Groucho Marxism

Last week, Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced she was leaving the party to set up a new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn. It’s fair to say that this new party has not got off to the most auspicious start: according to The Times, Corbyn was ‘furious’ that Sultana had gone ahead announced the formation of a new party before he was ready to. The story is somewhat difficult to believe, as it is hard to imagine Corbyn being furious about anything, and even if he was, it seems unlikely that he would have exclusively told Gabriel Pogrund at the Times; but nonetheless, it does appear that Sultana jumped the gun on this. Presumably she knew that her vocal support for the Palestinian cause would soon get her kicked out of the Labour party and wanted to walk before she was pushed.

Alternatively, it may simply be that Sultana got fed up waiting for Corbyn to get his act together and made the announcement to try and speed things up. It is not entirely clear why Corbyn has been dragging his feet on this. One explanation is that he has a plan and wanted to to get everything in place before officially launching the new party; a more likely explanation is that he is simply dithering, as a lack of decisiveness was unfortunately a key feature of his time as leader of the Labour party, and was one of the factors that ultimately led to his and Labour’s downfall. Whatever is going on behind the scenes, this rather shambolic beginning does not exactly inspire confidence. But perhaps we shouldn’t be too downhearted; as the saying goes, it’s not how you start that matters, it’s how you finish.

So what are the prospects for this new party? On the face of it there are reasons for optimism. First and foremost, there is clearly a huge latent demand to tap into: this hypothetical party is already polling above the Green Party, at least in some polls; and just a few days after Sultana made her announcement, over 70,000 people had already signed up. Not bad for a party with no name, no infrastructure, and no policy program. Another reason for optimism is that, unlike the Labour party, a new left party would not have to worry about being sabotaged from within. Of course, any moderately successful left-wing party will have to deal with the same smears from the establishment that the Labour party had to deal with, particularly the charge of antisemitism. But these accusations seem much less likely to stick this time around.

The antisemitism smears were largely a deliberate conflation of antisemitism with anti-Zionism. The general public has now woken up to the true nature of Zionism and the genocidal intentions of the Israeli state, having had the massacre in Gaza transmitted directly to our phones for the past two years. That is not something people will forget in a hurry. There is clearly a huge groundswell of support for the Palestinian cause and this is only increasing over time. Moreover, there has been a widespread debunking of the Labour ‘antisemitism crisis’, exposing it as the scam it really was. People may have been fooled by this once, but I don’t think they’ll be so easily fooled again (although I’m sure the establishment will try).

So those are some reasons for optimism; however, there are reasons for pessimism too. As already mentioned, the new party has not got off to the best start, and currently has no name, no infrastructure, or policy program. Can it really get its act together in time for the next general election? It seems unlikely at this point. It also seems unlikely that the unions will disaffiliate on mass from the Labour party and throw their weight behind this new party (although some might), which is what needs to happen in order for the new party to be successful. But perhaps the biggest reason for pessimism, at least among us socialists, is that the new party is unlikely to push a truly socialist agenda and will instead take a more social democratic approach.

It might seem that I am splitting hairs in making a distinction between social democracy and socialism. But there is a world of difference between someone who believes that capitalism can be reformed from within – i.e. a social democrat – and someone who believes that capitalism is fundamentally un-reformable and must be torn down and replaced with something better – i.e. a socialist. In fact you could argue that these views are diametrically opposed. Corbyn and Sultana are both ultimately establishment politicians, albeit principled ones, and as such are unlikely to pursue a truly radical agenda. So, regardless of whether this new party gets its act together or not, it will not bring about the systemic change that is so desperately required, at least not by itself. Only a socialist revolution can do that.