I'm rejoining Labour today

[NotAssigned]

I cut up my membership card some time ago over self ID.

But I want to try and be in a position to vote for a new, less woke leader.

I believe that the over riding issue at this election was Brexit

Obviously Brexit was an important issue, but Corbyn managed to lose seats in both Leave voting and Remain voting seats. He never really engaged with Brexit so lost both ways. It was almost as though the issue was beneath him.

Just joined, absolutely loathed having to feel relieved about a Tory victory.

I've rejoined today. I agree the TWAW nonsense is just one symptom of what has gone wrong with Labour. I want to see a government which will act in the interests of the many not the few, and the only way to get that is to be inside the party and fight for change.

I wish you all luck and hope that change can come.

I enjoy seeing the people who appear on these threads to keep telling women how nobody cares about women's sex-based rights and protections.

Especially when they know that nobody cares.

Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

I agree the TWAW nonsense is just one symptom of what has gone wrong with Labour

It is one, tiny part of it.

I'd like to join, but I have a feeling that a wave of new members in the week following the election might be interpreted (spun) as enthusiasm and support for the current direction

It will be spun that way.

Doesn't matter how it is spun.

You have no influence over the next leader if you aren't a member.

They can try to spin it that way but it won't wash I'm afraid. There is going to be a swell of new Labour Party joiners and this will actually be shown by the media as an attempt by moderates to steer the party back to being electable, because that's what it is!
If huge numbers of people were so keen to get on board with momentum labour policy they would have bloody won wouldn't they!? It will be obvious that the new members are joining with a view to changing the course of the party.

One of the last things Ed Miliband did as leader was to change people's eligibility to vote for a leader. It used to be that you'd have to be a member for a year before you could vote. He changed that so that anyone who joined could vote immediately. He also introduced a change that meant you could pay £5 and have some kind of affiliate, non-member status - but you could still vote for leader. It was this change that brought in thousands of people who stumped up their £5 and duly voted in Corbyn. This is one of the many reasons Miliband was an idiot.

But anyway, the point is, if you join now, you will have a vote. So it can work both ways - the more sensible people join, the more chance there will be of electing a sensible leader.

The TWAW mantra is endemic across the party and they're all completely ignoring any reasons for their failure except to say people didn't like Corbyn.

Of the candidates considering standing for the leadership, who isn't in the 'woke' leadership mode?

Critical to the outcome are decisions on whether the NEC – dominated by Corbyn’s allies – will allow a registered supporters’ scheme as was in place in 2015 and 2016. The so-called “freeze date” after which new voters or supporters cannot take part is also a key decision to be made. The succession is complicated by the fact that members will be asked to fill two vacancies – leader and deputy leader.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/oh-well-jeremy-corbyn-kept-muttering-as-his-red-wall-fell-lftg6s825?shareToken

I still do not think many people are aware of self ID and gender politics, and I believe that the over riding issue at this election was Brexit.

I see these two as connected. Self-id and gender politics is one branch of ‘wokeism’, and Brexit is about people’s despair at living in a country decimated by globalised corporate capitalism.

The latter cries out for a socialist analysis of how jobs moving out, and people migrating in, creates a massive problem with steadily worsening working conditions, and ever decreasing pay. This is the reality ordinary people are living in, and they are scared for themselves, and even more scared about their children’s futures.

I have no illusions that Brexit will improve this situation, and even fewer illusions that a Tory government will improve it. But Labout failed completely in even acknowledging the issue, let alone offer solutions.

I think it is a problem of such a magnitude that no simple solutions spring to mind, but we all need to recognise the problem exists, and try to find workable mitigating measures.

Labour only offered name calling and cries of ‘racism’. Which allowed the Tories and the leave campaign to weaponise anti-immigration rhetoric, even as the wealthiest elities are thriving on immigration. All they had to do, was pretend to be against immigration, knowing labour and remainers would be obliged to defend immigration.

I think it would have helped Labour if they had provided a socialist account of how global,, uncontrolled capitalism has created this situation.

But they didn’t. They provided no socialist analyses of anything at all. They replaced analyses with woke identity politics, and tried to force wokeism on us by bullying and abuse.

I may rejoin the party if they drop the woke identity politics, of which their misogyny is the clearest example, AND they turn towards actual political understanding of what is happening in the world.

(Naively, the latter is what I thought we were getting, back when Corbyn was elected leader. Hohum.)

Agree. Brexit/anti work voting are both stemming from the same root.

*woke

Emily denies that though, she has called it an utter lie. Caroline didn't claim to have heard her say it herself, it's at one remove. C needs to say who told her that, or it lacks credibility.

I agree. People are saying it shows that Caroline is “one of them” and Emily hates the working class. Have they actually checked their backgrounds?

My MIL taught at a school on the council estate where Emily grew up and remembers her family. She’s had a hard struggle to get where she is now.

I reckon Caroline is just trying to put paid to Emily becoming a leadership contender.

I do wonder if there is a time limit on claiming a deprived or difficult background uniquely positions you to understand the issues facing people currently living in poverty.

However, having rejoined I will have no hesitation in cutting up my membership card again if another Momentum/Corbynista candidate is successful. If they are that stupid, my resignation will be the very least of their problems.

I rather fancy the idea of Jess Phillips as leader with Keir Starmer as deputy leader.

Momentum are making Labour unelectable so there is no point in joining. No changes can happen while they continue to own the party.

Joining to hopefully be in a position to vote for a non momentum candidate.

I do wonder if there is a time limit on claiming a deprived or difficult background uniquely positions you to understand the issues facing people currently living in poverty

I think you might have something there. I grew up very poor but have been very lucky in the way it has all turned out. I have family members who are still living in difficult circumstances and it's more my connection with them that enables some understanding of other people's challenges than any real memory of my own iyswim?

Shes yy . I'm the same as you and, independent of Emily Thornberry, myself and DH had been discussing today if we should be time barred from 'claiming' our background when it's been over 20 years since we were living in deprived areas.

So even though we have relatives who are struggling and we work with minority communities, there's still a different dynamic when you've moved on or away. I mean we're not oblivious to the challenges and our upbringings definitely shaped us but we've had opportunities that no-one else in our families had.

I left during the Blair years and have been happy they moved back to the left although Corbyn is less than ideal as a dynamic leader(!) so I hadn’t rejoined. I do get frustrated with people branding socialist policies “hard left”. They’re not bloody communist no matter how many times the Mail says it. Labour should be on the left, Conservative right and Lib Dems in the centre. The Lib Dems came about after centrists broke away from the Labour Party and formed the SDP and the joined up with the Liberals. After Tony Blair took over, there was barely any discernible difference between Labour and Lib Dems. Also, in some policies, the Greens are more to the left than Labour but nobody’s calling Caroline Lucas a Trotskyite.
As far as self ID is concerned, the fact that there was disagreement over the policy gives me hope that at least conversations are taking place. We shall see. It’s beyond time a woman led the Labour Party, maybe that will influence it.

“I do wonder if there is a time limit on claiming a deprived or difficult background uniquely positions you to understand the issues facing people currently living in poverty.”

Who said anything about “uniquely”?

It stands to reason that someone who experienced poverty in their youth is going to remember and understand the struggles better than someone from a middle-class area who never had to worry about where the next meal was coming from.

How much do you think Jacob Rees-Mogg, for example, can understand people who rely on foodbanks?

I joined the other day, and resigned my WEP membership to do so.

To those questioning whether we’ll have voting rights - it’s unclear at this stage - they’ve shifted the rules on that before to favour certain biases - potentially if Momentum have enough power to do so, they may set as long a qualifying period as possible to minimise rejoin/rebuilders influence.

Few groups I’ve been looking up - organisations other than Momentum within the party

Open Labour
Progress
Labour Future
Labour Together

Long list on Wikipedia here

Following @RejoinRebuild and @LabourRebuild on Twitter

They’re not bloody communist no matter how many times the Mail says it.

If you don't want the Mail to call you a communist, it's best not to recruit your advisers from the Communist Party (Andrew Murray), and its a good idea if journalists in your special journalist WhatsApp Group don't describe themselves as 'literal communists'.