The Grapple in the Apple: Galloway Takes a Bite Out of Hitchens Todd Chretien 9/15/05
It was a hard ticket to get. A reporter for GQ magazine called asking if he could get a press pass to just stand in the back. He didn’t get in. But the New York Post, The Economist, the BBC, the London Times, the Guardian and dozens of independent media did get in, so hundreds of thousands of people will know what went down. The debate was the largest ever audience for live webstream hosted by Democracy Now! It wasn’t that easy to get Mr. Galloway himself to the debate. We almost missed our 6:55am flight out of Boston because, for some strange reason, we were all flagged for “extra security” and spent 15 minutes being poked and prodded by TSA guards. We arrived at JFK airport and spent the next 90 minutes in traffic, which has been gridlocked all week because President Bush is in town addressing the UN assembly. Although the most powerful government in the history of the world was unable to get helicopters into New Orleans to help the sick, the poor, and the elderly evacuate, the secret service did manage pour thousands of agents into mid-town Manhattan and coordinate hundreds limousines converging on the UN. Ina Howard, the unstoppable publicist for The New Press, spent the entire afternoon trying to tame the whirlwind of media around Mr. Galloway, delicately balancing the competing priorities of maximum press exposure and the preservation of his vocal chords. One hundred volunteers and the wonderful staff at the Baruch Performing worked feverously for four hours to get the hall wired and ready for the showdown. When we finally opened the doors, the line to get in snaked around the block in both directions. Despite the fact that we had to make them stand in the heat and humidity to get them though the metal detectors that our insurance policy required, the vast majority of the crowd was good-natured, patient and helpful. However, there were a noticeable number of belligerent patrons, most of them white men, quite a few of them smelling of happy hour. I had assumed that only a few of Hitchens fans would attend, so I didn’t necessarily put two-and-two together at the time. At 7:30, (yes we did start 30 minutes late) Jen Roesch, the organizational mastermind of the New York operation, mounted the stage to welcome the moderator, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, and announce the imminent arrival of the evening’s protagonists. As Hitchens and Galloway emerged from the wings, the crowd applauded for their favorites. Much to my surprise, almost one-third of the audience was boisterously on the side of the polemicist from Vanity Fair. I won’t even try to reproduce the heat and the light generated by the verbal jousting that carried on for the next two hours. You can watch it yourself on CPSAN or on the internet. All the details are available on www.MrGallowayGoesToWashington.com. But here’s just a bit to tantalize. Hitchens opened the debate by declaring the invasion and occupation of Iraq a “noble” effort and launched into a personal attack on Galloway, calling his testimony in front of the US Senate a “disgrace.” His partisans in the audience hooted and yelled their approval. Watching them stamp their feet and howl, it dawned on me that my assumptions about Hitchens’ fans were all wrong. Rather than the declining ex-liberals, grown comfortable on the fat of successful careers and embarrassed by a flirtation with a few radical principles in their long past youth, that I had imagined, they were almost all white men in their 20’s or 30’s. Most of them were much better dressed than Hitchens himself, and they unapologetically reveled in Hitchens sexual and sexist innuendo. Amazingly, the loudest response Hitchens elicited from his side was when he denounced the idea that racism stood at the heart of Bush and the government’s pathetic response to the disaster in New Orleans. His boys loved that. Galloway, gave it as good as he got it. “Hitchens, you have completed a metamorphosis from a butterfly into a slug, reversing the processes of nature.” It got more bitter from there. But at base, this debate was about two questions: whether or not we should bring the troops home now and whether you stood on the side of empire or resistance. Mr. Galloway’s one word answer to the question of pulling US and British troops out was, “yes.” Hitchens said, although it took him about 500 words, replied“no.” As for empire, Hitchens waxed poetic about the great humanitarian adventure the 82nd Airborne is embarked upon in Sadr City. Galloway, replied by wondering “Why Hitchens did you support the Vietnamese resistance with all your heart then, but now you support those with the Tomahawk missiles and Apache helicopters.” And that is the debate that Mr. Galloway is bringing across the country in the run up to the massive September 24 protests. Do yourself a favor and watch the debate on CSPAN this weekend or on the web at Democracy Now! And then, if you are within 200 miles of Toronto, Madison, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles or Washington, D.C., get yourself a ticket and get down to hear Mr. Galloway. Todd Chretien is the Galloway National Tour Coordinator and a frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/MknplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! 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