MEMBERS of Solidarity, the pro-Scottish independence grouping set up 15 years ago, have been asked to agree to deregister it as a political party.
A motion sent out to members before its Executive Committee meets next month urges them to accept the deregistration, but to carry on as a campaigning platform, saying they should be “encouraged to help build the Alba Party and to promote Alba as the 'most likely to succeed' radical independence option”.
Solidarity was established by the leaders of the organisations that formed the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in the late 1990s, with Tommy Sheridan serving as co-convener from 2006 to 2016 and as convener from 2019.
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He told The National the party’s executive felt their political aims and objectives would be best served by aligning with Alba as the “most serious vehicle” to pursue independence.
“Solidarity adopted a pro-SNP position in 2015 and lost party members as a result,” he said.
“We also promoted an SNP vote in 2017 and 2019. We now find ourselves unable to promote a party which has proven incapable, unwilling and/or frightened to use the five clear mandates it has been given for indyref2.”
Ken Ross, its national secretary, said the decision to de-register was a pragmatic one: “Nobody's happy about it, far from it and there's a lot of people quite saddened by it.
“But one thing about our NEC at the moment is they’re very pragmatic, they’re people that have got older heads, common sense.
“They’re saddened by it because people have … a long, 20-odd years’ commitment, They’ve done a huge amount of work, committed a lot of time and effort.
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“People have been saddened by it, but they have a very pragmatic point of view looking at the political landscape … we don’t really have a place in politics at the moment.
“Certainly if independence comes and there’s a rainbow alliance in parliament, then there may be room for socialist parties and that's something that can be considered – whether Solidarity registers again.
“But until that happens, we feel that the best place to advise members to go to is Alba, as the closest concept to what we're looking at.”
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