Labour Against the Witch Hunt: A Merger followed by a split.

 

The internal civil war between the really unsavoury hard left tyes around Labour Against the Witch Hunt (LAW) and Labour In Exile (LIE) has become a fascinating example of the hopelessness and navel gazing hatreds of the far left.

As previously reported there has been trouble inside these organisations as an ideological and personality fallout took place between the followers of Tony Greenstein and those around the Labour Party Marxists (LPM) (a front for the Communist Party of Great Britain/Weekly Worker) crowd. 

It seems most members of both these organisations are now outside the Labour Party having recently been joined by a number of activists from the fake Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) hate group likewise.. being expelled.

Greenstein & his charming ally Esther Giles proposed that LAW & LIE merge which even caused Tina Werkman to initially oppose what she saw even as an ex-member of the CPGB a "hostile takeover"

This causes a dilemma for the LAW Steering Committee majority dominated by the LPM (CPGB) who in advance of the vote wrote:

There are a number of problems with this proposal.

The most serious is that, despite the claim to have a “focus” on fighting the witch-hunt, that is precisely what will be ended - fighting the witch-hunt in the Labour Party. To produce a combined organisation for general political activity out of LAW and LIEN is to accept that there is no longer a need for a campaign focused on that priority. Remember that LAW is already committed to fighting to transform the Labour Party into a united front of a special kind - of all trade unions, working class partisans, socialist groups and parties. For unity to be worthwhile, for unity to be a net good, it would have to be on a serious basis that would supersede the otherwise separate existence of its components. That seriousness is partly a matter of immediate practicality and partly of principle.

Now we go to the practicalities of the squabble as the mass organisations of the Labour hard Left met to do battle. The two groups had to meet on separate days as some of their members belong to both groups which should be taken into account when examining g the derisory voting fidgures at their respective meetings.

First up LIE met on Friday and voted 31 to 8 in favour of a merger. A total of just 39 particpants from a group that once threatened to set up "Shadow CLP's". They would have indeed been a very small shaow in a dark comer not even noticeable to any adult.

Then came Saturday and the massed ranks of LAW voted 47 to 27 in favour of the merger (the 27 being presumably the entire membership of the CPGB which has only around that number of members). There were 12 abstentions. A grand total of 86.

That was not the end of it as the infamous Jackie Walker, Stan Keable, Tina Werkman and Kevin Bean resign from LAW.

One assumes they will now rename themselves Left Out of Labour. (LOL).