Dear Respect Member,

Our answer to the alleged “witch hunt” in Respect

Last Friday 26 October a letter titled “Respect Appeal against the
witch hunt” went out to all members from the Respect National Office.

We deplore the fact that the letter, which has been circulating through
non-Respect channels for a week by the SWP, is titled “Respect appeal
against witch-hunting” as though it had some kind of official sanction.
It has never been agreed at either the National Executive or the
National Council. It is not a “Respect Appeal”.

We, as members of the Respect National Council who are not members of
the Socialist Workers Party, wish to answer this petition.

There is no witch-hunt against “socialists including the SWP” in
Respect.

The letter claims there “is now overwhelming evidence that the
democratic structures of Respect are being circumvented and marginalized” and
that “some national officers are attempting to unilaterally by-pass the
existing democratic structures of Respect and to witch-hunt socialists
including the SWP.”

No evidence is provided to substantiate these or any of the other
claims in the letter.

Unfortunately, it is the SWP leadership which is orchestrating a
campaign of misinformation against George Galloway and others of us who
disagree with them.

The SWP leadership carried an editorial in last week’s edition of their
paper Socialist Worker, publicly attacking George Galloway:
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=13331

At no time has George Galloway or any one of us attacked the SWP in the
national media. Regrettably, as a result of the SW editorial an
article about divisions within Respect appeared in yesterday’s Observer.

We reject the other accusations made in the letter:

The SWP leadership is attempting to delegate students to the Respect
conference where there is no entitlement to these delegates. We have no
objection at all to student delegates properly elected according to the
constitution.

We completely disagree with the interpretation of events in Tower
Hamlets. SWP members there prevented a members’ meeting from electing
delegates and then purported to elect an unrepresentative list of delegates
at an unconstitutional meeting held when the overwhelming majority of
members had left.

We no longer have confidence that the conference called for 17/18
November will be validly constituted.

We are shocked that access to the Respect database and therefore
communication to Respect members was denied to the chair, Linda Smith, and
the vice-chair, Salma Yacoob, when the access codes were changed
unilaterally by the SWP leadership.  Only under pressure has that information
been released.

We further deplore the fact that four councillors in Tower Hamlets
split from Respect on Thursday evening, a fact they announced in a widely
circulated press release. The four include two members of the SWP and
two close allies. They are, in fact, the first four signatories to the
SWP’s ‘Respect Appeal against the witch hunt”.

Instead of deploring the split by these councillors and asking them to
rejoin Respect, SWP members in Tower Hamlets and elsewhere are
supporting this step.

We, however, remain absolutely committed to the principles and policies
of Respect as contained in our founding statement, subsequent
manifestos and conference decisions: Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace,
Environment, Community, Trade Unions.

Yours in solidarity,

Linda Smith, National Chair
Salma Yaqoob, National Vice Chair

Mobeen Azhar, National Council
Ayesha Bajwa, National Council
Victoria Brittain, National Council
Rita Carter, National Council
Ger Francis, National Council
George Galloway MP, National Council
Jerry Hicks, National Council
Abdurahman Jafar, National Council
Abdul Khaliq, National Council
John Lister, National Council
Ken Loach, National Council
Abjol Miah, National Council, Leader of Tower Hamlets Respect
Councillors Group
Bernie Parkes, National Council
Yvonne Ridley, National Council
Clive Searle, National Council
Alan Thornett, National Council
Nick Wrack, National Council

See also the letter sent out to all members on 26 October titled
“Statement from elected representatives and National Council members –
Respect at the Crossroads”.