THE resignation of Hilary Schan from the Labour Party and hence as co-chair of Momentum to join the We Deserve Better independent electoral initiative should provide an occasion for serious reflection on the state of the Labour left.
The second resignation followed automatically from the first, as Momentum this year reaffirmed that its membership was only open to those in the Labour Party.
That is, of course, a diminishing number of socialists. Most of those enthused by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership have long gone — usually by resignation, sometimes through expulsion.
That has been reflected in the left losing almost all positions of institutional power within the Labour Party. While it retains members on the national executive there is no realistic chance of them forming a majority in the foreseeable future.
It is reflected too in Momentum’s falling membership. It now claims around 10,000 members, a quarter of its Jeremy Corbyn-era peak, and many of those are inactive.
It is here, however, that caveats must be entered. Ten thousand is still a great deal more than the membership of all left-of-labour initiatives aggregated.
Momentum has, moreover, consistently criticised the Keir Starmer leadership’s stampede to the right, and its dictatorial management of internal party affairs.
As the voice of the left in the constituencies, it has spoken up where most left Labour MPs have been silent.
While some affiliated unions have challenged the possible dilution of Labour’s workers’ rights pledges, no general left critique of Starmer has been forthcoming from that quarter either.
Momentum faces immediate and longer-term challenges. The short-term problem is how to respond if Corbyn decides to stand as an independent candidate in Islington North.
If he does decide to stand, having been cynically excluded from the possibility of remaining a Labour MP, there can be no doubt that most of the left will rally to his support.
But Momentum? Backing a non-Labour candidate risks exclusion for individual party members and proscription for an organisation.
It would be a brutal irony for Momentum, an organisation founded with one of its main missions being to defend Corbyn from attacks by the right wing, to abandon him.
Yet that appears to be what some in the organisation are advocating. Such an approach would be consistent with their Labour-focused outlook.
It is based on the assumption that ultimately the only way to advance to socialism in Britain is through the Labour Party.
But that leads to a longer-term problem. Where is the plan for a recovery of the left in Labour?
Such is the rage against Starmer and the hatred felt in the Palestine solidarity movement for Labour, that the struggle within the party is isolated from the main sources of political energy on the left. Indeed, there has probably never been a period when Labour in opposition has been held in lower esteem by the left.
The best that can be hoped for is that when Starmer stumbles, a candidate from the party’s “soft left” — a tendency with zero credibility among socialists — takes over and relaxes the internal party regime.
No leadership election is likely for some years if Labour wins. The manipulation of parliamentary selections has ensured that the left in the Commons will receive very few reinforcements after the next general election, no matter how big Labour’s victory.
Add that to rigged leadership rules and a victory for a serious socialist candidate is simply impossible.
The challenge for Momentum is to maintain its political integrity while charting a course, in alliance with unions and MPs, which offers a prospect of eventual success.
Fail on either front, and it risks redundancy.
