Difficulties of organising the political centre

I took a break from blogging over the weekend (though not from discussions on Facebook) to both rest after a difficult week politically and gather my thoughts after the split in Change UK. That this has caused difficulties and undermined the project at hand is of course undeniable. The main steam media and our opponents on line have been gloating at what they see as the end of a short lived party.

That many have given up or joined the Liberal Democrats has been obvious from the three Change UK Facebook groups I belong to. The Lib Dems have been trolling trying to recruit even before the departure of the six MPs. Slowly these individuals have been given the proverbial boot or muted as in the case of one particularly odd individual Marx de Morais who having joined the Liberal Democrats is establishing a TIG faction in it. Not many takers I gather but the Lib Dems may live to regret recruiting this bloke.

I have appealed for people to hold the line as we have been sent an e-mail by the remaining MP's which states quite clearly that the organisation is to be formally established with membership and policy groups. Providing this proceeds with due haste there remains a chance that we can salvage the situation though it will now be more difficult to establish the group as a serious contender than before.

However I'm up for it and so are more than a few others from what I see on social media so it is going to be worth a try.

However I have been involved in organising a moderate/centre political grouping before I am well aware of the problems involved. For all of my working life I was involved in the civil service unions which merged changed names and eventually became PCS which I belonged to until a year before I retired.

PCS is led by Mark Serwotka a hard left activist in conjunction with an alliance of activists from the various far-left groupings including the Socialist Party (Militant), Socialist Workers Party, Communist Party, Socialist Appeal and Labour left-wingers. There was a time when I was involved in this milieu in the days of the CPSA even very briefly serving as National Organiser of the CPSA Broad Left when I was a member of the Socialist league (IMG for older readers).

Promotion ended that quite quickly but I learnt first hand how sectarian Militant (as they were called then) was in relation not just to other socialists but had little interest in the members except as tools for their political purposes. Like all Marxists they care about the amorphous "class" but not a jot about the individual or his or her rights within that class so long as the "right" line was enforced.

Fast forward by the end of the eighties I had broken with the left which isn't that easy. All sorts of relationships and friendships had been predicated on a political basis for over a decade. Eventually it became a total wrench to move away both physically and mentally. I can only liken my feelings during that period as akin to the Catholic "guilt complex" that others might understand.

Eventually this led me into conflict with the far-left but other than argue with the SWP et al at Branch level I needed to find others of my ilk. That eventually came after the collapse of the National Moderate Group in the CPSA/PCS after an ill thought out (and frankly undemocratic) attempt to oust the newly elected General Secretary Mark Serwotka.

A new grouping arose which eventually became called 4themembers which was a nice branding and allowed for a house style of bulletins and newsletters. By chance rather than inclination I became the groups National Secretary for almost the entire existence of the group. It was never a large grouping and had a network of at most 150 activists at it's peak but declined over the years as people retired.

Despite issuing weekly e-mails (sometimes more)  called 4TM Notes & Updates to supporters and our periphery there were always only a limited number willing to actually do things. Everybody had an idea of what I should be doing as National Secretary (despite everything I was doing) but didn't volunteer themselves.

Now trade union factions are qualitatively different to political parties. There was a limited PCS membership which due to both cuts and people just leaving was continually declining and the pool of activists attracted to the group limited especially as our reach was restricted. Eventually both events and arguments led to the decline and demise of 4themembers.

Firstly our numbers declined as key activists in friendly branches started retiring in numbers that effected the groups operations whilst other left with new jobs or on exit schemes, An argument of how the group was to be organised resulted in a split between the three of us who held the group together. I resisted attempts (rightly or wrongly) to go to a membership based organisation preferring a loose network organised via social media as physical meetings proved too small to represent the groups decisions.

I did publish an internal bulletin, 4Discussion which ran for 62 issues (going public as of #27) which allowed quite in depth debate and for the network itself a voting process around a separate bulletin 4Decision. However this was not enough and there reached a time when  I was unable to organise a slate of candidates that could even have a majority on the unions NEC even if elected.

4TM never managed more than 4 NEC members at any one time and more often than not just had the one. Even a merger with the remains of the old National Moderate Group failed to change our electoral fortunes.

It was at this point I felt the organisation had become untenable. The group was now too small and with no recruitment in the civil service that was not about to change. I decided to quit the group in 2014 which collapsed a year later. The problem has always been that people with moderate views are not always prepared to give up as much time as hard-left activists and ordinary members gradually disconnected with the internal affairs of the union.

Membership of the PCS union is now at an all time low as a result of the hard-left control and their failed policies. The opposition has ceased to exist. Barely 10% voted in the recent election for Serwotka's deputy and only around 7% in the largest section of the union in the PCS.

There was a battle with the hard left that eventually wore me down and despite remaining an annoyance with my e-mail lists and eventually this blog which Serwotka tried to censor on one occasion I felt time was up and joined the Prospect union instead. A modern union led by proper trade unionists not political activists sadly my involvement was cut short by an aneurysm and subsequent retirement.

The takeover by the Labour Party by the sort of activists typified by Serwotka and his cronies is the reason I cannot abide the thought of a Labour led government. These people are not just duplicitous and dangerous they are also incompetent on every issue you can think of. We need a new centre party that is an alternative to the Labour party which is strong on the economy, on welfare and defence.

If "One Nation" Tories can be persuaded to join us that's fine to but I'm not a bleeding heart Liberal.  An electoral arrangement fine but Change UK is needed as a distinct and separate party. It will be difficult but I'm up for the challenge and ready to report for duty.