Labour’s ‘hard right’ blairites are asking supporters to join Unite, Britain’s biggest and most solidly pro-Corbyn union no later than 26 December, so they qualify to vote against current General Secretary Len McCluskey.
The candidate standing against McCluskey is Gerard Coyne, a close associate of Tom ‘Project Anaconda’ Watson for over 20 years – which means that a Coyne victory would bode ill for the union’s support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The right has tried to ‘pooh-pooh’ the idea that they’re trying to infiltrate Unite and other unions as a means of attacking Corbyn – but asking their fan-base to join Unite specifically for the GenSec election puts beyond doubt that, as with so many other things, they’re plotting as avidly as ever. Which is, no doubt, why they tried to keep it secret:
The SKWAWKBOX predicted this move last Tuesday, when McCluskey’s resignation gamble to gain a fresh 5-year mandate was announced and called on Corbyn supporters to join Unite to support McCluskey’s re-election.
This is a key battleground, so all those of good will toward Corbyn and toward Labour as a true alternative to the Tories must join to support him.
The Blairites consider organising to be their strength. Corbyn’s supporters must copy their strengths, because the right-wingers can’t replicate inspiration.
If you’re not a union member, it’s time to join Unite – or their Community section, which is cheaper if you’re unemployed and whose members will also be entitled to vote. If you’re in another union, there’s nothing stopping you being a member of two.
Here’s the link – please act now and share this widely. It’s a fight McCluskey, Corbyn and those who support them must win.
The SKWAWKBOX is offered free of charge, but if you’re able to support its work via the ‘donate’ button above, please do.
Tut tut such lies. Labour Future does not e mail its members. They do not organise. That was one post from a member (not admin) so he doesn’t have the ability to e mail anyone LOL
Paranoid much?
You appear to be reading the wrong article.
You’ve edited the original piece because I saw a reference to emailing members earlier – and now it’s gone. At least stand by your articles.
The ‘piece’ was edited hours ago, LONG before your previous comment, as tweeted to Akehurst. There was an error, it was corrected. You jumped in afterward trying to make a scene and made yourself look foolish.
I’m not the one suggesting elements of the Labour Party membership are “hard right”, so I think you’ve got a better claim on any foolish awards being handed out.
And you’re also being extremely disingenuous: “Bond…” made reference to emails being sent and you replied with “You appear to be reading the wrong article.”
So, which is it… you edited it “hours ago” (yet somehow we both saw the reference to emails at approximately midnight when we both commented) or there was no reference to emails ever made, hence your saying they appeared to be reading the wrong article?
I believe debate is the foundation of a strong, democratic society – but don’t go around changing your stated facts when someone questions them and deny you ever made such claims in the first place.
They’re as hard right as Corbyn is ‘hard left’. Much more so, in fact.
And it was edited hours before your comments. I suspect you were both looking at cached versions, which is your issue not mine. I changed something when it was shown to be incorrect – the ‘denying’ it was ever there must have been in your imagination.
Oh and don’t *dare* suggest you never said people were being emailed. Because any coherent argument you had disappears as soon as you start blatantly lying.
http://imgur.com/oWIRp7i
You’ve either got a serious comprehension problem or you’re just trying to stir shit.
I said initially that Labour FIRST emailed. They have a mailing list. I never, at any point, said Labour FUTURE *emailed* anything. By the time I knew it was LFuture, I knew it was a Facebook post.
Now do us all a favour and take your stirring stick elsewhere. Please. See, I asked nicely, which I was not obliged to do.
So much wrong in such a short comment. Good work.
Suggesting that anybody who is a member of The Labour Party could be “hard right” shows a basic misunderstanding of politics.
“I suspect you were both looking at cached versions, which is your issue not mine.” Possibly true but you were trying to deny you’d even said it in the first place, which isn’t a technical issue but one of honesty (or lack of) on your part.
“…the ‘denying’ it was ever there must have been in your imagination.”
So you didn’t write – as your first comment: “You appear to be reading the wrong article” when someone called you out on your claim that Labour Future were emailing people?
You’re just making this up as you go along aren’t you?
I’d say exactly the same about the ‘hard left’ nonsense, but you and the ‘moderates’ haven’t let that stop them.
As for the rest, bollocks. If I was denying it, why would I be writing here and on social media that it had changed, even apologising to Akehurst for the mix-up. By the time you and whoever else it was was saying ‘Labour Future never emailed anyone’, there was no mention of them emailing anyone in the article. Get your story straight.
You really are making this up as you go along.
“I’d say exactly the same about the ‘hard left’ nonsense, but you and the ‘moderates’ haven’t let that stop them.”
The Labour Party can and does have a “hard left”, internally and on its fringes. But, as a left wing party, it cannot have a “hard right”. Hard right is found in the Tory Party, Ukip, BNP etc. It’s not splitting hairs, it’s showing the ridiculousness of your inflammatory language. You also have absolutely no idea if I’m a moderate or not, knowing nothing about me, so wind your neck in a little.
“As for the rest, bollocks. If I was denying it, why would I be writing here and on social media that it had changed, even apologising to Akehurst for the mix-up. By the time you and whoever else it was was saying ‘Labour Future never emailed anyone’, there was no mention of them emailing anyone in the article. Get your story straight.”
Jesus man, your very first comment on this article was: “You appear to be reading the wrong article” when someone called you out. You didn’t say “I’ve amended it”, “you must be reading an old version” or anything similar, you denied the reality. And you apologised to Akehurt for mixing up Labour First and Labour Future (an understandable mistake), I haven’t seen anything referencing your claim that people were being emailed that you have since edited out.
If you’re going to do “this”, then at least try to ensure accuracy, make a note at the foot of your article when you amend it (especially when the changes are major) and learn a little about politics outside of the Corbyn echo chamber.
What is called ‘hard left’ in Labour is not hard left. In Scandinavia it would be mainstream social democracy. By contrast, the right of the Labour party is so close to Tory neoliberalism that it’s a blight on the party and has no place in it.
I answered as I did because it’s not my job to spoonfeed you the obvious. You moaned about a claim of Labour Future emailing – and at *no* point has this article, pre- or post-edit, said Labour Future emailed anyone. That was the point, and it meant you or your co-commenter’s point was false. I said so – the rest is your own ire, which again is not my problem.
What lol
Hard right faction? Dear God, I never realised I was a member of a ‘hard right’ faction. Every day’s a school day isn’t it. And there’s me thinking I was a member of the Labour Party, a democratic socialist party. And I find the idea that we’re “plotting” hilarious. We’re far too busy trying to infiltrate Momentum and turn it into a covert wing of the Tory Party.
‘Community’ is NOT a sister union to Unite, it is a totally separate entity, you are confusing it with the Unite Community Membership
Union – http://www.community-tu.org/
Unite Section – http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/communitymembership/default.aspx
Reblogged this on Turning the Tide and commented:
Support Len! Join Unite today.
Thank you, Steve.
Obviously, if a person joined the Labour Party after the GE, they are called “entryists”, their social media accounts are trawled for any comment or reference to anything that the NEC disapproves of, they get purged for any transgression (real or imagined) then they are barred from voting and not refunded the subscriptions they have paid.
But “Labour First” can ask its supporters to join a union for the express purpose of ousting a leader who has decided to put his job on the line, and that’s all tickety-boo, is it? What hypocrites they are.
Anyone posting here who thinks there is no “right” in Labour is mistaken. If there is a “left”, there must be a “right”. Those who call themselves “moderates” (including some of the PLP) are nothing of the kind. They are on the right of the party, and their treatment of the democratically elected leader has been disgraceful.
Progress, Saving Labour, Labour First, Labour Future, whoever – plus one T.Blair and his new thing – are all in the business of trying to get rid of Corbyn and his team. It’s all very obvious to me. If they get what they want, there will be more triangulation, less social conscience, very little difference between the two main parties – and the Tories will win. Again.
Stuff that goes on in the US comes over here eventually. Over there, the Democrats got rid of the old guy with the socialist principles, and put up the “moderate” member of a political dynasty. They got Trump.
Observe and learn.
Beautifully put.
Thank you, that’s very kind.
I get very cross with people who claim that they are socialists and democrats then choose to behave in a manner that is diametrically opposite to what they preach.
If any of these people were serious about getting a Labour government into office, they would unite behind their elected leader and give and his team a chance.
Instead, they are doing nothing to assist him, and in many cases deliberately and systematically scuppering any hope Labour has – Miliband spent a lot of time pandering to the PLP, and as a result the good ideas he did have turned out too woolly and too compromised. In fact, a lot of his policies originally had a lot in common with Corbyn’s pledges.
Keep up the good work, Steve – as always, you and your efforts are appreciated.
Observing the present rise of the far right across Europe, has too much akin to the climate that prevailed during the 1930s that resulted in WW2. There are far right extremist parties in Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, Greece, Holland and France. In the UK the political debate is increasingly moving rightward, leftist politics is being attacked within the media and from within the Labour Party itself.
We have a raft of hard right political parties that are getting far too much airtime, from the Trojan horse Tories of Ukip, to the bordering on terrorist lookalikes, in Britain First and National Action.
There has to be an antidote to this, but all I’m seeing from the Labour Party is a suicidal internal war that is being perpetuated by MPs who cannot get behind Jeremy Corbyn to fight the Tories. I’m not going to mince my words now, the current polls from a Labour perspective, are frightening. I’m of the opinion that the right of the Labour Party are willfully pressing the self destruct button. Why else would they continue to plot and scheme away to unseat Corbyn? They have no support from the wider membership, so they are intent on sacrificing the party to save it by removing Corbyn and McDonnell from the leadership.
This is a crazy self indulgent strategy, we have have to offer opposition to the right not play catch with them. I fear that if Labour lose the next election, hard right politics will be set into UK politics to the expense of all.