The Workers Party of Britain as the politics of egoism and opportunism

The Galloway File #1: A Left Lane investigation into the inner workings of this ego project of political firebrand and four-time MP George Galloway

Feb 23, 2024

By Alan Story

Most progressives and socialists would endorse two key messages that well-known politician George Galloway is pushing in the 29 February Rochdale by-election:

there must be an immediate ceasefire by Israel in its war on Gaza.
Keir Starmer is leading the Labour Party into a right-wing swamp.

We would also endorse what Galloway said in the U.S. Senate in 2005: that the war in Iraq was based on “a pack of lies” from the US and UK governments.

“WEIRDEST AND MOST VOLATILE BY-ELECTION”

But two questions must be confronted by the left as the date of the Manchester–area by-election date nears:

Does the fact that Galloway and his Workers Party of Britain (WPB) oppose two of our own opponents, namely the Israeli War Machine and Starmer, necessarily make them our friends? (You know the old proverb, right?)
Should the left support and join in the WPB’s electoral campaign in the constituency, called the “weirdest and most volatile by-election […] possibly in modern history”? A BBC radio debate scheduled for 23 Feb. between the 11 candidates on the ballot had to be cancelled after only two were available.

Galloway is already winning endorsements from left-wing media. On 17 February, the Morning Star published a broadly-supportive two page spread. Galloway has been a featured guest for three successive weeks on Sunday’s NOT the Andrew Marr Show. This Corbynista-influenced site is especially enthusiastic in its praise. The Communist Party supports Galloway.

On the right, the Daily Mail is running articles that ask: “Could Rochdale Muslims enraged by the war in Gaza sweep Putin-loving firebrand George Galloway back into the House of Commons?”

“I AM SPARTACUS”

Galloway himself claimed on YouTube that a victory in Rochdale would “cheer good people around the world “. For good measure, he proclaimed in a recent YouTube video that “I am Spartacus”. (To refresh your memory: Spartacus was a Roman slave and gladiator who led a major revolt against Rome.)

Galloway is given a good shot at winning Rochdale as a consistent voice for Palestine. The constituency has a Muslim population of about 30% and the candidate listed as Labour’s candidate on the ballot has been suspended from the Labour Party. Here’s a list of all candidates. The sitting Labour MP died in January 2024.

But after a two-week long investigation of the WPB, including eight hours of detailed interviews with former WPB members and a Zoom call with WPB spokesperson Lauren Wilson as well as a far-right collaborator of Galloway, we think that progressives should decline to hop aboard the Galloway express. The George Galloways of this world do the people’s movement for radical change far more harm than good.

THE WORKERS PARTY IS A “STEPPING STONE”

A former WPB member told the The Left Lane (TLL) last week:. “George is just dying to return to Parliament. In fact that goal was one of the main reasons the Workers Party was set up. He is just an opportunist.”

Another former WPB member labelled the WPB “a stepping stone for Galloway” and predicted the political veteran “would drop it [the WPB] in a heartbeat if he got a better offer to be honest.”

Galloway is widely despised in left activist circles. Many know Galloway up close. While Palestine may be a key issue for him, Galloway is not expected to be a speaker at an important conference about Gaza in London on 2 March on the theme “No Ceasefire, No Vote.”

“He (Galloway) is not somebody I would have anything to do with”, one well-respected veteran activist who is helping organise the event texted me the other day.

“ONLY ONE GEORGE GALLOWAY”

Among the findings we present in this three-part dossier which total more than 5,000 words and which we publish today and in successive days:

Galloway’s WPB is based on a top-down “cult of personality”. Being a party leader gives Galloway a certain prestige and he is allowed to act and speak without almost any restraints from WPB members. “There’s only one George Galloway” his WPB profile brags.
WPB members have very little say in making and deciding on party policy. It is, bluntly, “George’s way or the doorway” as a former member told us.
Galloway and the WPB openly collaborate with and praise far right figures, racists, anti-immigrant zealots, and conspiracy theorists. David Clews, one close WPB collaborator, is a regular keynote speaker at conferences of the far right neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative.
Political life for WPB members is a psychologically unsafe experience. Criticisms are very difficult to air. Transparency is non-existent. There are unanswered questions about the WPB’s financial affairs.
In 2022, there were serious splits in the WPB and there are now less than an estimated 50 active members. We will examine this more closely in Part Three.

“TOTAL RESPECT AND AWE”

Few will deny that Galloway is a skilled and colourful orator, who has many fans. The other day one wrote on his YouTube channel: “If only Britain had politicians of the same calibre as Mr Galloway. Total respect and awe at your experience and integrity.”

But beneath the veneer and the nearly constant YouTube videos Galloway releases, all is far from rosy in the world of the Workers Party. One thing is very clear: the workers are most definitely NOT in control of Galloway’s Workers Party.

Simply put: the politics of the WPB are focused on doing what is good for George Galloway. They mirror the politics of mainstream political parties.

Think of the UK Tory party under Boris Johnson or the U.S. Republican Party under Donald Trump and you can begin to grasp the internal politics of Galloway’s party, albeit on a far smaller scale.

Manipulation is rife. Labour leader Keir Starmer acted in the same manipulative and opportunist fashion on 21 Feb. when he pressured the Commons speaker over the Gaza issue, as journalist Another Angry Voice excellently explains here.

There is another way to do politics. Decrying the rising threat of war and authoritarianism around the world, Australian journalist Caitlin Johnstone wrote in her 22 February Substack column titled “Israel-Palestine Isn't 'Complicated', You Just Support Killing Palestinians”:

“We should not be locked into these abusive competition-based models wherein nations compete with other nations, political factions compete with other political factions, scientists compete with other scientists, workers compete with other workers. We should not be clawing our way to the front of the rat race and stepping on the heads of our brothers and sisters trying to scramble to the top, we should be collaborating together for the common good of all humankind, and for the good of this planet’s biosphere upon which we depend for survival.”

GALLOWAY’S ROLLER COASTER CAREER

Born in Dundee and now aged 69, Galloway has had a proverbial roller coaster political career in Scotland and England stretching back to the 1970s. He first became a Labour MP in Glasgow Hillhead in 1987. Two decades ago, he was a leading figure in the RESPECT party1, one of many left-of-Labour parties to be set up and collapse in acrimony during the past two decades. Galloway’s conduct was often at the centre of the acrimony.

“The founding of RESPECT and the founding of the Workers Party were very similar,” an ex-WPB member told me in an interview. “You had a group of activists who wanted a well-known figurehead – in both cases Galloway – to be in charge. But in both cases, a crack started to appear in the coalition (of forces) and a split developed.”

In total, Galloway has been an MP for 26 years and represented four constituencies. His most recent seat was Bradford West, won in a 2012 by-election. Having not built a base locally and a victim of our first-past-the-post voting system, Galloway finished a distant second in Bradford West in the 2015 general election. A victory in Rochdale would be the fifth notch in Galloway’s parliamentary belt.

His encyclopaedic Wikipedia entry totals 53 pages, including more than 400 footnotes stretching over 25 pages. One sharply-worded critique of Galloway was released last week. It is also well referenced.

IT’S THE GALLOWAY PARTY, NOT THE WORKERS PARTY

From the 1970s up until today, George Galloway’s politics have almost always focused on promoting his personal brand and image. He always made sure he was more prominent than any party he was a member of or that he led. Once he saw an opportunity for himself, he pounced.

Such an individualist, career-enhancing orientation goes directly against the spirit of socialism and of socialist parties. Such parties are – or at least should be – groups of activists/colleagues/comrades who work together as collaborators and equals for the common good and not in any expectation of winning personal glory. That, however, is not Galloway’s mantra.

Here are a few of many examples:

For the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the ballot for all RESPECT party candidates was headed: "Respect – The Unity Coalition (George Galloway)"
Galloway was one of many RESPECT candidates in that 2004 race. His party got 1.7% of the vote across England and Wales. Never one to talk down poor election results, Galloway called RESPECT’s overall vote in 2004 "a very considerable triumph".
Try this. Take a second to Google the phrase “Workers Party of Britain.” Here is what comes up. Workers Party of Britain - Home - Leader - George Galloway
Galloway is a shameless name dropper and self-promoter. This is his profile on the WPB website:
“Our Leader George Galloway
There’s only one George Galloway. Six-term Parliamentarian, freedom fighter, man of the world. Writer, broadcaster, film-maker. Football and boxing enthusiast, movie-goer, box-set binger. Husband, father of five children, Scottish of Irish background, honorary Palestinian, Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian… Friend of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Benazir Bhutto, Yasser Arafat, Tariq Aziz. Trembling with indignation at any injustice, anywhere.”
Too bad all five listed men are dead. If they weren’t, we would check if Fidel Castro (1926 – 2016) actually considered Galloway to be his mate.
Galloway is a classic “hanger on” politician. He constantly attempts to align himself and his party with former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. When he was leader, Corbyn had enough sense not to re-admit Galloway as a Labour Party member. (Galloway was expelled from Labour in 2003.)
Long ago some of us gave up on the “great man theory of left history.”

PARTY POLICY MADE ON GALLOWAY’S CHANNEL

In any serious socialist party operating on a democratic basis, deciding on party policy – that is, what the party stands for and what it is against – is a task reserved for party members. Members debate issues, make motions, amend motions and vote on all policy matters.

That is not how things are done in Galloway’s Workers Party.

“Galloway decides Workers Party policy by himself on his own social media channels and Twitter, “explains a former WPB member. “We never got a look in.”

Galloway's personal channel is called “The Mother of All Talk Shows” or MOATS TV. He also has a personal YouTube channel and has put out more than 320 episodes. Galloway does have occasional guests, but he does most of the talking. “There is only one George Galloway.”

When it comes to policy making, this is done in most socialist or communist parties by the holding of an annual or bi-annual congress or conference. The Labour Party is not a socialist party, but at least it holds an annual conference. The Green Party of England and Wales holds several conferences a year and in varying locations.

WPB CONGRESSES: ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS

Article 8.1 of the WPB’s rule book states that “The Party’s Congress is held at the discretion of the National Members Council, but not longer than once every four years.” Such a long gap between congresses is highly unusual, especially for such a small left party operating in a relatively small country.

One might counter that the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party convenes only every five years. The CPC is rather larger than the WPB and China rather larger than the UK.

The WPB leadership has been hardly keen on using its discretion to increase the frequency of its own congresses. The WPB’s founding conference was held in mid-December 2019. The subsequent congress was held 47.5 months later in early December 2023. Both were held in Birmingham.

WPB spokesperson Wilson defends the infrequency of party congresses. “I don’t think it is really necessary to go through the whole bureaucratic process every year. It just becomes almost a tick box exercise.”

One can only ask: why is the WPB leadership so fearful of open and frequent debate among its members?

WPB: GALLOWAY HAS EQUAL POWER WITH OTHERS

Wilson points out that the party has a National Members Council (NMC) – it also only meets in Birmingham – and disagrees with my suggestion that Galloway has far more influence on policy-making than anybody else in the party.

“There is a group of 25 of us who all equally have a say in what policies are developed. George doesn’t have more power than other people,” Wilson claimed.

The former WPB members we interviewed said the NMC was “really a bit of a joke.” It seldom made policy, it was unrepresentative, members had to pay their own transport, and often Galloway did not attend, they explained in some detail and with many anecdotes.

“When I went to a NMC meeting, Galloway popped in for a mere 10 or 15 minutes on Zoom. I never went again,” said one.

GALLOWAY’S ATTENDANCE NOT RELEVANT

I asked Wilson how often Galloway attended meetings of the NMC. “I don’t really know whether that’s relevant,” she replied.

Wilson added that “we’re in with a really good chance” in Rochdale.

A win in Rochdale next week would no doubt be good for Galloway. Whether that would be good for the people of Rochdale or for the progressive cause in the UK is a very different matter.

If he fails in Rochdale, Galloway is expected to run as Mayor of London.

I know one thing. I am a socialist. If I lived in Rochdale (or London), I would not put an X beside George Galloway’s name.

The Left Lane