Tuesday 6 December 2016

Momentum Lost: An Attack of the Trots

Oh dear.  Momentum seemed to hold so much idealistic promise - a spontaneous mass movement tapping directly and constructively into the angst of hundreds of thousands of social-media-savvy young people.
"Momentum has been imbued with meaning and significance above and beyond that of any other left-wing group or campaign. We haven’t only invested time and energy in Momentum, we’ve invested hopes, dreams and visions for the future in it. Most important for many of us was the expectation of “a new kind of politics”, a term which now receives mockery and laughter from both the right and the left. We wanted “straight-talking, honest politics” which put an end to the jargon-laden, focus-group-speak that Tony Blair propagated so well. But we also wanted “a kinder, gentler politics” — Momentum was to be a group built on conciliatory, positive, outward-looking debate, which would be reflected in the way we treated each other, and our opponents... At a local level, many Momentum groups have flourished — delivering political education workshops, running foodbanks, organising rallies, street-stalls and phone-banks during the leadership campaign and getting left-wing people elected to key positions in their local Constituency Labour Parties."
Not only was it going to be, well, wonderful, it was going to be (a) Corbyn's praetorian guard ("we delivered a resounding 61.8% mandate for Jeremy in the Labour leadership election"); and (b) in the longer run, McDonnell's vehicle for an extra-parliamentary Marxist rising.

And then the Trots turned up.   Bastards!   They've wrecked it, ensuring it is run by ruthless warring cliques instead of via 'MxV', a clever web-based OMOV system the Momentum tecchies have hatched.  And now it all comes down to a straight fight over who gets control of the database of members and supporters.

Funnily enough, this is probably meat and drink to Corbyn himself, who has been swimming happily in foetid, Trot-infested waters for decades.  But whatever will Paul Mason, their ultra-high-profile recent recruit, make of it?  Actually, since 2009 he's seen it so many times before in various countries around the world, I can't imagine he's at all surprised.

Ah well, back to playing World of Warcraft in the bedsit.

ND

12 comments:

Electro-Kevin said...

"Ah well, back to playing World of Warcraft in the bedsit."

Twits.

I can get all sorts of ideas out there by trolling my right wing bigotry from my armchair - not one bric-a-brac or soup stall attended. Plus I can go doing it forever it because it takes zero energy.

Sackerson said...

Love the title.

dearieme said...

They're called Trots because they indulge in verbal diarrhoea.

andrew said...


I read the article
v. sad

The thing is that you may not like momentum but it did get (young) people involved in politics.
The only true route out of this increasing tendency to see all pols as somewhat corrupt and self serving and labelling people who disagree with you as something that means you can mentally no-platform them is to get involved If you do that you hopefully see that most pols genuinely do try to work for the common good and people who disagree with you might have a partly valid point of view - or at least have a right to their own opinions.

Elby the Beserk said...

Like Occupy, all they are really interested is he sound of their own voices.

Blue Eyes said...

Not that sad or even disappointing given that Momentum was just to keep the internal war going so as to cement the hard left's power base in the Labour Party.

I think a more useful experience for (young) people would result in them realising that there are no simple answers to complex questions. No black and whites, no simple rights and wrongs.

The problem I have with lefties I know (which seems to be most people I know) is that they think that being Nice is enough. If only everyone was as Nice as they are, they think, everything would be fine and dandy.

Blue Eyes said...

And anyway, Momentum has succeeded in its initial purpose which was to turn Corbyn's accidental victory into something longer lasting. Maybe the Blairites launched their rather pathetic counterattack too soon?

dustybloke said...

Nice is enough in the sense that because, in your own estimation, you are as nice as nice can be, even when you do not nice things, like kill or torture people, it's nice really because it's for their own good.

dustybloke said...

By the way, I have a level 110 fire mage...

Nick Drew said...

Andrew - it did get (young) people involved in politics

yes, agreed, by curious happenstance I have a first-hand window / perspective on Momentum

in some respects it was initially like an eager young puppy, full of enthusiasm and desire to please & to be involved in everything (yap yap! I help! I help!)

for a while it remained blessedly free of parasites, but the ticks and fleas and worms eventually take hold ...

andrew said...


Perhaps that voting system should have been called Advocate!

(if you dont have a dog/cat:- Advocate®
https://www.advocate-spot-on.com/
Two highly effective ingredients: advocate® contains imidacloprid and moxidectin to prevent and treat both endo- and ectoparasitic infestations.)

Nick Drew said...

Advocate is very good (+: