Meeting Momentum
Before I start on the meat of this post, I need to set out my background.
I’ve supported Labour for most of my life (except for the early 70's when as a student I dabbled with stuff further to the left), I demonstrated against the Vietnam War and apartheid when I was much younger but have drifted to the centre as I have grown older. By the time the Iraq war came up I was very uncertain as to whether we should invade or not but on balance I thought regime change was probably a good idea — I was wrong.
I joined the Labour Party in 2010 after the Tories won to ‘put my money where my mouth was’ and to help get the Tories out after a single term, even though I thought the Party had chosen the wrong Milliband to be leader. I resigned as a member of the Labour Party in late 2015 as a response to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the shift away from the centre left to something harder edged and more ideological, the apparent inevitability of electoral defeat and an increaing sense that the Labour Party that hundreds of thousands of new members (aka the Three Pounders) were so passionate about was not one that I felt comfortable with. I guess I am what some have described as a ‘Pink Tory’ or ‘Blairite Scum’ after all I am a fortunate middle class baby boomer who has benefited from good education and a lot of opportunity.
And, one more thing — I am a Jew. I am a committed supporter of a two state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, I am frequently critical of the settler movement and the policies of the Israeli government. I have a deep connection to Israel as a home for jews (and some of my family) and an instinctive revulsion towards those who deny the right of the State of Israel to exist and who propose driving its people into the sea or relocating them to some other country. I know the difference between criticism of the policies of the government of Israel and anti-semitism and I also know that it is very easy for the former to extend into the latter particularly when criticism morphs into denial of the right of the state of Israel to exist.
That’s where I was coming from when I arrived at the launch of the Chakrabarti report. I was hoping that there would be an unequivocal recognition that some on the left of the party have strayed beyond the boundary of legitimate criticism of Israel into the swamp of antisemitism and that the party would take the necessary steps to exclude antisemites and indeed all racists from the party. What I wasn’t prepared for was my first encounter with Momentum.
The event was a press focussed event to launch Shami Chakrabarti’s report. There were about 150–200 people in the room and about half were from the press, the remainder were either party members/supporters or staff. I am not going to opine on the report, plenty of others have done that and you can read it here if you haven’t already. I want to share some thoughts on the what else went on last Thursday.
When we arrived, there were a small number of people handing out leaflets one of which promised to expose who was behind the campaign of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn. They did not seem to be checking who they were handing leaflets to, just keen to distribute as many as possible, which I guess is the point of distributing leaflets at a meeting. It’s hardly surprising that some of the press attendees would get copies of the leaflet. Apparently the leaflet described some of those opposed to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership as “traitors” a particularly charged word only a couple of weeks after the murder of Joe Cox.
After the speeches by Shami Chakrabarti and Jeremy Corbyn, one of the first questions was from Kate McCann, a journalist on the Telegraph, asking Jeremy Corbyn about the leaflet and in particular the use of the word “traitor”. Corbyn unequivocally condemned the use of the word traitor.
Later on Marc Wadsworth, a member of Momentum, accused the MP Ruth Smeeth of collaborating with the Telegraph by handing a copy of the leaflet to Kate McCann (they were sitting next to each other). You have probably seen some video of the exchange between Wadsworth and Smeeth but quite a lot of the clips miss Corbyn’s response.
There’s so much to be concerned about in this short interchange.
- Why were Momentum campaigning at this event and eventually watering down the impact of the event by diverting attention away from the report?
- Who invited Momentum activists to the press launch? Or did they gatecrash?
- Are we now at the point where Labour MPs are forbidden to talk with journalists who work for papers whose opinions activists disagree with? Does that extend to any contact with people or organisations that are now considered the “enemy”?
- Why does Corbyn ignore this outburst and in no way call out Wadsworth for his aggression and intolerance? What has happened to that kinder and gentler politics?
How ironic that this all went on with the latest Labour slogan emblazoned on the banners in the room
Standing up, not standing by
Jeremy Corbyn definitely “stood by” while this exchange took place. Afterwards he was filmed in a friendly conversation with Marc Wadsworth as he left the event. Fast forward to the 3 minute point.
Note Wadsworth saying
“I outed Smeeth bloody talking to the Torygraph”
At the end I was standing chatting with a couple of friends from our local Labour Party when one of the Momentum leafleteers came up to us offering copies of the leaflet. I said “no thanks, I don’t want to read it” to which I was greeted with a short tirade and the question “what’s the matter can’t you read?”. It’s difficult to describe how aggressive this guy was and both of my friends were visibly shocked at his outburst.
Now of course these two individuals may not be representative of the Momentum movement but they certainly left a very clear impression of an aggressive and intolerant group within Momentum and the Labour Party. It felt like an encounter with the Red Guards of Labour’s Cultural Revolution. If the hundreds of thousands of Three Pounders and recent joiners want that type of a Labour movement then people like me will need to find a new progressive centre left home which better represents our aspirations.
This Labour Party isn’t going to get my vote but before I give up on the party completely I am going to wait for the leadership challenge (if it comes) and then I will join the Three Pounders to try and make a difference. You could go to the Saving Labour site and join the party if you care about the future of progressive politics in Britain.
