The Labour Left Podcast General Election Special with Momentum’s
Rachel Godfrey Wood.
Between now and the 4 July politics will be dominated by
election fever. Millions of people will
be drawn into political discussion and thousands of Labour Movement activists
will be involved in the campaign to get rid of the Tories. Bryn Griffiths, of the Labour Left
Podcast, spoke to Rachel Godfrey Wood ofMomentum to consider how the Labour Left must get its intervention
right and act to put the left in a better position for the post-election period.
In the future you can watch our podcast
on your favourite audio podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left
Podcast.
The podcast starts with a discussion of how socialists should
approach the 2024 General Election. Drawing on the precedent of the 1983
General Election, when socialists were unhappy with Neil Kinnock, the
discussion turns to what we should do now that we are even less content with
Keir Starmer. The podcast considers how Momentum will
campaign in 2024 and most importantly focusses on how the Labour Left must
prepare for the post-election opportunities which will inevitably come.
It is not an easy at the moment to be a socialist in the
British Labour Movement. Since our
General Election defeat in 2019 we have suffered serious setbacks. So, we talked about two related issues that
are emblematic of the challenges we face.
Firstly, the treatment of socialists in Labour’s selection processes
most notably Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott;
and, then secondly the disappointing departure from Labour of thousands
of grass roots left wing activists including our own former Chair Hilary
Schan who was a recent guest on
the Labour Left Podcast. You can watch Hilary’s podcast here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9fAZ-aUpIU
The podcast was not all doom and gloom we ended by mapping
out a positive socialist case for staying within Labour. The Labour right is behaving
more factionally than ever before so we need to get organised. Voting Labour to get rid of the Tories is a decent
start but we think you need to do much more than that. We hope that when you have listened to the
podcast you will be convinced by Rachel’s case for Momentum. We trust you’ll be keeping your Labour Party
card and that you can see that our task ahead, if we are to influence a Labour
Government’s direction, is far too big to tackle al one. If you want to get organised as part of Britain’s
biggest socialist group you can join us https://join.peoplesmomentum.com/
If you want to get involved in Momentum’s
election campaign, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9fAZ-aUpIU
Bryn Griffiths is the host of Labour Hub's spin off the Labour Left Podcast. He is an activist
in the labour movement, Momentum and The World Transformed in North Essex. Bryn
Griffiths is standing for the National Policy Forum CLP Representatives Eastern
Region Division 1. He is standing as
part of the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance team and you can find all your left
candidates across the country here. When the General Election is over, please
campaign for all the left candidates.
