Independent left-wing MPs have announced the formation of a new left-wing party in the UK. The party has no name, no symbols and no leaders.
Details. British MP Zarah Sultana announced her resignation from the Labour Party, joining other left-wing deputies including Jeremy Corbyn to form a new party intending to contest the 2029 UK General Election.
► In a social media statement, Sultana used populist language to address worsening inequality, arguing that major parties – Labour, Conservative, and Reform – defend the interests of a “tiny elite bathing in cash,” while her new party will represent “the rest of us.”
► She denounced the British government’s wars in the Middle East, including its support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza, but avoided naming capitalism as the underlying cause of such wars. She also criticised state repression against anti-war protests.
► The party does not yet have a name or published programme beyond populist slogans. Jeremy Corbyn, one of the prospective leaders of the new party, refrained from making specific comments and limited himself to a welcoming message.
Context. The Labour Party has shifted further right since its 2024 electoral victory, implementing austerity policies amid Britain’s deep political and economic crisis which began under Conservative rule, marked by the Brexit issue.
► The 2024 election saw the lowest turnout since 2001: the Labour Party unseated the incumbent Conservatives but won far fewer votes themselves than in the previous election. This very shallow ‘victory’ was a sign of the profound disillusionment of the British masses with the parliamentary system.
► Left-wing defectors from the Labour Party have previously attempted to form other breakaway electoral groups, for example, the ‘Socialist Labour Party’ created by the leader of the 1984-1985 miners’ strike, Arthur Scargill. Such groups have mostly failed to exert any influence outside some local councils.
► Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader from 2015-2020, proposed modest economic reforms that threatened capitalist profit margins. He was undermined by media ‘scandals’ advanced by the capitalist newspapers and even military threats, with generals publicly warning of a coup if he became Prime Minister.
Important to Know. Social-democratic electoralist parties who seek to ‘work through the system’ are, at best, incompetent idealists, and at worst, active traitors to the working class.
► The left wing in social-democratic parties was characterized by Lenin as follows: "It is to the advantage of all bourgeois parties that wish for influence over the workers, to have a Left wing for display (particularly when that wing is unofficial)".
► The presence of "left activists" supports the image of democracy and freedom of opinion in such parties, which seek to divert attention from the communists. Loud left-populist rhetoric attracts young people and ensures the replenishment of the party bureaucracy in such organizations. By breaking away from their parties, left wings in most cases prove incapable of creating a strong organization.
► Historically, even when well-meaning ‘socialist’ candidates managed to overcome the hurdles of capitalist ‘democracy’, their efforts were swiftly undone. In Chile, President Salvador Allende’s 1970-1973 attempt to build socialism through peaceful parliamentary methods ended in a violent US-backed military coup that crushed the workers’ movement and restored capitalist order.
►Zarah Sultana paraphrased German communist Rosa Luxemburg in her statement, apparently missing the irony in doing so. When Rosa Luxemburg was leading the 1919 German Revolution, she was assassinated on the orders of the social-democratic SPD government, which had sold out the workers and allied with fascists to crush the uprising.