'Respect' and George Galloway

Labour activists should not be complacent about Labour’s victory in the three by-elections on 29 November. All three were in safe Labour seats. That Labour won when in opposition to a coalition government whose economic strategy is both hurting and not working in its own terms reflects no endorsement on the parachuting-in of candidates or on “one nation” blather. The party with best cause to be pleased was UKIP: second in Rotherham, with 22%, and in Middlesborough, with 12%, and third in Croydon North with 6%. Probably few UKIP voters knew about or specifically voted for such UKIP policies as...

Lee Jasper is running as the Respect candidate in Croydon North. Meanwhile, the redoubtable Yvonne Ridley is running on the same ticket in Rotherham, and from what I am hearing, it is squeaky bum time in two places that should be donkey with a red rosette territory. Only the voters, and not the bookmakers, will decide the outcomes of these contests, of course. But the shortening odds on the two Respect parliamentary hopefuls indicates that George Galloway’s party may do better than many commentators, myself included, had been expecting. Last time I checked, William Hill was giving 8-1 on...

The debate in the student movement over the Assange affair and rape apology has taken a surreal turn with George Galloway suing the National Union of Students. The controversy has focused around a motion to the 26 September meeting of NUS National Executive, at which 13 women members moved a motion condemning apologies for non-consensual sex and saying NUS should not “offer” or “share” a platform with those who make such apologies — including Tony Benn and George Galloway, because of their comments in the Assange debate. Pretty much the entire right and centre of the committee (and the broader...

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...

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...

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...

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”...

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...

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...

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