Would you “adam and eve it”, One of the Tower Hamlets gang of 4 who split from Galloway’s Jamaati Respect to form SWP/Respect has now defected again and joined the Conservative Party.

Cllr Ahmed Hussain was one of the very few Bengali card carrying “members” of the SWP. Mugs or what?

Poor old Oli (Rahman) – Hat Tip to Ted from East London Advertiser

Why is it that absolutely anything that Galloway touches eventually falls to pieces?

The other day I received a couple of jolly emails from comrades, who told me that the blog site Socialist Unity, had a post by its editor, Andy Newman, suggesting that “Dave’s Part” and “John’s Labour blog” are responsible for the current split within diss-respect!

Apparently the SWP Central committee are claiming, that one of the major reasons for the split, is that SWP members (who “had gone native” and supported George Galloway) in early September 2007, had “leaked” very sensitive information to the deputy editor of the East London Advertiser, Ted Jeory. This is why they expelled a number of long standing SWPer's and led to a complete and utter breakdown of trust between the Central Committee and the Gorgeous one

Just when you thought that fact could not get any stranger than fiction with regard to the Diss-respect farrago, it appears that their general secretary, John Rees (pre-split) accepted a dubious $10,000 company cheque from a Dubai construction company, Khansahed Civil Engineering.

This is owned by Interserve, who are a leading Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contractor, chaired by Tory Peer and former Head of the John Major’s policy unit, Lord Norman Blackwell.

Today two separate diss-Respect Conferences have taken place. Pretty soon we should discover what has gone on as delegates go home and start blogging and leaking furiously.

It’s happened, and it is just such a shame. Completely unexpected of course and very sad. Diss-Respect has split. Check out the East London Advertiser. The 4 SWPers (ish) Respect Councilors in Tower Hamlets, the home of respect, have left the other Islamic Extremists and resigned the whip.

The four include Oli Rahman (PCS activist – who’s actually got a sense of humour, how on earth did he ever got involved with this shower?) Respect’s first councillor in 2004. The others are Lutfa Begum, her daughter Rania Khan (keep it in the family) and Ahmed Hussain.

On Thursday evening I was the “guest” speaker at West Ham Labour Party CLP General Committee (GC) at Stratford, Newham, East London, E15.  West Ham lays claim to being the "home of the Labour Party".  So this is a good place to argue why the Labour Movement needs to embrace "New Capitalism".

Time to have an update on what is happening to our comrades in diss-Respect. My last post on this subject in September featured the SWP slagging off Gorgeous George and his Muslim fundamentalist allies for being anti-gay and practicing "Communal politics".

George had demanded the resignation of the SWP secretary of Respect, John Rees, and his own people to take charge of the Party. The expected bloodbath was postponed due to the prospect of an impending General Election. So we had the farcical performance of George saying he would not stand as a Respect Candidate in Poplar and Limehouse, only to be then “persuaded” by a grovelling plea from the SWP to stand! Now the immediate prospect of a general election is off, things are beginning to return to form.

To bring people up to date on the story so far: after a number of defections and rumours about internal arguments and rifts. The selection of a local “business wing” candidate for Respect in the recent by-election at Shadwell led to open war between the main Respect “Coalition” allies: Galloway and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

Nearly all the paid Respect Party officials are SWP members. This went from bad to worse when the SWP officials tried to force the Muslim Bangladeshi Respect Councillors to go on a Respect float at the 2007 Gay Pride parade!

Respect faces “oblivion” it is also moribund; weak; exhausted; amateur, mismanaged; unhealthy, irresponsible- George Galloway also suggests that his SWP “allies” are corrupt (giving internal Party jobs to political pals), interferes in internal elections and not pulling their weight in Council elections. He also gives the green light to the homophobes in Respect by condemning efforts to get Muslim Respect Councillors to attend the Gay Pride festival.

Read it for yourself on the Socialist Unity blog, the 8 page letter that the Gorgeous one wrote to Respect’s National Council.

I do favour trade unionism. We need all the trade we can get, so we have to help them.
So says business wing Respect candidate, Harun Miah, for the Shadwell by-election, Tower Hamlets, when interviewed about his views in the recent Workers Weekly article entitled Respect - the party for everybody. The by-election is this Thursday 9 August.
It is quite clear that Harun hasnt a clue what trade unions are about he seems to think we are some type of trade body?
It gets even more farcical when Harun reflects upon a certain sensitive subject that many on the left traditionally hold strong views about.

As if the SWP doesn’t have enough trouble at the moment with the disintegration of “Respect”.  The Workers Weekly alleged that expelled SWP member “Simon D” was attacked by a SWP national officer and one other at the Marxism 2007 event yesterday.  Ironically this was apparently while Simon was waiting to attend the so-called “Organising Fighting Unions” workshop.

Simon was allegedly “wrestled to the floor, sustaining bruising, abrasions and back strain. A second SWPer then joined in and they started to go through our prone comrade’s pockets to take his Marxism ticket”. 

Congratulations to London lollypop lady, Louise Couling, who was re-elected, new blood Kim Silver, elected for the first time and elected unopposed, Irene Stacey. Well done all of them.

Louise and Kim beat both female candidates from the SWP controlled “United Left” faction. A resounding victory!!
all UNISON Labour Link supporters.