One of the first items of business at the June AGM of Tower Hamlets Respect was a collection for the strikers at the Ambala factory. This is an East London company which makes sweets and pastries for Asian shops and restaurants. Fifty members of the TGWU there have been on two days per week strike since late April for a pay increase.
The AGM was an opportunity to take stock of the General Election results and put new structures in place for next year's council elections. George Galloway's election victory has created an avalanche of new members. Several dozen people joined Respect in the days before the AGM.
Muhammad Ghulam Mortuza, a Labour defector who supported during the election campaign has become Respect's second councillor in the borough. He will be the last defecting councillor to be admitted to
The meeting agreed to a proposal from the floor and strongly supported by National Secretary John Rees, that no councillors currently representing other parties will be allowed to contest a seat for Tower Hamlets Respect in next year's council
The council's Labour group could win an Olympic gold medal if cronyism, corruption and incompetence were recognised sports and this measure is a valuable protection against these
The search has now begun to find potential candidates for the elections. They will be put through rigorous screening that will include detailed inquiries about their personal finances and business interests.
A very large committee emerged at the end of the AGM. The officers' group is a good mix of race, gender and political leaning. It incorporates several people who have been involved in Respect from its creation and a good leavening of new faces
Respect has a good chance of winning a number of seats in Tower Hamlets. An important contribution trom Rebecca Townsend hammered home the point that this requires the rapid establishment of local groups at a ward level and she described how in her ward they now have officers and monthly members' meetings.