the RESPECT party

Bradford's peaceful democratic uprising that elected me comes from the wellspring of discontent that swept Britain last summer, writes George Galloway MP in the Guardian The Bradford spring. No matter how seemingly powerful, no corrupted, out-of-touch elite can last forever. The people of Bradford West have spoken, and politics in the city and in this country will never be the same again. Anyone who took part in this historic campaign, or who observed it dispassionately, knew by last weekend that something spectacular was going to take place.

A 5,000 Labour majority was transformed into a 10,000 majority for Respect – the same total vote for me as the outgoing MP had in a general election – winning across every ward in the constituency. It was the most spectacular byelection result in British political history.

The word revolution was on many lips in this deprived and hitherto disenfranchised city well before Friday morning's result. And, like the Arab revolutions, this is a movement, above all, of the young. Bradford has a young population. By 2020 half the population will be under 25. They have grown up in the years when Tony Blair and his successors murdered the real Labour tradition, taking for granted the loyalty of working people – nowhere more so than in this city, where the precursor to the Labour party, the Independent Labour party, was founded in 1893.

UK politics has been governed by Thatcherism for decades. Galloway's triumph should force people to rethink their passivity writes Tariq Ali in the Guardian

George Galloway's stunning electoral triumph in the Bradford by-election has shaken the petrified world of English politics. It was unexpected, and for that reason the Respect campaign was treated by much of the media (Helen Pidd of the Guardian being an honourable exception) as a loony fringe show. A BBC toady, an obviously partisan compere on a local TV election show, who tried to mock and insult Galloway, should be made to eat his excremental words. The Bradford seat, a Labour fiefdom since 1973, was considered safe and the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, had been planning a celebratory visit to the city till the news seeped through at 2 am. He is now once again focused on his own future. Labour has paid the price for its failure to act as an opposition, having imagined that all it had to do was wait and the prize would come its way. Scottish politics should have forced a rethink. Perhaps the latest development in English politics now will, though I doubt it. Galloway has effectively urinated on all three parties. The Lib Dems and Tories explain their decline by the fact that too many people voted!

This Thursday, 29th March, the people of Bradford West sent a clear message to the leaders of  Labour, the Liberals and the Tories: "You can no longer take our votes for granted."

George won 18,341 votes beating Labour by over 10,000 votes.

In a stunning by-election victory, won over less than three short weeks, Respect's George Galloway has shaken up the political 'establishment.'  Labour's is vote down, the Tory is vote down and the Lib-Dems are reduced to the fringe. Surely the austerity agenda of the Con-Dem Coalition or the 'austerity-lite' of New Labour fails utterly to address the concerns of everyday people.

The Respect Party intends to take George's victory further in the local elections in May - Bradford deserves Respect in the council as well as at Westminster.

You can help us by joining the Respect Party today.

George Galloway, Respect: 18,341 (55.9%)
Imran Hussain, Labour: 8,201 (25%)
Jackie Whiteley, Conservative: 2,746 (8.4%)
Jeanette Sunderland, Lib Dem: 1,505 (4.6%)
Other: 2,021 (6.2%)
Turnout: 50.8%

Majority: 10,140

More than thousand people crammed into the Rio Grande on Woodhead Road in Bradford to hear George Galloway and other speakers outline to need for change in the city.




Please share these videos with your freinds and family. Click on the share button on the video (top right)

Meanwhile don't forget to visit the HQ at Chambers Solicitors in Bradford to collect election material and find out what you can do to help George win on Thursday. For more deatils of the campaign visit www.votegeorgegalloway.com

"This is a budget for the few at the expense of the many," said George Galloway, in response to Gideon Osborne's budget announcement on Wednesday.

"He's giving hundreds of millions, even billions, back to the richest people 0.5% of the population by cutting the 50% top rate, he's attacking pensioners who are already suffering from rising prices and falling returns on any savings, but worst of all this is a do-nothing, no growth budget.

"Hundreds of thousands are joining the dole queues, many businesses are suffering and in Bradford many shops are facing closure. Yet this Tory/Lib Dem budget is doing nothing to stimulate investment.

"The experts say that the big problem in the British economy is lack of demand. Many companies have built up a lot of cash but don't want to invest because they don't think they can sell the goods they could be producing. And that's because most people just don't have the money to spend.

"That is why the proposal preceding the budget to introduce regional pay in the public sector is so absurd as well as unfair. The government wants to drive down the wages of hard-working public servants in places like Bradford. But this will make Bradford's economy even worse.

"Voters should use the Bradford West by-election to reject this budget and say we have had enough of the policies of Tory and Labour alike which do nothing for us."

George Galloway halted his election campaign today out of respect for Abu-bakr Rauf, 28, who collapsed and died suddenly while electioneering with the Respect candidate.

Abu-bakr was leafletting with his wife Kauser, 30, when he died of a suspected heart attack in the car park of the Mumtaz restaurant in Great Horton Road at about 2.30 pm today, George Galloway was just yards away when the tragedy occurred. He said, 'I'm deeply shocked and saddened that someone so young and so vibrant should go in this way. My condolences and deepest sympathy go out to his family and friends.

'I knew Abu-bakr for many years, since he was a teenager. We campaigned together against the Iraq war and he was a founder member of Respect in 2004. I just can't believe he has gone. He had so much to give but he gave so much to so many as anyone who knew him can confirm.'

Abu-bakr and his wife have the one child, Arabia, who will be one year old on Thursday.

Galloway will resume his campaign in Bradford West tomorrow (Wednesday). 'It was the furthest thing from my mind,' he said. 'But his wife Kauser insists. She said that he would have been angry if we had considered calling a halt.'

Bearing witness to Guernica's 75th Anniversary, Thursday 26 April. Philosophy Football, in association with the International Brigades Memorial Trust and the the Basque Children of '37 Association, have organised a 75th Anniversary Night Out.

Featuring from the USA one of the country's most celebrated protest singers of the Occupy! and Anti-War movements, David Rovics. Guernica of course famously inspired Picasso's extraordinary painting, providing an illustrated talk on the art of war, artist Peter Kennard The Spanish Civil War was noted too for the poetry and song it also inspired. For the Guernica 75th anniversary gala we have commissioned one of Britain's most exciting young spoken word performers, Francesca Beard to write a special poem while a traditional musical soundtrack will be provided by na-mara. Commentary on Guernica, then and now by Guardian columnist, Seumas Milne and historian Helen Graham, author of the forthcoming War and its Shadow: Spain's Civil War in Europe's Long Twentieth Century.

A night out to mix music, poetry, film, art and ideas with food and drink at one of London's most cult bars, Filthy McNasty's, 68 Amwell Street, London EC1R 1UU.. Doors open at 6pm to eat and/or drink, show begins at 7pm.

Tickets just £9.99, with discounts for group bookings of 4 or 8. But hurry! Our events always sell out.

George Galloway speaks at one of the many house and street meetings he has addressed over the weekend in Bradford West.

 

George Galloway, Respect candidate for Bradford West, today condemned tuition fees as "an abomination", on the day the National Union of Students has called a day of action against fees.

"I didn't have the privilege of going to university", said George Galloway. "I wish I had. But I have never begrudged paying my taxes to allow others to go. Our university students are the future of this country.

"It was a disgrace when the Labour government, most of whose leaders benefitted from a free university education paid for by the taxpayer, introduced tuition fees. And it is an abomination that this ConDem government, filled with old Etonians, has now raised tuition fees to an impossible level for many from poorer and even not so poor backgrounds.

George Galloway will be standing as a candidate for the Respect Party in the forthcoming Bradford West by-election. On Tuesday 13th March he handed in his nomination papers at Bradford City Hall. Voters in Bradford West now have the chance to vote for investment not cuts, and for peace, justice and equality.

The GallowApp is the comprehensive way of keeping up with George Galloway and all the things he does. A former Member of Parliament George now has 2 weekly TV Shows and 2 Radio shows whilst running various charities and speaking at numerous events. This App will allow users to keep up with his Diary ,Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and weekly Radio and TV shows. The App contains a unique Video Blog with an AppWall, which will allow interaction with George via the wall as he posts personal videos throughout his week talking about his life and the world around him. Users will be able to post their comments in response and interact directly with George himself.

The occupation of Afghanistan stands on the brink of disaster. It's time to get out.

That was the response of George Galloway to the latest grim news from Afghanistan - the shooting dead of 16 civilians, nine of them children, in a nighttime killing spree by a US soldier. That follows the deaths last week of six British soldiers from Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire, and widespread protests and killings last month at news that US forces had burned copies of the Koran at Bagram airbase.

"We now stand at a immensely dangerous tipping point," says Galloway, who opposed the Afghan adventure from the beginning and is taking that message to the voters of Bradford West, where he is a candidate in this month's by-election.

By George Galloway

What a mournful milestone we passed this week with the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan, pushing the total killed in this senseless war above 400 - to 404 at the time of writing.

These young men were from Yorkshire, Cheshire and Lancashire. And young they were - the youngest was Private Christopher Kershaw, 19, from Bradford.

Huddersfield, Bradford and the Lancashire former mill towns are a universe away from the gilded Etonian millionaires who are running our country into the ground - when not taking to horse, on steeds loaned, if you will, from the Metropolitan Police at our expense.

Yet David Cameron, William Hague and the rest are determined to throw more of our young men and women into the maw of war, in Afghanistan and - so leaks from the Ministry of Defence confirm - into catastrophic conflagration in the Persian Gulf should Israel, with the US in tow, launch an attack upon Iran.

From BBC news

Former MP and Respect Party co-founder George Galloway said he was "almost certain" to stand in the forthcoming Bradford West by-election.

Mr Galloway, 57, said he had come to Bradford to test the water but "the chances are" he will stand in the poll.

The former Bethnal Green and Bow MP was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 following criticism of the Iraq war.

The by-election has been triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Marsha Singh, citing health problems.

Speaking outside Bradford's City Hall, Mr Galloway said: "I'm here to take the temperature in the city.

"I'm finding it warm and sunny so far.

"By the end of the day I'll have a better picture, but the chances are that if and when the House of Commons declares the by-election on and the nominations open then I will be the candidate for Respect in the Bradford West constituency."

It is understood that the date for the by-election will be formally announced later, but it is expected to take place on 29 March.

Mr Galloway became MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in 2005. Five years later he failed to win the seat of Poplar and Limehouse.

The Palestinian Right of Return

The third Summer University of Palestine will be from Saturday 1st September to Sunday 9th September this year. The central theme of this year's university will be the Palestinian Right of Return. Once again we will be based in the beautiful and tranquil American University of Beirut in Hamra, Beirut, Lebanon.