I am still disappointed that we didn't get Lindsey and George elected in June. It is so frustrating to come so close and just miss out. What a difference they would have made to the GLA and the European parliament However we did extremely well for a new party.
We then went onto the Leicester and Birmingham parliamentary by-elections and did phenomenally well. Even the media that had being trying hard to ignore us had to Iccoguize our achievement.
DUT for me the best moment was getting Oliur Rahman elected in Tower Hamlets. It was a brilliant result, pushing Labour into 3rd place. Oliur is a great guy and the campaign was excellent, but people responded to RESPECT's values and principles.
On a personal note, just the week before two of our members had been killed in a fire in East London and it had been a terrible time for us, you really think about what is important in life.
To see everyone involved ecstatic at our victory was brilliant. Trying to make a difference is surely one of the most important things in lite. SR: What next for Respect?
A lot of work. Elections have to be fought and they take a lot of resources. We have a candidate in the Hartlepool by-election.
Our first conference is arranged for the end of October to start the work towards the general election. We are trying to build membership and raise funds.
But it is so inspiring. Going through our dispute as an FBU official was extremely hard work and at times demoralizing, but RESPECT helped to get me through it all, knowing that like-minded were coming together to challenge the bankrupt policies of the mainstream parties.
If you are not a member already, you should join us! www.respectcoalition.org.uk Alan Thornett Respect has got itself on to the political map much faster than most would have predicted. This has been achieved not just by the election results on June 10 -which were both a disaster for new Labour and a breakthrough for the left via Respect - but even more so by the by-election results since.
In the Leicester South and Birmingham Hodge Hill Parliamentary by-elections Respect polled 12.4 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively in firstpast-the-post contests. This was followed by an outright win in the local council by-election in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets. These results add up to an extremely good start for Respect and set it up for its next stage of development.
So what is next stage of development tor Respect? It has to be built as an all round political organization. Some steps have been taken in this direction of course since it was founded in January, but developments have been partial and uneven.
Respect was launched around an election campaign and thus has tended to be shaped by elections. It was natural and correct for the organisation nationally to put more resources into areas of the country where we were likely to do well electorally at this first showing. But now this needs to change.
There has to be a recruiting drive.3,500 members is a good start but every local branch has to follow up every potential member systematically. Respect has won important support in a number of ethnic minority communities. Not surprisingly has been easier to win voters than members so far though some new activists are coming forward. What is possible was shown in the diversity the Respect candidates' lists and in public meetings.
Respect is a big step forward in many ways from the Socialist Alliance that helped create it. Its origins are firmly in the biggest anti-war movement ever seen in
Victor: Respect's
newly-elected Tower
Hamlets councillor
Oliur Rahman Britain, and the political conditions created by the war.
Although the conditions for a left alternative to new Labour have existed for a long time, new opportunities have now opened up which gives Respect a resonance that the SA never had. The issue is how will it be built and what its political character will be.
Many of the problems facing Respect, however, are similar to those faced by the Socialist Alliance. It has to strengthen its non-far left component. It has to bring more people in from the Labour left.
It has to making itself habitable to non-aligned members. It has to bring into its ranks in parts of the left who are not yet in it. And, crucially it has to strengthen the gains it has made in the unions and make a breakthrough toward union affiliations.
Making Respect habitable to non-aligned members will happen in the course of developing its day-to-day work and its local structures. There have already been signs of pre-emptive decision making in some local areas, which have to be avoided at all costs. Respect must be democratic at all levels and be seen to be democratic.
An important part of this process is the Respect conference on October 30-31. This two-day conference will be on a delegate basis. Two days will make it possible to have a more extensive agenda and discussion than at the one-day events the Socialist Alliance organised.
The Conference organising committee and Executive Committee understand that for a delegate conference to be effective and democratic, there will need to be resources put in from the centre to ensure that every member of Respect has the right to stand as a conference delegate by being allocated to a local area that meets to discuss the conference process.
But at the same time having a delegate structure will motivate local branches into meeting to discuss their input and will also ensure that the conference is more geographically representative. At this stage an all members conference would be more London dominated.
The agenda will include a session on war and imperialism and one on defending our communities - which will include introductions on racism, asylum, crime, and housing; election strategy; adopting a constitution and discussion on resolutions submitted. There will also be a round of workshops, which will include discussions on Kurdistan and Kashmir.
The constitutional discussion will be very important. The outgoing executive committee has submitted a proposed constitution (which drafted) for discussion and voting. It includes the following in the statement of aims section: "We believe that there is an alternative to imperialist war, unfettered global capital, and the rule of the market. "We aim for a society where wealth exists to meet the needs of the people and not the profits of the corporations. "We aim to organise opposition to all forms of inequality and injustice, including the increasing abuse of human and democratic rights. "We aim to actively oppose the destruction of the environment, "The aim of inherent in the profit Respect is to system, which build a broad- threatens the future based and of the planet on
which we live. inclusive "We recognise alternative to that the current new the other Labour leadership parties of has fully embraced privatisation the neo-liberal
agenda of radical
and
marketisation. It has occupation"
supported US imperialism in its invasion of Iraq, its so-called permanent war on terrorism, and its attacks on human rights "Its racist attitude towards migrants and asylum seekers has bolstered the far right. We also recognise that it has changed the constitutional position within the Labour Party to ensure that this right-wing path cannot be reversed from within." The constitution is designed to give maximum leverage, within Respect, for the individual nonaligned member. Any group of twenty or more members within Respect will have the right to meet together and can move resolutions at annual conference. This is a similar provision to the existence of platforms in the SSP in Scotland - and a sharp break from the SLP experience which denied such rights
It also provides for the establishment of policy groups -which can research and develop various aspects of policy.
The right for women, black and ethnic minority members, lesbians and gay men and disabled people to organize and caucus inside Respect if they so wish was not agreed by the Executive, but is something Resistance supporters within Respect will be fighting for.
At the moment some of the most basic things are also the most urgent. For Respect elections interventions are clearly of key importance. But at the same time Respect has to be a campaigning organisation.
The draft constitution puts it this way: "The aim of Respect is to build a broad-based and inclusive alternative to the other parties of privatisation and occupation.
"We will do this by intervening in elections at national local and European level, building Respect as a campaigning organisation, involvement in trade union and workplace struggle, and by building local branches of Respect that are rooted in local campaigns and in the local labour movement.
Resistance supporters are working to play a full role in the development of Respect and at the conference itself. This means a full involvement in the local activities of Respect as well as its national initiatives.
We will be attempting to make sure that the delegations sent to the Conference are politically representative of the breadth of current supporters of Respect and not just of one political current.
We will hope to continue to play a role in the new Executive elected from the conference and to work at local and national level to build and strengthen the best opportunity the left in England has ever had to build a real political alternative to new Labour.
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Paul McGarr, who has lived in the ward for 18 years, is standing as the Respect candidate in Millwall on September 9. He spoke to Socialist Millwall ward used to be famous for electing a BNP councillor ten years ago. What changes have the ward
CANARY WHARF CLEANERS
MAND The Cleaners Union them because of the record of Blair's government on everything from war to privatisation, and the way New Labour councils have behaved.
If Respect didn't give a left alternative to people feeling betrayed by and angry at New Labour those people would not vote or could even be conned into supporting the Liberals, the Tories, or worse.
We can't accept the blackmail that says we have to just put up with New Labour because the Tories or Liberals are the only alternative. We