The nakedly reactionary character of the Labour government – its racism, its brutality, its repressive hostility to any resistance or challenge – is forcing political groups, trends and organisations to explain where they stand in relation to the class struggle. Those on the social democratic left who have in the past supported the Labour Party, whether as members, sympathisers or allies, and who deceitfully claimed that Labour could be a vehicle for social progress, are now twisting and turning as they seek to distance themselves from the Labour government. The announcement by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana on 24 July that they were now setting up a new ‘left’ party was music to their ears. Yet this party will be in no sense new, but the embodiment of reactionary Labour left politics of the past. In the absence of any real working class movement, its focus will be entirely electoral.
Rallies and conferences across the country finally pushed Corbyn beyond his trademark waffle about networks of solidarity. In their statement launching the party, Corbyn and Sultana declared that ‘The system is rigged… It’s time for a new kind of political party… [to] build a democratic movement that can take on the rich and powerful – and win.’ The response of the petit bourgeois left was uncritical enthusiasm. Socialist Alternative declared that:
‘the idea of a new left party has migrated out of corners of the organised left to take Britain by storm… Today, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah [Sultana] made a powerful and official joint announcement confirming a process towards the party’s foundation, a call which we wholeheartedly support and will build for energetically. It is our duty and responsibility to fully engage in this process and to assist in making this new party a reality.’
Socialist Worker thought that:
‘The scale of the crisis for Labour means the left has an opportunity to build an alternative. How can it best seize it?…We need a left that puts forward socialist solutions to the cost of living crisis facing millions of working class people… Imagine what a difference such a left party could make this week. As Labour and Reform UK scapegoat refugees and boost fascist violence on the streets. a new left could say clearly, “Blame the rich, not migrants.”’
The Revolutionary Communist Party was over the proverbial moon:
‘Finally, there is a political alternative on the left for ordinary workers and youth: a party that stands against “an economic system that protects the interests of corporations and billionaires”; against war, genocide, and ‘our’ “government’s complicity in crimes against humanity”; against cuts and privatisation… The RCP calls on all our supporters and readers to throw their weight behind this new venture.’
The Socialist Party had already made its position clear when Sultana resigned from the Labour Party in early July:
‘It is therefore welcome that on 3 July 2025 Zarah Sultana MP…has drawn the right conclusions – that the time has come to build something new. In response, Jeremy Corbyn has also put out a message that “the democratic foundations of a new party will soon take shape”.’ (The Socialist, 4 July)
It wants the new party to ape the structure of the Labour Party, insisting that any founding conference of the new party must be ‘made up of democratically elected delegates from trade union organisations, alongside others of course – including socialist groups and community campaigns – but a new party would, above all, be a political voice for the organised working class in the trade unions.’ (The Socialist, 22 July)
New bottle, old politics
All the petit bourgeois left agree in their uncritical endorsements: that it is urgent that this social democratic party be established with Corbyn in the leadership, and that it will be a significant step forward for the working class in Britain. It will be nothing of the sort. Its economic programme may seem radical, but to implement it the party will first and foremost seek a parliamentary majority. In other words, it will never happen – the ruling class will see to that. Above all the new party will pretend that governmental office is the same as possessing state power. It is not. State power is in the hands of the capitalist class. Through it, the ruling class controls the legal system, the courts, the police, the prisons, the army and so on. The only way the working class can achieve any progress is if it is able to seize state power from the hands of the capitalist class. Socialism is in the first instance an issue of working class political power, not a matter of economics, as the opportunists falsely claim.
Fantasy economics today
Take the elements of the economic programme Corbyn and Sultana propose. These have already been widely rehearsed:
‘We will only fix the crises in our society with a mass redistribution of wealth and power, This means taxing the very richest in our society. That means an NHS free of privatisation and bringing energy, water, rail and mail into public ownership. That means investing in a massive council-house building programme. That means standing up to fossil fuel giants putting their profits before our planet.’ (yourparty.uk)
What force is going to make this happen? There is no mass movement out on the street calling for these policies whatever illusions the left is peddling. It is clear that the new party will commit itself to the mechanisms of bourgeois democracy as the vehicle for satisfying the economic interests of the working class. It will inevitably avoid awkward questions about state power or which class rules. Its demands for more public investment or nationalisations spread the illusion that we can have a kind-hearted capitalism, a capitalism without the venal capitalists. It is a reactionary wish to return to the conditions of the post-war boom.
Ignoring state power
Imperialism is monopoly capitalism, where the socialisation of production has reached such a level that socialism has become not merely possible but absolutely necessary for the survival of humanity. But without state power the working class cannot begin to solve the problems humanity faces: wars, eco-destruction, climate change. State power therefore has to be central to any programme for socialism: it is an immediate question. The new party’s commitment to electoral processes may be dressed up in references to mobilising the working class and the need for extra-parliamentary campaigning, but electoral ambitions are always the tail that wags the dog. Posing the economic needs of the working class without challenging state power is the ambition of a privileged layer of the working class or middle class for whom socialism is not a life or death question, but one which can be presented as a distant dream.
The Labour Party is now so inextricably integrated into the capitalist state apparatus that it cannot meet the needs of the working class in any way. At every step it is looking to save the skin of British capitalism, whether it is through forming alliances with France and Germany to protect its imperialist interests; supporting the genocidal assault on Palestine; jacking up war expenditure; savaging the NHS and state benefits for the disabled and the poor or running vitriolic racist campaigns against migrants. What this means is that there is no force which can claim to represent the interests of the working class yet ensure that it is kept within the electoral fold. Hence the ruling class needs Corbyn and Sultana’s party since it will have greater drawing power than the fragmented elements of the petit bourgeois left. Corbyn embodies the two requirements for such a party: an ability to utter meaningless radical phrases to serve as a pole of attraction, and an undying commitment to parliamentarianism to ensure they are kept to an electoral path. His many supporters inside and outside the party will zealously police any opposition, shouting it down or violently suppressing it. There will be no democracy possible within the party; the closed meetings now trying to stitch it up before it ever gets off the ground are testament to that.
Back in 1914, social democracy showed itself to be thoroughly reactionary when its leaders marched the working class across Europe into the slaughter of the First Imperialist War, a war to re-divide the world among the imperialist powers. Lenin at the time argued that not only had social democracy abandoned the working class, but that it could never return; Rosa Luxemburg called it a ‘stinking corpse’. Their assessment is as true today as it was then.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 307, August/September 2025
