by Calum Martin
Over the last few weeks and months, the Scottish Socialist Party and other forces involved in the Scottish Left Project have been at work on the task of building a new Left alliance to contest the 2016 Holyrood elections.
Bringing together Scotland’s left-wing forces, the 29th of August will see the formal launch of this new electoral alliance. Under this banner we shall have the opportunity to both celebrate the diversity and breadth of the left in Scotland whilst simultaneously building a united front to challenge austerity, exploitation and ultimately capitalism itself.
The Scottish Socialist Party remains Scotland’s Socialist Party, proud of our achievements and with a bold and dynamic vision for the future. As part of that vision we continue to work to build at the forefront of the new alliance. Continuing to build the strongest possible Left challenge for 2016 and continuing to build the SSP as Scotland’s Socialist Party.
The 29th of August is an important event therefore both for the SSP and for the new alliance. It represents both a chance for the broad left in Scotland to display the energy, diversity and potential we hold in advance of 2016, and a chance for the Scottish Socialist Party to proudly and confidently put forward and articulate our clear and principled Socialist programme.
Join us then on the 29th. Join with Scotland’s Socialist Party, and help us build this alliance. It’s time we had voices back in the Parliament who will speak for the millions, and not for the millionaires.
Tickets and full details of the programme for the day can be found here:
http://www.leftlaunch2016.scot/tickets
More details about the Scottish left Project can be found here:
http://leftproject.scot/
Calum Martin is the organiser of Edinburgh South SSP, and sits on the party’s executive committee
2 thoughts on “Scotland’s Socialist Party in Scotland’s Left Alliance”
After taking 3% in recent by elections it will be political suicide to change the name of the ssp. Obviously people are prepared to vote for us, but changing the name to rise will confuse the electorate as to who rise are and what they stand for, the result being, **** all votes next year, and If the recent by election results were reflected in scottish parliament elections next year, we would certainly take a seat, giving scotland a true anti austerity party ready to fight for the working class.
Thanks for your comment, Ian.
We believe that there is much potential in the creation of a broad left electoral alliance in Scotland as a Left alternative to the SNP, united around a common Left programme. The SSP is clear however, that this does not represent a precursor to the creation of a new party of the Left. Scotland already has such a party; the Scottish Socialist Party.
While supporting the creation of this new Left alliance, the SSP makes it clear that the priority for the party is the building of the SSP as Scotland’s Party of the Left continuing the advances made by the party in recent times.
The relationship between the SSP and the new alliance is that of an affiliated organisation and that all SSP members will automatically be members of the alliance through their membership of the SSP.
While the SSP will actively work to build the new alliance at a national and local level this is on the clear understanding that this will not be at the expense of building the SSP.
As the only significant political party involved in the alliance at this stage the SSP shall work to make sure that our relative strength is reflected in the new alliance both at a local and national level.
Basically, Ian – despite rumours to the contrary which have been circulating for years – we’re going to be around for a long time to come.
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