An Appeal to Respect Members
24 October 2007
There is a crisis in Respect and we are appealing to you to help us resolve it. Please read this appeal and show your support by signing it.
There is now overwhelming evidence that the democratic structures of Respect are being circumvented and marginalised. Some national officers are attempting to unilaterally by-pass the existing democratic structures of Respect and to witch-hunt socialists including the SWP.
In order to justify this, accusations are being made that the national officers group is dominated by the SWP when only 7 of its 16 members are in the SWP. It should be also be noted that the National Council of Respect is composed of 50 members only a minority of whom are members of the SWP.
There are attempts being made by some national officers to refuse Student Respect groups any representation at the national conference on the same basis as they were elected last year despite the decision by the national officers earlier this year that Student Respect groups would be allowed to elect delegates to conference.
In Tower Hamlets hundreds of new members have been registered in the last month, many of them in huge batches brought to office by a small number of individuals and virtually all at the concessionary membership rate. The decisions of a properly constituted branch meeting has been overturned by a margin of just one vote on the Tower Hamlets committee, attempts have been made to dismiss elected officers and a witch hunt of the left has begun.
In other places members’ meetings are being called without informing the existing officers and SWP members are being excluded from them.
Even more seriously there is a campaign of vilification of the left in Respect that can only result in Respect’s destruction as a serious left wing force.
We call on Respect members to demand that the forthcoming national conference call a halt to this campaign and re-establish the democratic culture of Respect. We call on all members to stand together in defence of Respect as a democratic, radical left wing project capable of mounting a principled challenge to New Labour.
Councillor Oli Rahman (Tower Hamlets)
Councillor Rania Khan (Tower Hamlets)
Councillor Lutfa Begum (Tower Hamlets)
Councillor Ahmed Hussain (Tower Hamlets)
Councillor Michael Lavalette (Preston)
Councillor Ray Holmes (Bolsover)
Elaine Graham-Leigh (National Treasurer)
John Rees (National Secretary)
Sait Akgul (National Officer)
Helen Salmon (National Council member)
Jackie Turner (National Council member)
Dominic Alexander (Tottenham Respect)
Lindsey German (Respect London Mayoral candidate)
Chris Bambery (National Council member)
Jeannie Robinson (National Council, Chesterfield)
Tony Dowling (National Council, Newcastle)
Paul Fredericks (GLA candidate)
Carmel Brown (National Committee, Liverpool)
Mehdi Hassan (National Council, Tower Hamlets)
Maxine Bowler (National Council, Sheffield)
The appeal has been signed by an additional 1,139 people