This report is first impressions. I’ll add to it tomorrow but, having broken my own rule of not taking notes at meetings, I have lost my notebook. Regular readers will know that there is one thing this site has avoided it is claiming that everything is dead brilliant when actually it was just ok. So if the tone of this account comes over as ultra positive it’s because there was much to be positive about. If you were there and want to add something please do by leaving a comment. A lot of people will be very interested.
The gulf of understanding was made plain for me pretty early in the morning. There was a group of six or seven SWP members selling their paper and handing out a leaflet calling for unity. One of them asked me if I had read it and what I thought of it. My reply was along the lines of “the reason all these people are in this hall is because we have all had a bellyful of the SWP treating Respect as their own private property. We all want the SWP to be part of it but they have to end their habit of assuming that they have the right to determine the outcome of every decision.” Apparently this comrade is a central committee member and what his response lacked in subtlety it made up for in honesty. “Having spent thirty years trying to build up an organisation it’s only natural that we want to wield an enormous influence.” He really didn’t get the point. Charity prevents me from describing Weyman Bennett’s contribution in the debate on behalf of the SWP’s leadership.
Here is John Rees putting the case slightly more effectively.
At times the event did not feel like a Respect conference at all. You were never quite sure who was going to say what next. No votes were taken but if they had been the result would have been genuinely unpredictable. The controlling, bureaucratic atmosphere was a distant and unpleasant memory.
If you want to find out what George Galloway had to say listen to the video. But there are a couple of themes to draw out. The first is that he seemed to be genuinely shocked by the manner in which Respect was being run into the ground. Like many MPs he thinks elections are important and so was appalled to find out that Respect had selected no candidates, had little money in the bank and had shed about half its membership. He expressed his commitment to building a party to the left of Labour and it was obvious that making an effective electoral challenge is important to him. As it should have been to the National Secretary.
The other point is that he is still up for a fight. The argument inside Respect seems to have revitalised him and he said in his closing remarks that he wants to speak at meetings all over the country that will recruit people to Respect.
Virtually all the harsh criticism of the SWP came from former members of the organisation. They described their growing discomfort with the dishonest and manipulative methods of the organisation and most of them felt that the current leadership’s course is destroying the SWP itself. You can see their point. There were more than three hundred people in that room. Almost every single one of them has worked closely with the SWP and is serious about building a class struggle party. They all decided that they can no longer bear the SWP’s ways of working. How is it possible to set out to build a broad organisation and end up alienated from the very people who are keenest on it?
Salma Yacoob spoke twice. She directly referred to the Venezuelan revolution as an example of how some societies are rejecting the neo-liberal model and explained how Respect in Birmingham is trying to build itself as the anti-communalist organisation. There might be a bit of a situationist strand in Birmingham Respect. On Saturdays she goes picking up litter in the city as part of a campaign to draw attention to the shoddy state of street cleaning in the city. More of that type of direct action will be welcome.
Cheers greet demise of Socialist Resistance
Socialist Resistance has decided to cease production of its monthly paper. (We’ll work out later what we’ll do for a public profile). The massive financial, technical and personnel resources will instead be redirected towards producing a monthly Respect paper. John Lister broke the tightly guarded secret to conference and was slightly bewildered to have his contribution interrupted by applause and cheering rather than the customary silence or heckling. The first issue will be ready for the climate change demonstration in December. The new publication will be radically different from the well designed but uninspiring, apolitical tabloids that Respect has traditionally produced. It will have analysis, discussion and give branches something to organise around. Socialist Resistance is so serious about this that we are willing to hand over what few resources we have to build a class struggle socialist organisation. You could say we have put the interests of the class in front of the interests of our own group. We made the decision a week ago at a meeting of supporters from around the country because we had to respond quickly and we want the new project to succeed. We will probably shift to a two monthly journal. We will discuss that in the next few weeks. We will continue producing books and pamphlets, organising local meetings, conferences and tours. So no change there then.
Consensus was strong about the political direction of the new organisation. It will need to have a much higher profile on environmental issues and Derek Wall from the Green Party raised the concept of ecosocialism. The RMT, the Communist left, the environmental activists, Labour supporters and activists are the people we will be opening discussions with. And there was modesty too. Nick Wrack and Ken Loach both made the point that Respect Renewal will be one part of a bigger, broader left party which will challenge Labour.
My assessment is that the omens are promising for the relaunched organisation’s future. Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and parts of London sent along enough people to quickly establish viable, dynamic branches. A leadership and infrastructure are emerging quickly and there was a throng of people signing the sheets to volunteer as helpers at the end of the conference.
There will be a conference after the May elections to develop a programme. George Galloway told the audience that documents will be circulated and members will be able to submit their own documents which will be circulated nationally to allow a real discussion to take place. That’s new.
The conference was a big success. Salma Yacoob said that she had arrived with a heavy heart but was leaving with a light heart. She had reason to. We were present at the significant next step in the creation of Britain’s class struggle, anti-imperialist working class party.
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