Two Years Ago in Rochdale You Said that Gaza was the Main Issue – What Has Changed? The Genocide is Still Continuing
In March 2024 at the count in the Rochdale
by-election, which Galloway won with a stunning 40% of the vote, he said
that Gaza was the main issue.
Now however the issue is not Gaza or Genocide or Zionism.
Galloway is reported as saying
that his decision to stand as a candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras
by-election is his differences with Zack Polanski over Ukraine and trans-rights.
Gaza and Israel’s blitzkrieg in the Middle East has been forgotten. It seems
that the real issue is George’s huge ego and his inability to stay out of the
limelight.
Chris Williamson was right to resign
as Deputy Leader of the Workers Party of Britain. The only choice in the
election is between Polanski of the Green Party and Sagal Abdi-Wali, of the Labour
Party. There is no other choice.
As The Standard said,
Polanski has gained a huge boost from the backing of Andrew Feinstein, the former
ANC MP and socialist who gained 7,312
votes in 2024 against the notorious liar, the unlamented Keir Starmer. Whereas
Andrew gained 18.9% of the vote Starmer, despite being the incumbent Prime
Minister, had a swing of 17.3% against him.
Polanski is clearly the anti-Genocide candidate standing
against Labour’s genocide supporting candidate. For Galloway to stand, when it
is clear he is going to get a derisory vote on a par with the 1.4% and 489
votes he obtained
in Tom Watson’s old seat of West Bromwich East in 2019, or perhaps the 0.5% and
164 votes that Peter Ford of the Workers Party obtained in the 2025 by-election
in Runcorn, demonstrates that Galloway’s hatred of the Green Party, or is it Polanski,
is greater than his hatred of the Labour Party.
1.4% may be the difference between Polanski winning
and losing. Galloway has always said that Palestine is for him the key issue
yet here he is threatening to help the party of genocide, the Labour Party, win
the election.
The reality is that Galloway’s primary concern has
always been himself. He has never subordinated his own ego to the greater good.
How can he be serious and say that trans rights is the main issue? This is an issue that divides the left. It is
an issue that the right-wing has campaigned on vociferously demonising anyone
who doesn’t fit into the binary of male or female.
Given the attacks of Trump, Sunak and the far-right
against transgender people one would expect anyone serious about left politics
not to join in trans-baiting.
George Galloway: Children shouldn’t be taught that gay relationships are “normal”. pic.twitter.com/GCZzL5kKcv
— Novara Media (@novaramedia) May 1, 2024
Galloway has always had a bad record on issues of
sexuality. In an interview with Novara Media Galloway said:
“I don’t want my children prematurely sexualised at all, I don’t want them taught that some things are normal when their parents don’t believe that they’re normal.”
He has opposed gay sex being treated as normal in
the context of sex education in schools.
He has also had the Tate brothers on his Moats show. Andrew and Tristan Tate are notorious for building a massive online following by promoting extreme misogyny, hyper-masculinity, and luxury lifestyles, alongside facing criminal charges including human trafficking, rape, and sexual exploitation.
It is no surprise that
Galloway finds the Tate brothers attractive, despite Andrew Tate being removed
from Big Brother in 2016 after a video showed him attacking a woman with a
belt.
The jury is out on
whether Galloway can even be described as on the left. He made his name as a
firebrand in Scotland, Chair of the Scottish Labour Party and the person who ousted
Roy Jenkins of the SDP from his Glasgow Hillhead seat in 1997. He has represented
4 different constituencies including Bradford West, Bethnal Green and Bow and
last of all Rochdale.
His attitude to refugees
and asylum seekers has been little different to the far-right. In May 2021
hundreds of Glaswegians prevented the thugs of Priti Patel’s snatch squads from
seizing and deporting refugees by surrounding their van. Nicola Sturgeon
supported them. But Galloway vented
his spleen instead against those who freed the refugees rather than the racist
Priti Patel and the Home Office:
“A devolved assembly has openly and unlawfully defied the implementation of a UK government decision,”
Galloway indulged in what Mark Brown described
as ‘bilious refugee baiting.’
Galloway has always has been a bitter opponent of
Scottish devolution and independence. This ‘bilious unionism’ perhaps explains
his support for Brexit and his attempt to
stand for the Brexit Party of Nigel Farage. Although according to The Spectator
he has now
changed his mind and supports independence for Scotland.
At the time of the 2016 referendum over Brexit he
appeared on the same platform as Nigel Farage and compared
their relationship to that between Winston Churchill and Stalin. Galloway’s
high points – his confrontation
with US Senators over Iraq and the Rochdale by-election are unfortunately
matched by his low points such as support for the Brexit party in the 2019 European
elections.
Perhaps the only principle he has maintained
throughout his career is support for George Galloway. One can only hope that he
has second thoughts and doesn’t end up supporting the party of Genocide in
Gaza, the Labour Party.
I have therefor written an Open Letter to Galloway in the hope that he will reconsider his egotistical decision to stand.
Tony Greenstein
No such thing as "trans-baiting" since no such thing as a material state of being "transgender". It is ridiculous. Pure misogynist idealist nonsense. At your age, you should know better than to engage in this nonsense. This is liberal insanity and not a socialist issue. Men parading their fetishistic and predatory behavior in public is unacceptable. So at least Galloway is correct about THAT.
ReplyDeleteNo Galloway is not correct about transgender people who were also persecuted by the Nazis. You have to get over your fake Marxism. There are people who don't fit easily into the binary of male and female and whose gender identity is at variance with the biological sex. That is a historic fact however much you pretend otherwise.
DeleteIt is no accident that the Right and people like Trump have demonised and singled out transgender people and it is unacceptable when so-called socialists do the same.
The same nonsense you spout used to be said about homosexuality. Militant and other Trotskyist groups, to say nothing of official Communism and Stalinism said much the same as you now say about trans people. They were wrong then and you are wrong now.
If people want to believe their a different sex then what they were at birth that's up to them, and if they prefer to be referred to as that then fine, but the problems when it's forced on everyone else, as well as trans women competing in women's sport, using women's spaces, including prisons, and pushes it on children. That is a problem Tony.
DeleteYou assume that there are only 2 sexes and that some people cannot have traits of both or that some people are born into a different sex from that which they identify with. It's not true that there are just 2 sexes and nothing else. Trans people have existed since time immemorial and this conservative ideology of only 2 sexes plays into patriarchal family ideology
DeleteThanks Tony. Isn't Galloway on record as saying something like "the Arabs or Palestinians are a lost cause" ?
ReplyDeleteYou're correct about his ego. He does have a point in some of what he says regarding sexuality and identity politics, and when he made that comment about gay relationships, as poorly delivered as it was, I read it in a literal sense, not as a value judgement. Having said that, he's likely to be doing all that in an attempt to build a left populist party by trying to do what he thinks will appeal to people.
The cpgb-ml, who no longer associate with George, are much better at how they explain the phenomenon of identity politics - they sharply criticise it and warn workers against it, but unlike some of the social democratic left, they don't then proceed to spend every breath talking about it. They've also been consistent on Palestine, as well.as Ukraine, and the anti fascist international, which Williamson was speaking at the other day, does seem like the way to go compared to the more institutional left organizations like PSC, SUTR and Stop The War etc.
Brilliantly said Tony. Every word.
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ReplyDeleteI remember when Galloway was the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow. He lost the seat back to Labour because he was a lazy constituency MP. He have little time for his working class constituents whatever they were white British or Bangladeshi. He was mainly interested in giving interviews to newspapers and producing headlines.
I am prepared to bet that he lost the seats at Bradford and Roachdale for exactly the same reasons.
Since his time as MP at Bethnal Green and Bow, I lost all respect for Galloway.
Solidarity with Chris Williamson for doing the right thing. I have friends that joined the Workers Party because Chris was its Deputy Leader. I have already hearing of them leaving the Workers Party. Hence, with a bit of luck no so "gorgeous George" will be a one man band, and perhaps will get the message.
Well one Tony. I am shocked at his decision to stand and hope he listens to you.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Tony. G G is doing a great disservice to the Palestinian cause by this misguided initiative - Holborn & St Pancras is entirely the wrong constituency to realise his cherished aim of returning to parliament. He should wait until the next GE when there will be more realistic prospects. This stunt will damage the GG brand, particularly if it serves to let the genocide party in
ReplyDeleteGalloway knows he isn't going to win. He is happy with ensuring that Polanski doesn't either.
DeleteMy dis-illusion with George has been slow in coming - mainly because I only evr paid attention to his decades long support of Palestine. But this really is the final straw. Don't do it George!
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent letter Tony. I do hope that George takes heed of your comments.
ReplyDeleteWell said Tony. 'Self praise is no recommendation' as far as GGG goes. He is too arrogant and flip flops more than he should.
ReplyDeleteWell said Tony
ReplyDeleteBrilliant and analytical letter Tony! Galloway has exposed himself as an egocentric gutter politician that defies description. He will go to bed with anyone yet highlights his distaste for transgender people. Above all he is pathetic and a troublemaker whose ego transcends any priority to end the endless genocide on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Has he no shame? Hopefully, if he does stand he will get zero votes.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about the Workers Party Committee selecting GG instead of Hoz?
ReplyDeleteYou might be better off building bridges, after all didn't you support the US head-choppers against Assad?
ReplyDeleteNot true at all Advocatus Diaboli. I have never supported HTS or Al Sharara or whatever he calls himself.
DeleteProbably Galloway's greatest fault is his flirtation with Putin.
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding the disgraceful political interference in Ukraine by the US and UK prior to the election of Zelenski, there are many similarities between those defending or making excuses for Putin and those defending Netanyahu.
The foolish idea promoted by Galloway and other Russophiles is that Putin was provoked because of NATO expansion. NATO doesn't tout for membership, countries make their own applications to join because of perceived existential threats. Even if this were the case, which it isn't, if a neighbour upsets you, you don't have any justification for bombing their house and killing them and their family. NATO's problem is the US is a member.
Even before the invasion, Russian officials gave the game away. Remember Prigozhin? He famously stated that the Kremlin's official narrative about NATO aggression was completely fabricated. Boris Bondarev, a long term Russian diplomat, condemned the aggressive war as a crime and heavily criticized the Kremlin's manufactured narrative regarding NATO expansion.
In his February 2022 invasion speech, Putin claimed that Russian-speakers in the Donbas had faced eight years of "humiliation and genocide" by the government in Kyiv. International bodies and independent observers found no evidence to support this claim. Despite Putin's claim, when it suited him Putin bombed and obliterated many of the towns and people he falsely claimed he wanted to protect
The problem Jack is that "the disgraceful political interference in Ukraine by the US and UK prior to the election of Zelenski" directly led to the invasion. In the intervening 8 years NATO became embedded in Ukraine, training its Azov brigade and other militias.
DeleteRussian language rights were abolished after 2014 and I don't accept that the expansion of NATO to the borders of Russia is irrelevant nor that NATO doesn't invite states to join informally. After all that was the reason behind the 2014 Maiden coup.
I don't hold a candle for Putin unlike George. He is a reactionary nationalist but I see the war as essentially defensive and now a NATO proxy war
Tony, I agree with you fully in your expose of George Galloway's abandonment of the principled position, 'This is for Gaza' and his ongoing drift to the right. You could have added reference to his infamous interview on GB News when he called for the Royal Navy to be deployed against migrant boats, whose desperate passengers of course include Palestinians fleeing genocide (https://www.gbnews.com/politics/george-galloway-calls-to-stop-migrants-manifesto-launch). But I wonder, are you unconditionally calling for a vote for the Greens, whilst it persecutes pro-Palestinian members of its own Party, (or an expelled ex-member, in your own case)? How does that persecution square with unequivocality in opposing the genocide. Was Andrew Feinstein right to stand aside whilst that graceful witchhunt by the Green Party leadership is taking place?
ReplyDeleteI have covered in other blogs Galloway's outrageous suggestion that the navy be used against migrants. It is a total capitulation to the racism of Reform and those who want to distract peoples' attentions from the neo-liberal heist of our economy and the theft that privatisation represents.
DeleteYes I'm calling for an unconditional vote for Polanski because the alternative is Labour. We are also fighting my expulsion and the suspensions. One is not dependent on another although they are linked politically. Yes Andrew Feinstein was right to stand aside and I understand Andrew also did that for health reasons.
Tony, can't you see the contradiction? The left, myself included, abhore all wars but some then go on to accept Putin's claim that he was provoked. This is a double standard. Many international bodies and observers, including th ICJ, have debunked Putin's excuses. The bottom line is that if Putin had not invaded Ukraine, millions of Russians and Ukrainians would not have been killed.
DeleteAn excellent article, Tony. Like many of us, I knew GG wasn’t perfect and people were critical of him for assorted reasons but I always thought the core of his being was essentially good but now I am bitterly disappointed by his self-centred position.
ReplyDelete