On Thursday, July 3rd, the suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana, announced that she would, with Jeremy Corbyn, “co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.”
However, Corbyn himself was initially bashful in coming forward to give his seal of approval. This did not stop the usual suspects on the left from jumping up and down with glee. Chief among these was the Socialist Workers Party, eager to jump on the new party like a tick on a wheezy old dog. The SWP has always opportunistically tacked to right and left, sometimes spouting extra-parliamentary and indeed antiparliamentary and semi-syndicalist rhetoric one minute and another time, as of now, taking an electoralist stance. They think they can be a major player in this new party, when all previous evidence shows that they will attempt to control it and recruit to their own organisation. If this fails, and the returns aren’t worth their investment they will stay and wreck it if they can or just leave.
The up-and-coming Revolutionary Communist Party for its part, was also enthusiastic, with one of is organisers, Fiona Leli, saying that what this mooted new party needed was a clear anti-capitalist programme. Neither of these groups offered any real criticisms of Corbynism, and indeed of previous attempts to radicalise the Labour Party, like that around Bennism in the late 1970s-early 1980s, where Tony Benn was seen as the previous Messiah ready to lead us into a promised land via the ballot box.
The Socialist Party was slightly more restrained. They have some influence within trade union apparatuses, and are concerned that a new left formation would not gain the support of the trade union bureaucracies, apart from ex-leader of Unite, Len McCluskey, a principal cheerleader for such a formation. Whilst welcoming Sultana’s resignation from Labour and her announcement of a new party, they were concerned that such a venture would be stillborn, and that their own electoral front, the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, would be jeopardised.
The Alliance for Workers Liberty, meanwhile, urged that people should stay in the Labour Party, saying “We will not be bailing out or counselling friends in the Labour Party to quit. On the contrary, we point out to left-wingers who have drifted into “staying away” the new evidence that battle inside the Labour Party can attract attention and make some difference, and urge them to renew their attention. We believe that continued union-Labour campaigning could, if strong enough, force a full climbdown.” So more same old, same old, that leads nowhere.
It appears that Corbyn’s hand was forced by Sultana’s announcement. After remaining silent for some time, he eventually emerged to say that he welcomed Sultana and that the formation of a new party was ongoing.
Corbyn remained with the Labour Party as an MP for almost fifty years, refusing to resign as it moved further and further to the right. He was heartbroken when he was suspended in 2020, only breaking with Labour by standing as an independent four years later. He remains committed to social-democracy, to old-style Labourism. As one of his allies, John McDonnell, said back in 2017, ““Jeremy Corbyn and I are the stabilisers of capitalism.” Corbyn’s role is to divert and sabotage any real attempt to counter capitalism by grassroots action by the working class. When he was Labour leader, he offered a package of mild reforms, whilst promising big business that they have nothing to fear. Whilst having a long record of supporting anti-militarist and nuclear disarmament initiatives, when he became leader he capitulated to the Labour right, and committed to NATO.
As for McDonnell, he has gone on record as saying that he will not leave the Labour Party. Other allies of Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Clive Lewis, have said the same.
The announcement by Sultana should be placed in context. It comes after the Starmer government has revealed its deeply anti-working class stance, with its attacks on pensioners benefits, refusal to pay WASPI women, attacks on the disabled, refusal to abolish the two-child benefit cap, and the threats of further austerity measures. It comes after Starmer’s support for Israel and for genocide, and its banning of Palestine Action. It comes after Labour’s tearing up of its environmental policies and its criminalisation and persecution of environmental activists, as the planet continues to heat up. It comes after the refusal to act over the water corporations enriching themselves further whilst polluting the waterways and seas. It comes after Labour’s increasing support for militarism and for further ‘defence’ spending.
Many in the UK are disgusted by Starmer and Labour because of the above, and are desperately looking for an alternative. But the alternative offered by Sultana and Corbyn is a false alternative. A mild reformist programme that they would offer would merely be a tinkering with a system that has shown itself to be brutally pledged to increasing exploitation, authoritarian rule, and environmental degradation.
Any venture by Corbyn and Sultana and their allies will fail to mobilise a movement in the workplaces and neighbourhoods . Whilst Corbyn and supporters of a new party talk about “ground-up campaigns” and People’s Forums and people’s assemblies, the fact is that previous ventures like Bennism and the more recent Corbynmania actually demobilised many grassroots campaigns. Many of the activists involved in these groups and campaigns were drawn away from any meaningful activity to become involved in electoralism, and many of these groups were demobilised. This scenario is not likely to change with the birth of this new party.
We in the ACG believe that yes, grassroots groups and campaigns should look towards a recognition of common class interests and unity, and seek to build meaningful alliances and coalitions, ones based on self-organisation, autonomy, and the need to create new forms of social organisation. Such organisation, based on the locality, the borough, or the town or city, should be seeking to involve as many as possible, and to look towards developing new forms of decision-making and power, distinct from the local and national State. In times past, anarchist communists referred to this new form of organisation as the Commune.
Whilst a new left party looks towards an election in 2029, we must look towards the far more difficult task of developing such a mobilisation.
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