Together with Labour? Hell no!

The Starmer government is widely reviled, and as it staggers from one catastrophe to the next it brings ever closer the likelihood that Nigel Farage will form the next government. That is a scary prospect. It will mean ICE-style raids to hunt down migrants, mass deportations and much more. Reform UK also promises to make the country more slavish in its support to the American empire and Zionist Israel than anything we’ve seen under Starmer, and meanwhile, it has no solution whatsoever to the dire economic crisis other than to grind the working class further into the ground.

The question of what to do about the growth of the right is the most serious challenge facing the left and the workers movement today. The solution that is currently on offer is the Together Alliance’s 28 March London demonstration for “love, hope, unity”. It is being heavily promoted by the trade union leadership and the SWP, and is shaping up to be the anti-racism event on the calendar. While we too want to defeat Reform, we must warn: the Together Alliance will do nothing to dent its growing support. In fact, this alliance with Labour based on liberal, “peace and love” politics risks further pushing workers into Farage’s arms.

Many trade unionists and left activists are working tirelessly to build this event. At the same time, many know in their hearts that a demo offering only “feel-good factor” will be useless against Farage, but are afraid to speak out for fear of being branded as soft on racism. We must be frank: it is absurd to think that you can fight the far right based on moral platitudes, whose purpose is to bury any semblance of a working-class perspective.

Lessons of the Robinson debacle

The Together Alliance’s 28 March demonstration is the left’s answer to last September’s massive Tommy Robinson march that brought hundreds of thousands out on the streets, and had many more workers than the tiny left-led counter-demo. That was a disaster and a wake-up call. We insisted that the lesson for the left was to seriously rethink their strategy and reorient away from their alliance with Establishment politicians, ditch their liberal politics and direct their efforts to winning the working class (see “13 September: Disaster for the left” Workers Hammer supplement, 13 September 2025). Simply put, to halt the rise of the right, we need to build a pro-working-class, socialist opposition to the Starmer government and the whole British Establishment.

Instead of trying to unite the working class, including migrants, for a struggle against the government, the SWP drew the opposite conclusion. They doubled down and went even more liberal. This is how the “Together Alliance” was born. To understand the problem with this, let’s look concretely at who the Alliance wants us to unite with.

The endorsers’ list includes the usual cast of celebs, who certainly won’t have Farage shaking in his shoes. (Let’s face it, if Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé couldn’t swing it for Kamala Harris, Paloma Faith and Billy Bragg won’t turn the tide against Reform). Of course, Zack Polanski will be there—no show without Punch. There are a number of Muslim religious organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain and Muslim Association of Britain, which may be good for the optics but doesn’t mean the Muslim masses will be mobilised. Indeed, why should Muslims attend a gig which has nothing to do with defending their communities against racist provocations such as UKIP threatened in London’s Whitechapel last year? For that matter, Together’s material carefully avoids mentioning the “P” word—no doubt support for the Palestinians would scare off some of the more respectable types.

The vague, apolitical slogans of Together are thus all designed to keep this thing respectable for establishment politicians and careerists, which will only repel workers, including immigrant workers.

Unity with…the government

But what gives this event its decisive, anti-working-class character is its “togetherness” with Labour. It is supported by a gaggle of backbench Labour MPs. Among others, they include Richard Burgon, Clive Lewis and Dawn Butler. These people are part of the party in power, and while they sometimes disagree with Starmer, they support his government!

At the London launch of the Together Alliance in February, to their credit, the Revolutionary Communist Group staged a protest, heckling Butler that she should resign from the racist, genocidal Labour Party. She shot back, defending the government, saying “you have to be in a position of power to make decisions and to make things work”. Yes, the Labour Party is making decisions—supporting the US and Israel’s wars, up to their ears in scandals, and yet has totally failed to solve any of the economic or social problems the country faces.

It is one thing to have a united front to stop a fascist attack, including with the Labour Party. But it is another to build an alliance with defenders of the government, for a carnival of “love”. Far from winning workers away from Reform, it will further push them into their arms.

Generals without an army

As if linking arms with the Starmer government wasn’t enough, the Together Alliance embraces the wretched trade union leaders. These bureaucrats helped propel Starmer into No 10 and now that he’s on the ropes, they are going all-in with the Together Alliance as a way to refurbish Labour’s credentials. These general secretaries, most of whom make six-figure salaries, are “generals without armies”, totally divorced from the needs of their members. When they put an effort into this type of initiative, you can be sure the push isn’t coming from their base. It just means the bureaucrats smell an opportunity to look good.

The Together Alliance demo will feature the usual cast of “progressive” general secretaries, like Andrea Egan of Unison and the RMT’s Eddie Dempsey. But the icing on the cake is the fact that this event is supported by Sharon Graham of Unite…of all people! Graham is known for her support for NATO’s Ukraine war and for having opposed Palestine solidarity actions against arms manufacturers. Also, those socialists who are promoting this demo should try preaching to the Birmingham bin strikers about love, hope and togetherness with Labour and Sharon Graham! They have waged an all-out strike for a full year against the Labour-run City Council and the government’s commissioners while Graham has refused to escalate the strike. To quote a strike militant who complained to our comrades that Unite keeps telling them to canvass MPs and councillors: “they couldn’t give two sh*ts about us”.

Throughout the country, many workers are turning to Reform because they are so utterly disgusted with Labour and the union leaders. One industrial plant after another has closed: from the Port Talbot steel plant to the Vauxhall Luton car plant to the Grangemouth oil refinery. Workers are turning away in droves from union leaders who have presided over the managed decline of the union movement, doing nothing to fight back. And what they resent even more is when those union leaders use union dues to build parades in central London in cahoots with Labour.

Labour politicians and trade union leaders have a huge responsibility for the situation that allows Reform to present itself as the only radical force that can take on the elites who are responsible for the country’s rot.

What to do?

So, the 28 March demo is sponsored by the very forces who are driving workers into the arms of right-wing reaction. The prospect of the left marching arm-in-arm with Labour, the trade union leaders and the Greens will stand as further proof that the left is in bed with the government and the Establishment. As such, the Together Alliance will rebound to the benefit of the right.

There is no “quick fix” or easy solution to the problem we face, but that is not an excuse for the left to surrender the fight against the right to the SWP and liberals. We need to build a real, working-class alternative to Reform and Labour, which can rally the working class in a fight against those who have destroyed this country: the City of London bankers. Obviously, this is the opposite of what Together is about (or the Green Party, for that matter).

As an immediate step, union members who are being bombarded with appeals to support the Together Alliance should take a stand in their branch meetings. Militants should argue that, if there’s a fascist provocation, by all means, this branch will mobilise and help to crush this threat. But this isn’t what 28 March is about. Militants should argue against being mobilised for an event whose main goal is to unite behind this anti-working-class government. We can use this opportunity to put forward what is really needed to fight Farage. If your branch nevertheless votes to endorse the demonstration, militants should march with their union contingents, but they must distinguish themselves and seek to draw a class line in this “love fest”. The same goes for socialists, Your Party members, etc.

If you march, do so at least with clear signs which state: Together with Labour: No way!