RESPECT? Are they having a laugh?
NOVANEWS
Sunday 25 January saw the formal launch, amid much fanfare, of George Galloway and the SWP’s new project, the Respect Unity Coalition, rather unfortunately abbreviated to RUC. RESPECT, we are told, is itself an acronym, which stands for ‘respecting equality, socialism, peace, environmentalism, community and trade unionism’.
In the run-up to the launch, the ‘unity coalition’ aspect of the new group’s name was more emphasised, perhaps in response to Ken Livingstone’s threat of legal action, since Respect is also the name of London’s annual anti-racism festival. While Galloway has dismissed this threat as trivial and insulting (“Nobody can confuse an annual festival with a ballot paper for an election. He obviously feels his electors are morons”), it is notable that any mention of t...