Founded 2002 (renamed 2010) Student wing Socialist Students | Newspaper The Socialist Political position Far-left | |
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Ideology Socialism
Trotskyism
Trade unionism National affiliation Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition | ||
Socialist Party Scotland is the Scottish affiliate of the worldwide Marxist and Trotskyist organisation the Committee for a Workers' International. Socialist Party Scotland is the sister party of the Socialist Party in England and Wales and the Socialist Party in Ireland. Socialist Party Scotland plays a leading role in the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) which is standing ten candidates in Scotland in the 2015 Westminster General Election. Four of the ten Scottish TUSC candidates are members of Socialist Party Scotland.
Originally known as the Militant and Militant Tendency, the Marxist grouping in the British Labour Party in the 1970s and 1980s, Socialist Party Scotland is also descended from the Scottish Militant Labour which formed the Scottish Socialist Alliance in 1996 after a debate amongst CWI members in Scotland on what sort of organization to form. The SSA was launched as a broad left formation that itself was not affiliated with the CWI but within which Scottish Militant Labour, renamed the International Socialist Movement took a leading role.
In 1998, the SSA became the Scottish Socialist Party. The ISM's majority increasingly became estranged from the CWI and ultimately voted to disaffiliate from it in 2002. This resulted in pro-CWI members of the ISM leaving to form the International Socialists.
In August 2006, the International Socialists declared their intention to leave the SSP, and join forces with a new grouping, led by Tommy Sheridan, and involving also the Socialist Workers Party, called Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement (more commonly, just 'Solidarity'). In June 2010, the group changed its name to the Socialist Party Scotland.
At the start of 2015, Solidarity faced its own split as Socialist Party Scotland withdrew its support for the party and said Sheridan had moved to the right when he and Solidarity called for a vote for the SNP in the 2015 Westminster election.
Campaigns
In August 2007, members of the International Socialists played a leading role in the strike of over 600 Glasgow Social Workers in support of their claim for higher grading which they won. Socialist Party Scotland members play a leading role in campaigns such as Youth Fight for Jobs. The Party fully supports the campaign against the bedroom tax.
The party called for a 'Yes' vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum but campaigned separately from the official campaign, running meetings across the country as part of the Hope Over Fear socialist case for independence.