UK LABOUR BUILDS MOMENTUM

A new grassroots network has been established to capitalise on the new enthusiasm for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party.

WITH UK LABOUR LEADER JEREMY CORBYN likely to face increasing opposition from the Blairite wing of the party, MPs and activists close to Corbyn have launched a new grassroots movement designed, in part, to outflank the Blairites.

Momentum plans to organise events, rallies and policy consultations, hoping to capitalise on the new-found enthusiasm for Labour.

Writing in the New Statesman magazine, Norwich MP Clive Lewis said Momentum’s plans are as “bold as the challenges that confront it. It will organise in every town, city and village to create a mass movement for real, progressive change. ...It will work with Labour members to transform our Party into a democratic institution worthy of its founders' original aspirations. A Party with not just the right policies for a General Election but ultimately the collective will to enact them in government.”

Labour MP Clive Lewis.

In his article Lewis attacks Labour's outdated 'top down' bureaucratic structure as having failed to articulate the interests of the people it purports to represent. He writes:

"The British public deserve real choices not forced, technocratic arguments about variations of the same dead end arguments. Once again we've been reminded we should never fear articulating bold, radical and credible alternatives to the problems facing our economy, country and planet....After years of cuts, privatisation and the handing over of ever more power to unaccountable vested interests, our country is crying out for such new ideas and leadership"

The Blairites have attacked Momentum claiming 'a party within a party' is being established. But it has been pointed out that most of Labour's right wing MPs belong to the neoliberal New Labour Progress organisation, a lobby group funded mostly by supermarket mogul Lord Sainsbury.

The establishment of Momentum has been welcomed of Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. Corbyn said it was vital that people take this chance to “continue to build our movement” to win the next general election.