One of the most vibrant debates was over Respect’s position on the proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill.
Respect reaffirmed its commitment to opposing homophobia.
The discussion around Respect’s policy on climate change was a lively one, dealing with issues such as nuclear power, renewable energy and carbon emissions trading.
It’s an exciting and very busy time for the left in Tower Hamlets. Having George Galloway as our MP has galvanised opposition to New Labour. He has become a lightning rod for anger across the East End.
The lives of young women today are incomparable to that of their grandmothers in terms of work, expectations and sexual freedom. Yet, women are still oppressed.
Like most people educated in Britain, I was taught that the Tory ruling class that had opposed votes for women so vehemently nevertheless produced the first woman MP in 1919 — Nancy Astor.
The two weeks of rioting across France have seen extraordinary confrontations between young people and the police.
Thirty years ago, on 20 November 1975, Spain’s dictator General Francisco Franco died. The last of the dictators from the 1930s, he left behind him 36 years of terror and misery.
The events in France over the last three weeks are more than a riot — they are an urban uprising on a scale not seen in Western Europe since the Second World War.
‘We’ve rioted because of racism and exclusion," Isaac, from Saint-Denis, told Socialist Worker. "The government’s reaction is useless. Instead of hearing the real problems, they’re trying to fix something else."
The riots in France have exacerbated the deep crisis facing all the country’s civic and political institutions. Many commentators have claimed this demonstrates a failure of the "French model of society", as if everything could be sorted out simply by prescribing more social programmes and rethinking what "citizenship" means. But this underestimates the situation.
"We don’t burn our neighbours’ cars — we get them from elsewhere, then bring them here and burn them," says Hassan from Aulnay-sous-Bois. "About 30 cars a night are getting torched on this estate. The authorities come at about six in the morning and take them away — they don’t want these images to be seen abroad."
