Respect – Unity Coalition Holds Meeting in Southall

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British Politics at the Crossroads:
Respect – Unity Coalition Holds Meeting in Southall

Following the founding of the Respect – The Unity Coalition on January 25, meetings have been held to mobilise people around its aims, give members of its steering committee the opportunity to address gatherings, as well as to encourage broad sections of the people to join in discussion to chart the way forward. In particular, preparations are being made to select candidates for the June 10 elections to the European Parliament, as well as the Greater London Assembly.

            One such meeting entitled British Politics at the Crossroads took place on Sunday, February 8, in Southall, West London.

            Welcoming the participants, the Chair Eve Turner of Ealing Trades Council (in a personal capacity) said that Respect had been set up to mount an electoral challenge to New Labour, reflecting the widespread concern at what the government was doing and appalled by the war against Iraq.   It had been set up to build and develop an alternative to New Labour.

            Nick Grant of Socialist Alliance, local Secretary of NUT, detailed among other things the devastating effects of government policy on local services.   He said Respect stood for Respect for equality, socialism, peace, the environment, community and trade unions.  

            Salvinder Singh Dhillon of People’s Empowerment Alliance said that the government hears only the voice of the big corporations and ignores the voice of the people.  It was the people who paid for the war against Iraq but only the corporations benefited.   Money could be found for war but not for education.  He said to loud acclaim that the main issue regarding Iraq was the violation of a country’s sovereignty.  He then spoke of the great problems faced by the different collectives in the local area – the youth, women, elderly, national minorities and others.   He emphasised the need to unite the collectives and empower them from below.  Politicians, he said, should be the servants of the people, selected from among their peers, subject to recall and accountable.  He said what was needed was not “representative democracy”, but democracy from below.

            Salma Yaqoob of Stop the War Coalition spoke of the rottenness of present-day politics, of the abuse of concepts such as democracy.   She said the government was rolling back services and should be described as Victorian Labour rather than New Labour.  Speaking of the government foreign policy she said that colonialism was not dead.   It continued under a false banner of freeing the people.  She said they were few but organised; we were many and getting organised!   Two million people marching may not have prevented war but without it Blair would not be in his present crisis.   She said that Respect was a natural progression from the protests against the war.   It was an alternative.

            George Galloway MP said that the government was turning back the clock.   The world’s people, having driven out the colonialists, now saw the same forces coming back under guise of liberators.  Imperialism, he said, meant stealing other people’s things.  This was what Bush was doing in Iraq.   He pointed out that Blair had gone to war five times in six years, more than any previous prime minister.   But, he said, we would not go back to the long night of colonialism!  He said that Respect stood for equal rights for all, both here and abroad.  He contrasted Tony Blair strutting the world so boastfully while all sections of the people faced devastating cutbacks and attacks on their rights.   He said it was important to choose Respect candidates for the June 10 EU and Greater London Authority elections to give people a choice between Blair’s policies of war and privatisation and a policy of peace, justice and equality.

            In the course of a lively discussion period an activist of RCPB(ML) applauded the spirit of the meeting and said politics in the country was certainly at a crossroads.  Labour had been elected in 1997 with many having high hopes, he said, but now disillusioned, not just with Tony Blair and New Labour but the whole political system.  He said that in building resistance to war a movement had grown to bring into being an alternative.   The people should select their own candidates to represent their interests.  Margaret Thatcher, he pointed out, as well as famously saying that there was no such thing as society had also declared There Is No Alternative.  Today people were proving that there can be an alternative system built from the ground up, an alternative to the party-dominated electoral system.  He suggested people should look beyond June 10 to the next General Election and further.   He said it was heartening to see that Respect was trying to build mechanisms to empower the people.   The basic problem today was that the people do not decide.  They must become the decision-makers!

            In rounding off the discussion the point was emphasised that Respect would not stand against local MPs who had taken an anti-war, anti-privatisation position.  A call was given to meet again on February 29 to choose local candidates for the June 10 elections and to support the national anti-war march on March 20.