THE decision, narrowly reached by Labour’s national executive committee, to take for itself the power to change the rules by which it is constituted, is a demonstration, as if we needed one, that the character of the movement’s leadership is critically important.
The closely fought elections to Momentum’s newly empowered central body, which resulted in the victory of one slate over others, reveals to the wider world divisions which Jeremy Corbyn’s characteristically inclusive style and moral authority allowed to remain hidden.
Elements among the victorious and defeated tendencies in Momentum’s elections will find reasons for both unbounded optimism and deep pessimism.
They shouldn’t. And nor should the NEC minority who thought constitutional changes which determine the leadership of the party should be made by conference.
To borrow a phrase — these things are of the moment, and the constantly changing balance of forces in the eternal tug-of-war between class struggle and class collaboration in the working class movement.
The irruption of social forces — grounded in anti-austerity campaigning and the long maturing of the anti-war movement — that resulted in Corbyn’s election, and re-election, and Labour’s transformative policy changes which made elections themselves more fully democratic have transformed the political landscape of Britain.
It is the recurring crises of capitalism, and the peculiar corruptions of Britain’s parasitic financialised economy combined with an obscene imperial alliance with US imperialism and the lesser imperial powers gathered in the EU, which move these powerful social forces into action.
There may not be a Labour policy-making assembly this year — and there are forces inside Labour who would prefer policy to be the sole prerogative of the parliamentary leadership — but the collective will of the hundreds of thousands of people who revived Labour is a force that cannot be ignored.
And neither can the expectations raised among millions of working people by the example of a Labour Party committed to policies which put people before profit.
Labour is to remain the biggest political organisation in Europe – although perhaps not as big as the French and Italian communist parties in their heyday, or nowadays, as deeply rooted in working-class communities .
There is always a churn in political parties and some people disappointed at the actions of the present leadership over one question or another will decide to leave, hopefully to continue the struggle in other ways. Many will find campaigns, trade union activity or political projects where they assess that they can make more of a difference.
Some will leap aboard the merry-go-round in which the unresolvable question of whether a new mass party of the left can be created while the Labour Party exists is periodically tested to destruction.
The battle for policy, office and position in Labour is important but pointless unless it arises from mass activity in the working class and reflects progressive changes in the minds of millions.
This newspaper is absolutely committed to the political and organisational unity of the working-class movement, to the unity of the trade union and co-operative movements with socialism.
It is loyal to socialism as the practical expression of working-class political power. It is the tribune of the working class and the platform for every legitimate trend in the working and socialist movement.
Its columns are open to debate questions which are important to the working class and which can be resolved in argument and practice. And it is equally open to some important controversies for which no immediate resolution seems possible but where principled debate is necessary.
The immediate priority is for Labour to renew its connection with the lives and struggles of Britain's working people where they live and work.
