Friday, November 02, 2007

It Wuz Broon Wot Dun It

We're tagged, they're split

Do you want to try and explain what is currently going on in the current Respect Galloway/SWP fall out? Quick, hurry up and post otherwise there'll be a new post at the Socialist Unity Blog or Dave's Part or Liam Mac Uaid or . . . or . . . from that bloke in Manchester to both up the ante and to contradict what everyone else has been saying in the previous 15 minutes. (Even Lenny's climbed down from his pole to opine again and again.)

The best I can do for myself at this moment in time is to post once again the tags of the main blogging participants, and maybe a few months down the line some sort of sense can be gleaned from them all:

  • Socialist Unity Blog
  • Liam Mac Uaid's Blog
  • Dave's Part
  • Neil William's Respect Supporters Blog
  • Lenny's Punchlines
  • Splintered Sunrise Blog
  • I'm sure there are other sources worth checking out, but it's difficult enough to keep up with the blogs listed above.

    As a funny aside it's patently obvious that the Weekly Worker/CPGB crowd are seriously pissed off with the fact that their niche has been temporarily stolen by various blogs covering these unfolding events. One of their members who regularly posts on UK Left Network recently came over the wrong side of peevishness with the one liner: 'The Socialist Unity Blog is for Christmas, the Weekly Worker is for life'. I think what he meant to write was 'Weekly Worker is for five minutes on a Thursday, Socialist Unity Blog is for every day.' It's all good stuff.

    PS - What's the post title all about?

    I can't remember on which blog I read it, but I think a particular commentator on the current car crash hit the nail on the head when s/he wrote that what precipitated this bust up between Galloway and the SWP was the fact that Galloway - like the rest of the political class - was expecting Brown to call a snap General Election this autumn and he was seeking to correct what he considered were organisational deficiencies in time for that election.

    Remember it is/was Galloway's intention to stand against Labour's Jim Fitzpatrick in Poplar & Limehouse, and there was an outside chance that Respect could retain the seat Galloway was vacating in Bethnal Green and Bow. Add into the mix the strong possibility that Salma Yaqoob could win a parliamentary seat in Birmingham, and we are talking about big stakes on the fringes of British politics.

    If the General Election had been called as expected, compromises would have been reached in the fullness of time for the campaign to be fought by a united Respect. By Brown not calling the election as expected, tensions and contradictions that had always existed between Galloway and the SWP in their mutually beneficial lash up have come up for air and there wasn't a readily available external enemy to smother them out.

    1 comment:

    Will said...

    Funny as fuck:

    http://www.respectcoalition.org/?ite=1622
    Locks changed on Respect office
    03/11/2007

    Respect has been locked out of its head office.

    Overnight the locks were changed on the Respect national office. This action excludes most National Officers, the national office staff and the majority of Respect members who support them from their own organisation's headquarters.

    In recent days Respect branches all around the country have overwhelmingly voted in favour of the Respect conference going ahead. This coup is obviously meant to prevent democratic debate continuing in Respect and to rob the membership of their own organisation.

    The immediate effect of this action is to prevent Respect from intervening effectively in today's NHS demonstration.

    The Respect coalition nationally pays over half the rent, rates and bills of the office which is shared with the constituency party.

    We call on all Respect members to demand Linda Smith, the chair of Respect, and George Galloway reverse this disastrous course of action.

    Please protest to gallowayg@parliament.uk, lindablackpool@hotmail.com

    Please send a copy of your protest to office@respectcoalition.org


    Yours in *solidarity*,

    John Rees, National Secretary
    Elaine Graham Leigh, National Treasurer
    Councillor Oli Rahman, Tower Hamlets
    Councillor Michael Lavelette, Preston