Re: Sheridan and the SSP

All meeting and decisions should open to the memberships and to the workers.
The opposite sound like the secrecy of the Vanguard parties

On 8/9/06, alan johnstone <ajsc21755@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>   The last people that SSP members should be listening to in the fall-out
> of the fall out in the Scottish Socialist Party are the SWP and CWI who have
> now swooped down like vultures to pick at the flesh of the bones of the SSP
> .
>
> All we have heard recently is how the ex-Glorious Leader triumphed over
> the Party apparatchiks and how he now once again lays claim to his
> birth-right as Glorious Leader .
> Of all the commentaries i have heard or seen or read , one issue seems to
> be have been over -looked by most and that is the structure of a political
> party and how the membership controls and directs their party.
> The court case of Tommy Sheridan revealed secret minutes of EC meetings ,
> which resembled more a Star Chamber Inquisition .
> During the court case , Colin Fox , the current Party Convenor , testified
> that he would have willingly lied to cover up Sheridan's indiscretions . In
> effect , to blatantly lie to his members and to his voters .
>
> Our politics in the ( leader-less ) SPGB is that regardless of potential
> problems , open-ness is a necessary requisite for the party of the working
> class . Consequently , the minutes of our EC meetings are posted on our
> web-site for all and sundry to read . Our actual EC meeting are held in
> public for anyone who cares to observe . Even the EC , itself , is forbidden
> from proposing motions to conference or making policy .
>
> THAT IS our commitment to party democracy .
> THAT IS one of our ways of maintaining membership control of our party .
> THAT IS the lesson of the Tommy Sheridan court case .
> And THAT IS the message we have to ram home to the SSP members .
>
> Neither the SSP-United Left or the SSP-Majority camps intend to change the
> structure of their party .
> We should be explaining what the alternative can be to the SSP membership
> and its voters . ( Those associated with WIC also share with the SPGB the
> principle that it's not just the ends but the means which are of equally
> importance in the workers movement and so they share in that task .)
>
> "I don't want you to follow me or anyone else. I would not lead you into
> the promised land if I could, because if I could lead you in, somebody else
> would lead you out." - Eugene Debs
>
> " I'm not a charismatic speaker, and if I had the capacity to be one I
> wouldn't. I'm really not interested in persuading people. What I like to do
> is help people persuade themselves. " - Noam Chomsky
>
> " He who is morally impressed by power is never in a critical mood, and he
> is never a revolutionary character " - Erich Fromm
>
> " Historically, the errors committed by a truly revolutionary movement are
> infinitely more fruitful than the infallibility of the cleverest Central
> Committee. " - Rosa Luxemburg
>
> alan johnstone , edinburgh br
>
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>
>  
>


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