Respect Party
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Respect Party
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|---|---|
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| Leader | George Galloway |
| Chairman | Abjol Miah |
| Deputy Leader | Vacant |
| Founded | 25 January 2004 |
| Dissolved | 18 August 2016 |
| Youth wing | Student RESPECT |
| Membership (2014) | 640 |
| Ideology |
Anti-war Socialism Anti-capitalist Anti-imperialism Anti-Zionism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| European affiliation | European Anticapitalist Left |
| Colours | Red and green |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Respect Party was a left-wing political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons and nineteen councillors in local government.
The Respect Party was established in London by Salma Yaqoob and George Monbiot in 2004. It grew out of the Stop the War Coalition, and from the start revolved largely around opposition to the United Kingdom's role in the Iraq War. Uniting a range of leftist and anti-war groups, it was unofficially allied to both the far-left Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Muslim Association of Britain. In 2005, Respect's candidate George Galloway was elected MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, while the party came second in three other constituencies. The party made further gains in the 2006 and 2007 local elections, at which point its support peaked. In 2007, a schism emerged in the party between SWP-supporters and the Respect Renewal group led by Galloway and Yaqoob; the former group left the party to form the Left List. Over the coming years, Respect gradually lost the council seats that it had gained and it deregistered from the electoral register in 2016.
Ideologically characterised as a left-wing or far left party, Respect adhered to an ideology of revolutionary, international socialism. This socialist current has been described as being Marxist in orientation. Opposed to neoliberalism, it called for the nationalisation of much of the UK economy, increased funding to public services, and further measures to tackle poverty and discrimination. It was Eurosceptic and promoted an anti-imperialist worldview. It was also Anti-Zionist, opposing the existence of Israel and endorsing the Palestinian solidarity movement. Various political scientists have suggested that Islamism was also a component of its ideology, treating it as part of a wider alliance between socialists and Islamists within Western Europe. Respect's voting base was primarily among the British Muslim communities in East London, Birmingham and Bradford, where it built upon anger over the Iraq War and disenfranchisement over the governing Labour Party among traditional Labour supporters.
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