Friday 30th June 2006 - Galloway: A Language Of Dissent? A Personal View (2/3) By Pablo Luis González

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3),

His expulsion from the Labour Party in 2003 was the culmination of a process of marginalisation of both the man and the position sustained, a process which, whilst it accelerated when the New Labour clique hijacked the party, had started many years before during the so-called 'road to electoral recovery'. Even writing this last sentence posed a dilemma: should I call the party Labour or New Labour? Stark choices faced Galloway when he made those comments regarding the participation of British troops in the attack on Iraq and the role that Blair has played in this disaster, comments that led to his suspension and, ultimately, expulsion from the party.

If he had not made them, he would have betrayed not only his own beliefs, but also the trust that many people opposed to the war, and who care about workers' rights, have on him. The reality is that the Labour Party that Galloway joined as a young man is no longer there, that it is, to all purposes, not only dead, but beyond any possibility of resuscitation. The cancer has spread too far. On this, I am in total agreement with him, as many other people in the audience were, for what I could gather. I write this with some sadness, as it was a Labour government that brought me here from the concentration camps of General Pinochet in 1976.

The directness of his language was for me, a regular listener to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, so refreshing and in such contrast with the evasiveness and utter blandness of New Labour politicians, strange cyber creatures with amoeba-like qualities, and the vacuity of Cameron and his front line, mere feeble façades resembling those found, appropriately, in Hollywood studios .

Much of what Galloway said, his political philosophy, makes sense, and it is so obvious to normal human beings that I do not understand why other politicians, with a few exceptions, do not see it. And when they see it, as in the case of the debacle in Iraq, it is already too late. Yet we hardly hear this position expressed in mainstream media, either newspapers or broadcasters, not even in the BBC, particularly after the infamous '45 minutes' fiasco (and the death of Dr. Kelly).

The concentration of press and broadcasting outlets in the hands of a few barons and the bullying and capitulation of the BBC to the government, takes care that such views do not get across to the public. And when they do, they get distorted. Galloway in Sky News or Fox Television? I don't think so. The alternative media, especially web based outlets such as Thisisull.com, with their ubiquitous capacity to reach the farthest crevices of the globe, have a vital role to play here.

Continued...Next Page (3/3)

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