By Mark Buckley
The new party being established by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana has the potential to shake up British politics and offer a real opposition. It is sorely needed.
Under the current Labour leadership Britain is implementing vicious austerity against workers and the poor, is directly engaged in more than one war and is preparing for more, and is promoting vile racism with attacks on asylum-seekers, dismissing all evidence of racism against Black people, and surging Islamophobia.
Naturally, this agenda is massively unpopular with the vast majority of the population. Polls show the Labour party has little prospect of victory at the next general election on current policies. As a result, it is paving the way for a government with Reform type policies, either led by Reform, or the Tories with Reform type policies, or a combination of the two which will double down on all these reactionary policies.
This is the context for the new party. Its arrival on the political scene can radically change the situation by offering a real opposition to these reactionary politics. Rather than Reform being chased from the gutter to the sewer by the leadership of both Labour and the Tory party, the new party can radically alter the terms of the debate and be a real voice for socialist working class politics.
As there is some confusion on the British left about what is meant by working class politics, it is worth describing here what this phrase means. It is not, as it is often portrayed in Britain, a combination of trade union consciousness and socialist-sounding rhetoric. It is instead an expression of the political interests of the working class and all the oppressed in all key spheres of society. This is not only an issue of socialist morality but it is vital because only an alliance of the working class and all the oppressed can defeat the power of capital.
Supporting workers in industrial disputes, for example, is a completely necessary and fundamental task but insufficient programme for the working class and its allies. Working class politics takes up every aspect of oppression — workers have no interest in maintaining those oppressions, which serve only to strengthen our enemies with divide and rule. Internationally, it means opposing imperialism and imperialist wars, which are globally the most deadly forms of attacks on workers and the oppressed.
This is a core political reason why the Corbyn-Sultana party has the possibility to succeed whereas so many self-proclaimed new parties have failed over the years. Throughout his long political career Jeremy Corbyn has always supported all workers in struggle, combining that with consistent opposition to all forms of oppression and opposition to imperialism. In her shorter political career, Zarah Sultana has also combined militant and consistent support for Palestinian rights alongside a compete opposition to all aspects of austerity.
These are the key political building-blocks for a new left party if it is to succeed in the current period; consistent opposition to war, austerity and racism, the oppression of women and every other form of oppression. Tackling climate change will also have to be central to the party’s new politics.
The new party will also need a sober assessment of the Labour Party and voters’ demands and consciousness. The Labour party is the historic mass party of workers in Britain, with organic links to mass trade unions. It is an illusion that the Labour Party will disappear or there is a chance that Labour will simply be replaced by the new party. Major political upheavals will always pass through Labour and find some political expression in it. The successful establishment of the new party will mean that there are two parties with mass support in the working class. Therefore, the question of united front with the Labour Party, and working for common goals with the left within the Labour Party will be a key question for the new party. Not to understand this, to believe the new party can simply replace Labour would lead to sectarian errors which would actually weaken the new party
At the same time, whether voters have currently abandoned Labour, or unenthusiastically stick with it, millions still believe a real, or more genuinely Labour party is required — they believe simply that Labour has abandoned them and the politics they want. Many will support the new party because, rightly, they believe that its success will pressure Labour to revolt against the horrendous politics that Starmer is imposing on it. This should inform how the new party approaches Labour and its voters.
The precise details of the organisation, its forms and internal functioning are each important issues and will doubtless take time to formulate appropriately. But they are secondary to forging the political programme which offers a way out of the current crises and the huge dangers Starmer’s disastrous course is creating. The new party deserves the support of all socialists.