Top articles of 2024 – September (part one): At last the UK is to have a left-wing political party
As we’re coming to the end of 2024 let’s look back at some of the best articles of the year – this one highlighting the forthcoming birth of a new left-wing political party.
At last the UK is to have a left-wing political party to challenge the right, if this Guardian article is any indicator.
(Although, when I heard that this organisation is being called the Collective, the first thing I thought of was an old Levellers song: “We the sound system, we the collective… We the solution; should be respected.”)
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn [pictured at a previous event] delivered the opening speech at a private meeting on Sunday (September 15), when organisers said they would begin drawing up democratic structures for the launch of a new party.
The meeting was attended by a number of left-wing luminaries besides Mr Corbyn, including former Unite general secretary Len McLuskey, former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, the film director Ken Loach, Andrew Feinstein, the anti-apartheid activist who stood against Keir Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, and Corbyn’s former chief of staff Karie Murphy. Pamela Fitzpatrick, the director of Corbyn’s Peace and Justice project, will be the movement’s director.
Others included independent candidates whom organisers consider the future of the movement, including Fiona Lali, who stood as the Revolutionary Communist candidate in Stratford and Bow, and Sean Halsall, an independent candidate in Southport.
Representatives also attended from We Deserve Better and a range of independent local groups and smaller left-wing parties.
Not all the attendees were said to be in favour of a new party, including Messrs Driscoll and Feinstein, and it may not involve the independent MPs who are currently in a Parliamentary alliance with Mr Corbyn.
It seems the trigger for this new initiative was the large number of independent campaigns at the July general election that did very well, even if they did not win.
It was seen as the beginning of a potential mass movement of working-class people outside the Labour Party, to act as a counterweight to Labour’s rightward drift (and consequent loss of support) and the rise of Reform UK.
Founders have said they will begin drawing up the democratic structures for a new party to launch. There may also be a mass membership drive and calls for trade unions to affiliate with the new organisation.
And there will be a drive to find new leaders to replace Mr Corbyn, who himself has said that political organisations should not be personality-led by charismatic characters or populists.
Another meeting is set to take place in six weeks.
This initiative is going to take its time – and it has time, because Keir Starmer’s Labour won’t be shifted until its full term is up – because left-wing parties traditionally have a hard time establishing themselves and building support.
But it seems more wholesome, to This Writer, than the cloak-and-dagger shenanigans we recently learned surrounded the creation of Labour Together, the right-wing group within the Labour Party that conspired to prevent Labour from winning a general election under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and that has now – it seems – installed Keir Starmer as its puppet prime minister.
Source: Jeremy Corbyn addresses meeting on formation of new leftwing party
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if only but we had a whole allowed this creature stammer with the media to oust a very centre road character JC ousted out for the very things they tarred him with diabolical but the peasants listened to this I talked with a few and no matter whot you tell them they still believe BBC ouch it’s getting them to see clearly so someone like JC gets to b pm