05.05.2004

How embarrassing

Around the web: Respect - www.respectcoalition.com

No doubt stung by criticisms of its gaudy quality, and the amateurish rightwing spoof of the previous Respect website (see Weekly Worker February 19), the powers-that-be at the unity coalition have chosen to revamp their internet presence. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the design team that Soviet bloc chic is not the flavour of the month, because if anything the site’s aesthetic is even duller than its predecessor. Not an auspicious beginning.

The website starts off with mayoral candidate Lindsey German’s “vision for London”, a vision that I did not find particularly inspiring, it being little more than an economistic menu around housing, transport and pay. Sadly for comrade German, a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party, the need for her to put out a statement quickly has meant the cutting of some policy corners. For example, “Buses are £1 … but they should be cheaper and there should be concessions for unemployed and disabled people.” However, as Barry Buitekant has pointed out on the UK Left Network discussion list, disabled travellers have for several years been able to use London buses for free! How embarrassing. Perhaps the comrade ought to check the rest of the policies she is standing on, lest she look a complete arse in front of the bourgeois media.

Another telling feature is the attempt to cash in on the Livingstone bandwagon: “One of the good things about these elections is that you can vote me number one for mayor, and vote Ken Livingstone for number two,” enthused comrade German. It would be interesting to see the extent to which this line is pushed over the coming weeks.

Accompanying this is a new addition, comrade German’s web log. Again, like her mayor manifesto, this online journal reads like a rush job. And, to be honest, I do not see the point in the whole endeavour either. Instead of using the opportunity to vividly convey the experience of being a ‘radical’ candidate, the comrade wastes it on vague references to what she has read in The Independent and brief snippets of never-ending “brilliant” campaign meetings (she does announce her resignation from Socialist Review though). Also, over the course of her accounts she only sees fit to mention two “normal” people, who will of course be voting Respect. I’m afraid Respect activists will have to find guidance and inspiration elsewhere.

The next item is a sales pitch for comrade Galloway’s new book I’m not the only one. It claims the armed services hack, Adam Ingram, spent £25,000 trying to prevent this tome from being published. Why? Though we are told in no uncertain terms to buy the book to find out the lies Galloway exposes, I for one found this use of the hard-sell tactic strangely out of place when compared to the suggestive soft sell of German’s mayoral statement.

The next item is the pitifully short manifesto for the European elections. Compared to the documents put out by the mainstream parties, the Greens and the fascists, it looks very poor and is hardly indicative of a serious organisation. The content, however, is not as bad as I feared it would be. Of course, much is made of opposing the European Union on economistic grounds, and the way in which it addresses the institutionalised democratic deficit at the heart of the EU has little-England overtones. But what I found interesting was how its policy toward the euro depended on the meeting of Respect’s five political tests: around neoliberalism, democracy, welfare, racism and class. Could this suggest the beginning of a realistic engagement with the EU’s political implications, instead of outright rejection? We will have to see.

The rest of the Respect site remains the same old diet of pious sermonising and liberal platitudes. I did find the write-up of the ‘audience with Galloway’ fundraising dinner quite interesting, though I think the irony of having Dr Mohammad Naseem pontificating about the wealth gap at an exclusive £30 a head dinner was lost on the comrade responsible for the piece. And of course there is the much derided news release (April 21) in which Respect (in the person of Salma Yaqoob and John Rees) call on the home secretary and the West Midlands police chief to ban Jean-Marie Le Pen from the British National Party’s fundraiser.

That John Rees as a self-described Marxist indulges in this statist nonsense just goes to show the depths to which he and the SWP are prepared to sink to grab the ‘progressive’ vote.