DS Forums

 
 

Tom Watson: Labour is being infiltrated by "Trotsky entryists"


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 09-08-2016, 18:38
MartinP
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: North London, UK
Posts: 28,048

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has been accused of "peddling baseless conspiracy theories" by Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign. It came after Mr Watson told the Guardian Labour was being infiltrated by "Trotsky entryists" who had "come back" to bolster Mr Corbyn. Mr Corbyn's campaign team said he should be trying to "unite" the party, rather than "patronising" members.

Mr Watson said he did not believe that the "vast majority" of Labour members that have joined the party are "all Trots and Bolsheviks". But he added: "But there are some old hands twisting young arms in this (leadership) process, and I'm under no illusions about what's going on. "They are caucusing and factionalising and putting pressure where they can, and that's how Trotsky entryists operate."

"Sooner or later", he added, "that always ends up in disaster. It always ends up destroying the institutions that are vulnerable, unless you deal with it."
Mr Watson said the "Trots" did not have the party's "best interests at heart", but saw it as a "vehicle for revolutionary socialism" and were "not remotely interested in winning elections".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37022656

Good grief so now the fight is on between Labour leader and deputy leader. Can this get any more shambolic?
MartinP is online now   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 09-08-2016, 19:11
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has been accused of "peddling baseless conspiracy theories" by Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign. It came after Mr Watson told the Guardian Labour was being infiltrated by "Trotsky entryists" who had "come back" to bolster Mr Corbyn. Mr Corbyn's campaign team said he should be trying to "unite" the party, rather than "patronising" members.

Mr Watson said he did not believe that the "vast majority" of Labour members that have joined the party are "all Trots and Bolsheviks". But he added: "But there are some old hands twisting young arms in this (leadership) process, and I'm under no illusions about what's going on. "They are caucusing and factionalising and putting pressure where they can, and that's how Trotsky entryists operate."

"Sooner or later", he added, "that always ends up in disaster. It always ends up destroying the institutions that are vulnerable, unless you deal with it."
Mr Watson said the "Trots" did not have the party's "best interests at heart", but saw it as a "vehicle for revolutionary socialism" and were "not remotely interested in winning elections".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37022656

Good grief so now the fight is on between Labour leader and deputy leader. Can this get any more shambolic?
Channel 4 have decided that it is worth covering. The giant TRUMP takes precedence though.

Now on.
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:15
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
Ugh. Now big I am Burnham. He is so false.
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:17
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
Do you know what people are sick of Kathy?

Yes Burnham, you, you optimistic chancer.
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:23
GreatGodPan
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 35,814
Just wait 'til the Leninists join the Trotskyists in Labour! Then the Stalinists! Then the Maoists!

Before we know it millions will be Labour members!

(And me being assured on this forum down the years by some that the "hard Left" in this country can fit in a phone box!)
GreatGodPan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:29
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
Just wait 'til the Leninists join the Trotskyists in Labour! Then the Stalinists! Then the Maoists!

Before we know it millions will be Labour members!

(And me being assured on this forum down the years by some that the "hard Left" in this country can fit in a phone box!)
Has a person said that?
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:31
GreatGodPan
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 35,814
Has a person said that?
Yes. Several people down the years have said such things on numerous occasions.

Where have all these "lefties" suddenly come from?
GreatGodPan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:32
swingaleg
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 76,811
Poor old Trotsky.........he died in 1940

You'd think the chatterati could come up with a more recent bogey-man
swingaleg is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:37
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
Yes. Several people down the years have said such things on numerous occasions.

Where have all these "lefties" suddenly come from?
Oh, I hadn't noticed. Oddly a man that had been to see Corbyn in Liverpool told me he was brilliant and that Theresa Mays supporters couldn't fill a phone box.

It came out of the blue as we were both on a bus home from the cancelled Lytham festival and politics hadn't previously been mentioned.

I put it down to the Branch Davidian effect.
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:47
thenetworkbabe
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 34,224
Poor old Trotsky.........he died in 1940

You'd think the chatterati could come up with a more recent bogey-man
You would think that given the experience of Lenin, Stalin, Mao. Brezhnev, Trotsky, Castro, Mugabe . Pol Pot, or Chavez, and the failure of all their economies, that no one with any sense would believe anything Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao or their fellows on the hard left had written. Yet we have Labour being taken over by members of the SWP and TUSC, a hard left Labour leader , a shadow Chancellor who reads Mao , and an inner circle of stalinists around Corbyn, stopping him from going back to his allotment
thenetworkbabe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:50
Dingbat
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Nottingham, UK
Posts: 1,059
Of course, it's merely a coincidence that the Socialist Worker Party and TUSC posters and banners are always in evidence when JC the Messiah is delivering his sermons around the country.

And the less said about the Momentum leadership, the better.
Dingbat is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:53
RecordPlayer
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 18,566
The blond guy is coming across a bit thuggish.
RecordPlayer is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 19:54
hansue
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 8,038
You would think that given the experience of Lenin, Stalin, Mao. Brezhnev, Trotsky, Castro, Mugabe . Pol Pot, or Chavez, and the failure of all their economies, that no one with any sense would believe anything Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao or their fellows on the hard left had written. Yet we have Labour being taken over by members of the SWP and TUSC, a hard left Labour leader , a shadow Chancellor who reads Mao , and an inner circle of stalinists around Corbyn, stopping him from going back to his allotment
Yes it beggars belief. Hopefully Corbyn and McDonnell will never be put in charge of our economy.
hansue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:01
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
The blond guy is coming across a bit thuggish.
It seems to appeal to the left.
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:04
RichmondBlue
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Richmond, Surrey.
Posts: 13,814
You would think that given the experience of Lenin, Stalin, Mao. Brezhnev, Trotsky, Castro, Mugabe . Pol Pot, or Chavez, and the failure of all their economies, that no one with any sense would believe anything Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao or their fellows on the hard left had written. Yet we have Labour being taken over by members of the SWP and TUSC, a hard left Labour leader , a shadow Chancellor who reads Mao , and an inner circle of stalinists around Corbyn, stopping him from going back to his allotment
You can't just lump them all together though. Studied separately, several of those leaders introduced systems and a way of life for the majority of their people that was infinitely better than what had existed previously.
There are plenty of right wing dictatorships that have failed miserably, and there are plenty of nations in the world today that are run for the benefit of a tiny minority of their population. They are just as much "failures" in my opinion.
RichmondBlue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:08
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
You can't just lump them all together though. Studied separately, several of those leaders introduced systems and a way of life for the majority of their people that was infinitely better than what had existed previously.
There are plenty of right wing dictatorships that have failed miserably, and there are plenty of nations in the world today that are run for the benefit of a tiny minority of their population. They are just as much "failures" in my opinion.
Is that true?
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:15
speckly
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 424
I have no idea what a Trostkyist is.
speckly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:19
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
I have no idea what a Trostkyist is.
Did it occur to you to google the term?
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:23
Javed
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 5,934
Has a person said that?
Perhaps the actual comment was " sensible hard left folk could fit into one phone box"
Javed is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:28
snukr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 4,410
Of course not, they always fail to mention the millions of their own citizens they killed.
snukr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:28
speckly
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 424
Did it occur to you to google the term?
No. Never heard of Google

I suspect most other people don't really know what a Trotskyist is, either. Maybe something to do with Alexei Sayle. Or something to do with ice picks. Vaguely associated with communism. Who knows!

It sounds like a throwback to an era when such things were in vogue, but you have to wonder what Tom Watson is getting at here. If anything, it makes him sound old-fashioned, by using language that is decades out of date, that has little relevance in a modern context and to normals.
speckly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:31
hoppyuppy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,542
No. Never heard of Google

I suspect most other people don't really know what a Trotskyist is, either. Maybe something to do with Alexei Sayle. Or something to do with ice picks. Vaguely associated with communism. Who knows!

It sounds like a throwback to an era when such things were in vogue, but you have to wonder what Tom Watson is getting at here. If anything, it makes him sound old-fashioned, by using language that is decades out of date, that has little relevance in a modern context and to normals.
The Stranglers told me who Trotsky was.
hoppyuppy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:32
Talma
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 5,173
You would think that given the experience of Lenin, Stalin, Mao. Brezhnev, Trotsky, Castro, Mugabe . Pol Pot, or Chavez, and the failure of all their economies, that no one with any sense would believe anything Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao or their fellows on the hard left had written. Yet we have Labour being taken over by members of the SWP and TUSC, a hard left Labour leader , a shadow Chancellor who reads Mao , and an inner circle of stalinists around Corbyn, stopping him from going back to his allotment
I expect to the followers of Lenin, Stalin, Castro, etc etc their beloved leader was always being 'smeared' by the nasty right wing enemies of the people who said a lot of ordinary people tended to disappear and it was all lies. It seems to be a standard defence.
Talma is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:33
speckly
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 424
The Stranglers told me who Trotsky was.
Same

No More Heroes?
speckly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-08-2016, 20:34
Javed
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 5,934
No. Never heard of Google

I suspect most other people don't really know what a Trotskyist is, either. Maybe something to do with Alexei Sayle. Or something to do with ice picks. Vaguely associated with communism. Who knows!

It sounds like a throwback to an era when such things were in vogue, but you have to wonder what Tom Watson is getting at here. If anything, it makes him sound old-fashioned, by using language that is decades out of date, that has little relevance in a modern context and to normals.
Like " Comrade"?
Javed is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply



Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 20:12.