Zarah Sultana: 'supporting indy left-wing media is so important'

There’s a lot of energy and excitement across Britain about the forthcoming creation of a new left-wing party. But many supporters would also like to see more unity and transparency, especially amid public differences of opinion in the interim leadership team. Your Party interim co-leader Zarah Sultana spoke to the Canary about this leadership question. And she also highlighted the importance of having a strong media strategy.

Former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll – who also participated in the discussions around Your Party’s creation and was part of the recent conversation with Sultana – gave his thoughts on these issues too.

Zarah Sultana: ‘Co-leadership can represent the strength and diversity of our movement’

Sultana told us:

I believe members have to vote on a leadership structure. And what I’ve proposed, and what I’ve supported, and what I’ve said from day one, is co-leadership.

And I would obviously love to be voted by members in a democratic conference to be a co-leader alongside Jeremy. I think that represents the diversity of our movement, but not in a tokenistic way. I think it represents the strengths that we have, how we speak cross-generationally, and how we can bring people together.

Driscoll added that a system of co-leadership allows you to “say twice as much and meet twice as many people”. Also, in presenting a firm opposition to the government, and aiming to replace it, the new left party needs to build its ranks as much as possible. It needs numerous shadow spokespeople, for example, who are “competent on the economy, on transport, on business, on workers’ rights”. At the same time, he stressed that:

you need a huge force of local leaders, not just councillors, but people who are organising on the ground

‘Legacy media wants to divide our movement’

Speaking about the approach to establishment media outlets, Zarah Sultana insisted that:

I think it’s really important to recognise the interests of legacy media in dividing our movement, in promoting the interests of their owners, billionaires, oligarchs and so forth. And the way I have approached the new party and the way that I approach my work is not giving them an inch and engaging with them when I need to, on a case-by-case basis. And my priority will always be independent and local media, and supporting journalists that are platforming our working-class stories, industrial disputes, fighting the far right, [for] Palestinian liberation and so forth.

She added:

I think it’s really important that we all support independent left-wing media. We’ve got a really strong ecosystem. And we have to support them.

Driscoll agreed, stressing that:

the billionaire press, they’re still gonna be there. But what we need to do is use the alternative media, which now has a following of millions, to do an end-run around that.

Considering the prominent role the establishment media played in undermining the left from 2015 to 2019, and the constant struggle of independent media during this time to expose the propaganda, Sultana and Driscoll are right. Working consistently with independent media on the left can play a massive role in turning things around. To combat the elitist lie machine, left-wing politicians need to embrace those fighting for the truth. It may be uncomfortable sometimes, but with truth-telling comes trust and hope. And that’s how we’ll defeat the far right.