George Galloway, “This One’s for Gaza”
“Keir Starmer;1 this one is for Gaza” were the first defiant words of George Galloway’s acceptance speech having just won the Parliamentary by-election in Rochdale on February 29, 2024.
George Galloway, a maverick of British left-wing politics has won a landslide victory in a Parliamentary by-election in Rochdale, near Manchester, overturning a Labour Party majority of over 9000,2 standing as a candidate for the Workers’ Party of Britain (WPB), which he co-founded. With the campaign slogan “Galloway for Palestine” he always appeared with a backdrop of the Palestinian flag, all the while calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. In defiance of the Tory government, Starmer’s Labour Party, and the mass media, he obtained 40 percent of the vote marginalizing the main political parties. This shock result has provoked outrage in the Tory-supporting news media labelling Galloway as divisive, antisemitic and many other epithets.
Condemnation has come from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer both who have refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Galloway is one of the most charismatic and eloquent of British politicians whose speeches are engaging, funny, politically incisive and an irritation to the hacks of the political establishment. He was first elected to parliament as a Labour MP in the general election of 1987 for the constituency of Hillhead in Glasgow. In the early 2000s he campaigned vigorously against the impending Iraq war, resulting in his expulsion from the Labour Party by Tony Blair in 2005. Since then, he has stood and won three Parliamentary by-elections on left-wing and antiwar platforms.
Galloway was born in 1954 into a working-class socialist family in Dundee in Scotland. He joined the Labour Party while still at school and later became involved in left-wing student politics in the 1970s when he obtained a place at Glasgow University. During that time, he visited refugee camps in Lebanon where he resolved to dedicate his political life to the Palestinian liberation cause which he has made the focus of this and all of his election campaigns.
In the 2005 general election Galloway beat the Labour Party candidate in Bethnal Green standing for the Respect Party. That party had grown out of the campaign against the war in Iraq and was a broad alliance which ranged from Trotskyists to Islamists. Bethnal Green in east London has a large Muslim community which has historically supported Labour but there was much anger with Blair’s government and his lies. With constituency boundary changes Galloway lost that seat in 2010 but won a by-election in Bradford in 2012 which he lost at the general election of 2015. Galloway returns to Parliament having won the Rochdale seat as a candidate for the Workers’ Party of Britain which he co-founded in 2019 and is the leader of. Each of these constituencies has a large Muslim population who supported his stance on Palestine.
With his outspoken socialist views, his public support for trades unions, for Irish nationalism and other radical causes he has attracted support from left-wingers disillusioned with Labour and quite a few within the Party.
The right-wing press has consistently vilified Galloway calling him divisive, accusing him of antisemitism and one time claiming that he had pocketed money from oil given to him by Saddam Hussain. He obtained substantial damages when he won a libel case against several newspapers. He defended himself before the U.S. senate and refuted charges they had made about the oil scandal.
George Galloway is one of the mavericks of British left-wing politics. He is a great public speaker and debater, always meticulously prepared and can outwit most opponents, and he has retained his working-class Scottish accent which he uses to great effect. Starmer has warned Labour MPs not to engage with him as he will wipe the floor with any of them. While supporting the Palestinian cause he opposes Scottish independence and supported the Brexit campaign and accuses NATO of provoking the war in Ukraine. Above all he is a great self-publicist and opportunist who attracts fiercely loyal support which is consolidated by the incessant vilification from the right-wing press and despite his embarrassing behavior on a reality TV program. Galloway’s election has provoked hysterical responses from Sunak, Starmer and their acolytes. Sunak now calling those peacefully demonstrating for a ceasefire in Gaza, “a mob” with extremist views.
When Galloway is accused of antisemitism, he argues that he stands for a Palestine where Jews, Muslims and Christians can live peacefully in a democratic secular republic. This by-election has given a boost to the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain and to the voices calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Tory Prime Minister Sunak is trying to suppress this antiwar movement calling the mass peaceful demonstrations “mob rule.” Even the most senior police chiefs have rejected his claims. Keir Starmer was almost apoplectic with the result but still refuses to call for the ceasefire that many Labour Party members and supporters want. Galloway’s public appearances and speeches will now attract a lot more attention and news coverage which will give Palestine, Gaza, and the call for a ceasefire more publicity and help to mobilize even more support.
Whatever one’s personal view of Galloway and all those campaigning about Palestine, this by-election result is a cause for celebration.
1 Keir Starmer is the leader of the British Labour Party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_Starmer
2 Starmer withdrew Labour Party support for their selected candidate who was recorded making what he is deemed was an antisemitic remark. Any criticism of Israel (even by Jews) is labeled“antisemitic” in Starmer’s Labour Party.