Public Meeting

Solidarity with the Iraqi workers

Speakers

• Hassan Jumaa Awad, president of the General Union of Oil Employees, Basra, Iraq


• Frances Curran MSP, Scottish Socialist Party


• Rose Gentle, Justice4gordongentle.

7-30pm Wednesday 16th February 2005
Partick Burgh Halls, Burgh Hall Street, Glasgow.

Nearest Underground and train station Partick, Buses 9, 16, 16a, 62, 89, 90

Statement by new SSP National Convenor Colin Fox.

I am thrilled and honoured to have been elected as National Convenor.
The SSP has come through a difficult few months. Alan McCombes and I both agree that the real winner from this weekend is the party itself. We are united and strengthened by our experiences.
I have known Alan for more than 25 years. He is a friend of mine. He is an enormous political asset to the SSP. He was the first person I told I would stand for the post and he was the first person I spoke to after I heard the result on Sunday.
We intend to work closely over the next few months to bolster the confidence of the 130,000 people who voted SSP in May 2003.
I want to assure SSP members that we share a commitment to an Independent Socialist Republic in Scotland. We also share a vision of a party based on rank and file democracy and rooted in the politics of the streets, communities, workplaces and colleges. We will work together outside and inside Parliament.
Where do we go from here?
* Our first priority is to get back to what we are good at - taking the fight to New Labour and New SNP.
* The General Election is around the corner. The SSP will be standing candidates in every seat in Scotland and we will be campaigning on the issues which are important to people - health, education, jobs, pensions and of course Labour's murderous deceit in Iraq.
* And with the huge G8 protests set for Edinburgh in July we get a golden opportunity to present our unique anti-capitalist message to an audience at home and abroad.
There is much for the SSP to look forward to in the next couple of months and beyond. The best days of the SSP are ahead of us.

SSP News apologises for the display problem which affected this site for users on Windows Internet Explorer. The issue should now be resolved.

Colin Fox was today elected to the convenorship of the Scottish Socialist Party at our annual conference in Perth.

The results of the elections were Colin Fox 252 votes (62%), Alan McCombes 154 votes (38%).

Alan and Colin both took to the stage following the announcement in a show of friendship and unity. To a standing ovation from the conference Lothians MSP Colin pledged to continue the party's implacable opposition to war and poverty and to bring that message to the general election and to the protests at the G8 summit later this year.