tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post3621467395366066986..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Momentum's Double VisionPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-50143546357067854082016-11-02T15:06:43.283+00:002016-11-02T15:06:43.283+00:00Igor has the crux of the issue. It is also the cul...Igor has the crux of the issue. It is also the culmination of HQ's aloof, poor communications, the lack of local funds (branches must beg for money from HQ), and the much more rapid ability of people of dissenting views to find and communicate with each other.<br /><br />It's not just that Momentum HQ wants to be Corbyn's praetorian guard. In their efforts to marry with the right wing of the party, they are actively attacking their own membership. Firstly they brief in the media anti-semitism slurs against JAckie Walker, thereby legimitising the anti-semitism on the left trope. Then they depict their internal opposition as Trots and entryists. It's politically moronic and will vanishingly quickly evaporate whatever legimacy they have left. <br /><br />The great thing is that it's flushing out all the loyalists out into the open and giving the perfect reason for the membership to actively collaborate with each other. Like any crap coup, it strengthens the resilence of democracy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-41108766491306859702016-11-02T12:24:01.711+00:002016-11-02T12:24:01.711+00:00The problems with Momentum have little to do with ...The problems with Momentum have little to do with 'sects'.<br /><br />The basic contradiction in the movement is between those who regard it as a means of providing a support base for Corbyn's leadership and a counter to the PLP and party bureaucracy, and those who support Corbyn but see Momentum and his leadership as a means of thoroughly democratising and radicalising the party.<br /><br />The difficulty is that the essentially self-appointed leaders of Momentum largely see themselves as Corbyn's political bodyguard, and have swung along with the leader's desire to compromise with the rebels and focus now on playing the usual bureaucratic manoeuvres that are the case in most oligarchic political groups.<br /><br />Many Momentum supporters have quite rightly reacted to this as a means of marginalising their views and restricting them to the kind of passive support role beloved of previous Labour leaders. Using social media and the internet in a kind of 'plebiscitory' method is actually less democratic than 'traditional' types of delegated democracy, which are more transparent and tend to be better at empowering people to get involved. A small clique much prefers to keep its freedom of manoeuvre by carrying out its business at an institutional distance. Igor Belanovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-61415610281431546822016-11-02T09:21:13.153+00:002016-11-02T09:21:13.153+00:00Something certainly needs to be done to make Momen...Something certainly needs to be done to make Momentum a democratic body that represents the thousands of ordinary LP members that have honestly joined it, and prevents those with "sharp elbows" as Trotsky described those who pushed their way on to the Soviets, from having a grossly inflated representation, which can only damage Momentum, the LP and the provide ammunition to the Right.<br /><br />How can it be right, for example, that the AWL that only a few years ago were describing the Labour Party as a stinking corpse, which then stood its own candidate against Labour in the 2010 General Election, who only received a less than derisory 75 votes, now have that same candidate sitting on Momentum's leading committees?<br /><br />Its in large part because these sects are sects with such little real mass support that they are led to using undemocratic methods to get themselves into these positions, that also leads to the continual schisms and in fighting between them, which time and again wrecks any organisation or movement they come into contact with.<br /><br />I think that what Paul Mason has had to say <a href="https://medium.com/mosquito-ridge/why-i-joined-momentum-e2e8311ea05c#.7xifpguxw" rel="nofollow">Why I Joined Momentum</a>, has a lot to commend it.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-78297866306809036532016-11-02T05:40:15.858+00:002016-11-02T05:40:15.858+00:00The Mo'mentum Trumpton site has to be one the ...The Mo'mentum Trumpton site has to be one the saddest things I've ever seen. Imagine going to such effort.....Paul Ewarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00057355765883155749noreply@blogger.com