The Respect Election Day school on January 15 was well attended, with over a hundred present and quite a good geographical spread.
Most people present were completely new to me, so I don't know how many were new independent members of Respect, and how many were members of the SWP who I have not seen before. It certainly felt like a broad meeting.
The day was centred on the nitty-gritty of election organisation -and represented quite a sharp turn, from the days of the Socialist Alliance, towards systematic canvassing and constituency organisation and away from relying on fly-posting (which is no longer possible anyway) and general public profile.
This approach fits in with the decision of the Respect conference to stand (in the general election) in a limited number of constituencies but to fully resource them.
There was detailed discussion on canvassing from how to organise it to how to conduct yourself on the doorstep and even (a bit more contentious) whether to have a dress-code.
The importance of avoiding all-male contingents on the doorstep was also raised. SOCIALIST Already on the campaign trail: Respect MP George Galloway All-in-all it seemed a good contribution preparation.
The National Council followed in the same building with thirty members present. It was only a two-hour meeting (which was a problem) with a one item agenda - a continuation of the detailed discussion on which COnstituencies Respect should stand in.
The Respect conference decided to stand in only a limited number of constituencies, based largely, though not only, on the results Respect won in the various elections last June. The discussion was in the framework of the conference policy, but some of the detail, and some of the hard choices posed, were contentious.
Quite a few constituencies King loses the locals Oona King, sitting Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow shares a platform with George Galloway, the next MP for the seat.
They were addressing a meeting of 200 local people, organised by the Fire Brigades' Union, to oppose the removal of a local fire engine.
King has been abandoned by the DE The day represented quite a sharp turn towards systematic canvassing and constituency organisation had already selected candidates, as a result of previous discussion and others had started the selection process. Some of the east London constituencies where Respect had excellent results, some of them remarkable, have already selected. George Galloway will stand in Bethnal Green and Bow -where he must have a good chance of winning. Oliur Rahman - the Respect councillor in Tower Hamlets - will
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Galloway pledged to oppose the cuts. King offered to 'closely examine the management proposals'.
This didn't cut much ice with local residents, many of whom left the meeting saying they intend to vote House. Lindsey German will stand in West Ham and Abdul Khaliq Mian in East Ham.
The full list of proposed constituencies is not being made public whilst it is still under discussion.
One issue, which came up sharply was the ethnic and gender balance of the list. At this stage, we have a good ethnic balance but a very bad gender balance.
I raised this quite sharply, arguing that if we did not grasp the nettle now on this we could end up with an unacceptable situation. I was backed up on this by leading members of the SWP and some of the leading independents.
Others argued that it was not such a crucial and issue and we should not be "dogmatic" about it. The debate was a reflection of the diversity of the national council which is comprised of people from different traditions.
The upshot, after the longest debate of the meeting, was that the officers were mandated to do everything possible to achieve a good gender balance of candidates. I doubt, however, that this will be the end of the matter.
A number of issues came up under Any Other Business -reflecting the problem of having short meetings.
Salma Yaqoob raised the issue of a Respect newspaperarguing that a paper would be important where Respect is not standing in the general
and in building Respect in general.
John Rees pointed out that this was a decision of conference (proposed by Socialist Resistance) and that it is in discussion around proposals made by John Lister.
These proposals will go to an officers meeting and then come back to a national council.
He said that in any case Respect would need a paper of some kind for the anti-war demonstration in March at which Respect would need to have a high profile.