Alan McCombes
Encyclopedia
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....
for several years, and was the editor of the Scottish Socialist Voice
Scottish Socialist Voice
The Scottish Socialist Voice is a Scottish political newspaper, published by the Scottish Socialist Party. Established in November 1996, it was previously the paper of Scottish Militant Labour, before being handed over to the SSP when it was formed in 1998.-History:It was first edited by Alan...
.
Background
He first became involved in socialist politics in the 1970s, as a member of the Militant tendencyMilitant Tendency
The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964...
. Together with Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity....
he played a leading role in the anti-poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
movement. His 1988 pamphlet, How To Beat The Poll Tax, written a year before the tax was introduced, set out the strategy of a Scotland-wide united mass non-payment campaign.
In 1992 he was a leading figure in the persuading Militant in Scotland to break with Labour resulting in the creation of Scottish Militant Labour
Scottish Militant Labour
Scottish Militant Labour was a minor political party operating in Scotland in the 1990s and was part of the Committee for a Workers' International...
. Throughout the 1990s, Alan challenged the traditional ‘British Road to Socialism’, fighting for the left to champion the idea of an independent Scottish socialist republic. In 1995, Alan called for a Scottish Socialist Alliance to unite the left. The new organisation was launched six months later, laying the basis for the emergence of the SSP
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....
.
Role in the Scottish Socialist Party
McCombes is the policy co-ordinator for the SSP, a position that he has held for a number of years. In this role encouraged comrades to rethink the educational approach within the party and adopt more Marxist styles of engagement, influenced in particular by Paulo FreirePaulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy.-Biography:...
. He has also argued that the party should embrace more diffuse structures than the traditional models of socialist parties - championing the introduction of issue based networks in addition to the geographic branch structure.
McCombes co-ordinated of the SSP’s successful election campaign for the 2003 Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
elections which saw the return of 6 MSP’s.
He announced his candidacy for convenor of the SSP on 19 January 2005. At the party conference on 13 February, he won 154 votes from SSP delegates, losing by 98 to Colin Fox
Colin Fox
Colin Fox is the national spokesperson of the Scottish Socialist Party, and a former member for Lothian in the Scottish Parliament...
. He was a leading member of the ISM platform until its dissolution in 2006.
Scottish Socialist Voice
In 1996 he established the Scottish Socialist VoiceScottish Socialist Voice
The Scottish Socialist Voice is a Scottish political newspaper, published by the Scottish Socialist Party. Established in November 1996, it was previously the paper of Scottish Militant Labour, before being handed over to the SSP when it was formed in 1998.-History:It was first edited by Alan...
as a new fortnightly paper of the left, which he edited until 2003. During the bombing of Afghanistan McCombes travelled to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to report for the Voice.
Involvement in the Tommy Sheridan Defamation Trial
As part of the Sheridan v News InternationalSheridan v News International
Sheridan v News Group Newspapers is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the News of the World, which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 July 2006...
defamation trial, he appeared at the Court of Session
Court of Session
The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland, and constitutes part of the College of Justice. It sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh and is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal....
on 16th May 2006 following a demand by News International
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
to hand over confidential internal SSP executive committee minutes. He refused On 26 May 2006 he was jailed for 12 days and his home was raided by Messengers at Arms after he refused to comply with the order to hand over the documents. He was released on 29 May after a decision by the SSP national council to hand the minutes over to the court.
On 7 July 2006, McCombes gave evidence in the defamation proceedings launched by Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity....
against the News of the World stating that Sheridan had admitted to him that he had visited swingers clubs. His version of events was supported by ten other people who were present at the meeting and matched the minutes of the meeting presented in court, though these were disputed during the court case.
He declared himself a hostile witness, describing the case as a "squalid little squabble" but was ordered to answer questions by the judge. He said: "I am here under the strongest possible protest. ... Your client, I have to say, the News of the World, symbolises everything that as a socialist I have stood against my whole adult life. ... It should have been settled by one of both parties before innocent people were dragged into this bizarre pantomime."
In August 2006, in the aftermath of the Sheridan defamation case, McCombes publicly released an all-members bulletin addressed to members of the SSP, entitled "The Fight for the Truth" in which he said Tommy Sheridan's libel victory over the News of the World "could set
back the cause of socialism by years if not decades" because of the divisions that had occurred within the party and went on to give his view of the events leading up to the trial. He also condemned Tommy Sheridan's announcement to stand for election as convenor of the SSP and said that Tommy Sheridan's support had been "based on the more middle class and rural sections of the party" and were "united only by their hostility to the majority of the leadership".
In 2010 he was also a witness in HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to the earlier civil case Sheridan v News Group Newspapers.In Scotland criminal prosecutions...
. During the trial it emerged that he was the author of an affidavit to the Sunday Herald which detailed that the party had asked Sheridan to resign as convenor, citing "certain information" in the party's possession. Contrary to prior speculation it emerged that the affidavit did not contain details of the party's November 9th executive meeting.
In June 2011 he published Downfall, his account of the Sheridan affair.