The Respect coalition is in crisis!
Uncle Joe | 22.09.2007 04:28 | Analysis | Workers' Movements | London
Far be it from Uncle Joe to gloat, but I have to say that you heard it here on Indymedia first, a good 21 months before Newsnight got hold of the story.
Here is Uncle Joe's exclusive report on Indymedia 21 months ago:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/12/330656.html
Yet last night (Friday 21st September 2007), Newsnight reported the very same story!
Yes, they even interviewed Mark Fischer of the CPGB!
The Tripartite axis-of-evil consisting of Galloway, Islamic fundamentalism and the SWP appear to be scratching each others eyes out.
It remains to be seen what will come of this middle class feud, but it is really only of academic relevance to the lives of normal working class people.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/12/330656.html Yet last night (Friday 21st September 2007), Newsnight reported the very same story!
Yes, they even interviewed Mark Fischer of the CPGB!
The Tripartite axis-of-evil consisting of Galloway, Islamic fundamentalism and the SWP appear to be scratching each others eyes out.
It remains to be seen what will come of this middle class feud, but it is really only of academic relevance to the lives of normal working class people.
Uncle Joe
Comments
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What drives them?
22.09.2007 07:09
Now we know why they do it.
Is it really possible to construct a sentance with the words Galloway and Respect included? I guess only in the context of 'complete lack of..'
Rare Damsel
SWP also at breaking point
22.09.2007 10:12
I heard this from a reliable source who is semi-involved with the SWP.
Half the membership are kicking back hard against the parliamentry road SWP are going down as a result of the serios mismanagment and underachievment of RESPECT. The leadership have already shown their support for the parliamentry argument, however, they John Rhys, RESPECT chair and SWP head honcho is no longer on speaking terms with Galloway! SWP have called an emergency meeting happening today, in which regional delegates will have the matter clarified for them by the leadership. Whatever happens, this is a deeply divieded party, and splits are imminent in both SWP and RESPECT. Watch this space!
(A) Sab x
Yeah, yeah..
22.09.2007 14:59
New Labour, oops I mean CPGB, shit, I mean nobody
RESPECT
22.09.2007 15:07
Would someone be so kind as to explain what RESPECT actually stands for because the leaflets they seem to put through doors, seem to always bang on about Islamaphobia, Muslims, Islam and Terrorism.
They seem to forget that the world does exist outside of a Mosque and like the majority of people on Earth not all Muslims are rich, like those such as Salma Yaqoob in RESPECT and as for a Socialist Revolution led by the SWoP shop Party, they would have had more chance had they stayed in the Socialist Alliance, rather than being oppurtunistic and teaming up with a bunch of businessmen and a fat man in a leotard purring in the arms of Rula Lenska .
The RESPECT coalition was a farce to begin with and only really emerged after Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party, in an effort to save his career and not as a result of a genuine call for a break from the Labour Party.
As Galloway himself admits, RESPECT has virtually closed down in many areas and only comes out at election time, something on parr with a Halloween costume. A party in crisis, I don't think so, more like a party being killed off by over inflated egos, oppurtunism and an inward looking perspective.
outrageous infidel
You Miss the Point Uncle Joe Stalin
22.09.2007 21:07
Everybody and his granny who are highly critical of RESPECT have been talking about, predicting, hoping and praying that they go down the tubes since they were formed and went on to win their first local election campaign.
Most of these people are former left-wingers turned neoliberals who would hate to see a successful left wing party after they have derided and journeyed so far away from the real left – it would make them look stupid after saying there is no such thing as left and right wing these days..
I don’t know how long Uncle Joe predicted they would last 2 years ago because I haven’t read his article, but it appeared way after many of these former lefts, now anti-muslim, anti-trot, anti-Galloway, often anti-Palestinian too, sounded off their propaganda. One very good example of this type, David Arronovitch,, three years ago wrote in the Guardian ¨¨ I give 'em a year¨.[1]
I don’t know if Uncle Joe is just posing as a Stalinist, is a state propagandist, an eco-fundamentalist, or hates all election, but don’t you thing it would be a good thing I there were an alternative to voting for a neoliberal party, and building an extra parliamentary left that can challenge the status quo.
However, the SWP are still around and are a significant influence on the real left. With RESPECT they have been successful in electoral politics for the first time. You have to say, it has been a success, although limited in the bigger picture of electoral politics, very significant for a real left party, and the rest of real left. (The Socialist party was the first to get members elected to local councils. Anarachist in Oxford were also elected to local councils).
You have to realise that RESPECT are part of the regrouping process of the real left; they are not the new workers party. As was the Socialist Labour Party, on which the security services spent a lot of time and money destabilizing (You’d be good at that job Uncle Joe. Why don’t you take a wage for it, and do it covertly instead of overtly, or am I wrong.)
The new workers party will arrive, I am sure, probably with George as a member, along with the Socialist Party, former members of the Socialist Alliance, some non SWP members of RESPECT, RESPECT as an SWP faction, some not insignificant others, many high profile names, Ken Loach, Johnaton Coe, the Arctic Mon-key´s and other important cultural figures, and some trade union support too (And of course there´s there’s time for another comeback Arthur).
The Labour Party has left a vacuum for a new real left Party, since it began its journey to the right in the early 90´s. Its unconditional support of neoliberalism has become cultural, so it almost certainly wont return to its Socialist roots.
The vacuum will be filled – that’s for sure, comrades independent of the half life of RESPECT.
If you are reading this George - I´d put my mortgage on it if I had one that your not and are probably holed up in your Portugese villa watching the footy - come and stand in the Cotswolds and you,ve got my vote, comrade!
[1] Same old guff with an added ingredient: Guardian: Saturday June 5, 2004
Harold Hamlet
e-mail:
harold.hamlet@virgin.net
The swp..............
23.09.2007 23:50
Have you ever read the tiresome, nauseating, shit spewed out by Callinicos.
What a fucking freak.
It's almost as tiresome as listening to gyppo scum off council estates talk about jews because the queer Nick Griffin said so.
Far left, far right, thick as shit homosexuals.
Someone do them a favour.
And kill some pigs as well.
Uncle Joe
A Good Word The SWP
24.09.2007 08:18
I got to know the SWP some time ago. But it was in 1989, in Leamington Spa, when I shared a house with Raj Pal, a lovely, very intelligent, friendly man, and committed political activist, that I got a little closer to them.
The same could be said of his wife too, about whom I made a joke on a Web-Site called Harry’s Place - yes the Racist SWP, George Galloway, Gilad Atzmon, Islam, Palestinian hating Blogg, that disgusting coined the phrase "Brown Socialism¨
. Raj never quite got me to join the SWP although someone claims that I signed a membership card after a quit powerful and seducing speech by Tony Cliff at Marxism that year. In any case Raj didn’t really try to directly recruit me but gave the opportunity to, as were, decide myself to join.
But being too independent minded, in the sense of being vehemently anti-authoritarian combined with mistrust and inability to accept that anyone should tell me what to do, so I did not join this group, nor would have joined any group, at that time.
However the SWP did soften me up a little making me a little more amenable to joining a group or party. In fact they made me realise that you need to be part of something, some group, to make an affective contribution. Besides there is a positive feeling generated by being with comrades, fighting the same battle, and most importantly there is generated a collective strength that is far greater than the scalar of the individuals who make up the group.
I don’t know if the last comment above, the one that appears to be posted by Uncle Joe, will be removed. It’s difficult to believe that the same person wrote the leading post since the comment and the original post are so diametrically opposed, but I will quote it again here just in case the moderators delete it:
Begin quote:
' The swp..............
24.09.2007 00:50
.............are thick as shit.
Have you ever read the tiresome, nauseating, shit spewed out by Callinicos.
What a fucking freak.
It's almost as tiresome as listening to gyppo scum off council estates talk about Jews because the queer Nick Griffin said so.
Far left, far right, thick as shit homosexuals.
Someone do them a favour.
And kill some pigs as well.
Uncle Joe '
`
End quote ----
Well, what can you say: How charming! I felt a reply was necessary, and it may appear quite odd that I have to come to defend Alex Callinicos and the SWP, considering what my attitude appeared to be towards him/then some time ago. I choose the words´appeared to be` very carefully`.
You have to realise that the SWP are a democratic centralist party that works on the basis that it is a revolutionary party, with tight discipline, and that one of the primary aims is to increase the strength of the party, for obvious reasons. Much of what they do follows from this. They are in the mould of the Bolsheviks, who were quite successful, so what better model to follow? Love them or hate them, they have been around for a long time, and will probably go on being so, making a contribution, like they have done in the Stop the War campaign and to RESPECT as well.
However, as Alex Callinicos knows, the left has changed a lot since the end of the 80´s, so a different approach by his party might be more effective, although I don’t really know if that is true.
To paraphrase Noam Chomsky: he said he doesn’t really trust the Trotskyites. I am sure he didn’t mean to be insulting and dismissive, but meant, and it is what I too believe: if a Marxist Leninist Trotskyism Party like the SWP took power would it degenerate into a form of Stalinism again.
The SWP and other Trotskyism type parties should answer this question: it is a very legitimate one. I also feel this on the basis that I am not sure that I would trust myself given a great deal of power. I hope that they would leave the Anarchists alone, no matter how annoying they might be to an SWP type political project. And I would add that the anarchists have legitimate differences that should be tolerated by Trotskyites
My view is simple: the SWP or roughly similar would be loads better than the shower of shit we have as government now.
As for Alex Callinocos he has educated generations of Marxists, and some of his former students, have very kind words for him, and his ability to educate ain his Role as a professor.
He has published much, and his books on Marxist have inspired and help educate many individuals and organisations, from very pragmatic and successful IRA to young idealistic students at University. As well he is a fully engaged and committed activist and very loyal to his Party. This is indisputable and a matter of record.. I do not have the knowledge to say any more.
Yours
As ever
Harold Hamlet
[From the too True Adventures of Harold Hamlet and Ron: Everywhere and Nowhere]
Copy Left.
Harold Hamlet
e-mail:
harold.hamlet@virgin.net
GG and SWP have made up
24.09.2007 08:41
red letter
With respec' to red letter....
25.09.2007 00:08
I anticipated this turn of events, but given my evident ability to predict the future, I'm not worried by yopur optimistic bullshit.
You will begin to understand that Galloway is a grandstanding opportunist, and the SWP are middle class wannabe revolutionaries.
You really must try better.
After all, you can't get me banned here.
Uncle Joe
I Think I can see why you pulled my previous comment
03.10.2007 04:14
However, i would like to have the opportunity to re-iterate the point I wanted to make about the SWP: they and in particular Alex Calinicos are not the diabolas they are made out to be. Come on. he is not such a bad lad,
Harold Hamlet
e-mail:
harold.hamlet@virgn.net
Phoney baloney
16.11.2007 05:23
Given the gossipy, bitchy, infantile nature of the article and subsequent comments I thought I may as well add my bit. What kind of wankers and arseholes wet their pants about left wing groups running into the ground, obviously a bunch of phoneys who pretend they are workers or have some affinity with them by abusing others as middle class wankers.
I couldn't imagine a greater occupation for a middle class bore like Uncle Joe than to write on "indymedia' - I'm sure there lapping it up in factories across England arsewipe. Listen mate, slagging off others as middle class doesn't transform you into anything slightly relevant to working class people, but wank away in your own bubble 'Uncle Joe'.
Dave Latham
e-mail:
d_a_latham@hotmail.com
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