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George Galloway's Morning Star column, 21 December 2007 |
George's column covers the continuing chaos in Kosovo, and the prospects for the London GLA elections in 2008
Here’s one we liberated earlier.
The mounting crisis over Kosovo, which is set to come to a head in the New Year, is a grim epitaph for the Blair years and the doctrine of liberal interventionism.
The Kosovo war in 1999 was long held up as a success story – Nato air strikes on make-up women, refugee columns and market squares notwithstanding. Scalpeled out of the complexities of this part of the world was a modern day morality tale, absolute and Manichean.
Western military force, deployed in the promulgation of a moral order that was at once universal, but strangely Anglo-Saxon at the same time, had curbed a criminal regime. The last act of the wars of succession following the tearing down of Yugoslavia had been a triumphant vindication of “humanitarian interventionism”.
Blair chose the fitting venue of the Chicago business club to elucidate the new doctrine. Many, even on the left, were taken in. Eight years on and the picture is very different from the pomp and the sight of Blair arriving in Kosovo to scenes of adulation.
It would be a case of first time tragedy second time farce, except the tragedy has continued and could now become manifold.
It has long been established that the Nato air war in 1999 precipitated exactly the forced movement of people that it was ostensibly to prevent. The alliance of the gunmen of the Kosovo Liberation Army and the airforces of Britain, Germany, France and the US brought forth the counter-insurgency response of the Yugoslav National Army.
The Nato occupation of Kosovo did not bring an end to ethnic cleansing. It merely reversed it. Now it was the Serb minority that was pushed out by a campaign of violence and intimidation.
Kosovo itself became a haven for trade in drugs, prostitutes and guns – all three ending up on our shores. Far from having control over their own destiny, the people of Kosovo became occupied by 16,000 Nato troops, their economy overrun by gangsterism and their state structures overseen by one or other European Union potentate.
Now all those features are to remain while, absurdly, the group around Hashim Thaci, hoisted into power by Nato, is pushing for what they grandiloquently call independence. It would, of course, be no such thing. Kosovo would be what used to be called a protectorate of the Great Powers. That, or it would be part of a new round of bloody redrawing of the map.
There are already forces pushing for a “greater Albania” encompassing Albania itself, Kosovo, and the western part of Macedonia. This way lies madness.
Yet, given the opportunity to repudiate this drive to rip a chunk out of the Serbian state – a sovereign and independent state – Gordon Brown has spurned it. We are in danger of sleepwalking into a renewed Balkan war.
A lot has happened since the last one in 1999. Above all, we have the war on terror against Afghanistan and Iraq, and with threats against Iran. I very much hope that those who were caught up in the rhetoric of liberal humanitarianism eight years ago will see where it has led. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
The coming year
WHAT an awful last two months the government has had. Next year looks set to bring it more bad news. The economy stands on the brink of a sharp slowdown, maybe even a prolonged recession.
That strange beast from the 1970s appears to be lurking back into view - stagflation. Gordon Brown’s economic policy is bringing pay freezes and price rises. The Tories are hopeful of capitalising on the resulting misery.
A big test will be the elections in London in May. There’s already a frenzy developing on the right against London Mayor Ken Livingstone. You don’t have to agree with everything that Ken has said and done to recognise what’s going on when Associated Newspapers launches the kind of attacks which we saw on so-called loony left councils in the 1980s.
Ken has rightly forged links with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. For the right, this is seen bizarrely as evidence of City Hall importing dictatorship from Caracas.
I’ve made it clear in the pages of the Morning Star at various points this year that I have no hesitation in saying that the left and progressives in London should ensure that, in a battle between Livingstone and Johnson, it is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel who’s upended in Henley.
The progressive swath of the population in London also deserves representation in the Greater London Assembly (GLA). It won’t find it through the established parties. Nor is it forthcoming from the existing assembly - most people in London couldn’t name a single assembly member.
That’s why I and my closest political colleagues are discussing with others - Latin American activists, civil rights campaigners, those from the traditional left, from the anti-war and anti-racist movements - standing a progressive list for the GLA. A lot of my friends are urging me to help head up that list and I’m taken by the idea. There ought to be media attention on the GLA and on the election to it. Even my most hostile detractor would concede that my standing will bring that.
We’d have a chance of getting one or maybe more seats and, most importantly, it would be a chance to take the progressive case across the capital in an imaginative campaign. I’d hope quite a few Star readers might like to be part of that!
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News and articles of interest
Here are some articles and news reports we think are worth looking at
From Triumph to Torture by John Pilger
Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or "official drivel", as Gellhorn called it.
SATs school tests criticised by official report by Harvey Thompson and Linda Slattery
In May, millions of school children throughout England undertook their Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs) in English, mathematics and science. The statutory tests are widely considered to be flawed and almost universally reviled by teachers and children alike.
Health: Who asked for choice? - Morning Star
IF Health Minister Ben Bradshaw believes that there is political capital to be made by taking on our NHS doctors, he will quickly come unstuck.
Afghanistan troop deaths outnumber those in Iraq by Angela Balakrishnan and agencies
Militants in Afghanistan killed more US and Nato troops than those in Iraq in June after a fresh spate of rebel attacks that highlighted the growing strength of the Taliban.
Iran legally entitled to develop nuclear energy, says UK MP
Iran is legally entitled to develop nuclear energy under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, according to a British MP visiting Tehran for the first time.
George Galloway, who was expelled from Britain's ruling Labor Party for his outspoken opposition to the Iraq war, also criticized the hypocrisy of Israel's belligerence towards Iran, which has its own illegal stockpile of nuclear weapons.
In the Cause of Fear and Ignorance by John Pilger
Muslims are alone as they watch the British state, with its "obstinate incomprehension" of their faith, do to them as it would never do to those of other faiths. Imagine Jews treated this way. You cannot imagine it; the profanity is too great. The silence of British Jews, who have the history, is also great.
Migrant Myths by Adam Ford
As part of her degree course, Kurdish migrant Filiz Celik researched the conditions that workers from overseas face in the United Kingdom. The full text of her study can be read here, but this summary by Adam Ford gives some idea of the reality behind the media-generated myths.
Tesco shareholders reject TV chef's chicken welfare call
Tesco shareholders today voted against a resolution from TV cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall which called for the retail giant to improve its chicken-rearing standards.
Academies expelled 10,000 pupils
Academies have been accused of excluding disproportionately high numbers of students after it emerged that they excluded nearly 10,000 pupils for poor behaviour last year.
Let companies run state schools for profit, says Sir Simon Milton
Private companies should be allowed to run state schools at a profit and be free to dismiss teachers who are not up to the job, the head of the Local Government Association (LGA) said yesterday.
For more stories, click here
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