Respect and Galloway

Living in East London a recent Blog by a fellow memeber John Gray came to attention.

This was news of the letter that George Galloway has sent to his party that has them in a bit of a fluster.

So what is Galloway doing with this letter. Well its important to remember that he is an age old politicial' so the idea that this has come out in the public realm accidentally is nonsense. He clearly wanted this out in the open, so i will use my "don't listen to what politicians say, think about why they are saying it" motto to find out why.

Firstly the electorate are no friend of the SWP. Despite the best intentions of the middle class - class warriors, they are a turn off for all but a delusional few. The main vote in poplar and Limehouse, that Galloway needs if he is to win in the next election, is bigger than the SWPers that live there. So he does what we all do in elections and knocks the controllers of Respect Party (the SWP) saying there management is poor and political savvy is weak.

He goes on to say they only "elect" people in positions that agree with them and don't worry too much about proper elections (later in the article, Galloway suggests an unelected elite few set up a new board, made up of people he suggests. Quite how that is different from what they do now is not clear).

He is also worried about low funding and membership. The issue is that, if you are a democratic party, the MP doesn't really have right to tell people where it is going wrong and how to fix it. He is not the leader. They are suppose to have officers that run the party and if they elect the wrong ones, they don't do well. If you care so much you stand against them. Thats what democracy in political parties are. You can't always get your own way.

So Galloway is no big fan of democracy and bad people getting jobs. The second message is clealy: George is in charge.

Whatever impression you got the respect was run by its members, its not true. What George says goes. He is the only MP and only electoral hope, if he fails, Respect fails. As the dictators he so admires he is becoming weary of leading and incompetent people following.

Which is his third message. He is tired of many of the things he mentioned. Tired it is him who has to raise the funds and bringing in new members. He is tired of being the only political thinker in the whole political party. Tired of the bickering and nepotism that is rife.

He, like the dictators of old, is at a rubicon point and this letter is his attempt to pull himself and the party out.

But George needs to learn that people and parties out grow their political figureheads. On this occasion the SWP will swallow it yet again, but only because they know they are nothing without him. But soon they will tire of having no councillors and no-one in the limelight.

One day, he may find that people are tired of his hedgmonay over the left and what historically ensues the overthrow of a leader is a civil war between two rival factions. The unlikely marriage of the SWP and the Bangladeshi community is only held onto by George and is constantly fraught. They don't sahre the same values, only the sme goal of beating Labour.

Following the fall of George the SWP will then have to take on the completely Bangladeshi powerbase of Councillors (none of whom are in a trade union), in Tower Hamlets the heartland of Respect, for the soul of the party.

Historically collapse usually follows. We can only hope.