• KEN LOACH writes on the next steps to build a party • Respect and the Racial and Religious hatred Bill • New opportunities for German left 'they are good ideas but who is going to implement them? - there is not enough staff in the office or money in the bank to support them'. as tends to be the case on the NC when such things come up. The key players in Respect - the SWP and George Galloway insist that Respect stays a loose coalition - and that is certainly what it is at the present time. John Rees may refer to to time, but it is a party in name only. When arguing on the NC against Respect having a reg11 9T tabloid, George Galloway insisted that Respect is not a party but a coalition - and therefore does not have enough of a common political line to publish a paper. Common line
But if Respect does not have a commonly developed political line sufficient to produce its own publication, how can it have sufficiently developed political line to run its work, be a political alternative to new Labour, or have a group of MPs in Parliament or councillors in a local council?
Such groups, without an agreed and discussed body of policy behind them would fall apart at the first test. Still less can it present itself in elections (as it rightly does) as a governmental alternative to new Labour.
We have already had examples of this kind of problem. Respect failed to discuss the Incitement Religious Hatred Bill before George Galloway voted for it in Parliament. Whatever view you take on that Bill (and my views are argued on p12) that is not a viable relationship between an elected representative and the organisation he represents The other example was George Galloway's unacceptable absence from an important vote on the Terrorism Bill (a defining issue for Respect) in which the government survived by only two votes. Instead he was in Cork speaking at a meeting of his own organised sepaThe insistence on remaining as a coalition compounds this problem. Since there is no 'party' there can be no 'party line' - and no organisation to hold its representatives to account. Under this formula the 'coalition' is not a political organisation but a collection of foot soldiers for its elected representatives.
This does not mean mandating elected representatives on everything - as a resolution from Milton Keynes calls for. Sometimes they will have their own strongly held contrary views but how to proceed then needs to be agreed democratically and transparently.
There has to be an organised and democratic relationship with those elected reflecting the collective views of Respect - or what is it all about? Lesbian and Gay rights
Finally Respect has suffered from the charge of social conservatism - particularly around the issue of LGBT rights. It's a false charge, because Respect does have policy on such rights and does defend such rights. We have participated in Gay Pride in London and other places for the last two years for example with our own leaflet.
But the removal of any reference to LGBT rights from the election manifesto for the general election however did not help in this and is not acceptable in the future.
We are pleased to see therefore that not only is there a resolution on the agenda to the effect that this will not happen again (which was sponsored by SR) but also that there are other amendments challenging and major examples of homophobic and hate crimes which have been taking place.
page 12 of the scan
socialist Respect Conference special 2005