By Mark Buckley
Your Party is currently electing its Central Executive Committee (CEC), the body that will lead the party from the end of February. Candidate nominations closed on 16 January, so the election has moved to its next stage – which is the endorsement stage that opened on 21 January and closes on 29 January.
After hustings have taken place, online ballot papers will be issued on 9 February, and the vote will close on 23 February at 5pm. The deadline for members to join and vote is 5 February at 5pm.
The slate grouped under the banner ‘The Many’ is backed by Jeremy Corbyn and should be supported.
The main choice
There are principally two different visions, with two different strategies, that have been set out in Your Party.
The ‘Grassroots Left’ has been setting out a framework that suggests socialism can be achieved in the short term, by putting forward a series of left-wing demands – some of which have little broad support, or even sharply divide, the most progressive sections of the mass of the population and even of active left wing views..
Of course, socialism is highly desirable, and is the eventual goal, but the short term introduction of socialism, let alone a socialist revolution, is (unfortunately) not currently on the agenda in Britain. For the working class to replace the capitalist state would require an immense protracted mass struggle in which the majority of the population actively wanted the replacement of capitalism by socialism. This is not remotely the character of the current struggle in Britain.
There is not even a significant minority of the mass of the population that currently understands the necessity of overthrowing capitalism. To de facto make the short term replacement of capitalism by socialism the character of Your Party would condemn it to be a marginal force in politics—the typical one or two percent of the vote, at best, that has habitually been gained in elections by such projects for decades.
The central misconception of the Grassroots Left approach is there is no evidence to suggest that a reiteration of failed projects will be more successful this time around because if fundamentally misunderstands the political situation in Britain and would therefore turn the potential of Your Party into yet another failed project. Ther is no indication, either, that the conditions for such a project have been improving over the past period.
The Grassroots Left is offering a false vision and an inadequate framework for engaging with the actual conditions of the struggle which is taking place.
The struggle for left reforms in Britain
The struggle that is unfolding in Britain today is in reality of a defensive character, seeking to defeat and place obstacles in the way of of a very serious and mounting offensive being waged by capitalism both in Britain and internationally. Whilst there is no mass support for the short term introduction of socialism, there are significant sections of the masses that want reforms and measures aimed at protecting the situation of the working class and oppressed both in this country and internationally.
Millions of people have shifted to the left from Starmer and the Labour right, not because they have not introduced socialism, which the mass of the population does not yet see the need for, but because they will not even defend, indeed they attack, the most basic needs of people in Britain and internationally. That is, millions of people want left reforms and will support a party that stands for them. Your Party, when it was announced, seemed to embody this and therefore attracted mass support.
Today, because of well-known difficulties within Your Party, many people, wrongly given the Greens record in other countries, and their explicit lack of a socialist perspective, see the Greens as such a left reformist alternative. The left sectarian policies, which flow from the wrong analysis of the situation by the Grassroots Left, would lead to the marginalisation of Your Party.
Return to the strategy Jeremy Corbyn embodies
Jeremy Corbyn successfully mobilised millions of voters behind such demands for reforms in two general elections. It was because Jeremy Corbyn’s course rightly judged the situation that it won the support of over 10 million votes in 2019, more than Starmer ever achieved, and with a totally superior level of support to the rump that Starmer and the right wing are currently reducing Labour. Even after Jeremy Corbyn’s totally undemocratic exclusion from Labour millions of people support, and would be willing to vote for, the course he outlined—as shown by the enormous number of people who expressed interest in Your Party when it was announced and the support it enjoyed in the polls.
It is the real struggle currently taking place that Your Party needs to engage with, not the illusion of any short-term transition to socialism. The vision set out by the slate called ‘The Many’ relates to this by advocating a programme supporting peace, equality, shared prosperity, and opposition to all forms of oppression and discrimination — from which policies with mass support can be developed.
In contrast to Reform UK, the Tories and the Labour leadership, the current political crisis in Britain requires a party which opposes imperialist wars and breaks with the US war drive, opposes austerity and argues for shared prosperity through investment-led recovery, opposes racism and fights for equality on every front, and opposes every form of oppression. Opposition to the related elements of capitalism’s offensive needs to be mobilised around demands that can secure mass support.
Are these demands for left reforms? Yes, because that is what is needed both in Britain and most countries internationally and which millions of people will support. Are they policies for the immediate introduction of socialism? No, because unfortunately that is not what is objectively possible in Britain today, which therefore no significant part of the mass of the population, as opposed to a relatively small number of activists, will support, and which would therefore make Your Party yet another failure in Britain — therefore failing in its duty to help the millions of people who are under attack in Britain and internationally and failing to secure for Your Party what is objectively possible, that is to become a significant force in British politics. That is the most effective way to mobilise the maximum possible social and political force against capitalism’s offensive.
There are of course many individual issues which need to be debated, but the fundamental choice is clear. Your Party, for success, must follow the path which Jeremy Corbyn followed and represents. With The Many as its leadership it may be possible for Your Party to get back on track, turn outwards and unite with its allies in the social and labour movements – to confront austerity, poverty, racism, oppression and war. This is what is objectively needed.
For information about The Many and its candidates visit here.