'Respect' and George Galloway

Respect on “extremism”

On 23 April, the Guardian published a letter from the three Tower Hamlets Respect councillors linked to the SWP, Oliur Rahman, Rania Khan and Lufta Begum, which denounces the “extremist” views of Islamist organisations like al-Muhajiroun, calls on the government to “stop” them and requests a meeting with Tower Hamlets police to discuss the issue. (See www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/23/uksecurity.bbc ) On one level, it is quite encouraging to hear left-wing Muslim activists display such stark hostility to Islamic derived fascism. Like socialists in Muslim-majority countries from Indonesia to...

NUT left abstain on homophobia

For the first time in its history, the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers debated a motion submitted by LGBT teachers from their own conference. The motion, entitled “International Homophobia and Transphobia” condemned the current levels of anti-LGBT bigotry in Britain and the rising tide of militant right-wing attacks on LGBT people and Pride demonstrations around the world. Poland, Russia, Israel and Iran were among the places singled out for mention. Tim Lucas and Claire Jenkins from the NUT LGBT Working Party proposed and seconded the motion and a number of delegates...

Anti-war doesn’t mean pro-repression!

Respect Renewal MP George Galloway has been far from sympathetic to the case of Mehdi Kazemi, instead choosing to spew homophobic bile and defend the Iranian regime. Showing his complete contempt for human rights and democracy, he has levelled the ridiculous accusation that people campaigning against the deportation of Mehdi Kazemi are “the pink contingent of imperialism” — even though the protests are against our own government. The controversy started on 13 March on Channel 5’ s The Wright Stuff chat show, where Galloway said that the papers’ coverage of Mehdi’ s story amounted to...

Anti-war demonstrators support Iranian students

AWL members, supporters and friends collected money for the campaign to free the jailed socialist students in Iran on the Stop The War demonstration in London on 15 March. We don't have complete returns yet, but the total must come to a few hundred pounds. The ordinary marchers had more positive attitudes than those expressed on the platform, where George Galloway sneered at "the pink contingent of the khaki brigade", suggesting that anyone who opposes the victimisation of LGB people in Iran is a pro-Bush warmonger. Sales of Solidarity on the demonstration were also passable. It was pretty...

Vote Lindsey German no. 1

“Red” Ken Livingstone’s campaign for re-election is being supported with a high profile statement signed by... trade union militants? left activists? anti-cuts campaigners? No, instead we have a statement of the great and good, launched by that oh so radical organisation Compass. Its signatories include Sir Jeremy Beecham of the Local Government Association, former Unison gen sec/sell-out Rodney Bickerstaffe, NUS president/sell-out Gemma Tumelty, NUS president/sell-out-in-waiting Wes Streeting, various Blairite MPs and the head of the Cooperative Party. To be fair, it does include a few trade...

LOOKING LEFT: SWP +Left Convention

SWP: bad times If you believe the official SWP and Respect reports, everything is going swimmingly, with both groups marching steadily from one triumph to the next. But what about debacles like the defection of one of their councillors in Tower Hamlets to the Tories? And the recent Respect rally in Leeds (19 February), considered “big” enough for both John Rees and Oliur Rahman to travel up from London? The total turnout was 12 including the two speakers and interveners from other groups. Meanwhile, in many big cities such as Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham and Manchester, SWP full-timers, once...

Respect: Which Party?/ Charlatan backs Charlatan

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....

Galloway, the Electoral Commission, and Respect

On 1 February, a press release from Respect Renewal was posted on the blog of Respect Renewal member Andy Newman. It says that: "The Bethnal Green and Bow MP George Galloway has won the fight to retain the name Respect for his party. The Electoral Commission has ruled that the organisation’s national chair Linda Smith, who is a close ally of Galloway, is to remain the leader and nominating officer for Respect. "This ruling has effectively put paid to the attempts by the revolutionary Socialist Workers Party to hijack the Respect name for their own uses". Comments on Andy Newman's blog say that...

Respect Renewal in NUS?

While the SWP lost dozens of its own members to Galloway’s populist, Stalinist split from Respect, Student Respect remained almost totally solid, with the vast majority of independents siding with SWSS. The positive consequence of this has been a left turn by Student Respect — in terms of a willingness to talk about women’s liberation and abortion rights, for instance — as well as a greater willingness to engage with other socialists like the AWL. Nonetheless, Respect/SWSS is still supporting Ruqayyah Collector, the very soft-left candidate put forward by Student Broad Left/Socialist Action...

SWP-Respect and London polls: it "stands as a wonder"

Let's look on the bright side first. As against George Galloway and his Respect-Renewal, who are now backing "Red Ken", SWP-Respect is reaffirming the need for a left challenge to Livingstone as London mayor. Although SWP-Respect, even in its own private meetings, still cannot bring itself to use the words "working class" or "socialist", it calls for candidates in the London mayor and assembly elections (May 2008) that will respond to the needs of "working people" and present a "positive alternative". It is emphatic - has to be, I guess, following the split-away of Galloway and most of the...

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