I’ve cycled through so many emotions over last the fortnight - anger, depression, exasperation, resignation. Is there any precedent for a such a cataclysmic and public fallout between a party’s leadership before it’s even launched? Isn’t it so delicious for our enemies that we’ve confirmed every single thing they say about us? The chasm between what our leaders are capable of and what’s needed to actually take on capitalism feels absolutely huge.
The thing is, neither Jeremy nor Zarah had to be Lenin. We just wanted them to get us to conference and leverage their followings so we could kick off a mass, democratic party of 100k+ people. But two botched membership launches, legal threats, allegations of phishing scams and Corbyn referring his own party to the Information Commissioner have made that so much harder.
Since the second launch, no membership numbers have been released. It’s rumoured to be in the low tens of thousands, far below the Green Party’s current membership. If these numbers are true many activists will make for the Greens.
But many, many more lay members, the vast majority of the 800,000 original signups, will just switch off from party politics entirely. Depressed and confused by unforgivable public infighting. Fairly surmising that if you can’t even get a party going, how can you win an election and take on capitalism?
For what it’s worth, I feel a little sorry for Zarah. For all her rash missteps and strategic blunders, she was always reacting to the Corbyn camp’s push for control, and did try to offer meetings and compromises time and again. In the end, Karie Murphy only wanted Jeremy to be the sole leader, and here we’re left fighting over the rubble.
Anyway, we recorded an episode of Life of the Party this week that rolled through these issues - part an account of how we got here, part collective therapy session, part a plan for where we go next. I hope it helps.