The Forde report: my experience of Southside in 2017
JVL Introduction
It’s over a month since the Forde Report was finally published.
Over a month of silence and denial by the Labour leadership about the devastating conclusions of that Report.
The Party machine is thoroughly undemocratic, racist to its core and viciously antisocialist. Here’s what Ben Sellers, a former member of Jeremy Corbyn’ staff wrote in response to Report at the time of its publication:
“For decades, the permanent Labour bureaucracy has been a law unto itself — the real ‘party within a party’, defined by a groupthink that will do anything to stop socialist policies.”
We’re waiting for an honest reckoning from the Party leadership, but it seems that Godot will come sooner…
This article was originally published by the Morning Star on Sat 23 Jul 2022. Read the original here.
The Forde report: my experience of Southside in 2017
After 27 months the much-delayed inquiry has arrived — having worked at the heart of the struggle between the Corbyn team and the permanent party staff, I know the grim picture it paints to be true, writes BEN SELLERS
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Starmer and Evans’ conduct is so destructive to Labour’s survival and mission as a political party that I think almost any non-violent, legal and ethical risks are worth taking to undo the harm they’re causing.
Addressing the pungent sentence “If there is no respect for the grassroots left membership, there is no reason to answer their questions or address their anger over Forde, the leaked report, the campaign of suspensions and expulsions — or anything else.”
I feel changing the balance of POWER between the groups and between key individuals is the only tool that will work now. Sadly, changing the balance of power as an under-dog is mind-bogglingly difficult.
Some obvious areas to explore are whether the influence of rich donors on Labour party finances can be nullified; and how that can be most effectively achieved. Labour needs adequate funding from somewhere to remain a political force. Without the recent £5M increase in these donors’ contributions, the ever-deepening loss of membership and union affiliate fees was close to bankrupting the party. Bankruptcy is still a risk.
If Starmer and Evans find the rich donors cease giving (or that their donations are matched pound for pound by corresponding reductions in funding from union affiliate fees and membership fees), then they’ll need to rethink their relationship with the membership and CLPs.
What’s needed now, I think, is investigative journalism (political and financial) to determine the GOALS and MOTIVES of the rich donors currently giving to Labour. It may then become clear what needs to happen to alter the mindsets of those rich donors.
“Forde strains to present a narrative that “both sides were at fault…” ”
I have no inside information, but to be fair to Martin Forde the circumstantial evidence, including the unexplained delay in publication and the bizarrely self-contradictory nature of the report, would suggest precisely the opposite. Surely no one would suspect Martin Forde of being incapable of ‘reading between the lines’ of a report of which he was the lead author. History will doubtless reveal the truth. In the meanwhile we should recall that, while conscientious professionals can always find subtle ways to indicate their independence, he who pays the piper calls the tune – even if not the harmony.
Unfortunately the real lesson to be learned from this whole sorry history is precisely the one which so many refuse to acknowledge: the flawed Corbyn experiment is over and the Labour Party as an institution is now a thoroughly reactionary and totalitarian organisation in which thousands of socialist supporters remain trapped by tribal illusions generated by their own emotional allegiance.
I no longer know what being left wing is as identity politics, courtesy of the Guardian, has replaced Socialism, but I would suggest that the power brokers in the Labour Party are Blairites.
An insight into the right-wing, self-serving, mindset of the Labour Party bureaucracy which rang alarm bells with myself as far back as the 1960’s with their vile obstruction of the campaigns against youth unemployment led by the Party’s own youth wing, despite myself being prior a one time supporter of the Gaitskell wing of the Party, until my experience of the sabotage the right -wing bureaucrats were prepared to indulge in opened my eyes to the truth about them. They were more fixated with witch hunting socialists out of the Party than bringing down the Tory government of Harold MacMillan, discredited as it was with the quadrupling of unemployment in less than 10 years, not to mention the nest of upper class corruption unveiled by the Profumo scandal.
Truly these political elements are nothing more & nothing less than agents of the Tory establishment within the Labour movement and should be treated as such.
An honest report. I am not surprised, but it is just another endorsement of the unforgivable behaviour of this leadership of the present party.
When will the MSM wake up?
The moral fibre of these aspiring politicians are as bad as the ones in charge now.
Very sad.
Thank you, Ben. This article serves to reinforce every other review, I’ve read, of The Forde Inquiry Report.
As we all know, and as you mentioned, we have, still, not read any reviews, of the report, from Southside, itself.
Yet, just, last night – Sunday – one of these Southside people had the temerity to take to Twitter, to lecture us all on what it means to be a ‘socialist’.
Needless to say, there was nothing in his lecture that Marx, Hardie, Atlee, Corbyn – even, Wilson – would recognise as socialism.
He received short shrift, by way of – many – replies.
My part in the discussion ended, when he took exception to my assertion that as a – defence ‘consultant’ – he was no socialist, as his end product was famine in Yemen, illustrating my tweet with a photograph of a famine-ravaged, Yemeni child.
Having no defence to my assertion, he promptly ‘blocked’ me, which I can only assume, was his idea of democracy and socialism.
Southside, also, seems to be in denial about the growing Enough is Enough(EiE) Campaign.
No one is more surprised, how quickly the Campaign has gained momentum, than the Campaign organisers, themselves.
400,000 signatories, in ten days, and rising. Reminiscent of the early days, months and years of Corbynism.
Having ignored The Leaked Labour Report, The Forde Report and, now, the EiE Campaign, Southside Labour may find themselves by-passed and sidelined, as a political party of relevance.
There’s a groundswell of left politics, and it’s propelled by anger, as well as raw ideology.
This article raises an important issue that is endemic to human organisations … ‘How to control bureaucracies ?’
They are everywhere that we find paid employment but also flourish inside voluntary organisations that have positions of authority or status.
Its been a serious issue in the labour movement right from the start.
Being well intentioned or on the left is no guarantee against undemocratic cliques emerging at the top level.
The Labour Party has given special status and enhanced internal representation to specific ‘socialist societies’, trade unions and self help organisations like the Co-Op.
It has also created regional layers of organisation that are too remote from individual members to be democratic.
On top of that, layers of committees and ‘executives’ are created all through the local and national levels of the party.
All of these organisational groups can be used, usually by the right, and sometimes by the left, as bulwarks against democratic control of the party… obstructing control by the majority.
I am now convinced that only a thorough implementation of one-person-one-vote on all policies and appointments stands any chance of keeping the leadership loyal to the party membership.
This includes doing away with all special rights for nominating candidates and weighted voting rights.
We’re all familiar with affiliated groups or wards that are virtually moribund with just two people and a dog, or, just as bad, where the small membership is exposed to only side of any particular policy discussion. All these organisations are an opportunity for factional politiking, the opposite of democratic discussion and control.
But what this very interesting article also raises is a much harder issue to solve. The lower level, ensconced bulk of the paid bureaucracy is an amorphous group that directly holds many of the reins of power.
This layer cannot controlled simply by wide-spread voting. There are just too many votes that would be required, on a million decisions and hundreds of appointments.
People are attracted to these party jobs for a variety of reasons, often good, but also with pecuniary considerations and vanity often playing a part.
So, once embedded, inertia and defensiveness are common traits which lead to conservatism in all things.
This layer is made a more stubborn opponent to democracy by the fact that it usually comes with employment rights (!), so its an issue that is a tough nut to crack.
A vile and degenerate culture, reflecting the arrogance of the self entitled, leeching a very comfortable living off of the backs of the sub paying members of the Labour and Trade Union movement
Is there any point of continuing support for the Labour party? I left after Starmer started his purge of many left wing members. I waited for months for thing to change but nothing happened. I think the Union movement that ‘s beginning to take shape might be the only chance for working people to fight the Tories.
This is the reason why, at 79 years of age and being a lifelong Labour supporter and for many years a member of the Labour Party, I find I can no longer offer my support. What happened in 2017 is way beyond disgusting and sadly under the current Leadership this repulsive, offensive behaviour is likely to continue, just as it is continuing with Starmer in charge. It saddens me greatly. I feel certain Labour will get into power due solely to how abhorrent the current mob are and what an absolute mess the Country is in. Sadly I no longer believe that our current Labour Party stand for the values I have always held so dearly. I look and listen to the majority of the Shadow Cabinet and shudder in horror. The final straw was the decision not to support the current strikes that are happening around the UK. They are the only things liable to possibly change the way things currently stand and they therefore have my full and dedicated support in their actions. Enough is definitely Enough.
I am ‘gobsmacked’ I knew it was bad but this is diabolical information. All those hours we in the CLP at Penistone and Stocksbridge wasted now with confirmation that Angela Smith was actively working against us, we knew she was against socialist values such as nationalisation of the water companies and was for fracking , but other revelations such as her membership of the Fair Oak Farm group makes me feel physically sick and let down and totally stupid. It also makes sense of the shambles of the 2019 campaign where we only got a candidate at the last minute and this seems also to have been sabotaged. Another couple of weeks wasted in the most dire of weather conditions. Thank you Southside. ..I wont forget this.
Reading this report of what it was like working with people that didn’t want to see the Party win the election, is staggering and disgusting at the same time. Some of these staff were paid £600.000 of members money by Starmer, after the LP Lawyers said we would win the case, by paying them off, it made it look like they were innocent. The Forde Report shows otherwise. You could ask the question, “Why would Starmer do that”? but the answer is clear, his sole aim was to make it look like Corbyn was guilty of being an anti Semite and allowing antisemitism to run riot through the Party.
The Forde Report shows that it was a lie and that staff did work against Corbyn and the Left MPs to stop the Party from winning the 2017 election. They were actually making the job of the Rightwing Media’s attacks on Corbyn much easier.
Now, why has Starmer been so quiet since the Report was published, because he knows how bad he looks after his treatment of Corbyn and the Membership. The same goes for the BBCs Journalists, who were a disgrace for the two years before the 2017 election, they’ve said nothing either. We should keep reminding them on Social Media.
We very badly need a new party to represent those of socialistic thinking. I was expelled from the Labour Party for my support of the Palestinians. I was, also, accused of denying the Holocaust which is one hundred percent untrue. I am not Jewish but, I remain a member of Jewish Voice for Labour and admire them greatly.
Even now there is more effort by the Starmer leadership to uncover the whistleblowers who leaked the ‘leaked report’ than action on the findings of the Forde Report (zero). Starmer’s first reaction when the ‘leaked report’ emerged was to set the hounds on seeking out the leaker: the first reaction of every authoritarian organization: sod testing its veracity of a report which could well have taken as long as Forde to see the light of day, but for it being leaked. The despot attempts to keep the surface smooth while under the surface skulduggery freely reigns.
Incidentally I see “MP Sam Tarry is facing an imminent reselection battle before the party conference, with his supporters accusing figures close to the leadership of fast-tracking the process out of “revenge”.”( Rowena Mason, Guardian, 24 Aug 2022).