SOCIALIST UNITY

George Galloway this morning expressed his disappointment that a Canadian judge refused to grant an injunction to allow him into Canada, but pointed out that the attempt to silence him had spectacularly backfired.“Last night I spoke to almost two thousand people packed into an auditorium in Toronto through the wonders of modern technology,” said George Galloway from New York. “And I will continue to speak to thousands more Canadians over the next few days from the United States.

“It really is extraordinary that the conservative pro-Bush government should have sought to abrogate the right to free speech in Canada in this way. Canada has traditionally regarded itself as more liberal than the United States, yet the US authorities have had no problem with me speaking all over the US, again to thousands and thousands of people, raising aid for Gaza.

“On the allegation that I have given material support to Hamas, I say this. I have always historically supported the late President Yasser Arafat, a man long described by his opponents as a terrorist. Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East will know that President Arafat was not a member of Hamas!

“Having raised more than a million pounds worth of aid for the suffering Palestinian people in Gaza, it was only right to disburse that aid through the democratically elected government of Palestine. I believe in the right of the Palestinian people to elect its own government, and there will be no peace in the Middle East until Western governments do the same.”