I find the sneering tone of yourself and a few others to the new Labour membership quite strange. A bunch of mostly young people are trying to make an attempt (probably doomed) to reverse their impoverishment and the increasing cruelty of our society. They may be wrong about the solutions and methods, but it is the biggest movement of people trying to do this in any kind of organised way in my lifetime. I don't think sneering is the right response.
A fair few people on here said that new Labour/Momentum members would never turn out on the doorstep and do actual work. Anecdotally I know from friends in London this turned out to be untrue - much of the canvassing in some areas of London right now is being done by new Corbynite members. So what are we sneering at now? People being wrong about the form their collective action should take?
I take your point, but like Chilango I don't think there's been too much sneering. There's certainly been
criticism of the new membership, which has really been criticism of the old left members, returnees and others who have supposedly been leading the Corbyn thing. My criticism has been that the party has neither made the internal reforms to allow the new members to get control nor done enough to engage with the voters, the working class, the places Labour has abandoned. On that last point people like
treelover have put me right in terms of the activity that is taking place in some areas. However, I'm still convinced there's been no coherent attempt to make the party into 'something else', whether you call it a social movement or not. It's still a rule bound institution, it doesn't make common cause with struggles and it hasn't become inventive in terms of what it does on a day to day basis.
Of course it was, to say the least, optimistic to think Labour or indeed/especially the Labour left would be able to transform itself into a different kind of structure, with different ideas. For me it was only a kind of thought experiment as to what it would need to become. Problem is, without any of that it is just another political party. It doesn't address the way that politics itself has abandoned the working class, retreated into identity politics and has a shabby managerialist version of 'inclusion'. With it's public sector policies, Labour is, ironically, close to what many people think about the way health, transport and other services should run, but as an organisation it's as disconnected as any of them.
Bit of a derail that, but I think it does relate to the 'what happens next' question. If they can't find a way to change what the party
is there's not much hope for the Corbynism without Corbyn.
what were the student demos of 2010 then if not in response to young people seeing long-term debt foisted on them if they had the temerity to go to university?
how sad he will be poorer than his dad 
