Momentum to set up "party within a party"

As if the Labour Party didn't have enough problems at the moment as the internecine warfare continues unabated we are informed that Momentum is finally to set up a national structure with branches, regional and central national committees. Labour List reports:

The committee will include people elected by regional meetings of delegates from verified local Momentum groups and representatives from affiliated trade unions and leftwing groups, such as the Labour Representative Committee. It will also include representatives from under-represented groups, such as BAME, disability, LGBT and women, to ensure balance. All delegates and committee members will have to be Labour Party members.

The committee will consult with Momentum activists to develop a constitution and structure that enables local groups to organise effectively in their communities; encourages trade union participation at local, regional and national level; and ensures the group is financially sustainable. It is then expected to devolve itself in six month and be replaced by a new committee elected through its new structures.

James Schneider, a spokesperson for the group, told LabourList: “Momentum is excited about the forthcoming formation of our first National Committee. It represents our next stage in creating an inclusive, participatory and effective organisation involving a wide range of stakeholders, including trade unions.”

Quite clearly a "party within a party" similar in practice to the Militant Tendency of old. No doubt a newspaper/magazine will follow at some stage.

Meanwhile it will allow everyone to see who is involved in the Momentum Tendency as no doubt it will be labelled in the media in the coming months.

The main guru is of course Jon Lansman of the soon to be superseded Labour Representation Committee which published Labour Briefing (or one of them anyway, the journals supporters split when Briefing was "handed over" to the LRC).

The proviso for all these "representatives" of the left is that they must be members of the Labour Party. Odd you'd think a ginger group within a political party would only have members in it's ranks. That though is the problem with Momentum.

All the far left groups and their hangers on have decamped to Labour  along with their hangers-on and most ex-trots in sight. Some like Socialist Action have been buried inside Labour for some time acting as Ken Livingstone's lieutenants whilst their main guru, one Jon Ross makes his living in a Chinese University making Stalinist propaganda. Go figure. Ross thinks China is at the forefront of Human Rights because it puts access to modern flushing toilets before such abstract concepts as "free speech".

Most of these "organised" groups are quite small but tend to have influence in such organisations well beyond their actual support should allow. The big two far-left battalions remain outside Labour, but both the Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party will attempt to gain influence especially as Momentum is to announce "which unions are affiliated to them" shortly.

As previously reported the General Secretary of PCS, Mark Serwotka is proposing to set up a "Trade Union Momentum", though he will have trouble in getting his union to actually affiliate directly to a Labour Party organisation, he has previously stated he is willing to (try) if Corbyn became leader.

When established the organisation will be difficult for Corbyn's staffers to control and whether they would want to is another question since many of these new "militants" are more than determined to purge Corbyn's parliamentary opponents.

This will fatally undermine the broad church that Labour has always had to be in order to gain actual power. 

It's no good having the right "line" if you are unable to implement anything. I fear these people have learn't nothing from the failings of their "socialist" creed over the years.

The Tories are laughing.

I'm not.