May's election results again showed that Respect has a resonance in some sections Respect has had a difficult and contradictory year. At times even its survival was in question.
Many independent activists - along with SR supporters -were dismayed at the outcome of the 2005 conference, which put a question mark over Respect's development as a genuinely pluralist organisation.
When faced with a clutch of off-message resolutions ("on message" was that everything is brilliant - onwards and upwards) calling for better administration, better democratic functioning, better conLall with members and branches, and more collective policy dISCUSSIONS and Respect's own publication -John Rees and George Galloway berated the conference saying that it was not a matter of minutes and reports it was a matter of political leadership - and they and others were giving it.
It was leadership by individual inspiration rather than collective development.
Then came Celebrity Big Brother, by far the biggest crisis Respect had faced in its short existence. It was not just the humiliation of Respect by the antics of George Galloway, ll was tne lact lnal walloway was shown to be completely unaccountable when push came to shove. The refusal of the majority on the NC to make a statement clearly separating itself from the CBB fiasco made the matter worse.
Despite this, Respect had good results in the May 2006 local elections. It was not as good as it would have been without Big Brother, but it could have been far worse.
A huge campaign in the key areas, along with the passage of time, had repaired some of the damage CBB had wreaked at the level of the electorate. The damage it had done on alternative to the left of Labour. the left, amongst the activists and Respect members, however, will take a lot longer.
Respect won 13 new councillors in Tower Hamlets, 3 in Newham and OLIC in Birmingham. To get these seats it polled a massive 86,000 votes across the two Boroughs - 23 per cent of the
In Birmingham Sparkbrook Salma Yaqoob of the working class which no other left party has been able to achieve. They were also a product of a political situation that remains heavily in favour of building an won 55 per cent of the vote.
The results again showed that Respect has a resonance in some sections of the work ing class which no other left party has been able to achieve. They were also a product of a political situation that remains heavily in favour of building an alternative to the left of Labour.
The war remains the key to this. Not just the strategic disaster, which is now obvious, but the brutal daily carnage in George Galloway in action: protesting at bulldozing of a local school to make way for luxury flats Iraq and the growing resistance in Afghanistan. Also sleaze, the cash for peerages issue and new Labour's relations with the super-rich. The Blairites have managed to convince the majority of the population that they are more sleazy than the Tories under John Major.
There has been progress inside Respect on the implementation of the decisions of the last conference - though this was not without difficulty. The profile of Respect on women's and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights has been much improved, working groups have been established and a reworked policy pamphlet has been published. Minutes of the NC are now available and NC meetings observers from local branches.
There have also been advances on accountability, at least with the councillors. The
OISO many new Respect councillors, particularly in Tower Hamlets where Respect is the official opposition, has led to new arrangements to discuss the work of the councillors and give them back-up and support.
A major problem remains unresolved, however. That is the failure Respect to built itself as a properly functioning national political organisation. Over the past year the problem has become more acute.
This is partly due Respect's election strategy, which has been to concentrate on the strong areas to try and beat the first-past-the-post system. It has been the right strategy. But, in the absence of special measures to deal with it, it has deprioritised areas of the country where Respect was not standing.
This problem also comes out of the SWP's continued opposition building Respect as a party - a position they strongly share with George Galloway.
The results of all this are most clearly expressed in the moribund state of a number of Respect branches and declining membership figures, which now stand at 2160 according to the annual report - down from 3040 last year. True some of this membership decline may be down to poor administration, and the right figure might be a bit higherbut the overall picture is clear enough
The fact is 2160 members is a fraction of the potential membership available to an organisation which emerged as the political expression of a mass anti-war movement at a time when new Labour was loosing it traditional supporters hand over fist and which quickly won a high degree of name recognition. It is substantially less than the membership of the SWP itself.
At first Respect's true potential did express itself.
After Respect was formed in January 2004 its membership rose to over 5,000 by the time it fought the European elections five months later. The National Council initiated a recruitment drive. a that time, with a target of 10,000. It was a realistic target.
I raised this glaring contradiction between the electoral success, and general potential, of Respect, and its declining membership - at the National Council on September 9 when the annual report was discussed.
It was argued that I was "being pessimistic", that "membership figures are not the only way to assess the