Pressure is building on the Labour Party, as its position in the polls slides and the numbers of MPs being suspended increases. Four MPs were suspended on 16.07.25 for “repeated breaches of party discipline” and join John McDonnell, Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana. Since her suspension, Sultana has resigned from the Labour Party and announced Team Zara – a move towards a new worker’s party. Pressure is also building on Jeremy Corbyn and trade union leaders to either disaffiliate from Labour or join the moves towards a new party. Corbyn has, so far been far too vague on the proposal for a new party and Sultana, who made her statement almost two weeks ago has been left isolated because of Corbyn’s slowness to clearly join the call for a new party.
Last weekend, Corbyn was the keynote speaker at the 200,000 strong Durham Miners Gala, the largest celebration of working-class solidarity in the world. However, all he could do, following a 20 minute rambling speech, was announce that “something is happening”. Something happened all righ; Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project stepped up its on-line activity – sending messages to its contacts and asking for donations, rather as Sultana did, but with no reference to “Team Zarah”.
Behind the scenes as well as in general, there is confusion about what the relationship between Corbyn and Sultana is, if any and where this project is going. Different groups and individuals who are supporting the move towards a new party are meeting and discussing. There is increasing interest in the idea of a new party but this interest and optimism could be punctured by vacillation from Corbyn.
Collective meanwhile, has been working towards uniting the two camps and announced a trade union conference for 21 st July. This conference, which is supported by hundreds of trade unionists recognises the role that trade unions must play in the formation of any new party of the working class. It is likely that Len McCluskey (ex-General Secretary of UNITE) will be speaking at this event and possibly Corbyn as well.
The trade union movement has been severely shaken by the policies of the Labour government and there is massive pressure to act against Labour from many trade unionists as well as trade unions. UNITE, with over a million members, voted at its Congress last week to review its position on affiliation to the Labour Party. At Durham Miners Gala, Sharon Grahm (UNITE’s General secretary) said that she would follow the will of her members. UNITE has also suspended Angela Rayner (Deputy Prime Minister) from the union for backing Birmingham City’s Labour Council’s attacks on the pay and conditions of its refuse workers. There was a pledge made in the same speech, to disaffiliate from Labour if any of the workers taking strike action are sacked. Graham is clearly responding to pressure from below. There were almost 800 delegates at the UNITE Congress and only 5 voted against the motion to review UNITE’s position with Labour. A similar motion was put to the previous Congress and couldn’t even get onto the order paper, that is how much the attitude towards Labour has altered as its policies lurch towards the right – not only neo-liberal but also racist, anti-worker, authoritarian and jingoistic.
As well as UNITE’s turn against Labour, other unions including: PCS (civil servants), UCU (University lecturers) NEU (teachers) RMT (transport workers) as well as the bakers union (BFAWU) are looking towards a new party and potentially affiliating to it or supporting it in other ways. This is why the conference called by Collective is critical at this moment. The mood to reject Labour could spread to other affiliated unions such as UNISON – also with over a million members.
Support for a new party is already strong, with a poll by LBC (Leading Britain’s Conversation) revealing that a new Left party led by Corbyn and Sultana would get 15% of the vote, which matches Labour’s current share of the vote. Encouragingly the greatest level of support for such a party comes from the 18 – 29 age group at 33%, with 24% backing Reform UK and 18% backing Labour. At this stage, Reform UK’s support would be relatively unaffected by the creation of a new party, with the Greens losing out to a new party as well as Labour.
There have been attempts to move the Green Party to the Left and the election of Zak Polanski as its leader in August could further this process. However, the Greens have a really poor record when given any power and in the past, have invariably carried out the wishes of the ruling class and not fought austerity, rather as Labour has done. This means that they are not trusted by worker’s and are overwhelmingly a party of the middle class.
There is a blizzard of meetings taking place all looking at the potential for change. Regional meetings as well as local meetings are being considered and links are being made between activist groups, political groupings, trade unions and trades councils. People are coming forward to join the move towards a new party, many who rejected the idea previously. All of the principle Left parties seem to support the idea with varying levels of enthusiasm. This is a change, and it must be hoped that all Left parties can cooperate in a new party with some kind of federal structure, rather than one member one vote. It is certain that parties such as the Socialist Party will not disband into any new party, wishing to keep their revolutionary Marxist programme but could help grow the new party by feeding ideas and members into the mix.
All this remains to be debated and the Campaign for a Mass Worker’s Party will be calling for a founding congress some time in 2025. Meanwhile those engaged in this movement need to be looking to clarify their ideas in unity with other activists and groups in order
to be prepared for the discussions and challenges ahead. There will be disagreements and the new party will inevitably be many layered and complex. It is encouraging that the term socialism is now being widely used and we need clarity on what socialism actually is. Policies, principles, statutes and codes of conduct need to be trialled and evaluated prior to any congress in order for whatever documents do emerge have been widely and democratically discussed. This is not the time for small group of individuals to provide the congress with the fruits of their wisdom. This is a wider debate.
When leader of the Labour Party, Corbyn showed that he had some good principles but his tactical acumen was severely questionable. The decision to not go for automatic re-selection of MPs and to allow councils to set austerity budgets were major concessions. His enemies inside the Labour Party had no scruples and ruthlessly exposed his short-comings. This is why the widest possible democratic debate needs to take place. Those protected from the real world in the corridors of power very quickly lose touch with the real world. The wider movement is in the real world and can sense the mood of the moment and have a feel for the ideas that will spark enthusiasm amongst ordinary people and strike fear into the hearts of the elite.
Let’s move together. Let’s share the ideas. Let’s fight for socialism.
