Tommy Sheridan court case

Serious crisis for Scottish Socialist Party

THE PRESS in Scotland have dubbed it the libel trial of the decade. A
case that has already resulted in saturation coverage in the Scottish
media. Tommy Sheridan, Scottish Socialist Party MSP and former leader of
the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) versus the News of the World (NoW) –
part of Rupert Murdoch’s News International empire.

Philip Stott, International Socialists

Tommy Sheridan took a libel action following a story printed in the
NoW in November 2004 that claimed he had a five year affair with a woman
who was a SSP member.

It was the issue of Tommy Sheridan’s private life that led the SSP
executive committee to call for his resignation in November 2004. A
decision that the International Socialists (the Socialist Party’s
sister organisation in Scotland) opposed and which has now split the SSP
and has done the party great public damage since then. (see the
socialist, 442)

In defending its story NoW is aiming to prove their claims were not
true but "substantially true." Their strategy has been to throw as
much mud at Tommy Sheridan regarding his personal life, thereby hoping
then to convince the jury that at least enough of it can be believed to
undermine the libel action.

We have heard claims that Tommy Sheridan took drugs and alcohol at
sex parties, visited a swingers’ club in Manchester, took part in group
sex as well as having an affair with Fiona McGuire, the woman in the
original NoW story. Most of the ‘witnesses’, so far, have either been
current or former NoW journalists or have been paid money by the paper
for their stories. In the case of Fiona McGuire, £20,000.

These claims have been reprinted in lurid and sensational detail in
all the Scottish media. It will be interesting to see if the press
report as extensively when Tommy Sheridan puts his side of the case.

The stakes were heightened last Thursday when Tommy Sheridan sacked
his legal counsel. This followed a major blunder by one of his legal
team who accused a witness of having spent 18 months in jail for fraud,
which was not true.

Tommy Sheridan has now decided to represent himself and will
cross-examine witnesses as well as making a statement.

Role of SSP witnesses

So far there have been three SSP members who have been called to give
evidence by the NoW. National Treasurer Allison Kane, Alan McCombes, and
SSP councillor Keith Baldassara.

Both Alan McCombes and Keith Baldassara gave testimony that Tommy
Sheridan had admitted in a private discussion attending a swingers club
in Manchester.

The EC minutes of 9 November 2004, at which a vote was taken to ask
Tommy Sheridan to resign, have also been handed to the court. Many SSP
members have been outraged to discover that these ‘minutes’ contained
personal information about Tommy Sheridan which is now being used by the NoW.

This has meant that some leading figures in the SSP are forming a
crucial plank of the NoW’s defence against the libel action. Many SSP
members and supporters are disgusted by their actions.

The consequences of this are extremely serious for the SSP. The
national conference of the party has now been brought forward from early
2007 to October 2006 and will be dominated by the case, the actions of
leading SSP EC members and the impact of this on the SSP as a whole. The
conference will also re-elect a leadership for the party.

Of course the personal conduct of a leading figure of the socialist
movement is important. We would never defend behaviour, for example,
that involved the coercion of women or anything other than consensual
personal relationships. However, we don’t believe that someone’s
personal life can justify the hypocritical attacks of the sexist tabloid
media, or the actions of those in the SSP who are seeking to undermine
Tommy Sheridan

The best possible outcome for the socialist movement in Scotland
would be for Tommy Sheridan to inflict a defeat on the NoW – a brutal
anti-working class and anti-socialist rag. Unfortunately, this does not
seem to be the view of some sections of the SSP, especially those
grouped around the so-called ‘United Left’ platform.

This grouping has defended the carrying out of unacceptable methods
that have included; the keeping of personal information in SSP
documents, the leaking of such material to the press and a personal
campaign against Tommy Sheridan inside the SSP. It is these methods and
conduct that the International Socialists is standing against. Despite
our ongoing political differences with him, if Tommy Sheridan wins his
libel case and continues to play a leading role in the SSP it may be
possible for the SSP to recover from this crisis.