Andrew Feinstein endorsed by Collective: the new ‘mass movement of the left’ to challenge Labour
Meet 'Collective'
Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP under Nelson Mandela and leading critic of the global arms trade, will use a momentous speech this weekend to endorse the launch of a new political alliance, billed as the foundation of the first organised mass movement of the left outside of the Labour Party. It’s called ‘Collective’.
Feinstein ‘Collective’: a new movement of the left
The speech will be the centre piece of a conference called by dozens of former Labour councillors and other independent candidates and will take place in Keir Starmer’s home constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.
Having lived in the constituency for over 20 years, Feinstein has already signalled his willingness to stand against Starmer as an independent candidate, attracting a groundswell of support both locally and nationally. Local campaigners say there is real vulnerability in Starmer’s majority, established under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party, especially given the controversies embroiling Labour over the war in Gaza.
The new movement – dubbed ‘Collective’ – has been established following months of deliberation amongst grassroots campaign groups and prospective independent candidates for both council and parliamentary elections. Though it is not establishing a new party to contest this year’s election, it is planning to eventually transform into a new party once it has grown a mass membership base.
Labour has abandoned… everyone
Andrew Feinstein said:
It’s not just Labour Party members who were the victims of Starmer’s entirely fictitious campaign for leadership of the party. The people of Holborn and St Pancras also elected him twice on a socialist platform under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Having lived in the constituency for over 20 years, I’ve been overwhelmed by the support and strength of feeling amongst local communities – and across the country – who are crying out for a response to the deeply corrupt, anti-democratic and out of touch Labour Party under Starmer.
Under his leadership, the party has now completely abandoned working people and marginalised communities in an escalating effort to out-Tory the Tories.
But this election must do more than just provide an alternative to the pro-genocide, pro-austerity Sunak-Starmer circus. It must also mark the beginnings of a new mass movement of working people that can challenge the Westminster bubble once and for all.
That’s why I’m proud to be joining Collective which is uniting sections of the left and will eventually transform into a new political party backed by an organised and democratic movement.
Collective: challenging our undemocratic system
Pamela Fitzpatrick, spokesperson for Collective and independent candidate for Harrow West, said:
Our political system – and now the Labour Party itself – is fundamentally anti-democratic and rigged against new parties, especially on the left.
The only way to address this is to build a mass movement outside of the Labour Party as a foundation for a new political party that is truly free of vested interests and which can offer a real alternative to the pro-austerity and pro-war two party system.
All around the country, independent candidates have and are coming forward to fight this election on a common platform calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a real pay rise and decent housing for all, higher taxes for the rich, an end to privatisation of the NHS, and an end to unnecessary and unjust war.
That is the foundation which Collective will build on, and eventually transform into a political party that will change the face of British politics.
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Rather than trying to build yet another fringe political party from the ground up, most of the people disaffected with the current leadership of the Labour Party could instead find a harmonious home within the Green Party. It is internally democratic, sometimes to an extent that can be time consuming. “Another election for an internal post?”, LOL.
I joined the Green Party after the way that they were excluded from having a Party Political Broadcast when the Brexit Party got one and they each had nearly identical polling numbers. The unfairness spurred me into supporting the Greens.
No Political Party is perfect but the Green Party is a lot closer to the position of most of us here than any other UK Party and open to new ideas and debate.
No political party is perfect and as has been said neither is the Green Party and they have certainly given their share of disappointments to people who saw them as ‘at least better than the rest’. But frankly that isn’t good enough. There are a few – too many probably but their hearts were/are in the right place – left of centre groups now who are wanting to challenge not only the Government but the group of individuals who purport to be ‘the Opposition’ who oppose nobody and nothing. Indeed in terms of disloyalty and abandonment of the tenets that they were elected on, they are worse than the current appalling Government. They are perhaps no less incompetent, but they are in fact more duplicitous.. The Government at least looks after its own. However …. the thing that is lacking with the other groups is that they are too frequently led (with good intentions, but flawed) by people who have axes to grind against the leaders of the other left of centre groups. They oppose sometimes not really the ideology, but too often the personalities. All this is too important to founder on personality clashes. No one person is bigger than the need to get rid of Tory A team, and Tory B team and change politics int he UK for the better, and for always. So we do need now to get behind a unifying banner. Andrew Feinstein has to be supported because he must beat the Shamer in his own backyard come the next election. That fight is paramount, since all of the other so-called Labour MPs and ‘supporters’ are merely lemmings and people terrified of having to be just ‘nobodies’ again. Please unite – within your own sub-parties if necessary – behind a unifying banner. This is important. If Jeremy Corbyn won’t lead a unifying push to the Left, then this is the next best option.
Andrew Feinstein’s effort to unseat Starmer is to be applauded as a first step in any case, whatever else follows.
But what will be the Collective’s next step? Will it merge with the Peace and Justice platform and absorb all those of us who have supported P&J? Will it collaborate with the Green Party, and all the small parties like Transform and Breakthrough that are showing how dissatisfied people are? Even any porty to be led by Galloway? What about Roger Hallam and his Assemblies? We will need to join many, many forces if we are to make really significant political change.
And one other vital point. How will the Collective deal with the ecological emergency? A genuinely democratic way forward is a terrific HOW, but there is also a WHAT to confront, with extreme urgency and focus.