letter sent by party co-spokeman Colin Fox regarding article in The Scotsman on "new" left movement in Scotland

This is a link to the actual article

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/poli...

Dear Sir
I read Mark Smith's piece in today's Scotsman [ New socialist party to fight
general election, 14/1/10] with some interest as you may imagine. My
interest quickly turned to indignation however as I realised that neither
Bob Crow nor anyone else has been in touch with the Scottish Socialist Party
about this London based initiative to unite socialist groups in Scotland. No
letter, no email, no text message, no phone call let alone the courtesy of
an invitation to meetings held 'last week in London' or 'in Glasgow on 30th
January'.

Such an attitude hardly bodes well for the comradely and mutually respectful
relationship required here. Readers will be forced to question the
seriousness of such a proposal when the biggest socialist party in Scotland
and the fastest growing in the country is excluded in this way.

I'm surely not the only person who thinks we need another socialist party
like we need a hole in the head. We have too many as it is.

Mark Smith, who never made any attempt to speak to the SSP before writing
his piece, is also wrong to suggest we are 'warring' with anyone on the
left. We are entirely focused on offering working people in Scotland that
desperately needed alternative to the four neo-liberal, warmongering parties
who misrepresent us at Westminster.

Over the past six months I have been campaigning up and down the country, from
Aberdeen to East Lothian on behalf of those 70% of Scots opposed to
Britain's ongoing military occupation of Afghanistan. Equally our party is
working with others to make the case that it is the rich, the bankers and
their political classes who got us into the worst recession in eighty years that
should pay for it, not tens of millions of working families as all four of our
opponents believe.

The SSP has enjoyed, as a consequence of our efforts in recent months, our
second strongest period of growth in ten years. We remain committed to left
unity, indeed our record shows we have achieved more on that score than
anyone else, and we continue to strive to unite every democratic socialist
in Scotland under one effective banner worthy of working people's respect
and support.

Colin Fox
National spokesman
Scottish Socialist Party