It's the conference season again: and the pressure is mounting on Tony Blair as New Labour's policies - on the war. on the Nhs. on asylum, on ID cards, and so on - lose credibility with party members and the electorale
Many of us have already invested time and energy building the beginnings of an alternative, a left challenge to New Labour. Kespect has emerged from the anti-war movement and widened its ponucs In two substantial concrcuces.
Respect has plenty to shout about: a plethora of selling points.
It has notched up a win and some impressive votes in last year's General Election, and some remarkable successes in this year's council elections.
It is the only left organisation to have established real links with Muslim communines, althougn ll also boasts leaders of many active and prominent campaigns
It has a range of eloquent and capable representatives in a number of core centres. thousands of members many of them active in local branches - and thousands more supporters across the Country.
This should be the platform from which Respect could aim to consolidate its strength and build a systematic challenge that will exploit the crisis of New Labour and make a determined attempt to build a solid base of support in tne trade unions - wnich In turn would help to win over sections of the existing left that have not yet been persuaded that Respect is a serious project.
But there is a major snag: Respect's public profile is almost non-existent. Few people get to hear of it outside election campaigns in key alcas
Its website is uninspiring, slow to react and limited in its range of issues. But worse still, for those active in campaigns and looking to build up political support in their area, Respect produces no regular printed publication to argue its politics, expose New recruitment and widening their periphery Labour, or reach out to those challenging the onslaught on public services.
here is no substantial organisation on the left in Britain that has managed to build or organise its support without the production of a regular publication. The very notion the Socialist Workers Party - a mainstay of Respect - existing without Socialist Worker and its supplementary publications inconceivable.
There is a good reason why this method is important for an organisation based on winning support for ideas.
A regular press obliges the organisation aenne, expand and develop its own politics in the context of conEven in areas where there are few members, a publication means they can use the strength of the national organisation to assist them in stant new situations in a rapidly changing and helps generate new and articulate writers and speakers.
But a national publication, of whatever frequency, is also crucial to give members the tools to recruit and build.
A publication ensures that local level branches and individual members are aware of the organisation, its leadership and elected councillors and MPs, its policies and achievements. Even in areas where there are few members, a publication means they can use the strength of the national organisation to assist wind up with cheaper, less interesting and less professional publications which convey impression of weakness, fragmentation and amateurisin, not conaucive lo recruitment of the unconvinced.
The best answer must be to aim for a lively publication that can draw together the best of the local campaign stories, the best examples of the work done by activists across the country, coupled with a firm national response to the key political issues of the moment.
Only a regular publication can achieve this - whether it be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, and whether it take the form of a (relatively expensive) magazine or a (low-cost) newspaper - since only a regular publication will generate the confidence of local campaigners and those involved high-profile issues that their articles will be taken seriously.
After my call for a regular publication was voted down at Respect's last conference we have seen only the most sporadic publication of a couple of one-off tabloids, a handful of leaflets and postcards: we never had the promised tabloid trumpeting this year's local election victories.
That process has, as I feared, left Respect still battling for a profile that can enable it to build on the scale we need.
The current formula has clearly failed: but another formula is possible.
Let's find a way to resource and produce a regular publication embracing all the strengths of Respect, backed up by regular press releases commenting on every major issue of the day.
page 9 of the scan
Sunday September 17