[page 4]
The SLP was formed by Labour Party members who realised that the right wing policies of Wilson, the party's resistance to devolution, and a string of corruption scandals threatened that party with electoral disaster. It was a reaction to the growth of the SNP and its successes in winning support away from the parties of the Labour movement.
The SLP drew together people from all sorts of political backgrounds. Some came from the Labour Party, some from the SNP, others from the new lett; many had not had any previous political affiliations. It saw itself as a clear socialist alternative to the government and the SNP; there was much talk of John McLean and reviving the Scottish Socialist tradition. In reality, it set to work more as a left Scottish duplicate of the LP.
The SLP split into two at its first congress in Stirling because the leadership wanted to change course. Their vaguely left-wing, vaguely prodevolution politics had not produced the results they had anticipated. Despite press talk of 2,000 members, only 900 fully-paid up members were represented at conference. By-election results showed a basic level of support of some 15% but no real signs of this figure increasing. What is more Jim Sillars left speeches and his votes against the cuts in parliament had brought about a more rapid growth in the left-wing of the party than the right.
Faced with the possibility that their pet policies - "Jobs and Industry" and "Scottish Government" and their stranglehold on leadership positions might be rejected by conference, the leadership embarked on an alliance with those in the party who put the "unity" of the Scottish nation above the interests of the working class. A purge of the left was to be combined with a sharp turn towards the politics of the SNP.
In the final speech at conference, MP John Robertson emotionally explained that he only wanted to see a Scottish parliament before he died. In speech after speech, opposition to the ÉEC was condemned, often by those like Jim Sillars who only 18 months earlier had been in the forefront of the "no" campaign in the EEC referendum. Repeatedly the SLP leadership explained that it was only in their
support for the EEC that their policy of "socialist independence" differed from the policies of the SNP. A decision was made not to stand candidates in SNP held seats. The decision to stand against two left-wing Labour MPs was a statement of preference for the only people who could benefit - the SNP. Only a week. before the congress, Jim Sillars spoke at a meeting of the SP ginger group, the Fletcher Society, at which the question of dual membership and joint work between the SNP and the SLP was discussed.
To corsolidate this turn to the nationalists, the SLP leadership had to deal with their left wing. First, with the Cumbernauld Branch which had been centrally involved in supporting the dustmen s strike there against an SNP controlled council. The SNP saw Cumbernauld SLP as bitter opponents, especially since they were preparing to contest the local elections against them next March. It meant ditching SLP members from the labour and trade union movement who could not stomach support for the capitalist EEC's right to dictate policies to a "socialist" Scotland.
For their own ends, the NOC majority have split the party and dragged its banner through the dirt. They have turned their backs on all the initial intentions and aspirations of those who joined the SLP to build a strong socialist party in Scotland. They have forfeited their right to lead the party forward.
The only real hope of a socialist future for the SLP rests with the expelled branches and delegates and their supporters and their call for a democratic reconvening of conference on November 14th. These supporters of party democracy and socialist policies have the support of a majority of active party members from branches all over Scotland. Despite press hysteria about "International Marxists" and the "lunatic left" they have attracted widespread support since the congress; plans are being discussed for a conference against the cuts and a major compaign against unemployment They have declared themselves for a democratic reunification of the SLP on the basis of full democratic rights for all members.
This fight for reunification and socialist policies is the only real alternative to a rump Jim Sillars Labour Party, born in an atmosphere of nysterical red-baiting, where no criticism is allowed and the only future lies in a shotgun marriage with the SNP.
CHRIS BAMBERY