Respect Conference

Respect conference I wasn’t at the Respect conference but I’ve spoken to people who were and I’ve read some of the things participants have written about it. In my book that’s enough to give me the right to pontificate on the matter. On the plus side although debate was sharp this year it didn’t reach…

Liam

October 18, 2006

2–3 minutes

Respect

Respect conference

I wasn’t at the Respect conference but I’ve spoken to people who were and I’ve read some of the things participants have written about it. In my book that’s enough to give me the right to pontificate on the matter.

On the plus side although debate was sharp this year it didn’t reach the Enver Hoxha levels of last year, remaining largely free of abuse and name calling. Melodrama was not absent with one speaker objecting to a Respect Party Platform (RPP) motion on structure because we shouldn’t be having meetings while Muslims are dying on the streets. It’s hard to deal with arguments pitched at that level of ideological sophistication. Perhaps we shouldn’t have meetings about the NHS while people are dying in cancer wards. It’s a point worth considering.

Mathematics is not a strong point of mine but compared to some of the figures emerging from Respect at the moment I feel like an Oxford professor. “It was standing room only at the Friends Meeting house as hundreds of people… joined Respect conference delegates for a public rally.” Up to a point. My inability to read a map meant that I wandered around the whole building looking for the RRP meeting. Check out my videos below.It was standing room only except in the large balcony area which had virtually no one. I have been at Friends when it has been standing room only and can tell the difference.

Membership and recruitment were touchy issues. While it’s true that there were more people at the conference this year than last the composition was different. Last year there were 304 delegates and 58 observers. This year there were 217 delegates and 199 observers. The good news is that 10 000 students have joined Respect and students, as Trotsky said, are the light infantry of the revolution. Or it may be fewer. This has now been revised to “thousands”. On the basis of signatures at freshers’ fairs I could honestly say that Socialist Resistance has recruited a couple of hundred students in the last weeks. If I were to make such a claim no one capable of independent thought would believe me. Though perhaps student Respect will develop innovative new ways of holding onto them.

This is a very unusual method of operation. Smoke and mirrors with membership figures, recruitment, finances only motivates people who have difficulty grasping reality. The election results are something to get genuinely enthusiastic about. The fact that Respect is the only national organisation standing up to Labour’s Islampohobic offensive is something to be proud of. As supporters of Socialist Resistance never tire of arguing Respect at the moment is the best chance of creating the core of a new socialist party in Britain. The contradication is that the political methods demonstrated at the weekend could almost be tailor made to chase away the critically minded Labour Movement activists needed to build such a party. The Organising for Fighting Unions conference may be the moment when this thesis of mine is proved wrong. Hope springs eternal.

4 responses to “Respect Conference”

David Broder

October 20, 2006 at 12:21 pm

With its membership falling so fast, it is increasingly becoming a very narrow SWP front. I think its failure to advance real working-class politics is why it has largely failed to capture people’s imagination.

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Simon

October 20, 2006 at 6:21 pm

Alan Thornett of ISG, wrote in the current edition of Socialist Resistance about what he saw as deficient within Respect, he said, ‘the failure of Respect to build itself as a properly functioning national political organisation. This was informed of a year’s experience, where as he says membership figures have fallen from 3040 to 2160. The national council opposed the Alan Thornett led motion by countering that numbers do not matter; in that when it comes to working with a coalition of different groups the unofficial count is much higher. But if there is tacit acceptance that branches are inefficient in updating membership renewals what does it say about the organisational priorities. Firstly, it costs £26 membership fee, yet at many branch meetings the local officers are constantly asking members to take out monthly subscriptions. Secondly if there is to be fair representation of the campaigning groups Respect is involved with, other comrades from those organisations should be encouraged to join. Thirdly, when the number of delegates elected to conference is reduced from 40 to 17 as in Tower Hamlets, there has to be something wrong apart from the inefficiency of the branch secretary to keep correct figures on who is and who is not a member. Finally there is the question of morale; numbers are going down, however the leadership fobs it of as no real concern. The flies in the face of common sense that non-aligned members and those considering joining cannot understand. So the question has to be asked, when does membership numbers have any meaning?Also, on the morning of the conference I was sitting in the balconey area with a couple of others, and a Respect comrade said I would have to move to the lower main area, because it would cost an extra £1000 to hire.

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Respectful

October 20, 2006 at 11:37 pm

Can someone from the party explain what happened with the election petitions in Tower Hamlets, what the issues were that came up – there’s very litte.Are the petitions still going? And is there any right of appeal for the ones that were lost?thanks

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Liam Mac Uaid

October 21, 2006 at 11:42 am

The petitions have fallen on a technicality. they were delivered to the wrong address. Just simple human error.As for the politics of Resepect they have been consistently class struggle, socialist politics across a range of issues. Respect was in the leadership of anti-privatatisation struggles and supported every industrial action of which it was aware. The methodology has been a bigger problem than the politics. I’m going to write something about that fairly soon.There’s no doubt that the shenanigans with the numbers does the organisation little credit and word of this sort of thing can’t bew kept quiet.

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