By Lauren Gamble
Portland, ME
This article is based on material published by members of the Socialist Party of England and Wales, part of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI). The Independent Socialist Group is in political solidarity with the CWI. This article was written for Issue 24 of “Socialism Today”, which went to print August 26th. Subscribe to get a copy directly to your mailbox!
Amidst workers’ growing frustrations with the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, former Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana announced on July 24 that they are building a new party aimed at giving a voice to the left and to the labor movement. Within a week, over 700,000 people signed up to support building this new party, higher than Labour’s membership at its peak (when Corbyn led it from 2015-2020) and higher than the membership of Labour, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the Reform Party combined — a huge signifier that people are eager for change.
Unions such as UNITE are re-evaluating their affiliation to the Labour Party, due to members’ anger toward Labour’s anti-worker policies, most recently Labour’s threats to fire striking sanitation workers in Birmingham, England. A few days earlier on July 21, a meeting of over 1,000 union members had convened to discuss forming a new workers’ party following a petition signed by over 2,000 union members, including 43 current and former members of the executive committees of various unions. The petition had called for “founding a new anti-austerity, anti-war party” and “urgent discussions within our union and across unions to organise a conference to establish a political voice for working people. The Establishment has four parties – it’s time the working class had one of its own.” This meeting was organised by former Labour MP, Socialist Party member, and Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) chair Dave Nellist as a practical discussion on how to build a new workers’ party.
At the meeting, Jeremy Corbyn voiced support for UNITE’s decision at their conference to not only assess their relationship with Labour but also UNITE’s decision to oppose sending arms to Israel. Corbyn emphasized the need for an alternative party to give voice to the political left, unions, and the community. Zarah Sultana echoed this saying “We all know there is a real appetite and energy for a new left-wing force. For a party that stands with workers not the wealthy, a genuine democratic socialist alternative that is rooted in the trade union movement and built by and for our class, the working class.”
Discussions included how to structure the party in a way that values the needs of the labor movement, how union members can build support for a workers party and cut ties with the Labour Party. The Socialist Party has been calling for an independent workers’ party for decades and has noticed the decline in support for Labour. Notably in the 2024 election the Socialist Party was quick to point out the decline in Labour reaching only 9.7 million votes, just 20.1 % of the electorate. Contrasted with the votes for Labour with Corbyn at the helm–12.9 million votes, specifically for his anti-austerity manifesto, which included calls for “renationalization of public utilities and the railways” amongst other popular anti-austerity policies. The mainstream capitalist media would rather push the narrative that Corbyn’s policies are unpopular despite their continued popularity, as shown by the number of people interested in a new party with those anti-austerity policies at the forefront. The fact is Labour has fallen out of favor with the working class.
The Failure of Lesser-Evilism
The Labour Party started as a working-class party by unions and socialists to represent the needs of the working class. Over time, the capitalists infiltrated and turned it from a party made up of workers to the Labour Party we now know today using dirty tricks and eventually, in 1995, removing “the Socialist clause” from the Labour Party Constitution in efforts to usher in the “new” Labour Party, led by Tony Blair. The Socialist Clause refers to Clause IV of the Labour Party Constitution which was adopted in 1918. Clause IV stated the following: “To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.” The removal of the clause signified the completion of the capitalist take over of Labour and ended a commitment to working-class policies. Corbyn’s left-wing leadership never fully challenged the right wing of the Labour Party, and was ultimately defeated in 2020.
Now the party represents the pro-austerity, pro-war interests of the ruling class. The Labour Party employs fear tactics like lesser-evilism. This rhetoric positions Labour as the only choice to stop the far-right Reform Party from doing harm. But lesser-evil tactics can only go so far without delivering policies that benefit the majority, not just the ruling class. With pro-worker, anti-austerity policies, a workers’ party could actually do better against Reform. Labour is seen as an establishment party. Reform attempts to gain the vote of people alienated by the establishment by scapegoating immigrants and LGBTQ people instead of the ones actually causing the problems, the capitalists. The only way to win against the far right Reform is to put forth non-establishment, pro-worker policies aimed at tackling the cost of living and the like.
With a just-announced party pulling in 700,000 interested people, the excitement is palpable. It is clear an alternative to the capitalist parties is needed in order to strengthen the workers movement. Workers are looking for the answers to the ever-rising cost of living and cuts to necessary public services, watching as their government bolsters the state of Israel while it starves and murders Palestinians. Now people in the UK are being arrested for protesting the genocide. A mass workers movement is needed to solve all these problems, because they all stem from the same source: capitalism, and its exploitation of people for profits. While Labour does nothing to address these major concerns, an alternative must arise.
Already this not-yet-fully-formed party is receiving flak from the mainstream media that’s criticizing the suddenness of the announcement and doubting the ability of the party to come to fruition. There have been past attempts at new left parties, such as after the RMT and CWU strikes that inspired a campaign called Enough is Enough. Offering solutions to the cost of living crisis the working class in the UK is facing, it gained a lot of interest: nearly half a million people signed up, committed to fight for higher wages, low energy bills, an end to food insecurity, higher taxes on the wealthy, decent homes for all and nationalization of industries. These points really resonated with working-class people. Many were hoping to take this further and form a party on the basis of those points. Sadly the momentum fizzled out and did not give rise to a party. But 3 years later the need for solutions to the cost-of-living crisis has only increased. And this time, major steps are being taken to organize a party for the working class.
Building a New Party, Which Way Forward?
The working class needs our own party, one that can show the power we truly have. We need a party that encourages workers to take up the fight for socialism. The success of a new workers’ party in the UK would be monumental for the working class abroad. The success of that party hinges on how it is developed and structured. It must learn from the pitfalls of the Labour Party to avoid its dive into an undemocratic, pro-capitalist, anti-worker party. Zarah Sultana has said that a One Member One Vote (OMOV) policy would be the best way to run the party. However OMOV has, in the history of the Labour Party, been a tactic that benefits the capitalists. Former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said OMOV helped the transformation to the new pro-capitalist Labour Party in the 1990s. OMOV sounds great in theory, everyone gets a vote, all voices heard. However the right wing of Labour was able to reach more passive Labour Party members, who were swayed by capitalist media to vote against their own interests.
Though Zarah may have not had that fact in mind when voicing support for OMOV, she perhaps was thinking of the Podemos party in Spain. A horizontalist left-wing party, it had no governing body, and all votes on policy issues were done online. This seemed like a good idea but really placed the power with whoever was in control of setting the questions. It offers no room for debate or clarification and could lead members to vote against their interests out of confusion. It is also important to learn from what has not worked, especially when it has contributed to the disenfranchisement that so many workers are feeling.
Jeremy Corbyn has a different idea: when asked about his visions for the party, he said he thought it “would end up with some kind of federal nature and trade union involvement will be an important part of it.” A federal structure is not new, in fact the Labour Party started with a federal structure that included representatives from many unions and socialist organizations. That structure was crucial in the fight against Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. The Socialist Party (then called Militant) was a leading force in the struggle in Liverpool. The district Labour Party was a governing force deciding city council policy, it was made up of 600 representatives from unions and left organizations. Not only did they set policy but they also organized street action. Through policy struggles and mass protest, they were able undo the harm done by Thatcher’s anti-worker policies.
It is also the structure of the TUSC, which is an electoral coalition made up of unions and left groups, including the Socialist Party, that runs pro-union, pro-working-class candidates. TUSC has had a federal structure for 15 years since their founding. Trade unionists are also familiar with a federal structure where union locals elect representatives to larger union conferences to represent their interests. A federal structure would work the same.
In any workers’ party, union representation should be under the control of the union members. Union representation and participation in a workers’ party is crucial. With 6 million workers in unions in the UK, unions could be the driving force in the party. The impact of major unions who have previously been affiliated with Labour, like the aforementioned UNITE, would be huge for the success of the party. GMB and Unison are also larger unions with affiliations to Labour. Combined they have over 3 million members. The sheer numbers and power the unions could provide is absolutely necessary for a workers’ party to thrive. What needs to be done is to get unions affiliated with Labour to break their ties with Labour, which is already being done by rank-and-file members. It is past time to break ties with capitalist parties that offer no solutions for the crises that working class people face, not only in the UK but across the world.
US Workers Need to Break from the Democrats
In the US, workers are all too familiar with capitalist parties using lesser-evilism to gain votes. The “vote blue no matter who” slogan is emblematic of the Democrats. It is abundantly clear that these lesser-evil tactics are not enough to stop harm being done by Trump and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party, similarly to Labour, has aided in the brutal suppression of protestors against the genocide in Gaza. It then made way for the Trump administration to detain Mahmoud Khalil, who took part in the Columbia University encampment. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was confirmed by Democrats in the senate, called Khalil a danger to Jewish people, despite Khalil attending a peaceful protest that Jewish students helped organize. We are only at the beginning of Trump’s term and yet he has launched attacks on working class immigrants, beefing up ICE’s budget, allowing working class immigrants to be taken off the street, separated from their families and, in cases like SMART union apprentice Kilmar Obrego Garcia, sent out of country to El Salvador’s CECOT facility where he and other people held captive are living in inhumane conditions. The Democrats have done nothing material to get Kilmar out and shut down the CECOT facility. SMART has also called for Kilmar’s release but has not put on pressure by using proven tactics such as strikes or work occupations. After briefly being returned to the country and released, Kilmar has now been detained again and is facing deportation to Uganda.
Union density in the US also remains low at 9.9% of the workers in the US, compared with 22% of workers in the UK. Despite this, support for unions, at 60%, is higher than support for the Democrats. The Democratic Party attempts to position itself as the champion of the working class while offering no concrete policies to help the working class. Even when politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez run on working class policies, they quickly fall in with the party line. AOC, Bernie Sanders and other progressive democrats are red herrings and an obstacle in building a mass movement. They claim to be “fighting the oligarchy” while upholding a party of the oligarchy.
Unlike the Labour Party, the Democrats have no foundation in worker’s struggles. There is no membership or democratic structures in the Democratic Party, it is a top-down organization, beholden to nothing but the needs of the ruling class. There is no reforming it. Yet, union leadership blindly puts their resources towards campaigning for the Democrats, without receiving the right to help determine party policy. In contrast, their UK counterparts receive seats on party leadership bodies and delegates to party conferences when they affiliate to a party with a federal structure like the Labour Party or Corbyn’s proposed structure for the new party.
US unions have the resources to run campaigns: funding, voter databases, volunteers, etc., that could be used to help independent working class candidates win elections and build a workers’ party. Instead all those resources are funneled into the capitalist parties. Imagine what an independent workers’ party with support of the unions could do to empower the working class. This can be achieved by rank-and-file action within their unions for a more democratic say in how the union orients itself politically. The Democrats benefit far more from union support than the unions benefit. Much like with UNITE, some US union members are working to reject partnerships with the Democrats. The Independent Socialist Group has members who are part of groups within their unions for more democratic say such as Railroad Workers United, MTA Rank and file for Palestine, and Build a Fighting NALC. We can also learn from the TUSC steering committee’s decision to ‘hand over’ TUSC’s electoral registration to the new Corbyn-Sultana effort, essentially giving them a ballot line to use immediately.
In the UK, the Socialist Party has been at the forefront of getting the party off the ground. In addition to the meeting chaired by Dave Nellist, they have held meetings across the country to discuss building the party, why a workers’ party is needed, and to put forth socialist ideas in the workers’ party. Socialism and a mass workers movement are needed now more than ever. The Socialist Party has been calling for a workers’ party since breaking from Labour in 1997 and has been at the forefront of workers struggles. Many Socialist Party members are also union members and they are working toward breaking the unions away from Labour for good.
Why a Workers’ Party needs Socialism
Though it is not entirely possible to shield the workers’ party from capitalist infiltration and attacks, we have to give it a fighting chance. One way to do so is to take away powerful tools of the ruling class. So it is necessary to work toward nationalizing the bank and mega corporations who seek to snuff out a mass workers movement and take them into democratic worker-led ownership.
We also must be wary about working with capitalist parties. In the UK there has been debate to the extent of which the new party will work with the UK Green Party. The Greens are an environment-focused party with some left-leaning tendencies. Jeremy Corbyn has correctly pointed out that they are not socialist, therefore he favors working with them on an issue basis but not forming a full alliance with the Greens. The Socialist Party agrees and adds that the Greens are not a working-class-based party. There is also the risk of opportunists jumping ship to get voters and then trying to change the party to be more moderate or centrist. This is what happened in Greece ten years ago, when SYRIZA, a radical left-wing party that campaigned on an anti-austerity platform, came to power. Seeing that they were gaining popularity, leaders from PASOK, essentially the Greek version of the Labour Party, switched parties but continued to vote the same, forcing the same policies, weakening the left wing of SYRIZA. Ultimately the party capitulated to capitalist demands. This happens all too often where capitalists seek to stifle opposition. We must out-organize them.
The role of the workers’ party is to not only take the fight to the legislature but to also build a mass movement of workers, by workers, like what Militant did in Liverpool and across the UK in the Thatcher era. That means organizing protests, education on worker’s history and Marxism, and organizing strikes, not just for contracts but for issues that face all working people. Under capitalism, across the world, capitalist governments are implementing harmful policies that take healthcare, food and essential services away from working people, while cutting taxes for the rich, and people are feeling crushed under the weight of cost of living. All while endless money is spent on war and destruction. This is a universal theme, but it doesn’t have to be that way. 700,000 people in the UK are ready. It’s time to fight back. Get organized, and join the Socialists to build workers’ parties that we, the workers, have the ultimate say in. We can win higher wages, healthcare for all, housing for all, and more! We must organize and build a better future for the working class! The new party is a tremendous step forward for the working class!
Independent Socialist Group 