THE NEWS of the World (NoW), who suffered a sensational defeat at the hands of
Tommy Sheridan in his defamation case against them in August, has unleashed a
massive new offensive against him.
On 1 October, NoW
claimed to have bought a video tape from a member of the SSP and the United
Left faction, which is the de facto leadership of the SSP. The tape for which
the NoW paid a reported £20,000, the NoW claims, shows Tommy Sheridan admitting to an SSP member
and former friend, George McNeilage, that he did
visit a swingers’ club in
The NoW have said that
this video tape was secretly recorded by McNeilage in
his house in November 2004, a few days after the SSP Executive Committee
meeting that effectively sacked Tommy Sheridan as SSP convenor.
Tommy Sheridan has condemned the video as a
fabrication. The NoW have handed the tape to the
police. In a separate development the Scottish Procurator Fiscal has announced
a police inquiry into the whole case to see whether perjury was committed by
any side during the defamation trial.
This continued campaign by the NoW, with the backing and the resources of the Murdoch
media empire, is an attack on Tommy Sheridan for having the temerity to defeat
the biggest media organisation internationally.
But it is also, and is primarily so, an attack on
a socialist. Someone who, despite the political differences we have with Tommy
Sheridan, has been the most prominent advocate of socialist ideas in
There is no group of workers in struggle, no
fighting trade union or socialist leader who has not been attacked, targeted
and vilified by the Murdoch press. There is no prominent socialist or trade
unionist who will not be attacked by organisations
like News International in the future. That is why the International Socialists
welcomed Tommy Sheridan’s victory over the NoW in
August.
We described it as victory for all socialists and
the left internationally over one of the most vicious anti-working class,
anti-trade union and anti-women gutter rags in the world.
Conversely, if the NoW
succeeds in their campaign against Tommy Sheridan it will represent a setback
for socialists. The NoW campaign is being waged to
intimidate, cow and bully all those prepared to put their heads above the
parapet and speak out for workers’ rights and socialist ideas.
If Tommy Sheridan were to be defeated by this
campaign, which reportedly has the backing, if not active encouragement of
Rupert Murdoch personally, it would be used to deliver a message to all those
prepared to challenge the big business and capitalist class interests that News
International defends.
It is against this background that the actions of
the SSP leadership, who are now acting in concert with the NoW
and News International, have to be condemned. Rather than accept Tommy
Sheridan’s victory in August they used it as a green light to go on the
offensive against him.
The pages of The Sun and the NoW
have become more akin to the in-house journals of the SSP leadership since
Tommy Sheridan’s victory. With page after page devoted to prominent SSP members
who have demanded police enquiries, perjury investigations, and now the
resignations of Tommy Sheridan and fellow Solidarity MSP Rosemary Byrne from
the Scottish parliament.
But it was the SSP leadership that kept detailed
so-called ‘minutes’ of the November 2004 Executive Committee, which claimed
that Tommy Sheridan admitted visiting a swingers’ club in
As the NoW case gradually
fell to pieces during the defamation case the NoW
increasingly had to rely on the SSP members to undermine Tommy Sheridan’s case.
Eleven SSP members, who the NoW described on Sunday
as “men and women of honour” and “decent and honest”, gave evidence for the NoW in court. The SSP’s website
and newspaper has been dedicated to their continued campaign against Tommy
Sheridan - no wonder the SSP are being dubbed the Stop Sheridan Party.
And now we have the making and then selling of a
“video” to the NoW, clearly in an effort to destroy
Tommy Sheridan. How ironic it is that the “men and women of honour” in the SSP
leadership and their supporters are now prepared to provide the NoW with the bullets and the guns to politically and
personally assassinate Tommy Sheridan.
How ironic is it that the “decent and honest” SSP
leaders seem to have forgotten the role of News International against the print
workers and their unions during the Wapping dispute in 1986-87.
The SSP leadership are dragging the name of
socialism through the mud. While discrediting themselves, they seem to have no
motivation other than to assist the bitterest enemies of socialism and the
working class in their campaign against Tommy Sheridan.
The International Socialists will continue to
fight these attacks by Murdoch and others, which are aimed at politically
destroying Tommy Sheridan, and through him, the socialist movement in