Yesterday we went round asking people who were giving out RESPECT stuff on Manchester, Market Street, did they know about this? and it was fudged over. But I've worked for 13 years defending womens right to choose and it should not be glossed over in a smudgy (oh aren't we nice and equal way as per RESPECT). Me and others will come from Manchester so let us know what time and directions would be good.
And brilliant for you lot for doing this.
Heres to Manc and Liverpool

not liverpool... oops, apologies, long day. i have fought with "pro-life" people in the job i did and i don't want to see this sneaking in through the back door again.

meeting is at 7-30 Monday 26th April Leeds University Conference auditorium.

I suggest we meet outside at 7-15pm, hand out leaflets and do a bit of shouting.


from manchester take the M62 then follow M621 towards City Centre, take a left turn at the elland road roundabout and follow the signs for the city centre. University is signposted as you approach the centre. Conference auditorium is adjacent to the main entrance to university.

Via public transport leave the station by foot and follow the signs to university (approx 15 mins walk) otherwise take a taxi from front of station.

I'll post up a map later if I get chance.

As thousands die under US and Israeli bombs, as the world struggles to hold back imperial aggression and in this country we try and get rid of Blair you decide that the most important thing is to picket left-wing meetings.

Bravo, and BTW if New Labour is not giving you a little bit of money I would give them a call!

So Sonic expects fundamental demands like A Women'Right To Choose to be dropped "because of the war"
So this is the road the SWP and their friends are increasingly ging down in this populist lashup with Galloway and co. Sickening!
And if you oppose them , then you must be in the pay of New Labour. Makes me want to weep- or laugh!

oh I see, your real problem is that the SWP is involved, why am I not surprised.

After all we wouldnt want silly issues like the war in Iraq or fighting against racism getting in the way of bashing the swuppies would we?

As I said, the fact that this is happening just before an election, one in which Blair may well be hammered, is rather conveinent for New Labour. I suggested they approach them for cash, after all they are doing their work for them.

Hi. Just wondered if the intention was for this to be a women only picket. If not, i would like to come as, i'm sure, would several other male friends. Either way, a good idea and best of luck.

Sonic's comments that this must be the work of New Labour are truly stupid. Sorry that you think women's control over their own bodies is less important than Iraq -maybe it's equally important?

RESPECT are setting themselves up as a new party and asking us to vote for them, quite right that we peole demand their views on any subject they see fit. If respect are stalling on this subject then why shouldn't pickets be organised. All respect have to do is announce that they support abortion rights for women.

If respect claims to be for equality, then abortion on demand should be one of it's platform policies.

I won't be voting for any candidate who is pro-life. I can't make the Leeds meeting but I wish the organisers of this picket every sucess.

The Founding Declaration of Respect - the Unity Coalition
01/02/2004

The greatest mass movement of our age has brought us together.

We have marched in unprecedented numbers against war, against racism, and in defence of democracy and civil liberties. Our views are shared by millions, often a majority of the people in this country. Yet no establishment politician, and very few elected representatives of any kind, will lend their voice to this movement.

The two most important statistics in contemporary politics highlight the growing chasm between ordinary working people and the political establishment—on the one hand we have participated in the greatest political demonstrations in modern history, and on the other hand the last general election saw the lowest turnout since universal suffrage was introduced.

This chasm is at its widest on the question of war and peace. Tony Blair’s New Labour has taken us to war five times in the last six years, each time with calamitous consequences. The bloodshed, the waste of precious economic resources, the lying and hypocrisy that have accompanied the attack on Iraq have
brought many to the conclusion that they must rethink their traditional political allegiance.

But the yearning for a political alternative is even wider than the anti-war movement. Pensioners, students, trade unionists, Muslims and other faith groups, socialists, ethnic minorities and many others have been deeply disappointed by the authoritarian social policies and profit-centred, neo-liberal economic strategy of the government.

There is a crisis of representation, a democratic deficit, at the heart of politics in Britain. We aim to offer a solution to this crisis.

We stand for:

An end to the war and occupation in Iraq. We will not join any further imperialist wars.
An end to all privatisation and the bringing back into democratic public ownership of the railways and other public services.
An education system that is not dependent on the ability to pay, that is comprehensive and gives an equal chance in life to every child no matter how wealthy or poor their parents, from nursery to university.
A publicly owned and funded, democratically controlled NHS, free to all users.
Pensions that are linked to average earnings.
Raising the minimum wage to the European Union Decency threshold of £7.40 an hour.
Tax the rich to fund welfare and to close the growing gap between the poor and the wealthy few.
The repeal of the Tory anti-union laws.
Opposition to all forms of discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs (or lack of them), sexual orientation, disabilities, national origin or citizenship.
The right to self-determination of every individual in relation to their religious (or non-religious) beliefs, as well as sexual choices.
The defence of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Opposition to the European Union’s ‘Fortress Europe’ policies.
We will strongly oppose the anti-European xenophobic right wing in any Euro referendum. But we oppose the ‘stability pact’ that the European Union seeks to impose on all those who join the euro. This pact would outlaw government deficit spending and reinforce the drive to privatise and deregulate the economy
and we will therefore vote ‘No’ in any referendum on this issue.
Support for the people of Palestine and opposition to the apartheid system that oppresses them.
An end to the destruction of the environment by states and corporations for whom profit is more important than sustaining the natural world on which all life depends.
We want a world in which the democratic demands of the people are carried out; a world based on need not profit; a world where solidarity rather than self-interest is the spirit of the age.

Let this be the rebirth of hope for those who have become disillusioned.

Join us!

..should be just that !

Abstaing from sexual intercorse is taking controll over your own bodies. Going on the pill, useing condoms, anti-spermicides, and other forms of contreception is taking controll over your own body.

Not getting pregnant in the first place is taking controll of your bodies.

Abliterating a feotus and hovering it all up as if it never happened can never be defined as women's control over their own bodies (well not unless they carry out the procedure themselves), it is putting the responsibillity onto others to take controll of their bodies for them.

Well said, Murder is always Murder. Think about what you are asking - a women to kill her unborn child - why would you do that ?

...how this issue brings out all the cranks. From Alans very useful post where he thankfully copy and pasted the whole worthless draft document (Cheers for clarifying nothing Alan!) What we need is a new workers party that fights for womens rights as part of the wider struggle against capitalism, not some popular front electoral block. What a waste of such an important movement.

And Sonics comments begger belief. They echo Lyndsey Germains comments at MArxism last year that gay rights should not be a shibboleth to working with other sections of the community. Well I think that having a principled position on abortion rights should not be a shibboleth preeventing us from working with Sonic, who clearly has no politics beyond what they read on the front cover of socialist worker each week.

As for the pro life comments, I hope you will all be voting respect in the summer, maybe it will split the pro-life alliance vote. Be thankful for small mercies, eh?

God, what twat keeps posting the useless Respect declaration on every article?

Around one third of women in Britain will have had an abortion by the age of 45, according to recent figures. There is still no 100% safe and reliable contraceptive. The fight for free and safe abortion has been part of a long struggle for women's rights. Some form of birth control was used in nearly all ancient societies and where this failed - as it often did - maternal death and infanticide were common. Hostility to even primitive methods of birth control accompanied Christianity and the oppression of women and of sexuality. The emergence of a birth control movement took place alongside other struggles for human rights and working class movements. It is odd that in the 21st century some of the comments on indymedia seem to revert to the kind of hostility that characterised irrational religious mysticism. This kind of sloppy thinking has been evident in some of the 'eco-warriors' who seem to know more about trees than they do about other human beings and to care far less about women's lives and reproductive choices. Women and committed men have fought long and hard for real choices for women and to challenge inequalities of class and race which impact on those choices. The backlash against women's equality is well established with pickets and firebombings of abortion clinics and attacks and murders of clinic staff. Any failure by RESPECT to defend women's right to abortion is inexusable. Such a right must be a basic manifesto commitment of any movement claiming to represent progressive politics.

Heather Rutledge

I support this picket. Galloway is a great speaker on Iraq and
Palestine, but I was shocked when I read his views on abortion.
Readers of Indymedia may be interested to know that not every
member of the Socialist Alliance is happy about the way it is
being railroaded into the Respect Coalition. A sizeable minority
of us have formed the Democracy Platform because of a number of
concerns, including some about Galloway's lack of accountability
to his supporters and potential voters. Another principle which
the Respect Coalition are prepared to trash is the idea that
anyone elected should only accept a worker's wage. Galloway has
refused to accept this, so apparently it's expendable, just like
the principle of a woman's right to choose. No way could I vote
for an anti-abortion candidate let alone go out and canvass for
them.

To visit the Democracy Platform website go to:

 http://www.democracyplatform.org.uk

What people seem to be overlooking, lamentably, is the fact that none of these people will have any mandate whatsoever to legislate on any of this. These are simply personal views.

Respect has no policy on such matters.

I am an independent democratic socialist woman who has had an abortion only a couple of months ago. I value my right to choose. BUT, there is no way that I will make this a reason to undermine the creation of a left-wing alternative to Labour.

Within Respect, people should be able to have varying religious views and personal views on a number of things. Just as well as the right to be an atheist as I am.

Comrades, let us not get caught up with what may amount to trivia. There is a greater task ahead: an alternative to New Labour. Respect is a start down that road. Who knows what will come next, or where we will be in the end.

Yours Respectfully,

Jocelyn Darcy

For all the talk of Respect building a broad coalition of dissent, this coalition seems to consist of:

1. George Galloway
2. The Swup
3. A couple of other groups
4. Naff all else

The AWL and the CPB have refused to join. George Monbiot and Peter Tatchell have both announced that they're supporting the Greens instead.

This "coalition" is trying to be all things to all men, and winding up being nothing to anybody. No campaigning on women's rights or gay rights in case it offends the Muslim Association of Britain. Giving a platform to every yahoo with a lunatic fringe attitude - if it's not George Galloway opposing abortion and praising Hamas, it's Yvonne Ridley telling everyone about those charming and wonderful people, the Taliban. Just who the hell is all this supposed to appeal to?



An alternative to New Labour? The Respect coalition haven't even managed to be an alternative to the Greens, for God's sake!

I think the problem Jocelyn is that the people most likely to be elected nationally (George Galloway) or in Yorkshire (Anas Altikriti, ex MAB head and topping the list of the Yorkshire and Humberside RESPECT slate) WILL have power to legislate on these issues whether they have a mandate or not. Who's to stop them?

And gay marriage, abortion rights and many other sexuality and womens oppression issues are being increasingly challenged at the European level and in European countries. Its not like these questions won't come up.

George Galloway spoke tonite at the RESPECT meeting and while slating a woman who raised the issue (she also said he supported the death penalty which he says he doesnt) he ducked the question of how he would vote, simly saying it was his personal choice and that after the elections RESPECT would have a conference and there might be a policy.

Why should we elect people like that to power? Who have no accountabliity to the movement? That sort of organisation isn't an extension of the antiwar movement.

I agree with Simon who wrote before we need a new workers party that is clear on such issues as sexual liberation and womens oppression, doesn't sweep them under the carpet or say they are secondary. It needs to be based on the lessons of previous attempts at left electoral initiatives, from the Socialist Labour Party to the Socialist Alliance - ie it needs to be democratic, and build up towards founding something new by working together - not simply 6 bigwigs of the movement meeting at George Galloways house back in November 2003 and writing the programme for the new party and appointing themselves its leadership. How completely against the spirit of the antiwar movement.

That said i thought a picket is a bit over the top, i wouldn't have joined - at this point Galloway is hardly women's rights public enemy number 1 - why have these people decided to make a protest now, with RESPECT when there are so many other politicians who are worse? its just an AWL manouvre isn't it? Why not just go in and make the criticism (though there is a problem in that there is always an SWP chair and the left is deliberately carved out of these meetings, i put up my hand as did someone else from Workers Power and they took basically everyone except us - but a woman did get in who made those criticisms about abortion rights, just nobody could come back on it).

Er... Heather, have I really missed something...? Just where did your little rant about 'eco-warriors' come from? Maybe it was a joke, it certainly seemed ill-informed as well as going off on a tangent. Are not female 'eco-warriors' able to have an opinion on what happens to their bodies?

I have joined and am voting for Respect not because some executive group put together a nice looking manifesto, but because there are many Respect candidates who are willing to commit to dumping the present undemocratic political process as is in the other mainstream parties and replace it with an alternative of 'direct democracy'. Where the local constituency formulates and decides the agenda concerning youth, women, students, working people...etc Where it is these collectives of society themselves (women, youth, students, working people, etc...) who formulate the agenda for once, not some party executive as is the case in other mainstream parties. It is up to these collectives to select and elect a representative to uphold this single united agenda with the power to recall this representative at any time should we decide he/she is not upholding our agenda. Thus the political agenda is set directly by the people of a region, at the grass roots, truly representing the interests of British society. Not like New Labour, LibDem or Green, where some executive body entices my trust or in the case of New Labour entirely serves the interest of multi-national corporations which sponsor their political campaigns. It is time we have direct democracy and we decide where and how our hard earned tax money is spent.

So on women's issues, let the majority of women in the region where I live decide how they choose to live and the political framework/direction which supports them. Let them select and elect the candidate for our constituency along with other collectives. A representative that will act as their servant to uphold their collective interests, harmonising it with the other collectives of society. I am supporting Respect because I refuse to merely place a tick against the lesser evil, of which I have had no input, but now can dictate along with the rest of my constituency the direction our Respect candidate should take. Where for once we dictate the political direction, not some party executive. Democracy from below, not dictated from above. Respect is empowering change, and I am going to have my direct say as to what that change should be!

I live in Bethnal Green & Bow constituency and am a gay, white, man. Over the years I and friends of mine have been at various times threatened with death by radical moslems, chased by gangs, ambushed and beaten up, had threats made to our homes and families and exposed to rampant homophobia in local shops (refusing to serve us) on the street (verbal abuse) and intolerance and persecution - you should see how hard Tower Hamlets Council make any planning or licensing application by a known gay run business.

I have seen George Galloway's voting record and he did not turn up to take part in ANY gay right vote. There was one vote on un-married couples adopting children in which he did attend but this was not a specific gay-rights motion.

Enough said. I am sticking with the Lib Dems.