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Respect policies Introduction
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All materials published and promoted by L Smith, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU
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In these pages Respect sets out its policies for tackling the social, economic, and political crisis facing working people today.
A full-range of policies are essential if we are to tackle the root causes of this crisis and put forward a viable alternative.
Respect is a radical political alternative to the rightward march of New Labour and the other establishment parties. Although it grew out of the mass opposition to the war on Iraq, it is more than an anti-war party. A vote for Respect is a crucial step towards the creation of a new radical working-class voice that will speak for millions who, through the betrayals of New Labour, have lost their political representation.
New Labour has embraced the neo-liberal agenda of privatisation and deregulation. It has pushed privatisation into our core public services. The NHS, education, benefits and pensions are under sustained attack. Students are saddled with loans and tuition fees.
The gap between rich and poor is still increasing. Yet there is no lack of wealth or resources – Britain is the fourth richest country in the world.
We believe that public services should be owned and accountable to those who use them and work in them. We would bring the utilities – water, gas, electricity and communications – back into public ownership. We would re-nationalise the railways.
We would extend public ownership into the key sectors of the economy. We would increase taxation on the big corporations and the wealthy to fund public services.
We stand with those across the world suffering from global capital in its various forms. In Africa, Asia and Latin America millions face Structural Adjustment Programmes, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. They struggle for survival in economies wracked by debt, and wage militant campaigns to end this burden. We stand in solidarity with them and with those who fight to keep the planet habitable in the face of global warming and climate change driven by the market system.
We are a campaigning party. We support all those who campaign against the war and the neo-liberal agenda of privatisation and deregulation. Those who defend civil and
human rights, the health and education services, housing and pensions rights, and the environment. We stand alongside those who defend trade union rights and the rights and the interests of oppressed minorities.
We are a democratic party. We have no sleazy funding from the wealthy. We are for the maximum democracy in every sphere of public life, including the system of election – which in this country has become scandalous. Under Britain’s first-past-the-post (FPTP)
system, governments get elected with big parliamentary majorities on the basis of minority votes. The votes most people cast, in FPTP elections, make no difference to the result.
Respect has made great progress since it was set up in January 2004. In the 2005 general election Respect got impressive results – despite the electoral system. We were able to win the kind of results in a clutch of inner-city working class constituencies which no
other left party has been able to achieve for a very long time. George Galloway overturned a 10,000 majority held by the Blairite pro-war MP Oona King in Bethnal Green and Bow in East London. In East and West Ham Respect came second to Labour. In
Poplar and Canning Town it came third. In Sparkbrook and Small Heath in Birmingham Salma Yaqoob won 27.5 percent of the vote – only 3,000 votes short of winning the seat.
We built on these results in the May 2006 local elections, winning 12 seats on Tower Hamlets Council, making Respect the official opposition party. In Newham Respect improved on its 20 percent general election result to gain 26 percent of the vote and
three seats on the council. Respect won 55 percent of the vote to win its first councillor in Birmingham.
The policies contained in this pamphlet would make a fundamental change in the lives of millions of people, not only in Britain but across the world. Even the implementation of some of our policies would bring about a drastic improvement in the lives of ordinary people. Respect is the natural home for those who feel disenfranchised and dispossessed.
We call on you to help us bring about that change by joining Respect and helping to create a world in which social justice is defined as incorporating:
> The organisation of society in the most open, democratic, participative, and accountable way practicable based on common ownership and democratic control.
> The fight against, and ultimate abolition of racism, sexism, and all forms of discrimination on the grounds of religion, disability, age or sexual identity. Defend a woman’s right to choose.
> The abolition of all forms of economic exploitation and social oppression.
> The promotion of peace and a system of global and national justice that provides protection from tyranny, prejudice and the abuse of power.
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