Below is the SWP side of the story. I’m guessing it’s being pretty widely circulated because I received from someone who isn’t in the SWP and who doesn’t live in London. It’s entitled “George Galloway to the left in Tower Hamlets: ‘off you go’ ‘fuck off, fuck off the lot of you’.” Even the choice of title indicates that the intention behind it is to raise factional temperatures rather than give a political explanation of what is happening and why it’s happening. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the SWP’s leadership is determined to smash up Respect in the next couple of weeks. Even from the perspective of my political background,with its emphasis on the necessity of splits and fusions as part of the process of creating broad parties, it is a barmy road to follow. If you look at the list of names which voted for each position you see that the SWP’s gains have pretty slight from a project which set out to replace social democracy. Unless cooler heads prevail inside the SWP its retreat from Respect will be a disaster for them and a serious blow to Respect.

This is the transcript of the emergency meeting of the Tower Hamlets Respect Committee Thursday 18th October, 2007. Recorded by Maggie Falshaw

The meeting was attended by 23 committee members and several branch members in attendance as observers. Under the constitution of Tower Hamlets Respect committee meetings are open to members to attend as observers who have speaking but not voting rights.

Azmal Hussain, joint chair of Tower Hamlets Respect opened the meeting by saying that he was very sorry about what had happened at the branch meeting on Tuesday 16th October. He went on to say that he does not want a war between us. He suggested that we hold a further meeting for all members on Thursday 25th October to elect the slate for our conference delegates.

Sam James, joint vice chair said that a fully constituted members meeting had been held on 16th October to elect the delegates to conference and that all members had been invited to that meeting.

Maggie Falshaw, election campaign coordinator said that according to the constitution two weeks notice had to be given to members about meetings where elections, including election of delegates to national conference would be elected. A meeting held on 25th October would be unconstitutional as it had not been advertised 2 weeks in advance.

George Galloway, MP arrived. He was welcomed by the chair and invited to address the meeting. George said that it is not his practice to come to branch meetings, but he had been appraised of the farce of the meeting on Tuesday. He is not prepared to be associated with farce, whether he is there at the time or not. This should be dealt with. There should be no disruption and no post-meeting meetings. He said that he is a veteran of these things and it is essential that they are dealt with. He described the Tuesday evening meeting of Respect as a joke, a blogasphere and said that we have to put a stop to this. We should do as the members asked, despatch the decisions that need to be made and look at the consequences for the future of Respect.

He said that dual power and joint chairs don’t work. There is one Respect in Tower Hamlets, we need one leadership, one chair and one secretary. It is important to despatch that business.

Respect is a pluralist organisation, no one section should dominate. Respect should not be controlled by one section where criticism of one member of that section is seen as criticism of the whole of that section.

George continued by saying that he is not a Leninist and neither are most members of Respect or most voters of Respect. There is a place for Leninists in Respect but not in leading or governing it. It is a pluralist coalition and not the property of one section. He concluded by saying there is a battle to resolve.

Aysha Ali, committee member agreed that Respect should be a pluralist party. In the election in Bethnal Green and Bow where George was elected, Respect won because it appealed to a far broader group than the people represented in the room. She quoted the example of people she works with who had been Labour supporters but who had broken with Labour to vote for Respect in BGB. Respect has grown as a party very quickly. Instead of looking inwards we have to look outwards, we need to broaden our appeal. If a general election had been held this autumn it would have been difficult for us.

Aysha continued, saying that housing is a major issue in Tower Hamlets. She has a reasonable wage, but it is impossible for her to afford somewhere to buy. Respect should be working to solve problems such as housing.

Ezaz Ali, committee member, said that people are trying to destroy Respect. The secretary of Respect, Jackie Turner had accused him of being a muslim fundamentalist. He said that it is lies that he wants women to be excluded from standing for election. He was the first person to tell John Rees that he would pay and campaign for his wife (Lindsey German) to be the candidate in Poplar and Canning Town in the last general election. He said that it is not true that he had not campaigned for Jackie Turner when she stood in the council elections, saying that he had campaigned with one of the other candidates in that ward, Ismail Hussain on a day when Jackie and Ahmed Hussain the third candidate had been late. He asked where is the evidence that he doesn’t support women candidates?

Paul McGarr, trade union officer on the committee, said that George Galloway is correct. We need to take a breath. We all joined Respect because of the things that we share in common – our opposition to the war and to privatisation. He is a member of the SWP and has never hidden this. He remembered back to before Respect was formed holding meetings with Abjol Miah talking about how we could form a coalition. Paul said that the idea of one group dominating Respect is alienating. He has worked with Ezaz on many occasions.

In the last GLA elections Respect won more votes in Tower Hamlets than Labour. Paul said that the real battles are outside. He hadn’t been able to attend the meeting on Tuesday because the government is trying to set up an academy school in Tower Hamlets and he had been at a meeting trying to stop that. Tower Hamlets council is frightened of the strength of Respect in Tower Hamlets – with our councillors and with George as our MP. Internal divisions in Respect will make the government more determined to drive their agenda for privatisation through in education and health. Paul said that the stakes are too high and we need to maintain our unity.

He continued that we cannot do this on one leg, we need to fight for unity, for democratic and constitutional procedures. Questions about the eligibility of people to stand for particular positions have to be addressed; this is how trade union and political meetings operate. The meeting on Tuesday 16th was constitutional. The nominations on the list presented by Jackie as secretary complied with the constitution. There are 12 vacant positions to the conference delegate list, so 12 additional delegates are needed. This should be done in a fraternal and political way tonight. With unity we can get George elected in Limehouse and Poplar, strengthen the councillors group and win seats on the GLA.

George Galloway responded by saying ‘it’s too late’. He said that Paul’s long speech was to soften the blow of his last few words – that Tower Hamlets will elect its delegates tonight. He said that 57% of the list were members of the SWP, which is not a balanced list. He likened Aysha and Paul to a series of Russian dolls. They are members of a group that meets in secret, deciding on a democratic centralist line. Kevin, Rob and Nick Wrack were expelled from the SWP as they did not agree to the Russian doll. He said that the SWP cannot control Respect through Russian doll means. He said that right at the start of Respect everyone was happy. But various mistakes have been made which expose this Russian doll. He said that he believes that Paul and Aysha do believe what they are saying, but that they would have said it even if they didn’t believe it.

Maggie Falshaw raised a point of order asking George Galloway for the proof of this comment.

George Galloway replied ‘this is a waste of time, move to the vote’. He said that this is not a genuine discussion, we know what each other are about, the arguments have been decided elsewhere. He said that we won’t be ruled by people somewhere else who take decisions elsewhere and bring those decisions here. This is not a Leninist organisation. He said that this meeting has the power to elect the delegates.

George Galloway continued that the chair might not know about points of order but he certainly did.

Kahar, community liaison officer and committee member said that the meeting on Tuesday had been closed by the chair. Somehow the meeting then continued after being closed by the chair. It had been proposed that Jackie should chair that meeting and she had done so, with the conference delegation being voted on. During the meeting earlier on Tuesday there had been calls for the slates to be voted on, but there had been so much noise and heckling that the vote was not put. He said that the meeting had been advertised by email, yet many people do not have emails, and by post but there had been a postal strike. He said that proportionality was not being addressed; the SWP has 7% of the membership of Respect. Kahar said that he is a supporter of the SWP but undemocratic practices give it a bad name. There are 567 members of Respect. He agreed that we do need to look to other communities – especially to Somali and other black communities.

Goyas, membership secretary said that Respect is a party for all. Tuesday’s meeting had been disgraceful, there had been disrespect for the chair. The delegation should be proportional with the majority Bangladeshi. He proposed that the positions of joint secretary and joint chair be scrapped.

Goyas continud by saying that Azmal had closed the meeting on Tuesday, if anyone continued the meeting they were acting illegally and should be punished, they should be removed from their post as he had no confidence that they were doing things properly. These elements should be taken out.

Rania Khan, co-opted councillor committee member said that it was offensive of George Galloway to say that the chair did not know about points of order.

She remembered the excitement she felt when first joining Respect and how she looked forward to attending meetings, now she is scared of the arguments, the bullying and threatening behaviour. She asked why should the councillors be threatened and asked what action would be taken against people who threaten them.

She said that there is no evidence to date about who leaked information about the councillors group to the East London Advertiser. She said that the second slate did not include her name. If the people who produced that list really wanted unity why did it not include her name? She concluded that she wants a Respect that is fighting together against war, privatisation, the developers and injustice.

Dennis Flood interrupted shouting at Rania – ‘you are incompetent, you say nothing in the council’ and he left.

Rania asked what she had done not to be included in the slate.

Azmal, joint chair said that every 10 members have one representative to conference. The SWP has 7% of the membership and can have delegates on that basis.

Jackie Turner, joint secretary of the committee said that she found it very sad that George had said that the meeting is a waste of time.

George replied ‘don’t insult our intelligence’.

Jackie continued, that she had not referred to Ezaz as a muslim fundamentalist; she would like to talk to him after the meeting and try to resolve this.

Jackie said that the list she had prepared for the members meeting on Tuesday was the response from people to the email she sent out on 27th September and the letter sent on 2nd October to the 489 members who are not on the email list inviting nominations as delegates to the conference. The list she presented was the list of the people who had replied that they would like to stand as conference delegates.

She said that the second list had been circulated one hour into the meeting. Although her name was also on the second list she had not been asked if she would like to be on it. A lot of the people on the list were not fully paid up members of Respect, some were difficult or impossible to identify as only one part of their name had been listed. The difference between the two lists is that everyone had the opportunity to be included in the first, but not in the second.

George Galloway proposed that the committee now vote on the two lists and put the result to a members meeting to be held the following Thursday.

Paul McGarr said this was in breach of the constitution.

Azmal, joint chair said that he had been out of the committee for two years. When he arrived at the meeting on Tuesday Jackie had been on the door with a list of members checking that people were on the list before letting them in. People had been told that they could not pay on the door to become members, yet Rania and Fahana had been allowed to pay and then come in. Other people had been turned away. He said that the Respect office is always open and people are always welcome. He pointed at Mehdi Hussain and said that he had behaved badly to elders and had kicked 4 or 5 people out of the office.

Jackie said that Rania and Fahana were renewing their membership and not making new applications.

George Galloway said we should now proceed to the vote on the slate and present this to a members meeting on Thursday 25th.

Shaun Doherty said that this is unconstitutional and contrary to George’s commitment to pluralism. The meeting on Tuesday had been properly called. Any attempt to revoke decisions made at that meeting would be unconstitutional; the meeting to elect the conference delegates has taken place.

George challenged Shaun’s right to speak. Shaun responded that he is a member of the committee of Tower Hamlets Respect and had been elected at the last AGM.

George said again that he wanted the vote to be put.

Maggie Falshaw said that we were being asked to vote on something that was contrary to the constitution as the members would not be given 2 weeks notice of the meeting.

Rebecca Townsend, committee member and Stop the War link tried to explain why this was unconstitutional. She was sitting next to George and speaking quietly to him. I was sitting next to her on the other side and clearly heard the exchange. George replied to her, ‘I have nothing to say to you, I don’t want to listen to you, that is why I am ignoring you’.

The vote was put by a show of hands. Paul McGarr noted that 3 observers were voting. It was therefore agreed to have a recorded vote.

George Galloway’s proposal: there be a vote on the two slates. The outcome would be presented to a members meeting called for Thursday 25th October.

In favour:

Azmal Hussain

Kahar

Ana Miah

Fahana Zaman

Beauty Akhtar

Nazi

Goyas Uddin

Shamsul Sayed

Mr Khan

Ezaz

Ishmail Hussain

Allad

Against

Sam James

Rebecca Townesend

Jackie Turner

Aysha Ali

Kambiz Boomla

James Meadway

Paul McGarr

Shaun Doherty – George Galloway objected to Shaun being allowed to vote even though Shaun is a member of the committee

Mehdi Hussain

Maggie Falshaw

Rania Khan – objections were made to Rania being allowed to vote even though she is a councillor representative on the committee

The resolution was carried 12 / 11.

George Galloway proposed that the 2 lists be voted on at the meeting on Thursday 25th.

Those opposing the proposal said they would take the matter to the Respect National Council and started to leave the meeting.

Azmal said he has no confidence in Jackie Turner as secretary and that he wants to take her out. Shaun Doherty said this is undemocratic. George Galloway shouted ‘off you go’ ‘fuck off, fuck off the lot of you’.

Azmal Hussain declared Allad as the secretary of Tower Hamlets Respect.

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