Monday, 20 May 2013
British government stance on Bangladesh hardens after Galloway question
In response to a question from George Galloway, the British government has called for 'an impartial, transparent, independent investigation' into the ongoing violence in Bangladesh which has resulted in more 200 deaths.
The Bradford West MP asked the Foreign Secretary what information he had about the killing of peaceful protestors, particularly those taking place in Shapla Square, Dhaka on May 5/6. Foreign office minister Alistair Burt responded that the British government was very concerned about the upsurge in violence and made his appeal to the Bangladesh government to set up the independent inquiry,
'This is almost unprecedented,' said Galloway, 'one government calling on another to set up an arms' length inquiry. The only conclusion you can take is that our government does not trust or believe the Bangladesh government is capable of investigating these state killings. And no wonder, given the brutal murders this foul and corrupt Bangladesh government has been carrying out.
'Of course, despite the plea, there's not a chance that the Sheikh Yashina regime will comply.'
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Galloway again demands MQM leader's British citizenship is withdrawn
George Galloway, in a series of parliamentary questions and a parliamentary motion, has asked the British Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to remove MQM leader Altaf Hussain's British citizenship.
Hussain is currently living in London after successfully applying for citizenship during the tenure of the last Labour government. He says that he fears for his life were he to return to Pakistan.
Galloway asked the government to examine whether the MQM leader should be thrown out of the country after Hussain made a serious of inflammatory broadcasts. However, following the assassination of the vice-president of Imran Khan's party, the PTI, which is blamed on the MQM, Galloway is once again raising Altaf Hussain's status in the British Parliament. Zara Shahid Hussain was shot dead outside her house as Karachi votes in a partial re-run of the Pakistan general election.
The second war on Suffragettes
National chair Yvonne Ridley has written an excellent piece in Counterpunch on Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison who died under the King George V's horse at the 1913 Derby.
You can read it here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/22/the-second-war-on-suffragettes/
You can read it here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/22/the-second-war-on-suffragettes/
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Galloway calls for the peaceful overthrow of Bangladesh's 'gangster government'
George Galloway last night called for the peaceful overthrow of the Sheikh Hasina/Awami League government in Bangladesh. Speaking at a huge protest rally in East London, Galloway denounced the massacre of Islamic scholars earlier in the week.
“Even on the most conservative estimates of the number of people murdered, it exceeds the loss of life in 9/11,” said Galloway.
“This is a game changer as the Americans would say. Bangladesh will never be the same again. This is the beginning of the end of this corrupt, murderous government.” He went on to deny there was now any possibility of free and fair elections in Bangladesh.
“Either they will be fixed by the government or they will be cancelled. That is why the only way we will get the change Bangladesh needs is through people power, a peaceful revolution that will remove this gangster government. The media is now under the almost total control of the Hasina government and in the West there has been an almost total media blackout about the massacre.”
Galloway added that the British-based Bangladesh TV had boycotted the rally and called on them to do their duty and tell the truth. “I’m against hanging anyone but it’s a fundamental truth in politics that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. There has to be an end of the politics of revenge.”
George also denounced the factory tragedy which has now taken the lives of over a thousand people and urged support for the campaign he launched a week ago to make Western multinationals fully accountable for the working conditions of those in their supply chain.o
Galloway commemorates Bradford City disaster victims
George Galloway will join hundreds of mourners today to commemorate those who lost their lives in the Bradford City fire 27 years ago.
Fifty-six people died and at least 265 people were injured. The memorial will take place at Centenary Square at 11am.
The old Valley Parade stadium, the long-established home of Bradford City Football Club, had been noted for its antiquated design and facilities, including the wooden roof of the main stand. Warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter just below the seats. Following the fire the stadium was totally rebuilt.
Fifty-six people died and at least 265 people were injured. The memorial will take place at Centenary Square at 11am.
The old Valley Parade stadium, the long-established home of Bradford City Football Club, had been noted for its antiquated design and facilities, including the wooden roof of the main stand. Warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter just below the seats. Following the fire the stadium was totally rebuilt.
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
George Galloway launches campaign on factory conditions in Bangladesh
George Galloway will launch on Saturday a campaign for western governments to hold accountable multinational companies for the working conditions of their suppliers. The campaign will be launched with Bradford's Bangladeshi community at 1.45 this Saturday at the Shapla Community Centre, Cornwall Street, Bradford.
George wants western multinationals, which produce directly or buy from companies in developing countries, to be penalised severely if they don’t take due precautions to ensure workers are producing in safe conditions. This follows the disaster in Bangladesh where around 400 workers are now known to have died and hundreds more are missing or injured after a nine storey garment factory supplying western multinationals collapsed just outside the capital Dhaka.
George wants western multinationals, which produce directly or buy from companies in developing countries, to be penalised severely if they don’t take due precautions to ensure workers are producing in safe conditions. This follows the disaster in Bangladesh where around 400 workers are now known to have died and hundreds more are missing or injured after a nine storey garment factory supplying western multinationals collapsed just outside the capital Dhaka.
Monday, 29 April 2013
Ed Miliband and Me
Secrets are sometimes necessary in politics. So is telling the truth but not the whole truth. What is never acceptable are lies. Especially from the leader of a party still in recovery from a predecessor who may have fatally wounded it by the tower of lies he built along the path which led to a million dead Iraqis and cascading extremism around the world.Earlier this year the Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband asked me to come and see him in his suite of offices overlooking the River Thames in the Norman Shaw Building in parliament. In fact he asked me again and again. When my diary proved uncomfortably crowded his office tried even harder to make it happen. “Ed is very keen to meet George” says one e-mail.
It’s not that I was avoiding him, in fact I was intrigued as to what this meeting – with no specified agenda – might be about.
In any case I would never refuse to meet any parliamentary colleague, still less the leader of the opposition. Such meetings, often private, are the stuff of politics at Westminster.
Galloway launches campaign on factory conditions in Bangladesh
George Galloway today launched a campaign for western governments to penalise multinational companies which produce directly or buy from companies in developing countries if they don’t take due precautions to ensure workers are producing in safe conditions. This follows the disaster in Bangladesh where more than 350 workers are now known to have died in a garment factory just outside Dhaka which was supplying western multinationals.
“This a terrible disaster,” said George Galloway this morning. “It has been caused by political corruption and negligence in Bangladesh and by the relentless drive by western multinationals for cheap sources of clothing. The western multinationals that bought their clothes from this factory owe compensation to the bereaved families and to the injured.
“This a terrible disaster,” said George Galloway this morning. “It has been caused by political corruption and negligence in Bangladesh and by the relentless drive by western multinationals for cheap sources of clothing. The western multinationals that bought their clothes from this factory owe compensation to the bereaved families and to the injured.
Galloway in bitter spat with Miliband
George Galloway has launched a furious attack on Ed Miliband, describing the Labour leader as "an unprincipled coward with the backbone of an amoeba", after the Respect MP was criticised by him. Galloway, a former Labour MP, spoke out on Friday after Miliband gave his account of a meeting several months ago between the pair.Reports of the meeting emerged only last week and led to rumours that Galloway could rejoin the party.
But the Labour leader said the encounter was part of a bid to garner minority party votes over boundary changes. He described Galloway's views as "awful" and said Labour would be fighting to get him ousted in 2015 from the Bradford West seat he spectacularly snatched from his former party in a byelection last year.
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