Update on 15 July: Interestingly, on the first day of renewed strike action by the Tower Hamlets council workers, Momentum's Twitter was full of stuff about the strike, but there was nothing on its Facebook. This seems worth noting, but we don't know what it represents.
Last week we published an article about the first changes socialists should push for in Momentum, following victory for a reform slate in the Labour left group’s internal elections.
It’s clearly early to judge the new regime. All we have to go on for now is Momentum’s social media output — a very large part of what it does.
Since the new NCG came to office, the basic output has remained the same: generic anti-Toryism apparently calculated to maximise likes, shares, positive comments.
In a positive shift, the NCG voted to back the Tower Hamlets council workers, just as their strikes began. But the Momentum Facebook has only put out one thing, sharing a post from Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum on 6 July, with nothing since.
On this and in general, Momentum’s Twitter seems a little better. Momentum has retweeted several things about the strike and how to support it. But again, nothing since 6 July.
Let us say the Momentum office does not seem overly enthusiastic about supporting the strike.
Meanwhile it has added to its collection of politically bankrupt videos (police as “heroes”, foreigners doing us down through rail privatisation, etc.) with a video of Community Integrated Care CEO Mark Adams describing him as a “care worker”.
On the plus side, Momentum has retweeted an on-the-money statement from its new co-chair, FBU activist Andrew Scattergood, saying that while Angela Rayner’s warm words about unions are welcome, “Labour must go further, including adopting the position of repealing ALL anti-trade union laws”. This is the first time Momentum has ever publicly supported this position, despite the NCG agreeing it in 2017.
