Respect's only MP has been telling meetings in his constituency that he Is nol going to stand in the next election. Just imagine what that would mean... In its current state of organisation that is a hammer blow for
The other side of the coin is that it begins to force Respect to think about what happens George Galloway is longer addressing the rallies of one and two thousand people and the organisation's highest profile member is pursuing another career.
The 2005 Respect conference is the opportunity to (From top) Salma Yacoob's Birmingham election result was a boost for Respect alongside George Galloway's victory. Ken Loach calls for a focus on programme and profile.
Lewishameserve The lImity Coalition begin to put the structures in place to prepare a real electoral challenge to New Labour outside the heartlands. In this issue of Socialist Ken Loach identifies Respect's absence of a well defined programme as a weakness. At the moment Respect has no culture of debating politics, economics or the roles of elected officials.
By the summer of next year Respect will have several more councillors. It may even be the largest group or possibly in control of one or two London councils. Yet even the persuaded the strongest majority of the branches lack the mechanisms left of the keep the council- labour lors under political control.
Of course „we can be confident welcoming that the experienced socialists home for them. are not likely to be persuaded to sell off the council libraries.
The problem is that we cannot tell how the newly elected councillors who are relatively politically inexperienced will be persuaded to avoid the traps laid for them by council officers and New Labour to oblige them to cut and privatise.
This requires a bedrock of well researched policy, national and local leadership structures which give clear political guidance and means of communication throughout which allow members and branches to support each other.
We can predict that if the discussions on politics and economics are not conducted in front of the membership and Respect's working class electorate they will happen in the offices of the council officers.
Socialist ResisTonce nas consistently argued that Respect has
Respect is making not yet
an essential contribution to the development of a new party for the British working class. At the movement that moment it has not
persuaded the it is a majority of the left
of the labour movement that it is a welcoming for them. These militants are used to having their political discussions and activity inside organisations with structures which faciliLalc them. Rightly wrongly they do not feel that they will get this in
These are the issues we address in this issue of Socialist Resistance and the positions for which we fight inside Respect.