George Galloway
George Galloway (born August 16, 1954) is a Scottish politician and Member of Parliament for the Glasgow Kelvin constituency. He started his political life in the Labour Party, but was expelled from it in October 2003 following controversial statements about the war in Iraq.
Early and Personal Life
Galloway was born in Dundee. He went to the Harris Academy, and on leaving school worked for a garden centre and then for Michelin tyres. In 1977 he was appointed as a Labour Party organiser, and became well known in Scottish Labour politics for his firebrand speeches. He was elected to the Scottish Executive and in 1980 became Chairman of the Scottish Labour Party at the age of 26, one of the youngest in history.
George Galloway was married from 1979 to 1999 to Elaine Fyffe, with whom he has a daughter. In 2000 he married Dr Amireh Abu-Zayyad, a Palestinian academic. His private life has been dogged with controversy. His rakish reputation and taste for expensive clothing have earned him the nickname Gorgeous George. In a 2002 interview [1] with The Guardian newspaper, he explained how he wore designer Kenzo suits which retail for thousands of pounds:
- "Well if that means do I take care to look my best before I leave the house in the morning, if that's vanity, then I'm guilty of it."
War on Want
In 1983 Galloway became General Secretary of the charity War on Want, which had strong Labour Party connections (it had been founded by Harold Wilson). He increased its income sevenfold in three years, but faced accusations of misuse of his expenses account, which was £21,000 in 1985-86, to stay in luxury hotels when on foreign trips. Although he was cleared of dishonesty, he paid back £1,720 after an audit identified a lack of controls. War on Want subsequently went into liquidation.
Galloway had been selected as Labour candidate for the Glasgow Hillhead seat held by Roy Jenkins of the SDP. He ran for the Labour Party National Executive Committee in 1986 but came next to last; at the 1986 Party conference he made a strong attack on Shadow Chancellor Roy Hattersley for not favouring exchange controls.
In the 1987 election, Galloway won Glasgow Hillhead with a majority of 3,251. He faced an almost immediate scandal when, as part of the War on Want expenses probe, he was asked about a conference on Mykonos, Greece and replied:
- "I travelled to and spent lots of time with people in Greece, many of whom were women, some of whom were known carnally to me. I actually had sexual intercourse with some of the people in Greece."
The revalation put Galloway on the front pages of the tabloid press and the Executive Committee of his local party passed a vote of no confidence in him in February 1988. He only narrowly survived to win reselection in June 1989.
A year after the reselection a mysterious advert appeared in the Labour movement magazine Tribune headed "Lost: MP who answers to the name of George", "balding and has been nicknamed gorgeous", claiming that the lost MP had been seen in Romania but had not been to a constituency meeting for a year. A telephone number was given which turned out to be for the Groucho Club in London, from which Galloway had been black-balled. Galloway threatened legal action and pointed out he had been to five constituency meetings.
Political views
Galloway is an unreconstructed left-winger. Galloway's strident and often controversial opinions (on Iraq and other subjects) have led him to be both widely admired and condemned. He is a voluble opponent of privatisation and nuclear weapons and frequently spoke against them when in the Labour Party, in opposition to party policy. He has gained most notice outside the UK for his support for Arab causes. He is involved with the politics of Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and Palestine, arguing that the people there are suffering at the hands of what he calls western imperialism. An anti-Zionist, he is a harsh critic of Israel: he frequently ends public speeches by calling for "victory to the intifada!".
In his Guardian interview, Galloway outlined his political views in relation to the Soviet Union:
- "I am on the anti-imperialist left." The Stalinist left? "I wouldn't define it that way because of the pejoratives loaded around it; that would be making a rod for your own back. If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life. If there was a Soviet Union today, we would not be having this conversation about plunging into a new war in the Middle East, and the US would not be rampaging around the globe."
Business Activities
Galloway has been involved in several publishing companies. He owned 'Asian Voice' which published a newspaper called East from 1996. An investigation by BBC Newsnight found that Galloway had secured payments of £60,000 and £135,000 from the Pakistani governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. Galloway insisted this was for advertising space and bulk copies, but Newsnight alleged that it was for favourable coverage of Pakistan. He is currently one of two Directors of Finjan Ltd.; the other Director is his wife.
Iraq
He opposed the 1991 Gulf War and was critical of the effect the subsequent sanctions had on the people of Iraq, visiting Iraq several times and meeting senior government figures including Saddam Hussein. He was subsequently dubbed the "member for Baghdad Central", and was called "not just an apologist but a mouthpiece for the Iraq regime over many years" by Labour minister Ben Bradshaw, a comment the minister later retracted after being called a liar by Galloway. He said that he (Galloway) had been demonstrating against Saddam Hussein outside the Iraqi embassy in London, at a time when British cabinet ministers were inside the building arranging an export of British-manufactured arms to Iraq. In 1994, Galloway faced some of his strongest criticism, having returned from another Middle-Eastern visit, during which he had told the Iraqi dictator "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability". Galloway has always insisted that he used the word 'So' rather than 'Sir', and that the praise was intended for the Iraqi people collectively.
Mariam Appeal
In 1998 Galloway founded the 'Mariam Appeal', intended "to campaign against sanctions on Iraq which are having disastrous effects on the ordinary people of Iraq" [2]. The campaign was named after Mariam Hamza, a single child flown by the fund from Iraq to Britain to receive treatment for leukaemia. The intention was to raise awareness of the suffering and death of tens of thousands of other Iraqi children due to lack of suitable medicines and facilities, and to campaign for the lifting of the western sanctions that Galloway maintained were responsible for that situation. The campaign won Galloway press, first positive then increasingly negative, as allegations arose that funds were misappropriated and used to pay his wife and driver. The fund was at the centre of a further scrutiny during the 2003 Gulf war, with allegations of lavish spending on Galloway's regular trips to the Middle East. It has been suggested by the Telegraph as the destination of the Iraqi funds. Galloway, however, argued that it was not unreasonable for money from a campaign fund to be used to pay for the travel expenses of campaigners. Opponents point to Galloway's first class travel, luxury hotel accommodation, his consumption of expensive champagne and caviar and other very large expense claims as an inappropriate use of the funds of the organisation. Although the 'Mariam Appeal' was never a registered charity and never intended to be such, the Charities Commission have launched an investigation into its funds.
Criticism
In May 2002, at the Cambridge Union, American actor John Malkovich stated that he would like to shoot both George Galloway and the journalist Robert Fisk. On being told of this, Galloway responded "if it was a joke it is not very funny and if it wasn't a joke, he will be hearing from my lawyers".
One interview during the 2003 Iraq war on Abu Dhabi TV, broadcast on March 28, has attracted particular criticism. Galloway referred to Tony Blair and George W. Bush as "wolves" and then said:
- "Even if it is not realistic to ask a non-Iraqi army to come to defend Iraq, we see Arab regimes pumping oil for the countries who are attacking it. We wonder when the Arab leaders will wake up. When are they going to stand by the Iraqi people?"
He later denied that this was an incitement to attack British soldiers and said that "it would be best for them [British soldiers] to refuse to obey illegal orders." These remarks led to his suspension from the party, pending an inquiry, for allegedly "bringing the Labour Party into disrepute by behaviour that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the party". Some in the tabloid press in the UK accused him of treason and it was suggested that he should be tried for his comments under the 1934 Incitement to Disaffection Act.
Expulsion from the Labour Party
Citing Galloway's comments (which they said could be taken to be calls for foreign countries to fight against Britain, and for British soldiers to disobey orders), Labour Party officials suspended him on May 6 2003. He was subsequently accused of violating the party's constitution by "bringing the Labour Party into disrepute by behaviour that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Party". Labour's three-person National Constitutional Committee met, in camera, on October 22 2003 to consider the charges. It took evidence from Galloway himself, from other party witnesses, viewed media interviews, and listened to character testimony from (among others) veteran Labour minister Tony Benn. The following day the committee announced its verdict - it found that Galloway was guilty of bringing the party into disrepute, and it expelled him from the Labour Party.
Decrying the proceedings, Galloway called the Committee's meeting "a show trial" and "a kangaroo court". He later affirmed his intention to sue the Labour Party.
Oil for Food allegations
On April 22, 2003, the Daily Telegraph published documents found in Iraqi government offices after the fall of Baghdad which it claimed showed that Galloway had met Iraqi intelligence agents and had received £375,000 from the Iraqi government. Three days later, the Christian Science Monitor published a story [3] stating that they had documentary evidence that he had received "more than ten million dollars" from the Iraqi regime. Galloway vehemently denied the claims, asserting that the documents were all forgeries, and announced that he would sue both newspapers for libel. On June 20, 2003, the Monitor admitted that the documents it held were forgeries ("We are convinced the documents are bogus. We apologise to Mr Galloway and to our readers"). [4] Galloway roundly rejected the newspaper's apology:
- "I don't accept its apology. This newspaper published on its front page in every country in the world that I had taken $10m from Saddam Hussein. That was a grave and serious libel. A newspaper of that importance should have made the effort, both morally and legally, to establish the authenticity of those documents before publishing. They did not even speak to me before publishing these allegations. My legal action against them continues."
He also alleged that the affair was a conspiracy against him:
- "I want to know who forged these documents. I am calling on the Prime Minister, as head of the co-occupying power in Iraq, to investigate how this conspiracy came about."
Following revelations that the story it published was based on forged documents, on the Christian Science Monitor settled Galloway's libel claim, paying him an undisclosed sum in damages in March 2004.
Recent events involving the Oil for Food Program , however, may shed new light on Galloway's clandestine links to the former Hussein regime. An investigation into the Oil for Food program has been launched by both the United Nations and the Iraqi Governing Council centers around new and credible charges of graft and corruption. The investigation centers in large part around a list of individuals and organizations published by the Iraqi daily Al-Mada. The new charges implicate Galloway’s charity, Mariam Appeal, and those who contributed to it.
Galloway denies that his financial sponsors were getting oil cash from the UN program, but he accepts that he knew his supporters had links with the former Iraqi government, and regards that as an inevitable price to pay.
Although no longer a member of the Labour Party, he remains an MP, and describes his party affiliation as "independent labour". His Glasgow Kelvin constituency is to undergo boundary changes at the next general election. After his expulsion, he initially fuelled speculation that he might call a snap by-election before then, by resigning his parliamentary seat, saying
- "If I were to resign this constituency and there was a by-election I can't guarantee that I would win, but I would guarantee that Tony Blair's candidate would surely lose."
Latterly Galloway announced he would not force a by-election, but that he would stand for election to the European Parliament in an English or Welsh constituency (while still retaining his seat in the Westminster parliament). In 2004 he announced he would be working with the Socialist Alliance and others under the name RESPECT Unity Coalition.