Jim Bollan (born c. 1950) is a councillor in

West Dunbartonshire West Dunbartonshire ( sco, Wast Dunbairtonshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann an Iar, ) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. The area lies to the west of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's commuter town ...

, representing the

West Dunbartonshire Community Party The West Dunbartonshire Community Party is a minor political party involved in local government elections in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The party was formed in 2015 to contest the 2017 West Dunbartonshire Council election. History In 2015 ...

. Until 2016 he was a member of 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 ...

(SSP), having been the only elected representative from that party left in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Political career

Bollan, at one time a member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

, was elected as a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

councillor for Renton and Alexandria South ward in 1988, later becoming the party group leader on Dumbarton District Council. He was elected 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 ...

representative on

West Dunbartonshire Council West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

in the 1999 local elections, defeating Labour and

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

(SNP) opponents. He went on to join the SSP and was re-elected in 2003, defeating an SNP opponent. Bollan has not been a prominent figure in the SSP at a national level, but he has been involved in the campaign against conditions in

Cornton Vale Cornton Vale is a women's prison in Stirling, operated by the Scottish Prison Service. Built in 1975, Cornton Vale comprises a total of 217 cells in its 5 houses. It accepted solely convicted women and girls from 1975 until 1978. In 1978 Parliam ...

women's prison, as his daughter was one of a number of women prisoners who have committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

there. He has been an opponent of the Trident programme for many years and has taken part in many protests against their presence at the Faslane base, including those organised by

Faslane Peace Camp Faslane Peace Camp is a permanent peace camp sited alongside Faslane Naval base in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It has been occupied continuously, in a few different locations, since 12 June 1982. In 1984, the book ''Faslane:Diary of a Peace Camp ...

. In May 2009, he was suspended from the council for nine months for alleged misconduct after he was refused permission to address the council on changes to workers' terms and conditions imposed by the new single status arrangement, describing the manner in which the council drove through changes as "shite" and "a stitch up". His suspension was protested by

Socialist Resistance Socialist Resistance (SR) is a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. In 2009, the International Socialist Group (ISG) merged into it, making it the British Section of the Fourth International. Origins It was launched in 2002 by two organisations, ...

and the Secretary of Clydebank Trades Council, Tom Morrison. Bollan was selected as the no. 1 candidate for the SSP in the West Scotland region for the

2011 Scottish Parliament election The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to Members of the 4th Scottish Parliament, elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, ...

, but failed to win the seat. In the 2012 local elections, he was re-elected fairly comfortably as a councillor, coming second and winning on the first count. In November 2013, Bollan resigned from the GMB in protest of its "dictatorial and undemocratic" decision to campaign against

Scottish independence Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about. S ...

. In February 2015, Bollan announced that he intended to stand down at the next council election in 2017. He told the ''Dumbarton and Vale of Leven Reporter'': "I don't believe you should go on and on in these elected positions forever. Come the elections in 2017 I will have been a councillor for 28 years and I believe this is a sufficient amount of time to have been in that role." After his announcement, messages of support flooded in on social media. However, in August 2016 he decided to stand again in the 2017 local elections for the

, which he had formed with fellow councillor George Black.(23 August 2016
Black and Bollan to form new West Dunbartonshire Community Party
''Dumbarton and Vale of Leven Reporter'' He was once again re-elected in Leven ward, coming in second place with 22% of the vote.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bollan, Jim 1950s births Living people Communist Party of Great Britain members Scottish Labour councillors Scottish Socialist Party politicians Councillors in West Dunbartonshire