Corbyn sets out need for ‘independent political voice’ at Marxism Festival

Jeremy Corbyn at Marxism Festival

There were huge cheers as Jeremy Corbyn called for a new “independent political voice” at Marxism Festival in east London on Saturday. 

He was speaking alongside campaigners Andrew Feinstein and Salma Yaqoob, socialist councillor Michael Lavalette and SWP national secretary Lewis Nielsen.

Corbyn said the left had to “build an independent political voice that unites independent groups all over the country”. He said it would bring together “left facing independent groups who want peace and justice”.

Salma called for a new left party—“Let’s not wait a minute longer—the time is now.” “We heard the amazing news that Zarah Sultana has decided to leave the Labour Party,” she said. 

“We have had enough of the betrayals of the Labour Party that has delivered only for the few.” 

She added, “The system isn’t broken, it’s working for the people it was designed to work for.”

Andrew described the new left alternative as a “movement-party” that focuses on a combination of electoral politics and social movements. 

He said, “The purpose of winning power is that our activists, social movements and communities are represented in those halls. 

“It’s to ensure that we fundamentally change the structures of our parliament, councils and the state so that they all serve the many, not the few. 

“We must take power in the streets and the halls of power.” 

Michael said the victory of independent candidates has “shown the thirst for a left alternative to the Labour Party”. 

He called for a left alternative that learns the lessons of “Syriza in Greece, Die Linke in Germany, Respect and the Corbyn project inside the Labour Party”. “We have been down this road before,” he said. 

He argued the focus should be using elections to build the confidence of movements, which are the key to winning change. 

Michael said “it must be rooted in communities” and that its aim shouldn’t just be elected councillors and MPs. 

“This must be councillors and MPs who go to the council and parliament to be a megaphone for the movements,” he said. 

Lavalette praised the five Independent MPs who were elected at the last general election, but said “there have been problems”. “We must never be in a position again where someone calls on the military to break strikes,” he said. 

The Independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, Ayoub Khan, suggested that the army could be used to clear the backlog during the indefinite bin strike in the city. Independent MPs should be using their platform to help the strike, not undermine it. 

Michael told Socialist Worker, “The pull when you get elected to be part of the political establishment is huge. It’s a pull to be part of the Westminster establishment, but you see that even at council level. 

“We have to be clear that this is absolutely secondary to what elected representatives should do. 

“They should be a megaphone for the communities they represent. They should be there to uplift and deepen the movement of resistance on the streets, the trade union movement and the needs of abandoned communities.”

Lewis said, “We’re saying to Starmer and Farage, the left is ready to hit back. We need an alliance, a network, an umbrella, a force that is uncompromising Palestine, says migrants are welcome and says things can be different.” 

He called for a force that “stands with working class people on the picket line and on protests”. 

Lewis added, “This time it has to be different because the stakes have never been higher.” He said this meant the left alternative would have to “mobilise the movement to defend us” because “they will throw everything at us”.

The announcement from Zarah Sultana is immensely important. There is an urgent need for an alternative to a Labour Party of genocide and warmongering, austerity, racism and transphobia.

Socialist Worker agrees that, in Sultana’s words, the choice is between “socialism or barbarism”. 

We need a left alternative that stands with all the oppressed, whether against racism, transphobia, sexism or any other manifestation of oppression.

We hope that it is a broad and pluralist umbrella, where the revolutionary left can be part of and stand candidates under.

The battles in the streets and picket lines, over Palestine, racism, trans+ rights and austerity, matter most to win change. 

Their potential can go far beyond mobilising in support of the left in parliament—to a challenge against the system and its state. 

Socialists need to use elections to champion struggle and raise working class people’s confidence to fight back. And a left alternative with Corbyn, Sultana and others has the potential to do that. 

There is an urgent need for a united left challenge at the ballot box—let’s make it happen.