A vision of the type of party Respect should be was offered at the Respect Conference by Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union).
He spoke of PCS member Oli Rahman, who worked in a job centre, citing him as an example of how a new radical left party can speak for the poor, the young and the dispossessed.
Oli's first act on the morning after his election victory had been to take his place on the union's picket line. any other speaker at the conOur youth supplement has become a youth paper! Socialist
If you agree
with much of
what you see in Socialist why not help
us build support
among students and
young
Contact us on 020 8800 7460,
or www.socialistresistance.net ference the PCS leader drew attention to the threat from the far right.
The fascist BNP, he said, had leafleted civil servants at the Ministry of Defence opposing the transfer of civil service jobs to India.
The left had to be seen to take the lead in struggles such as these. He went on to call on Respect to engage enthusiastically in the battle to save civil servants' jobs.
The need for a political fight to be combined with the industrial struggle was underlined by the other political More clearly than almost parties' plans for the Civil Service Mark Serwotka warned.
Labour wanted to chop 104 000 jobs, the Tories 200 000, while the Liberal Democrats talked of "targeted" cuts.
On this, as on so much else, the only differences between the parties were over the detail.
Mark Serwotka told the conference that his union would need the support of the labour movement to protect its members.
He pointed out, though, that not one union leader had referred to Labour's threat to civil service jobs at the party's conterence.
He also issued a call for a one-day public sector strike in defence of pension proviSion.
Uniquely among the platform speakers at the conference the PCS leader referred to the Scottish Socialist Party, describing it as an example of what Respect could be.
He reminded the conference that the opportunities ahead were "exciting and awe-inspiring" and that if Respect wanted to provide an alternative voice for workers in Britain it would need to make sure that it included in its basic principles democracy, tolerance, debate and a socialist perspective.