Is voting Respect left-wing?

Submitted by Anon on 17 June, 2004 - 5:33

The leaflets for the 10 June election from the Respect coalition (George Galloway and the SWP) include leftish words in the small print. But those do not mark it off sharply from the Greens, or even the Lib-Dems, and are not the cutting edges of its campaign.

The cutting-edges are not left-wing.

  • Respect promotes George Galloway as its hero. On his own account Galloway is a long-time friend of Saddam Hussein's deputy Tariq Aziz. For ten years he visited Baghdad monthly, running his political operation on money from Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and a Jordanian businessman rich from a percentage on Iraq's oil exports.
  • Respect appeals to Muslims to vote as Muslims for "George Galloway - a fighter for Muslims... Married to a Palestinian doctor, teetotal... strong religious principles". Galloway has stressed his opposition to abortion rights.
  • In the West Midlands, Respect has a pact with the local People's Justice Party. The PJP has called on Muslims not to vote Lib-Demo because the Lib-Dems are in favour of equal rights for gays and lesbians.
  • In Yorkshire, the Respect list is headed by Anas Altikriti of the Muslim Association of Britain. MAB's freesheet Inspire says that it should be "punishable by death" or at least "as an act of mutiny and treason" for people brought up Muslim to renounce religion.
  • Respect opposes the US/UK occupation of Iraq - but supports the sectarian and fascistic Islamist militias which are at war both with the occupation and with Iraq's reviving labour movement.
  • Respect chimes in with nationalism by denouncing the European Union. It says that the EU is dominated by "big business and the multinational corporations". But the difference between the EU and a non-EU Britain is not that Britain is less capitalist!
  • Respect calls on voters to make 10 June "a referendum on Blair". But Respect will not get more votes than New Labour! 10 June is a "referendum" only if Respect sees itself as part of a common anti-Blair camp with the Lib-Dems and the Tories.

Respect will not draw anti-war people, Muslim or other, towards socialism. It is doing the opposite: converting socialists, for the duration of the election campaign, into promoters of downright right-wing politics.

Gerry Bates

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