'Respect' and George Galloway

Galloway on rape: not an aberration

George Galloway's comments on rape, in connection with the Assange controversy, have outraged many on the left who have not paid much attention to Galloway before. That is good. They have even sparked criticism, perhaps opportunistic, from some whose general stance over the years has been to defend Galloway and promote him as a leader of the left. But what is important to understand is that Galloway's latest outbursts are not an aberration, but entirely consistent with his broader politics. In terms of economic policy, Galloway was never better than a middle-of-the-road Labour careerist. His...

Why did Hudson stand down, and not Galloway?

Kate Hudson, candidate for George Galloway's Respect party in the upcoming Manchester Central by-election, has withdrawn. "I cannot in all conscience, stand as candidate for a party whose only MP has made unacceptable and un-retracted statements about the nature of rape. To continue as Respect Party candidate in this situation, no matter how much I object to and oppose his statements personally, would be in effect to condone what he has said". She was responding to Galloway's comment on the charges brought by two women in Sweden against Julian Assange, that "even taken at its worst, if the...

Missed chances in May 3 polls?

Tory MP Nadine Dorries said it: the Government is led by “two arrogant posh boys who show no remorse, no contrition, and no passion to want to understand the lives of others”. As council elections and referenda on whether cities want elected mayors approach on 3 May, Labour has at last begun to pull ahead in the polls, leading the Tories by a margin variously estimated between 7% and 13%. It would be much more if Labour’s leaders campaigned properly against the Tory cuts and against those whom Ed Miliband rightly calls “the predators”. But for 3 May Labour council candidates are saying they...

A Galloway spring?

Many on the left have seized on George Galloway's startling by-election victory in Bradford West (29 March) as proof that the recently-slowing trickle of left-of-Labour electioneering can now become a surge. Socialist Worker (14 April) suggested: “The Galloway effect could now ripple across the country. Imagine if on 3 May Respect won council seats in Bradford while elsewhere radical left candidates such as Michael Lavalette [SWP] and Dave Nellist [Socialist Party] won their seats. This would provide a platform for the left as whole to regroup and create a serious left of Labour alternative”...

The “second coming” of George Galloway

Some parts of the left have greeted Respect’s success in Bradford West with what can properly be described as religious enthusiasm. Writing over the Easter weekend on Britain’s most widely read socialist blog, one long-time activist even described the spectacular by-election overturn as “the second coming”. What George Galloway — a politician who frequently plays on his Catholic devotion — makes of such implicit comparisons between him and Christ, I cannot guess. But while his victory may not be quite the equivalent of walking on water, the sheer scale of what was achieved is beyond dispute...

Galloway victory in Bradford is not a victory for the left

The landslide victory of George Galloway in Bradford West has been hailed by many on the left as a “victory” for our side. Tony Mulhearn of the Socialist Party — and Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate for mayor of Liverpool — writes “I applaud George Galloway's victory”. Anindya Bhattacharyya writes on the Socialist Worker website that “his win is a boost for the left in Britain”. Meanwhile the Labour Party leadership has thrown itself into a fake “soul searching” exercise, promising to reflect on the defeat and learn the lessons. Such a tactic dodges the need for real...

George Galloway: a fighter for Celtic fans?

In his first electoral outing after being expelled from the Labour Party (Respect, 2004) George Galloway promoted himself as “a fighter for Muslims”. Trying again in Scotland on 5 May, he now pitches himself as the champion of... Celtic fans. Shamefully, some of the Scottish left are backing him. http://bit.ly/meN0TA

Scottish left is in a story state

Calling for a Labour vote, combined with rebuilding the left and pushing the unions to assert themselves politically, is the only serious left policy in Scottish Parliamentary elections on 5 May. That is not because the Labour campaign, or the Labour Party’s policies, are good. The Scottish Tories will be lucky to hang on to a handful of seats. In the Holyrood elections the basic question is: do you want a Labour or an SNP government (or some kind of coalition with one of those parties at its core)? The SNP does not claim to be a socialist party. But the policies on which it is contesting the...

George Galloway stands for the people? No, just for himself!

“We should get George Galloway elected so he’s a voice which stands up for people in this city. He will stand against the cuts,” said Socialist Party Scotland member Brian Smith at the press conference held last week to formally launch “George Galloway (Respect) – Coalition Against Cuts” (GRC). The GRC is an electoral bloc involving Galloway, the Socialist Party Scotland (SPS), the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), and some organisationally unaligned members of “Solidarity – Scotland’s Socialist Movement” (set up in 2006 when the SPS, the SWP and Tommy Sheridan split from the Scottish Socialist...

George Galloway, Gaddafi and other Arab dictators

In a recent episode of his weekly radio programme – broadcast from Dubai, where he was holidaying in the “One and Only Royal Mirage Hotel” – Galloway explained his dilemma. “Somebody said to me in the hotel breakfast room this morning, here in Dubai: ‘Well, your friend’s getting a hard time in Libya.’ I asked him just exactly what he meant by that. And it seems that he’d confused his Arab dictators. Either that or he’d confused me with Tony Blair, who is of course Gaddafi’s new best friend.” (1) Galloway tells the same anecdote on the “Respect” website: “Last week at a breakfast in Dubai, an...

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