"A mass movement" exists on the left, but is "dissipated". It needs bringing together.

At the Transform conference 2024 on Saturday 19 October, there was a panel focusing on the future of the mass movement of the left in Britain. Here are some of the key comments from the first part of those discussions.

To kick off the talks, Audrey White from Merseyside Pensioners Association insisted that the British left has real potential because:

We have got a mass movement behind us, really, even though we’re dissipated.

And she emphasised that:

We’ve gotta be very serious about the job in hand. We dare not fail.

“It’s a permanent and lasting destruction of the Labour Party”

As she explained at Transform, the left needs to move past the fleeting hope that existed under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party:

There was a brief moment when we all thought the Labour Party could be the vehicle, but those hopes were destroyed by what was in effect a coup… And the biggest lie they did, which damaged our movement, was the fake anti-Semitism [allegations] which was used to destroy Corbyn, anybody on the left, anybody who was anti-war, anyone who was pro-Palestine, and it cleansed the Labour Party of socialism absolutely completely.

In no uncertain terms, she stressed:

It’s a permanent and lasting destruction of the Labour Party. The British establishment won’t ever allow the Labour Party to give rise to something like Corbynism again. For anyone remotely on the left, the Labour Party is simply a waste of our political energy.

She added:

To paraphrase Ken Loach, a broad church is a good idea, when it works, but not when the vicar stabs the choir in the back.

“State-driven cancel culture” destroyed Corbyn, so we must champion free speech

White also emphasised the importance of the left championing the cause of freedom of speech, saying:

Whatever new party or movement we’re building in this country should be the genuine party of free speech in the UK. We’re living in a Britain where heroic, honest journalists like Asa Winstanley and Richard Medhurst are… having their homes searched for reporting on Palestine. Starmer’s Labour Party is authoritarian and censorial to its very core.

In particular, she asserted:

The destruction of Corbyn was essentially a massive exercise in state-driven cancel culture.

And she suggested that no mainstream party is truly behind the idea of free speech:

There’s a vacuum and a powerful opportunity here for the left to own the narrative around free speech, and we’ve just got to be brave enough to take it.

Transform must focus efforts on class analysis and opposition to war

Also, being “staunchly and uncompromisingly anti-war” is key. As she argued:

With all the economic hardship people are facing, there’s very little appetite for funding or waging wars.

She also said that, while the individual struggles of different communities in society are very important, a focus on identity politics rather than class politics is “always used to divide us”. She explained that:

It’s the only part of the left agenda that the liberals are occasionally willing to talk about. And why? Because it costs them absolutely nothing… They use it as a weapon to divide the left. The main thing is it distracts from class analysis… We must identify first and foremost ourselves as socialists and identify clearly with the needs of the working class. That’s the universal message – the only one that will carry people with us, and that’s how we improve the material conditions of all people.

And she added:

It’s important that we learn from our own history, and that’s working-class history, which is hidden, so you have to go out there and look for it.

“There is a huge gap opening up, and we must be the ones to fill it”

Transform’s Solma Ahmed followed on from White, and insisted that, while “Transform was never meant to be the end game”, it “has given us hope”. The party worked hard to bring people together on the left, and it created movement at a time when disenchantment was high due to Keir Starmer’s destruction of the Labour Party.

Suggesting that left-wingers need to act in every way they can and not just be keyboard warriors, she argued that:

It’s not disunity or egos holding us back… It’s our conviction holding us back. It’s our complacency holding us back.

The political moment we’re living through is unique, she stressed, because:

Labour and the Conservatives are neck and neck, racing to the right, trying to outcompete each other with the same narrow slice of the electorate. And who’s left out? Millions of people. People who are fed up. People who are desperate for real change. There is a huge gap opening up, and we must be the ones to fill it.

Transform can be “part of something bigger”

While there are challenges the left will face in standing up to the powerful red and blue wings of the corporate party, she said:

We will never have a perfect moment where all the stars line up, the path forward is clear and easy. But there is no excuse to wait! Some people talk about ‘let’s build a movement’. I’m sorry – the movement is already here! We are the movement!

And despite praising Transform members for coming together and being bold and active in fostering unity on the left, she acknowledged that the party isn’t everything. She insisted that, of a mass movement:

We want to be part of something bigger.

The unification and coordination of left-wing campaigners and political groupings throughout the country is the next step. And that’s the work that people around the country urgently need to do in the upcoming weeks and months.