TOMMY SHERIDAN has won his libel action against the News of the World
(NoW) and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. It is a victory not only for
Tommy Sheridan, but for socialists and the left internationally over one
of the most reactionary, anti-working class news organisations in the
world.
Sinead Daley, SSP executive member and CWI
The jury’s verdict was that Tommy Sheridan was defamed by articles
written in the NoW in 2004 and 2005 which accused him of having affairs,
visiting swingers’ clubs for group sex and taking alcohol and cocaine.
His victory was all the more remarkable given the fact that 11
members of the Scottish Socialist Party’s (SSP) executive committee,
including three MSPs, gave evidence that Tommy Sheridan had admitted
visiting a swingers’ club in Manchester.
The SSP leadership’s evidence formed a central plank of the NoW
defence. Eleven of the 18 witnesses called by the NoW were SSP members
and as the NoW’s main claim against Tommy Sheridan – that of a four-year
affair – fell to pieces during the month-long trial, they increasingly
relied on the SSP witnesses.
The press in Scotland have described the case as the "most
sensational libel trial in Scottish history". And the outcome, which
resulted in the jury awarding Tommy Sheridan £200,000 – the largest
pay-out ever in a Scottish court for defamation – has sent tremors
through the media, legal and political establishment.
It is a huge defeat for the NoW and its gutter methods of journalism.
Sources in the Scottish media have information that News International’s
owner Rupert Murdoch is personally incensed that Tommy Sheridan managed
to defeat his multi-national corporation.
They are to appeal the decision as a "perverse" judgement and the
police are now looking into a perjury inquiry.
Iain McWhirter writing in the Sunday Herald summed up the
significance of the result: "It was a rebuke to an industry that preys
on human misery and disclosure; that uses chequebook journalism, spin,
sensation, distortion. This has been a long time coming."
"David can defeat Goliath," was how the Herald newspaper began its
editorial comment on the outcome of the case.
"Working class hero," was the Mirror’s front page.
The Scottish media have been saturated with reports of the outcome.
There has also been widespread coverage in the British press, the result
even made the front page of the most serious voice of British
capitalism, the Financial Times.
Tommy Sheridan sacked his legal team two weeks into the case and
represented himself until the end of the trial.
With an "amateur" legal team of an SSP member from Orkney and his two
sisters he astonished professional legal opinion by winning, moving one
QC to comment: "In any court, passion and belief in one’s cause cannot
be underestimated and Sheridan used these qualities to astonishing
effect."
In a powerful 85-minute speech to the jury, that some commentators
described as the greatest political speech they had ever heard, Tommy
Sheridan told them he was taking on one of the biggest organisations in
the world which had targeted him because he was a socialist and someone
who speaks out against injustice.
On leaving the court after the result he told supporters and the
throng of press: "What today’s verdict proves is that working-class
people when they listen to the arguments can differentiate the truth
from muck.
"The working class people in the jury have found in our favour and
have delivered a message to the standard of journalism that the News of
the World represents."
SSP crisis deepens
WHILE TOMMY Sheridan’s victory was enthusiastically welcomed by
working-class people across Scotland, this was not the case among the
leadership of the Scottish Socialist Party. It is astonishing that
following an earth-shattering victory over News International, and all
that it stands for, the SSP leadership could within minutes of the
verdict denounce Tommy Sheridan as a liar and demand an apology from
him.
SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie said: "I’m still a socialist, I don’t believe
Tommy Sheridan to be one." In her column in the Sunday Mail SSP MSP
Rosie Kane said: "Whatever happens I can never work with Tommy again and
I am not alone."
This was quickly followed by an SSP executive committee (EC),
attended in the main by those SSP members who gave evidence in court,
that decided to give themselves 100% backing for "telling the truth".
All SSP members have now received a lengthy "SSP members’ bulletin"
written by Alan McCombes entitled The Fight for the Truth that puts the
case for the EC members and also contains the minutes of the meeting of
9 November 2004 that voted to ask for Tommy Sheridan to resign as
national convenor following a discussion about his private life.
In this bulletin they argue that, in order to clear their names, they
will "bring out every piece of relevant information" they have on Tommy
Sheridan.
This is in response to being accused by Tommy Sheridan of a
"monstrous political frame-up" and of having acted like "political
scabs" in siding with the NoW against a socialist.
This unbelievably destructive policy will not rehabilitate them, but
will instead increase their political isolation among SSP members and
especially the working class across Scotland.
And, given the prominent role that some of them have played in the
socialist movement in the past, it will ruin their reputations forever.
But in doing so they will inevitably force a split in the SSP and could
destroy any chance the party has of recovering from the crisis.
Principled position
The CWI in Scotland has never altered one iota of our principled
position on these events. Despite our political differences with Tommy
Sheridan, who along with Alan McCombes, Colin Fox and Frances Curran
left the CWI in 2001, we opposed the actions of the EC in November 2004
that claimed to seek to "protect the party" from Tommy Sheridan’s
private life.
Long before this court case the SSP was seriously damaged following
Tommy Sheridan being pressured into resigning by the SSP EC. This has
nothing to do with a "cult of personality" but a recognition of Tommy
Sheridan’s standing and support among wide sections of the working class
in Scotland, not least because of his leading role in the mass anti-poll
tax struggle.
It is an indication of how far the SSP leadership has become out of
touch from the outlook of the working class, which is linked to their
move away from a consistent socialist approach, that they could have
ended up in a courtroom giving evidence for the NoW’s case.
Even if everything the NoW had written was true, and it was patently
not, it would in no way have justified the SSP leadership’s action
against Tommy Sheridan in 2004 or since then.
They made a catastrophic mistake at that meeting in November 2004.
They buckled under the pressure of the tabloid media and in keeping a
so-called "minute" of that meeting that went into personal details,
including "confessions" they acted in a way that no socialist or trade
unionist could possibly accept.
This is underlined by the fact that the overwhelming majority of
trade unionists in the SSP, including the RMT in Scotland which is
affiliated to the party, supported Tommy Sheridan.
Those events were a kick in the teeth for working-class people who are
screaming out for a party prepared to fight for their interests. The CWI
in Scotland will work to re-build the socialist movement with a
principled socialist leadership. Unfortunately, this will involve
electing a new leadership to replace the current one.
Tommy Sheridan’s victory can help in that process and hopefully,
following the October 2006 SSP conference, it will be possible to
re-launch a principled socialist alternative to challenge the big
business consensus and fight poverty, injustice and inequality.
