Respect: Going Back to the Future

The founder of the British Socialist Workers Party, Tony Cliff, when asked about the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the U.S.S.R), used to make the point that it was 'Four words - Four lies'*. In other words, it was not a 'Union' since Stalinist Russia controlled the satallite states around it in the manner of Imperial Russia, it was not 'Soviet' as there were no longer any Soviets (Workers' Councils) there, it was not 'Socialist' since the working class no longer had any democratic control over industry or society but instead bureaucratic state capitalist, and it was not a 'Republic' since the nominal leader (from Stalin onwards) had all the autocratic power of old Tsars (Emperors). Recently, it might seem that the 'Respect: the Unity Coalition' is in fact 'Three Words: Three lies' since its recent split - George Galloway's recent remarks about the SWP (describing us as 'Russian Dolls' and 'juvenile dwarves' while telling members in Tower Hamlets - including his former election agent to 'fuck off') certainly show a certain lack of 'Respect' and there sadly seems to be little possibility now of 'Unity' or 'Coalition' between the Gallowayites and the rest of Respect. Yet I would argue that what is left of the Respect Coalition - despite the departure of the Gallowayites - shows that, for all its weaknesses, it still remains the single best vehicle for uniting the left to build a socialist alternative to New Labour.

People can read reports of the recent Respect conference in Socialist Worker and on Lenin's Tomb, and since I was not at the conference I can add little to those very positive and excellent reports. What I want to do here is try to explain a little about why the split has taken place for readers of Histomat who are outside either Britain or Respect itself and are wondering what on earth is going on. My previous brief post on the issue may have made it seem all there was to it was George Galloway's ego, which is a superficial explanation and rather unsatisfactory from a Marxist point of view - which places the role of the individual within wider politics and society and places emphasis on social production and the collective power of social movements rather than the psychoanalysis of the personalities of politicians in order to explain social change. Only time will tell whether George Galloway is the new Robert Kilroy-Silk.

Indeed, and this is where my argument kind of starts, I think it is perhaps interesting to compare and contrast Galloway's 'Respect Renewal' project to Neil Kinnock's project of 'renewing Labour', a project which ultimately gave birth to 'New Labour'. Only in this case, obviously Galloway is trying to 'renew Respect' so that it becomes something like 'Old Labour' or what he would call 'real Labour'. This was, to be fair to him and others within Respect who also had/have this vision for Respect, a legitimate political project and one that could arguably have been worked for within the initial Respect Coalition as formulated - which brought together both old Labourites like Galloway alongside revolutionaries like the SWP to work to build a left alternative. And indeed, there are no doubt still people within the Respect coalition who have this vision for Respect who I hope still feel able and happy to work for it within Respect. But the point was, that the Respect Coalition was precisely that - a coalition with people with different visions for what Respect should become. For Galloway, the hope was to build up another Labour Party to replace the hideous rotting putrid fungoid bureaucratic lump which bears the indelible stain of dead children from Iraq and Afghanistan and which still goes under the name of the Labour Party despite its open support for neo-liberalism and imperialism.

There were also of course those of us within Respect like the SWP which had a different vision for Respect - for us 'Labourism' (and to be frank 'Parliamentary Socialism' in general) as a political tradition was bankrupt and indeed an historic obstacle to the development of a militant working class culture within Britain - and we hoped that the development of Respect could help to undermine the power of Labourism over the British working class movement by giving militants and socialists an alternative political home to the rather unsatisfactory 'home' offered by the powerless Labour Left since the demise of Bennism. But the important thing to remember was that Respect did succeed in bringing together people despite their alternative strategic visions for the future on the key issues - opposition to the 'war on terror', opposition to the rise in racism and Islamophobia that war set in motion, and opposition to the corporate takeover of Britain and the world that neo-liberalism represents. That unity was of course forged through struggle in building the anti-war movement in Britain around the Stop the War Coalition, a unity which remains as important as ever as Brown eyes up war on Iran (or failing that perhaps war in somewhere like Sudan) to try and restore the prestige and glory of British imperial power (sorry of 'Western humanitarian intervention') after the catastrophic disaster of Iraq.

What went wrong?

Historians of the future will no doubt argue long and hard about exactly why this unity within Respect broke down, and I don't want to attempt a full analysis of this - which will bore many readers of Histomat - even if such a full analysis is even possible at this stage. However, as Dave Renton pointed out to me, the split essentially took happened in three places - Tower Hamlets, Birmingham, and on the National Council of Respect itself. One might want to add a fourth place where the split took place - the blogosphere - where there was also a split among the blogs which supported Respect - and now noisy pro-Galloway blogs continue to pump out their propaganda like there is no tomorrow.

Perhaps the decision of Gordon Brown to move towards calling an early General Election in August this year prompted Galloway, fearful of losing his Parliamentary seat, to attack the SWP so that should he lose he would be able to have a scapegoat to blame - if he had not made some sort of criticism against the SWP before he lost then any attack post election would seem rather weak. We can only speculate about Galloway's 'thinking'. Nevertheless, once he made his attack on the SWP he decided to use it as part of a wider attempt to shift Respect decisively onto the road of 'renewal' - ie to turn Respect from a Coalition of reformists and revolutionaries into an openly reformist Party on the Labour Party mould. Just as Neil Kinnock when 'renewing Labour' decided to purge the Labour Party of the Militant Tendency so Galloway decided to try and do the same - at least in the few areas of the country where this might be possible thanks to recent electoral success - Tower Hamlets and Birmingham and there was a significant block of 'others' who might be his allies. This witch-hunt was necessary as the apparent problem with Respect for Galloway was that SWP support was seen as an electoral liability and apparently Respect was seen as too 'socialist' - exactly the same kind of arguments used by Kinnock of course when purging Labour of Militant.

Galloway's problem of course was that the SWP in Respect was rather more significant in both size and influence than the Militant Tendency was in the Labour Party in the 1980s. This is why Galloway's 'witch-hunt' never really got off the ground - there was very little material base for it within Respect. For example, where I am in Leeds, the number of potential supporters for a witch-hunt of the SWP is well, pretty close to zero. I doubt whether anyone seriously thinks Respect in Leeds would be viable or possible without the SWP - to put it bluntly. This is why the Gallowayite blogs continually scream that they are not involved in 'witch-hunting' the SWP - yet just because the witch-hunt has very little support within Respect doesn't mean that essentially it is still that - a witch-hunt.

When Galloway realised that his witch-hunt had failed - and that he would not be able to win a vote for expelling or removing SWP members from leading positions within Respect democratically at national conference - he had one option left - which he has taken. To split his supporters off into a separate organisation where they can try and relate to the desire for a left of Labour political organisation in Britain without the SWP. Instead of the need for sizeable numbers of rank and file activists and the labour movement norms of democracy, Galloway's 'Respect Renewal' project will be built as 'New Labour' was built - from above - using the mass media, spin doctors, celebrity supporters, rich backers, etc etc. If the development of New Labour was tragedy - then the development of 'Respect Renewal' truly is farce - this is indeed the Eighteenth Brumaire of George Galloway!

The future

Fortunately - what is now 'Old Respect' or 'real Respect' does have not only a future - but more of a future than 'Old Labour' seems to be having at the moment. People are tired of Brown's 'Labour Party Capitalist Britain', they desperately want an alternative which fights for the things that Respect stands for - Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment, Community and Trade Unionism. The potential to build a grassroots democratic socialist alternative to Labourism in Britain from the bottom-up, which bases itself on the mass movement and whose elected representatives never try to rise above that movement for the purposes of making a political or media 'career', is greater than ever. Respect to Respect!

*A pedantic point I know, but an anarchist once told me that the phrase originated not with Cliff but with Cornelius Castoriadis. This is highly possible, but I do not know one way or another - if any readers know more about this then please clear up this matter of undoubtedly burning relevance for the contemporary international working class movement.

**Ever since the days of norse mythology, dwarves have had a place in in the literary imagination of some, and is it now possible that the term 'juvenile dwarf' might replace the [quasi-racist] term 'political pygmy' as a derogatory term for one's opponent in political discourse? Quite why first pygmies and now young dwarves deserve being invoked in this manner is however another question...

Edited to add: Witches and Russian Dolls: The Crisis in Respect