05.07.2006

Chaos in Tower Hamlets Respect

George Galloway had to broker a peace deal with councillors after an anti-SWP coup amongst Respect councillors failed, writes Huw Bynon

Tower Hamlets Respect has suffered a damaging rift after a clumsy attempt, apparently supported by council group leader Abjol Miah, to unseat the main Socialist Workers Party-backed officers and replace them with members from the 'Bengali community'.

Miah, together with fellow councillors Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury and Mohammed Mamun Rashid, were among those who boycotted Tower Hamlets annual general meeting in protest at the barring of 45 new recruits. The new applicants had allegedly been pulled in to vote for an alternative slate of officers.

The July 4 AGM, held at the Brady Centre, Hanbury Street, was attended by around 80 members, but there were almost the same number again who remained outside. These included not only the rejected recruits, but their sympathisers and those who had recruited them, headed by Azmal Hussain, who had been nominated as chair in opposition to the SWP-supported Glyn Robbins.

Things started off innocuously enough: there were the usual announcements of coming events, and various reports from officers and activists in organisations like Defend Council Housing. Although the noise from those in the corridor outside the hall could be heard, not everyone was aware that this had any connection to the meeting itself

The controversy was brought into the open when the last item on the agenda - the election of officers - was reached. In addition to comrade Robbins four others who are either SWP members or close to the SWP were opposed by the Hussain slate. SWPers Sam James (membership secretary) and James Meadway (press officer) were challenged by Mujibul Islam and Ismail Hussain respectively, while Socialist Resistance supporter Liam Mac Uaid (treasurer) was opposed by Ana Mia and organising secretary Mehdi Hassan by Mir Ezaz Ali.

SWP member Jackie Turner (secretary), who seems to enjoy more respect than other SWP members, was not opposed. Neither were three other SWP comrades who filled some of the minor posts - Rebecca Townsend (youth officer), Paul McGarr (trade union officer) and Maggie Falshaw (election campaign coordinator).

For the elections comrade Turner took over the chair, as she was unopposed herself, and candidates were invited to address the meeting. Comrade Robbins was first up. He acknowledged the challenge to his chairmanship and added: "As long as the organisation is open and democratic then we have nothing to fear." However, while he was giving his speech there was a distraction from outside, and George Galloway disappeared to investigate.

At the end of comrade Robbins' speech, Jackie asked for Azmal Hussain to come forward. He was not forthcoming, so comrade Turner said she would speak for a minute while we waited for Hussain to come back. It was a very long minute, with more distractions from outside, and he never did return. Comrade Turner then called on Ana Mia to step forward. He did not show. Not to be deterred, she asked for Mujibul Islam, who also did not appear. By this time comrade Turner was getting a bit frantic.

It was then that George Galloway raised a point of order. He said he had just been outside and felt honour-bound to report to the meeting the feelings of those outside - including councillors Miah, Chowdhury and Rashid, all of Shadwell ward. He said: "Apparently a large number of members who had been given entrance slips to the meeting had refused to enter because a larger number who thought they were members had not been admitted." He said that he had been told their membership applications had been rejected because they were not on the electoral roll, they were incomplete, the handwriting could not be read (he introduced a joke to lighten the atmosphere, saying he knew that doctors' handwriting was bad "¦ no one was in a laughing mood, however).

Galloway stated there was a bigger issue - a public relations problem and at worst a legal problem - in that people who thought they were members had not been allowed in. Comrade Turner responded in quite a matter-of-fact way, having sought permission and guidance from another higher-ranking member present - John Rees, Respect national secretary.

Comrade Turner denied that members were rejected for not being on the electoral roll. She said everybody had been advised by email of the June 24 deadline for membership applications, after which new applicants would not be able to attend the AGM. On the very day of the deadline, a bundle of 45 application forms was handed in by Azmal Hussain, together with £450 to cover membership fees - in cash.

She said the officers were immediately suspicious because every one of the applicants was applying to join at the unwaged rate of £10, instead of the full fee of £26, and two names were recognised as people who did not qualify for the reduced rate. Secondly 19 application forms had been completed in the same handwriting and there was no way of contacting those people apart from their address, as their forms contained no email or telephone number.

She reported that she and Glyn Robbins later visited Hussain in order to broker a compromise. They proposed an enlarged committee to include some of the dissidents, while a new, glittering post of Tower Hamlets president would be created and offered to Azmal Hussain himself (apparently the issue of the 45 applications was not discussed). At the time Hussain seemed happy with this deal.

A day later comrades Turner and Robbins, together with other officers, decided that the names on the applications were very welcome to join Respect if they paid the appropriate fee and provided a contact detail such as a telephone number. This was communicated to Azmal Hussain, said comrade Turner. However, Hussain was obviously having second thoughts about being offered what was clearly a decorative post and decided to go back on the agreement. Nothing was heard until the day before the AGM, when the 45 application forms were resubmitted, along with the original £450 in cash. She said that the officers felt that Respect was a democratic organisation and should not be "manipulated" to ensure the election of "certain members". Creating new posts for them should in no way be viewed as 'manipulation', of course.

George Galloway then responded by attempting a total demolition job on what Jackie Turner had said in terms of contact details, paying membership fees in cash and on behalf of others. He said if he were barred from the meeting, he would consider speaking to a lawyer, because it was not reasonable to be excluded for providing allegedly insufficient contact details. He concluded by saying, "I toss the ball back into your court", and sat down.

Oliur Rahman (deputy leader of the Respect council group and now very much part of the SWP milieu) then spoke. He said that some councillors were deliberately not answering their telephones, and had been part of the plan to get Azmal Hussain elected as chair. He accused these same councillors of having held a "secret meeting", where it was agreed to go out and recruit 10 members each. He disagreed with George - if someone was not entitled to the reduced £10 fee, they should pay the full £26.

John Rees said the problem was that the forms had been submitted prior to a contested election by one of the candidates, who had personally paid the £450. He said this sort of thing had happened in New Labour, although it was the first time it had been tried in Respect and should not happen again. He concluded by saying that the meeting should go ahead with its business.

Sean Doherty (SWP) was quite vehement and obviously quite anxious to get his point across for fear of the consequences. He said this was a democratic organisation, run on democratic principles, which allows anyone to join, and the dispute was not about a section of the community: it was about a senior member trying to skew elections by paying the subscriptions of 45 recruits. We cannot allow the applications, otherwise Respect will be brought into disrepute, he concluded.

A Bengali member spoke with some authority - I failed to catch his name - and, it appears, with the ear of the excluded/contested members and their sympathisers outside the hall. He started by admiring the work of Glyn Robbins, but went on to say that everybody should be allowed in to vote. If not, then the vote should not go ahead, otherwise things could turn very nasty in terms of public relations: people who believed they were members were being excluded from the meeting.

He said that most of the councillors thought that those in the meeting were not representative of all the membership. From what he had heard the excluded members had been rejected because of their backgrounds. Looking at Oliur Rahman, he said there had been no secret meetings of councillors and added: "For all I know, you may have secret meetings with the SWP."

This was too much for comrade Rahman, who forcefully repeated the accusation of a secret meeting of the other councillors. In reply he was told: "You don't speak for the other councillors - you sit there and listen to what I have to say. I do not believe we are a party of secrecy: I believe we are a party of transparency. If you decide a panel of nominees should be elected and that's who we have to accept "¦ That's all I have to say. Thank you." And with that oblique comment he sat down.

It was Galloway's turn to speak again. He told comrade Rahman to "pipe down" and stop hurling accusations and rhetoric about. He said everyone has secret meetings: he himself has secret meetings with John Rees about what they want to achieve, who should be the office-bearers and candidates. He said that Azmal Hussain has been an "extraordinarily generous benefactor of ours", in terms of providing a headquarters for the recent election, funds for campaigning and delivering votes. Comrade Rahman should not challenge the integrity of important players in the organisation.

Comrade Galloway said that Respect was an organisation that was "fragile" - it has "no ideological core"; he added pointedly that it did not operate according to "democratic centralism - it's a coalition of people". He thought the elections should be postponed, as any vote would be "divisive". Instead he favoured more negotiations, although he did not insist they should be secret.

Jackie Turner then allowed some more contributions, but was generally unsure as to how to proceed and resolve this thorny issue. She suggested that those contesting the officers' posts should be asked to come, but Galloway said, "They've gone, Jackie." As by this time we were about and hour and 15 minutes into the meeting, this was quite understandable. So she continued with contributions.

The chair had allowed the main players to speak, but the rest of the contributions were uninformed - but no doubt this allowed the 'ordinary members' to feel as though they had a say in the decision that was to be made.

Eventually comrade McQuade put forward the following motion: "We endorse the attempt of the membership council to negotiate with Azmal Hussain and vote on the current slate." Comrade Doherty said that another sentence should be added: "That the officers elected negotiate with all parties who are involved with this issue and try and resolve it."

Liam and Sean's proposals were carried unanimously and the slate was overwhelmingly approved, with just four or five against and a handful of abstentions. But it seems the result would have been too close to call if the new applicants had been accepted and the dissidents had not boycotted the vote.

Will there be a split in Tower Hamlets? Not if Galloway has anything to do with it. He has clearly been hard at work behind the scenes and now the dissident councillors are denying anything is amiss. When we spoke to them the day after the AGM, they were all less than forthcoming, although none of them denied they had stayed outside the meeting and not taken part in the vote. Miah referred us to Respect spokesperson Rob Hoveman (SWP), Rashid had "no comment" and Chowdhury said he "didn't know much" about the affair.