THE Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the Labour Party right wing and against Labour Party democracy last Friday afternoon, when it banned 130,000 new Labour Party members from taking part in the leadership election.
Giving his ruling, Lord Justice Beatson said: ‘We allow the appeal. On the correct interpretation of the Party Rules, the National Executive Committee has the power to set the criteria for members to be eligible to vote in the leadership election in the way that it did.
‘We find that there is express provision in the Rules which enables them to do this, in particular where the Rules state: “The precise eligibility criteria, that is to say, to vote in the election, shall be defined by the National Executive Committee.”
‘With respect to the judge, we unanimously consider that he erred in law in reaching the contrary conclusion and therefore allow Mr McNicol’s (Labour Party General Secretary’s) appeal.’
The judgement said: ‘A member’s entitlement to vote in a leadership election is not a product of him or her simply being a member, but is the result of him or her being a member who satisfies the precise eligibility criteria defined by the NEC and any freeze date provisions set by the NEC in the timetable for the election.’
The state has sided with the Labour Party right wing who want to turn the Labour Party into their fortress and keep the mass of the workers and youth out! The NEC has been given dictatorial powers by the bourgeois law courts.
The Labour Party right wing are terrified of the mass of new members, who they creatively term ‘Trotskyite entrists’. In fact the new members are a part of a very angry working class that wants socialist policies and socialism.
The right wing will now set out to purge the party of this new membership, and no doubt seek for more support from the judiciary in doing so.
Such action will be necessary, since the maligned 130,000 will be very angry at the NEC ruling, and its judicial backing. Many will consider that since they have been branded Trotskyist infiltrators they may as well find out what Trotskyism is all about and even join up with it.
One thing is for sure. The Trotskyists would have advised them that going to the capitalist law courts for justice, that is to defend their right to vote in the leadership election, was a waste of time and money, and the state would support the NEC, since the state wants to see Labour as a reliable second eleven to replace the Tories or even join them in a national government should the economic and political crisis worsen.
However, there are many more shocks to come. Even now the stance of the right wing candidate for the Labour leadership, Smith, is clear and provocative.
It is, that if he is beaten in this election he will not serve in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. What Smith is hinting at with his refusal to serve, is that when he is beaten the right wing will not hang about and wait for a general election, and the prospect of de-selection.
They will split, and the same NEC will go to the law courts to seek rulings that it is the Labour Party and that Labour’s name, assets, and property belongs to them. This is just one of the shocks that genuine socialist Labour Party members must be prepared for.
When Corbyn is re-elected, his shadow cabinet must immediately demand and campaign for a general election now, and prepare to de-select all those MPs who are not willing to join or support his shadow cabinet. They must be replaced as candidates by Labour Party members who do support the party and socialism.
This is the way forward in the battle for socialism. A left Labour government will face massive demands from the working class to carry out socialist policies.
At this point the question of a revolutionary leadership prepared to mobilise the working class to take the power through a socialist revolution will be on the order of the day. We must make sure that we take full advantage of this developing situation to build up the WRP and the YS as rapidly as possible to provide the necessary revolutionary leadership for the working class to take the power.
