SSP activist and student Dave Mundt gives his opinion on the year ahead for the Scottish Socialist Party and the proposed Scottish Left Project. The backdrop of the campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum provided the Scottish Socialist Party with a platform they haven’t enjoyed since their electoral success in the 2003 Scottish General Election. Healed are the wounds inflicted by the split, as a younger generation inject enthusiasm and hope into a resurgent party. Post-referendum, the SSP now boasts thirty branches across the country, with membership visible and active within their local communities. Our party carries a message of hope for the working class who has been long abandoned by a now depleted Scottish Labour Party. We are now maneuvering ourselves into a position from where can fight, and we have a lot to fight for.
The Holyrood 2016 election gifts the Scottish Socialist Party an opportunity to replace Labour as the real voice of the working class. Whilst the Scottish National Party proclaims that they speak for Scotland, there are voters and members who would not support the party if Labour had not abandoned them. The Labour Party however, has long deserted the principles upon which it was founded. With that, the core vote has deserted the party. Traditional Labour voters have turned to the SNP as the Nationalists have filled the centre-left void. Labour are no longer a credible voice for the working class. As a result, the working class does not have a credible voice in Holyrood. It is now or never for the SSP to organise and professionalize and mount a serious challenge for the upcoming Holyrood elections. It is the party’s political and moral obligation to stand up on behalf of the working class, and give them a voice in our Parliament once again.
Recent polling for the Holyrood elections has been unfavorable to the SSP, but there are twelve months until Scots go to the polls. That is why it is imperative the party starts campaigning now. What might halt that process, however, is the ongoing debate on whether or not the SSP affiliates to the Scottish Left Project. Prominent members of the Radical Independence Campaign have approached the SSP about forming some sort of coalition to contest the Holyrood elections. The Scottish Left Project has proven to be somewhat ambiguous in that it isn’t anything yet. It is a blank canvass calling on ‘lefties’ from across Scotland to build and shape it. It presents itself as new, bold and exciting but it seems more style than substance. Proposals to crowd-source policy and select candidates through open primaries appear libertarian and I am suspicious that traditional socialist values will be watered down to ‘progressive’, populist policy.
The hope is to build something shiny and new, and hope working class people will flock to it in their droves. To build that, the SLP relies on the membership of the Scottish Socialist Party. The SLP’s approach to the SSP has, intentionally or not, sown division amongst the membership. Instead of having a national debate, members of the Scottish Left Project have approached the party branch by branch, particularly trying to appeal to the new and young members. There doesn’t appear to be a cohesive national strategy and there doesn’t appear to be a great deal of respect for our party either. They can only offer high profile endorsements, which means nothing to the working class. The SSP is equipped with the talent and the resources to fix our problems and begin mounting a credible challenge for Holyrood. I would call upon those seeking to build a new party to build a new party in the Scottish Socialist Party.
The Scottish Left Project does not have a democratically established manifesto – something the SSP has spent the last twenty years building, with membership continuing to develop and modernize policy. Although the SLP has called upon interested parties to get involved and form policy, I would question how robust a manifesto they offer working class people. Furthermore, the scope of the SLP is limited to Glasgow and the west coast. For those of us in other parts of the country, such as Stirling and the great city of Dundee, the Scottish Left Project has failed to make an impact. This brings into question the credibility of the movement to represent working class people across Scotland. The Scottish Socialist Party is an already recognised brand in all corners of Scotland; pitching ourselves as Scotland’s Socialist Party.
Instead of debating what banner we are going to stand under and waste valuable time building a policy bank from scratch, build an already established party. The SSP is distinct from other parties in that our membership determines our policy. We have a unique opportunity in being able to build on a resurgent party that offers the most radical policies of any pro-independence party. This summer should be spent building within our local communities as well as restructuring nationally so we can have a positive and effective campaign in the run-up to 2016. We have the talent; we have the vision; we have the vehicle. We just have to believe in ourselves.
Looking ahead to 2016, our party should be eager to take the initiative – to prove wrong those who have second-guessed our commitment and capability to stand up for working class people. If we are to be a force within Holyrood again, then the hard work starts today; we have to find a message that resonates with working class people and start delivering it now. The election of the Conservative government in London means we are all facing an imminent assault on our standard of living, and Scotland’s socialist party must be ready for the fight.
By Dave Mundt.
For more opinion on the Scottish Left Project, see Jenni Gunn's article.