Let’s get this Party started!

Pic credit: Morning Star

Andrew Burgin writes: Last Thursday, the suspended Labour MP, Zarah Sultana, took a historic political step. She resigned from Labour, the party that she joined as a young teenager; in doing so, she declared her intention to work with others to found a new working-class party — a new party of the left.

Many Labour MPs have resigned before when moving to the right, yet who now remembers Change UK or even the SDP? But in Labour’s entire history, no MP has taken the decisive step that Sultana has — leaving to help found a party of the left. But surely it’s no surprise: Sultana has already established her reputation as a class fighter and a leader both in Parliament and beyond. This is a courageous initiative that is to be celebrated.

By taking this bold and necessary step, she has not only opened up left politics, by encouraging tens of thousands of people to engage and join her on this political journey. She has also created a live debate over the nature of the party of the left, that so many have demanded for so long — and with increasing urgency over the last five years.

It is no surprise that the committee brought together by Jeremy Corbyn, uniting all those who have been working to create a new socialist party, voted overwhelmingly to ask Sultana and Corbyn to lead the initiative together.

This project stands on the inspiring legacy of Corbyn’s leadership of Labour from 2015 to 2020.
Since then, there has been indecision on the left about whether and how to bring about a new party. Certainly, the first discussions that I was involved with, in the last days of 2019, came to nothing. And plans to fight back within the Labour Party likewise have led to little.

The transformatory factor has been the struggle against the genocide in Gaza, which has reignited politics and refocused minds, not just in Britain, but globally. It has created the possibility for the left to overcome many of its historic differences and has made it possible to put politics on a new course, creating new ways of working together.

We have seen how so many local councillors have had the real guts to leave Labour over its support for the genocide. At the last general election how four independent MPs were elected, primarily for their opposition to the genocide, alongside Corbyn, who also won as an independent. Moreover, a young British Palestinian woman, Leanne Mohamad, came extraordinarily close to defeating Wes Streeting.

A new generation of activists has arisen from this movement, a new generation of political fighters and leaders: we have Mohamad and Sultana here, and Rima Hassan, the French MEP who was on the Madleen boat, as well as Zohran Mamdani, the inspirational democratic socialist mayoral candidate in New York, and doubtless many others.

One of their great strengths is that they are fighting alongside a veteran generation that has kept the flame alive for so long — Corbyn here, Jean-Luc Melenchon in France, and Bernie Sanders in the US. These are formidable inter-generational alliances that maximise strengths, inclusivity and experience.

These are also very popular alliances — not only across generations, but across our diverse communities. And they are potentially winning combinations. In our case, with Corbyn and Sultana, we have ourselves pretty much a dream team.

When Sultana resigned, she was not acting as a lone individual. She had been in serious discussion in recent weeks with those planning for a new party of the left. She took the decision to resign after an agreement with those involved in this long-running process; hence the overwhelming support from its organising committee.

The meeting, which I attended, believed the party would work best with both Corbyn and Sultana at the helm. It did not take up a separate proposal for Corbyn to be sole leader.

Sultana’s resignation and her announcement of the new leadership were putting into practice that collective decision, which she had told the meeting she would do.

This is a very exciting — and urgently necessary — development, and we must welcome it. And we must also understand its political significance: that even the preparation for founding such a party creates a new political situation. Perhaps, of necessity, there has been a certain level of secrecy in the discussions up to this point.

Taking the decision to form such a party is not easy — there are many loyalties and political commitments, some over many decades. But the time for secrecy — and foot-dragging — is now past. Labour’s right-wing trajectory is now plain for all to see: in its support for the genocide in Gaza, its use of draconian legislation against the right to protest, its attack on disabled people, and much more.

We need to get organised now. We cannot afford to miss yet another boat.

Sultana’s resignation and her openness about her decision to build a new party have set the movement free. No more hints and whispers, but a genuine, open discussion taking us forward together.

There has been understandable frustration at the lack of information regarding the discussions around a new party. I know from the Independent Socialist Councillors group that I helped set up that many of the councillors are very dissatisfied with not just the secrecy but the pace of developments.

These are elected representatives of their communities, with vast knowledge and experience to contribute, and they should be central to the process of founding a new party.
There is much to discuss: structure, internal democracy, constitution, election strategy, grassroots organising and policy formation. All these need the input of the movement as a whole and cannot be the property of a small, unelected group of people.

Contrary to some extremely disappointing and unprincipled briefing of the capitalist media by some involved, Sultana neither launched the new party nor sought to usurp the process. She did not “overplay her hand” nor “jump the gun to get the data and the donations.” Such statements are unworthy of anyone in our movement, and I, for one, do not believe that the anonymous briefers acted in Corbyn’s name.

What Sultana did was to give expression to a decision democratically arrived at by the organising committee, that she and Corbyn would together guide the process to its founding conference.

My hope is that now this has been agreed, and is out in the open, the organising committee will make its membership publicly known, open itself up and include others, to broaden and strengthen its work and increase the chances of initiating the party that is so desperately needed.

Sultana’s resignation drew coverage across the media and lit up social media with excitement. Thousands are now knocking at our door wanting to be involved in the process of founding a new party. We need to open that door.

We all know the political space is there, crying out to be filled. Polling, public and private, shows that such a party, even in its formative stage, would attract around 10 per cent of the vote, led by either Corbyn or Sultana. With the two of them together, that would surely be a floor, not a ceiling.

There are key strategic developments to get underway: how to work with what remains of the Labour left, how to engage the trade unions, and how to relate to the Green Party if there’s a Polanski leadership win. With the real possibility of a far-right Farage government, we all have a responsibility to rise to this challenge.

Sultana’s resignation opens the door to a flourishing of our movement; she has broken the logjam. We must welcome the new generation of leaders that she represents while drawing on the wealth of experience and struggle of those who have gone before.

With Sultana and Corbyn taking us forward to a founding conference, we are in good hands. Let’s get this party started!

This article was first published in the Morning Star