Your Party: The politics behind the shitshow

Your Party has not even launched and already it is splitting. “Unauthorised email”, “supposed membership portal”, “sexist boys club”: recriminations and accusations are flying fast. Corbyn and the independent MPs on one side, Sultana and her crew on the other. After Stand Up to Racism’s defeat by Tommy Robinson on Saturday, this is the second humiliating disaster for the left in less than a week. For many, despair is setting in. But despair won’t advance anything. The key is to understand what is going on and offer a road forward.

At first glance it appears that Your Party is being torn apart by egos, cliques and turf wars. These are all at play. But they are not the main reason for the unfolding fiasco. Just look at the far right: Although it is run by a bunch of self-interested egomaniacs and is full of factional strife, it nonetheless has the wind in its sails. To understand anything, we must look at the broader political context. In Britain and throughout the West, we are witnessing a political sea change. The liberal status quo is rapidly disintegrating, and we are moving towards a new right-wing authoritarian order.

The reason Corbyn and Sultana can’t get along is not primarily because of their egos but because they have no coherent programme which can unite the left at this current historic juncture. If they finally decided to launch a party after years of dithering, it was not out of foresight but because of the irresistible pressure to do something to stop Farage, build an alternative to Labour and oppose the genocide in Palestine. The problem is that this left-wing pressure is not the result of a militant upswing of the working class but a frantic reaction to a collapsing liberal centre.

Whereas the insurgent right can unite around tearing down the status quo, the left is desperately trying to build something out of the scraps of woke left-liberalism. The result is that Corbyn and Sultana are building on a shoddy political foundation racked by contradictions. Should the new party be anti-Zionist or not? How should it deal with the trans question? How to unite socially conservative minorities and urban progressives? Neither of the factions can overcome the tensions on these questions. And since neither is seeking to have a real political debate on any of this, Your Party is fracturing on purely organisational lines. The result is not only confusing and unclarifying but extremely destructive.

What to do?

The first thing is to stop sugar-coating reality. The left needs to understand just how dangerous the current situation is. Many sought to present Tommy Robinson’s victory last Saturday as a blip which does not reflect the real balance of forces in society. The size of his demonstration (downplayed by most) was compared to the number of signups to Your Party, trade union membership and the Palestine demonstrations. The problem is that the outcome of political conflicts is not settled by numbers on pieces of paper but through the clash of living forces.

Your Party is crashing before it is even founded, and the trade unions are hollowed out by decades of attacks by the ruling class and sabotage by their own leaders. As for the Palestinian movement, it is stagnating and largely powerless in the face of the ongoing genocide. Meanwhile, the far right is gaining ground because it is seen as the only real force opposed to the status quo. To recognise this reality is not to be defeatist. Rather, it is the precondition to start getting out of the hole we find ourselves in.

The second thing to do is to draw political lessons. We have to stop burying our heads in the sand and realise that the politics that the left has been pushing for the last decades are not working. Because of its association with liberalism and identity politics, the left has alienated itself from huge parts of the working class and is seen by many as a defender of the status quo. For a left-wing political project to have any chance at success, it must rid itself of the albatross of liberalism and turn its attention towards winning the working class. This does not mean turning our backs on minorities but elaborating a programme which can unite all the oppressed in a common struggle against the ruling class (see “Sultana’s disastrous comment”, 12 September).

Finally, against the bureaucratic infighting we need to fight for political clarity. The Corbyn-Sultana feud is a bad split; neither side should be supported. Clearly for Your Party (or any other left working-class party) to see the light of day, there will need to be sharp struggles. But these need to be waged on the basis of clear political positions. Although many on the far left think that the new party should oppose NATO, oppose the Greens and have a class approach to politics, most refuse to concretely fight for these positions. Instead, they are busy passing abstract kumbaya motions about democracy, transparency and peace on earth. We need to keep organising Your Party meetings despite the chaos at the top but stop sweeping the hard questions under the rug and have debates on the real issues.

Whatever happens to Your Party, the task for socialists is to fight harder than ever to break the left from its disastrous course and start rebuilding its influence on a strong working-class foundation. As the winds of reaction grow stronger by the day, we must not let ourselves be overwhelmed by sentiments of despair. Nor can we hang on to rose-tinted illusions about the immediate prospects. And honestly, the last thing we need is the Greens. We must prepare for a long and arduous struggle, under increasingly difficult conditions. This is not an easy road, but it is the only real road for those who are serious about advancing the struggle for working-class emancipation.