Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters were right. So what? Vindication means nothing if they walk away now

On the afternoon of Easter Sunday, with a captive audience glued to the internet under coronavirus lockdown, evidence began to emerge of one of the most extraordinary scandals in the Labour Party’s history. A leaked internal report, whose author and commissioning body are apparently unknown, has revealed a culture of bullying, a flawed approach to investigating antisemitism, and a potential misuse of funds among senior staff loyal to the party’s right wing. Most shockingly for many members of the party and public is the clear evidence that party staff actively worked against Labour’s attempts to win the 2017 general election, and mourned its relatively good performance on the night.

For many left-wing commentators and activists who follow Labour politics closely, myself included, the report’s revelations were decidedly unsurprising. Much of the party establishment had been almost open about preferring a Conservative government to a left-wing one. Even if they spoke about how they wanted a Labour government, their actions spoke louder: from the attempted leadership coup of summer 2016 to the constant, endless briefings against the party throughout Corbyn’s tenure, this was a faction that constantly prioritised power in the party over power in the country.

But for many of the hundreds of thousands who joined Labour to support Jeremy Corbyn, the extent of the sabotage, and the nastiness with which it was executed, will be shocking. In the wake of a crushing electoral defeat and the collapse of the Corbyn leadership, there was widespread despondency. Now, there is a sense that Labour is institutionally rotten. Ironically, despite not being the target of consternation, it is the left of the party that has most to lose in the wake of the leak, as many of its supporters tear up their membership cards in disgust.

The Corbynite left is in an especially vulnerable position when it comes to mass resignations. For many of those who joined after 2015, membership of a political party is an individual act, in which you have a good browse on the shelves and join the party that most fits with your values. The Corbyn leadership did not fundamentally change this, and the vast majority of the left’s base has remained passive throughout the past four years. Even among the active minority, the role of an activist was too often understood in terms of uncritically supporting the leadership, knocking on doors and voting in the odd online election.

To prevent an exodus in the wake of election defeat and fresh moral crisis, the left must change how members view their role. Being a good member means being dissenting as well as dutiful. Rather than simply buying the brand with which you identify most, or being herded around as a footsoldier, the point of being a member is to organise, change and shape the party. I don’t stay in Labour despite its frequent bad policy positions and regular scandals, but because of them.

There must also be a reckoning with what bureaucracy and command and control did to Corbyn’s Labour. The leaked report has shone a light on a culture within the party headquarters defined not only by hostility to the leadership, but hostility to the whole idea of members having a say.

This culture persists across the party, even if it found its most lurid expression on a WhatsApp group of right-wing party staff. Corbynism had its own control-freakery and machine politics, with big unions and unelected staff regularly steamrolling democratic reform and policy decisions, and ensuring that Momentum was strictly limited to mobilising members for elections. The report does not exonerate anyone, and unless the left can get its own house in order, members toying with their future in the party can have little faith that things will get better.

Sometimes being proved right is not a good thing. Many of us claimed throughout the Corbyn years that one of the biggest obstacles to Labour’s electoral prospects was sabotage by the party establishment, both in parliament and HQ; now we have proof of it. But unless we seize this moment to reflect honestly and mobilise Corbyn’s base – to tell them to organise, not desert – vindication will be worth very little indeed.