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You are here: Frontpage > Issues > 2492-93 >
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Respect
Polina Aksamentova &
Milan Rai
At the end of August, the Respect Unity Coalition MP, George
Galloway, circulated a document to the party leadership,
which seems to have precipitated the disintegration of the
organisation.
Galloway's paper, entitled It
was the best of times, it was the
worst of times brought to a head
long-simmering tensions within
the party.
The document sharply criticised the Respect national office
(largely staffed by SWP mem-
bers) for the party's failure to
fulfil its potential "in terms of
votes consistently gained, members recruited or fighting funds
raised".
Galloway said Respect staff
had not been "tasked with either
membership or fundraising
responsibilities". He listed other
problems: poor prioritisation,
mismanagement, mysterious
recruitment procedures and
often "high-handed" instructions from the national office.
He also condemned the "custom had led to the "internal exile" of
prominent Birmingham Muslim
figure Salma Yaqoob.
The MP for Bethnal Green
and Bow wrote: "the relations
between leading figures in
Respect are at an all-time low".
To remedy these problems, he
proposed the setting up of an
elections committee, and the
appointment of a National
Organiser.
This was regarded by the
Socialist Workers Party, a component of Respect, as an attack
on John Rees, the National Secretary of Respect, who is also a
member of the SWP central
committee. (According to one
account, Galloway and his allies
later demanded John Rees's resignation.)
Despite all this, the SWP
agreed to appoint a National
Organiser, but in October
expelled an SWP member for
agreeing to take on the position.
Both sides have accused each
other of bad faith and undemocratic methods, and there has followed a spiral of recrimination
and increasingly public attacks,
culminating in the holding of
two separate "national party
conferences" in London, on the
of anathematisation," which
same day - 17 November.
The SWP responds
After a call had been issued for a
separate "Respect Renewal" conference on 3 November, the
SWP Central Committee
responded to Galloway's accusations with their own paper, entitled The Record: The Socialist
Workers Party and Respect,
which summarises the party's
origin, achievements and history
with Galloway.
The SWP described Galloway's attack on the party a
"sad witch hunt".
They write: "The aim of these
allegations is not simply to
destroy opposition to a particular course on which Galloway
wants to direct Respect... It is
also to besmirch the name of the
Socialist Workers Party, thereby
damaging our capacity to play a
part in any united campaign of
the left."
The Committee goes on to say
that although the SWP has
often disagreed with Galloway's
actions, they have always
defended him in the media and
stood united behind him until
the summer of this year, when
Galloway decided that: "there
was no future in appealing to
workers on just class or anti-war
arguments and there had to be a
shift towards courting `community leaders'."
"The Socialist Workers Party
was resisting such a turn, and so
it had to be attacked".
The SWP-linked group,
which still has independent figures such Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS civil service workers union, seems to have
retained control of the party's
website and the name "Respect".
The Galloway-linked grouping, which contains most of the
independent figures such as Ken
Loach and Victoria Brittain,
controls the national office in
London (it changed the locks)
and is currently taking the name
"Respect Renewal".
Wider impact
The story of the Respect split is
complex and lengthy, but the
split itself now seems definite.
What is not clear is what the
impact of the split is going to be
on the Stop The War Coalition,
where many of the same figures
make up the leadership of the
organisation.
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