Respect Party

The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left socialist 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 (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen councillors in local government.

The Respect Party was established in London by Salma Yaqoob and George Monbiot. Arising in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, 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 the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), a far-left, Marxist group. In 2005, Respect's candidate George Galloway was elected MP for Bethnal Green and Bow and the party came second in three other constituencies. Respect 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 its council seats and it deregistered with the Electoral Commission in 2016.

Avowedly socialist and opposed to capitalism, Respect 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 Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Due to its links with MAB, several commentators claimed that Islamism was a component of its ideology and regarded 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 opposition to the Iraq War and disenchantment among leftist voters with the governing Labour Party.

The political scientists Matthew Goodwin and Robert Ford characterised Respect as a "broad coalition of left-wing interests" which had arisen in opposition to the New Labour government and the UK's involvement in the invasion of Iraq. Other political scientists characterised the party as far-left. The socialist activist Tariq Ali characterised the party's programme as being social democratic in orientation. Eran Benedek described the party as "an amalgamation of radical international socialism and Islamism", adding that its radical socialist position was informed by Marxism–Leninism and Trotskyism.

Benedek characterised it as a manifestation of what Amir Taheri called the "Marxist-Islamist coalition", which united around opposition to the United States, a desire to destroy the state of Israel, and a wish to overthrow international capitalism. Similarly, Emmanuel Karagiannis characterised the party as "the epitome" of the "convergence" between radical left and Islamist groups in Western Europe, and Nick Cohen described it as an "alliance ... between the Trotskyist far left and the Islamic far right".

The party's policies have been described as "traditionally leftist and anti-capitalist". Respect encouraged the nationalisation of many sectors of the economy, including the railways, water, gas, electricity, and the North Sea oil industry. It urged a substantial increase in corporation tax in order to increase funding to public services. It sought to overturn what it described as "anti-trade union" legislation, and to introduce policies to deal with issues of poverty and discrimination. Respect promoted revolutionary socialism and international socialism. The party was largely hostile to Western capitalism and neoliberalism, and interpreted many world events through the prism of anti-imperialism, calling for an end to what it characterised as imperialist wars like that in Iraq. Respect was anti-globalization, believing that it resulted in the exploitation of the working class. It also expressed a Eurosceptic approach to the European Union, deeming the Union to be lacking in democracy and exploitative toward the working class.

Respect was anti-Zionist and, according to Benedek, rejected "the right to independent Jewish statehood in Israel". It presented this position through the terminology of social justice and human rights. One of its core principles was stated support for the Palestinian people and opposition to what Respect described as "the apartheid system that oppresses them". It was constitutionally committed to supporting the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the boycotting of Israel. It calls for Israel to withdraw from any land conquered in 1967, and for the right of return to be granted to all Palestinians forced to move on the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. On its website and published fliers, it included maps of the Levant in which the entirety of Israel was labelled "Occupied Palestine". In 2017, the party's website asserts: "Respect supports the idea of a democratic bi-national solution of one state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea in which all people, Jews, Muslims and Christians live equally; one man, one woman, one vote" and says British foreign policy should recognise Britain's "partial responsibility for the problem by their participation in the creation of the state of Israel".

According to the party's national council member Yvonne Ridley, speaking at London's Imperial College in February 2006, Respect "is a Zionist-free party... if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out."