Instead of bickering over the historical record concerning who was more “factional” in 2016, why don’t we just embrace the fact that, in a party as politically diverse as Labour, “faction fights” are a) inevitable and b) entirely necessary?
There are good and bad ways to have those fights: you can pursue them via bureaucratic means, using backroom manoeuvring to stitch your opponents up, or you can pursue them openly on the basis of contesting political ideas, and out-organise and out-argue your opponents.
The right have no compunction about this. Matt Pound of Labour First, now a senior staffer in the Starmer campaign, has run workshops on how to stop Trotskyists (and @workersliberty specifically) from gaining influence in CLPs.
The left can’t, and shouldn’t try to, use the right’s means and methods, but unless we’re as serious about taking them on as they are about us, we’re going to be perpetually hindered.
