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Not sure how much of the background to this you know, so I apologise if I go over stuff you're maybe familiar with.
Sheridan, previously the convenor of the SSP, had major differences with the rest of the SSP over his legal suit against a newspaper which published details of his private life.
He won the law suit, but create huge division within the SSP in the process.
He then left, with a few hundred other members of the SSP, including one other member of the Scottish parliament.
This means that there are now 4 SSP members of the parliament, and 2 of the new party (ironically called Solidarity).
The problem is that the MSPs employ parliementary workers, on a pooled basis. ie, each of the original group of 6 SSP MSPs signed an agreement to pool their resources to employ 12 people - researchers, etc.
Not surprisingly, these 12 were all members of the SSP, though 2 have left along with Sheridan.
The problem is that Sheridan and Byrne (the other MSP) now refuse to honour their comiitment to the pooled resources, with the result that there isn't enough funding for the 10 remaining workers. They've employed new people with their funding (along with the 2 who left the SSP), who're effectively scabs.
These 10 have raised this through their unions, the IWW and the NUJ (Journalists).
A point I must emphasise though is that this isn't about the dispute between the SSP and Sheridan. This is purely a trade duspute between these workers and their employers. Whether their original employer has changed his political alligience is irrelevant - they are still employers and they have responsibilities to their employees.
Originally posted by SeitseThe SSP is, actually, in a better position than we have been for a long time, now that the internal ructions have concluded. CErtainly in terms of morale and political commitment.
Gee, thanks. I didn't know about Sheridan's defection.
Is the party very polarized right now, then?
The problem is that we've lost a couple of hundred members and there is now a 2nd socialist party in Scotland. But there's real doubts about the viability of the new party, as Sheridan is now the subject of a criminal investigation around hos evidence in his libel case, and he's the only asset they've got.
But you have to appreciate how people feel about Sheridan. There are those who've followed him into his new party, who seem to think he can do no wrong. In my opinion, these people are members of a fan club, or a personality cult, rather than a political party. There are also those (the SWP, for example), who left just out of political opportunism.
The majority of us were initially pretty gutted by the way he behaved. Remember that he was one of our best assets in terms of public perception and connection woth working class people. That he turned into this monster is really an object lesson for socialists everywhere on the dangers of relying on individual leaders.
But now that things are back to normal, people in the SSP are actually quite upbeat and confident - we're back to putting forward our ideas, rather than dealing with all the crap around Sheridan's sleazy prvate life.
Originally posted by SeitseThe SSP is likely to make some changes to avoid getting into that sort of position again - things like people only being elected for a couple of terms, for example, so that we never get 'career politicians'.
Yeah, I agree with you. Any movement has the risk of the personality
cult, yet it seems to be more likely in socialist movements -or the
media prefers those cases, at least.
I am glad the party got rid of Sheridan, really.
Is the IWW strong in Scotland?
I guess, in years to come, we'll look back and maybe reflect that it made us stronger in the longer term.
Sheridan was an asset for us, there's no doubting that. When I was an election candidate, you just needed to get him to speak at a meeting, and you were guaranteed a decent turnout. He connected well with lots of working class people. He's seriously damaged goods now though, even if he avoids prison - he's heading for a media career.
I don't know about the IWW's strength here. They'll have people dotted about, but the local unions are still relatively strong and recognised in a lot of workplaces.
Originally posted by SeitseWhen the sitting representative is no longer able to be there - death, resignation, promotion etc etc.
Sorry for my ignorance, mate... but what's a bye-election?
Sort of a 'so long' opportunity to run for a seat to members about to retire?
Then they an election just in that single constituency to replace them. Only really applies, I guess, for first past the post systems.
In my case, a Labour was sent to prison for fire-raising, a councillor was elected to replace him (in a parliemantary bye-election), so they had a bye-election to get a new councillor
