The importance of Unity

New member Matthew Shaw shares his reasons for joining Left Unity

As a regular attendee of Glastonbury I have had the opportunity to not only expose myself to the left ideology through the likes of Billy Bragg, Tony Benn and so forth but also to meet like-minded people. People who quite possibly started going from their love of music but possibly also from their left-leaning views.

From this I have been very lucky to make some wonderful friends, friends who I hope to keep for life. We may not agree on everything; for example some of us are for Scottish independence and some against, but even in the most heated of debate there is still an underlying respect for how each party reached their decision.

I returned home in Scotland in the wee hours of Tuesday morning; in need of a good bath, tired, sunburned and disappointed to have left behind the Somerset sunshine and the people we may only see once or twice a year but still count as a secondary family.

But for me, attending festivals with these friends is never meaningless. It’s an opportunity to discuss the events that are going on around us, an opportunity to enjoy being in like-minded company even if just for a weekend at a time. That is also in essence part of the reason I decided to join Left Unity.

Over the last few years we have seen the rise of the far right. The BNP, EDL and UKIP have caused havoc on our streets and in our pubs as part of what they believe in, however sickening their values are. They have gone from strength to strength not only by playing on the fear raised by media bias but by creating their community and through the principle of strength in numbers.

For me, Left Unity is the perfect antidote to this racist, fascist threat to our way of life. Much like the campsite discussions that we have at festivals, not everyone in Left Unity has the same views on individual topics, but this ultimately is embraced by the party. By joining Left Unity we all share the underlying belief that Britain needs a strong voice to the left, especially considering the vacuum left behind from the demise of ‘Old Labour’.

By sharing and discussing our views on the society around us we have the opportunity to give people a real choice as an alternative to the mainstream parties. By being a party who can speak to the worker on the shop floor on a zero-hour contract without a trade union to fight their corner or on an unliveable minimum wage and advise that there is a party who are willing to fight their corner, whatever their background, gender, sexual orientation or race.

By showing unity and by offering a decent, compassionate voice we have the opportunity to provide the people around us a real, credible option to the centre-right parties that currently take their seats in parliament. I for one am excited for the future within Left Unity.