Solidarity is the Scottish party that arose following the bitter disputes surrounding Tommy Sheridan, the SSP, his alleged sex romps printed in "News of the World" and his succesful legal action against News International.
We aren't particularly interested in their feuds. Sheridan can sue Murdoch or sleep with him for all we care. What is of note is these pseudo-socialists clearly play the leadership game, proferring themselves to the working class as the right man/woman for the job of leading them...leading them to where? They are also willing to do each other in to fight their way up the greasy pole after political power. That an alleged affair became the political issue in these "Scottish Socialist" circles is a rather telling indicment about how rotten the whole bunch of them are.
Anyway, Solidarity have launched their election manifesto (.pdf format) for May's elections. There are bits of it which are worth reading if you have illusions about the capitalist system. In light of all the global poverty, environmental destruction et al highlighted by the manifesto, what is Solidarity's answer?
Well, banning air guns in Scotland is one policy they stand for election on. (That is just BIG.)
Of course, all that is on offer is a huge selection of apparantly nice sounding reforms. At one stage they mention their opposition to the Market System and that they stand for a socialist economy. What that amounts to is nationalisation (public ownership), which is State Capitalism not Socialism. The mere fact that all of their "socialist" policies are to be implemented in one country, Scotland, is enough to dismiss them as socialists.
There are references to getting rid of the profit motive behind production through out the manifesto, despite the obvious fact there still being wage labour and commodity production. And this will be a Scotland operating within a world market.
Solidarity's manifesto is just so much eye wash.
Gray
4 comments:
Sigh, how true.
I myself am interested in world socialism, but being in Asia I see that you guys have not really established yourselves here, except for a failed attempt in India (not where I am at).
When are you guys coming here? Surely it must be in your plans?
Hi Ferman
it would be interesting to know where abouts in Asia you are.
The Indian party has,as you may know, joined forces with "Socialist Studies" these days. However, there are some ex-members from the WSP(I) who have contacted the SPGB.
The SPGB has had contact with a few people in Pakistan.
Why we haven't had success in Asia is something I don't really know. It could be language barriers; there is certainly suppression of political ideas and opposition in certain areas of Asia; maybe Maoism has had a great hold.
Perhaps you would be willing to lend a hand in propagating the socialist idea there, helping to set the ball in motion?
Sure. I am in Malaysia, where everything right is in and everything left is out ever since the days of the Communist Party of Malaya (as Malaysia was then known).
We also had a Socialist Front that was quite active during the 1960's and 70's, but they fizzled out. Currently we do have only one leftist party, the Socialist Party of Malaysia (http://parti-sosialis.org/e_index.htm) but the party has had to face hostile government resistance even to its simple registration as a legal political party. They aren't alinged with you guys, at least as far as I can tell.
Also, as you might already know, the government here, besides being right wing, keeps a tight lid on political dissent. The opposition here have had hard times running their own day to day operations even when they're not leftist, what more when they are.
I would love to lend a hand to you guys in propagating the Socialist cause, but sadly (and I should have said this before), I am more Communalist (or as the Wikipedia defines it, "Religious communist", though I am not myself religious) then Socialist in the way you guys define it. I have read most material on the World Socialist Movement website, and agree with almost all said save for your position regarding religion.
If you guys think this is a fundemental difference rendering cooperation impossible, I respect that. However I don't and would still be willing to work together on areas we see eye to eye.
Hi Ferman
Communalism doesn't prevent you from giving a hand but it does indeed provide a problem with regards to joining the SPGB or one of its sister parties in the World Socialist Movement: we do not allow the religious membership.
The basic arguments are that our principles are built on historical materialism (religion thus is not divine revelation but a revelation of human social relationships at a given stage in social evolution); that religious belefs are a social issue and not a personal matter.
Of course, this has come under attack from within and outside the SPGB. Some argue along the lines that we alienate support we otherwise would get from people who have an understanding of and desire for socialism whilst still having faith in some sort of god; hence we should relax that criteria for membership and assess peoples' faiths when they apply, on a case by case basis.
The matter was debated a few years ago and the latter argument never really got any support.
Why not write the SPGB and enquire about party literature you can use to give to fellow Malaysian workers? You can email us at
spgb@worldsocialism.org
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