10.11.2005
Meat and drink
Ted North reports from a meeting of University of Sheffield Respect Society, which was addressed by George Galloway
October 7 saw George Galloway visiting Sheffield as part of his ongoing tour of British universities. This meeting was rightly seen by members of the newly established University of Sheffield Respect Society (including several CPGB comrades) as an opportunity for recruitment and debate. The impressive turnout of over 300 people is extremely encouraging at a time of general apathy in student politics. Attending the meeting were members of a wide variety of groups. In particular Socialist Workers Party comrades were out in force, including a number of activists from the Sheffield area. It was clear that many in the audience had little sympathy for the mildly leftwing platform of Respect, but they wanted to hear Galloway speak. It made the meeting half leftwing standard fare, half spectacle. The meeting kicked off with a short speech (via an interpreter) from an Italian student activist and member of Partito della Rifondazione Comunista. In response to new government legislation, she reported, a popular movement from below has sprung up calling for the "removal of fees" and "end to class discrimination" in education. The zenith (thus far) of this movement was a march of over 150,000 students in Rome on the October 25, the day the new legislation was passed. The second speaker was Suzie Wylie of the National Union of Students and Respect, whose speech was marked by a simplistic moralism: "Blair's priorities are totally wrong - he wants nuclear weapons rather than schools and hospitals" was about as good as it got. At this point, with Galloway yet to arrive, the floor was opened for questions to the two speakers. The final, exquisitely timed, one was: "You've talked a lot about Respect, but isn't George Galloway being rather disrespectful by being over an hour late?" Of course, at that very moment the man himself strode into the room to loud applause. Within seconds of arriving Galloway had launched into his speech, after explaining he had been stuck in traffic on the way. His oratorical skills are well known, even if this particular writer had heard much of this speech before at another meeting. He referred to a "swamp of bitterness and hatred", out of which came "the mosquitoes of 9/11" and the "monsters of 7/7". To Galloway the Palestinian situation is one of the main causes of that "bitterness and hatred" - indeed "every bullet in the back of a Palestinian boy is paid for by the US". He also exposed once again the hypocrisy of the UK government in selling £40 billion of weaponry to the repressive regime in Saudi Arabia - in contrast to the years of sanctions and war against the equally repressive but 'rogue' regime of Saddam Hussein. After this brief international survey Galloway went on to focus on his role in Britain and his parliamentary work - his well rehearsed remark about "shivers moving along the green benches looking for a spine to crawl up and finding precious few" bringing laughter and applause. Personally, though, I was not so impressed by his passing comment that "the private sector can do some things better than the public" - at least the Tories in the audience liked that one. He concluded rather lamely: "If we can unite then another world is possible." Once again the meeting was opened up the floor and the Tory contingent went onto the attack, claiming that his anti-occupation propaganda was lowering the morale of British troops and adding to their stress. This is meat and drink for Galloway, who gave an alternative reason for the 'stress' of the squaddies: "They have invaded a country on a pack of lies and millions of people want to kill them." Another contribution criticised Galloway for not being in parliament enough, to which he responded that the "British parliament has never been so irrelevant". On the other hand, he had "made more speeches than any other backbencher this year - put that in your pipe and smoke it!" He seemed to be rather more troubled by critical questions from speakers to his left, such as the one from a member of the International Bolshevik Tendency who asked about Galloway's stance in opposing abortion rights. To this Galloway aggressively (and defensively) replied: "It's not true - next question." Under heckling, however, he added: "Respect supports a woman's right. My personal opinion is irrelevant." This was an interesting reply and, if he meant that we could count on him to be bound by Respect decisions when it came to voting in parliament, a welcome one. Then came Socialist Party comrade Alistair Tice, who complained about not being called to speak earlier by the SWP chair: "I was young when I put my hand up!" He asked: "You're in front of 300-400 people - why aren't you talking about socialism?" Galloway answered the question with admirable honesty: "Because socialism is not on the agenda today." In this he was backed up by an SWP member, who said we shouldn't focus on "abstract ideas". One of the final contributions came from a member of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, who criticised Galloway for having "only talked about the working class once". Galloway a little irately accused the comrade of having come with her contribution pre-written and rather obscurely replied: "I'm not sure you're the best person to lecture me about the working class." All in all a very interesting meeting. Of course, the turnout said more about Galloway's personal prestige than the popularity of the Respect project. Nevertheless, hopefully we will be able to recruit on campus as a result - some new blood might shake our SWP comrades up a bit.