Jess Hurd reportdigital.co.uk party with its own life, disciplines and programme, but remain stuck at the level of an electoralist support group for Galloway and a few other prominent candidates.
in the trade unions need to be convinced that Respect can offer an inclusive, democratic alternative to the arrogant, bureaucratic machinery which runs many unions and New Labour: they want to see leaders accountable to the organisations which secure their election - and the experience so far falls short of these aspirations.
Addressing these problems, and beginning to tap the potential support for Respect, demands a substantial change in the way it is organised and communicates with members.
While the language is not NO be given the tools they need to recruit more people and to raise the profile of the organisation in their workplace, union branch, neighbourhood or campaign. Local branches may already be strong enough to produce local newsletters and publicity, but there are limits to the value of what can become quite parochial and amateurish publications. Many branches would also benefit from the availability of national publications that help to raise the profile of Respect and draw on the strengths of the organisation and what has been able to achieve in its key areas such as Tower Hamlets.
This points to the need for some torm ot national newspaper - the tried and tested traditional means for most organisations on the left, CACT CA
Local Respect branches have a low profile when they are not fighting elections. Not having press and
literature about Respect's politics to
distribute and help
organise activists
contributes to this.
SERU able method of administration and distribution that can deliver copies of all nationallevel publications to all individual members as well as to larger branches.
This can be done on a subscription basis: but it should also be possible to develop a publication that would have a big enough distribution to generate advertising income, which could also help cover production costs.
The publication would serve to inform members and to assist in recruitment: but the dynamic must be towards organising and mobilising individuals wherever possible to begin working together as city-wide, (London) borough-wide possibly county-wide branches, with regular political meetings which combine debate on current domestic and world political issues with planning further activities, electoral intervention, campaigning and anti-war work.
An action plan needs to be drawn up for building Respect branches in the key cities which don't yet have them, calling on support from National Council members to build launch rallies and attempting to draw in individual members from surrounding postcode areas.
The trade union conference planned for early next year should also be a focus for a renewed effort to open up dialogue on policies and campaigning on key issues in the trade unions, using the pages of the publication to develop the necessary debates and appeal for the involvement of activists who have so far remained outside Respect.
Perhaps the biggest turnaround needs to be at the top, in the National Council and national office, where the political imperative of holding on lo the members already recruited and developing strategy strengthen the organisation must take the place of the apparent single-minded focus on two or three target constituencies and reducing every political question to one of organisational detail.
This seems likely to mean bringing in additional volunteers to help drive forward a development programme that can bring in and politicise the membership, build functioning branches and generate the resources to enable Respect to punch its weight on the national stage.