I’ve nicked this report from the Respect Supporters blog. It’s interesting because it describes some of the events prior to conference.

I travelled down to the conference with a group from Cambridge. There, the split in Respect has been acrimonious. We had hoped that what was happening nationally would not spill out into local groups. Sadly this optimism was misplaced. In an appalling meeting to elect the conference delegates, the SWP mobilised their members, including those who hadn’t been to a local meeting for over a year. Despite their calls for unity and pluralism, they showed that they had no intentions of either by voting themselves into all 3 delegate posts, as instructed. This alienated and bypassed the convenor and chair who have been the mainstay of Cambridge Respect, organising and working extremely hard to keep things going locally. One of them had written one of the motions to conference and would like to have had the opportunity to speak on it.

What followed this was worse. Instead of attempts at reconciliation, the SWP members called their own Respect meeting for 13th November. They changed the location of the meeting and failed to involve the chair and convenor (or anyone else who disagreed with them). The meeting had 8 people attending, and not all of these are members of Respect. 7 of them signed a unity statement clearly prepared from the SWP National Office. To give some perspective on this, there were more members interested in attending Renewal than signed the statement. It is clear in Cambridge who have the membership and now the split has occurred many people are willing to re-engage with us. This dispels the myths peddled by the SWP that they have won the members. They haven’t. Just like packing a meeting doesn’t mean that you have won on any debate, politics or argument.

It was in the light of this that the RR conference was so important. It needed to show that there was a future for Respect and a way forward. It did both and went far beyond my expectations.

The Respect Renewal Conference.

On arrival, we ran the gauntlet of witch hunted socialists selling the Socialist Worker, the AWL leafleting about ‘Why are You With Galloway?’ and comrades from the Morning Star wishing us well with the conference.
We were greeted with warmth and sincerity and already I could feel the mood and the buzz. On entering the hall, the conference was larger than I expected. There were some familiar faces, some I did not recognise, but what was clear was that there was a wide range of people from a variety of backgrounds. There were groups from Cambridge, London, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford, Manchester and Colchester among others. In terms of numbers, there were 300 chairs put out, all of them filled and with people standing. I would guess between 320-350, although we will know when the registration figures are available.

The first sessions was chaired by the Respect National Chair, Linda Smith. If people want to know what dignity and restraint looks like, then they should look no further. Linda has been on the receiving end of some disgusting and wicked slurs of late and those responsible should be treated as the scabs that they are. And if you want to see where the witch hunt really is, then again, look no further than the treatment of Linda.

George Galloway opened the conference with a strong speech. He refuted the accusations of communalism and homophobia. He pointed to the people that were with him on the platform, Ken Loach and Salma Yaqoob and asked how these people and others could be characterised as ‘right wing’ And yes, he did mention the role of the SWP leadership in the recent split, but that is hardly surprising. He exposed their role in the split, speaking about the negotiations to leave that they had not told their membership about. He spoke about the lies about witch hunts that don’t exist. Most importantly he pledged to speak in every city and every town across the country to help build Respect into the organisation it should have been, with the membership it should have had.

Salma spoke eloquently about the allegations of communalism, highlighting her role in uniting communities in the wake of Lozzell’s. She had been central in uniting Asian and Black communities at a time of escalating tension, marching together. Salma also spoke about her local community activities, in particular clearing rubbish in her ward and exposing the lack of decent street cleaning and waste disposal services provided by the council. She also pointed to the fact that the Respect National Secretary had barely spoken to her since she disagreed with him over a matter in 2005 – supporting a meeting addressed by Tariq Ramadan. This is not an attack on the SWP, it is a fact and that it happened is wholly unacceptable. She finished by saying that she was going back to Birmingham to do what she has always done and that is continue to be active in her community and continue to work with grassroots activists to build an alternative to New Labour. How the person most likely to become our next MP could be airbrushed from the movements history is puzzling.

Both Sami Ramadani and Andrew Murray spoke sensibly on Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. They appealed to members to remain united in the anti-war movement and not to let our differences spill over into the Stop the War Coalition. This is something that should be achievable, because despite what has happened, we remain together in our goal to stop these wars and prevent attacks on Iran. I sincerely hope that this remains the case, however recent events in Cambridge don’t inspire me a great deal because those that voted themselves to Respect conference have recently acted in a similar manner in the local StWC group, leading to the resignation of the convenor, secretary and other key activists. I don’t think that this will be reflected nationally though and see this as an aberration rather than a tactic.

Anas al Tikriti addressed the conference. Remember him? Someone else who used to speak on platform after platform and headed the Respect European election candidate list in Yorkshire. He gave a robust speech, highlighting the role of Respect in the defence of the Muslim community who have been demonised and come under attack from all quarters with rising Islamophobia.

There were speakers from the floor. Some impressive, some less so. Weyman Bennett and Michael Bradley from the SWP leadership fell into the latter category, Jerry Hicks and Clive Searle the former. Weyman’s speech was weak and I don’t wish to be disrespectful but I expected the CC to have sent people to argue a more convincing case. I guess that they ended up pulling the short straw. In his speech, Weyman tried to explain how the SWP were barred from RR unless they gave in their membership cards. Now he has either left the SWP along with the entire of the row behind me, or he was lying. Either way, the fact that both he and Michael Bradley were allowed to speak and that the SWP were allowed in to sell their paper kind of destroys the witch hunting myth. They had the opportunity to put their point across and did so, but did it badly, but did it without being heckled, which was not reciprocated by the SWP members present. They heckled nearly every speaker, saving their most witty remarks for when Nick Wrack was addressing the conference. Unsurprisingly the conference has been misreported on the SW website. What was written was entirely predictable, but they could hardly afford to report the truth.

Jerry Hicks received a standing ovation following his speech. He had come with a sizeable group from Bristol including Jo Benefield who also spoke well. Jerry pointed out how Santa had become Satan and that those who were previously praised and revered by the leadership were suddenly demonised. I thought Clive Searle spoke particularly well and he rightly highlighted that the calls for unity were false. If there is to be unity, then the Respect/SWP must retract the slurs and slanders they have used against George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob, Nick Wrack, Kevin Ovenden, Linda Smith, Rob Hoveman and others.

One of the best speeches of the day came from Abjol Miah. He has been portrayed as a right winger, a communalist, a homophobe, a sexist, anti-trade unionist and a weak and poor leader. Throughout this Abjol has remained dignified and restrained. I have to say that I do not recognise Abjol from these descriptions. He is the democratically elected leader of the TH Respect group although it is this part of democracy that some don’t like or adhere to. Amazingly he has not been invited to speak at Respect conference before. Abjol gave a confident and assured speech. He spoke about the importance of having Respect councillors and how they are working in TH. He spoke of the importance of being rooted in the local community and of grassroots activities that they have been involved in. He said that the councillors are making a difference on the ground, that people recognise and trust them. They have been involved when young people are getting harassed by the police. I hope that we will be seeing more of Abjol on platforms in the future. He offered to come and speak with other Respect groups and assist in any way possible to help build for the future.

The most important development for me was the comrades from Socialist Resistance giving over the use of their printing press and resources in order that we can produce a monthly newspaper. SR members have been asking for this since Respect was formed although this was opposed from some quarters, I can’t think why!! The first issue will be out for the Climate Change demo on 8th December. This is highly significant and will enable us to broaden our reach into areas we should be having an impact. On selling the paper we will be able to engage with people on stalls, picket lines, union meetings, rallies, demonstrations in a significantly different and improved way. I thank the SR comrades for this and as someone else has said before, they have put the interest of the class before the interest of their group.

So, overall a resounding success. I and the other Cambridge comrades left feeling positive and upbeat. What was obvious was that we have a wealth of talent and a lot of support. There was a real commitment to building Respect into a larger organisation and a seriousness about the future. That the conference took place at all is thanks to the hard work of individuals including Nick Wrack, Ghada Razuki, Rob Hoveman, Linda Smith, Victoria Brittain, Kevin Ovenden and others. This was what was achieved after less than 2 weeks, so the future looks bright. Between the sessions there were lots of networking and informal talks going on. As Nick Wrack said, RR is not the finished article. There is a lot of work to be done, but the foundations are well and truly there.

Steve Sweeney,
Cambridge Respect