Now the hard Left begins its purge of the Blairites
MARXISTS are openly campaigning at the Labour conference for thousands of radical Left-wingers to infiltrate the party and ‘send Blairite MPs packing’.
A hard-Left group has circulated a newsletter demanding action to ‘transform’ the party through a programme of ‘intimidation, constitutional changes and reselection’.
The group, Labour Party Marxists, called for a concerted effort to pack constituency parties with hard-Left activists, and said the threat of expulsions of modernising MPs must be used to ‘subordinate the Parliamentary Labour Party to the wishes of the membership’.
According to its website, Labour Party Marxists is a group of party members whose aim is to ‘transform the Labour Party into an instrument for working- class advance and international socialism’.
It came as a secret plot was uncovered to target Labour MPs who refuse to serve under Jeremy Corbyn. These include modernisers such as Liz Kendall, Chuka Umunna and Tristram Hunt.
Two weeks ago, Tony Woodhouse, a member of Unite’s executive council, wrote to fellow officials to say: ‘We know what the Right of the party will try to undermine him… I think we should do a massive recruitment drive in the constituency Labour parties where MPs have said they wouldn’t serve in his Shadow Cabinet.’
The call to swamp the constituencies of MPs on the Right of the party will be seen as the prelude to a purge.
Yesterday one of Mr Corbyn’s key allies demanded the expulsion of Lord Mandelson. Michael Meacher, a Left-leaning former environment minister, said the peer had brought the party into disrepute by making ‘traitorous’ comments about his leadership.
The Communist campaign was launched in the Labour Party Marxists newsletter, which said the election of Mr Corbyn presented the Left with ‘a historic opportunity’. It warns that modernisers will not leave the party of their own accord: ‘The Right will therefore stay firmly put and fight hard – until we send them packing.’
The article, written by James Marshall, said: ‘Tactically, Marxists will for the moment concentrate their fire on the hard Right in the Shadow Cabinet. “Blairites out” should be the common slogan of the Left. An obvious target is Tony Blair’s old flatmate and co-thinker, Lord Charlie Falconer.’
He called for a ‘ concerted drive’ to persuade Left-wingers to join the party – as they could then start the process of deselecting those too close to the centre.
‘Everything should be done to encourage new members and returnees to attend meetings and elect officers who oppose austerity and want to support the Corbyn-McDonnell leadership.
‘They would be well-placed to hold wayward councillors and MPs to account.’
The article said Left-wingers could make use of the boundary review process, due in 2018, to ‘deselect hard-Right MPs and democratically select tried and trusted leftwing replacements’. ‘As the hard Right begins its civil war, the Left must respond with a combination of intimidation, constitutional changes and reselection.
‘Those proven to be in the pay of big business, those sabotaging our election campaigns, those who vote with the Tories on austerity, war, housing benefits, migration or so-called humanitarian interventions, must be hauled up before the NEC [Labour’s ruling committee].
‘If MPs refuse to abide by party discipline, they must be warned that they face expulsion.’
Lord Mandelson said Labour critics of Mr Corbyn should force him out but only when the majority of party members realise the public will never vote for him. He added: ‘Nobody will replace him, though, until he demonstrates to the party his unelectability at the polls.’
An angry Mr Meacher wrote on his blog: ‘The Labour Party has a rule, introduced by Blair himself, that anyone who brings the party into disrepute can be expelled.
‘Many would think that Mandelson... has now put himself in a position to be hoist on his own petard.’
Former MP George Galloway said at the conference that he wanted his Labour membership back.
He was kicked out of the party in 2003 for saying Tony Blair and George Bush had acted ‘like wolves’ over the Iraq War. But he told BuzzFeed that if his expulsion was overturned, he would become a member again.
‘Concentrate fire on the hard Right’