[Individual-members-EL] Respectable politicians

[Francis King]

Hi Steve, hi all

"Respect" is one of the stranger phenomena in British left-wing politics. It started out as an amalgam of at least four quite distinct groupings: George Galloway and his personal following, the Socialist Workers' Party, a miscellany of politically homeless Trotskyists and ex-Trotskyists, and groups of left-wing and anti-war Muslims in certain specific areas of Britain's inner cities. The idea was to build a political party on the basis of the anti-war movement in Britain, but most of the anti-war movement was sceptical about it from the outset. It has now split in two. The SWP and some of the other Trotskyists have broken with Galloway and his supporters, and now we have two groups, each laying claim to the Respect name, each proposing to stand lists of candidates in various elections. To be honest, I cannot see that either grouping will last for long. I have no objection to working with either side (or both sides), provided we do not get involved in the sectarian politicking that always comes with this sort of split. But I would not be keen to get deeply involved with either side at the moment.

Cheers

Francis

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/private/individual-members-el/attachments/20080210/cfe76369/attachment.htm