Reproduced below with his permission is an interesting post from Dave Spencer that originally appeared on the UK Left Network discussion list, where he details the shenanigans of the SWP and the Millies in the Socialist Alliance, and where he sets out his opinion on why the SSP has imploded.
I'm not sure I totally agree with his position that the CWI amd Socialist Worker Platforms only joined the SSP in order to break it up, but it seems self-evident that the two traditions, who have it written in their political dna that they must control movements they are a part of, felt marginalised within the SSP, and have seen this as an opportunity to become bigger fish in a smaller pond. Sheridan, needing foot soldiers, will accede to their request that they can operate openly as platforms within the new organisation, and they will both once again hide their true political position within the new organisation, and pretend that they are in favour of "an independent socialist Scotland"
With Sheridan's high profile, and the boost that all new organisations have when they start out, I'm in no doubt that 'Solidarity – Scotland’s Movement for Socialism' will burn brightly at the onset, but as Dave Spencer's post below indicates neither of these groups have a happy history of working together within the same organisation. Roll on May 2007 . . . if Solidarity in fact lasts that long.
What are the SWP and SP(CWI) doing in Tommy Sheridan's "Solidarity" group -- due to be formed this Sunday? If they are in solidarity in Scotland, why are they not in solidarity in a united organisation in England?
What were they doing in the SSP in the first place? They were both opposed to the ISM's "Scottish Turn" which transformed the Scottish Socialist Alliance into the SSP as a unitary, democratic party. So why then join it? In England the SP when they were the largest group in the Socialist Alliance refused to do the equivalent of a Scottish Turn. They insisted on a federal constitution giving themselves the power of veto over all decisions. When the SWP joined the Socialist Alliance, the SP walked out without a fight. The SWP then used its majority in the SA to close it down altogether. Our experience in the Socialist Alliance in England has been that neither the SWP nor the SP(CWI) were in favour of solidarity either with each other or with anybody else. They saw the Socialist Alliance as a possible rival to their own organisations and so wanted to destroy it.
From this experience I would conclude that both the SWP and SP(CWI) joined the SSP for tactical reasons in order to break it up. The Tommy Sheridan affair has been used as a means to that end. I doubt whether Tommy could have started on his path to "Solidarity" without the advice and support of the leaderships of the SWP and SP(CWI).
Some comrades have looked for evidence of a state conspiracy to break up the SSP. Who needs the state when we have the SWP and SP(CWI)? Other comrades have looked for "political differences" like class versus gender politics or internationalism versus Scottish nationalism. These are issues which could be contained and debated within a unitary democratic party. The point is that the SWP and SP(CWI) don't want a unitary democratic party and this is the central issue and the central stumbling block to all moves towards a united left. They hate democracy like the plague.
Tommy Sheridan has been encouraged by the SWP and SP(CWI) in order to break up the SSP -- that is my reading of the situation.
Dave Spencer
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