tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post148367829341572251..comments2024-03-29T07:14:55.029+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Labour's Crisis of RecompositionPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-25270449472900412772019-03-10T10:49:36.966+00:002019-03-10T10:49:36.966+00:00The balloon burst a long time ago. Decomposition a...The balloon burst a long time ago. Decomposition and recomposition? Mutually assured death throes. Corbyn looks more and more of a control freak not blessed with too much nous and the people around are looking less and less credible. Brexit, Lexit, antisemitism, ISIS wives (c'mon, it's like being in 1945 and saying, 'Hitler Youth'? Oh, youve probably changed your mind. Naivety of auto-underdog support). Endless bollocks talked but nothing that makes sense to anyonbe outside the cult. Most of the 500000 have melted away. Political anger is at an all time high but apathy towards business as usual in Parliamnt is also on the rise. Corbyn never really managed an ism. too many jokers from the old micro left groups thinking theyre now in 'The Thick of It' and playing good/bad optics games pushing mixed messages. <br /><br />And you're not going to be on to a winner with the unions when youve got Brexshit control freak twats like Len McCluskey stinking up the place.<br /><br />Fair play on staying optimistic despite the death of conventional politics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-86100815327749578892019-03-08T15:56:38.211+00:002019-03-08T15:56:38.211+00:00"It has now reached peak absurdity with peopl..."It has now reached peak absurdity with people like Jon Lansman and Owen Jones cast as pro-Israel plotters against the left."<br /><br />I think it's less a case of being pro-Israel, and more a case of being too cowardly to risk their own perceived moral purity by defending "the wrong person". That would, after all, be "a bad look". Guilt by association is the order of the day, and you can be labelled an anti-semite for defending someone who defended someone who defended someone who defended someone who was suspended from the Labour party (indeed, merely for expressing doubt or uncertainty about the justice of their suspension).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-84735135655711264952019-03-08T13:13:02.621+00:002019-03-08T13:13:02.621+00:00I don’t think you’re wrong in what you say here, b...I don’t think you’re wrong in what you say here, but it’s too one-sided. There definitely is an issue with people who are fairly new to politics relying on the Canary and similar outlets for their political education: there’s a style there which is crude, sensationalist, one-dimensional, which isn’t great in any context, but particularly not in this one, where you need a bit of nuance and sensitivity in navigating the issues. (Chris Williamson’s style as an MP is pretty similar and has the same flaws.) But the flip side of that is too many people on the more cerebral end of Corbynism are so concerned with being nuanced that they neglect to say anything forceful at all (or forceful enough, anyway). <br /><br />I could think of examples from various people you mention (the Novara or New Socialist collectives, Owen Jones), but let’s take Jon Lansman. His intervention the other week—claiming that Labour had a ‘widespread problem’ that had gotten significantly worse under Corbyn, with ‘large numbers’ of antisemites in its ranks—was just awful. It clearly didn’t correspond to the figures that he gave himself, in any accepted sense of the term ‘widespread’. Richard Seymour had a good post on this: https://www.patreon.com/posts/that-thing-you-24946485. The effect of what he said was to generate predictable headlines that legitimised the idea of an ‘antisemitism crisis’ inside Labour (with the strong implication that Shami Chakrabarti, Jennie Formby and others had been either incompetent or deceitful in failing to uncover this ‘widespread’ problem). If Lansman didn’t anticipate that, he really isn’t media-savvy enough to be giving these kinds of interviews at all; if he did anticipate it, more shame on him for that. <br /><br />I could think of several other interventions from JL that have been really, really unhelpful and helped feed a misleading narrative about ‘Labour antisemitism’, but this was especially bad, and I know it angered a lot of people. It doesn’t mean he’s a ‘pro-Israel plotter against the left’, but it does suggest very poor judgement and political weaknesses. It’s one thing to be under attack from your opponents, whether it’s Tom Watson or Angela Smith or Stephen Pollard, but it’s a different thing entirely to have your own leadership help legitimize those attacks. It’s both demoralizing and provocative, and it results in being lashing out, or gravitating towards those who *do* push back hard against the misleading narrative. <br /><br />Chris Williamson’s popularity with a section of the Labour membership stems from that: a lot of members are just desperate for someone, anyone who’ll take the fight to the people slandering them as a kind of Tsarist pogrom-in-waiting; if people who can do that in a way that’s smart and subtle don’t step up to the plate, it’ll be left to people who are crude and clumsy, as Williamson unfortunately has a tendency to be. <br /><br />We’re in a situation now where members are being told they shouldn’t defend Williamson or bring forward motions opposing his suspension, but the only alternative they’re being offered is a strategy that just isn’t working. I don’t think it’s sustainable, something has to give one way or another. At a certain point people in prominent positions will have to just grasp the nettle and say ‘we aren’t facing a torrent of attacks and criticism over antisemitism because of anything we’ve done or failed to do, we’re dealing with bad-faith actors—including some of our MPs—who will never be satisfied with anything we do, who will never allow this issue to die, who will keep on moving the goalposts every time we try to accommodate them’. Otherwise this will just go on endlessly until Labour supporters become completely demoralized.<br />Ednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-66445056567500667782019-03-08T11:23:49.711+00:002019-03-08T11:23:49.711+00:00C'mon, I don't think anyone is actually cl...C'mon, I don't think anyone is actually claiming that sinister Momentum owner, Jon "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" Lansman, and Owen "Bendy Bones" Jones are actually working for Isreal! I shall refuse to believe that until it's been confirmed on The SKWAWKBOX.Shai Masothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00452453462950704943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-42285374089875706012019-03-08T08:32:35.670+00:002019-03-08T08:32:35.670+00:00" Politics is not a struggle of interests pit..." Politics is not a struggle of interests pitted against one another, but a question of the machinations of bad people determined to get Corbyn/Labour."<br /><br />Wouldn't a struggle of interests be expected to produce machinations?<br /><br />" This adjunct of Corbynism is the gift that keeps on giving as far as the Tories and Labour right are concerned, always ready to offer up material that can discredit the left project."<br /><br />Discedit it with whom?Johny Conspiranoid.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-80058525856386698492019-03-08T01:01:33.430+00:002019-03-08T01:01:33.430+00:00This was helpful. ThanksThis was helpful. ThanksDylanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09256388913594034925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-83482955418552974562019-03-08T00:37:32.447+00:002019-03-08T00:37:32.447+00:00Thoughts of an inactive Corbynite (I missed two se...Thoughts of an inactive Corbynite (I missed two separate meetings this week).<br /><br />When I joined I went to a couple of branch meetings; I wasn't confused by what was going on (I'm a union member, I've been to meetings) but I did leave feeling baffled, bored and above all not particularly welcome. Which seemed odd (didn't they want new members?).<br /><br />Later, a friend of a friend contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in joining a 'Corbynite' group. I leapt at the chance. Initial meetings - in the run-up to the party AGM - were lively and positive, but numbers weren't great. (Also, there was something vaguely absurd and annoying about even having to meet like that - I mean, our distinguishing characteristic was that we <i>supported the leader of the party</i>!) On the eve of the AGM we heard that our unofficial convenor had been expelled from the party, which also didn't help. Still, at the AGM we got a solid 40% of the vote on one post after another, which was... good, but not good enough. Naturally the meeting was - well, let's say it was organised in a way that happened to favour the incumbents; one of them used her "report back" to say how nice it was to see so many new members, and how the energy of the new members and the experience of officers like her would be the ideal combination(!).<br /><br />At the following year's AGM we did our best, but the momentum had gone and our candidates were mostly polling around 30%. And maybe it's just that I'm seeing them closer to, but some of the local councillor/officer clique seem to have morphed from heart-in-the-right-place Labourist party loyalists into neo-Blairite Progress hacks. Which is depressing, and bodes ill for the future. (We've just been bounced into pledging support to JLM.)<br /><br />In fact, 'depressing' is the word for the whole experience - and that's why I've been staying home to watch _Millionaire_ this week. It's possible to get involved with the local party, and it's possible to work to support the party's programme and its leadership (not necessarily on the same night), but either way you can't really expect to have much impact - not while the people who were in charge through the 2010s are still in charge, and they've got the active and passive support to keep it that way.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07009879034507926661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-11395894118753731102019-03-07T22:04:44.750+00:002019-03-07T22:04:44.750+00:00Actually meant as a comment the other day on your ...Actually meant as a comment the other day on your piece about Chuka….but been busy (ha!” ha!) <br />…………………..<br /><br />LEARN FROM THE SPIRIT OF GRETA THUNBERG <br /><br />+++++<br />Three comments to my friends in the Labour Party (from someone not in Labour.) <br />1) Your party needs to get its sh*t together and get ready to whup the Tories. <br />At present, the UK has arguably the worst government since the end of WW2 and one that is led by an incompetent who loses votes in Parliament by 230 votes (which is evidently the largest loss for 1000 years.) <br />So Labour should be far, far ahead in the polls. (And I will scream if I hear one more Labour Party member say: “it is all the media’s fault.”)<br />A lot of the victims of this oppressive system will be mighty angry if you bottle it come election time. <br />+++++<br />2) I know life within the Labour Party and its seemingly endless tiffs and tantrums is of great interest to many of you…but lots of us on the left outside of Labour and lots of victims of this oppressive system are much, much less fascinated. <br />Some of us really are not that interested today in being referred to the March 2018 comments of that “hypocrite” Tom Watson about Max Mosely. <br />Or Chuka this and Chuka that.<br />Or Chris this and Chris that. <br />+++++<br />3) We are constantly reminded that Labour is the largest party in all of Europe; what is it – 500,000 members? <br />Why doesn’t your leadership put them to good use, launch a MAJOR nation-wide campaign on some issue ( I can think of at least ten) and well, change the political conversation in your party and the UK? <br /><br />LEARN FROM THE SPIRIT OF GRETA THUNBERG<br />https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/video/watch-greta-thunbergs-full-address-to-eu-politicians-in-brussels/<br />Alan Storyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07335333178667789651noreply@blogger.com