G8 comment There was a prompt response to the London bombings from Labour Against the War, which rushed out a press release which *unreservedly condemned" the bombers while firmly establishing the link between the terror attack on the capital and the war in Iraq.
"Labour Against the War warned that an illegal war on Irag would lead to illegal attacks on civilian life in Britain. It was the war itself that created a recruiting ground for Al Qaeda when none previously existed, and it is the ongoing military occupation that is further swelling the ranks of the terrorists.
"The Government must not compound its previous mistakes by taking draconian measures that further erode civil rights in our society: to do so would be a gift to Al Qaeda.
"We will find no answers to terrorists threats by closing down civil society in Britain. As long as we continue to be an army of occupation in the Middle East we will continue to be a target."
But when Respect MP George Galloway stood up in the Commons that same day to make these same points, he found just one anti-war MP present - who said nothing to support the case.
Galloway's forthright comments, drawing the contrast and parallel with the occupying army's massacre of civilians in Falluja, were greeted with heckling as he spoke, and incurred the immediate wrath of Blairite ministers and the right wing media.
Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram condemned Galloway's remarks as "disgraceful": Galloway was "dipping his poisonous tongue in a pool of blood".
Sadly, none of the Labour Against the War MPs rose to defend Galloway or support the content of his statement.
BBC and other reports were able to highlight the fact that Galloway was a "lone voice", the "only note of dissent" from a debate in which all the mainstream parties effectively upheld the Blairite notion of "national unity.
Nor, despite the subsequent barrage of hostile press coverage aimed against Galloway and Respect, have there been any follow-up statements from Labour Against the War to express solidarity and promote a genuine debate on the background to the bombing.
The stance of so many back-bench Labour MPs against the war during the last parliament has been an important added dimension to the mass anti-war movement on the streets: but clearly the stakes are much higher in taking a firm political stance when the violence and suffering strike much closer to
Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Benn and other leading figures from LatW have subsequently spoken up in public events, and it is to be hoped that more Lone stand: Galloway leading lights will pluck up the courage to stand alongside Galloway and the Stop the War Coalition in nailing the blame for the bombings on the brutal policies of Blair and Bush.
It would be a real setback if at this moment of greatest pressure, Labour Against the War were to find itself reduced to issuing email press releases without any vocal support for their policies in Parliament and on the campaign trail.
On July 16 a post-election conference "Time for Real Labour" will see many LAW stalwarts on the platform at TUC Congress House, proclaiming the *intellectual renaissance of the Labour left".
But the parliamentary Labour left's actions In response to the events of July 7 suggest that some stiffening up is required to prevent this renaissance descending into a wake. O POLICE Geldof has been trying to make clowns out of the G8 protestors while pursuing his own business agenda