THE Transform initiative, launched this week as the first step towards forming a new political party of the left, merits serious consideration.
Its impetus mainly comes from the fact that the left is in a period of retreat and setbacks as a consequence of Keir Starmer’s retrograde and authoritarian leadership of the Labour Party.
As the call issued by Transform states: “The right wing has regained control of Labour. Jeremy Corbyn, and his politics that inspired millions across our society, have been cast out.
“Labour now opposes strikes, rejects renationalisation, refuses to defend refugees, and won’t scrap student fees — or even the two-child benefit cap. ‘The many’ who supported Labour politics from 2015 to 2019 are denied a political voice.”
As a consequence, different groups and individuals driven out of Labour are taking a variety of steps, of which the most important to date is North-East Mayor Jamie Driscoll’s decision to contest the next election as an independent. More significantly still, it is possible that Jeremy Corbyn may do the same.
If their example were to be more widely emulated, then the skeleton of a new political initiative would begin to take shape.
Transform, however, does not largely draw on these forces, although several ex-Labour councillors in Liverpool are among its supporters.
Its main animator appears to be Left Unity, which was launched as a separate party back in the days of Ed Miliband’s leadership of Labour, with the aim of replicating Syriza in Greece, now largely discredited, and other such formations in Europe. It has not made an impact.
Its principles, nevertheless, will be very widely shared on the left and among those drawn to Labour membership when Corbyn was leader. One could nitpick over formulations about redistributing “wealth and power from the elite to the people” when the socialist task is destroying the power of the elite and socialising wealth in its entirety.
The statement also does not directly address the war in Ukraine, nor the European Union, but Transform does “seek to build power in communities, workplaces and on the streets,” seek to work with a range of movements and it proclaims a broad internationalism.
Its statement of principles, while agreeable in general terms, scarcely addresses the current juncture and could as well have been issued five or 10 years ago.
The present need is for the sharpest possible struggle against Starmer and his acolytes within the labour movement, for support for workers in action against the effects of the cost-of-living crisis and for mobilising against the imperialist war in Europe.
Any sustainable left initiative would have to come out of such struggles, with a leadership engaged in them. A new party proclaiming general principles but not organically connected to the mass movements and contemporary issues is unlikely to gain serious traction.
There is a bleak record of failure by such projects — and there are presently two such formations in existence, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition run by the Socialist Party, and the Workers Party led by George Galloway. Neither are prospering politically.
Still, the initiators of Transform are right that the brutal dispersal of the Corbyn movement within Labour has left the field open. The policies needed to solve the current crisis, from public ownership of utilities to ending austerity, are massively popular yet are actively opposed by both the governing parties.
It is not enough therefore to dismiss such initiatives, or merely point to their weaknesses. It is incumbent on the left in Labour and the trade unions to offer a coherent way forward for socialist politics, or continued fragmentation will bedevil socialists.
