Respect and Tolerance, Coalition against Racism

Respect party in England is a coalition left wing party, which had used the issue of the Iraq war for mobilization of its votes. It was created in January 2004, one year after the Iraq war started on March 20, 2003.

Coalition against racism

Beyond the issue of Iraq, Respect coalition has attempted to have a broad socialistic agenda, and provide an inclusive and broad-based alternative to the parties indulging in occupation, war and privatization.

Respect – the unity coalition

Respect – the unity coalition, was originally launched as a coalition between the Salma Yaqoob, of Birmingham chair for the Stop the War Coalition, and George Monbiot, journalist of The Guardian. The Socialist Alliance belonging to the National Council supported the Respect coalition, until the dissolution of the Alliance. Until being expelled by the labor Party in 2010, George Galloway was the only Member of Parliament in the Respect Party. Though the media frequently assumes George Galloway to be the party leader, the party policy and constitution do not claim to have a leader. Rather, it is run mostly by a national council that is elected. A full list of the elected national council members is available on http://www.respectcoalition.org/, which is the official website for the Respect party. In the register of political parties, Respect: the unity coalition is listed with Salma Yaqoob as the leader. Salma Yaqoob was earlier known as Nick Wrack and Linda Smith.

Yvonne Ridley

Yvonne Ridley is a member of Respect unity coalition since 2006. She had come to prominence in 2001, when she had been captured by the Taliban and kept a prisoner for eleven days in Afghanistan, when she was a war correspondent and had crossed the border into Afghanistan, without visa or passport. The former official yvonne ridley 2005 election site, here at http://www.respectcoalition.org/, depicts her as one whole new breed of female war correspondents.