Starmer’s Labour Party has now expelled or driven away so many left activists that Labour International (LI), UK Labour’s largest CLP, seems to be on the verge of collapse. LI has recently been inviting applications for the post of CLP secretary and various other executive posts are vacant (see https://www.labourinternational.net/contacts/). The UK Labour Party’s international operation is hugely inferior to the other main UK parties and there seems to be no sign of improvememt in the near future.
The purge of LI activists is a spectacular act of self-harm that can only be accounted for by the hubris of the current Labour leadership. The Labour left purge is not confined to LI, of course. There are dozens of CLPs up and down the UK that have all but fallen apart in the face of the Labour leadership’s partisan aggression. A grey leadership, an absence of any worthwhile policies, cosying up to Murdoch and the oligarchs, this is the Starmer recipe for getting into power. Will he make it to the top of the greasy pole? And if and when he gets there, will we notice any difference?