Why Might Momentum be an Object of Criticism?

I don't usually think in terms of left-wing or right-wing. I prefer more concrete terms; fair, unfair, sensitive, insensitive, empathetic, unempathetic. These terms carry more weight and meaning for me.

Alan Johnson has recently argued that Momentum is a "hard-left" group infiltrating the Labour party, drawing comparisons with the 1980s group Militant. But, as I constantly find in the popular press, this view isn't backed up. Johnson doesn't provide any circumstances or situations to show that Momentum is an extreme or militant group. His view is thus invalid.

Johnson also doesn't consider his view from different sides. Perhaps Momentum is around to combat the high levels of class injustice and inequality in our society and the waging of perpetual war, which is rife and which we aren't properly informed about it. In this sense his argument isn't remotely intelligent or sensitive.

Similarly Tom Watson and Neil Kinnock talk of "Trotskyists" infiltrating the Labour party without adequate explanation or exploration of what a "Trotskyist" is. I thus get the impression that this phrase is a scare tactic, like "hard-left", and when one delves into it one finds that it doesn't have any meaning. The popular press is full of such empty phrases and scare tactics. Much of the world-population thus end up living their lives based on a vapid and abstract political rhetoric perpetuated by self-serving individuals and a biased media. 

I wonder if Kinnock and Watson spoke out against Tony Blair in the same way they have with Momentum? Or even Ed Miliband who aimed to continue with austerity? One has to assume that Kinnock and Watson are promoters and members of the British establishment. The establishment, for the record, does not have the will or desire of the wider population at heart.

What does infiltrate even mean? Are any of our Labour MPs militant Trotskyists? Are militant Trotskyists going to take over UK government? I think it's far more relevant and beneficial to discuss and criticise Blairites and New Labour MPs who for many years had an overwhelming stranglehold on the Labour party, and probably still do to a minor extent, and whose record, such as the Iraq war and the promotion and practise of neoliberalism, is shameful.

Even if "hard-left" groups did exist and did have negative intentions, as it currently stands we have far more pressing problems that need to be addressed. We have the destruction of coral reefs, rising greenhouse gases, livestock emissions, the swift disappearance of many animal species, class inequality, mistreatment of disabled people and perpetual war, all resulting from insensitive and neoliberal, one might say right-wing, governments. In light of these catastrophes, that are occurring right now as a result of Western governments that have been in power continuously for many years, "hard-left" groups are not something I'm worried about.

It is funny when people talk of "hard-left" groups, as Americans do with Communists, when all we've had in Britain and the U.S for many years are right-wing governments. When you look at the records of such right-wing governments - ongoing wars in the Middle East, rising class inequality, nurses using food banks in the UK, private healthcare in the U.S, the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S, the Vietnam war by the U.S, ongoing environmental devastation - you realise that an alternative form of government is needed.

As far as I'm concerned our society is fundamentally skewed and oppressive and when genuine beneficial change presents itself most of our politicians and media-outlets instinctively try to obliterate it.