Don't feed the trolls!

I recently broke my own rule, by being drawn into an argument with someone I barely know on social media (which is invariably a waste of time). This was an individual who took issue with my critical comments on correspondence published online by some Labour Councillors expressing their disagreement with a decision of the Labour Group.

 

The tone and content of the online exchange got me thinking about how exchanges on social media can give a very negative impression of those who participate in them.

 

At the present time, I know that a number of socialist members of the Labour Party, perhaps particularly some of those who have joined, or re-joined, the Party in the period since 2015, are very distressed, angry and demoralised as a result of various recent developments in the Party. Some individuals have left the Party.

 

Not surprisingly, I feel very strongly that socialists should not resign their membership of the Party, which is the Party founded upon the trade unions and therefore a vehicle for the expression of the political voice of the organised working class. Having been a Party member now for more than forty years, I have been greatly encouraged by the growth of Party membership over the past few years.

 

The Labour Party I would like to see would be a mass membership Party rooted in communities and trade unions up and down the country, under the control of that mass membership, seeking to transform our society in the interests of working people and their families, tackling all forms of discrimination and injustice.

 

Labour has been a mass membership Party at times in its past, and one feature of such a Party has been, is, and will be, its political breadth, encompassing points of view ranging from moderate social democracy to the “deepest red” socialism of those of us on what is sometimes referred to as the “hard left”.

 

Across the breadth of our politics there will always be, from time to time, profound disagreements, sometimes finding robust expression, but these can (and in my view always should) be managed with courtesy, respect and good humour – or as the old-fashioned among us might say “comradeship”.

 

There is an alternative model of the Labour Party which some others may prefer, which would be a “top-down” Party, led by full-time politicians, relying upon fewer, larger donations from wealthy individuals or private companies (this was the direction of travel of the Party in the late nineties and early years of this century).

 

Those who would like to return to the previous “New Labour” model will not be troubled by the departure from the Party of socialists, on the contrary they will celebrate such departures. Despair (on the part of socialists) is therefore their ally.

 

Those who wish to denigrate Labour as a mass membership Party also have an interest in presenting the Party as an unpleasant environment, dominated by internal division and strife, and one easy way to do that is to be aggressively argumentative on social media in order to elicit a response.

 

At the point at which I pulled myself up, and stopped responding to online goading, I paused to reflect upon just how inaccurate an image of our Party is given by those who may try their best to make it into the bear-pit of their worst imaginings. Indeed, this thought was prompted by the delivery of a lovely rose bush sent to me from members of our Constituency Executive to celebrate my civil partnership with my wonderful partner.

 

This happy news has prompted kind greetings from many members of our Party. During lockdown I have had less good news, both about the progression of my cancer and the death of my father and in each of those cases also I have been moved by the number of generous and compassionate comments from Party members, from all points of the political compass within the Party’s broad church.

 

I look forward to our being able to return to more regular meetings of our Party, not only because this is necessary in order for there to be democratic accountability of elected officials and office-holders at all levels, but also because the Party I know consists, overwhelmingly of good, kind well-intentioned people sharing, in our different ways, visions of a better society.

 

I won’t abandon social media, because it has provided – during lockdown – a channel whereby comrades in the Party have reached out and expressed compassion and support both to myself and to each other, but I will keep to my own rule from now on.

 

I won’t “feed the trolls”.