Labour's Big Tent
The Guardian and The Times both report on developments inside the Labour Party where Corbyn supporters are flexing their muscles to reinforce the control of the present 'leftist' leadership.
Owen Jones from The Guardian sees this as an exercise in democracy whereas Lucy Fisher in The Times describes the outcome as a 'purge' by the hard left.
But given that the whole exercise is being orchestrated by Momentum, a group which is demanding a loyalty pledge to party leader Jeremy Corbyn, there is no doubt this is an exercise in sponsored democracy with small groups working together to achieve a particular outcome.
Which is hugely ironic if you ask me, since Jeremy Corbyn was an arch Labour rebel who voted against his own party over 500 times and was a thorn in the flesh of every Labour leader from Neil Kinnock to Ed Miliband.
Yet, Team Corbyn is now demanding unswerving loyalty from MPs and other senior figures otherwise they may find themselves out of their ears - derided as 'Zombie Blairites' according tho the Times report.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/28/labour-review-candidates-not-purge-democracy-momentum
Labour’s review of candidates is not a purge: it’s what’s known as democracy
By Owen Jones - The Guardian
Construing grassroots internal elections as an authoritarian cleanse is part of the smear campaign against Momentum by those terrified by its success
Hide your kids: those dastardly undemocratic reds are coming again! The front page of one Murdoch outlet today carries wild reports of “Moderates forced out by hard left in Labour purge”.
What has actually happened is this: Labour is choosing candidates to stand as councillors in next year’s local elections. In some cases, members have democratically decided that some sitting councillors should face an open contest. This happened automatically until a rule change last year. Calculating that they will lose to a leftwing alternative, some have stood down. Others have lost. This is not a “purge”. This is what is known as “democracy”.
Labour’s membership has the right to decide who will represent the party in elections, based on their record and politics. Take Haringey. As my brilliant colleague Aditya Chakrabortty has exposed, the Labour council there has tried to force through the privatisation of £2bn of council housing, public buildings and land. On one estate, more than 1,000 social-rent homes are to be demolished, with no provision given for socially rented replacements.
You will be shocked to discover that this has not gone down well with Labour activists, or the local community. The plans have been opposed by both of Haringey’s Labour parties, both of the MPs, and local trade unions. Members who object to these proposals have, in many cases, chosen not to reselect councillors who support them. Again: this is democracy in action. It will mean that – after the local elections next May – there will be a majority of councillors who oppose the plans, and then they can be stopped. Good.
• Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
Hide your kids: those dastardly undemocratic reds are coming again! The front page of one Murdoch outlet today carries wild reports of “Moderates forced out by hard left in Labour purge”.
What has actually happened is this: Labour is choosing candidates to stand as councillors in next year’s local elections. In some cases, members have democratically decided that some sitting councillors should face an open contest. This happened automatically until a rule change last year. Calculating that they will lose to a leftwing alternative, some have stood down. Others have lost. This is not a “purge”. This is what is known as “democracy”.
Labour’s membership has the right to decide who will represent the party in elections, based on their record and politics. Take Haringey. As my brilliant colleague Aditya Chakrabortty has exposed, the Labour council there has tried to force through the privatisation of £2bn of council housing, public buildings and land. On one estate, more than 1,000 social-rent homes are to be demolished, with no provision given for socially rented replacements.
You will be shocked to discover that this has not gone down well with Labour activists, or the local community. The plans have been opposed by both of Haringey’s Labour parties, both of the MPs, and local trade unions. Members who object to these proposals have, in many cases, chosen not to reselect councillors who support them. Again: this is democracy in action. It will mean that – after the local elections next May – there will be a majority of councillors who oppose the plans, and then they can be stopped. Good.
• Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
Moderates forced out by hard left in Labour purge
By Lucy Fisher - The Times
Samantha Jury-Dada, of Southwark, south London, and Carl Austin-Behan, a former lord mayor of Manchester, have been deselected as Labour councillors in favour of hard-left Momentum supporters - MEN MEDIA
Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing supporters have been accused of carrying out an “aggressive purge” of centrist councillors to put up their own candidates in local elections next year.
Councillors across the country have been deselected in a vote of local members or have faced pressure not to contest their seats in May in favour of candidates more closely aligned to the cause of the Labour leader and the Momentum campaign that supports him.
Tensions in one London borough have become so bad that centrist organisers called for the regional party to take over the selection process. Tim Gallagher, a councillor from Haringey, north London, who decided to step down last week, said that he and colleagues were written off as “zombie Blairites”.
The divisions were laid bare as a US bank warned that a Corbyn government would threaten the UK asset market more than Brexit would. Graham Secker, chief European equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, was said to have told clients: “We could see the biggest shake-up in the political backdrop since the 70s. This is much more scary from an equity perspective than Brexit.”
In Haringey about ten Labour councillors are understood to have decided to stand down or to have lost the contest for their seat to a left-wing candidate. Mr Gallagher resigned after he was not automatically reselected.
He described the selection process as “poisonous” in a statement on Twitter. The local party had become “inflamed with division, distrust, and what at times feels like real hatred”, he said. He conceded that all sides deserved some blame but added: “Nothing excuses the aggressive purge that has taken place of all councillors not deemed to fit a flat-pack ideological mould.”
Alan Strickland, another Haringey councillor, announced he was stepping down after failing to be automatically reselected. In an open letter published online, he said “narrow factionalism” had dominated the selection process and he was not confident his candidacy would be received with an open mind.
Lorna Reith, the chief whip of the Labour group on the council, was also deselected for a Momentum candidate. Joe Goldberg, cabinet member for economic development, said earlier this month that he would not stand again.
Matt Pound, national organiser for Labour First, a centrist pressure group, said there had been “an orchestrated purge of hardworking Labour councillors” and called for the regional party to take over the selection process. He added: “Instances of deselections on purely factional grounds occurring around the country are totally counterproductive and should be called out and resisted by local members.”
Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing supporters have been accused of carrying out an “aggressive purge” of centrist councillors to put up their own candidates in local elections next year.
Councillors across the country have been deselected in a vote of local members or have faced pressure not to contest their seats in May in favour of candidates more closely aligned to the cause of the Labour leader and the Momentum campaign that supports him.
Tensions in one London borough have become so bad that centrist organisers called for the regional party to take over the selection process. Tim Gallagher, a councillor from Haringey, north London, who decided to step down last week, said that he and colleagues were written off as “zombie Blairites”.
The divisions were laid bare as a US bank warned that a Corbyn government would threaten the UK asset market more than Brexit would. Graham Secker, chief European equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, was said to have told clients: “We could see the biggest shake-up in the political backdrop since the 70s. This is much more scary from an equity perspective than Brexit.”
In Haringey about ten Labour councillors are understood to have decided to stand down or to have lost the contest for their seat to a left-wing candidate. Mr Gallagher resigned after he was not automatically reselected.
He described the selection process as “poisonous” in a statement on Twitter. The local party had become “inflamed with division, distrust, and what at times feels like real hatred”, he said. He conceded that all sides deserved some blame but added: “Nothing excuses the aggressive purge that has taken place of all councillors not deemed to fit a flat-pack ideological mould.”
Alan Strickland, another Haringey councillor, announced he was stepping down after failing to be automatically reselected. In an open letter published online, he said “narrow factionalism” had dominated the selection process and he was not confident his candidacy would be received with an open mind.
Lorna Reith, the chief whip of the Labour group on the council, was also deselected for a Momentum candidate. Joe Goldberg, cabinet member for economic development, said earlier this month that he would not stand again.
Matt Pound, national organiser for Labour First, a centrist pressure group, said there had been “an orchestrated purge of hardworking Labour councillors” and called for the regional party to take over the selection process. He added: “Instances of deselections on purely factional grounds occurring around the country are totally counterproductive and should be called out and resisted by local members.”
