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Weekly Worker 544 Thursday September 16 2004
Respect
East End success
Confounding
claims that Respect is only capable of pulling in muslim ‘communalist’
support, the Socialist Workers Party’s Paul McGarr picked up 635
votes (26.69%) in the September 9 Millwall by-election, finishing second
behind the Tories.
Millwall has one of the lowest proportional muslim and ethnic minority
populations in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, and in the June 10
GLA elections this seemed to be reflected in a very poor result for the
unity coalition (the third worst in east London). Usually Millwall returns
a Labour councillor, but, in a complete turnaround, the Tories took their
first seat in the borough and Labour was relegated into third place in
this ward with its large white, working class majority.
While the Conservatives were jubilant at taking an inner-city seat, Labour
was furious at what it described as Respect’s splitting of the anti-Tory
vote. Since Respect won 64 more votes than Labour, however, its supporters
were able to turn this allegation on its feet.
This second success in Tower Hamlets comes hot on the heels of Oliur Rahman’s
victory just a month earlier in St Dunstans and Stepney Green, with its
clear majority of voters of migrant origin, who are mainly muslim. “This
means that we have a good chance of taking these seats in the general
election,” said comrade McGarr in a press statement, while his SWP
comrade John Rees, Respect’s national secretary, said that the coalition
is now the “main opposition” in Tower Hamlets.
Of course, replicating such good results over a much wider area, when
Respect’s forces will necessarily be spread much thinner, makes a
general election victory much more difficult. Nevertheless Millwall shows
that Respect, with its anti-war, anti-privatisation, anti-cuts platform,
is where communists must operate in order to fight for a consistent, working
class programme amongst those attracted to it.
Comrade McGarr was studiously unavailable for interview by the Weekly
Worker earlier this week.
Peter Manson
Millwall result
| Party | Votes | Percentage |
| Conservative | 828 | 34.80% |
| Respect | 635 | 26.69% |
| Labour | 571 | 24.00% |
| Independent | 195 | 8.20% |
| Liberal Democrat | 150 | 6.30% |
See also related Respect articles from this week's issue:
