There is one and only one issue – Labour’s Silence on Genocide in Gaza and the Attack on Rafah
Whatever else you can say about George Galloway he is not without controversy. Politically he has a long record of forming alliances and then falling out with his partners – whether it is the SWP in Respect or the Stalinist Communists Party of Great Britain – Marxist Leninist in his Workers Party.
I say ‘his’ because the Workers Party revolves around George. It is very much his baby and it is highly unlikely that the membership would overrule him on any major issue or indeed have the means to do so.
This is what war criminals Keir Starmer & Peter Kyle Support
George is politically eclectic. He is a brilliant speaker, an old-fashioned orator in an age when the leader of the Labour Party freezes like a rabbit caught in a car’s headlights whenever anyone gets to challenge him as Audrey White did when Starmer ventured into Liverpool.
George is not someone that socialists find easy to support. He is anti-abortion for a start and dismissive of issues of sexual orientation and sexual oppression – all of which he puts into a basket called ‘wokery’. There is a distinct impression that he panders to some very basic prejudices such as homophobia and transphobia in the belief th at if you ignore these issues then you will get basic workers’ unity.
Likewise George’s attitude to race which is most evidenced in his failure to oppose the Tories scapegoating of asylum seekers. George disgracefully attacked the SNP for having supported demonstrators in Glasgow who freed two refugees who were seized by the Home Office’s Border Unit.
He was also vehemently pro-Brexit and was quite prepared to support a racist like Nigel Farage. Indeed he tried to become a candidate in the European elections for the Brexit Party.
He even formed an alliance in Scotland with Tories and that he even shared a platform with David Clews, a member of the Patriotic Alternative.
Deserted!
So what are his pluses?
George has been a consistent anti-imperialist and was expelled from the Labour Party as an MP for opposing the Iraq War. When summoned to Congress to address allegations regarding oil sanctions he turned in a fine and memorable performance.
On the issue of Palestine George also has a good record. There was a time when he supported the two-state solution. I know because I debated the issue with him at my old college St Mary’s in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. But as he later admitted I was right and he was wrong on this.
So I understand why it is that many people refuse to support Galloway because of his de facto alliance with racists and reactionaries.
Letter in the Scottish National from anti-racist campaigner Mark Brown
However the by-election in Rochdale is not about Galloway but what he stands for on the one key issue in Britain and indeed the world. US and British imperialism’s support for the genocide in Gaza. All other issues pale by comparison. The lives of thousands of Palestinians hang in the balance at this moment and Galloway’s disgraceful opportunism over refugees, Brexit and Farage are minor by comparison.
Galloway and only Galloway is able to win this election. If Galloway wins the election it won’t be his previous positions that are highlighted in Britain against the racist imperialists Sunak and Starmer but his position on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
This is the key dividing line in British politics. It is the most crucial issue that we face today. It would be utter sectarianism for anyone on the left to ignore this. We cannot choose who our representatives are sometimes. Galloway’s victory will be a victory for the Palestinians. What he thinks about Brexit or refugees is frankly irrelevant at this time.
A defeat for Starmer’s candidate, Azhar Ali is now certain now that the Labour Party has withdrawn its support for him, allegedly over his ‘anti-Semitic’ comments about Israel having been forewarned of the October attacks but in reality because of the realisation that he was going to lose.
We need Galloway’s victory to make it crystal clear to that apology for a human being, the robotic Keir Starmer that support for genocide is unacceptable.
GENOCIDE IN GAZA IS THE ONLY ISSUE IN THE ROCHDALE BY-ELECTION
