With Sultana and Corbyn united, we finally have Britain’s new left party
The suspended Labour MP’s historic resignation to found a working-class party has lit up social media with excitement as thousands knock at the door wanting involvement in the desperately needed project, writes ANDREW BURGIN
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.
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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.
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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.
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Original article at https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sultana-and-corbyn-united-we-finally-have-britains-new-left-party
dizzy: Despite the corporate media all seem to be supporting climate-denying Neo-Fascist Farage there is plenty of time before the next election for that and other things related to him to change.
