Respect Party
The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons and nineteen councillors in local government.
The Respect Party was established in London by Salma Yaqoob and George Monbiot. Arising in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it grew out of the Stop the War Coalition and from the start revolved largely around opposition to the United Kingdom's role in the Iraq War. Uniting a range of leftist and anti-war groups, it was unofficially allied to the Muslim Association of Britain and the Socialist Workers Party, a far-left, Marxist group. In 2005, Respect's candidate George Galloway was elected MP for Bethnal Green and Bow and the party came second in three other constituencies. Respect made further gains in the 2006 and 2007 local elections, at which point its support peaked. In 2007, a schism emerged in the party between SWP supporters and the Respect Renewal group led by Galloway and Yaqoob; the former group left the party to form the Left List. Over the coming years, Respect gradually lost its council seats and it deregistered with the Electoral Commission in 2016.
Avowedly socialist and opposed to capitalism, Respect called for the nationalisation of much of the UK economy, increased funding to public services, and further measures to tackle poverty and discrimination. It was Eurosceptic and promoted an anti-imperialist worldview. It was also anti-Zionist, opposing the existence of Israel and endorsing the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Due to its links with MAB, several commentators claimed that Islamism was a component of its ideology and regarded it as part of a wider alliance between socialists and Islamists within Western Europe. Respect's voting base was primarily among the British Muslim communities in East London, Birmingham and Bradford, where it built upon opposition to the Iraq War and disenchantment among leftist voters with the governing Labour Party.
Ideology
The political scientists Matthew Goodwin and Robert Ford characterised Respect as a "broad coalition of left-wing interests" which had arisen in opposition to the New Labour government and the UK's involvement in the invasion of Iraq. Other political scientists characterised the party as far-left. The socialist activist Tariq Ali characterised the party's programme as being social democratic in orientation. Eran Benedek described the party as "an amalgamation of radical international socialism and Islamism", adding that its radical socialist position was informed by Marxism–Leninism and Trotskyism.Benedek characterised it as a manifestation of what Amir Taheri called the "Marxist-Islamist coalition", which united around opposition to the United States, a desire to destroy the state of Israel, and a wish to overthrow international capitalism. Similarly, Emmanuel Karagiannis characterised the party as "the epitome" of the "convergence" between radical left and Islamist groups in Western Europe, and Nick Cohen described it as an "alliance... between the Trotskyist far left and the Islamic far right".
Socialism and anti-capitalism
The party's policies have been described as "traditionally leftist and anti-capitalist".Respect encouraged the nationalisation of many sectors of the economy, including the railways, water, gas, electricity, and the North Sea oil industry. It urged a substantial increase in corporation tax in order to increase funding to public services. It sought to overturn what it described as "anti-trade union" legislation, and to introduce policies to deal with issues of poverty and discrimination. Respect promoted revolutionary socialism and international socialism. The party was largely hostile to Western capitalism and neoliberalism, and interpreted many world events through the prism of anti-imperialism, calling for an end to what it characterised as imperialist wars like that in Iraq. Respect was anti-globalization, believing that it resulted in the exploitation of the working class. It also expressed a Eurosceptic approach to the European Union, deeming the Union to be lacking in democracy and exploitative toward the working class.
Anti-Zionism
Respect was anti-Zionist and, according to Benedek, rejected "the right to independent Jewish statehood in Israel". It presented this position through the terminology of social justice and human rights. One of its core principles was stated support for the Palestinian people and opposition to what Respect described as "the apartheid system that oppresses them". It was constitutionally committed to supporting the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the boycotting of Israel. It calls for Israel to withdraw from any land conquered in 1967, and for the right of return to be granted to all Palestinians forced to move on the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. On its website and published fliers, it included maps of the Levant in which the entirety of Israel was labelled "Occupied Palestine". In 2017, the party's website asserts: "Respect supports the idea of a democratic bi-national solution of one state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea in which all people, Jews, Muslims and Christians live equally; one man, one woman, one vote" and says British foreign policy should recognise Britain's "partial responsibility for the problem by their participation in the creation of the state of Israel".According to the party's national council member Yvonne Ridley, speaking at London's Imperial College in February 2006, Respect "is a Zionist-free party... if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out."
The rejection of Israel's right to exist and the characterisation of it as a garrison of American imperialism in the Middle East had been espoused by the SWP even prior to the establishment of Respect.
In February 2013, George Galloway walked out of a debate organised by Christ Church, Oxford because his opponent was Eylon Levy, an Israeli citizen. He explained his actions thus: "The reason is simple: no recognition, no normalisation. Just boycott, divestment and sanctions, until the apartheid state is defeated. I never debate with Israelis nor speak to their media. If they want to speak about Palestine – the address is the PLO." The Zionist Federation called it a "racist" walkout displaying "xenophobic" tendencies.
Respect was supportive of anti-Zionist Islamist militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. In July 2006, Respect official Lindsey German stated that "whatever disagreements I have with Hamas and Hezbollah, I would rather be in their camp... they want democracy. Democracy in the Middle East is Hamas, is Hezbollah". Galloway met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashal In September 2006, and that November the party's national-secretary John Rees attended the Beirut International Conference organised by Hezbollah.
History
Formation: 2004
Respect emerged from the British anti-war movement which had developed from late 2001 onward. The Stop the War Coalition had been established in September 2001, with a central role being played by the Socialist Workers Party, which was then the largest radical left group in the UK. The StWC's president was Tony Benn, a Labour Member of Parliament until 2001, while it also gained the support of several rebel Labour MPs, among them Katy Clark, Jeremy Corbyn, Tam Dalyell, Alice Mahon, and George Galloway. The StWC had also attracted significant support from within Britain's Muslim community, and the Muslim Association of Britain officially affiliated itself with the coalition. The movement politicised a large number of young British Muslims, among them Salma Yaqoob, who became the head of the StWC branch in Birmingham.Galloway later revealed that, about a year before the UK and US launched the Iraq War, he had broached the subject of leaving Labour and establishing a new party with his friends Seumas Milne and Andrew Murray. At the time—he later stated—he was of the view that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush had already committed themselves to invading Iraq. Galloway was vocal in his opposition to Blair's calls for an invasion, and in May 2003 he was suspended from the Labour Party and then expelled in October, having been found to have brought it into disrepute. He then announced that he would stand against Labour in the 2004 European Parliament elections, and that he would "seek to unify the red, green, anti-war, Muslim and other social constituencies radicalised by the war, in a referendum on Tony Blair".
The two main instigators of the party were Yaqoob and George Monbiot, a journalist with The Guardian. They had been part of a discussion surrounding the unification of a broad range of anti-war forces that were to the left of Labour, a successor to the Socialist Alliance electoral list that had contested the 2001 general election. They wanted to reach out beyond the far left's traditional support base and gain support from peace activists and religious groups, particularly the Muslim community. In November 2003, a number of public meetings were held under the title of "British Politics at the Crossroads", at which it was agreed that a new political party should be established. At a convention on 24 January 2004, the party, titled "Respect – the Unity Coalition", was officially declared. The name "RESPECT" was a contrived acronym for respect, equality, socialism, peace, environmentalism, community, and trade unionism. Galloway said in April 2004: "Respect. It's a young word. It's a black word. It's the first postmodern name for an electoral political movement; most are one or other arrangement of the words The, Something, and Party. With respect, we're different." Opposition to the Iraq War was the party's primary issue, around which it galvanised much of its support.
At its foundation, the party also called for a halt to privatisation and the renationalisation of the British railways. Although it did not secure the full backing of any major trade unions, some local branches of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers —which had disaffiliated from Labour in February 2004—voted to support Respect. Although containing members from both the SWP and MAB, Respect was not a formal coalition between the two groups. From the beginnings of Respect, there remained tension within the party between SWP members and Muslim leaders. This alliance was also criticised by some observers; in June 2004, the political commentator Nick Cohen wrote that "for the first time since the Enlightenment, a section of the left is allied with religious fanaticism and, for the first time since the Hitler-Stalin pact, a section of the left has gone soft on fascism."
Respect initially tried to form an electoral pact with the Green Party of England and Wales but this proved unsuccessful. The Greens stated that they had selected their candidates for the 2004 European Parliamentary elections by postal ballot months previously and that they were also sceptical of the SWP's influence over Respect. After Respect decided to stand candidates against the Greens, Monbiot stepped down from the party in February 2004, claiming that to compete against the Greens might threaten the positions of "two of the best elected representatives in Britain", the Green Members of the European Parliament Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert.