Introduction
PRMI supporters in England and Wales report that they have just had a very fruitful week-end. It kicked off with “an incredibly positive intervention” in the 100,000 strong ‘London Trans Pride”. They had 2-300 joining in our chanting, with strangers coming up to take the megaphone to help lead the chants. An overwhelmingly youthful and vibrant demo did not restrict itself to trans-rights, but responded energetically to any points condemning the genocide in Gaza.
Sunday saw a national meeting of PRMI supporters which discussed the current political situation and how we intend to build our new organisation. An ‘Introductory Political Statement’ was passed unanimously, which we publish here.
Imperialism
We are living through an era of economic downturn and political instability throughout the capitalist world. War, the threat of war and increased militarisation are the new realities.
Most starkly and horrifically, the world witnesses Israel’s policy of annexation and genocide in Palestine, aided and abetted by western imperialist countries. Although the US plays the leading role in supporting Israel, the governments of Britain, France, Germany and others are also complicit in the barbarity of the genocide which unfolds on a daily basis.
We see interminable, bloody conflicts in many parts of the world, including Sudan, Congo and the Ukraine. We are also witnessing a nakedly aggressive imperialism reflected in Trump’s posturing over territorial expansion. We see the continuing inter-imperialist tensions, especially between the US and China, playing out economically and politically.
Global Capitalism
This is an era of unparalleled inequality. The dominant mega-capitalist billionaire class, exemplified by Musk and Bezos, parade their wealth as well as their intentions to mould politics to their interests. In the US hedge fund billionaire and Netanyahu supporter Bill Ackman promises to plough massive resources into the NYC mayoral election to ensure that anyone but Mamdani wins.
This new oligarch class exists alongside levels of inequality and poverty, especially child poverty, not seen for decades in the US and advanced capitalist countries such as Britain. This increased immiseration of the working class and concentration of wealth and power by the super-rich is the inevitable product of untrammelled capitalism, as Marx himself predicted would occur over 150 years ago.
But the exposure of these billionaires is very dangerous for capitalism, especially as they take on a more overtly political role. In the US the axe to federal spending planned by Musk, now sanctioned by the Supreme Court, will have a devastating impact on jobs and services for the working class and poor. The popularity of Mamdani, for all his limitations, is a straw in the wind of how things may develop in the US.
Britain
The idea of 2.5% growth, on which Labour’s economic and political strategy is based, is completely illusory. At present growth figures are negative and they will struggle to reach much beyond 0.5% per annum on optimistic forecasts. Tax revenue is therefore significantly lower than the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves has budgeted for. To make matters worse, Labour is also now committed to increase NATO spending to 5% of GDP. Where are the billions for that supposed to come from?
Very quickly, the government will be faced with the fact that the books do not balance. The reality is that, unless this is addressed, at some point a run on the pound will take place, with likely extremely damaging implications for interest rates and for the economy in general.
After Labour’s forced (and limited) backdown on benefits, Reeves will have to deal with the impending crisis in public finances. Labour will either try to cut public expenditure – probably coming again for benefits, and possibly pensions – or increase taxation. But the cost-of-living crisis, which is the biggest single factor currently eroding Labour’s support, makes further taxes on the working class very problematic for Starmer.
We would argue for socialist policies including the nationalisation of the banks, the utilities and the implementation of a wealth tax – demands which may find an increasing echo in the months ahead, especially with the creation of a new left formation.
Although the election of the Labour Government in 2024 was not based on a wave of enthusiasm or expectation, it is still striking how rapidly support for the party has collapsed. The mishandling of the proposed cuts in benefits, with attacks targeted on the disabled, has shown the government as neither competent nor strong, but just as reactionary as the Tories.
Labour’ foreign policy, particularly on Gaza, has further undermined its standing, especially amongst young people and working-class communities of Muslim heritage. Labour’s continued backing of the policies of annexation and genocide, diplomatically and through arms sales, has gone hand in hand with an increasingly repressive response from the state to those who have stood up against their policies. The designation of Palestine Action as terrorist (with sentences of up to 14 years to those in breach of the law) is indicative of the new authoritarianism apparent here and internationally.
The repression directed towards Palestine Action today will be faced by environmental protestors and striking workers tomorrow. It is important to emphasise the continuing, ongoing environmental crisis, of which global warming is the most significant, but not the only element.
Labour’s authoritarianism also determines its approach to the national question, on which it is in lock step with all strands of bourgeois opinion. Preservation and strengthening of the ‘integrity’ (i.e. centralisation) of the UK goes hand in hand with a shift to militarisation of the state and increased political and social repression in their strategy for British capital.
A key test for any new left party will be whether it can combine a commitment to building grassroots class struggle politics in all four nations of these isles, with an unswerving defence of the right to self-determination, in particular, a bold commitment to the right of Scotland to a second referendum on independence. We need to work with comrades in the Irish and Scottish sections to develop and advance a coherent socialist programme that meets the national aspirations in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.
New left party
The consciousness in Britain at present is undoubtedly complex. There is widespread dissatisfaction, not only with Labour, but with the entire political system in which the concerns of working people are routinely ignored – particularly over issues such as housing, low pay and the cost-of-living crisis. There is also a more popular dissatisfaction with capitalism in general – evidenced in the widespread support for the renationalisation of privatised electricity and water companies.
It is against this background that a large section of the ruling class endorses a strategy based on divide and rule. Right wing media and social media sources, together with the right-wing press, offer a constant diet of culture wars based on misogyny and transphobia. Rather than combatting their lies, this poison is tacitly or even openly endorsed by Labour in government. Such an approach only encourages Reform as well as organisations even further to the right.
The far right’s main focus continues to be on migration. It’s an issue which is not going to go away, whatever deal is conjured up between Starmer and Macron. The reality is that population movements such as those currently experienced, are rooted in the push factors of war, of impoverishment and increasingly of climate change across the global south, all of which are the consequences of policies pursued by imperialist countries. Alongside the defence of refugees and migrants in general, we need to highlight the reality that only a fundamental change of the system will start to address the reasons that force people to migrate.
It is clear that the unrelenting tide of Islamophobia and hostility to refugees, in Britain and other western countries, has created the background for the extremely toxic environment that has emerged, most obviously in the wake of the Southport killings. Yet, as the counterdemonstrations showed, there is a large reserve of support for anti-racism and unity, especially in working class communities – and in the end the far right, at least in this instance, were forced off the streets.
Although the planned resident doctors’ strikes might be an indicator of things to come, at this stage workers’ struggle is not a feature of class relations in Britain. That can and will change, but how and when is hard to predict.
However, the creation of a new left formation, led by Sultana and Corbyn, is potentially very positive. There will be discussions to be held internally about the formation, and how it maps out, but, whatever its limitations, it is highly likely to attract fresh and enthusiastic new layers to it, and we will need to have an orientation towards it. It also raises again the need for trade unions to withdraw financial support for a Labour party which supports the other side in the class struggle.
Although a vibrant, democratic mass left wing party will be a very important step forward, it does not remove the necessity of a revolutionary Marxist organisation.
The reality is that left formations can grow very rapidly, and even challenge for political power, but if they confine themselves to a reformist programme, ameliorating and softening the harshness of capitalism rather than seeking to overthrow it, they will end up in power simply operating capitalism to the detriment of the mass of the people. These arguments have to be put forward sympathetically and skilfully, so we are not just seen as splitters with our analysis thereby dismissed.
It’s important to infuse our approach with revolutionary optimism – not a false optimism that is disconnected from reality, but one based on confidence in the capacity of humankind to struggle against the chains of oppression that binds them and to change society.
There will be a search for left wing ideas and organisations that offer a coherent analysis of society and a perspective of achieving fundamental change. We don’t see it as a virtue being a small organisation, and if it were possible to exist within or even alongside a larger party, then we would do. Unfortunately, all of the existing revolutionary left organisations (SWP, SP, IMT, SA, AWL, 4I etc.) have such serious flaws that it is not possible to envisage us merging into any of them without fatally compromising ourselves. In reality, none of these organisations would accept us unless we renounce our positions, especially on Socialist Feminism, on safeguarding and/or on the use of the term genocide etc.
Neither in the split with the CWI of 2019 or with the ISA in 2024 was there a principled alternative to the course we took. However, we do understand that the consequences of this has been the fragile and weakened position that we now find ourselves in. To build a stable, coherent revolutionary current, let alone a party, will not be an easy, automatic process. We can’t wish away the very real limitations imposed on us by our current weaknesses.
But we do have advantages too. We have our history. We have the positions we took in the splits. We have the immense advantage of international links with groups and individuals who share our ideas. With clarity on our socialist feminism ideas, and how we apply them, we can offer hope and a route out of the nightmare of capitalism and patriarchy.