Respect - Statement from Respect on defection of Councillor Shahed Ali

Statement from Respect on defection of Councillor Shahed Ali

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Statement from Respect on defection of Councillor Shahed Ali

"I would not underestimate George Galloway and the organisation of his party." – Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick to the East London Advertiser Thursday 26th June

It was announced on Wednesday that the three Tower Hamlets Left List councillors and one Respect councillor were defecting to New Labour. The defection of the three Left List councillors ought to sound the death knell of the Left List fiasco and finally lays to rest the lie that the split in Tower Hamlets Respect was between left and right.

Of the four councillors who defected eight months ago to what became the Left List, one has now gone to the Tories and three to New Labour. Oli Rahman was the registered leader and nominating officer of the Left List and its national chair.

As far as Shahed Ali, the one Respect councillor to defect is concerned, he has been alienated for a long time from the core group of councillors and might have joined the four who left last October, had he not hated the way the SWP had operated in Respect.

Sincere efforts were made by a number of councillors and others including the national secretary Nick Wrack to try to persuade him to play a positive role in Respect, but they were trying to undo damage that has been caused to the group over a period of two years by the approach taken SWP's leaders nationally and locally. That proved impossible to overcome once the three Left List councillors concluded that their electoral interests would now be served by New Labour.

Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Poplar, has been wooing these councillors for a long time as he is petrified at the prospect of facing George Galloway in 2010 and wants to do everything possible to damage Respect and George between now and then. He played on the councillors' vanity and on the very poor Left List election results.

He also leant on regional officers of the Labour Party to let them in, against the wishes of many Labour Party members who rightly think these renegades are carpetbaggers. But the comment he made to the Advertiser (see top of page) in welcoming the defectors is very revealing.

Tower Hamlets Respect chair Azmal Hussain is also quoted in the East London Advertiser, describing the councillors' actions as childish and stupid in joining New Labour's sinking ship: the day after they were accepted into Gordon Brown's party it came fifth in a parliamentary byelection.

Azmal's statement is reproduced below. The Advertiser initially ran an article sympathetic to the defectors on Tuesday evening but the print edition on Thursday was much more critical citing electoral opportunism as their motivation.

These councillors and New Labour will probably both come to regret them joining the sinking ship. But they have been allowed to join because of an ongoing faction fight in the Labour Party and because Fitzpatrick is so scared of losing to George Galloway.

Respect’s councillors held their heads up high and did very well at the full council meeting on Wednesday night. Whilst no one can be happy at the fact that our original complement of twelve councillors has been reduced to six, the six who remain have the principles and the resilience to withstand the struggles ahead.

They are determined to be more coherent and effective following what we are sure will be the last defection.

Early soundings of our supporters shows there is still considerable confidence that we have a very good chance of taking not one but two parliamentary seats in Tower Hamlets, which would be a quite incredible breakthrough, and that we can elect a majority of councillors in just under two years time. With New Labour plumbing new depths of unpopularity, in Birmingham, Salma Yaqoob continues to gather the support she needs to become Britain’s first Muslim woman MP.

In Manchester, Bristol and other areas where Respect has developed a base we are continuing to deepen our support.

The split away from Respect by the SWP is now well and truly behind us. We look forward to playing our part in furthering the left as a whole, not simply our part of it.

Statement from Tower Hamlets Respect chair Azmal Hussain

"It's a shame that these councillors have decided to join New Labour's sinking ship. They are clearly motivated by a miscalculation as to where their prospects of re-election lie. We have no place for this kind of unprincipled opportunism in Respect.

"One minute these people say they are against war and privatisation and the next minute they are joining the party of war and privatisation. It really is extraordinarily childish and stupid. I think New Labour will find they will regret the decision to take these councillors and I know many Labour members in Tower Hamlets are very unhappy about it.

"Unfortunately, when we came to select our candidates last time round we were very new and we were not able to vet all our candidates as well as we would have wished in order to find out who had the principles and the resilience to deal with the political jungle in Tower Hamlets. We will not be making the same mistake again.

"Respect's election results in May and the ever-growing unpopularity of New Labour show we still stand a very good chance of getting New Labour out in 2010 and taking both parliamentary seats. When we do that, we will at last have a council which will represent the majority of people from all communities in Tower Hamlets and fight for decent housing, education and rights for all."

News and articles of interest

Here are some articles and news reports we think are worth looking at

Poll of polls shows Labour at its most unpopular since 1935 by Nigel Morris
Gordon Brown is leading Labour to its worst electoral defeat since the 1930s, according to a new "poll of polls" for The Independent. On current levels of support, Labour would lose almost half its MPs at the next election and David Cameron would become Prime Minister with an overwhelming majority. The backlash against Labour has left the party with the support of just 27 per cent of voters, the weighted average of last month's polls for The Independent shows.

Unmanned spy planes to police Britain by Kim Sengupta
The Government is drawing up plans to use unmanned "drone" aircraft currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to counter terrorism and aid police operations in Britain. The MoD is carrying out research and development to enable the spy planes, which are equipped with highly sophisticated monitoring equipment that allows them to secretly track and photograph suspects without their knowledge, to be deployed within three years.

The Camp for Climate Action, at Kingsnorth, Kent, 3rd to 11th August - full details
Wednesday 10 am update. Local MP Bob Marshall-Andrews condems police action at climate camp (see BBC article), saying "I find the use of police in riot gear incomprehensible and I think it was a mistake." He also described the actions of the police as "provocation."

Diego Garcia: the UK's shame by Andy Worthington
The ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote: "In war, truth is the first casualty." These words are particularly apt in relation to the British Overseas Territory of Diego Garcia, leased to the United States in 1971, where the truth – that a secret "War on Terror" prison existed from 2002 until as recently as 2006 – has been persistently denied by both the British and American governments.

The Horror Of Israeli Occupation - documentary developed by Chaim Yavin West Bank Checkpoints
A video clip that dramatically portrays the meeting of Israeli solders and Palestinians at controversial West Bank security checkpoints. This clip is the second of a series taken from "Land of the Settlers", the acclaimed documentary developed by Chaim Yavin, Israel's premier news anchor.

Anger at police raid on green camp ahead of coal protest by Matthew Taylor
Environmental campaigners and politicians criticised the police last night after around 200 officers raided a climate camp, seizing hundreds of items that they claimed could be used to break the law. Activists at the camp, which starts today with a series of workshops on sustainable energy and social justice, said the raid aimed to disrupt legitimate protest.

Morning Star Back on Track After Office Fire by Tomasz Pierscionek
In the early hours of Monday morning (last week), an electrical fire broke out at William Rust House, the East London office of the socialist newspaper the Morning Star. The fire, believed to have been caused by a malfunctioning air-conditioner, broke out at approximately 3am and caused considerable structural damage to both the interior of the Morning Star's newsroom and the equipment within, knocking out both electrical power and phone lines.

Venezuela Bridges Diplomatic Fissures and Polishes Alliances in European Tour by James Suggett
Rounding off a diplomatic tour of Europe that began with Tuesday's controversial visit in Russia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez mended relations with the Spanish government, set up a bi-national commerce commission with Portugal, and eliminated visa requirements to facilitate bilateral accords with Belarus this week.

Why David Cameron Blames the Poor by Peter Taylor-Gooby
David Cameron's 'blaming the poor' speech in Glasgow may be more than just an attempt to placate the unreconstructed right of the Conservative party. It is not often recognised how far British public opinion has shifted towards a liberal individualist stance on social issues in recent years. In some ways we are more Thatcherite under New Labour than we ever were under the Conservatives.

Star names set to top the bill at Carnegie Festival - Dunfermline Press
TWO of the best-known faces on television will be making personal appearances in Dunfermline next month as part of the inaugural Carnegie Festival, from 21st August to 7th September. Evan Davis will be in dialogue with fiesty MP George Galloway in a conversation on Saturday, 23rd August, at 7.30pm in the Carnegie Hall. Tickets, priced £5, are available from the Carnegie Hall box office.

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