The Communist Party of Scotland (CPS; ''Pàrtaidh Co-Mhaoineach na h-Alba'') was a communist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

based in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It was established in January 1992 by former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who disagreed with the CPGB's disbanding and reforming in 1991 as the Democratic Left think-tank. The party was itself dissolved in the late 2010s.

History

The CPS was set up in mid-January 1992 by former CPGB members who disagreed with the party's dissolution. The party headquarters at its founding were based in Partick, Glasgow. Leading members of the CPGB in Scotland joined the new party, including Mick McGahey, who had been a leading member of the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1970s and 1980s, and former CPGB General Secretary Gordon McLennan. Willie Clarke, a CPGB councillor in Fife since 1973, joined the CPS but sat as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

councillor until his resignation on the grounds of ill health in 2016. Unlike the

Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...

(CPB), which broke away from the CPGB in 1988, the CPS supported Scottish independence and pro-independence initiatives like the Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) and Independence First. In 2007, the CPS published a discussion pamphlet titled ''Perspectives for Scottish Independence'' with contributions from Eric Canning, Maggie Chetty and Rhona Fleming. In 2008, the CPS organised a conference aimed at "uniting the left in Scotland around a number of shared political positions on Scottish independence". Canning died in December 2017 while in office as national secretary of the CPS. The

Scottish Socialist Party The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP; gd, Pàrtaidh Sòisealach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Socialist Pairtie) is a left-wing political party campaigning for the establishment of an independent socialist Scotland. The party was founded in 1998. It c ...

paid tribute to his "unshakeable commitment to the cause of socialism and independence".

References

External links

{{Authority control Scotland, Communist Party of Political parties established in 1991 Defunct political parties in Scotland Defunct communist parties in the United Kingdom Scottish independence Communist Party of Great Britain breakaway groups 1991 establishments in Scotland Organisations based in Glasgow Politics of Glasgow