'Respect' and George Galloway

The Corbyn-exit story: probably fabrication, surely dead-end

According to the Telegraph and the Daily Mail , Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle is thinking of quitting the Labour Party and standing Corbyn as an independent in Islington North in the general election likely in 2023 or 2024. It looks like malicious “stirring “by those papers. The Corbynista blog Skwawkbox claims Labour right-wingers have been feeding those Tory papers. Though Skwawkbox is unreliable, that is plausible. An exit would be a foolish move by Corbyn. His feeble “Peace and Justice Project“ does not provide the groundwork for a new party. Corbyn might gain local support (he has a good...

Regroupment among the "absolute anti-Zionists"

Two organisations proscribed by the Labour Party, Labour Against the Witch-hunt (LAW) and Labour In Exile Network (LIEN), have voted to merge. The merged group is making connections with Chris Williamson’s Resist movement and the “Workers Party of Britain” launched by George Galloway and the older Stalinist grouplet CPGB-ML. Resist also has links with the Socialist Party’s “TUSC” electoral vehicle. Four members of the LAW steering committee have resigned in protest at the merger. Both LAW and LIEN subscribe to the idea that the entire issue of antisemitism in Labour was a fake and an invention...

Batley and Spen: Labour victory despite Galloway threat

More on Batley and Spen here . Labour has won the Batley and Spen by-election of 1 July 2021, but only narrowly, after over 20% of the vote was taken by the demagogue George Galloway. Formally Galloway stood for the "Workers' Party of Britain", an ultra-Stalinist sect. In fact he stood to gain publicity (and money, because he makes his ample income as a media figure) for George Galloway. To do that he fomented and used antisemitism and homophobia against Labour and the Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater. Although he blustered about winning, he knew that a big vote for him would give the...

The Rabbi and the real issue

Jewish identity and history is a profoundly important aspect of my life. But I’m not a communalist. I think the idea of a unitary interest for ethnic groups is dangerous, and I think official community leaderships, especially in faith groups, are basically reactionary. An anti-communalist, secularist, anti-clerical critique of the role in Jewish life, and in social and political life in general, of people like the Chief Rabbi has been developed by Jewish radicals over many years, finding perhaps its most exuberant expression in the work of people like Benjamin Feigenbaum. Equivalent critiques...

Galloway and Bannon

George Galloway was recently ″papped″ by journalist Natalia Antelava, appearing to hug alt-right pundit Steve Bannon. The photo was taken after both had spoken on a panel at the Eurasian Media Forum in Kazakhstan. Accepting Bannon′s friendly overture was just a matter of good manners, said Galloway afterwards. But in the panel debate Galloway and Bannon′s political worlds did align. Both praised a ″populist turn″ against globalisation. For Galloway it is a matter of trenchant support for a hardline or no-deal Brexit, leading him to cosy up to the likes of Nigel Farage. If you feel like sitting...

Defend Jon Lansman

The labour movement should rally to the defence of Labour National Executive member and Momentum leader Jon Lansman against George Galloway’s threat to sue him for defamation. Galloway says he has “instructed solicitors to bring a case for defamation against Jon Lansman”. That is a response to a tweet by Lansman defending Jewish comedian David Baddiel after Galloway made a tweet (now deleted) that “no supporter of the Palestinian people” would march “behind” Baddiel (apparently a reference to planned protests against Donald Trump visiting Britain). Over the years Galloway has run or threatened...

What’s wrong with “Stop the War”?

The Stop The War Coalition enjoyed its heyday around the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but has regained some prominence since David Cameron’s government first proposed the bombing of Syria in August 2013. Feeding on perceptions that UK involvement in the Middle East has led to prolonged campaigns of bombing, loss of life, and the creation of unstable regimes, with very little of the humanity supposed to exist in “humanitarian intervention”, the STWC has called a number of demonstrations and got some media coverage for its opposition to the UK and US involvement in coalition bombing of...

Listen to the secular!

Pretty much all the left press other than Solidarity has denounced the election court decision against Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets in East London, and most of the left has backed Rabina Khan, Rahman's ally, for the new mayoral election on 11 June. Does the left press reckon that Rahman didn't do what the court disqualified him for doing? Or that he did do it, but it was all right? It's hard to tell. I don't know if the writers in the left press even read the judgement. If they did read it, then probably, like me, they were annoyed by the style of the judge, Richard Mawrey - pompous...

Is Tower Hamlets really an Establishment conspiracy?

None of the socialist organisations politically defending ousted Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman seriously analyse the judgement made against him by election commissioner Richard Mawrey. None mention George Galloway previously hailing a judgement by Mawrey (against the Labour Party and in favour of Galloway’s Respect) in 2007 — in a speech republished in full on the Socialist Worker website! Socialists have no confidence in bourgeois judges, but the idea that Mawrey is a ruling-class assassin or bug-eyed Islamophobe is absurd. The pro-Rahman left's main argument is that he is the victim of a...

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