Workers Party of Scotland
- Workers Party of Scotland
The Workers Party of Scotland, also known as the Workers Party of Scotland (Marxist-Leninist) was a small Marxist-Leninist political party based in Scotland. It was founded in 1967 and campaigned for Scottish independence. Many of its founder members had previously belonged to the Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity. The party published the "Scottish Vanguard" until at least 1980.
The party stood in a few by-elections before Matt Lygate and three other party members were convicted in 1972 of armed robbery of the Royal Bank of Scotland to raise party funds.
The four individuals received the longest jail sentences in Scottish history for non-violent crimes. They were originally to be convicted of treason, the first case since John Maclean, but the case was later dropped to bank robbery so as to not make political prisoners. Despite only being convicted of two bank robberies, Lygate received a sentence of 27 years, most of which he served in class A along with the biggest murderers and gangsters in Scotland. On his release after 18 years, he sought to continue the work he was jailed for and along with others in the movement like Linda Lygate, started the anti-poll tax movement, beginning in Maryhill and spreading out all over Scotland.
References
*Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, "Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations"
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