Last Thursday, Zarah Sultana MP announced that she was quitting Labour and joining forces with Jeremy Corbyn to launch a new left party. This has been greeted with huge enthusiasm and celebration by the many thousands who have been searching for a socialist alternative to Starmer’s Labour.
By Mike Forster
In a combative statement, Sultana described the Westminster system of government as “broken”, denouncing growing poverty at a time when 50 families in Britain own more wealth than half the population. She goes on to say “we are not going to take this any more” and correctly assessed that “we have three billionaire parties fighting for the rich and it is time the rest of us had one”. This bold statement has struck a real echo, with over 70,000 already signing up for “Team Zahra”. The following day, Jeremy Corbyn welcomed her to his now expanded group of Independent MP’s and said discussions “would continue” to found a new party.
This came hot on the heels of Corbyn’s interview on Peston the day before where he confirmed that a new party was being put in place, and an announcement would soon follow. Naturally, the capitalist media, including The Times, Financial Times and The Telegraph, has been raging about this latest development and doing its best to discredit anything that emerges from it. They are already defaulting to their favourite pastime from 2015-2019 of Corbyn-bashing as they try to strangle this project at birth. They will inevitably fail.
As this process moves forward, it will become clear that this will be a major new force on the left that will have to be taken seriously. In an opinion poll only two weeks ago, voters were asked hypothetically if they would vote for a new party led by Jeremy Corbyn and 10% confirmed they would, before the party had even been announced!
This poll offers a glimpse of how quickly this new party will grow in support, snapping at the heels of all major parties. It has the potential to be a seachange in British politics, and offer real hope to working people and youth that politics could once again be about improving their lives. It will decisively redraw the map and confirm the demise of the two party system, opening up a new chapter with the potential to clearly challenge the right. But we need to also be extremely clear about what is needed in order to make this a reality.
What kind of party?
Socialist Alternative has been very much part of this development, and worked tirelessly to make it a reality. Since the election of the Labour government, we have focused our campaigning on the streets, as well as in the trade union and anti-war movements, around the call for a new left party of struggle. In recent weeks, this has included two conferences of resistance – one which was initiated by our members in Huddersfield, and another event in Leicester which we helped to organise.
What is crucial is not only that such a party is launched, but that it is successful in developing as a mass force which can offer a real fighting socialist alternative. Socialist Alternative wants to contribute to a wide-ranging, lively, comradely and open debate about how this can be done.
We are calling for the new party to be rooted in struggle and not just in elections. Elections are and will be important. But for such a party to have real credibility, it must be visibly seen, both in the growing resistance to Starmer’s Labour but also in pushing back the threat posed by Reform UK. This means being on the picket lines, in community resistance to cuts and closures, in every fightback against injustice including the huge protest movement against the genocide in Gaza. A new party should seek to unite these struggles around a political struggle for real change.
It must be a party that stands with the working class and refuses any compromise with big business and their parties. A party that stands very clearly against war and imperialism; a party that fights for real socialist change, not tinkering at the edges and one that is properly equipped to take on Reform rather than copying their racist rhetoric as Starmer is doing.
For the new party to be successful, it also needs to be open and democratic, unlike Labour’s closed shop which has shut down debate and kicked out genuine left-wingers. It cannot be a top-down machine which excludes the membership from having any kind of say. Local and national structures should be democratically responsible to the membership and subject to recall. Members in parliament and local councils should represent the democratically decided views of the party, and take home no more than a workers’ wage.
The next important stage of this exciting development must be the convening of a national conference of supporters who have signed up to the new party. Local branches, along with trade unions, community and socialist groups should be able to elect delegates to attend, who in turn can agree a policy platform and elect a leadership in good time for next year’s local elections.
No time can be lost. The ongoing discussion nationally must reach firm conclusions now. Issue a public call for people to join a new party and convene a national conference urgently! Sultana’s call has been met with massive enthusiasm, which, when formally launched by herself, Corbyn and others, can transform the ‘broken’ system and usher in a new period of class politics which has the potential to firmly put socialism back on the map.
If you agree with this article, and want to help build support for our programme within a new left party, join Socialist Alternative today!
