Socialist Party pushed aside by Labour and Momentum

Yesterday I took a look at the former Militants two factions preparing for Labour Party Conference. Socialist Appeal (the smaller of the two) is already inside Labour pretending to be just supporters of a newspaper not that anybody is fooled. Meanwhile cult leader Peter Taffe has been desperately writing to Jennie Formbie trying to get his party affiliated to Labour.

Back in April he wrote:

We would like to meet with you to discuss the possibility of our becoming an affiliate of the Labour Party. From the beginning we have enthusiastically supported Jeremy Corbyn's election as leader of the Labour Party, which has offered the possibility of transforming Labour into a clear anti-austerity party, based on the trade unions and the working class. Clearly, your appointment as general secretary, replacing Iain McNicol, is an important step towards the renewal of the party along these lines.
and then went on to state:

..we are sure you will agree, measures to democratise Labour's structures are therefore urgent. We would argue this should include the readmittance of all those socialists, including ourselves, who were expelled in the past as the pro-capitalist wing of the party 

The reply from Labour's new General Secretary was blunt and to the point and sent with obvious urgency at the end of July:

Thank you for your letter on behalf of the Socialist Party requesting affiliation to the Labour Party.

The Labour Party rules about affiliation are very clear.

Chapter 1, clause ii, part 5 (A) states:

"Political organisations not affiliated or associated under a national agreement with the party, having their own programme, principles and policy, or distinctive and separate propaganda, or possessing branches in the constituencies, or engaged in the promotion of parliamentary or local government candidates, or having allegiance to any political organisation situated abroad, shall be ineligible for affiliation to the Party."

As the Socialist Party is part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition who stood candidates against the Labour Party in the May 2018 elections, it is ineligible for affiliation. Furthermore, it is not "associated under a national agreement with the party".

Taffe wasn't having none of it and attempted to raise the question again:

You suggest that we cannot affiliate because we are not currently "associated under a national agreement with the party."

They want such an agreement however their response to the thorny question of the TUSC candidates:

...TUSC did stand candidates in the May 2018 local elections. We stood 111 candidates, with none standing against Jeremy Corbyn-supporting councillors but only against a few of the many Labour councillors...

Jennie Formbie replied at the end of August:

Thanks for your further correspondence about the Socialist Party affiliating to the Labour Party under a national agreement.

Whilst the Socialist Party continues to stand candidates against the Labour Party as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, it will not be possible to enter into any agreement.

The leader of a political party is judged by their electoral success. Standing candidates against the Labour Party is damaging not only to local Labour Parties but also to Jeremy. You will therefore understand why there can be no discussions given that TUSC stood candidates against the Labour Party in May this year.

Spurned once more the Militant comrades turned to Momentum and tried to participate in the World Transformed  "fringe event". This time Tony Mulhurn (expelled from Labour decades ago) wanted to highlight the struggle of the Liverpool Councillors. (You now the one's that sent taxis around the city delivering redundancy notices to their workers which ended in Neil Kinnocks famous speech):

This was initially greeted with enthusiasm by the Liverpool TWT liaison officer who wrote that it was exactly what TWT was formed to showcase and who confirmed that she would recommend its inclusion to the national body.

However, we learned that bureaucratic Momentum leadership who control TWT had other ideas. The response was - sorry, no can do.

The Liverpool TWT liaison officer was probably too young or too mad to remember but the Momentum leadership knew about this disgraceful episode and were having none of it.

Mulhern bemoans this and concludes the struggles were:

not important enough for TWT to include in its programme. I think labour movement activists will draw their own conclusions.

Yes. Militant was useless then and is now. Next!