Pressure of time prevents a fuller report but the first post election meeting of Respect’s London membership deserves some comment. It was in Bethnal Green yesterday. I’ll try and flesh out some detail later.
It had all the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses. Late starts for a time limited meeting are never good. The number of top table speakers gave no opportunity for any discussion from the floor with one slight exception.
Still there’s no other political organisation on the British left capable of winning as many votes as Respect in its core areas nor able to fill a room with such an ethnically diverse mix of a hundred plus members and supporters.
The clear message from Abjol Miah and George Galloway was that Respect is not going away. All the contributions were videoed and will probably be available soon.
Diana Raby from Liverpool spoke about the election campaign and the work of building a branch there, making strong connections between working people’s disenchantment with Labour and the growth of the far right. In Liverpool Respect has been following up the contact it made during Diana’s campaign to recruit members.
Salma Yaqoob stole the show.The big themes running through the speeches were internationalism, the need for a political alternative and Respect’s commitment to fighting the neo-liberal offensive. With a bit of luck her speech will be posted on her site. It was a very persuasive demolition of the Con Dems’ economic strategy and a powerful defence of the public sector.
The only bit of audience participation was when Alan Thornett moved a resolution on behalf of Southwark Respect which committed the organisation in London to call two or three monthly members meeting and strengthen itself organisationally. This was uncontroversial.
Liam redux 
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