The announcement by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana of a new left party in Britain has electrified millions of working-class and young people, with over 700,000 already signing up to support it.
By Connor Rosoman
This represents the huge desire for an alternative to Starmer’s disastrous Labour government. It is a government that will be remembered for brutal, cruel austerity policies, its backing of the genocidal Israeli regime, and its racist anti-migrant rhetoric. Hundreds of thousands have marched for Palestine, resident doctors have become the first sector-wide group of workers to strike against this government, and the opposition to Labour’s cuts to benefits has been overwhelming. However what has been missing is an organisation to channel and organise this opposition.
The huge scale of dissatisfaction with the political establishment and two-party system has also proven fertile ground for more dangerous forces. Farage’s Reform UK has been hitting as high as 32% in the polls, blaming refugees and migration for the crisis in society. An emboldened far right has organised violent protests at hotels housing asylum seekers. The need has never been clearer for a working-class political alternative to point a way forward.
Socialist Alternative’s call for a new left party of struggle
In recent years, Socialist Alternative has tirelessly raised the need for an independent political organisation to build the fightback. It was clear that Labour would not and could not be a vehicle for working people to fight for our interests, even as the need for such a vehicle became ever clearer. Capitalism’s ugliest features increasingly reveal themselves in the form of war, attacks on the oppressed, and the accelerating climate crisis – but Labour has consistently shown that it is the interests of this very system which they stand for.
In the aftermath of last year’s elections, we published a book, The New Party We Need, explaining why we think a party is crucial today, and what it could look like. We have helped build support for the call for such a party through the People’s Alliance For Change and Equality (PACE) in Kirklees, and similar initiatives elsewhere to draw together struggles, and preparing to stand against the establishment parties with a clear working-class alternative.
Now we, like millions of others, are excited to see a new political party beginning to take shape at the national level. The launch of a new party provides huge opportunities to turn the tide on the right-wing turn of the ruling class. It will require the efforts of working-class and socialist activists to make it a strong, organised party in every town and city. Already, local groups are springing up to build support for the new party in many areas. Socialist Alternative will be helping to build these groups and strengthen them further.
The role of Marxist ideas
It will also be essential to discuss what sort of methods of struggle, what sort of strategy, and what sort of programme are needed to confront the huge crises we face today. We will need to learn from experiences in Britain and around the world in how to build a party that can fight back effectively and win real victories. We think that the Marxist ideas, and the international analysis that Socialist Alternative puts forward can make a key contribution to building this party. We want to engage in comradely debate about how we can fight for socialist politics, beat the right, stop war, imperialism, climate crisis and oppression.
In our view, this must mean a complete transformation of society. A world free from war means dismantling the arms industry as part of massive green transformation controlled by the working class, and working across borders. To address the massive inequality in society, win a real pay rise for all workers, and invest in public services, we must take utilities, as well as the banks and big corporations into democratic public ownership to plan the economy for the interests of people, not profit.
And we think that to win such demands, we need a party that is based firmly on struggle, rooted in community campaigns, trade unions, and the mass movements, which can act as a vehicle to take these struggles forward.
But we need unity in action. In the context of a broad left wing alternative, it will be more crucial than ever to build an organised revolutionary socialist current. Socialist Alternative is actively fighting to build the new party – and at the same time we are open about who we are, and our ideas for how to build the most powerful movement possible.
A new left party, led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana will transform the political landscape in Britain. It will put socialist ideas back on the agenda for millions of people, with the potential to build a powerful movement to fight back. We look forward to being part of the struggle to build the new party we need.
