Conference Reports: The Herald Press Association
BBC (with video clip)
The Courier:
SCOTTISH SOCIALIST Party leader Colin Fox told his party's national conference in Dundee it has overcome its difficulties and is ready to build upon past electoral success.
The party's national co-convener accused the Labour Party of deserting ordinary working people and called for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Mr Fox was speaking at the SSP's annual conference, held in the Caird Hall at the weekend.
He was elected last year after the abrupt resignation of predecessor Tommy Sheridan.
Since then, four of the party's MSPs were suspended from the Scottish Parliament and fined £30,000 after protesting on the right to demonstrate outside the G8 summit at Gleneagles Hotel.
Mr Fox said the SSP is now the only political party of the left remaining in Scotland and the only one supporting workers' rights.
Opening his speech by mocking Tony Blair's revelation his faith had helped him in the decision to invade Iraq, Mr Fox said, "I spoke to God yesterday and he wrote most of my speech.
"If anyone has any problems with this, they will have to take it up with God."
Mr Fox told of how Labour Party founder James Keir Hardie visited Dundee a century ago as he sought to create a party that fought for workers' rights.
The SSP national convener told delegates—many of whom battled through wintry conditions from all corners of Scotland to attend—that Labour has abandoned Scotland's workers and pensioners.
The Lothians MSP said it was wrong the Executive had refused to intervene to try to curb soaring gas prices, which he said are forcing hundreds more pensioners into fuel poverty.
He called for the gas standing charge to be dropped for pensioners, asking, "How many more times must they pay for the pipe connecting the mains to their house?"
He also criticised First Minister Jack McConnell's decision to meet Tory leader David Cameron at the Scottish Parliament when, in the same week, he refused to meet anti-war protestor Cindy Sheehan, whose son died while serving with the US forces in Iraq.
On Iraq, he said all troops should be removed and regime change is the sole province of Iraq's people.
Arguing against those who say withdrawing troops would cause the country to fall into civil war, he said, "1400 people have been murdered in Iraq over the last six days in a civil war caused in part by the occupation of the country by troops who should not be there."
Mr Fox also dismissed David Cameron's claim that the Conservative Party supported the Make Poverty History campaign.
"At the Tory conference they have come out in favour of the Make Poverty History campaign.
"That is all you need to know that a phrase has lost all of its meaning.
He said, "As Malcolm X said, `You cannot have capitalism without racism and you cannot have capitalism without poverty.'
"It will be great to hear Cameron say `Make capitalism history.' "
The SSP currently has six MSPs and he said they hope to secure more seats in next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
The SSP's membership is on the rise and he said it is the only party that has fulfilled its pledges from the last election, such as introducing bills in parliament calling for the abolition of council tax.
Mr Fox also celebrated the success of the campaign to prevent the stock transfer of council housing in Edinburgh.
"Last year when I was elected national convener I said the best days of the SSP were ahead of us and that remains true today," he concluded.
