{"id":6577,"date":"2014-02-11T23:19:24","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T23:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=6577"},"modified":"2021-04-03T12:59:51","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T12:59:51","slug":"just-say-naw-to-galloways-sectarian-british-unionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/11\/just-say-naw-to-galloways-sectarian-british-unionism\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Just Say Naw’ To Galloway’s Sectarian British Unionism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bella caledonia<\/cite> posted an article by Richard Cameron (RCN and Edinburgh RIC) outlining the politics behind George Galloway’s Just Say Naw<\/cite> Scottish road tour (see Just Say Naw \u2013 To Galloway\u2019s Sectarian British Unionism<\/a>). Given the short time to write this\u00a0article\u00a0a number of errors appeared, none of which affected the overall arguments presented. However, Richard has now had time to correct these and to add an addendum, What is meant by communalism?<\/cite> The amended article is posted below, with thanks to all those who contributed.<\/p>\n

This is followed by a report by on the Edinburgh Just Say Naw<\/cite> meeting held on February 3rd written by Allan Armstrong (RCN) for Edinburgh RIC . This was first posted on posted at:-\u00a0REPORT OF THE GALLOWAY ROADSHOW IN EDINBURGH<\/a><\/p>\n\n

1. JUST SAY NAW TO GALLOWAY’S SECTARIAN BRITISH UNIONISM<\/h2>\n

A.\u00a0Remember George the anti-Iraq war campaigner \u2013 look at his allies now<\/h3>\n

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With the Scottish independence referendum less than nine months away, George Galloway is bringing his \u2018Just Say Naw\u2019 roadshow to Edinburgh\u2019s Assembly Rooms on Monday February 3rd<\/sup>. A seat costs \u00a310 a head \u2013 nothing comes cheap where \u2018Gorgeous George\u2019 is involved!<\/p>\n

Galloway has been dining out on the Left for a long time since his triumph at the US Senate hearing, almost nine years ago, during the Iraq war. Whatever political differences others on the Left held then, we could all cheer his performance in front of such a smug, then thoroughly riled, bunch of war-mongering US politicians.<\/p>\n

However, since then, it has been all downhill for Galloway as a credible Left politician. His Westminster election victories, won on a Left populist mix of Islamic communalism and Old Labourism, leave nothing solid behind. He only held the Bethnal Green and Bow seat from 2005 until 2010, and, in 2015, will almost certainly lose the Bradford West seat he won in the 2012 by-election. In Galloway\u2019s own mind, this has no doubt been largely compensated by his financial gains for being an MP (albeit mostly absentee), from earlier substantial libel awards, from good earnings on the celebrity speaker circuit and, of course, from his cringe-worthy performance on Celebrity Big Brother<\/cite>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One indication of Galloway\u2019s political decline, over the years, is the allies he now has in the \u2018No\u2019 campaign. The official Better Together\/\u2018Project Fear\u2019 leader, Alistair Darling, was New Labour\u2019s Scottish Secretary in 2003. He gave his wholehearted support to the Iraq War. Tory leader, David Cameron, also backed the war. The Lib-Dems, then in opposition, briefly opposed the Iraq War, but today Nick Clegg wants to commit British troops to Syria!<\/p>\n

And, of course, Hilary Clinton, a supporter of every US promoted war, including that in Iraq, is strongly behind the UK state in opposing Scottish independence. So too is Mariano Rajoy, Spanish PM and member of the rightist People\u2019s Party. He follows Franco in denying Catalunya the right to national self-determination. He also backed the Iraq war.<\/p>\n

B.\u00a0And moving ever further right, backed by the British ruling class<\/h3>\n

But the mainstream \u2018No\u2019 campaign, with its official Labour (whatever Galloway\u2019s own misgivings on this score), Lib-Dem and Tory backing, does not account for the full political breadth (or should that be lowly depths) of the anti-Scottish independence campaign.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Tories lies the virulently anti-Scottish independence UKIP. Indeed, until fairly recently, UKIP wanted to close down the Scottish Parliament! UKIP are pulling both Tories and Labour further to the Right. \u2018Blue Labour\u2019, with its \u2018UKIP-Lite\u2019 politics, is far more influential in Miliband\u2019s \u2018One Nation\u2019 Labour Party, than the marginal Left, or populist George for that matter.<\/p>\n

UNITE general secretary, Len McCluskey and the Red Paper Collective project to reclaim Labour for the Left, was blown out of the water at Grangemouth by Miliband. Yet, in the British Labour Party leadership election in 2010, McCluskey supported Miliband as the favoured UNITE candidate, over the socialist, John McDonnell.<\/p>\n

It was not the SNP who denied Galloway a venue for his \u2018Just Say Naw\u2019 roadshow in West Lothian (despite the completely false impression Galloway gave in his sectarian diatribe directed against the council). Labour run West Lothian!<\/p>\n

\"Nigel
Nigel in altercation with RIC in Edinburgh in May 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last year, the Radical Independence Campaign (RIC) challenged UKIP\u2019s British chauvinism, homophobia and misogyny, when Farage made his British media-courting visit to Scotland[1]<\/sup><\/a>Making Plans for Nigel<\/a><\/span><\/span>