04.05.2005

Back to basics

The Sunday Times exposé of the state of George Galloway's marriage should be treated with contempt. But there are lessons for us to learn, argues Tina Becker

The Sunday Times front page interview with George Galloway's soon to be ex-wife was a crude attempt to damage his prospects in the May 5 general elections. Palestinian-born Amineh Abu-Zayyad - who, according to The Sun (March 22 2003) is a niece of the late Yasser Arafat - was interviewed about her fraught relationship with the controversial Respect figurehead, providing, amongst other juicy quotes, one which the cynical ST hacks must have fallen on with glee: "I should tell you that when he told me his new party was going to be called Respect, I went upstairs and cried. How can he call it this when he doesn't even treat his own wife with respect?" (The Sunday Times May 1). This is a despicable sting operation masquerading as 'journalism' - its real purpose transparently clear. A spokesperson for Galloway commented that the timing "could not have been worse" with the poll just days away. The matter was a "personal tragedy" for both parties, he said, but added: "It was timed obviously to impinge on the election." When asked by The Scotsman who he thought was trying to discredit Galloway, the spokesperson replied: "I don't know, because I don't know what's gone on with Amineh. But would it have been a story the week after the election? I don't think it would have been. It would have been a couple of lines. So, obviously, the newspaper, which is New Labour's Beano, decided to do it" (The Scotsman May 2). There are a number of lessons to draw from this sorry episode. First, it is instructive that the bourgeois media (fed no doubt by the New Labour apparatus and perhaps through them the state security services) felt the need to go for Galloway in this way on eve of the election. As these lines are written, the result in Bethnal Green and Bow is not known: but it is clear that, win or lose, Galloway has badly scared Blair's party and given the pro-war creep, Oona King, a real run for her money. He is spot on when he says: "It has clearly been raised ... to damage me in the election "¦ and is a measure of the desperation in New Labour circles at the danger of them losing" (The Scotsman May 1). The first lesson, then, is that serious working class politicians and organisations should develop Teflon skins in preparation for all manner of state-sponsored dirty tricks against them - it is, after all, what we pay our taxes for (see Weekly Worker December 9 2004). Secondly, while we object to our enemies making capital out of the private lives of working class politicians, we should not make their job easier. The brutal truth is that George Galloway himself dragged his personal life into the political arena. For instance, the comrade's leaflet for the European elections underlines his moral probity and stable family life: "[he has been] recognised by the muslim world for his 30-year struggle for the people of Palestine, Iraq and Pakistan. Married to a Palestinian doctor, he has deep religious principles [and is] teetotal." Of course, this was a direct play for the 'muslim vote' - or rather for the support of particular political trends within the muslim community. The implication that all muslims would by definition recognise someone who is teetotal, has "deep religious" convictions and is married as 'one of us' is frankly nonsense: what about muslims who enjoy a drink, attend the mosque only occasionally and are happily divorced? This appeal to essentially conservative, backward prejudices in any target audience is not only politically reprehensible: it is fraught with danger for the individual politician who tries to pull it off. We made similar points at the time of the scandal that broke over the head of comrade Tommy Sheridan late last year. And in the world of bourgeois politics, how wise in hindsight does the one-time prime minister and Tory leader, John Major, now consider his 'back to basics' moral campaign? A series of revelations about the colourful antics in the private lives of his fellow MPs quickly made a farce of the campaign and underlined perhaps more than any other policy fiasco the programmatic exhaustion of the Tories in the aftermath of the Thatcher years. (The glistening cherry on the cake being, of course, the eventual revelation that Major himself had conducted a four-year affair with Tory MP Edwina Currie: "He promoted this whole 'back to basics' thing which I thought was cruel and wrong - wrong in principle, even if he had been absolutely pristine himself," she pointed out reasonably enough at the time of her 'kiss'n'tell' diaries in 2002 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2299075.stm). Furthermore, it was not simply wrong in principle for Galloway to highlight aspects of his private life in this way, but also it seems a political blunder. When the story broke, he told The Scotsman that his marriage had been in difficulties "for quite some time" and that his wife had been living abroad for much of the last two years. "I had hoped for a reconciliation," he said, "but clearly my wife has decided otherwise. There is no other party involved. This is a private matter" (May 1). Or rather it would have been a purely private matter if Galloway had not made a play for a section of the 'muslim vote', in the process drawing attention to what already seems to have been a shaky marriage. And this is the third point - Respect and Galloway have made a big thing of attempting to win muslims as muslims. Not only has Galloway specifically chosen Bethnal Green and Bow (according to the 2001 census, there were 45,000 muslims, or just over 39% - the second highest proportion of any constituency in the country). Respect's Socialist Workers Party leaders have also been willing to bend the stick in the direction of their semi-detached allies of the Muslim Association of Britain, as well as more localised muslim groups. Specifically the SWP has subordinated most of its formally revolutionary programme to this largely phantom muslim wing in Respect - be it in the shape of the deliberately ambiguous position on a woman's right to choose to have an abortion or in the refusal to accept secularism as a guiding principle at the Respect founding conference. Not that MAB seemed particularly grateful for this subordination. It supported only five of the 26 Respect general election candidates: George Galloway, Lindsey German (West Ham), Salma Yaqoob (Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath), Maxine Bowler (Sheffield Central) and Mark Krantz (Stretford and Urmston). Amongst the 16 other candidates (Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party) MAB supported was Labour's Sadiq Khan in Tooting, who was opposed by Ali Zaidi from Respect. In the other 20 constituencies where there are Respect candidates, MAB did not support anybody. Strangely, it is not even the muslim candidates of Respect that MAB backed: Oliur Rahman, Yvonne Ridley and Abdul Khaliq Mian are amongst those shunned. So opportunism has not produced the desired results. But it has allowed reactionary forces to step in to try and prevent the election of George Galloway. Hopefully, the majority of voters will have treated their efforts with the contempt they deserve.