The England, Wales, and Scotland section of International Socialist Alternative has long been active in the fight for a new party in the UK, and have been part of the development of the new left party announced recently.

“In 2029, the choice will be stark—socialism or barbarism. Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them. It’s time the rest of us had one. Join us. The time is now.”

Such was the powerful ending to the July 3 statement by former left-wing Labour Party MP Zarah Sultana in announcing her resignation from Labour and her intention to launch a new party alongside left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. 

The announcement of a new left-wing political party marks a potential fundamental turning point for workers and young people in Britain.

Coming almost a year to the day after the last general election in which the Tories were booted from power after 14 years of rule, Sultana’s announcement is a culmination of a year of disappointment and betrayal of the working class by the Labour-led government. Sultana was purged from the Parliamentary Labour Party last July for taking a principled stand against the government’s two-child benefit cap, part of a purge of left Labour members (including Corbyn) that has been a hallmark of the neo-Blairite Keir Starmer leadership.

Over the past year, Labour—which was elected on the second-lowest voter turnout since universal suffrage—has moved from mealy-mouthed promises of change to outright attacks. It has attacked the Palestine solidarity movement, cut vital benefits for the disabled and seniors, and pursued an agenda of massive increase in military spending while implementing new rounds of austerity. All amidst the continued cost of living crisis and other disasters for working people. Mass anger has continually bubbled up and countless Labour councillors have resigned their party membership over the past year in disgust. 

Right-Wing Threat

With no clear left alternative being put forward up to now, the right-populist party Reform UK has surged in popularity. It has made massive steps forward over the past period. In 2024’s general election, they were the third biggest party by vote at 4.1 million and gained 5 MPs. Since then, their support has only grown with a recent poll demonstrating that should a general election be held immediately, Reform would win a majority in parliament! 

But instead of putting forward a program that can fight Reform UK’s rise, Labour have explicitly chosen instead to ‘out Reform Reform’ by pushing anti-migrant, anti-trans, reactionary policies themselves. However, contrary to the Labour leadership’s beliefs, it does not reflect British society moving to the right as a whole. It is a product of the vacuum in anti-establishment political representation from the left and the crisis of British capitalism. Progressive ideas are still strong among the working class, which mobilized last August to stop the racist far-right riots.  However, the longer there is not a left alternative to both the right-wing and the capitalist establishment, the more time these reactionary ideas have time to try and sink roots.

What Should A New Party Be Like?

Socialist Alternative England, Wales & Scotland has made the call for a new left party of struggle a central pillar of our program for many years. Since the counter-revolution against Corbyn and his supporters, the Labour Party has returned to being a political vehicle for the capitalists, not the working class. This has meant despite the massive strike wave and the movement in the street for Gaza, workers, young people, and the oppressed have no political organization representing their own interests. In fact, it is their traditional political home that is now carrying out these reprehensible policies against which they are fighting, including aiding the genocidal assault in Palestine.

Thus the space for a new left party has opened up even more widely. The fact it has been declared with the support and initial co-leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana is a massive step forward for the working class, akin to if Bernie Sanders were to declare a new party in the US. It has historic potential for an impact in tipping the scales in the favor of the working class in society in a real way.

However, it is just a first step. In order for it to not be dead on arrival, Socialist Alternative EWS has argued it must actively campaign by building struggle and movements in the streets, workplaces and on campuses, not just run in elections. It must also be democratically organized and transparent, a forum for open debate on the way forward for the movement with accountability to workers and youth that make up its membership. Most decisively, it must be armed with a socialist platform that speaks to the needs of the masses of the working class, young people and the oppressed.

Socialist Alternative members in places like Huddersfield and Leicester have been demonstrating in practice what this means. Recently both were part of leading ‘Conferences of Resistance’ to bring together activists, community members, trade unionists and others to launch local fightbacks. This includes the launch of a local new left party in Huddersfield called Peoples Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE), which will be incorporated into broader national developments.

Capitalists Sharpen Their Knives

Up to the Sultana declaration, preparations for the launch of a new party had largely been held in secret. In general, discussions were largely confined to a small group of left-wing figures with a primacy put on confidentiality. Clearly being cautious in the launch of something so significant is warranted to a certain degree. Given that it would immediately be under attack by the capitalist establishment, being prepared is important. And indeed attempts to undermine a new party’s prospects began almost immediately in the major capitalist press.

Nonetheless the immense secrecy and tight control will not be able to avoid that reality when it meets sunlight. It could only be brought into its full potential (and defended from the capitalists) by the open and active political participation of the working class. This is a key lesson from Corbyn’s own time as leader of the Labour Party. An unexpected success, his pro-worker platform was met with a campaign from the pro-corporate establishment inside the party, in conjunction with the general capitalist establishment, to crush him. Corbyn, instead of relying on the 600,000 new people who had signed up to join Labour to support him, instead tried to make deals and conciliations to these pro-corporate members of his party. It ended, as we in Socialist Alternative at the time warned, with him getting railroaded out of the leadership and eventually out of the party entirely.

The Future Is Unwritten

Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. We are reaching a critical time in human history—the ruling class around the world is preparing itself for a future of mass armed conflict, climate change is unleashing an unprecedented amount of natural disasters, and there is a general increase in exploitation and repression by those in power. The working class must come together to fight in its own interests against this capitalist hellscape and for a socialist world. A genuinely new left party in Britain can be a first step along that road, not just for workers in Britain, but could serve as an example internationally including in the US. As the great Marxist and revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg put it over a century before Sultana—the only future is one of either socialism or barbarism.