‘Momentum Organisers’ and ‘Your Momentum’ slates will likely be the key battle – but who are they and what do they stand for?
‘Slates’ of candidates put forward by two rival groups, with two very different outlooks and philosophies, are likely to be the main contenders battling for control of Momentum as the campaign group holds elections for its ‘NCG’ leadership committee later this month: ‘Your Momentum‘ and ‘Momentum Organisers‘. So who are these groups, what do they stand for and how do they differ? Skwawkbox takes a look below.
Ethos
The core difference between the two groups, at least as far as those are public, centres on the relative priority of democracy and organising. Your Momentum (YM), which is largely an amalgam of the current NCG – which campaigned in the last NCG elections as the ‘Forward Momentum’ ‘change’ slate and swept the board – and local Momentum campaign groups broadly supportive of what the NCG has achieved so far and where it wants to go, is committed to maintaining and extending member democracy, including a firm commitment to letting Momentum members vote directly on which candidate the group will back in any future Labour leadership elections.
The Momentum Organisers (MO) group, by contrast, is critical of what it says has been an overly inward-looking focus on internal democracy and wants to switch to “prioritising organising above all else”, which its critics say means it has an interest in curtailing member democracy and restoring the old central ‘command and control’ model with superficial democracy despised by many member under founder Jon Lansman. Under that management, Momentum ended up backing Rebecca Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner in the last Labour leadership contest instead of, for example, the more left-wing Richard Burgon as an option for deputy, with members given little practical say after the group put only a joint Long-Bailey/Rayner slate to the members. Almost half rejected it. However, two people involved in the MO project said in a recent article on the centrist-friendly LabourList website that the current NCG’s move to prevent a repeat of that farce was welcome, while attacking the overall focus on democracy as playing into the Labour right’s hands.
YM believes Momentum should be led from the grassroots and is grappling with how to build such an organisation with all its challenges. The group wants Momentum to be involved in internal Labour party work but also in supporting trade union struggle and community campaigns with the aim of building a broad socialist movement in the country.
MO, on the other hand, is much more exclusively focused on organising within the Labour party, despite the obvious issue that well over 200,000 left members have already abandoned the party in disgust at Keir Starmer’s war on members, his Establishment fetish and his fostering of right-wing racism.
YM’s commitment to democracy means that it is not guaranteeing a place on its slate for any existing NCG members – instead it is holding a gathering on 12 June at which anyone committed to its values can put themselves forward and member votes will decide who stands. The process by which MO will choose its slate is currently unknown.
People
As noted above, YM is a coalition of existing leaders and local groups. Not many of those involved in Momentum Organisers appear to have broken cover so far. However, the group set up a WhatsApp group for supporters and two of the admins in that group are, or were when it was set up, employees of Sam Tarry and Nav Mishra, front-benchers under Keir Starmer and two MPs considered very close to Angela Rayner.
MO also involves former Momentum staff members and others hostile to the current NCG and its aims and close to founder and Lansman. Critics say that the new MO campaign is strongly reminiscent of the message put forward in the last NCG election by the ‘Momentum Renewal’ Lansman-front group, which ran under that name despite consisting of the Lansmanite ‘old guard’ and was run by a team of Raynerite ‘fixers’, and which also took over an old ‘official’ Momentum page for its campaign to access a wider base of followers.
Those who remain members of Momentum will have an opportunity in the next few weeks to decide not just the focus but the whole ethos of the group and whether it will withstand the onslaught of Keir Starmer and his faction or be crushed or even assimilated.
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Momentum = the backstabbing collective…The less I hear about it the better…
Momentum remind me of 38°
There for you. Until the act is required to be dropped.
Meh. Again.
(In case the last post didn’t go through due to lost connection)
No longer a member of the Labour Party or Momentum for that matter.
The latest is Momentum’s objection to Naomi Wimbourne-Idrissi standing for the NEC. Hence, no matter witch slate of Momentum still willing to parrot the “antisemitism” narrative within the left in the Labour Party branding Jews socialist as “wrong Jews”.
Also Momentum’s willingness to brand some feminist socialist as “transphobes” for been gender critical. It cost Ann Henderson her position on the NEC as some left members didn’t vote for her on Momentum’s advice.
Hence, agree with Andrew’s comment and cannot care less which faction wins.
Ah, momentum…
An analogy. Momentum is a political equivalent of softcore porn
People who hate porn hate softcore porn, every bit as much as people who like hardcore porn hate it.
And both wonder what the point of softcore porn is.
Does the creature have a LFI section?
If only Corbyn would front a new party. For there is only Jeremy Corbyn with the name-recognition and clear principles who could generate the sort of interest you’d need for a new left party to be viable. It’d be a great riposte to the outrageous treatment he’s received at the hands of his party and especially that sleazy lawyer Harvey Two-face Starmer.
Even then it may ultimately fail electorally, given FPTP is a cruel master. But equally, it could tap into the incredible disenchantment that’s everywhere and soar. It would certainly rapidly gain many energetic members eager to campaign on a more principled socialist platform, no doubt scaring the living daylights out of the PLP and the rest of the establishment.
Will Jeremy be standing at the next general election, I have my doubts.
Now there’s a novel comment.
goldbach – What would be really novel is an answer to this question. When is Jeremy going to stop prevaricating and get around to telling his loyal supporters whether he intends to stand or not in the next GE.
Procrastinating.
Maybe you should try asking him instead of repeating yourself ad nauseam in your comments.
Shouldn’t be hard to find his email address for a man of your talents.
goldbach – Oh dear, so you don’t know either.
Why the fixation with Corbyn, ollies? He’s not even a (current) labour MP.
And why is it painted as some sort of subterfuge that he hasn’t declared whether he’ll stand at the next election, but you saw NO problem with keef withholding the identities of those who funded him?
Toffee – I don’t know, Try asking Andy, he’s the one who is desperate for Corbyn to make a move. Personally I don’t think it will make much difference either way.
Unfortunately, I don’t have psychic powers. Then again, I have no need to know whether Mr Corbyn will stand at the next GE. Clearly, you don’t either or you’d be finding out rather than blathering on. Must be a sad life.
goldbach – You’re the one blathering on, I’ve simply responded to Andy’s desperate pleas to Corbyn by succinctly pointing out that I think that he is probably wasting his time
goldbach,
Apparently it really is a ‘sad life’. As detailed here:
https://thesaker.is/grief-days-with-changes-in-narrative-or-why-trolls-are-doomed/
“What many people might have been noticing lately is that the level of trolling has been reduced significantly in the last weeks. I have been observing a decline in the quantity and quality of troll commenting…..
…..I have contacted some of my troll-friends that, unfortunately, have to work as troll-commentators(5) fundamentally in well-known 3-letter-agencies such as CENSORED, CENSORED or CENSORED, and made a little bit of research and interviews… their words were stunning.
They speak about unhealthy conditions, miserable and delayed payment, alienation, abusive and violent working atmosphere, overworking hours, lack of respect at work, anxiety, psychological trauma, and ptsd (the answer to their trolling comments is terrible to their self-esteem) high incidence of suicide, high incidence of divorce, obesity, stress, sleep deprivation, fatigue, anxiety (again) and other problems. They openly state that they cannot work much longer under such pressure conditions. One of them even claimed to need more than 36 hours of psychological treatment after realizing he started to believe that the answers to their trolling comments seemed to be quite reasonable and articulated, and more likely truth worthy that the official narrative they have to push (as that it is obviously impossible)…..
….In the time you invested in reading this article, 26 trolls have died, 96 have quit, 238 have to get a two-week sick leave due to due to the problems, hardness, and complications related to their job.”
In other, related news, I hear David Attercliffe and the World Wildlife Fund are preparing a massive campaign to save this endangered species.
Perusing the ‘quality’ (sic) of output from this sites resident Uriah Heep it may already be too late.
I feel sorry for the goats and whatever happened to the frolicking in the Caribbean bolt hole of Steve H assassin of goats.and Corbyn .it now seems..Maybe stevie should stick to cheese making rather than slaughtered goats.
Anyone remember the Forde Report? This is interesting.
This what Ann Black wrote about the Forde Report in her NEC Report on 25/05/22.
“The new independent complaints process was up and running, and feedback was positive. NEC decisions were reviewed within seven days, and so far, one out of 31 had been referred back. Alas, Martin Forde wrote to say that his report was still undergoing legal checks and he hoped to deliver it “shortly”. Dismay was, as usual, expressed, as the party clearly has not got what it paid for. However, it is unfair to blame David, as he wasn’t in post when the Forde review was established and if he attempted to interfere it would compromise the panel’s independence. It was NEC members in April 2020 who made the decisions. To those who believe that David and Keir have the report and are frantically trying to water it down, I can only point out again that all “confidential” material anywhere within the party is in the public domain within minutes. If David had it, LabourList would have it.
These are very serious people doing very serious work…
Not quite.
They are very shady bastards doing shithouses’ work.
Iscariot went to the potter’s field. These slimeballs continue to shaft their country.
Corbyn is no more treading water than Starmer because the way things work means there is no incentive to make a stand until a GE is imminent. To do so just means the press try to rubbish your position such that any manifesto arising from it appears old and tired.
As for Momentum, I think Inertia is a better moniker.
Tim – Those who are hoping to build a movement and a campaign around Jeremy Corbyn may disagree with you.
The Left media is healthy enough to republish all the good stuff from the internal report and subsequent submissions ad infinitum until Forde is released
A tsunami of source materials should be pur out there
JC
Is a spiritual leader
Leave the donkey work and dirty work to the grunts
Next time they don’t get to lay a glove on him
Doug – “JC Is a spiritual leader.” 😲
Now all you have to do is convince everyone that Jeremy Corbyn is some sort of deity, good luck with that one.🤔
Or they may campaign and build a movement around his policies
What are keefs’ by the way? And don’t bother pointing to anything from the 2019 manifesto as keefs on record as distancing himself from that
And as we know, the party chair can’t tell us, whereas both keef and the shadow DWP gimp won’t
Here’s a list of the numerous Labour party policies that were announced at last year’s party conference.
I remember the Scott report and there is a big difference
between that and the Forde report – for much of what
should appear in the latter is ALREADY in the public
domain.
The guy in “not PMQs” video stated he had heard some
evidence subsequently sent to Forde – but some of this
has already been publicised in various seminars etc
– so part of this is also in the public domain. There is
undoubtedly some sensitive stuff which has not been
made public and I hope those people are encouraged
to seek other forms of redress eg if criminality is
involved. The tribunal which started last week might
be of help here?
Given the reluctance of the MSM to publish anything
positive about Corbyn it would be difficult to make
sure Forde was presented truthfully by that same
MSM – even if in its “raw” unredacted form… I
imagine though that the result will be available
in electronic form after publication – just as the
Sue Gray report.
I can only hope that Starmer will find he has been hoist
by his own petard and has left it all too late ..
Thus if Boris is booted out and replaced by a
sensible Tory who gets rid of some of the horrors of the
current cabinet – Starmer might find himself behind
in the polls and therefore expendable.
As for groups vying for control – there are many on the
Labour Party – traditional left – who make their own
minds up about who to vote for when the time comes.
They are not going to have some Transactivist foisted
on them or be fooled that there is only ONE Jewish
opinion about everything. These same people don’t
like being told what to do by Labour HQ
The main problem is that the left will need to be
very knowledgable about Labour Procedures and
devious in how they deal with them. Eg in Corbyns
case I guess his CLP will need to “chose” their
next Labour Candidate ?
Holby, the guy from Behid Labour is called Ben Timberley and I think you are missing his point about the similarities between the Forde Report and the Scott Report. Information being in the public domain or not, is irrelevant, it’s who already has access to it.
As Skwakie reported a few weeks back, it appears that submissions sent by members in good faith to Martin Forde in the hope that they would be given a fair hearing, has been simultaneously routed to the PR firm Haslam Dodd. It was this PR company (or spindoctors if you prefer) that helped John Major’s government spin the Scott Report. This company has worked with or has links to John Major, David Blunket, Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson (not an exhaustive list). That’s the connection. .
It’s customary for actors named in a report to be given first sight and allowed to challenge any allegations made. It would appear that maybe some actors may already have sight of some of the submissions meaning they can get to work undermining the report before it has been officially published. If you look at the members of the panel, it includes the former Labour GS Larry Whitty, a known Blairite. This raises further questions about who was it that set the submissions to Forde, be copied into this Haslam Dodd? Was any of the Forde panel aware of this?
It also means that Evans and Starmer don’t have to wait on Forde to complete his report to know what’s in it. So Ann Blacks assertion (information courtesy of the resident troll), that Starmer and “poor David” have not had sight of the report looks to be meaningless, they probably already have, via the spin doctors. As an experienced member of the NEC, she’s remarkably unaware of what is happening within the Labour admin.
I have confidence that Martin Forde will do his best to reveal the truth, he did so with Windrush and has his professional reputation to uphold. But by all accounts he seemst to be working with one hand tied behind his back.
Agreed: his reputation is at stake. He can do a Chilcot or a Hutton.
I met Martin Forde when he was up in Liverpool, during a Windrush Compensation Consultation meeting [gave him a lift back to the station]. Seemed a guy of intergrity [he has forced some improvements to the Windrush scheme]. He’s been handed a poisoned chalice by the LP. Interesting to read this [if we’re allowed to post *live links*]: https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/righting-wrongs-martin-forde-qc
Momentum….a political party within a political party & only responsible to themselves. How much more damage can they do to Socialism & Democracy? Who dreamt this up?
Yes I get what Ben Timberley was implying –
but putting out cleverly placed material
generated by spin doctors will at least
reveal what Starmer/Evans are trying to
conceal.
Also – even if they did not have prior knowledge
of the report I cannot believe the majority of the
MSM would give a fair summary of it .. so
its fair presentation will need some clever
manoeuvring anyway.
However –
I cannot remember if Scott was available to the
general public – but even if it was this would be
nothing like an electronic version of Forde which
makes it readily available. Starmer is beginning
to lose favour with Blair and Co. and they will be
quite happy to ditch him if things look bad.
Still – forewarned is forearmed and I await with
interest to see what these spin doctors do ..
PS These spin doctors formerly associated with
the Tories will not be cheap – far from it I guess.
The Labour Party have been sacking staff because
of profligate spending by Starmer – so how on earth
are they going to pay for these expensive outfits?
HFM – If you look into the party’s spending patterns and budgets you will see that it was in fact the overspending that originated in the Corbyn era that has caused the current problems.
For complete fucks sake…Have a word word yerself.
It’s absolutely NOTHING to do with smarmer decreasing the membership by hundreds of thousands, spending like a sailor on payday for legal fees and boxing off those who conspired to smear and eventually oust Corbyn
Oh, no siree! It’s Corbyn’s fault for leaving THIRTEEN FUCKING MILLION in the pot when he
was shithoused out the wayleft.You complete knobhead. How the fuck dare you assume we’re all as fucking imbecilic as you?
I really do wish you every misfortune( known and as yet unknown) to man, before your ultimate and eagerly anticipated demise.
“It’s absolutely NOTHING to do with smarmer decreasing the membership by hundreds of thousands,”
“To the best of my knowledge the membership numbers are roughly the same as they were at the time of the 19GE spending like a sailor on payday for legal fees and boxing off those who conspired to smear and eventually oust Corbyn. Oh, no siree! It’s Corbyn’s fault for leaving THIRTEEN FUCKING MILLION in the pot when he was shithoused out the way left.”
It was unfortunate that Jeremy Corbyn created the liability in the first place by naively issuing a statement that he hadn’t had checked by Labour’s legal team first. It was also unfortunate that Labour under Corbyn had based their budgets on there being at least 500k members but the loss of about 20% of the membership during 2018/19 meant that the party’s membership had dropped to about 430k by Dec19 and that it was spending more on day to day expenditure than they had coming in. Hence the inevitable decision to reduce the payroll. This situation was further compounded by the loss 60 seats and the associated ‘short money’
“You complete knobhead. How the fuck dare you assume we’re all as fucking imbecilic as you?”
But you are the one who has had to resort to playground expletives in a vain attempt to cover your rather pathetic attempts to rewrite history.
“I really do wish you every misfortune( known and as yet unknown) to man, before your ultimate and eagerly anticipated demise.”
😘I love you too, it is very gratifying to know that I occupy so many of your thoughts😏
ps – Have you seen the latest polling figures for Wakefield
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/04/tories-may-face-catastrophic-defeat-in-wakefield-byelection-poll
Ooops –
“To the best of my knowledge the membership numbers are roughly the same as they were at the time of the 19GE spending like a sailor on payday for legal fees and boxing off those who conspired to smear and eventually oust Corbyn.Oh, no siree!To the best of my knowledge the membership numbers are roughly the same as they were at the time of the 19GE spending like a sailor on payday for legal fees and boxing off those who conspired to smear and eventually oust Corbyn.
Oh, no siree! ……………
Keef has 450k+ members? ** You’re serious?
…To the BEST of your knowledge???
Oh you’re serious, alright…
AHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA 😂😂😂
*Pauses to catch breath*
HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHA😂😂😂
Just stop it right now, I’m getting a hernia ffs.
Wanna provide irrefutable PROOF of that, plums?
Or just be laughed at to kingdom come? Your choice.
**Bookmarked for future reference when you eventually deny you wrote this latest steaming pile of shite, too.
Toffee – Who said anything about 450k, it wasn’t me?
The latest NEC report states that the current membership is approx 420k with about 30k in arrears.
Why are you getting your knickers in a twist over the Labour party’s membership numbers when you left the party over two decades ago and didn’t even bother to rejoin to stand in solidarity with Jeremy when he was elected leader?
SteveH06/06/2022 AT 6:42 PM
Toffee – Who said anything about 450k, it wasn’t me
Wasn’t it? Oh.
SteveH05/06/2022 AT 3:07 PM
Labour under Corbyn had based their budgets on there being at least 500k members but the loss of about 20% of the membership during 2018/19 meant that the party’s membership had dropped to about 430k by Dec19
The gift that just keeps giving. Can’t help but make a complete knobhead of yerself, can ya? 👍😉
Still telling us keefs’ got 450,000 – or even 430,000 members? *Guffaws*
Stupid, STUPID CUNT.
Toffee – The figures that I quoted from the latest NEC report are quite clear. Any confusion is entirely your problem.
You can make yourself feel like a big boy by ranting as many expletives as you like but unless you have some credible evidence to the contrary it all amounts to nothing more than yet another series of farts from a flatulent old windbag.
Windbag. 😂
Keef has 430k members – same as Corbyn had at the ’19 election 😂
🎶Where’s the mo-ney gone…Where’s the money gone? …Thir-teen million spunked….Thirteen million spunked🎶😂
The NEC couldn’t fine their own arses with both hands and a map, nevermind know their own membership numbers. How many people on here are still getting begging letters off them asking them to work for fook-all even though they left many moons ago, hmm?
And you call everyone else ‘gullible’ you complete cretin.
Toffee – I see that your flatulence hasn’t improved any.
One major difference of Forde compared
with other older reports (like Scott) is that
the former will be available electronically
so that
(1) Anyone with access to the web can read it
(2) It can be searched ..
(3) It can be cross referenced to some extent
with documents already in public
domain so if any redacted information some
could be pencilled in.
Getting back to Scott – because it was defence
related some of it was kept secret ..