it is true that the labour party has historically been profoundly disappointing. it is true that, from the moment of its formation down to the present day, it has failed proletarianised people in countless ways. but! when young LP members make statements >>>

>>> such as “landlords shouldn’t be in the labour party”, they are not so much making a historical claim as they are engaging in a project of reclamation and redefinition. it might well be a project that will fail; their wager is that it’s worth a try. why seymour-skinner it? >>>

>>> the point of the last 5 years, as far as i can see, was not that the LP was unimpeachably socialist, but that it was, for the first time, open to forms of democratic pressure from below. it could have been a lot more open, yes, but it was still a significant shift. >>>

>>> political institutions are sites of contradiction. i don’t think anybody who spends any time engaging with them, be it a trade union or the LP or whatever else, is unaware of that. people make history, but not under conditions of their choosing. >>>

>>> what faith is there in ppl’s capacities to understand things or to act as agents of their own destinies when yr determined to paint them as at best naïve, at worst committing some sort of historical erasure? >>>

>>> people can hold many contradictions and antagonisms in their hearts at once; people can understand that actions are imperfect & still act. de beauvoir called this an “ethics of ambiguity”. we do our best to “open up a future”. is that not worth supporting, even critically?>>>

>>> idk i just think about when i discovered anarchism: here was a political praxis & attitude full of joy, openness, the idea that people can make their own choices & build their own worlds! & then i started organising & witnessed all this jaded patrician gatekeeping. >>>

>>> made me sad. having this feeling today, too. what good is a conception of history that basically says: institutions (& therefore, to some extent, people!) cannot change; are indelibly tarnished? i agree that the LP is fucked up but i also support youth organising. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯