| Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Joint leadership of Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Glasgow, G42 2DN |
| Ideology | Socialism [1] Trotskyism Scottish independence Scottish republicanism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| National affiliation | Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition |
| International affiliation | None |
| European affiliation | None |
| European Parliament Group | None |
| UK Parliament affiliation | None |
| Official colours | Red, Green, White |
| Website | |
| http://www.solidarityscotland.org/ | |
| Politics of Scotland Political parties Elections |
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Solidarity (full name Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement) is a political party in Scotland, launched on September 3, 2006 as a breakaway from the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP)[2] 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[3]; 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.[4][5][6] 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.
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On its launch, the party described itself as being an open, democratic, bottom-up 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"[7]. The launch rally held in September 2006 in Glasgow featured several speakers and attracted around 600 people[8].
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].[9]
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.[10][11]
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.
The party registered nine combinations of "Solidarity" and "Tommy Sheridan" with the Electoral Commission[12][13], 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 election, but Sheridan was close to being re-elected for Glasgow. The party won one council seat in Glasgow in local elections, Ruth Black [14] who subsequently defected to Labour in December 2007.[15]
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.[16] 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.[17]
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,[18][19][20] 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 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.[21][22][23][24]
In Autumn 2006, the Industrial Workers of the World[25] [26] 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.
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