I already feel guilty about it. For all intents and purposes he was a good comrade. The problem is that he wasn’t a communist, he’d occasionally opposed a communist agenda, and he stood in the way of someone that is not only a communist, but has agreed to push my line.

For context, today was the AGM in my local union branch. I had prepared in advance to push a slate of candidates composed principally of good communists who I believe will advance an effective communist agenda in my branch. The man I pushed out of the role he stood for was a fellow traveller who was an alumni of the British labour party. He had occasionally walled off my proposals at critical moments, which prompted me to make a maneuver against him to ensure the important role he was running for was instead filled by a key ally of mine. My plot succeeded, and my opponent is now out of the branch leadership and reportedly taking it quite badly.

I thought I was prepared for the hard realities of the class struggle in the labour movement, but I can’t help but feel guilty about this. He was a good, we’ll intentioned and mostly effective leader, but I swept him aside. I wouldn’t take my decision back, but it does make me think about how I will manage more difficult decisions in the future.