Die Neue Zeit
12th January 2010, 02:39
I have said before that RESPECT in the UK was a thoroughly class-collaborationist, "unpopular popular front" left formation. However, that was probably most applicable to the time when the SWP involved, pushing aggressively for cozying up to political Islam via Islamist clerics and Muslim businessmen (it's not the "Muslim" part that's worrisome, of course).
Not much has been said of that organization since the SWP departure, other than Galloway's opportunism and buffoonery. Last November, it held its party conference:
http://www.revleft.com/vb/respects-annual-conference-t123011/index.html
What is RESPECT up to these days beyond what it resolved to do in its conference? What potential does it have to become "The Left Party" for the UK and have policy alternatives to even the Labour left? What potential does it have to link up with the rest of the European left via, among other things, the EUL-NGL headed by Die Linke's Lothar Bisky? What potential does it have to declare solidarity with British Muslims but on the basis of something other than identity politics (perhaps Islamic banking)? What potential does it have to make known that trade union movement /= worker movement? [Perhaps by calling for the wholesale absorption of all private-sector collective bargaining - and thus most of the organizational structure of the Trades Union Congress - into free legal services by independent government agencies acting in good faith]
Not much has been said of that organization since the SWP departure, other than Galloway's opportunism and buffoonery. Last November, it held its party conference:
http://www.revleft.com/vb/respects-annual-conference-t123011/index.html
What is RESPECT up to these days beyond what it resolved to do in its conference? What potential does it have to become "The Left Party" for the UK and have policy alternatives to even the Labour left? What potential does it have to link up with the rest of the European left via, among other things, the EUL-NGL headed by Die Linke's Lothar Bisky? What potential does it have to declare solidarity with British Muslims but on the basis of something other than identity politics (perhaps Islamic banking)? What potential does it have to make known that trade union movement /= worker movement? [Perhaps by calling for the wholesale absorption of all private-sector collective bargaining - and thus most of the organizational structure of the Trades Union Congress - into free legal services by independent government agencies acting in good faith]