Let’s be straight with each other—the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a bad actor. For decades, they’ve trailed around like the self-appointed high priests of the working class, but if you look at the wreckage they’ve left behind, especially here in Scotland, it’s clear their only real loyalty is to the survival of their own “vanguard” brand.
The Scottish Sabotage: The SSP Split
In Scotland, we won’t forget or forgive the role the SWP played in the 2006 destruction of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). At its height, the SSP was a proper breakthrough – six MSPs, a pluralist structure, and a real voice in Holyrood. When the crisis involving Tommy Sheridan kicked off, the SWP didn’t choose the democratic collective of the party. They chose a cult of personality.
By backing Sheridan and helping to launch the “Solidarity” breakaway, the SWP acted as the executioners for Scotland’s most successful socialist project. They traded a viable national movement for a toxic schism just to keep themselves relevant in a smaller, more controllable pond. They murdered our best chance at a socialist Scotland to save one man’s ego and their own recruitment numbers.
The Indy Betrayal and the Labour Obsession
For a group that claims to be radical, their stance on Scottish Independence is a mess of opportunism and British-centric thinking. As a movement, we want a clean break from the Westminster rot, but the SWP has always been half-hearted at best. Their “internationalism” is often just a cover for keeping things centered on London.
Even more grating is their habit of telling folk to “Vote Labour” during general elections, despite Labour being a staunchly Unionist party that treats Scotland like an afterthought. They would rather see a pro-independence Green or SNP candidate lose to a red-tory Labourite just because it fits their narrow, 1970s-style class analysis. They don’t want a free Scotland; they want a British revolution that they get to lead, and they’ll happily side with Unionists to stop any pro-Indy project they can’t control.
Your Party: The Latest Entryist Target
We’re seeing the same old games being played right now with the “Your Party” conference. There are ongoing, parasitic attempts at entryism by the SWP to burrow into this new movement. They don’t join to build; they join to hijack. They want to capture the infrastructure, install their own gatekeepers, and turn “Your Party” into another front for the Central Committee. It’s the same “bad actor” behavior we’ve seen for forty years- find a fresh movement with real energy and suck the life out of it until only the husk of the SWP remains.
Middle-Class Missionaries in the Schemes
One of the most grating things about the SWP is the “missionary” act. Most of their recruits aren’t exactly coming off the shop floor- they’re middle-class university students, often from the leafier parts of the country, who are sent into working-class schemes like they’re on some colonial expedition.
These students are told to stand outside shops or on street corners in places like Easterhouse or Muirhouse, trying to sell the Socialist Worker to folk who actually live the struggle every day. It’s patronising, it’s out of touch, and it shows how little they understand the communities they claim to lead. To them, the working class are just “units” to be recruited or “cannon fodder” for the next march.
A Political Cult: The Scientology of the Left
The SWP doesn’t operate like a democratic party; it operates like a religious fundamentalist group. They believe they hold the “only truth,” and their tactics for protecting that position are straight out of the Scientology playbook.
If you disagree with the Central Committee, you aren’t just wrong—you’re a heretic. They use harassment and coordinated smearing to destroy the reputations of anyone who leaves the party or dares to critique the leadership. I’ve seen it happen to activists across Scotland—decent folk hounded out of movements because they questioned the “line.” They use a “Fair Game” style approach to shut down dissent, and it’s why so few other groups in Scotland will touch them with a bargepole now.
The Muslim World Report: Reputation Laundering
Recent analysis from the Muslim World Report (April 2025) highlights their controversial role in wider UK activism. The SWP are masters of “reputation laundering” through front groups like Stand Up To Racism (SUTR).
The Report points out that for the SWP, anti-racism and international struggles aren’t ends in themselves – they’re just recruitment nets. They “parachute” into Muslim communities, attempting to dominate the committee and steer every penny toward selling their paper. It’s a cynical way of operating that ignores the actual, nuanced needs of those communities in favour of building their own “vanguard” fantasy.
How to Actually Get Involved: The Horizontal Alternative
If you want to fight for a better world -and a free, socialist Scotland – you don’t need a Central Committee or a paper-selling quota. You need to bypass the dinosaurs and get horizontal.
1. Embrace Horizontalism
The future is flat. Look for groups like Living Rent (Scotland’s community union) or local radical independence collectives. These groups organize through consensus, have no “vanguard” leaders to protect, and prioritize community power over party prestige. They are transparent and they actually win victories for folk on the ground.
2. Reclaim the Trades Councils
Don’t let the sectarian gatekeepers own your local structures. If you’re in a union, get active in your local Trades Council. Bring in your mates from the Greens, the SNP, and the democratic left. Force these archaic structures to become relevant to the 21st century by focusing on local issues like housing and the cost-of-living, rather than 40-year-old ideological wars.
3. The Congress of the Left
We don’t need another party yet. We need a Congress of the Democratic Left – a networking hub for autonomous groups to share resources and coordinate without surrendering their independence to a new set of bosses.
The SWP wants you to believe they are the only way. Don’t believe them. The most radical thing you can do is organize with your neighbours, stay fiercely democratic, and never, ever buy their paper.
Indybag uses AI for grammar and punctuation. Image of Indybag is AI.
