Momentum’s financial woes paint the left’s future perfectly

Forget the endless Twitter threads or debates in private Facebook groups, the left-wing pressure group Momentum’s financial difficulties end the debate on the British left’s future once and for all.

There are many other organised, left-wing pressure groups who vie for power within Labour, but it is indisputable that Momentum became the organisational focal point for the British left during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. In Andrew Fisher’s Guardian article of the 25th, he describes how the group played a crucial role in the organising against the infamous “Chicken-Coup” and through doing so kept Corbyn’s leadership from being forced into capitulation. He also recalls how momentum’s independent activist organising tool was the only thing which stopped the right-wing HQ’s intentional misdirection of activists from completely destroying the 2017 General Election campaign.

However, since Keir Starmer lied his way into being elected leader in 2020, I don’t think it’s unfair to say, as Mr Fisher puts it, that “Momentum has struggled to redefine its purpose, and to develop a strategy that unites and mobilises left-wing members.” A key component of Momentum’s organising success between 2016 and 2020 was the genuine excitement and belief in the ultimate goal of electing a Socialist Labour Government. Without that factor, it’s not hard to see why the group have struggled and become mired by internal politics of their own. Their primary function now, is to try and gain power within the Labour Party’s limited internal infrastructure. As a result, they have become representative of those on the left who still see the Labour Party as the best medium for achieving socialist policies, whether they like it or not.

This is why their most recent bout of financial difficulty is so important. Being on the left is about believing in democracy and people have voted with their feet. The Labour Party has lost around 200,000 members since 2020 (and it’s probably much more since even they don’t have the accurate data) and whilst some of those might be lapsed memberships, the vast, vast majority will be disenfranchised lefties. Both those who have been kicked out by Starmer’s purge and the many more who have left in utter disgust of the party’s totalitarian leadership and the adoption of a liberal and racist policy platform. Of course, leaving Labour also means leaving Momentum and reports are that they’ve lost one-third of their own members in that same time frame.

The point is not so much that this indicates some great capitulation on behalf of those who still want to fight for a Socialist Labour Government or indeed more widely for socialism within Labour itself. To be clear, those wanting to build an alternative left-wing party are yet to show any sufficient signs of “momentum” themselves with the overly Twitter-focused Northern Independents or Breakthrough Party or the local authority-specific Liverpool Independents. But if Momentum are unable to fund themselves adequately, then what little ground the left still holds within Labour will soon fall and the last practical means of socialist influence within Labour will fall with it. This might sound like some great rallying cry to bolster Momentum’s coffers, but what we are discussing here is an inevitability. What is also inevitable is as people move increasingly closer to the idea of left-wing alternative party so will the money and organisational effort move with them.

If there is anything to be said for Momentum, then it might be this. Despite the massive loss of membership and infighting and struggles with funding, together alongside other left wing groups, they still dominated the election of the Young Labour National Committee and produced a majority on the National Labour Students Committee and held their own in the NEC CLP delegates’ election. Overall, these are not good results but they indicate an existing and, for the time being, persisting power within the Labour Party. What you can only help but think what all this effort and organising would be worth if it were put towards of building a new, socialist movement instead of maintaining a practically feeble opposition to the right-wing’s takeover?

The truth is that at its source, Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader, and the dream of a Socialist Government becoming possible, was not initially the result of dedicated left-wing organisation. It was the result of a right-wing mistake. A mistake caused by years of infighting and an overwhelming sense of obnoxiousness and, most importantly, a mistake they will never make again. A lack of proportional representation might be a significant limitation to the electoral success of a new, socialist movement but the Labour Party is a brick wall.