The Fair City
Colin Fox and Tommy Sheridan, originally uploaded by alister.Some of us feared the worst, but the Scottish Socialist Party's annual conference in Perth turned out to be one of the most united and succesful to date. What was clear was that there was a real mood for unity in the party, to draw a line under Tommy Sheridan's resignation and the subsequent convenorship contest and to turn outwards. The choice of who to vote for in the convenors election was difficult for many of us. Colin is a better known candidate, as he is an MSP. He is also better at communicating outside of the party activists than Alan McCombes. On the other hand Alan has a record second to none as a tactician and leader, he was one of the architects of the campaign of non-payment of the poll tax and steered the creation of the SSP. Colin's victory means the party can move on and build a team which will put in a credible showing at the general election and will play the leading role in opposing the visit of the G8 to Scotland (nice to see the Scottish Tourist Board helping out the protestors by the way!)
I found myself moving the second motion of the conference in the debate on Iraq, in which the party took a very good and correct position, rejecting attempts to give "unconditional" support to the the Iraqi resistance, whilst supporting the Iraqi people's right to resist and laying emphasis on providing solidarity for socialist and labour movement organisations in Iraq.
And finally I want to thank Citylink bus driver Rab, who not only went out of his way to track me down when I left my mobile phone on his bus, he also charged it up for me. What a cool guy.
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