On May 1, the Socialist Workers Party in Scotland joined the Scottish Socialist Party, an historic development creating a united socialist party in Scotland for the first time in generations.

Tommy Sheridan, convener of the SSP, and member of the Scottish parliament, was quoted in the May 1 Glasgow Herald hailing the unprecedented socialist unity. “May 1 is always a significant day for socialists”, said Sheridan, “but to be able to announce further unification of the socialists in Scotland makes it a great occasion.

“The SWP joining us will make us bigger and hopefully even more effective at raising socialist ideas and supporting workers in struggles and campaigns against poverty and low pay.

“For the first time in 70 years, around 90-95% of the active socialists in Scotland will be in the one party, selling the one paper, and promoting an independent socialist Scotland. We are stronger together.”

The existing 2500 members of the SSP are now swelled by the 272 Scottish members of the SWP.

This unity in Scotland comes in time for the British elections, likely on June 7, and the SSP will have an extensive election campaign in all 72 Scottish seats, and two Scottish parliament by-elections. The SSP’s goal is to win 100,000 votes.

With the former SWP members in Scotland agreeing to publicly distribute the SSP’s paper, Scottish Socialist Voice, the paper will be produced weekly and the first issue of the weekly distributed in a run of 30,000 to all newsagents in Scotland.

A letter in the Glasgow Herald from Mark Brown, a longstanding member of the Socialist Workers Party, described the unity as “a genuinely historic moment for the labour movement. It marks a very significant step forward for socialists in Scotland, but it is also a symbol of the exciting reformation taking place within the left internationally.”

“Just as millions, from Seattle to Prague, move into conflict with unregulated capital, traditional social democratic parties, such as Labour in Britain, feel compelled to move to the right, supporting the pro-market ‘neo-liberal’ consensus of the Conservative and Liberal parties. Tony Blair and his fellow ‘third way’ leaders have turned their backs on working-class people, but the emergence of a new left is creating an exciting alternative to their politics of hopelessness. The SSP, and the Socialist Alliances in England and Wales, represent that new left challenge within Britain.

“Of course, as The Herald points out, there have been political differences between the SWP and the SSP in the past. The crucial point is that, in the new political atmosphere, with the Soviet Union gone and capitalism facing an international movement against it, there is far more to unite socialists than to divide them. The two organisations have taken a bold and courageous step which provides working-class people with a party which can quickly become a major political force.”

Source: https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/scotland-socialist-unity-advances