Lets talk about RESPECT. The future for the left - or a coalition with Reactionaries?

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday August 04, 2004 18:13 by Conor - SAucd

In the Past few months, The British SWP/IST has taken the unprecedented step of rejecting Secularism

In the Past few months, The British SWP/IST has taken the unprecedented step of rejecting its core Secular Revolutionary Socialist principals, and traded them off for electoral success by entering a coalition with religious reactionaries.

In a Move that even the revisionist/opportunist NewLabour would find a step too far to the right, the SWP has decided to set up the “respect coalition” with the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB)

Billed as a “mass, left alternative to New Labour” Respect made some gains in the local by-elections in Britain recently. Although reasonably impressive in electoral terms, the gains are at the expense of a clear move to the right. Far from beating Blair by revolutionary means, the SWP are entering his game on his terms.

As the SWP would see it, RESPECT is the revolutionary thorn in Blair’s side. After 10 Years of New Labour, they decided against the multitude of Socialist and progressive alliances available, and instead decided on a coalition with a group who see homosexuality as a “sexual perversion”.

The MAB identifies unambiguously with the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a moderate, reformist, Islamic party, which builds its upfront public profile around welfare and religious education. It is no surprise that it should use writers like Pilger, Fisk and Ritter to give itself a plausible public face. Its basic politics are, however, the same as those of the shriller fundamentalists: the overthrow of secularism, democracy and women’s rights, and the introduction of a state run under Islamic law.

An article in its “Inspire” freesheet explains a little of what the MAB understand by an Islamic state. In their ideal state, a person who “chooses not to embrace Islam” may have the right to be a citizen, but only if they “express loyalty to the state and recognise its legitimacy so that he or she does not engage in any activity that may be construed as threatening to its order”. Even then that person’s citizenship is “qualified”, “and such qualification is only lifted when the concerned person embraces Islam”. Lenin would be proud.

At the front of the RESPECT charge for reformist-capitalist-parliamentary victory is former Labour member and long time charlatan, MP George Galloway. Not one to Shy away from the pro Saddam rhetoric, and a fan of violent Iraqi insurgents who are “giving them [the American Occupiers] a bloody good hiding all over the country”, Galloway has long been a discrediting force to be reckoned with on the left. His relationship with Saddam is just one part of this mans singular brutality – his critique of the Green party descended to the intellectual depths of "I don't call them the Greens - I call them the Whites - if you look at their list [of candidates] you see middle class whites”.

In 1994 he visited his old friend in Baghdad and said “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability"

When not discussing the aesthetic qualities of red top busses, or eating Quality Street chocolates with Saddam, George can be heard trumpeting on about how much he admired Stalin “I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life” a gift to the Right, if ever there was one.

No-one doubts the problems faced on a daily basis by Muslims and other Minority groups in Britain, but the role the left should play in such matters should not extend into embracing a reactionary group, their policies, politics, and eventually their partnership in a political Coalition. The MAB are a reactionary group. The left should not consider it an ally.

Who would think that the SWP would loose the Revolutionary AND the Socialist tag in one, quick year. In RESPECT, the IST/SWP have paired off with the MAB, a former journalist for the most reactionary of papers, and "gorgeous" George.

Do the Irish IST/SWP support the move to the right & RESPECT? Or will they finally outthink their financial masters in Britain? The answers are unknown, because the Irish SWP has been strangely quiet in explaining themselves. I hope they will now.

http://www.mabonline.info/english/
http://www.respectcoalition.org/
http://www.istendency.net/
http://www.swp.org.uk/
http://www.swp.ie/