Report On SWP Confeence: Lindsay German Selected As Candidate For GLA!

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Wednesday January 30, 2008 15:21

by Peter Manson

One of the more bizarre claims made at the SWP UK Conference was that Lindsay German would be elected to the Greater London Assembly. The report below covers the conference and pre-conference discussions. More at the url.

Respect is alive and well, and the politics we pursued proved to be correct. That is the pathetic message the SWP leaders want people, including their own members, to believe. Yes, John Rees, Lindsey German, Alex Callinicos, Chris Bambery and Martin Smith treat the working class with barely concealed contempt. Under their post-Tony Cliff regime the SWP has not only adopted Joseph’s Stalin’s popular front politics, but also the same utterly cynical attitude towards the truth. SWP conferences are run along Stalinist lines too. Socialist Worker boasts of the January 5-6 gathering: “An overwhelming majority supported the way the party had conducted itself during the Respect crisis” (January 12).

The oppositionists raised their voices only once the leadership decided that Respect was a dead end and provoked a split with Galloway. The oppositionists politics were those of Respect. Their rebellion was bureaucratic and narrow, but it resulted in the expulsions of Rob Hoveman, Nick Wrack and Kevin Ovenden, and the resignation of dozens more. Instead of having a no-holds-barred fight at conference, John Rees decided that the best tactic was to pose left and go for a pre-emptive strike in order to smother debate.

Though we have not the slightest political sympathy for Hoveman, Wrack, Ovenden and co, we opposed their expulsions. If a principled left is going to emerge in the SWP it needs the space to fully think things through. It needs open, democratic debate.

When Rees told delegates that German was in touching distance of success, she looked more than a little abashed. Everyone, knows that she does not have a chance in hell. Even if we were to assume that Respect-SWP, rather than Respect Renewal (the Galloway split), won the legal right to the name, where would the votes come from? In 2004 a united organisation won support from the (mainly Bengali) muslim areas of east London, thanks to the mobilising power of Galloway and the patriarchal network of businessmen and ‘community leaders’. That support has now been switched off like a tap.

Comments (1 of 1)

Respect: what’s in a name?

by John Cornford

Fri Feb 08, 2008 15:51

The farce continues, JIm Moody reports on the latest shennagins by the SWP as they desperately atempt to hold on to the Respect brand.

Lies and more lies. The SWP continues to mislead its own members, not to mention the working class, about its Respect rump. On January 31 Respect-SWP held a selection conference for the Greater London Authority elections, but SWP leaders failed to point out that standing under the Respect name is going to be impossible. Rallying the troops was never more mendacious nor, as it happened, more unsuccessful.

While all indicators - and, in particular, the Respect Renewal leaders - suggest that Respect-SWP will be unable to use the Respect name in the GLA elections, Lindsey German feigned confidence in the opposing view - since the electoral commission is “not taking a position” on the question of who can or cannot use the name, there was no reason why an agreement could not be reached with Galloway. Why not let him stand as ‘Respect Renewal’, leaving the SWP to use something like ‘Respect - People Before Profit’ in the elections?

But the electoral commission also confirmed that ownership of the name is registered with Linda Smith of Respect Renewal, and why on earth would she or Galloway help get the SWP out of a hole by letting it use the name? Especially as he will be trying to maximise support for his own GLA slate.