rs21 and the new left party

The rs21 steering group reports on the outcomes of the organisation’s discussions on the new left party

Zarah Sultana’s resignation from Labour and her call for people interested in a new left party to sign up to a mailing list has produced a huge response. On Sunday 13 July rs21 held an All Members Meeting to discuss our position on this initiative. Two motions were passed committing rs21 to engage with the new left party. In our view it’s time for a public launch so that the thousands of people who are ready to join can participate in creating a radical political alternative. 

With every passing day, the urgency of a socialist alternative grows. The global order is breaking down, and its unravelling is creating unbearable pressures and brutal violence for working class people across the world. In Britain, the frail institutions of social democracy are a fading memory, and work and social life has been torn to pieces by decades of neglect and mindless profit-maximisation. The far right and the cynical mainstream parties are spreading racism, hatred and distrust to divide our communities and distract from the real causes of misery. More than ever before, we need unity of the whole working class – employed, unemployed, disabled, black, white, native-born and migrant – and a vision of socialist transformation which can put power in the hands of the people and democratically plan production to meet the needs, desires and dreams of everyone. We need real democracy, international solidarity, peace and justice for all. To get there, the working class needs its own political party, and the new left party could be such an instrument. 

The new left party should be based on an individual membership model; have local branches; have a collective rather than individual leadership, elected by the members through a transferable vote; be controlled democratically by its members upon its launch, including one-member-one-vote in internal elections. 

We will argue for this party to pursue a liberatory socialist agenda, based on the following core principles: (1) Anticapitalism; (2) Opposition to the capitalist state and imperialism, especially Britain’s imperialist interventions; (3) Refusal to join government at either a local, devolved, or national level, until we have enough support to implement a transformative socialist programme; (4) Solidarity with all oppressed groups – in particular championing Palestinian liberation, trans liberation, and migrant rights. No compromise with chauvinism or attempts to dismiss questions of oppression as “culture war issues”; and (5) Transparent democratic structures and a healthy culture in the party, modelling the society we want to build. 

We invite others who support the principles listed above to join us in pushing them forward in the new left party. We would like to work closely with all who are willing to unite around these principles to ensure that the new left party provides the radical and liberatory change that we so desperately need.