RESPECT The Unity Coalition
RESPECT The Unity Coalition is a left-wing electoral coalition founded on 25 January 2004 in London. RESPECT is both an recursive acronym and a backronym, having been adopted before the words it supposedly stands for were agreed. It officially stands for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade Unionism.
Composition
The main components of the coalition are George Galloway, a Member of Parliament expelled from the Labour Party, and the Socialist Workers Party, together with some leading figures from the Muslim Association of Britain. Few trade unionists other than those linked with the SWP have joined the coalition, although Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union is a notable figure. The coalition also has the support of the national council of the Socialist Alliance, the International Socialist Group and the CPGB. RESPECT co-initiator George Monbiot, a left-liberal anti-globalisation writer, resigned from RESPECT before its launch, apparently because RESPECT intended to stand against existing Green Party MEPs, although RESPECT had offered to form a pact with the Green Party to stand down in each others' favour, something that was rejected by the Greens.
According to the register of political parties, its leader is Nick Wrack, and its nominating officer and treasurer is Linda Smith.
Left-wing critics of RESPECT claim that it is undemocratic and has an overly London-centric, top-down approach, its programme having been created largely by negotiations between the SWP and George Galloway. RESPECT has countered this claim by stating that RESPECT was formed as an "emergency response" to the June 10 European and local elections, and that a full constitution would be developed shortly afterwards.
Other criticisms have been levelled at George Galloway's refusal to accept an average worker's wage (Galloway previously claimed he needs £150,000 a year to "function in politics" - The Scotsman, 19 May 2003), 'divisive' targeting of the Muslim vote, and the lack of distinctively socialist policies such as supporting "no borders" or abolition of the British monarchy. RESPECT claims that in order to engage wider forces, it is necessary to have debates on these issues inside the grouping after its creation. The idea has been to avoid the normal position of left-wing groups, which is to focus on division, instead focussing on the areas of agreement.
History and electoral performance
The coalition hoped to provide a left-wing challenge to Tony Blair at the London Assembly and European elections in 2004, primarily by capitalising on the 2003 anti-war protests, and by attracting 'Old Labour' supporters who feel Blair has moved the party too far to the right of their socialist beliefs.
The coalition has so far not stood in Scotland or Northern Ireland. In the former, where Galloway was registered to vote, he announced that he was voting for the Scottish Socialist Party despite traditional antipathy between the two.
RESPECT candidate Lindsey German came fifth in the Mayoral election, beating the BNP and the Green Party. Its largest constituency vote in the assembly elections was in City and East London, where it picked up 13.46%, beating the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. It got 4.57% of the London-wide vote, missing out on a seat by around 0.5%.
In their first UK European elections, also in 2004, RESPECT's proportion of the national vote was 1.7%. They failed to win any seats. Their best result was in London itself, with a relatively strong 4.8%, and worst in Wales and the South West with 0.6% and 0.7% respectively. Their strongest borough was Newham, London with 21.41% of the vote. RESPECT finished behind the Green Party in every region where both ran, and behind the BNP everywhere but London. However, in Tower Hamlets, RESPECT received more votes than any other party.
The party did very well (for a fourth party) at the Birmingham Hodge Hill and Leicester South by-elections in 2004, with 6.3% and 12.7% of the vote respectively — enough to retain its deposit in both seats.
It won its first election on 29 July 2004 when it won a ward from Labour in Tower Hamlets. The election was called after a Labour councillor was expelled for alleged corruption.
The area is one of the poorest in the UK, and was the subject of a "New Deal for Communities" initiative, in which large sums of governmnent money is pumped in to the area. However, the project was a total failure, with the money being spent on consultants and private companies that went bankrupt. The "New Deal" was a key issue in the election, and was thought to have played a large part in RESPECT's success. Labour came third in the election, despite flooding the area with activists, MPs and councillors. At an election post-mortem, local Labour activists expressed anger that Labour Party head office had instructed local MPs to campaign. Both of the area's local MPs had been in favour of the war on Iraq even though the local population was over 90% against it. Labour activists felt that sending pro-war MPs into an anti-war area was a big mistake.
Policies
Policies campaigned on by RESPECT, as of 2004 (from the RESPECT website'):
- An end to the war and occupation in Iraq. We will not join any further imperialist wars.
- An end to all privatisation and the bringing back into democratic public ownership of the railways and other public services.
- An education system that is not dependent on the ability to pay, that is comprehensive and gives an equal chance in life to every child no matter how wealthy or poor their parents, from nursery to university.
- A publicly owned and funded, democratically controlled NHS, free to all users.
- Pensions that are linked to average earnings.
- Raising the minimum wage to the European Decency Threshold of £7.40 an hour.
- Tax the rich to fund welfare and to close the growing gap between the poor and the wealthy few.
- The repeal of the Tory anti-union laws.
- Opposition to all forms of discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs (or lack of them), sexual orientation, disabilities, national origin or citizenship.
- The right to self-determination of every individual in relation to their religious (or non-religious) beliefs, as well as sexual choices.
- The defence of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Opposition to the European Union's 'Fortress Europe' policies.
- We will strongly oppose the anti-European xenophobic right wing in any Euro referendum. But we oppose the 'stability pact' that the European Union seeks to impose on all those who join the euro. This pact would outlaw government deficit spending and reinforce the drive to privatise and deregulate the economy and we will therefore vote 'No' in any referendum on this issue.
- Support for the people of Palestine and opposition to the apartheid system that oppresses them.
- An end to the destruction of the environment by states and corporations for whom profit is more important than sustaining the natural world on which all life depends.
- A maximum fare of £1 to travel on the London Underground and buses, and that the underground should be available 24 hours per day
The RESPECT coalition has been confused with London's anti-racist music festival of the same name, although this wasn't really seen as a problem until London's mayor Ken Livingstone threatening to sue RESPECT unless it changed its name. The Greater London Authority has registered 'Respect' as a trademark name for political lobbying organisations.
See also
