It cannot go on like this! Don’t mourn, Organise!

We need a vibrant alternative to the far right, says Felicity Dowling.

Our aim should be the creation, in struggle, of a new eco-socialist, working-class, party. This call should be made to young and old, black, brown and white, migrant and settled. The 2024 election showed there is a willingness to vote for an alternative to the left of Labour, for real change and an organised fight back. The response on the streets in opposition to the far right and in favour of peace in Palestine shows this is possible. The strike wave of last year shows the willingness to fight. The brave campaigns by climate warriors shows there is a mood for a fight back.

Left Unity will work with all who are fighting austerity, fighting racism and Islamophobia, fighting for climate action, defending migrants and opposing racism and war. Austerity is a political choice and we say No! No! No!

There is urgency in this call. Nothing can happen overnight by announcement or decree, but the seeds of the new party have been sown and those seeds need tending. Failure in this venture will cost our class very dear.

Left Unity has worked and will in the future work with all who share these aims. Meanwhile we call for mobilisation, however small to start with, in the workplaces, colleges and communities. We are many, They are few.

Britain and Ireland have traditions of socialism and trade unionism. Let us revive them.

The Labour government seems intent on Austerity Round 2. “There is no alternative”, they say, mimicking Thatcher. Starmer has even declared that the NHS will get no additional funding. Children can continue to go hungry, pensioners to be colder than ever.

This government, like the last one, has forgotten to be afraid of the working class, organised in our unions and in our communities and campaigns.

Working-class communities and families are feeling the bitter pressure of long years of austerity. Wages are too low for people to manage, food, heating, rent, mortgage payments, transport, utility bills, are all putting pressure on well-being, on physical and mental health.

Schools, hospitals, prisons and other public utilities are crumbling. There is huge concern about the rise in racism, Islamophobia, anti-migrant rhetoric and violence. Palestine is breaking hearts daily and the war in Ukraine becomes more vicious. Even the simplest methods of protecting families and the planet from the effects of climate change are neglected. The Labour government is following austerity politics again and hurting working-class people.

Grass roots socialists are organising in many areas. In some workplaces, workers are taking strike action or challenging the bosses in other way. We must change the “common sense”, to win the argument that a better world is possible and that we can, in struggle, win that battle.

Fighting the battle of ideas with the far right has to go deep into the workplaces and communities. Some of the unions are producing good work on this. Organising to keep our people safe from the thugs of the far right needs to be deep in the communities and our workplaces.

Eco-socialism means that we call for our houses to be well insulated. If wind and solar power were fully utilised, if public transport were significantly expanded, working class living standards would improve and the health of the people living in the most polluted areas would improve. Reducing the use of oil, the power structures of the world would change, and nature and our climate might just recover.

Ideas are powerful. If political ideas get talked about, the rise of the far right will be stymied. Left Unity calls on our members and supporters to chuck out the idea that nothing can be done, and to get organised in their communities and in their unions, either by making a start or increase our existing efforts.

Felicity Dowling is co-national secretary of Left Unity