George Galloway, the Labour MP for Glasgow
Kelvin, was yesterday expelled from the Labour Party by the three-member
National Constitutional Committee, which is in reality a kangaroo court designed
to simply rubber stamp whatever Blair wants. George Galloway took a clear stand
against the war in Iraq. This is the reason why he was expelled. They had tried
to remove him on the basis of falsified documents “found in Iraq”. As they
were not able to remove him with these, they decided another road.
The verdict of the three-person national
constitutional committee was unanimous. After a two-day hearing, he was
acquitted on only one of the five charges he faced: urging voters in Plymouth
not to back Labour. He was found guilty of inciting Arabs to fight British
troops, inciting British troops to defy orders, threatening to stand against
Labour candidates and backing an anti-war candidate in Preston against the
official Labour candidate.
In reality what Galloway has stated is that the
people of Iraq have the right to defend themselves against a foreign invader, in
the same way that the British people would have the right to defend themselves
if a foreign army invaded their country. That is not the same as inciting others
to kill British troops. In fact the best way of defending the British young men
who have been sent to Iraq to do the dirty work of the multinationals, is to
bring them back home. It is amazing how the right-wing Blairites and their media
friends can twist things. It is not Galloway who is responsible for the death of
over 50 British soldiers, but Blair who agreed to them being sent to Iraq in the
first place. Their blood is on his hands!
The Blairite leadership had twisted Galloway’s
words and framed him on a catch-all charge of “bringing the party into
disrepute”. In reality, it is not George Galloway who has brought the Labour
Party into disrepute. Galloway merely voiced the opposition to war of the
majority of British people. His opposition today is even more representative of
what ordinary working people in Britain think of that war. It is the Blair
leadership that has brought the Labour Party into disrepute. They lied and
falsified “evidence” to push Britain into war. Galloway has been
consistently against the sending of troops to Iraq, even when Blair’s lying
machine was doing its best to convince the public of the need for war.
This is clearly a witch-hunt against one of the
most prominent Labour MPs who came out against the US/British war against Iraq.
It is also a clear warning to anyone else in the Labour Party who wishes to
stand up to the Blairites. Freedom of speech is fine as long as you say what I
want, is clearly the motto of these people.
The party chairman, Ian McCartney hurriedly
issued a statement to deny this: "This is not an issue of free speech. He
was not expelled for his anti-war views, but for going unsolicited on an
international television programme and inciting forces to cross the border and
kill our brothers and sisters in the British army."
George Galloway has been a member of the Labour
party for 36 years, far longer than many of those who have passed sentence on
him. Some of these are fairly recent arrivals, parachuted into the Labour Party,
infiltrators who have come in to destroy the socialist values of the party and
shift it towards Tory policies. It is these people who have thrown out Galloway
without appeal after he was found guilty of bringing the party into disrepute on
four counts.
George Galloway said: "This was a
politically motivated kangaroo court whose verdict had been written in advance
in the best tradition of political show trials. It was a travesty of
justice". He accused Blair of being "a conspirator and a liar".
"Mr Blair’s response to the disaster of the
war is to attack those who stood against the war and to root them out of British
politics." He promised: "The anti-war movement is not going to go away
and we will continue to hold him to account for a war crime and a blunder of
extraordinary magnitude."
Galloway may have no alternative but to stand as
an independent at the next election, and has not ruled out forcing an early
by-election in his constituency. "Labour will rue the day that they took
this decision, as they rued the day to rig party elections in London to get rid
of Ken Livingstone." The best way of avoiding such a situation is to
reinstate Galloway and allow him to continue as a Labour MP. If Livingtsone had
not been expelled then the Labour Party would have the Mayor of London. But the
Blair leadership would rather see the Labour Party lose the elections than have
left MPs and Mayors. This shows that Blair and his friends are alien to the
Labour Party. These people would rather see the party destroyed than see it move
in the direction of genuine socialist and working class policies.
The Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs
called for an emergency meeting of the national executive to discuss the
expulsion. However, it is not enough to discuss the question. There must be
action. It is Galloway today; it could be any other prominent left leader in the
future.
The trade union and Labour movement must
urgently protest about this scandalous action. It has to demand the immediate
reinstatement of George Galloway. This must become part of the campaign to
remove the Blairites. So long as this unrepresentative clique remains at the
helm of the party such undemocratic, witch-hunting measures will be repeated
again in the future. The only way of guaranteeing genuine party democracy and
making sure the workers in the trade unions and the party are genuinely
represented, is through a campaign throughout the length and breadth of the
party to re-establish the genuine traditions of workers’ democracy. Trade
union branches and labour party wards and constituencies should be sending in
resolutions to party headquarters demanding the reversal of this decision.
Give back the Labour Party to its trade union
membership.
