I'm Not the Only One

by George Galloway

Political firebrand, thorn in the side of New Labour and leading activist against the war in Iraq - George Galloway has sparked yet more controversy and headlines with I'm Not The Only One. In this searing polemic, now with devastating new material on the fallout of the war in Iraq, he attacks the lies of our current government, continues his campaign for peace and social justice worldwide and expressed his deep longstanding commitment to Iraw, the Palestinian cause and the people and culture of the Middle East.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Biography

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2004

About the author

George Galloway is a British politician, author, and broadcaster, who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1987 and is known for his anti-war views. He was a Labour Party MP for Glasgow Hillhead, and for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, and his subsequently becoming a founding member of Respect. He served as the Respect MP for the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency (2005 - 2010), and and for Bradford West (2012 - 2015).

Galloway is considered to be quite a controversial politician and is perhaps best known for his vigorous campaign to both overturn economic sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s and early 2000s, and to avert the 2003 invasion of that country, as well as for his speech before the then President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, in which he appeared to praise the Iraqi dictator, although Galloway actively opposed the regime until the United States-led Gulf War in 1991 and has always stated that he was addressing the Iraqi people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_G...

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

George certainly is not the only one..

Reading this i could clearly imagine George Galloway orating, he write as he speaks, with passion and power and reasoned calculation. He rarely holds back, instead wishing to speak a truth into an arena which is more and more so becoming saturated with lies and misdirection. I respect him for standing almost alone against the powers that sought to and did bully, lie and misdirect the public and indeed many other MP's into an illegal, murderous and unnecessary war against Iraq which has been and is one of the most disgusting and brazen acts of treachery by the UK and US governments of their people and the people of the world.

He covers the last 30 years of the Labour party in its move away from old Labour values to what is now New Labour. It is interesting hearing his personal insights into some of the MP's actions and inactions, as opposed to hearing only what they and the mainstream media were to deign to tell us.

He was of course expelled from the Labour party for "bringing the party into disrepute". The reality is his voice could no longer be tolerated because he went directly and consistently against the Labour stance of being pro war. Because, among other things, he had the balls to rightly accuse Blair and Bush of acting "like wolves" in invading Iraq. I fully agree in his understanding that the Iraqi people should resist the illegal and unjust invaders. I fully agree in the call that British troops should defy illegal orders from an illegal war. I fully agree that no nation should attack another nation (unless there was a genuine UN type agreement, in which case it is not a nation, but a huge agreement and joint action, not this pathetic and dastardly "Coalition of the Willing").

Prominent in the book is information about the terrible war upon Iraq by the UK and US governments. He tells of his side of the story with honesty and openness. It is heartening to know that the media are not able to smear him at least in this book.

He talks about his love affair with Iraq and indeed the Arab world, and his (much more limited than propaganda led us to believe) contacts with Saddamn Hussein.

He also talks briefly about his political party, Respect, and plants seeds of hope for political change, at least for me. I have been utterly disheartened with the political landscape. Realising that "democracy" should be much more than a practically meaningless vote once every four years. Denouncing the sham of the "War on Terror" which is in fact a war of terror by the governments of the US and the UK amongst others. Our personal liberties are being eroded rapidly, wrapped up in a veil of fear being promoted and actioned by those in power. Respect is a real alternative to what has been on offer, and worth a reflection upon.

I would recommend anyone to read this, if they are anti-war and pro justice for all, and especially if you have taken the propaganda bait and think that George Galloway is a "traitor" as he has been branded by those whose interest it was in to silence him. Sadly i expect that those who most need to read a book like this will simply sneer at it and walk away with their propaganda filled biases, fears and ignorance intact.

George Galloway's "crime" is that he respects human life above the flag of his country. I can say that I and millions of others are proudly "guilty" also.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Not the Only One' is part biographical, part campaigning and part self-justificatory from a man who may not always get it right but whose passion for social justice and commitment to taking risks no one else dare take are undeniable. It is a snapshot of a great radical at the turn of the century.

A disclaimer. I know George Galloway personally and even worked on his behalf briefly when the 'deep state' (yes, it exists) tried to destroy him politically and personally because he had become a thorn in its side over Middle Eastern policies.

I will also admit to some sympathy for his abortive RESPECT Party (relevant to this book) and to the latest iteration of his politics, the Workers Party of Britain. Although never a member of the first and not a member of the second at the time of writing, they are both worthy of our interest.

However, intellectual integrity requires an honest review and that is what you will get. The first point to make is a simple one - it is well written, easy to read and, above all, authentic. This is the voice of the man himself, one prepared to admit errors as well as to assert positions.

Most political memoires are, I am afraid, dull self-congratulatory affairs written (or ghost-written) by men (or women) proud of climbing up the greasy pole of politics and keen both to add to their pension and claim their place in history with their own interpretation of events.

Galloway's is better than this. It was written in 2004 in the wake of the Iraq imbroglio that made his name. It exudes then-current political passions and an honesty about his drives and interests that often worked against him as far as conventional politics were concerned.

British politics is structured to allow great democratic Leftists to rise to public awareness but also to destroy them before they can change anything - George Lansbury, Tony Benn (who at least rose to Secretary of State), Michael Foot, George Galloway, Jeremy Corbyn. This is how it works.

Any time a radical Left alternative appears, the 'Deep State' can tend to rely on the Labour Right to ensure that the challenge is eliminated. The fact that the forces of darkness had to get directly involved in doing over 'Gorgeous George' shows what a challenge he had become.

More than the others, Galloway challenged and still challenges the very core of the British State and its symbiotic relationship with the political class and the media. His thrilling performance at the US Senate in 2005 was a major challenge to the order of things at the very beating heart of the beast.

Let us be honest and talk about both his weaknesses and his strengths. I identify two weaknesses that emerge out of this book. The first is that he has two mistresses - the UK and the Middle East - and the second (which might be said to apply to the WPB) is that he has no economic theory.

The first is an extension of his passion. His love for the Arab world is absolute and honest but it makes him MP for Jenin as much as the dreadful Boris Johnson became MP for Kiev. Unfortunately the vicious British media decided also to make him MP for Baghdad as well.

There is nothing wrong with this passion. He is, in fact, totally right about imperialism and the way that Arab peoples have been treated by the West but it has added to the idea that the UK is a cockpit for struggles between faraway peoples while the ruling caste at home goes unchallenged.

The British State rules in part through misdirection and by allowing cultural conflicts and foreign adventures to fascinate the intellectual lightweights in the media and stop voters thinking about the (now collapsing) national infrastructures of the homeland.

The truth is that it was only a matter of time before the non-West would throw off any remaining shackles off its own accord. Leftist politicians should always have been there to help them (as Attlee walked away from India) but with priority of energy to the interests of their own people.

The lack of an economic strategy is thus a corollary of the first weakness. The propensity of the passionate campaigning Leftist to concentrate on what is morally right rather than the brutal realities of resource competition and the struggles for power and status inherent in the human condition.

In short, Galloway is no Marxist and certainly no Lenin. His democracy is a commitment based on his passion for rhetoric (he is one of the great orators of our age) and persuasion in a world where the means of information and communication are wholly owned subsidiaries of the ruling caste.

But let us look at the strengths. It was not Saddam who was 'indefatigable' (referring here to Galloway's honest PR error) but Galloway himself. Galloway is a human dynamo of enormous core integrity who puts the weasels who inhabit most of politics to absolute shame.

Even that weakness of redirecting the Left's energies to struggles in faraway countries hides the strength of a profound moral purpose and a passion for the underdog that is the true mark of a democratic Leftist hero.

His analyses of our situation stack up brilliantly against the intellectual laziness of our self-satisfied elite. I have no hesitation in counting him, for all his flaws, as a good man in a bad world. Of course, you will hate him if you have a stake in a corrupt system but most do not, in fact, have that stake.

In the public arena, thanks to some of his own misjudgements, he has tended to be positioned as an eccentric outlier but get him in front of a working class audience and he has them in the palm of his hand. He speaks directly to their concerns.

His critique of the functioning of liberal democracy was way ahead of its time. Only now are we beginning to see that we are trapped in an embarrassing farce ruled by second-rate minds who cannot grasp the complexity of the world they created by throwing the economic dice as they did.

The book is two decades old. He is now at the end rather than at the beginning of his career. He was thrown out of the terminally corrupt Labour Party against his will. It will now be an uphill struggle to create an alternative Left politics that is not a pale reflection of American progressivism.

He still sticks to the values of socialism so that, even at this late day, he has a role to play as the Leader, albeit a more passive one to encourage a new generation of working class activists, of the small but developing Workers Party of Britain which has learned its lessons from the past.

My own view is that Labour is very likely to have some sort of majority in 2024/2025 but that it will be unfitted to the solve the profound structural problems of a nation run by the wrong people for far too long within an inept political and administrative structure.

Socialists (and national populists) may have little impact for a while yet but the logic of the situation is an eventual collapse of the old order and either liberal centrists attempting to retain power as ineffectual authoritarians (merely delaying the crisis) or entirely new forces emerging.

The AI revolution, in this context, is far more important than the manufactured and costly 'Green Transition' while the last eighteen months have confirmed that Western hegemony is in terminal decline (although the old dinosaur will thrash around for a fair more decades yet).

Lansbury, Benn, Foot, Galloway, Corbyn may not always have been right and all had or have flaws but their vision of what the nation could be remains as an alternative to the consumer debt-driven fantasy land of British centrism. On the Right, Farage and others also have worthwhile critiques.

By the time the final transformation happens, the process will be in the hands of younger people operating under entirely new conditions but the core moral values that existed, even in debased form, in the Britain of the past are always revivable.

From this perspective, Galloway's Left-populism, his passion and his ability to mobilise opinion may become a useful model to reflect on as the old ruling order starts to collapse on its own ineptitude and its propensity to eat itself as its control of resources weakens.

That is why the book is worth retaining in the library - it is a reference text on sound values, on campaigning dynamics and on mistakes and how to deal with them. Above all, this man survived all that the low lifes of the system could throw at him. If he could, so can we!

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sad there aren't more like him A loose cannon, but somebody who has strong views and isn't afraid to express them. Bound to fail in our political system, but that says volumes about politics. I paid my dues and joined his party. Never done that before or since.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good memoir from a British socialist. Heavy emphasis on the Iraq War and Britain's Stop The War movement. The writing is very English English so i feel like it strengthened my reading muscles and made me look up some words I didn't know.

[My Pseudonym · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book. George Galloway’s demeanour has come under great obscurantism by the media since he was thrown out of the Labour party in 2003 for opposing the illegal and fraudulent war in Iraq. The media has tried to portray Galloway as a friend and admirer of Saddam Hussein; even going as far as saying George Galloway received £10 million from the man! After reading this book - if you haven’t figured it out already - you will realize this is all utterly preposterous and just another attempt to assassinate the character of a good man with a real heart and a real conscience (which is extremely rare coming from a politician).

George Galloway met with Saddam Hussein twice, the first time was in 1994 where he only had a couple of minutes to get his message across which was captured by the media: “Sir I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.” In this sentence Galloway explains how “your” is a reference to the Iraqi people and not that of Saddam Hussein. The second time was in 2002 when Galloway flew over to Iraq to meet Saddam at a secret hideout. During this meeting, Galloway pleaded with Saddam to hand over all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons he may have. Saddam said to Galloway, in private, and with sincerity, ‘Mr Galloway, I thank you for everything you have done for the Iraqi people, however, I do not have weapons of mass destruction.’ Of course, as it turns out Saddam was telling the truth; George W. Bush and Anthony Blair were then ones caught lying. Saddam’s personal translator Saman Abdul Majid asserts Saddam did not like George Galloway as he only showed support for the Iraqi people and not for him which irritated Saddam. Thus, in turn Galloway says: “Iraq was not invaded because it was dangerous to Britain and America, but because, it was not dangerous. North Korea will not be invaded precisely because it is dangerous.”

It’s intriguing how the cradle of civilization, the land between the two rivers, the birth of human accomplishment, the once great Sumer ended up being such a suppressed, poverty laden, war stricken country that it is today. Why are sanctions being placed prohibiting just about everything you can imagine from cancer drugs, medication, surgical instruments to pencils, shampoo and toothpaste? The official explanation of ‘dual-use’ potential is baloney; which still begs the real question as to why the Iraqi people are being purposely suppressed like this. Moreover, why was Iraq not allowed to sell its huge natural resource of oil until the Oil-for-Food programme was introduced in 1995 - which gives the Iraqi people just 30 cents a day for all basic amenities. Well, the answer to that is fairly obvious now. The US physically occupies Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar which have an estimated 550 years worth of oil between them. The US and UK have an estimated less than 40 years worth of oil between them.

This book is mainly focussed on George’s views and dealings with the Middle East; however, there is some biographical information, an insight into the House of Commons, as well as information regarding the creation of the Respect party and its proposed philosophy. Galloway is not a ‘9/11 Truther’ however, he’s certainly not daft and may be willing to draw swords as he has suggested on his radio show. Overall, I think Galloway is a good man and I’m an admirer of his skills as an orator and what he has accomplished with his life. Sir I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability!

[Jibran · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Galloway's heroics in his speech in the US senate (to be found here) is stuff of legend. It catapulted him into a fame he would have not imagined had serious allegations not been made against him and for which he had not gone to the US Senate (on invitation) to clear his name. And what a performance it was! It is clear that the horrified senators were not expecting the front foot attack Galloway managed to pull.

Call him far left, call him lunatic, call him a lone wolf, or call him the most honest and principled politician recent British politics has produced, (made "controversial" for his unequivocal denunciation and absolute rejection of interventionist and imperialistic policies of a parliament that is essentially imperialistic in its nature, and where, therefore, he is a misfit, an odd ball), call him what you like, but one thing can't be gainsaid: not many people in his position have claim to the facility of words to say what he says and the courage with which to say it - things the millions others had been saying in Britain and the world over.

In that respect, and among his colleagues and contemporaries, he indeed is the only one.

[Drew Pyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rant, no doubt about it. But if you watch his speeches in parliament and in the US, that is where he comes into his element. Whilst on the defensive about his close relationship with Saddam, he also attacks, in the shape of the New Labour project which kicked him out half way through the 00's. Him and Benn

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

You might not like the man, (marmite), but this is actually an interesting and well written book and I came away with a good impression of Mr Galloway as a principled man.

I think it was written before he lost the plot on national TV.

[Umar Ghumman · Rating 5 out of 5]

He writes as he speaks, the enthusiasm and passion comes across as if he is standing in front of you. A great read!

[Paddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough, Galloway's vanity shows often but it was still worth reading.

[ayesha shoaib · Rating 5 out of 5]

LEFTY WOOOOO 🗣️🗣️(says the lefty herself)