Immediately after the referendum I had an epiphany. For numerous reasons, I don’t like political parties. I find party politics’ tedious as it takes the emphasis away from what is important in politics– the issues that are affecting our communities – but my epiphany told me that I had move on from my anti-political party position and join a political party. My journey in politics only began after arranging a massive demo in Glasgow in March 2014. I suddenly found my name in the media and found myself at Parliament fighting the bedroom tax. It was never a conscious decision to get involved in politics – I was completely winging it, loving the fact that I was learning lots about politics while actually making a wee bit of a difference. But certain things happened to me – a nasty and poisonous element of politics attacked me and, because I was not a part of any political organisation, I found myself feeling isolated and vulnerable to these attacks. In those dark times, and they were dark times, the Scottish Socialist Party extended a hand of comradeship to me. I was genuinely blown away by the sincerity, passion and drive that they showed. I’m a cynical b***** at the best of time so I assumed that, ultimately, they would want something from me in return. I was wrong: not once did they ever ask anything from me. The SSP were a mystery wrapped in an enigma to me. My previous lack of interest in politics left me knowing only the bare minimum about the party. I knew that there had been a split with Tommy Sheridan but I just didn’t care enough about politics when the split took place to take an interest. But even with my political apathy, there was one person who encapsulated the SSP for me – Rosie Kane. Rosie Kane’s ‘My Oath is to the people” stance at Hollyrood in the early noughties brought a smile to my face, and that was before I was even remotely interested in politics. It made me stop and think and, to be honest, that takes some doing. murdo372 When the Independence Campaign kicked off for real, I was asked to be an Ambassador for Labour for Indy. I spoke on their behalf a few times but I just didn’t feel totally comfortable in this role. The Labour brand was just too toxic for me. I spent half the time explaining to the audience that I wasn’t a member of Labour but a traditional Labour voter; a member of the labour movement but not a member of the Labour party. I felt like a fraud and that rankled with me. Eventually I found myself attracted to SSP public meetings and, when I got there, found that I was with like-minded friends. Like a lot of people, as the increase in membership of the Pro-YES parties indicates, I decided to see how the political landscape would lie after the referendum before deciding what I was going to do next. I am not going to lie, I came very, very close to joining the SNP and the Scottish Greens. I had even went as far as filling out the online application forms but I just couldn’t bring myself to join. Now, over a month after the referendum, I have come to the same conclusion I did many, many months ago in a coffee shop in Paisley (Yes – Paisley does have coffee-shops!!). The only party for me is the Scottish Socialist Party. There are three main reasons for this. 1) If you are a Capitalist then you join a Capitalistic party, if you are a Liberal you join the Liberals. If you are a Socialist in Scotland then the obvious answer is to join the SSP. Although other parties may have Socialist members, the SSP is the only Socialist Party in Scotland that has the potential to bring about a Socialist Scotland. 2) The SSP accept that they are not perfect and are open to change. This acknowledgement allows the party to rebuild itself into the party that can represent working class communities in Scotland. 3) The people involved in the SSP are people I hold in the highest regard. Every SSP’er that I’ve meet has been really genuine and warm. There are people that I have met within the SSP who have literally blown me away with their knowledge, experience and vision. People who have left me speechless with new-found respect. I want to be in the same party as them. The problem for me is this. I’ve not told the SSP about joining them…. I hope they accept me :/
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 21:49:37 +0000
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