Momentum and Militant… August 16, 2016
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
No comparison according to Peter Kilfoyle who goes on to ask why people couldn’t afford Corbyn the same degree of support as leader as others did under Blair. What I can’t work out is whether those asking the questions of Kilfoyle are sincere (Kilfoyle also supports the Momentum candidate in Liverpool). Are they so uninformed or simply being disingenuous at the Guardian?
Thanks to the person who forwarded the link.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Sheer ignorance, I think – that and youth (if you don’t even remember the Mils…).
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Yeah that rings true Phil. And all this manages the achievement of being unfair to both Militant as was and Momentum. Oddly most of the people I knew in Irish Labourbin the early 80s were in Militant.
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Thee’s obviously no comparison – Momentum keep ‘reaching out’ to me in a slightly icky 21st century way, whereas my memory of Militant was they would deny they even existed if they figured you weren’t hard enough. (I was one of the few people you knw who was in Labour in Ireland in the 90s who wasn’t in MT)
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Momentum seems to be, in part, the move of the Occupy and community activists into formal party politics, which would explain the “reaching out” and also the slight air of confusion about how to stitch up a meeting.
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I like that!
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Interesting interview. Not a stereotype. On an aside, it amazes me that the SP and SWP do not close down TUSC. A distraction from the real struggle.
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Could be a fallback position for when it all collapses and the right regain control of Labour; could be useful to maintain the name now it has some profile and could be seen as part of an alliance with or in Labour; could be nobody has got around to engineering a split yet.
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Peter Taaffe was on Newsnight (BBC) recently arguing the SP (UK) should be allowed to affiliate to the Labour Party. Interviewer going on about Troskyist entrists and violent revolution. Nobody asks about Blair, who was clearly an entrist. He wasn’t/isn’t even of the palest social democratic stripe.
And now Tom Watson joins the fray, Momentum are full of oldTrots (I refuse to be labelled old!) twisting young arms. 180,000 new members being bullied by old Trots! Fantastical and insulting stuff (we are not old!).
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Excellent.
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Tom Watson was Kinnock’s witch finder general in the LPYS in the late 80s as the HQ appointed youth officer – he oversaw the destruction of the LPYS as part of the strategy to remove Militant from the LP with a 90% decline of the LPYS during his stewardship.
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Labour controlled councils are still implementing Tory cuts. As long as that process continues there is a clear role for TUSC and it should continue. Neither Corbyn nor McDonnell have indicated any support for a Liverpool style challenge to Tory policy of austerity at council level. So, it’s business as usual (i.e. cuts and austerity) at council level for Labour councils regardless of what is happening in constituency parties and the PLP. Of course, when the new influx of members get settled and organised that might not last too long.
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