Nick’s going off on one about the eeevil liberal media again and their Galloway fellating ways.
I’ve said this before and since he shows no sign of shutting up, I’m sure I’ll say it again, but who are all these people writing nice pieces about George Galloway? Sure, there is Tariq Ali and John Pilger but a) they hardly represent mainstream media and b) they are hardly liberal.
This goes to the heart of Cohen’s confusion. In the same column he goes on to praise Evan Harris’ criticisms of Iqbal Sacranie. Cohen’s conclusion: that Iqbal Sacranie is entitled to free speech but shouldn’t begrudge it of the rest of us, is classic liberalism. You won’t find many socialists throughout history exhorting the same idea. Cohen’s problem is that he always thought he was a socialist and yet one morning realised he wasn’t. Rather than have an epitheny however, he simply went into denial and has been taking it out on us poor liberals ever since.
What he’s actually turned into however, is anyone’s guess.
Nick Cohen has an exemplary record on issues of civil liberties.
His support for the Iraq war is regrettable, and is probably motivated by concerns about Israel’s security.
His analysis of far left opportunism is absolutely spot on.
Why does George Galloway (a practicing Roman Catholic) allow himself to be frontman for a SWP dominated “popular front” (RESPECT)?
Why do so many British Moslems align themselves with a bunch of militant atheists (the SWP) who regard religion as the “opiate of the people”?
The answer is “opportunism”.
Galloway is using the SWP and the Moslems (to promote his ego), the SWP are using Galloway and the Moslems, the Moslems are using the SWP and Galloway.
All this has happened once before, if you will recall. In 1979, much of the British left cheered on the Islamic fundamentalists who overthrew the Shah of Iran and installed the Ayatollah Khomeini. The mullahs would only be in power for a while, we were told, then there would be a genuine Marxist-Leninist revolution (for which we are still waiting). (Oh, one SWP afficionado actually told me that the reason women on those marches were wearing the chadour was to disguise themsevles! They were really Marxist atheists!)
The truth is that Islamic fundamentalists are incapable of being manipulated, as the European left discovered in Iran and the Americans in Afghanistan. They are fanatics dedicated to the imposition of a worldwide Islamic dictatorship. They are not the remotest bit interested in socialism, anti-globalisation or any other trendy infidel idea. Galloway and his neo-Trotskyite backers are playing a very dangerous game.
I don’t think Nick Cohen ever was a “socialist”. And I don’t believe Galloway is one, either. Neither would fancy forfeiting all their private property and having their lives controlled from cradle to grave by bureaucrats. (There were no designer suits in Enver Hoxha’s Albania.)
And I would say the same about Tariq Ali and even John Pilger. Ali is a millionaire and Pilger lives a comfortable lifestyle.
For intellectuals in the West, socialism was the guilt trip of the 20th century, now largely replaced by the anthropophobic “green” movement.