billy_bob
Air of bewilderment model's own
Momentum is as irrelevant now as most fractured Left wing groups, participation in whatever it is they're doing is way down and from some of the votes I've heard about they may as well just grab a table in a pub and argue it out for all the rest of the world cares. On the plus side though I think most of the more canny people who wanted it to be a grassroots organising thing are already walking away from it and just doing that, under the banner of Labour where they can. My experience at least.
I'm still a member myself, technically, if only because I haven't remembered to leave but as far as I could judge it's main use was/is as a way of mobilising support during leadership campaigns. It's not much cop for anything else. On the local level I'm aware of most organisation is happening informally through people just knowing who's sound and who isn't and reaching out from there, small, open meetings and the like. A good thing I reckon, never seems to lead to any cultish splits at least and even if the outcomes haven't been uniformly great there's definitely solid connections forming that way.
Indeed, Momentum runs the risk of becoming (if it's not already) not just irrelevant but a major barrier to effectively organising at the grassroots around specific issues. Labour's a tainted and doomed 'brand'. Case in point, on the NHS, different factions of Momentum appear to be organising a variety of protests etc in the coming months, some coordinated with each other and others not, and all of them at risk of putting off increasing numbers of people because of the Labour banner.
I don't think not having a banner (ie solidarity) is the answer, but it's increasingly obvious Labour's not providing the right one.
e2a: like Wilf (most of whose posts I've agreed with since this thread began) I'm not in, and I realise it's easy to diagnose problems and carp from the sidelines. I don't envy those who are inside trying to make any of this work. I do think it's time they accepted it's not going to.