SATURDAY’S demonstration, called by the People’s Assembly, shows the only way out of the political deadlock caused by Brexit negotiations. 

Whatever happens to Theresa May’s dodgy deal — and in all likelihood it will be voted down by MPs — the central demand of the movement must be for a general election now.

This country desperately needs an anti-austerity government to undo the damage done by eight years of Tory cuts and privatisation, and by the New Labour and Tory governments that preceded them.

As Jeremy Corbyn’s words over the weekend show, this is exactly what he, and the left leadership of the Labour Party intend. 

Speaking to Andrew Marr, Jeremy Corbyn said Labour would prioritise housing, health, social security and education – key areas that have been victims of a succession of neoliberal governments since 1979.

It is absolutely crucial that, along with the investment that is so desperately needed in these areas, Labour has new ideas about how they can be run, so as to give real power to working people and working class communities. 

First, there will need to be clear answers on renationalisation in health and education, and a massive programme of council house building, to undo the ravages of privatisation, whether through right to buy and its successors, the academies and free schools programme or the break-up and sell-off of key parts of our NHS.

There must also be answers to how these nationalised services are run. How can the voice of housing workers and tenants, of teachers, parents and students, of doctors, nurses and patients, and of social security workers and claimants, be included, along with the wider voice of working-class communities, through their elected representatives and representative organisations, in determining the future of these services? 

How can the workers who know these areas the best, those that work in them and use them, be given the key role in determining the day-to-day management of them? 

These questions call for radical solutions, and a left Labour government has to be able to articulate these solutions, on behalf of the movement that it represents.

For that to happen, we need to build the movement, not just to fight for a general election now, not just to fight for a left Labour government in that election, but to develop the ideas that that government fights on and wins on, and to keep developing the ideas that it takes forward throughout its time in office. 

It is not enough to expect the team around Corbyn to develop these ideas, or indeed a future Labour government, or even the Labour Party itself. 

If the policies and politics of this government are to be truly transformational, then they must represent, reflect and articulate the hopes and dreams, the demands and manifestos of the whole labour movement and the wider working class. And they must be developed by this movement, as part of the process of struggle for change.

In this context, Saturday’s demonstration is a start but it needs to develop into a movement of protest and alternatives, of demands and ideas. 

It needs to truly engage the many in a process of struggle to develop a real alternative to the broken Britain of Tory austerity.

Corbyn’s comments from last week are absolutely clear and true: “The real divide in our country is not between those who voted to remain in the EU and those who voted to leave. It is between the many, who do the work, create the wealth and pay taxes, and the few, who set the rules, reap the rewards and so often dodge taxes.”