WORLD WORLDWID EUROPE UK uk United Kingdom Europe - (en) UK, ACG: Labour Party Mark Two? (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On Thursday, July 3rd, the suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana, announced

that she would, with Jeremy Corbyn, "co-lead the founding of a new
party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the
country." ---- However, Corbyn himself was initially bashful in coming
forward to give his seal of approval. This did not stop the usual
suspects on the left from jumping up and down with glee. Chief among
these was the Socialist Workers Party, eager to jump on the new party
like a tick on a wheezy old dog. The SWP has always opportunistically
tacked to right and left, sometimes spouting extra-parliamentary and
indeed antiparliamentary and semi-syndicalist rhetoric one minute and
another time, as of now, taking an electoralist stance. They think they
can be  a major player in this new party,  when all previous evidence
shows that they will attempt to control it and recruit to their own
organisation. If this fails, and the returns aren't worth their
investment they will stay and wreck it if they can or just leave.

The up-and-coming Revolutionary Communist Party for its part, was also
enthusiastic, with one of is organisers, Fiona Leli, saying that what
this mooted new party needed was a clear anti-capitalist programme.
Neither of these groups offered any real criticisms of Corbynism, and
indeed of previous attempts to radicalise the Labour Party, like that
around Bennism in the late 1970s-early 1980s, where Tony Benn was seen
as the previous Messiah ready to lead us into a promised land via the
ballot box.

The Socialist Party was slightly more restrained. They have some
influence within trade union apparatuses, and are concerned that a new
left formation would not gain the support of the trade union
bureaucracies, apart from ex-leader of Unite, Len McCluskey, a principal
cheerleader for such a formation. Whilst welcoming Sultana's resignation
from Labour and her announcement of a new party, they were concerned
that such a venture would be stillborn, and that their own electoral
front, the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, would be jeopardised.

The  Alliance for Workers Liberty, meanwhile, urged that people should
stay in the Labour Party, saying "We will not be bailing out or
counselling friends in the Labour Party to quit. On the contrary, we
point out to left-wingers who have drifted into "staying away" the new
evidence that battle inside the Labour Party can attract attention and
make some difference, and urge them to renew their attention. We believe
that continued union-Labour campaigning could, if strong enough, force a
full climbdown." So more same old, same old, that leads nowhere.

It appears that Corbyn's hand was forced by Sultana's announcement.
After remaining silent for some time, he eventually emerged to say that
he welcomed Sultana and that the formation of a new party was ongoing.

Corbyn remained with the Labour Party as an MP for almost fifty years,
refusing to resign as it moved further and further to the right. He was
heartbroken when he was suspended in 2020, only breaking with Labour by
standing as an independent four years later. He remains committed to
social-democracy, to old-style Labourism. As one of his allies, John
McDonnell, said back in 2017, ""Jeremy Corbyn and I are the stabilisers
of capitalism." Corbyn's role is to divert and sabotage any real attempt
to counter capitalism by grassroots action by the working class. When he
was Labour leader, he offered a package of mild reforms, whilst
promising big business that they have nothing to fear. Whilst having a
long record of supporting anti-militarist and nuclear disarmament
initiatives, when he became leader he capitulated to the Labour right,
and committed to NATO.

As for McDonnell, he has gone on record as saying that he will not leave
the Labour Party. Other allies of Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Clive Lewis,
have said the same.

The announcement by Sultana should be placed in context. It comes after
the Starmer government has revealed its deeply anti-working class
stance, with its attacks on pensioners benefits, refusal to pay WASPI
women, attacks on the disabled, refusal to abolish the two-child benefit
cap, and the threats of further austerity measures. It comes after
Starmer's support for Israel and for genocide, and its banning of
Palestine Action. It comes after Labour's tearing up of its
environmental policies and its criminalisation and persecution of
environmental activists, as the planet continues to heat up. It comes
after the refusal to act over the water corporations enriching
themselves further whilst polluting the waterways and seas. It comes
after Labour's increasing support for militarism and for further
'defence' spending.

Many in the UK are disgusted by Starmer and Labour because of the above,
and are desperately looking for an alternative. But the alternative
offered by Sultana and Corbyn is a false alternative. A mild reformist
programme that they would offer would merely be a tinkering with a
system that has shown itself to be brutally pledged to increasing
exploitation, authoritarian rule, and environmental degradation.

Any venture by Corbyn and Sultana and their allies will fail to mobilise
a movement in the workplaces and neighbourhoods . Whilst Corbyn and
supporters of a new party talk about "ground-up campaigns" and People's
Forums and people's assemblies, the fact is that previous ventures like
Bennism and the more recent Corbynmania actually demobilised many
grassroots campaigns.  Many of the activists involved in these groups
and campaigns were drawn away from any meaningful activity  to become
involved in electoralism, and many of these groups were demobilised.
This  scenario is not likely to change with the birth of this new party.

  We in the ACG believe that yes, grassroots groups and campaigns should
look towards a recognition of common class interests and unity, and seek
to build meaningful alliances and coalitions, ones based on
self-organisation, autonomy, and the need to create new forms of social
organisation. Such organisation, based on the locality, the borough, or
the town or city, should be seeking to involve as many as possible, and
to look towards developing new forms of decision-making and power,
distinct from the local and national State. In times past, anarchist
communists referred to this new form of organisation as the Commune.

Whilst  a new left party  looks towards an election in 2029, we must
look towards the far more difficult task of developing such a mobilisation.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/07/09/labour-party-mark-two/
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