This is a complete Socialist Alliance/SWP stitch up. The extent of the stitch up is so severe that they are even reduced to pretending that Lindsey German is not SWP so as to massage the extent of the hijack.

Anyone else know the real background of the others so that the true extent of this hijacking and stitch-up can be correctly ascertained.

National Executive of RESPECT

George Galloway MP

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS

Ken Loach, film director

Lindsey German, convenor of the Stop the War Coalition

Nick Wrack, chair of the Socialist Alliance

Salma Yaqoob, chair of Birmingham STW Coalition

Linda Smith, treasurer London Fire Brigades Union

John Rees, SWP and co-founder of the Stop the War Coalition

Dr. Siddique, leader of the Muslim parliament

Michael Lavallette, Preston Socialist Alliance councillor

John Nicholson, former deputy leader Manchester City Council

Shaheedah Vawda, Just Peace

Chris Bambery, SWP

Dr. Mohammed Naseem, Birmingham Central Mosque

Clive Protheroe, South Wales Brigade Secretary, FBU

Shelley Margetson, Socialist Alliance treasurer

Sait Akgul, Kurdish activist

Alan Thornett, Socialist Alliance trade union officer

You're saying George Galloway, the Fire Brigades Union and Islam are all SWP fronts?

Wow, they really are well on the way to running the world...

You neatly side-stepped up the SA part of the equation. At least 7 out of 18 SA/SWP. This doesn't even come close to a Unity Coalition which RESPECTS the diverse nature of the left/green/anarchist political landscape.

Wot you lot BOTH missed is the fact that this "executive" is meant to exist only as long as it takes for an elected one to be sorted out.

If you want the coalition to work then join up and vote for the sort of executive you want.

The only reason all this lot got on the interim committee in the first place was 'cos they spent the last year actually WORKING to launch the coalition in the first place, rather than posting to IMC whinging about the SWP.

I sincerely hope this doesn't end up an SWP front and that it becomes a truly open and democratic movement.

The best way to do this is not to WHINE and PICK HOLES but to get involved and ensure that it DEVELOPS the way 'we' want it to.

Stop just whinging. The SWP will always be with us. Get over it.

To be fair, would anarchists want to be included in an electoral coalition?

Also I heard the Green Party were invited to join this thing but said no?

Hello 'ear of the monkey'. If you are at all representative of those already inside the 'coalition' then I definitely wont be joining. To call people 'sectarian wankers' because they want to see a *genuinely* diverse coalition, not a stitch-up, is bullying and infantile double-speak at it's most extreme.

"To call people 'sectarian wankers' because they want to see a *genuinely* diverse coalition, not a stitch-up, is bullying and infantile double-speak at it's most extreme."

Um. I didn't. The title of the post was merely an eyecatching pun on Socialist Worker. Duh.

If you actually read what I wrote, you'd see that I was BEGGING for people like you to GET INVOLVED and stop the coalition from degenerating into an undemocratic SWP front.

Won't be bullied? Don't be paranoid. If you see 'bullies' everywhere no wonder you're too fearful to give the coalition a chance. And that's the point. We need to give it a CHANCE.

Are you sure you're not one of these people who likes voting until people vote against YOU?

My fear is that the party will be dominated by the SWP and a drive for an idealistic form of socialism which is not desirable and not practical. To ensure the new coalition is one which is both electable, practical and representative of the left it needs to be wholly inclusive of green memebers(eg friends of the earth, greenpeace), liberals and other left-thinking independents/groups as well as SA and trade union representatives. However, I was glad to see that the amendments put forward by the British Communist Party were unanimously rejected!

I joined the party at the convention and I would urge others who agree with the concept of the Unity Coalition to join. If we all didn't join because the majority of the executive are SWP/SA, then the Unity Coalition will indeed become a reincarnation of the SWP. If we are not in the party, then we can't expect our ideas/criticisms/concerns to be heard.

For far too long, the left has been dissected by different factions campaigning on single issues. At this moment in time the left faces a crisis in that we have no viable alternative to neo-labour, whom under the leadership of Tony Blair has unforgivably swung from the left to the centre-right.

If the Unity Coalition is to provide an viable alternative at the ballot box to Neo-Labour, then the left needs to consolidate and realise that in principle all the different factions share the same philosophy. That people should come before the drive for profit. The only thing the factions disagree on is where the priority lies, whether it is an environmental, economic or social issue.

The answer is to provide a sensible balance of the three arguements and ensure the left has a viable voice which is wholly representative and tackles the issue of business before people from all angles. That is why it is so important to have all factions of the left represented within the Unity Coalition.

Greens, Liberals and Socialists unite!



peace,

rmc :o)

Same old, same old. Left argueing with Left again. If that continues we just won't get anywhere. let's face it the Right are galvanised and if people simply see us as squabbling over the minutiae of policy then we hardly look like an electoral challenge.
Who cares who fronts the Respect coalition, the point is can we work within it to forge meaningful socialist politics, and if you feel the answer is no then my question is you got a better idea? I am sick to the back teeth of the in-fighting between the SWP the SP the CPB and the CPGB, Christ people we all want at the core the same thing we are far more close together than we are to Labour/Lib-dem/BNP/Conservative. You want the historical precedent of what we have become take Germany in the 1930s where the failure of the Left to unite led to the NSdAP election victory.
If you feel the Unity coalition is taking the wrong track then you have a duty to be involved to put your case forward and steer from within. If you stay sniping from without then I'm sorry but you marginalise Respect, you marginalise yourself and you do the workers of this and every country a diservice by rendering any opposition to the Capitalist system impotent before it has even started.
Wake up the Labour party is gone now we are back to the pre Keir Hardy days. Time for a new movement and let's see just what we can do to bring some humanity back to politics.

I assent utterly to Don's comments. The left fighting with itself is one of its least attractive characteristics. It bores the pants off me, frankly. Respect is about UNITY. It's exciting, and a genuine possibility.

I hope the Greens join us. Looking at their record of governance across Europe, I think they would risk being sucked into the system if they stood alone, or tried to coalesce with a mainstream reformist party. The liberal leadership of the Greens may look on us slightly awry, but the Respect Coalition is a genuinely radical move, and the best hope of uniting the left in decades.

the labour party. nye bevan, the welfare state, trades unionism, cnd, public housing, progressive taxation, equal rights, the cooperative movement, public ownership of the infrastructure, democratic socialism. it was and is a real mass movement. dont give it up. take it back from the blairite freaks.

there's something rather pointless in the recent attacks on the swp by many on the left as it means that a large percentage of the left will absent themselves from the movement just because the swp happens to be involed. The fact that the respect coalition will have to compete with the greens in the 10th june elections and that many good people and organisations will distance themselves from the movement is a sad indicment of the lefts inability to unite to fight our real enemy, global captialism and the leaders who support it.

p.s. there is no plan for world domination by the swp, if there is any doiminating within the left it is usually the communist parties who pratice it.

I am not a member of the SWP, and I fully appreciate those who can see the negative aspects of its organisational structure. I am, however, a member of Respect. I watched this movement from the beginning, weighed up its pro's and cons, and finally decided to throw caution to the wind and join it. I know full well that the SWP are centrally involved. But I also know that this is our last best chance for left-unity for the forseeable future. With the Muslim Association of Britain and the Muslim Parliament involved, we have a great chance to merge two huge progressive movements, that of liberal Islam, and socialistic trade-unionism together for true change. I'm glad too of the CPGB's involvement, providing critical support to Respect, joining the coalition whilst regarding the SWP with caution. And now that the RMT branches are beginning to affiliate to Respect and Labour councillors are defecting to it, the coalition is, I believe, shaping up to be inclusive, broad based and democratic. We need people like us to join to ensure that. We have to grab the aftermath of the anti-war movement by the horns. I didn't join hundreds of thousands of people possessed of a moral conscience on almost every anti-war demo since September 11th just to see Blair escape unscathed. If the crises in the Middle East are to be equated to Taff Vale, then it is time to forge a new labour movement (as opposed to a New Labour movement!) We really do only have one shot at this, let us make it count! It is time to put aside divisions and unite. We are all striving for the same basic goals after all! Let us realise our collective goals and let us make a difference, together....

-Salman Shaheen