Respect
Documents of the Crisis

Respect as it was originally constructed - as an alliance primarily between the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and George Galloway - is dead writes Chris Brooks.

This new book explains why. Contributors to Respect: Document of the Crisis include George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob, Alan Thornett, Chris Harman, Andy Newman, Kevin Ovenden, John Lister, Jerry Hicks, Liam Mac Uaid, Phil Hearse, Linda Smith, Socialist Worker New Zealand and Nick Wrack.

The introduction to this 140-page book explains that

"Respect stood on the gains of the anti-globalisation and antiwar movements, and on the fact that the anti-war movement had begun to build among sections of Muslim communities who had not previously engaged with British politics.

"But the SWP is painting a dishonest picture of what lies behind the division within Respect. They claim that they are the left in the split and everyone else is on the right (or is naively misguided, which is just as insulting). They repeat their disgraceful attacks on the Scottish Socialist Party, and by implication make comparison between those who support Respect Renewal with those in Rifondazione who have backed Italian Prime Minister Prodi in sending troops to Afghanistan. Such comparisons are ridiculous.

"Disregarding the grandiose comparisons with the splits between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks for the delusions they are, this pamphlet shows the political positions of those the SWP would paint as the right".

"Not all the contributions we print here are from Socialist Resistance supporters, of course. But we think and hope that by publishing this collection we can contribute to an important debate, and thus help to build a socialist alternative to the ravages of war and neo-liberalism."