One of the smaller organisations of the far-left is Socialist Appeal or the "British section of the International Marxist Tendency" to give them their full name. Socialist Appeal is the remains of the Militant Tendency that stayed in the Labour Party after Peter Taffe fell out with Militants founder Ted Grant and took his (majority) faction to form what is now known as the Socialist Party.
Like their former co-thinker in the Socialist Party, Socialist Appeal are a rather boring lot who are prone to delusions of grandeur and of course opportunism. In Scotland (like the rest of the UK) they have been getting absolutely nowhere so time to jump on the new nationalist socialist bandwagon for them.
In a typical Trotskyist statement entitled Scotland needs a revolution they excitedly report:
The Referendum campaign has transformed the political landscape in Scotland. It was a defining moment. This seismic shift has sent shock waves through the British capitalist establishment.
Sounds exiting.
They continue:
The political groundswell has also resulted in the Green Party growing to 6,000 members. The Scottish Socialist Party has grown from a small base to some 2-3,000. It claims to have grown by 2,000 members in 72 hours, with branches springing up throughout Scotland. The Radical Independence Campaign has also drawn in thousands of supporters and is now talking about a new Left Project in Scotland.
Ah, now I get it. Everybody is recruiting disaffected nationalist types and Socialist Appeal wants part of the action. So off they go from being buried deep inside the Labour Party where no one notices them to....
We have discussed the new situation and how best to utilize our energies in the next period in order to further the cause of socialism. We believe the Labour Party has been largely discredited in the eyes of most youth and workers. As Marxists, we are not going to stand on the sidelines in the present political realignment in Scotland.
We believe that the best way forward is the building of those forces on the left in Scotland, on a revolutionary and internationalist basis, beginning with the Scottish Socialist Party.
...being buried in the SSP where they hope someone (or two) will notice them.
And when that fails they'll probably trundle back to the Labour Party where.......
Meanwhile the tiny, but highly entertaining (for inveterate "trot spotters) Communist Party of Great Britain (Weekly Worker)has had a one man split. The rather odd Ian Donovan has developed some bizarre theories about the international influence of Jews (?) that the CPGB found a little unpalatable.
He's gone and formed a one man organisation of his own, grandly entitled Communist Explorations.
Who was it that coined the phrase "When the pub closes"?
They must have been thinking of these kind of people.
Socialist Appeal's decision to withdraw from the Labour Party in Scotland (but not, it seems south of the border) is indeed, bizarre: they were one of only two far-left groups to oppose a "yes" vote (the other being the AWL), and now they more or less admit they were wrong. The only explanation for this is rank opportunism.
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