Respect Party leader Salma Yaqoob quits blaming 'breakdown in trust'

[struggle4progress]

11 September 2012 Last updated at 17:31 ET

Respect Party leader Salma Yaqoob has resigned and quit the party, blaming a "breakdown in trust" at senior levels.

She was highly critical of recent comments by Respect MP George Galloway about rape and the case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

She did not refer to that, but said the last few weeks had been "extremely difficult" for the party and for her.

Ms Yaqoob said her decision had been taken with "deep regret" but "collaborative working" had ceased ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19565100

[a geek named Bob]

1. okay...

We Get It...

You don't like Assange.

Most of your work reads like a primer in propaganda.

[struggle4progress]

2. Uh ... the post is a four paragraph excerpt from a BBC piece on the Respect Party

[a geek named Bob]

3. Which had nothing to do with your choice of said article...

After all... You are merely a valiant and questing impartial traveler on the path to truth...

[T_i_B]

4. Since when was Respect simply a pro-Assange pressure group?

If that's the mentality of the party right now then I don't blame Salma Yaqoob for leaving them.

Especially in the light of George Galloway's dubious definition of rape.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Galloway is a complete prat.

In 2007, I said on DU that if he were in a party of one, he'd find a way of splitting it; and this still seems to be the case. If your own party leader resigns because of you, there is something wrong with your political actions!

Galloway has an attraction for some people because mainstream politicians have let the country down in many ways, and since Blair got in, this has included much of the Labour leadership. We did and do need left-wing opposition to the likes of Blair and his pals, both on foreign policy and economic/public services issues. But Galloway is not the one to provide this effectively, and has demonstrated this many times, from expressing support for the Musharraf coup in 1999, to taking time out of Parliament to appear on Celebrity Big Brother, to working for PressTV. Galloway was right to be against the Iraq war, and some of his critics have their own questionable motives, but nonetheless he is a dreadful politician in most ways.

[tjwmason]

6. That seems a fair summary to me.

Can't disagree with anything you've written there at all.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

9. Agreed

Something good might have come out of RESPECT had Galloway not treated it as has personal vanity project.

[struggle4progress]

7. ... "I remain committed to the principles and values that led me to help found Respect. The policies

"I remain committed to the principles and values that led me to help found Respect. The policies we have fought for need to be voiced as loud as ever in opposition to a political establishment that remains out of touch with working people.

"I would like to thank everyone in the party for their support over the years; I wish everyone the very best for the future and in those common struggles for peace, justice and equality that I am sure we will all continue to be involved in" ...

The move also robs Respect of a vital bridge between its two main sets of supporters, anti-war Muslims and far leftists. Yaqoob, who wore a hijab and had impeccable left-wing credentials, was an inclusive and telegenic presence at the top of the party. Without her, it will be seen as almost entirely a vehicle of Galloway, with all the controversy that entails.

Galloway rape comments tears Respect party apart
Salma Yaqoob was an inclusive and telegenic figure at the top of the party.
Wednesday, 12 September 2012 9:38 AM
By Ian Dunt
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2012/09/12/galloway-rape-comments-tears-respect-party-apart

[struggle4progress]

8. Galloway refuses to apologise at Muslim women's meeting over Assange rape remark

... The Bradford West MP last night faced a meeting of the Muslim Women’s Council Bradford Circle where he was quizzed over comments he has made in podcasts and on Twitter and how he was representing them ...

... Bradford Circle’s chairman Bana Gora said: “A lot of people came here today expecting a public apology and George made it perfectly clear that was not what he wanted to do and he would not do that ...

Mr Galloway said ... “That is the context of my remarks. I cannot and will not apologise for what I said, for what I said – not for what The Sun said I said – because it’s my belief. Now, I may well forfeit your political support as a result, but I do not do things to win political support.”

Mr Galloway refused to comment about the resignation of Respect Party national leader Salma Yaqoob. He also faced criticism about his use of the term “window-licker” in a heated Twitter exchange ...

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/9925682.Galloway_refuses_to_apologise_at_Muslim_women_s_meeting_over_Assange_rape_remark/

[struggle4progress]

10. George Galloway refuses to apologise to constituents over rape comments

Speaking in Bradford, the Respect MP repeats assertions that the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had been 'set up'
Martin Wainwright
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 September 2012 18.51 EDT

... The maverick politician confronted members of the Muslim Women's Circle in his Bradford West constituency with repeated assertions that the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is wanted for questioning about alleged sexual assault in Sweden, had been "set up" by agents of the United States government.

He began a session with an unusually depleted audience at the normally packed meetings, which have recently included debates with Labour leader Ed Miliband and the former Conservative party co-chair Lady Sayeeda Warsi, by saying: "No means no, no never means yes", but refused to withdraw any of the comments he made in a podcast last month. These included references to "really bad manners" and "bad sexual etiquette", which have appalled campaigners against the sexual abuse of women.

Galloway told the meeting: "I cannot and will not apologise for what I said. Every word in my podcast, I stand by. I do not talk loosely about matters such as these." He argued that the context of Assange being targeted by a vengeful Washington administration for exposing the brutality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was the all-important context to his remarks that critics had overlooked.

"Rape is a vile crime. Mass murder is worse," he said. "The invasion and occupation of one Muslim country after another by the United States is even worse. Julian Assange has been set up by a government which is determined to see him serving 50 years of penal servitude in solitary confinement – conditions which amount to mental torture. I am speaking out against that and will continue to do so" ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/12/george-galloway-constituents-rape-comments?newsfeed=true