Gaddafi is no friend of mine

ALTHOUGH I have never met Colonel Gaddafi or any of his Soprano-style family, it's amazing the number of people who think I have. Once a Celtic fan described me as the "Tripoli Shamrock" at a time when I had never actually set foot in Libya.

Last week at a breakfast in Dubai, an Englishman munching his halal sausages said: "Your mate's getting a hard time in Libya isn't he?" - though YouTube is groaning with films of me denouncing Gaddafi over many years.

On my radio show last Friday, a caller - who supports me - phoned in to ask if I was embarrassed to have been pictured shaking hands with the madman.

Even on air, when I told him I had appeared in no such photo, he couldn't quite believe it.

Of course he could have been getting his Arab dictators mixed up - or worse - confused me with Tony Blair.

A request for help from George Galloway

Dear friend,
I am writing to ask for your help in my effort to re-enter parliamentary politics.

Having spent almost twenty-five years standing up for the community and all good causes in the House of Commons, I am now trying for a seat in the Scottish Parliament representing the City of Glasgow.

It is a mountain to climb but it can be done. However, I need all the help I can get from my friends to raise the funds for the election campaign. I am relying heavily on the generosity of friends and well-wishers like you.

The New Middle East - people power, democracy and Palestine

A message from George Galloway

"The great Egyptian people have spoken. Egypt is back and the winds of change are blowing through the Middle East and beyond, threatening to knock down the imperial architecture that has robbed the people of the region for so long.

"And chief among the outstanding injustices from the colonial epoch is Palestine. Now the struggle for a free and dignified Palestine takes place in the epic battle for a new Middle East and wider Muslim world that meets the hopes of its people.

"Viva Palestina Arabia gathered together academics, politicians and activists last year in the Bekaa Valley in our first Summer University of Palestine to discuss and coordinate the struggle for Palestinian rights.

"Now, after the heroic Egyptian revolution has overthrown the pharaoh Mubarak, this year's Summer University has been reorganised to address the questions thrown up by the extraordinary events in Tunisia and Egypt, which are now rolling through the region.

"Book your time off work or college now - 23 to 30 July, just before Ramadan. The university will be in Beirut, upgraded and bigger than last year. It will again have world renowned speakers such as Norman Finkelstein and Ghada Karmi, who spoke last year. Booking details and the first tranche of speakers will be announced next week. This advance notice is to ensure that if you are making plans for summer now, you know to be in Beirut from the 23 July."

The New Middle East - people power, democracy and Palestine 

Beirut, Lebanon
23 to 30 July 2011

advance notice - booking opens at end of next week

The future is in their hands

There are decades when nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen.

The peoples of the Arab world, and therefore the rest of us, are now living through those weeks - described in words used by the Russian revolutionary Lenin a century ago.

Revolution is back on the agenda, on the front page of the New York Times even, at just the time when globalised capitalism is mired in its deepest economic crisis for generations and the seemingly almighty power of US imperialism is being demonstrated to be anything but.

The overthrow of the Ben Ali dictatorship in Tunisia last month, triggering the heroic and ongoing uprising of the people of Egypt, the most populous and strategically significant Arab country, was a real revolution. So is Egypt's.

Egypt - No half measures

In Egypt, millions are marching not to the top of the hill but to the middle of the squares.

And then what? The dictator is still there, never mind the dictatorship which is now beginning the fightback against its own people.

The millions are marched down again and told to come back next week. That's why they are neither up nor down.  But those who "half-make a revolution", said the French revolutionary St Just, "are digging their own graves".

Abjol Miah: "The time is up for the modern Pharoahs!"

My friend, Abjol Miah, has written the following article for the Respect Party website.

For 30 years Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt with an iron grip. His dictatorship, backed by the United States, Britain and the West in general, has concluded a “peace” agreement with Israel which has meant that the Palestinian people of Gaza have suffered the most terrible siege for years. Mubarak had 1.2 million police ruthlessly suppressing dissent with members of the political opposition arrested, tortured and sometimes murdered.

Now it is over. Mubarak is, in the words of Mohammed ElBaradei, a dead man walking. The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Mubarak to go. The foreign minister of Sweden has declared the era of Mubarak is over. Support for his regime in the West is melting away.

George Galloway: "Mubarak, you are persona non grata in Egypt

George Galloway addresses a Stop the War Coalition meeting on Wednesday 2nd February.

Robert Tressell Centenary Today

100 years ago today Robert Tressell, author of the inspirational Ragged Trousered Philanthropists died. Poshtumously published, his book was described by Robert on the title page as " Twelve months in hell, told by one of the damned." A tale of agitation and organisation, battling against the tide of apathy, confronting the small-time capitalists who seek to keep their employees in line. 

The main character of the book, Frank Owen, seeks over and over again to win his fellow workers to the socialist cause, most famously with the 'money trick', perhaps the best, certainly the most entertaining, explanation of Marx's theory of surplus value!  Owen doesn't always win the argument but he never gives up believing in "the Golden Light that will be diffused throughout all the happy world from the rays of the risen sun of Socialism."

To mark the centenary Philosophy Football have produced a special Ragged Trousered Philanthropists T-shirt and mug depicting the workers, the agitator and the capitalist. Available from www.philosophyfootball.com 

Criminals of a feather flock together - Blair backs Mubarak

Remember Tony Blair, the man whose lies took us to war in Iraq and cost the lives of countless innocent Iraqis. As Hosni Mubarak, the beleaguered President of Egypt, unleashes the forces of reaction in an attempt to crush the democratic wishes of the Egyptian people, Tony Blair has joined the fray supporting . . . .you guessed it, Hosni Mubarak. Speaking to Piers Morgan on CNN, Tony Blair defended his backing for Mubarak.

"Where you stand on him depends on whether you've worked with him from the outside or on the inside. I've worked with him on the Middle East peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians so this is somebody I'm constantly in contact with and working with and on that issue, I have to say, he's been immensely courageous and a force for good."

As they say, you couldn't make it up. But then again, why would you?

Stop the War Coalition Public Meeting

Solidarity with Egyptian Uprising
Wednesday 2nd February • 7pm • Conway Hall • Red Lion Square • London WC1R 4RL

Speakers: George Galloway, Dina Makram Ebeid Egyptian activist, John Rees eye witness from Cairo, Bernard Regan

Egypt has been a cornerstone of the US "war on terror" and America's strategy for dominating the Middle East. Not for nothing is Egypt second only to Israel in the amount of US aid it receives, including $1.3 billion a year for the security forces alone--the same forces who have killed dozens of protesters in the last few days and injured thousands more. President Mubarak has made Egypt a US client state for decades. If his tyranny is overthrown the implications are momentous. As well as expressing solidarity with the Egyptian people's uprising for democracy, Stop the War's public meeting on Wednesday 2 February will discuss the implications for the anti-war movement.