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Earning with Respect:
George Galloway does Belfast
Gerry Fitzsimons
9th November 2005
George Galloway is the Respect Unity
Coalition MP for Bethnal Green and was elected in May 2005 by defeating
the Labour candidate. Following his appearance at the US Senate he has
become more widely known and is currently on a tour of Ireland
to sell his book. On Thursday the 3rd of November he appeared
in Belfast as part of the Belfast
Festival at QueensUniversity.
From the very start Galloway said
that he would not be talking about Ireland,
though he said he supported Irish unity but made clear later that some
of his best friends were Unionists and that he sat next to them in the
House of Commons. He did not know the Rev Roy Beggs the ex-Unionist MP
(‘aren’t they all reverends?’) in the biblical sense, but he did admire
his sense of humour – a quality as yet undiscovered by the public.
The Galloway
event was significantly introduced from the platform as a ‘performance’
and perform he did. With funny stories and comic observations making up
the majority of his act, he regaled the 1100-strong audience like a polished
music hall turn, the highlight being an account of losing his dog ‘Gordon’
on London’s Clapham Common. Galloway
is the latest in a line of political comedians that have allied themselves
to the British Socialist Workers Party, who make up the core of the Respect
Unity Coalition.
However, there was serious comment
about ‘the swamp’ – the conditions of war and hate that have been festering
in the Middle East for over fifty years now since the creation of the state
of Israel.
His comment that al Qaeda were the mosquitoes that grew from that swamp
was well taken by the audience, as was his observation about the American
founding and support for the Taliban.
He gave a nod to the point that the
Arab masses are not fond of dictators, but he made no direct reference
to the political life that they lead and who was doing, or not doing, the
leading. Rather he confined himself to referring to ‘Muslims’ and ‘Muslims
who understood’ and were simply aware of the true class nature of Saudi
Arabia and Britain’s
and America’s
role there and throughout the region. This was the formulation he used
in his account of the fact that British Intelligence and the British military
were now training Colonel Gaddafi’s forces in the war against terror, which
Galloway thought ‘Muslims’ would not be surprised to learn, a non sequitur
that left the audience somewhat puzzled.
One thing that certainly does not
perturb George Galloway was the increasingly sorry state of the left and
it has to be said the state of socialist organisation generally. This was
indeed evident by the quality of the activity of the Socialist and Environmental
Alliance (the miniature local version of the Respect party) who did not
make their presence felt save for one lone individual giving out a small
badly-designed leaflet on climate change. The only other visible political
presence was from the Workers Party which consisted of three individuals
agitating about the plight of their leader Sean Garland, who is facing
extradition to the United
States on counterfeiting and money-laundering
charges.
At questions these different strands
of disarray and the quality of socialist organisation were drawn together
in an arresting image. A questioner asked, ‘Since the advent of Blair and
New Labour wasn’t it the case that Socialism has gone into the shredder?’ Galloway
thought for moment, raised his finger, looked at the questioner and said
slowly, ‘That’s a very interesting question’. He then summarized the different
achievements and states of socialism ranging from Keir Hardie the first
Labour MP, elected over a hundred years ago for the same constituency which
he now represented, to the ‘socialist states’ as they once existed in Eastern
Europe. ‘Were they better than the capitalist states?’ he asked.
After a short pause he turned and
faced the audience and said with a glint in his eye, ‘I think you can best
judge them on how they do breakfasts. If you wake up in a state-run hotel
like in Bulgaria
you know you’re in for a bad experience as far as breakfast is concerned.’
One of his worst breakfasting experiences apparently, was in a state-run
hotel in Syria.
This
conjured up images of a robust defence of his visits to such regimes on
the grounds that he didn’t admire everything they did – especially breakfast.
All of which should be no surprise
as Galloway had earlier made it clear
that he was ‘not particularly left wing you know’. His party was after
all a collation of various elements, and he did not share all of its views.
He may or may not be giving such a clear indication at every performance,
on what the ‘S’ in R.E.S.P.E.C.T now stood for. But at least his allies
are now aware of what they have to do to earn George Galloway’s respect:
don’t skimp on the breakfast!
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