One of the four SWP-Respect councillors in Tower Hamlets has defected... to the Tories.
SWP-Respect issued a statement on 14 February: "We are sorry to hear that Cllr Ahmed Hussain has joined the Tories. We had discussions with him yesterday where he agreed that he was going to stay with Respect. We issued a statement saying that, in good faith, but clearly his assurances meant nothing.
"He has joined a party which supports war and privatisation, which has little representation among ethnic minorities, and which has few supporters among working class people in Tower Hamlets or anywhere else.
"This is a betrayal of the principles on which he was elected..."
The East London Advertiser reports in more detail:
"Former Respect councillor Ahmed Hussain... met local Tory bosses at 12.30pm and sealed his defection after an extraordinary 24 hours of confusion...
Yesterday... we revealed that Hussain, representing Mile End East ward on the authority and a former member of the Socialist Workers Party, was defecting to the Conservatives.
After being greeted like a king at Tory HQ in Millbank yesterday morning, Cllr Hussain had a sudden last minute attack of nerves sparking a day of dramatic twists and turns...
About an hour before he was due to inform council chief executive Martin Smith of his move, he told Tory group leader Peter Golds he needed 'more time'...
Respect Unity group leader Oli Rahman and SWP boss John Rees then issued a press statement in the early hours of this morning attacking the Advertiser's story as "a rumour". They insisted Cllr Hussain remained firmly on their side.
But after spending the night thinking, Cllr Hussain called the paper at 9.30am to confirm he was defecting.
Three hours later, he met Cllr Golds and former Tory group leader Simon Rouse to sign his party membership forms, then emailed the council's chief executive shortly after.
It means the Tories, who less than two years ago had just one councillor at Tower Hamlets, now have eight and have become the main Opposition group..."
Every left movement in history has suffered defections. But it is hard to think of a parallel to this.
Hussain went in the Respect split with the SWP - with the side that said it was the left, and indeed would have been the left if it had spelled out any politics instead of just whingeing about being allegedly "witch-hunted".
On Wednesday afternoon he was going to the Conservative Party. Wednesday night, he was staying with the socialist, revolutionary SWP. A few hours later... he is with the Tories.
When the former Russian revolutionary populist leader Lev Tikhomirov went over to Tsarism in 1888, soon becoming a leading right-wing journalist, at least he knew he had a lot to explain. He wrote a whole book: "Why I ceased to be a revolutionary".
What has Hussain said to explain his defection from the cause of labour to the cause of capital? "I've signed the forms and I'm just relieved it's now all settled so I can look forward to the future.
"It's been a very tough 24 hours. It's always difficult to leave your friends, but when you have to make a decision, you've got to do it."
It shows the falsity of the SWP's idea that with Respect they can build a "broad left" movement with just a few "bullet point" slogans and a puff of ballyhoo instead of clear politics.
