The Two Wings of Militant Prepare for Labour Party Conference

 

The two wings of the old Militant Tendency are gearing up to back Corbyn at the Labour Party Conference. First up is the Socialist Party, the larger of the two groups which remains outside Labour. They proclaim:

The Labour right's summer of slander is drawing to a close. As parliament reopens and the party's conference approaches, the Blairite fifth column is preparing the next phase in its relentless anti-Corbyn campaign.

Right-wing MPs are anxiously weighing up their options. They are considering possible scenarios and reflecting on which lines of attack have thus far proved most fruitful.

There will be no respite for Corbyn. The key question being discussed by his enemies is what comes next: how can they best escalate the attacks, how can they inflict the maximum possible damage?

and further:

.....no-confidence votes are an important symbolic indication of the mood of ordinary Labour members and Corbyn supporters. No-confidence votes have no real power in and of themselves.

But they must be the starting gun for the battle to deselect the pro-capitalist Labour saboteurs. In particular, it is vital that Corbyn comes out clearly and boldly in favour of mandatory reselection of MPs ahead of a vote on the question at the upcoming Labour Party conference.

The Socialist Party concludes with it's ongoing and totally ignored demand it be allowed back in Labour's playground:

Part of taking on the right must mean opening up the Labour Party to all anti-austerity, pro-worker forces. A spectre that seemingly hangs over Blair, and which he repeatedly references in his BBC interview, is that of the Militant tendency - forerunner to the Socialist Party.

What makes the Socialist Party a 'bogeyman' for the right is our implacable determination to fight in the interests of working class people. That's why we call for the Labour Party to adopt a modern federal structure - which could allow the participation of all pro-working class forces, including the Socialist Party - as part of a full programme to redemocratise the Labour Party, restoring trade union rights, and refounding the party along democratic, socialist lines.

With barely 2,000 members, the influence of the Socialist Party wing of the old Militant Tendency is limited. Only in the PCS union do they have any kind of base and even there they have fallen foul of the General Secretary who seeks to purge his Assistant GS a member of the SP with a member of the breakaway from the SP, Socialist View.

The smaller wing founded by Ted Grant when he split with the Tendency that he had built since the fifties is Socialist Appeal. This group is believed to have around 200 to 300 members and is buried in the Labour Party in the same parasitical manner that the original Militant was.

 

Socialist Appeal (the name of it's paper is a formally organised group just like Militant was and the Socialist Party is today. They are part of their own version of the Fourth International, The International Marxist Tendency.

Their website declares:

Responding to the pressure from below, for example, Momentum has come out in favour of shaking up the existing system for selecting Labour’s parliamentary representatives, backing calls for “open selections” of local candidates.

Yesterday’s pre-conference meeting of the NEC, however, has thrown a spanner in the works and left this question hanging.

Following a gruelling nine-hour long meeting, the recommendation that will likely go to conference from Labour’s ruling body is for a fudge that lowers the trigger ballot threshold, but which falls far short of mandatory reselection or an open selection process.

Most notably, the NEC proposal maintains the unions’ influence over candidate selections, with a reselection process being set in motion if backed by either 30% of local LP members or affiliated (e.g. union) members.

This will provide rank-and-file members with a greater chance of turfing out unrepresentative right-wing Labour MPs - but only if activists are well-organised on the ground locally.

Just like the Socialist Workers Party (see post below) they are afraid of the trade unions pragnatism and argue:

but more conservative elements of the labour movement - in particular, the leaderships of the unions - are afraid of the Pandora’s Box that might be opened by setting the bar too low.

With militant left-wing MPs like Chris Williamson becoming more vocal and gaining in popularity, the union leaders (who only reluctantly backed Corbyn in the first leadership election) are keen to maintain their grip in deciding who succeeds Jeremy.

Socialist Appeal conclude:

That is why the demand for mandatory reselection must remain at the fore. We need to complete the ‘Corbyn revolution’ inside the Labour Party, kicking out the Blairites and replacing them with genuine class fighters. We cannot let our movement be derailed by the malicious actions of these right-wing renegades.

Whilst the Socialist Party will be reduced to shouting slogans and trying to offload their dull rag on to delegates, Socialist Appeal will be present inside the party working with others to end the Labour Party as a broad church and turn it into something more than sinister, a new communist party.