The election campaign has started. In my ward anyway. At ten o’clock this morning we had our first organising meeting. On paper at least there are more than fifty Respect members in the ward, which goes some way to meeting my definition of a mass party. It’s just a shame about all the other wards in the country.

We’ve got a bit of a strategy.Get a leaflet out in the next couple of weeks on this estate. There are two reasons for this. It saves me the trouble of travelling. Less importantly we won a very convincing victory against stock transfer just before Christmas. George Galloway had a positive part to play in that. He charmed a lot of the pensioners at the meeting in the community centre with lots of references to “real Labour”, the class collaborationist imperialist one, and the match girls’ strike. If we can win this estate we can win seats. It’s one of the ways in which the struggle around housing has changed Respect’s profile in the area.

The three candidates are pictured above. Kay has tons of energy and was born in the area. She’s been active on the housing issue and seems well connected with the firefighters.

Medhi is independently minded and has been in Respect since the start.

Glyn is chair of Tower Hamlets Respect. Though on the strength of this morning it’s probably best if he cuts down on the drink. When I opened the door to him he looked worse than Shane Mac Gowan. If he carries on like that I’ll have to find another deputy cat minder.

Next we are booking a room to see how many of the members are prepared to come to an organising meeting which doesn’t give an oppurtunity to meet GG. From there it’s going to be lots of leg work, hustings and producing leaflets. For me getting a core of class struggle candidates elected onto the council is the next big step forward for Respect.