Over the last few days rumours began circulating that the Labour Party was about to take action against entryists and extremist groups operating inside the Labour Party. This has bee confirmed by reports in The Mirror:
Labour Against The Witchhunt and Socialist Appeal are among the groups to be proscribed by the party’s ruling body as the leader bids to stamp out “toxic extremism”
Keir Starmer is preparing to purge far left Labour members part of “poisonous” campaign groups in a bold confrontation with operators loyal to Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour ‘s ruling National Executive Committee will be asked to proscribe four “toxic” organisations which promote communism, claim anti-Semitism allegations are overblown and demand whips restore Mr Corbyn as a Labour MP.
Those to be banned include Resist and Labour Against the Witchhunt, which claim anti-Semitism allegations were politically motivated, and Labour In Exile, which expressly welcomes expelled or suspended members.
The openly communist Socialist Appeal will also become a forbidden group.
Discussion has erupted o social media about "witch-hunts from those targeted and their allies. The largest of the groups by far is Socialist Appeal who have already see two of their umber recently expelled.
But just who are these groups?
Socialist Appeal betrays itself by clearly identifying what it is i their statement issued to ostensibly defend their group:
The grounds given are that Socialist Appeal has its own programme, membership, and structures; that we are part of an international organisation, the International Marxist Tendency; and that our organisation is a continuation of the Militant Tendency, which was similarly proscribed by the Kinnock leadership in the 1980s.
One of the tactics used by left groups, in particular those of the Trotskyist kind is known as entryism whereby the organisation buries itself inside a larger party to gain influence and members as a prelude to establishing a new "revolutionary party. This ruse was advised by Trotsky himself to the French Section of the Fourth International back in 1936 and has been practised in various forms by most of those who stand in the Trotskyist tradition.
Of course this should not come as any surprise to long term Labour Party members who will recall the battle with the Militant Tendency back in the eighties. The group which arose around Ted Grant one of the major figures of the British Trotskyist left (and one of the more boring) suddenly found itself gaining ground in the seventies taking control of the Labour Party Young Socialists, several Constituency Labour Parties and eventually found itself with three members in Parliament.
They were an old fashioned group disdaining such things as gay rights considering them "bourgeois deviations" (a view quite common amongst the far-left at one time) and even got called out for "gay bashing" yet this was a very working class grouping which suddenly found itself at war with the Party leadership.
Militant controlled Liverpool Council sent out redundancy notices to all it's workers by taxi which led to Neil Kinnock's famous speech and the eventual breakup and demise of Militant. Despite organising a rally of over 8000 supporters in the Royal Albert hall the organisation was proscribed and it's leaders including Ted Grant expelled. The rump of the organist ion turned to establishing the Socialist Party however not everyone left Labour.
Despite being expelled Grant opted to call on his faction to stay and regroup within Labour. Today we know this organisation through the name of it's newspaper Socialist Appeal.
With between three and four hundred "supporters" (really members) Socialist Appeal remains active inside the Labour Party despite being in breach of the constitution as it has a separate organisation, membership, finances, programme and outside affiliations.
Socialist Appeal is part of the International Marxist tendency their version of the "Fourth International" and one of whole myriad of similar bodies of varying sizes.
"The International Marxist Tendency is a Marxist cadre organisation based on a revolutionary and internationalist programme. Founded in the working class and youth, the IMT unites all who wish to dedicate themselves to the struggle for international socialist revolution."
It has an active and growing wing in Universities known as the "Student Marxists" and is currently turning it's attention to the PCS trade union where it's old rivals in the Socialist Party have split and been purged by the Serwotka leadership.
The next group facing proscription is Resist which was founded by expelled former Labour MP Chris Williamson who has subsequently participated the Socialist Party's Trade Union & Socialist Coalition which stands candidates against the Labour Party ad provided three of the candidates. Williamson was also o the campaign trail supporting George Galloway in the Batley & Spen by-election.
Clearly this is an organisation in direct open competition with the Labour Party making membership incompatible.
Next up is Labour Against The Witch Hunt (LAW) which was explicitly set up to defend any Labour Party members expelled or disciplined for antisemitism. Amongst their ranks includes the infamous Jackie Walker.
You can get a taste of what their members think from these quotes I found on their Facebook page before being blocked!
LAW attracts such charming people.
In fact they organising a Zoom Meeting o 24th July ad if you wish to hide your identity it's OK apparently:.
We totally understand if you wish to attend the meeting with your camera switched off or by using a false name (but please email us if you do.
The organisation was openly assisted by members of the Labour Party Marxists (a front for the Communist Party of Great Britain (Weekly Worker) though it's organiser one Tina Werkman has subsequently split from the party.
Finally it's also believed another group Socialist Resistance is also to be on the list. This group is not as well know as the others having less than a hundred members these days and is all that is left of what was once the International Marxist group led by Tariq Ali. It is like Socialist Appeal part of a world wide grouping though this has the convoluted name of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.
None of these organisations or their members belong in a democratic party, let alone the Labour Party ad are parasitic organisations who infest the body politic in order to gain undue influence. Neil Kinnock dealt with Militant, now it's Starmer's turn to deal with rest*.
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Tomorrow I'll be looking at the other groups that need proscribing from the Labour Party.
