Julian Coppens, London

“Nothing other than a mighty new political force has been born!”, bellowed George Galloway in his closing speech to more than 1500 activists, who assembled on January 25 at Freedom House in London for the founding convention of RESPECT — the Unity Coalition.

That was certainly the way most participants felt after a historic day of left unity that brought together the majority of Britain's revolutionary left organisations, left-wing trade union leaders and activists, anti-war activists, left-wing intellectuals and expelled anti-war Labour Party MP George Galloway. In the words of Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Civil Service union, it is a coalition that will “light a fuse under [Prime Minister Tony Blair's] government and the Labour Party”.

Opening the conference, chairperson of the Socialist Alliance Nick Wrack declared, “This conference has been called because of the crisis of representation facing working-class people in every aspect of their daily lives”. A voice was needed for the millions of people who marched against the US-British war on Iraq, for all those fighting back against the Labor government's attacks on workers' living standards and for anti-racist and anti-fascist community campaigners. Wrack said. It is necessary to build the widest possible coalition based on a program that can appeal to the largest possible audience, he added.

The new organisation's acronym stands for “R-Respect for E-Equality, S-Socialism, P-Peace, E-Environment, C-Community and T-Trade Unions”.

Serwotka began the conference with a summary of the disgraceful record of the Labour government, including attacks on lone parents and pensioners, women, public sector workers and its treatment of asylum. He condemned Blair's support for the US war drive. The left has a “duty to get involved, get organised and offer a beacon of hope... Our working-class supporters deserve nothing less ... an alternative is possible.”

Tommy Sheridan from the Scottish Socialist Party presented solidarity greetings from the SSP. The Scottish MP began with the observation that “our basic challenge is to lead large sections of the working class”, so “wouldn't it be important that we unite ourselves first!”. Referring to the Labour government's justification for the introduction of up-front university fees, Sheridan declared: “Funding crisis? What funding crisis? If we can spend £27 billion on nuclear weapons we can afford free education.”

We must “build a movement that doesn't declare war on six countries in six years, as New Labour has done, but a war on poverty and inequality”, Sheridan told the meeting. “We must do as much as it takes” to achieve that.

Ken Loach, the renowned film director, pointed to the lack of democratic representation for working people. “We must prove finally that we can establish a real left unity coalition that becomes a party and finally sees us to victory”, he added.

Anis Altikriti, speaking on behalf of the Muslim Association of Britain, said that while the association would not join any political party, it would encourage its supporters to support and join RESPECT. Selma Yaupon, from the Birmingham Stop the War coalition, spoke of the importance of organising to stop the racist British National in the streets and at the polls. As things are, people “can only choose the parties of business and bombs, the Conservatives and Labour…We have to fill the vacuum on the left”.

The Socialist Alliance in Australia sent solidarity greetings to the conference, which were read out by the chairperson to loud applause. It read in part: “Like you, we face a government enthusiastically committed to supporting George Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like you, we face a government committed to a neoliberal war on its own people — workers, students and asylum seekers. And like you, we have learnt that the left can best measure up to its urgent task of providing a credible and strong alternative if we work together, creating a strong and united force. Human need, not warmongers' greed! Workers of the world, unite!”

Gennaro Migliore, international secretary of Italy's Rifondazione Comunista, reminded participants that “capitalism brings war like the clouds bring us rain” and described the foundation of RESPECT as a step forward for the world movement for radical change.

In debate, various amendments to the draft declaration were proposed. Most sought to make the declaration more explicitly socialist or revolutionary, or add greater detail on specific. Several were referred to the incoming steering committee for consideration. The rest were voted down after hearing a speaker for and a speaker against.

The consistent argument put by those opposing the amendments was that RESPECT needs to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. As Lindsay German — a Socialist Worker's Party and Stop the War Coalition leader — put it, to “break out of the small rooms and work together [in order to] reach out to different layers as well as the traditional left”. This means “we have to be anti-New Labour government, not anti-Labour supporters”.

The most controversial amendment put was that RESPECT's elected representatives should only accept the equivalent of an average worker's wage. This motion was lost.

The draft declaration was accepted overwhelmingly by the convention. An interim steering committee of 18 members was elected. It will oversee the coalition until after the June 10 European and local elections, when a conference to discuss organisational issues in a more detailed manner will be called.

During one of the open discussion sessions, Hannah Sell from the Socialist Party, one of only two significant Marxist tendencies in Britain that have not yet supported RESPECT, spoke on the Socialist Party's agreement on the need for left unity and a new mass workers' party. However, despite negotiations with the founders of the coalition, she said her party felt it was too early to offer support due to the coalition's lack of clear democratic procedures. However, the Socialist Party will attend RESPECT's elected steering committee as an invited observer.

The other tendency not to come on board was the Communist Party of Britain, which publishes the widely read daily Morning Star newspaper. At a special conference just before the RESPECT convention, the CPB reaffirmed its long-standing position that the way forward for the left is to reclaim the Labour Party. Despite this, the Morning Star encouraged its readers to attend the convention and to help build RESPECT.

John Rees, a SWP and Stop the War Coalition leader, and George Galloway closed the conference. Rees succinctly summed up the politics of the convention when he said, “We fought for the declaration and voted against some things we believe in because, while the people here are important, they are not as important as the millions out there. We are reaching to people locked out of politics. We voted for what they want.”

Galloway added: “John Rees and I have spent our political lives on different sides of the same argument, and I don't take it back. [But now] we live in new conditions and the things that divided us are no longer important or no longer exist. We still exist and it is our duty as socialists to unite with each other in support of our ideas.”

He finished with a call to raise £1 million for the elections. “Go back and begin to build RESPECT!”, he urged.

From Green Left Weekly, February 11, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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