Which way forward for the Left? a mass Communist Party or a broad left socialist movement?

 Is it possible to salvage anything from the Corbyn Project or is the socialist left destined to talk to itself?

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Tonight we had the launch meeting of the new Socialist Labour Network (LAW/LIEN) and 150 people attended. Ian Hodson, President of the Bakers Union was the guest speaker.

The process of forming a new organisation began at the end of November when All Members Meetings of Labour-in-Exile-Network and Labour Against the Witchhunt voted to merge into a single organisation. Both LAW and LIEN had been proscribed by Labour’s National Executive Committee last July 20^th.

Orgreave when the Police were used as Thatcher's cavalry to destroy the strike

The decision of the 2 organisations to merge was taken in the teeth of opposition from Labour Party Marxism which is the Communist Party of Great Britain in the Labour Party. 5 of the 6 members of LAW’s Steering Committee were also opposed to the merger and 4 of them explained their reasons in a statement Why we resigned.

This was accompanied by an article both in Weekly Worker and on the LPM website Something serious is needed: confronting Tony Greenstein and Merging into a cul-de-sac. I replied with Not a liquidation? and Self-declared heretic replies.

The fact that the CPGB and its leading theoretician Jack Conrad felt the need to personalise a political disagreement suggests that the CPGB is finding it difficult to mount a sustainable argument.

LPM insisted, contrary to all the evidence, that what was being proposed was not a merger but a liquidation and notwithstanding the evidence they have continued to insist that this is the case.

My article, for which I had provided a heading ‘Why the merger of LAW and LIEN is not a liquidation’ was retitled Not a liquidation? It was also accompanied by a subheadline ‘Abandoning any pretence of class politics, Tony Greenstein defends what he calls the ‘merger’ of LAW and LIEN and advocates yet another ‘transitional’ halfway-house broad front’

Despite Conrad admitting that ‘LAW has done very little, has been paralysed even’ my argument that LAW had not been liquidated was described as ‘clearly a pedantic attempt to pull wool over eyes.’ Conrad continues to argue that

‘while the words ‘liquidation’ and ‘closing down’ did not appear in motion 1, only someone who wants to cover up, to obfuscate, to hoodwink, would object to such an assessment.’

Such an unnecessary expenditure of verbs! To allege that your political opponents are, effectively, lying is not the way to conduct a comradely debate. And the evidence for such an assertion?  Zilch.

Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brighton

As far as the CPGB and other far-left groups are concerned the key task is to form a revolutionary socialist or communist party with which capitalism can be brought to an end. And suffice to say they have the key to the holy grail.

Many of us saw the Corbyn movement as a quite momentous political event. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the Labour Party. It made a profound effect politically and at the 2017 General Election, millions of people voted for a radical, not revolutionary, manifesto.  But for the sabotage of Labour’s right-wing, Corbyn could have won. As it is he obtained the largest swing since 1945 for Labour. One thing is for certain.  It put the frighteners on the British establishment. It also showed the potential for radicalism in Britain.

Elbit's factory in Oldham - they've had enough and are closing

But to the CPGB what happened under Corbyn Project was merely a diversion. An inevitable failure. Jack lays out his stall thus:

‘What needs to be understood is that socialist - ie, Marxist - parties, are built top-down, not bottom-up. What is primary is the programme: ie, theory. It is from there to the masses and in the process, of course, theory is enriched, concretised, taken to new heights. It should also be understood that Marxist parties do not require revolutionary conditions in order to grow. They can grow in peaceful, seemingly almost uneventful, conditions.’

The idea of even thinking about building a socialist movement outside the Labour Party is given short shrift. It is what they call a half way house, a Labour Party Mark II. What is needed in their eyes is to jump from a small revolutionary group to a mass revolutionary Communist  Party without even pausing for breath.

Labour needs be refounded as a united front of a special kind and politically armed with a Marxist programme and put under a tried and tested Marxist leadership.

BLM demo in Chichester, a town 30 miles from Brighton

What then of the Corbyn movement itself?  Jack doesn’t pull his punches.

what was notable about them - especially, sad to say, the younger generation - is that they were not politically determined, not politically educated and therefore did not fully engage. They voted Jeremy Corbyn against Owen Smith, but had not much of a clue when it came to national executive elections.

My own view is that we are not in revolutionary conditions or a pre-revolutionary period. On the contrary we are in a period of deep reaction, symbolised by Brexit, which was a project of the Right and far-Right.

Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brighton

We need to look to our strengths and weaknesses. Trade union strike action has been at an all time low. Unions today are half the size they were under Thatcher.  Yet at the same time we have seen the rise of social movements like Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion and direct action groups like Palestine Action. The question for socialists is how we can relate to and generalise from the specific. We need to be able to make the connection between climate change and environmental destruction and the nature of capitalism and how it operates. In other words socialism needs to be made relevant.

Only this week we learnt that Palestine Action had chalked up its first victory, the closure of Elbit’s factory in Oldham. I have a personal investment in this campaign as I’m presently out on bail for taking part in an action. It demonstrates that direct action can work. It is no accident that Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which is controlled by the former Trotskyist Socialist Action denounced Palestine Action in the strongest terms.

Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brighton

Other issues include a theoretical assessment of the period we are in, the decline of trade union power, the conservatism of a working class that is supposed to be the agent of revolutionary change and asking questions such as whether revolution is even possible in the heart of the imperialist beast.

Come to the debate and take part!

Tony Greenstein

McNicol's Frauds - Letter to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party

Below is a letter I sent to Labour's NEC members asking that they call an emergency meeting of the NEC to put a stop to the blatant gerrymandering being attempted by their General Secretary, Iain McNicol.

Brighton & Hove Labour Party Suspended by National Labour Party

The local Argus has been a propaganda sheet for the Labour Right and its undemocratic tendencies - it took the Argus 5 days to report the 'takeover' of the Labour Party by its members!  

Progress and the Labour Right Declare War on Democracy 

It's the Politics of Pinochet

Brighton and Hove Labour Party has been suspended by the Disputes Panel of the NEC.  I understand, though it cannot be confirmed that this was at the instigation of the Chair Paddy Lillis of the right-wing USDAW trade union. 

Warren Morgan's false allegations were made with a view to the NEC overturning a vote by over 600 Labour Party members

It was only last Saturday Brighton and Hove Labour Party held their AGM.  At the largest meeting of the party, over 600 people, voted out the old right-wing Progress Executive Committee by majorities of approximately 2-1. 

Mark Sandell, formerly President of West Sussex NUT was elected Chair, beating Mark Jackson by 376 votes (62 per cent) to 224.

Claire Wadey, a previous member of the Executive, was elected Treasurer, beating the previous Secretary, the universally acknowledge incompetent and useless John Warmington by 374 votes to 226.

Greg Hadfield, who previously edited the Brighton and Hove Independent paper defeated Edward Crask to become secretary by 393 votes to 213.

A racial attack on a visiting Momentum speaker has been ignored by NEC apparatchiks
Tweet by Seema Chandwani who was abused by friends of Council leader Warren Morgan

Anne Pissaridou defeated the even more useless Nicky Easton, the previous vice chair for campaigns by 391- 204 who had distinguished herself by failing to engage people in a single campaign.  Easton had even opposed a resolution during the year which supported the doctors’ strike and urged members to join the picket lines.

 

Christine Robinson was elected unopposed as vice chair for membership.  [see Corbyn supporters top poll for key posts on Brighton and Hove Labour party executive]

Three of the additional five ordinary Executive places, which are elected by STV, also went to supporters of Momentum.

The only incident during the day was a racial attack by two Brighton LP members, one of whom is sympathetic to the BNP.  The incident was witnessed by 2 Labour Councillors inc. Julie Cattell without any attempt to intervene 

Immediately Council leader Warren Morgan went into overdrive to manufacture out of thin air allegations of malpractice and intimidation.  Morgan invented out of nowhere a spitting incident even though there is no victim or any complaint.  The only thing that happened was that when security for the venue barred further people entering the building at one time and then locked people into a room against all fire regulations, there was some pushing and shoving.  The security guard, when asked later about the incident replied ‘what incident’.

He also alleges that Peter Kyle MP was subject to abuse which is the exact opposite of what happened.  It was his supporters who engaged in abuse.  Kyle was perhaps miffed that people saw him as a traitor to Party Jeremy Corbyn and didn’t want to speak to him but failure to speak to someone doesn’t constitute abuse.

There was one serious racial incident which occurred after the Momentum meeting when one of the speakers from Tottenham CLP  Seema Chandwani and a friend Michael Calderbank were subject to racial abuse by 2 Labour Party members and supporters of the Right.  The incident was covered in Monday’s Morning Star.  They were told to ‘get the fuck out of Brighton now, scum’.  These same racists had wrongly identified another Black person in the pub as the Momentum supporters and attacked him first!  Sitting in the pub and giving their approval to the action of their ‘comrades’ were two Brighton Labour councillors including Progress councilor Julie Cattell for Preston Ward.  The names of the two individuals are known.  One of them combines Labour Party membership with support for the BNP and is an ardent Zionist!  This incident however was not the subject of Warren Morgan’s complaint. 

Council leader Warren Morgan - Progress supporter and former Lib-Dem

The only complaint I know of is against Warren Morgan for making the false allegation of spitting.  It was made by an unnamed Labour Party member to Iain McNicol, Labour’s General Secretary.  This was made yesterday, shortly before notice was received by Greg Hadfield, the new Secretary, of the suspension of Brighton Party.  Mention should also be made of the fact that news of the suspension was leaked to the press before party officers were officially informed and that is how Greg first learnt of the suspension.

What is clear is that national Labour Party officers are willing to flout the basic norms of democracy in the Party now.  Banning meetings, stopping over a hundred thousand people voting, imposing high financial penalties on those who do vote and now suspending parties.  In Brighton they have even gone as far as reinstating the old Executive despite the fact that they were democratically voted out.  This is the democracy that Warren Morgan and his Progress acolytes believe in.

The time has long gone when Momentum should indeed take the gloves off to these protégés of Blair and Brown.  Their contempt for basic party democracy is visible for all to see.  On the basis of spurious and untested allegations, properly conducted election results are overturned on the say so of one individual.

Peter Kyle MP - one of the leaders of the anti-democratic right-wing Progress

What We Can Do

Firstly the elected Executive should continue to meet and Labour Party members should have nothing to do with the old Executive.

Secondly party meetings should continue as before and the National Executive's dictat should be ignored.

Thirdly we should lobby members of the National Executive, including Momentum, to have the NEC meet not only to overturn Brighton & Hove's suspension but to overturn the decision to bar 130,000 new members of the Labour Party from having a vote and to reduce the amount supporters of the Labour Party have to pay from £25 to £3 again.

Fourthly - we should urge the Labour Party to urge that those members of the Labour Party who attacked Seema Chandwani and those who were present but did nothing, including Cllr. Cattell, should be suspended forthwith pending investigation.

Tony Greenstein

See also Labour suspends Brighton and Hove branch and quashes election of new executive 

Jeremy Corbyn – In Office but Not In Power - Right Gerrymanders to Prevent 130,000 from Voting in Leadership Ballot

Labour Party General Secretary Ian McNicol Accused of Deception and Lack of Good Faith

Surrounded by supporters

 

However many times Momentum and Corbyn talk about the ‘New Politics’ ‘straight talking’ and all the rest, they will be faced with a right-wing that is devious, dishonest, manipulative and machievellian.  The policy of the Labour Right, as expounded by Peter Mandelson earlier today, is summed up in one acronym – ABC – Anyone But Corbyn.

Owen Smith - the other right-wing challenger, former lobbyist for drug company Pfizer

The Right of the Labour Party will employ any tactic, however undemocratic, in order to prevail.  Corbyn represents, in however a mild form, a challenge to the neo-liberal market economics that Blair pursued.  Privatisation, public-private partnerships, the primacy of the ‘free’ market are what Corbyn’s challengers stand for.  The ruthlessness of the Right can only be defeated by a similar ruthlessness by his opponents. 

The Eagle with Supporters

If you are attacked by a wild animal then you have to shoot it not play with it.

The National Executive of the Labour Party last Monday is a case in point.  It was called at short notice by the Labour Party’s General Secretary, Iain McNicol.  McNicol was appointed against the wishes of the previous Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who considered him incompetent. 

Iain McNicol is up to his neck in the plot to depose Corbyn.

In a quite remarkable letter from Howe and Co. solicitors acting for Jim Kennedy of Unite and other members of the National Executive Committee, Labour’s General Secretary Iain McNicol is accused of having gone to ‘great lengths to conceal your intentions from the Leader and the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer’ to call an meeting of the NEC the following day.

McNicol is told not to engage in his favourite pastime - leaking to the media

Despite this McNicol or someone else from his office deliberately leaked news of this NEC to the press.  It is almost a carbon copy of what happened to myself, Jackie Walker and other suspended members of the Labour Party.  We were denied information as to why we were suspended yet the very same information was leaked to the press.  McNicol brazenly lied in a letter to me when denying that Labour Party staff had done the leaking.

McNicol is told he has a duty to act in good faith

The solicitors bluntly tell McNicol that ‘You have an obligation as General Secretary to act in good faith.  You personally are required by the Party rules to be transparent and to uphold the aims and values of ‘open democracy’.  The manner in which this special meeting has been arranged has all the hallmarks of anything but “open democracy”.  McNicol is openly accused of calling the meeting at short notice in order to exclude trade union delegates who are working and live outside London.

McNicol is told that he is under a duty to act according to common law notions of fairness and that according to the Labour Party’s constitution the election of officers, shall be conducted in a ‘fair,  open and transparent manner.’  McNicol’s behaviour in other words was anything but fair, open or transparent.  McNicol should not need to be told that ‘natural justice requires you to act fairly’ but as the experience of those suspended demonstrates, McNicol wouldn’t know what fairness was if it bit him in his nether regions.

Howe and Co. tell McNicol that their concern is that ‘Our clients are very concerned that the purpose of the special meeting is to manufacture a situation whereby Jeremy Corbyn’s name will be omitted from the ballot paper.’  

McNicol is told he has a duty not to destroy any documentation

McNicol is also accused of withholding the legal advice he has obtained to members of the NEC, despite having received the advice of 3 barristers including Mike Mansfield QC.  McNicol is also told that he has a duty to preserve all documents, emails etc. with his fellow conspirators such as Deputy Leader, the ‘fixer’ Tom Watson.   The solicitors finish off what is an extremely strong letter with a series of questions:

McNicol is accused of withholding legal advice from the NEC

‘It is clear that you are acting as General Secretary in a manner which has not been seen before in the Labour Party.  [I’m not sure that historically this is quite true – the post has not normally been filled by people devoted to fairness or openness, though Jim Mortimer, who was the General Secretary under Michael Foot was widely respected in this regard] Who is it  who is instructing you to carry out the actions you intend?  Who has suggested to you that the legal advice the Labour Party has received is to be ignored or kept hidden?  Who is it who has suggested that the leader be barred from the special meeting of 12 July 2016 and that the motion be voted upon in secret?’

All of these are good questions but the answer is most likely that McNicol doesn’t need to be instructed to act as he has done.  He has been part of the conspiracy against a left leadership from the time that Corbyn was elected. 

It is one of Corbyn’s failures that he hasn’t, as Leader, taken control of the Labour Party civil service.  It was McNicol’s Compliance Unit that began the witch hunt and the suspending of people for bogus reasons.  If he is to survive after a new election it is essential that he takes decisive action to bring the Labour Party civil service and the regional organisers under his control.

McNicol is told that his habit of leaking against his political enemies is a 'potentially serious disciplinary matter

'

McNicol is also told that his favourite occupation, leaking material damaging to his political opponents is a 'serious disciplinary offence'.  On the basis of the allegations in this letter the NEC has no alternative but to suspended Iain McNicol for gross misconduct.  It is unconscionable that the General Secretary of the Labour Party is acting at the instigation of the forces of the Right opposed to the Leader.

Corbyn has a duty to show that he has the mettle of which a Leader is made and to take Executive action by suspending McNicol and barring him from Labour Party premises as and until an investigation is conducted into McNicol’s behaviour. 

It is essential that an emergency meeting of the NEC is called to reverse the undemocratic decision to bar 130,000 members of the Labour Party from voting.  This is a naked attempt to swing the election away from Corbyn.  Although it won’t succeed it is essential that this is not allowed to happen.  People joined the LP with a promise that they could vote in the leadership elections.  Likewise the decision that Labour Parties cannot hold meetings during the campaign is outrageous and should also be reversed.   The Right’s attempts to fix the election cannot be allowed to remain unchallenged.

It is essential that people on the Left do not make assumptions about Corbyn winning with the same majority as last time.  The effect of the expected media barrage, that Corbyn is unelectable needs to be rebutted.  He needs to firm up on a radical manifesto which will put the Eagle/Smith duo on the defensive.  If Labour Party members are simply left to their own devices then many will succumb to the press and media. 

Momentum has a crucial role to play in this.  It is essential that an emergency Momentum conference is called and that a plan of action is laid out on a national basis.  Momentum itself needs to be democratised.  The days of Jon Lansman running things with a few trusted acolytes needs to end now.

It is also essential that Corbyn sorts out once and for all the Shadow Cabinet membership of the NEC.  According to the published list on the LP site, two of the three NEC members who are in Corbyn’s gift, are on the Right i.e. Angela Eagle and Jonathan Ashworth.  On Wikipedia Angela Eagle has been replaced by Jon Trickett which is what I understand to be correct (McNicol is too incompetent to ensure the LP’s own web site is kept up to date).  I also understand that an attempt was made to replace Ashworth but it was unsuccessful.  This is really not good enough.  He should have been replaced months ago.

There should be a determined attempt to ensure that the trade union delegates are of the Left and those like Paddy Lillis of USDAW are replaced.

Equally important is a recognition by Corbyn that the right-wing of the PLP will never accept his leadership and will always conspire against him, often with the Tory press.  It is essential that the balance of the PLP is changed and that deselections begin. 

The redrawing of the boundaries will enable this but I can offer the following 53 MPs as starters:  There are probably other candidates I have missed out who are equally deserving, so I welcome other suggestions!

John Mann, Hilary Benn, Rosie Winterton, Tom Watson, John Spellar, Ruth Smeeth, Harriet Harman, Peter Kyle, Stephen Kinnock, Chuku Ummuna, Keith Vaz, Steve Reed, Shaban Mahmood, Dan Jarvis, Chris Bryant, Nick Brown, Ben Bradshaw, Stephen Twigg, Gisela Stuart, Tristram Hunt, Luciana Berger, Louise Ellman, Mike Gapes, Margaret Beckett, Kate Hoey, Margaret Hodge, Barry Sheerman, Simon Danzuk, Fabian Hamilton, Ian Austin, Stella Creasy, Jonathan Ashworth, Fiona McTaggart, Ann Coffey, Rachel Reeves,  Liam Byrne, Frank Field, Wes Streeting, Jess Phillips, Joan Ryan, Alan Johnson, Vernon Coaker, Caroline Flint, Ivan Lewis, Maria Eagle, Michael Dugher, Gloria De Piero, Chris Leslie, Liz Kendall, Heidi Alexander, Owen Smith, Angela Eagle, John Woodcock

Loll Duffy, a sacked militant, shipyard worker was removed by Kinnock to pave the way for Angela Eagle in the Wallasey CLP

The suggestion that the opposition to Corbyn is motivated by his lack of leadership qualities or personality is risible.  Is it seriously suggested that if Corbyn were say Tony Benn that he would be acceptable?  It is a measure of the disingenuousness of Angela Eagle that she was unable to spell out her differences with Corbyn at the launch of her campaign or her interview with Andrew Neil.  Indeed the shambles of her launch throws into stark relief the light comedy that this clownish figure provides.

Angela Eagle, who now portrays herself as a candidate of the Left, is the same person who in 1992 was imposed on the constituency of Wallasey deposing the existing parliamentary prospective candidate, Loll Duffy, a sacked shipyard worker.  It is noticeable that in her interview with Andrew Neil, she was unable to identify a single policy difference with Corbyn apart from Trident.  Three times Neil asked her what her policy differences and three times she was unable to provide an answer.

It should not however be thought that there are no differences between Eagle and Corbyn.  It’s just that it’s hard to declare that you are in favour of more wars, bombing Syria, capping and cutting benefits, privatising the NHS, opposing the renationalisation of rail and the utilities.  These are not things to be mentioned.

Likewise Owen Smith the other right-wing candidate worked as a lobbyist for the drug company Pfizer.  Despite portraying himself as another ‘left’ candidate Smith supported the Tories cap on  benefits, abstained on their welfare cuts and justifies private involvement in the NHS, saying that:

‘Where they can bring good ideas, where they can bring valuable services that the NHS is not able to deliver, and where they can work alongside but subservient to the NHS and without diminishing in any respect the public service ethos of the NHS, then I think that’s fine. I think if their involvement means in any way, shape or form the break up of the NHS, then I’m not a fan of it, but I don’t think it does.’

This is in the context of a situation where 40% of new NHS contracts are going to private firms and we are seeing the slow privatisation of the NHS.

Tony Greenstein