Momentum should not prioritise organising within Labour, say LabourList readers

LabourList readers believe that the new pressure group Momentum, which has been founded out of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign, should not prioritise organising within the Labour Party.

61% of LabourList readers who took part in this week’s survey thought that the new network should focus on campaigning on issues outside the party or neither inside or outside it. A sizeable minority, 30%, thought it should prioritise on campaigning within the party.

Momentum was launched earlier this month as the “successor entity” to Corbyn’s leadership campaign to create “a mass movement for change, for real progressive change in every town and city.” It is backed by the Labour leader and his former campaign manager, the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, but says it is independent of the party’s leadership.

It plans to organise within the Labour Party to make it “a more democratic party, with the policies and collective will to implement … [progressive change] in government,” and outside the party to campaign on issues in communities and workplaces around the country.

But it has alarmed some in the party who see it as a vehicle for deselecting Labour MPs opposed to the party leadership and been criticised for deepening the divisions of the leadership election for factional purposes. As it has an open membership, there are also concerns about what role members of other parties will play in shaping Momentum’s relationship with Labour – as it emerged earlier this week that the Socialist Workers’ Party are planning to engage with the group.

2,255 people voted in this week’s survey. Thanks to all who took part.