - and tell the truth.
Now, as the possibility of a perjury investigation looms, we cannot stand by and watch this grotesque, Orwellian situation continue.
To protect the integrity of these witnesses, and others, we are forced to come forward and state that at a series of individual discussions arranged by Tommy Sheridan in 2005, he confirmed to each of the people below that he attended the SSP executive meeting stating that he was the unnamed MSP at the centre of allegations in the News of the World involving a sex club in Manchester.
We call on Tommy Sheridan to publicly retract the accusations that he has made against the honest, decent men and women whom he has slandered.
David Archibald, Govan Branch; Steve Hudson, Dennistoun Branch; Charlie McCarthy, Coatbridge and Airdrie Branch; Nick McKerrell, Shettleston Branch; Jim McVicar, Baillieston Branch; Liam Young, Maryhill East Branch

Defend the honest eleven
Obviously those who continue to accuse eleven Scottish Socialist Party Executive members of “concocting” a story have no sense of irony.
In late 2004, The Herald ran an article about a closed meeting of SSP members in Dundee. Information leaked to The Herald regarding the meeting included a quote attributed to Alan McCombes that the SSP Executive would not assist Tommy in building a “tower of lies”.
The document posted on the party website in response to the end of the court case confirms that such meetings took place all over Scotland as the Executive disseminated to members the crux of the 9 November 2004 Executive meeting (i.e. that Tommy intended to publicly deny events reported in the News of the World that he had confirmed as true to the Executive, and that his resignation had therefore been sought).
Many hundreds of SSP members must therefore have been made aware of the reasons behind the resignation.
Given this fact and the press coverage of the Dundee meeting, it is inconceivable that Tommy Sheridan was unaware of these meetings or their content.
If Tommy is the victim of a baseless conspiracy formulated by jealous inadequates, then its roots are to be found in November 2004 and must have been evident to Tommy at the time. Despite this, no suggestion of a conspiracy was made by Tommy. Even more damning, in the Daily Record of 7 August 2006, Tommy is quoted as believing that he had the support of the Executive in his quest to sue the News of the World before “smelling a rat” only earlier this year. This line of defence is simply untenable and flies in the face of reason.
Tommy and his allies are telling the rest of us either that these meetings didn’t happen or that the content of them was not what we heard with our own ears.
How ironic is it that Steve Arnott suggested in court that there was a case of mass delusion among those who believed the testimony of the eleven Executive members.
Every SSP member who attended one of those meetings knows full well that the concoction of stories is coming from those hell-bent on destroying the Executive members who had the audacity to tell the truth.
It is imperative that these party members act on this knowledge and support the Executive members who are under a wholly unwarranted and baseless attack.
David Stevenson, Cambuslang

‘The lie will unravel’
Tommy Sheridan has destroyed the reputation of the SSP in order to protect a lie. But the lie will unravel.
I am a member of the SSP and was well aware that Sheridan did admit to going to a swingers club with a News of the World journalist, as most party members were briefed about this honestly. Our concern was that he planned to lie in court. It was discussed frankly at the National Council meeting I attended on 28 May this year. Sheridan was present and spoke for ten minutes, and far from denying that he went to the swingers’ club, he bullied and demanded that we give him our “full political support” in his battle against the “scum, reactionary News of the World” - the same paper that he had just circulated a press release to, attacking his own party. I can hardly contain my rage that since the court case, Sheridan has continued to attack the SSP, for example, by labelling eleven good comrades as “scabs”. It sickens me that he has accepted £25,000 profit from a tabloid, after his courtroom denunciation of cheque-book journal ism.
SSP members have been silenced for 21 months because we agreed to keep Tommy’s confidentiality, but I am no longer prepared to participate in a cover-up which could mislead SSP voters.
History will not absolve Sheridan. It will absolve the 11 SSP members who refused to re-write the party’s history, or lie in court on a personal matter of Tommy’s that had nothing to do with the struggle for a fair society.
Carol Hainey, Falkirk

A victory for us all?
We must not fall into the trap that Michael Jones QC laid for the jury in the Tommy Sheridan case. There is no reason to believe that the jury had any view, one way or the other, regarding the testimony of SSP comrades. For the News of the World to win its case they had to prove that the damaging allegations contained in their published articles were “substantially correct”.
Of all the allegations, from committing adultery through to snorting cocaine, only a fraction had any support from credible witnesses - hardly “substantially correct”. Additionally, if the jury had found for the News of the World, it would have indicated to the press that published stories could contain scurrilous allegations only a fraction of which need be credibly supported in court. Such a decision would not be in the public interest. The jury’s verdict is a victory for us all, regardless of the veracity of Tommy’s evidence. The case against the News of the World did not hinge on whether or not Tommy had visited a swingers club a couple of times. That was not, by any means, the most defamatory allegation. It follows that SSP comrades had little to gain (and much to lose) by lying about the EC meeting of 9 November 2004 - either way. Katrine Trolle’s evidence was far more convincing than anything said on that score by current SSP members. It is a tragedy that, apparently, two of our MSPs thought it necessary to lie in court. That throws a very unpleasant light on the relationship that this party has with the truth. Left wing politics has a reputation for splitting more easily than Welsh slate, but now we face a real divide - and it is ethical, not political.
Christine Chandler, Aberdeen

Rebel Ink
- Kevin Williamson

Kevin is an award winning writer and publisher, causing havoc at the cutting edge of Scottish culture

KEVIN SIGNS OFF

Nine years ago - on the exact date of the 700th anniversary of William Wallace’s famous victory at Stirling Bridge - Scots voted to set up a parliament of our own for the first time since 1707. It was a pivotal turning point in the history of Scotland.
A small band of activists took this as a cue to attempt to unite the Scottish left by setting up a socialist party to fight against poverty, injustice, war and London rule. I’m proud to have been one of that number.
Eight years later and the party we created seems unrecognisable to me. Comrades and friends have become locked in a bitter factional struggle that seems certain to tear the party in two.
Over the last few weeks, being a member of the SSP has seemed akin to being trapped in a sack full of angry wasps. The atmosphere has become ugly and toxic.
Which is (partially) why, after thinking things over, I’ve decided - with much sadness and regret, but no bitterness - to end my eight year membership of the SSP.
So this’ll be my last weekly column in the Voice. (I’ve sent a formal letter of resignation, with the reasons why, to the party’s National Secretary - a copy of which I’ve posted up at http://myresignationletter fromtheSSP.blogspot.com.)
I’m still reflecting on the events surrounding the recent court case between Tommy Sheridan and the News of the World. I can’t say I’m unhappy with the verdict as I thoroughly despise the Murdoch press and everything it represents.
But the idea that the means justifies the end is morally repugnant. The methods will always be incorporated into the end result. Tommy compared the trial to Gretna versus Real Madrid. By the end it was like watching Rangers versus Hearts. So utterly shameful were the methods of the two contestants that, eventually, I wanted them both to lose.
From a personal perspective I hope Tommy eventually finds the courage to be honest with himself and everyone around him. If he does then he’ll be a better man for it.
But politically, Tommy is finished. He has lost his reputation for honesty and integrity and has gone into bed with the opportunistic dinosaurs of the Brit left. Soon he will discover that he will either have to dance to their tune on Scottish independence or face being dumped by them.
Tommy and the Brit left camp are a remnant of the days when the left embraced the cult of personality, and thought that socialist politics was all about leaders and followers, with the great (male) orators up on the podium and the applauding masses down below. They have been left behind in the previous century.
With the benefit of hindsight, the idea of uniting the left in Scotland into a single party was a mistake. The pro-independence left and the Brit left are two separate entities with separate political agendas. Which is why the SSP was doomed from the start.
For similar reasons Tommy’s new Solidarity party - with its unstable marriage of convenience between Brit left opportunists and progressive pro-independence lefts - will also be torn apart over the question of Scottish independence.
My own politics have evolved over the last eight years. Support for the principles underpinning Scottish independence, feminism and libertarian socialism are now non-negotiable.
I’d like to think the SSP can be won over to such principles. But I’m not yet convinced. From now until the crucial independence Election in May 2007, I’m gonna step up my own involvement in the fight for Scottish independence.
I’d like to thank the editor(s) and staff of the Voice for their hard work and support over the last ten years. Youse have been great. I’ve really enjoyed writing this weekly column, stirring up a bit of debate.
I’m leaving the SSP with no bitterness towards anyone on either side. Life’s too short. The SSP has many members I’m proud to have called comrades and friends. All the best for the future. The fight goes on.

—centre pages—

No secrets - no lies: The truth behind two turbulent years in the SSP

2004

Sun 30 Oct: The News of the World (NotW) runs a front page account, by Anvar Khan, of a visit to a sex club with an unnamed, married MSP.
Two members of the SSP Executive Committee (EC), aware that the article refers to Tommy Sheridan, ask him to apologise and resign as convenor as soon as he is named as the MSP involved. He refuses.
A further attempt is made to deal with the situation privately, with Tommy invited to attend an informal meeting on Sat 6 Nov. He refuses and an emergency EC meeting is called.
Tues 9 Nov: Tommy admits to the emergency EC meeting that he is the unnamed MSP, saying he attended the club twice, in 1996 and 2002. He adds that he has taken legal advice, and will continue to publicly deny the story as he is confident no proof exists. He leaves the meeting early. There is a unanimous vote not to comply with his strategy of denial, and a consensus is reached that he should be given until Sat 13 Nov to resign as party convenor.
Thurs 11 Nov: Tommy’s resignation is reported on Daily Record front page. Tommy is quoted as saying he intends to spend more time with family. Feverish media speculation follows.
Sun 14 Nov: The NotW prints additional allegations of an affair, to which Tommy had never admitted at the EC, and which were never considered by EC members in discussions regarding Tommy’s resignation. A second emergency EC unanimously agrees a statement, saying “...The Executive completely dismisses the rumours that have circulated in the press that Tommy’s resignation was provoked by a leadership challenge, a factional power struggle or any other form of internal in-fighting... We understand that recent allegations in a Murdoch newspaper may be the subject of a future libel action by Tommy Sheridan and consequently the Scottish Socialist Party does not wish to comment on matters concerning the allegation.”
Wed 24 Nov: A further emergency EC agrees and ratifies the minutes of the two previous meetings and unanimously agrees proposals regarding the forthcoming National Council (NC) meeting, including a verbal report on the reasons for Tommy’s resignation and an argument in favour of keeping the minutes of the three EC meetings confidential.
Sat 27 Nov: The Herald runs article headlined, ‘SSP leaders to face the party without crucial meeting’s minute’.
Emergency NC is attended by more than 100 party delegates. Allan Green’s verbal report is endorsed by Tommy Sheridan. A motion endorsing the EC’s decisions is passed by 85 votes to 20.
Tommy Sheridan issues a press statement saying, “I wholeheartedly support the SSP Executive Committee statement agreed at today’s meeting. The Scottish Socialist Party has today showed great maturity in reaching a unified position on the way forward.
“I would like to take this opportunity to confirm that my resignation as party convenor has nothing at all to do with internal power struggles. There is not and never has been any internal squabbles or back-biting about a leadership challenge. We are a party of principle and action.
“We have drawn a line under these internal deliberations. I will now work alongside the other party MSPs and the wider party membership to campaign for justice, equality, peace and socialism.”

2006
Thurs 11 May: In connection with Tommy Sheridan’s libel case against the NotW, four SSP members are cited to appear in court in order to hand over documents relating to his resignation, including the minutes of the 9 November 2004 emergency EC.
Fri 12 May: Colin Fox and Allan Green meet with Tommy. Allan Green shows him the minutes and both ask him to withdraw his libel action, pledging to raise funds to help him with costs incurred so far. Tommy asks them to defy the court’s demand to hand in the minute.
Sun 14 May: An emergency EC agrees that Alan McCombes is to take sole possession of the minutes and refuse to hand them in to the court.
Tues 16 May: Alan McCombes goes to the Court of Session, where he explains, on the grounds that the party has the right to hold private discussions on confidential matters, that he is not prepared to release the minutes. He is warned he faces contempt of court charges.
Sun 21 May: A scheduled EC meeting endorses the decision to defy. It withdraws, in the interest of unity, a motion agreed previously calling on Tommy to drop his libel action.
Week beginning Mon 22 May: At the Court of Session, Judge Lady Smith announces her intention to call Tommy Sheridan and members of the Cardonald SSP branch to explain a resolution circulated on Tommy’s parliamentary email demanding that the EC minutes are destroyed.
At some point this week, a fake set of minutes are sent to the NotW, which include the initials of a number of EC members. Whoever sent them this fabricated document handed over the names of SSP members who would later be dragged before the court to testify.
Fri 26 May: Alan McCombes is jailed for 12 days by Lady Smith at the Court of Session. She says that Alan is “flouting the law. It is difficult to resist drawing the conclusion he puts his loyalty to the Scottish Socialist Party above his duty to this court.”
Sat 27 May: SSP offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Alan’s home, are raided by Sheriff Officers, instructed by the court to search for the minutes. They don’t find them.
Sun 28 May: Emergency NC meets in Glasgow. While the meeting is in progress, Tommy Sheridan issues an ‘open letter’ to the press, where he alleges there is a conspiracy to undermine him by a “an unsavoury cabal of comrades... who are more interested in pursuing personal vendettas, through vile lies and slander, than conducting the class struggle.” He had never raised these allegations formally within the SSP.
In a torrid, angry atmosphere, some speakers are bitterly harangued by hecklers. Tommy Sheridan speaks in favour of handing the minutes in to the court, and repeats some of the accusations from his open letter.
The meeting votes 82 to 67 in favour of ending the strategy of defiance. Without discussion, the NC is forced to vote on a motion offering Sheridan “our full political support in his battle” against News International, which is passed by 81 votes to 60.
Mon 29 May: The minutes are handed in to the Court of Session in a sealed envelope, and Alan McCombes is released from Saughton Prison after four days in jail.
Sun 18 June: An EC meeting agrees that those SSP members now cited as witnesses in the libel action should go to court under protest but neither perjure themselves nor place themselves in contempt of court. Two EC members vote against this statement, but offer no alternative strategy.
Tues 4 July: Court case begins.
Fri 4 August: Tommy Sheridan wins his libel action, and is awarded £200,000. He immediately announces he will challenge Colin Fox for the SSP convenorship. He later states he will stand for the position if he can secure nominations from at least 25 branches.
Mon 7 August: As part of a series of exclusive, paid-for interviews with Tommy, the Daily Record’s front page headline reads, ‘I will destroy the scabs who tried to ruin me’. The inside pages run pictures of four SSP MSPs, with the word ‘scab’ printed over each.
Wed 16 August: In a statement released on the ‘SSP Majority’ website, Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne call a meeting to discuss a new party of the left in Scotland, declaring the SSP a “colossal train wreck”.
Sat 19 and Sun 20 August: In interviews with The Herald and Sunday Herald, Tommy says he regrets calling SSP members “scabs”, saying he should have saved the word for use in internal party meetings. Instead, he labels SSP members who gave evidence “collaborators”, and unambiguously states his intention to leave the SSP and start a new party.
Two platforms within the SSP - the CWI and SWP - announce their intention to leave the SSP and join Tommy’s new formation.

“Court quotes…”

Katrine Trolle - Tues 18 July

Mike Jones QC: Are you lying about having a sexual relationship with Mr Sheridan?
Katrine Trolle: No, it’s embarrassing enough without making it up. My colleagues, clients, friends, my boyfriend and his family have read all about this... I did do these things, but I’ve changed a lot in recent years... I wouldn’t have caused this pain to those nearest me.

Allan Green - Wed 19 July

“You can lie, accuse me of monstrous frame-ups, none of it the truth. For you to turn round and accuse me of monstrous frame-ups it is shameful Tommy, it is shameful.”

Carolyn Leckie - Thurs 20 July
CL: Our mouths have been clamped for the last 18 months. We have maintained confidentiality, you have continued to lie to your family. The lurid headlines would have been chip paper by now.
TS: You voted against political solidarity?
CL: I voted against you jumping off a cliff and jumping off with you.

Tommy Sheridan - Fri 21 July

Mike Jones QC: ‘The courts should have been properly defied’; this was your position?
Tommy Sheridan: Yes. A difference of strategy, I would have told the court there was no minute. Going to the court and saying ‘we have a minute’ was stupid.
Mike Jones QC: So lies are justified?
Tommy Sheridan: When you’re fighting the most reactionary scab outfit in the world, yes, sometimes you have to fight dirty.
Mike Jones QC: Not a question of truth but of whose side you are on?
Tommy Sheridan: Some people have not just lied but have politically scabbed.

Rosemary Byrne - Mon 24 July

“There was a lot of hysteria [at the 9/11/04 Executive Committee meeting], allegations and accusations were thrown about. It was a kangaroo court.”

Steve Arnott - Wed 26 July

During his sworn testimony, Steve Arnott, SSP regional organiser for the Highlands and Islands, suggested that those who testified that Sheridan admitted visiting Cupid’s sex club were perhaps suffering from a form of “mass delusion”.

Courage and honesty

Tommy Sheridan has repeatedly attacked the 11 SSP members who gave honest evidence in court as “scabs”.
Tommy made a half-hearted effort at retraction in interviews with the mainstream press over the weekend. He implied it was a spur of the moment reaction, but went on to say he would have made the scab accusation in internal meetings.
In fact Tommy, and supporters of his, used the word both in the run up the court case, while giving his evidence, where he said witnesses had “politically scabbed”, and again after the case.
Here, SSP workplace organiser Richie Venton gives his view on the ‘scab’ allegations.
It takes courage to be honest, but only an honest, open, campaigning socialist party is capable of winning mass support for the vision we all hold dear - of an independent socialist Scotland.
Far from being ‘scabs’, ‘liars’ or ‘conspirators’ in ‘the mother of all stitch-ups’, I and others have upheld the honesty and integrity of the SSP, refusing to rewrite history.
We refused to join him in scorching the very earth the SSP stands on...
Tommy defied all friendly advice from me and others and forged ahead with his court case. By doing so he put the party on trial as much as News of the World (NotW).
Do our accusers know what a scab is? Which picket line have I or the ‘SSP 11’ ever crossed? What strike have we broken or undermined? When have we sought personal or financial gain out of defying the majority decisions of a workers’ organisation?
Using ‘scab’ as a term of abuse against fellow socialists at best devalues the whole meaning of the word in the class struggle. Such anathema, such a vile judgement on my integrity as a socialist of 35-years of selfless activity, cannot become an accepted ‘fact’ through repetition in the socialist and trade union movement...
Tommy’s misnamed SSP Majority faction made a cold, cynical calculation when they portrayed his libel action against NotW as part of the class struggle - and that we had to choose between him and them.
They then branded 11 socialists as scabs - and call us ‘collaborators’ with Murdoch’s rag. This way they hope to win the support of trade unionists in particular - out of their healthy instinct for solidarity.

Examine the facts:

One man made sure SSP members were forced to appear in Court - Tommy. It was him that took legal action, not the NotW.
We repeatedly advised him against this, warning it would drag his name through manure and embroil the SSP in what is nothing more nor less than an unsavoury celebrity sex scandal.
Once summonsed as witnesses, what were we supposed to do? Not turn up? Face warrants for our arrest? Go on the run (with or without our families)? It is grotesque distortion to say we ‘collaborated’ with NotW - we were hostages, not witnesses - dragged there by Tommy’s reckless, selfish actions...
We faced a choice (under oath) of EITHER admitting the truth about why we asked Tommy to resign as convenor (precisely to prevent him being exposed as a liar and hypocrite whilst still SSP convenor) or corroborate his monstrous allegations about being framed, stitched up, dumped for factional reasons - with forged or ‘dodgy’ minutes to back it up.
Virtually no SSP member disagreed with our sad, unavoidable decision to ask Tommy to resign as convener at the vast number of well-attended meetings in 2004.
If we had not kept a true and accurate record (minutes) of why the most effective socialist convener in decades had been asked to resign, whose version would you now believe? The truth - or the lie created by a very effective orator and media operator in defence of his own reputation?
Whatever you think of us keeping minutes, even if they had not existed we would have been quizzed by the QC about our recollection of the EC meeting which asked Tommy to resign - that’s what we actually faced in court.
Do you think we could have got away with lying in court but telling the truth to the SSP membership? Apart from the legal risks, how the hell can a party of our public standing get away with lies in a public courtroom, followed by a different public explanation outside the court - and retain any respect?
An isolated sect or underground conspiracy might get away with that - but not a broad, open, campaigning socialist party that working class people can believe in, which the SSP has always aspired to be.
* This is a shortened version of Richie’s statement, which is available in full at : www.scottishsocialistparty.org

SSP emergency EC minutes - 9th Nov 2004

EC Minutes 09.11.04

SSP Executive Committee - minutes Emergency Meeting - Tuesday 9th November 2004 - Glasgow
Present: Carolyn Leckie (Chair), Allan Green, Jo Harvie, Frances Curran, Graeme Mclver, Richie Venton, Felicity Garvie, Steven Nimmo, Colin Fox, Jock Penman, Tommy Sheridan, Alan McCombes, Catriona Grant, Barbara Scott (minutes), Rosie Kane, Duncan Rowan, Rosemary Byrne, Allison Kane, Keith Baldassara, Kevin McVey, Pat Smith

Tommy Sheridan’s contribution
The meeting began with an introduction by Tommy Sheridan. He responded to a recent article in the News of the World which alleged that a married MSP had visited a swingers/sex club in Manchester in the company of a female journalist who had now written a book about her lifestyle. Tommy admitted to the meeting that he had in fact visited the club on two occasions, in 1996 and 2002 with close friends. He acknowledged that this had been reckless behaviour and had, with hindsight, been a mistake. He reported that he had met with Keith B and Alan Mc and asked them for the opportunity to fight this on his own and for other party members if questioned about it, to either give no comment or refer all questions to himself. He said he was confident there was no proof in existence that he had visited the club.
Tommy said he was not prepared to resign as Convener unless proof was revealed to exist. His strategy was to deny the allegations and in this regard he had already taken advice from NUJ solicitors. He also stated that it wa