Solidarity (Scotland)
Encyclopedia
Solidarity is a political party in Scotland
, launched on September 3, 2006 as a breakaway from the Scottish Socialist Party
(SSP) in the aftermath of Tommy Sheridan's libel action
. Formed by two of the Scottish Socialist Party's six MSPs, Tommy Sheridan
and Rosemary Byrne
, it has been backed by the Socialist Workers Party
and the International Socialists (Scotland)
(Scottish section of the CWI
; both former SSP platforms
. In March 2009, Solidarity joined No to the EU – Yes to Democracy
, a left-wing alter-globalisation coalition led by RMT
union leader Bob Crow
, for the 2009 European Parliament elections
. In advance of the 2010 General Elections, Solidarity joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
. On the 23rd of December 2010, Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan was convicted of perjury during the aforementioned 2006 libel action. Sheridan was sentenced to three years imprisonment on 26th January 2011. Solidarity performed poorly in the 2011 Scottish Parliament Election achieving only 2837 votes, or 0.14% of the overall regional list vote, despite standing in all regional lists, except Glasgow.
party as a response to the perceived lack of the same in the SSP, and because Sheridan claimed that due to the depth of division within the SSP between its leadership on the one hand and his supporters on the other that the SSP had "run out of breath". The launch rally held in September 2006 in Glasgow
featured several speakers and attracted around 600 people.
More than 1,000 people in total attended the ten public meetings Solidarity held in Scotland, with the largest meeting, in Dundee
, attracting a crowd of 250. These public meetings attracted 600 members to the new party, of which 250 attended the founding conference on Saturday 5 November 2006].
The conference saw debates on the name of the new party and its political orientation. During the conference the Socialist Workers Party argued that Solidarity had the potential to develop into a natural home for all anti-establishment protest movements (including anti-nuclear, anti-war, environmental, refugee and asylum seeker, housing, pension, anti-poverty, lesbian and gay rights campaigns as well as the growing movement against Islamophobia and reach out to minority ethnic and religious communities). The SWP whilst recognising the key role socialists could play within the new party argued that Solidarity's name should not include a reference to socialism, as this could potentially discourage people who are active in left-oriented political campaigns but who do not perceive themselves as socialists from joining. This motion was argued against by Ronnie Stevenson, Unison
convenor for workers in Glasgow City Council and member of the Committee for a Workers international. After a close vote the interim title of "Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement" was adopted as the name of the party. The party's draft constitution was adopted by a unanimous vote and Rosemary Byrne and Tommy Sheridan, the party's then two MSPs, were unanimously endorsed as Co-Convenors.
No manifesto was published for the 2011 Scottish Parliament Election.
, but Sheridan was close to being re-elected for Glasgow. The party won one council seat in Glasgow
in local elections
, Ruth Black who subsequently defected to Labour in December 2007.
The party contested the Glasgow East by-election, 2008
with local activist Tricia McLeish as its candidate. However their vote share had dropped from the previous year. Solidarity's candidate for the 2008 Glenrothes by-election
was Louise McLeary, who came last with 87 votes, 0.2% of the vote. On 11 December 2008, Solidarity candidate Danny Masterton received 243 votes, 7.3% of the popular vote, in a by-election in the Ballochmyle ward of the East Ayrshire Council. Two days earlier, the Daily Record
reported that Sheridan was calling for a "truce" between left wing parties, and for them to work towards brokering an agreement not to stand against one another.
In March 2009, Solidarity joined No to the EU – Yes to Democracy
, a left-wing alter-globalisation coalition led by RMT
union leader Bob Crow
, for the 2009 European Parliament elections
, which received 1% of the national vote. In Scotland, where Tommy Sheridan and other Solidarity candidates stood for No2EU – Yes to Democracy, the coalition received 9,693 votes (0.9%).
In advance of the 2010 General Elections, Solidarity joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
, fielding ten candidates in Scotland for that coalition, who pooled a total of 3,530 votes. 931 of those were cast for Tommy Sheridan, who received 2.9% in the Glasgow South West
constituency.In Scotland Solidarity - TUSC received 0,99 % of votes.
In the 2011 Scottish Parliament Elections, Solidarity performed poorly with a result of only 2837 votes, or 0.14% of the regional vote, and won 0 seats in the Scottish Parliament, despite having stood in every regional list except Glasgow where the part stood aside to allow for the Respect Party to try to elect George Galloway. This results of the 2011 Scottish Parliament Election was substantially down on the 31,066 votes that the party received through the regional list vote on 2007.
In Autumn 2006, the Industrial Workers of the World
alleged that Sheridan and Byrne ignored workers rights of consultation about the impending redundancy of parliamentary staff and unilaterally removed funding from the collective body which employed parliamentary staff.
On the 23rd of December 2010, Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan was convicted of perjury following a 12 week long court case
at the High Court in Glasgow, and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on the 26th of January 2011.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, launched on September 3, 2006 as a breakaway from the Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....
(SSP) in the aftermath of Tommy Sheridan's libel action
Sheridan v News International
Sheridan v News Group Newspapers is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the News of the World, which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 July 2006...
. Formed by two of the Scottish Socialist Party's six MSPs, Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity....
and Rosemary Byrne
Rosemary Byrne
Rosemary Byrne is a Scottish political figure. She was a co-convenor of Solidarity and a former Member of the Scottish Parliament for the South of Scotland...
, it has been backed by the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
and the International Socialists (Scotland)
International Socialists (Scotland)
The Socialist Party Scotland is the Scottish platform of the Committee for a Workers International in Solidarity . The group is 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...
(Scottish section of the CWI
Committee for a Workers' International
The Committee for a Workers' International is an international association of Trotskyist parties. Members include the Socialist Party of England and Wales, the Socialist Party , the Socialist Party the Democratic Socialist Movement in South Africa and Nigeria and groups using the name Socialist...
; both former SSP platforms
Platform (European politics)
Platforms, in European politics, are openly organized political factions within left-wing political parties. Examples include the Republican Communist Network, the Workers Unity Platform and the Solidarity Tendency, platforms within the Scottish Socialist Party; the Socialist Workers Platform and...
. In March 2009, Solidarity joined No to the EU – Yes to Democracy
No to the EU – Yes to Democracy
No2EU – Yes to Democracy is a left-wing electoral alliance which was initiated by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers to contest the June 2009 European elections in the United Kingdom. The party fielded candidates only in Great Britain...
, a left-wing alter-globalisation coalition led by RMT
National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers is a trade union in the United Kingdom which unionises transport workers. It has more than 80,000 members, and its current general secretary is Bob Crow...
union leader Bob Crow
Bob Crow
Robert Crow , who is better known as Bob Crow, is a British trade union leader, the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and a member of the General Council of the TUC...
, for the 2009 European Parliament elections
European Parliament election, 2009 (United Kingdom)
The European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections in England. Most of the results of the election were announced on Sunday 7 June, after...
. In advance of the 2010 General Elections, Solidarity joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is a socialist electoral alliance launched in Britain for the 2010 General Election.The coalition was negotiated between groups which had taken part in the No2EU coalition that fought the June 2009 European elections...
. On the 23rd of December 2010, Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan was convicted of perjury during the aforementioned 2006 libel action. Sheridan was sentenced to three years imprisonment on 26th January 2011. Solidarity performed poorly in the 2011 Scottish Parliament Election achieving only 2837 votes, or 0.14% of the overall regional list vote, despite standing in all regional lists, except Glasgow.
Launch
On its launch, the party described itself as being an open, democratic, bottom-upGrassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
party as a response to the perceived lack of the same in the SSP, and because Sheridan claimed that due to the depth of division within the SSP between its leadership on the one hand and his supporters on the other that the SSP had "run out of breath". The launch rally held in September 2006 in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
featured several speakers and attracted around 600 people.
More than 1,000 people in total attended the ten public meetings Solidarity held in Scotland, with the largest meeting, in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, attracting a crowd of 250. These public meetings attracted 600 members to the new party, of which 250 attended the founding conference on Saturday 5 November 2006].
The conference saw debates on the name of the new party and its political orientation. During the conference the Socialist Workers Party argued that Solidarity had the potential to develop into a natural home for all anti-establishment protest movements (including anti-nuclear, anti-war, environmental, refugee and asylum seeker, housing, pension, anti-poverty, lesbian and gay rights campaigns as well as the growing movement against Islamophobia and reach out to minority ethnic and religious communities). The SWP whilst recognising the key role socialists could play within the new party argued that Solidarity's name should not include a reference to socialism, as this could potentially discourage people who are active in left-oriented political campaigns but who do not perceive themselves as socialists from joining. This motion was argued against by Ronnie Stevenson, Unison
Unison
In music, the word unison can be applied in more than one way. In general terms, it may refer to two notes sounding the same pitch, often but not always at the same time; or to the same musical voice being sounded by several voices or instruments together, either at the same pitch or at a distance...
convenor for workers in Glasgow City Council and member of the Committee for a Workers international. After a close vote the interim title of "Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement" was adopted as the name of the party. The party's draft constitution was adopted by a unanimous vote and Rosemary Byrne and Tommy Sheridan, the party's then two MSPs, were unanimously endorsed as Co-Convenors.
Policies
Solidarity's Holyrood 2007 manifesto is similar to that of the Scottish Socialist Party. Its policies included: scrapping the Council Tax; free school meals; reducing class sizes; scrapping prescription charges; an independent Scotland; and a nuclear free Scotland.No manifesto was published for the 2011 Scottish Parliament Election.
Electoral performance
The party registered nine combinations of "Solidarity" and "Tommy Sheridan" with the Electoral Commission, as well as "Solidarity". In their first electoral test, the party failed to win any seats (31,000 votes; 1.5 %) in the 2007 Scottish Parliament electionScottish Parliament election, 2007
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999...
, but Sheridan was close to being re-elected for Glasgow. The party won one council seat in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in local elections
Scottish local elections, 2007
The Scottish local elections, 2007 were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as Scottish Parliament elections and local elections in parts of England...
, Ruth Black who subsequently defected to Labour in December 2007.
The party contested the Glasgow East by-election, 2008
Glasgow East by-election, 2008
The 2008 Glasgow East by-election was a by-election for the UK Parliamentary constituency of Glasgow East which was held on 24 July 2008. The election was triggered when, on 30 June 2008, the sitting MP David Marshall stood down due to ill health....
with local activist Tricia McLeish as its candidate. However their vote share had dropped from the previous year. Solidarity's candidate for the 2008 Glenrothes by-election
Glenrothes by-election, 2008
The 2008 Glenrothes by-election was a by-election held in Scotland on 6 November 2008 to elect a new Member of Parliament for the House of Commons constituency of Glenrothes in Fife, Scotland....
was Louise McLeary, who came last with 87 votes, 0.2% of the vote. On 11 December 2008, Solidarity candidate Danny Masterton received 243 votes, 7.3% of the popular vote, in a by-election in the Ballochmyle ward of the East Ayrshire Council. Two days earlier, the Daily Record
Daily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
reported that Sheridan was calling for a "truce" between left wing parties, and for them to work towards brokering an agreement not to stand against one another.
In March 2009, Solidarity joined No to the EU – Yes to Democracy
No to the EU – Yes to Democracy
No2EU – Yes to Democracy is a left-wing electoral alliance which was initiated by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers to contest the June 2009 European elections in the United Kingdom. The party fielded candidates only in Great Britain...
, a left-wing alter-globalisation coalition led by RMT
National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers is a trade union in the United Kingdom which unionises transport workers. It has more than 80,000 members, and its current general secretary is Bob Crow...
union leader Bob Crow
Bob Crow
Robert Crow , who is better known as Bob Crow, is a British trade union leader, the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and a member of the General Council of the TUC...
, for the 2009 European Parliament elections
European Parliament election, 2009 (United Kingdom)
The European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections in England. Most of the results of the election were announced on Sunday 7 June, after...
, which received 1% of the national vote. In Scotland, where Tommy Sheridan and other Solidarity candidates stood for No2EU – Yes to Democracy, the coalition received 9,693 votes (0.9%).
In advance of the 2010 General Elections, Solidarity joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is a socialist electoral alliance launched in Britain for the 2010 General Election.The coalition was negotiated between groups which had taken part in the No2EU coalition that fought the June 2009 European elections...
, fielding ten candidates in Scotland for that coalition, who pooled a total of 3,530 votes. 931 of those were cast for Tommy Sheridan, who received 2.9% in the Glasgow South West
Glasgow South West (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow South West is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
constituency.In Scotland Solidarity - TUSC received 0,99 % of votes.
In the 2011 Scottish Parliament Elections, Solidarity performed poorly with a result of only 2837 votes, or 0.14% of the regional vote, and won 0 seats in the Scottish Parliament, despite having stood in every regional list except Glasgow where the part stood aside to allow for the Respect Party to try to elect George Galloway. This results of the 2011 Scottish Parliament Election was substantially down on the 31,066 votes that the party received through the regional list vote on 2007.
Controversy
In the immediate aftermath of the split, members of the SSP claimed that a transfer of funds from the account of the regional SSP to Solidarity was fraudulent.In Autumn 2006, the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
alleged that Sheridan and Byrne ignored workers rights of consultation about the impending redundancy of parliamentary staff and unilaterally removed funding from the collective body which employed parliamentary staff.
On the 23rd of December 2010, Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan was convicted of perjury following a 12 week long court case
HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to the earlier civil case Sheridan v News Group Newspapers.In Scotland criminal prosecutions...
at the High Court in Glasgow, and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on the 26th of January 2011.