Gallow's Humour
George Galloway is to war what John Major is to fidelity. A steadfast peacenik in the guise of a veteran rebel, his time-honoured style of confrontation and defiance has made him a contentious figure; a thorn in the heart of New Labour and yet a working class hero Galloway is the modern day revolutionary.
I've met Galloway only twice. The first time, he stared me in the eye, haranguing me on the war: his fervour and zeal being surpassed only by the cacophony of insults he lobbed at the establishment: his face brilliantly red from screaming in opposition. Now, and I might add soon after his meteoric fall from grace in the face of "bombastic" allegations from quarters of the British media, Galloway begins his tirade in a calmer tone, ascending into a crescendo soon after, laying accusations at the very feet of his political masters. But the man has an axe to grind. No longer can he lambast the "parliament of poodles and pagers", nor can he stridently deride the Blair - Bush "axis of evil". Now, the spotlight of the public eye is focussed directly on him.
"In the last few days, the [Telegraph's] case against me has begun to crumble in the face of legal proceedings. They will have a very hard job justifying these allegations - they will be laughed out of court. Three Iraqi authorities have examined the documents that attack me and all three say they are forgeries. I will not let people call me a liar. I received nothing from the Iraqi regime. Nothing! My lawyers and I will punish these people severely."
Galloway loathes the clamour of newspapers crowing his demise like vultures around a carcass. The biggest vulture, magnet and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has even offered to finance the private prosecution against the MP, labelling him a traitor and a disgrace.
"Who are the Daily Telegraph? They are the most Zionist newspaper in Britain. But not just that. The Daily Telegraph is owned by three people. Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher and Lord Black! If you can measure someone by their enemies, then I am truly blessed!"
Galloway is, in a word, desperate. In a few, facing perhaps the biggest groundswell of public opposition since Enoch Powell. If proven, the allegations of treason could land him a hefty spell in a British prison - a thought which sends a chill down his already feeble spine.
"Should an elected politician be threatened with prison for speaking their mind? Every word I said, I stand by. I did not call the British soldiers wolves - I said they were lions lead by donkeys. I did not say the Iraqis should rise up and kill the British soldiers, I said the soldiers themselves should refuse orders against an illegal war. The real animals in this picture are the people who took us to war on a campaign based on lies, forgery and deception for the enrichment of a white man's elite. The real animals are those who put us in the ranks of the hated - for what - George W Bush? This war was a bright shining lie!"
The war. A pyrotechnic MTV display of the might of American military muscle. Fantastic, flawless and yet so fatal. Galloway, however, spurns the truimphalism of the establishment for a more pessimistic view.
"The Iraqi people reject the whole idea that the United States and Britain have a mission from God to recreate everything in their image." I couldn't help at this point but ask him about his meetings with the apotheosis of the war hype: leader of the feared Iraqi regime, Saddam.
"I've met Saddam twice. Once in 1994 and once last August and on both occasions I helped to persuade him to allow the weapons inspectors back into the country. Not that it would have done any good. The papers have accused me of consorting with the the Iraqi regime. The only people who have done that are gentlemen like Donald Rumsfeld who sold the Iraqis aerial photographs of Iranian positions during the Iran - Iraq war. People like Dick Cheney who is still paid $1 million by Haliburton each year to line their pockets with the spoils from war. The US and the British regimes were with Saddam Hussein up to their neck in blood."
He pauses to take breath. The crowd that had assembled around us mire on with awe, hanging on his every word.
"I believe the Iraqi regime was an abomination. In the 1970's I was a founder member of the campaign against repression and for democratisation in Iraq. Back then people like Douglas Hurd called me a Communist troublemaker."
Back then Galloway was a fledgling MP, fighting every campaign with the fervour and steadfastness of a lion. Now, he plays in a whole new ballpark; no longer dismissed by the privileged as a firebrand pest but acknowledged for his steely determinism and wit. We chat about Oxford; he laughs off an OUCA attempt to disrupt the meeting, disagreeing somewhat surprisingly with those who disrupted Andrew Smith's (MP) speech last week, "no matter how unpalatable what he had to say was."
In short Galloway is misunderstood. A pantheon of inspiration fired with the gusto of a hurricane he enthuses every crowd with his wax lyricals. Yet, despite his ability to shock us with sudden stern outbursts- there is one thing you can almost certainly be sure of - whether in storm or shine, whether in prison or out, Galloway is and will always be a fighting man..
22nd May 2003