"What we do makes a difference"

Over 100 people crammed into the Bangladeshi Community Centre in the Hendon ward of Sunderland last Wednesday evening, 22 November, to hear George Galloway, MP launch a new branch of RESPECT.

Together with four other local Respect supporters speaking on "Politics after Blair", Mr Galloway declared, "We are determined to challenge New Labour for the support of traditional Labour voters in its heartland."

The meeting began with a minute’s silence in memory of Syed Sorafot Ali, who died after a racist arson attack on his daughter’s nearby home the previous week. After rushing to her home the 76 year old grandfather collapsed and died. The family escaped the fire, which is the latest in a string of racist attacks in the area.

The first speaker, Lalon Amin, spoke of this racist atmosphere, which had been created by Blair’s "war on terror."

Lalon, who is General Secretary of Bangla Awaz, the Bangladeshi Community Association in nearby South Shields, said the general climate of Islamophobia had only been heightened by the recent crass remarks of Home Secretary Jack Straw about the veil.

Having joined the Labour Party after the general election in 1997, Lalon resigned after the invasion of Afghanistan.

He said he had become disillusioned with the lack of democracy in the Labour Party and had joined Respect to become a preacher against government policy on a whole range of issues including education, health and Iraq.

Kathy Haq, a staff nurse at Sunderland Royal Hospital, told the audience of her concerns for the health service. Regardless of government claims of increased spending, she said it was clear that much of this was being used to break up & privatise the NHS, as well as being wasted on badly-managed projects like the £12 billion squandered on failed computer systems.

Under New Labour, she said, Blair had continued with the culture of Tory targets, which had done so much to damage the morale of so many healthworkers.

Kathy, a community volunteer who has done much of her work in Bangladesh, also described as nonsense Jack Straw’s claim that it was not possible to communicate with someone wearing a veil. As a nurse, she said, she has to wear a surgical mask & cap whenever she is in an operating theatre, but is able to communicate perfectly with the surgeon to successfully enable the most complex of surgical procedures.

Mahmoud Kurdi, chair of Newcastle Muslim Association of Britain, shared his anger at the complete disregard for his fellow Lebanese shown by Tony Blair during the Israeli offensive against his homeland last summer.

He said that whenever people are under attack they have a right to resist. His guiding principle, however, was to "think global, act local." And it was important that whenever we see injustice that we must "do something.

"For this reason", he said, the huge demonstrations in London were very important because, "What we do makes a difference."

Joining Respect, he said, was the way we could all "do something" about injustice. Whether this injustice was the racist atmosphere of Islamophobia, the attacks on civil liberties, defending our schools and hospitals against privatisation, or taking action to save the environment, we must always act to, "stop the oppressor."

Local taxi driver & Respect activist, Gary Duncan, urged everyone to join Respect because, "it’s an organisation that’s open to people new topolitics & we can all learn as I have."

Gary’s message was echoed by Mr Galloway, who said there were, "more capable people in the room tonight than any of the New Labour ‘donkeys’ we keep sending to parliament."

Referring to the activity of the BNP in Sunderland, Mr Galloway said they were attracting some of the votes of people who were angry. These people were angry at the lack of decent council housing, at the attacks on our pensions and the privatisation of public services.

But most of all they were angry about the war in Iraq and the fact that there was no party representing the views of ordinary working people in parliament.

These people were right to be angry, he said, but they were angry with the wrong people. But it was our job to give them an alternative and win them to Respect.

Commenting on criticism that Respect was just representing ‘minorities,’ Mr Galloway said, "all the minorities add up to a majority. But what’s wrong with standing up and defending minorities anyway?

"We are a party for working people," he said, "and working people are the majority!"

Mr Galloway noted the seemingly endless pot of money that Blair & Brown have for "setting fire to other people’s countries" and for developing their own weapons of mass destruction – the £75 billion to replace Trident.

But, he said, after 10 years of a Labour government Britain has the poorest pensioners in Western Europe and some of the highest education costs.

What Respect wanted was, "to share the fruits of the country," said Mr Galloway. "We stand with and for the ‘have nots’ and we want to share ‘the haves’ with others.

"Respect stands for peace, justice & equality, not war, racism & privatisation," concluded Mr Galloway and urged everyone present to join Respect to ensure that all the angry people were offered a genuine alternative "politics after Blair."

Taking him at his word 14 people joined Respect immediately after the meeting closed & 3 others said they would be interested in standing as candidates for Respect in future elections.

For more information about Respect in Sunderland or to get involved, email Sunderland Respect (this will open your email program), or go to the Respect website