Guest Writers
The 79 Group
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Written by Gary Raikes - Britain First, Scotland
The 79 Group was an internal faction within the SNP, named after the fact that it was formed in 1979. The group sought to persuade the SNP to take an active left-wing stance, arguing that it would win more support, and were highly critical of the established SNP leaders.
Although it had a tiny membership, the group caused sufficient disquiet that they were expelled from the SNP in 1982, although its members were subsequently readmitted and many attained senior positions in the Scottish Government after 2007. First Minister Alex Salmond was a leading member of the group.
The founders decided to establish their group on a formal footing, with membership cards and elected officers. Three spokespeople were appointed, including Margo MacDonald and Alex Salmond. Stephen Maxwell became the group's principal political theorist. The group was formed as a left wing organisation committed to the establishment of a "socialist and republican Scotland".
Many SNP activists became attracted to the 79 Group, seeing it as a debating forum to discuss the SNP's future, but most left quickly when not attracted by the communist ideology driving the group.
At the 1981 conference there was a vote for a motion calling for "a real Scottish resistance" including "political strikes and civil disobedience on a mass scale". The new policy, dubbed "Scottish Resistance", was unveiled in September 1981 with a logo consisting of figures with raised clenched fists.
Early in 1982, Sinn Féin wrote inviting a 79 Group speaker to its conference. With IRA violence ongoing, Sinn Féin were considered unacceptable to public opinion in the UK.
Soon after, the 1982 conference the SNP voted to ditch "Scottish Resistance", despite a strong speech by Salmond claiming that to do so was to adopt "a defeatist and cringing mentality".
The SNP leadership under Gordon Wilson finally decided that the group's activity must be stopped. At the 1982 SNP conference in Ayr, the conference passed a motion to proscribe all organised political groupings within the party. However the 79 Group's members mostly retained their offices within the party.
After the conference resolution, the 79 Group decided to agree to disband, but rather than going away, the Group formed an interim committee to create the "79 Group Socialist Society" outside the party. The interim committee was the same as the executive of the 79 Group. The National Executive declared that membership of this committee was incompatible with that of the SNP.
Armed with the conference mandate, the leadership then moved to expel the leading 79 Group members. Alex Salmond, Kenny MacAskill, Stephen Maxwell, and others.
This then is the true face of Salmond and his band of fellow would be communists who are now leading the SNP. Does anyone now believe his claim that an independent Scotland would retain the monarchy, a strange thing for a self confessed 'republican' to say, or is it more likely that Salmond would put the care of the country into the hands of the European Soviet States of Brussels while proclaiming himself President of Scotland for life.
