Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), jointly issued by the RCIT Britain and the International Bureau of the RCIT, 13 August 2025, www.thecommunists.net

1.           Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana – two left-wing MPs and former members of the Labour Party – have announced an initiative to build a new party which would “take on the rich and powerful”. Such a party should be “rooted in our communities, trade unions and social movements, one that builds power in all the regions and nations, one that belongs to you.” According to the two politicians, an inaugural founding conference will be held soon.

2.           The call for a new left-wing party has been met with widespread enthusiasm. Within two weeks, more than 700,000 people have already signed up to support the new party. This shows the burning desire of sectors of the masses for a political alternative not only to the racist Reform party but also to the rotten Labour Party – a party which serves the bosses, Trump and Israel and which suppresses the courageous activists of Palestine Action.

3.           The emergence of this new party is, to a large degree, the result of the huge pro-Palestine solidarity movement which regularly mobilises hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of London for nearly two years. More generally, this development also reflects the political polarisation which is taking place in Britain and globally and which has resulted not only in the strengthening of reactionary right-wing forces but also in the rise of class struggle and the emergence of new layers of activists looking for a socialist alternative.

4.           The emergence of a new left-wing party is of paramount importance – not only for Britain but also internationally. With such a large number of supporters, the new party could become one of the strongest forces in Europe and provoke similar developments in other countries. However, it would be wrong to have any illusions in Corbyn and Sultana respectively the circles around them. Corbyn was the leader of the Labour Party in 2015-20. As such he made one compromise after the other with the right wing in the party instead of breaking with them. He failed to call for a clear rupture with NATO and Zionism. In the end, he lost his leadership position and Starmer kicked him out. Since then, Corbyn had wasted years by refraining from calling for a new party – a failure which has aided the rise of Nigel Farage’s racist Reform party. Zarah Sultana was a member of Labour until a few weeks ago. They are left reformists who believe in the possibility to overcome capitalism via parliamentary elections. Essentially their desire is to repeat the policy of SYRIZA in Greece and PODEMOS in Spain – concepts which result in government coalitions with capitalist parties, demobilisation and demoralisation of the masses and failure to implement substantial reforms (not to speak about a rupture with capitalism).

5.           The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) strongly welcomes the emergence of the new left-wing party as an excellent opportunity to build a new workers party as an alternative to pro-capitalist and pro-Zionist Labour. Socialists should recognise the great importance of the new initiative and work to make it a success. The new party could become the political expression of the radicalisation of millions of people who have developed their political consciousness since 7 October under the impression of the Zionist-American genocide in Gaza and the heroic Palestinian resistance. It would probably be the first time in many decades that the emergence of a left-wing party has been triggered by an anti-imperialist mass movement.

6.           It will be crucial to fight from the very beginning against all efforts to build the new party in a bureaucratic way. Momentum – the organisation in Labour which supported Corbyn in the past decade – is a warning example of how not to build a political project. Instead, we call for the organisation of local assemblies of party supporters. Surely, many of those 700,000 people who signed to support the new party will actually not turn up to such meetings. But if 50 or 100,000 workers and youth become actively involved in the political life of the party, we would see the emergence of new and powerful left-wing mass party. Such local assemblies should discuss about the political principles and the main activities of the new party and elect delegates for a national conference which should democratically decide about these issues and elect a leadership. We think such a focus on local assemblies, nationally linked via elected and recallable delegates, could obstruct attempts to build a bureaucratic party controlled by a few leaders from the top.

7.           Furthermore, socialists in trade unions should argue to affiliate with the new left party. At the same time, they must make sure that such affiliation does not result in influence of the trade union bureaucracy in the new party. Hence, the campaign for affiliation needs to go hand in hand with the struggle against the union bureaucracy and for the democratisation of the trade union.

8.           As socialists we argue for an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist program inside the new party. Such a program should call for the repeal of all laws restricting the right to organise in unions or to strike; against Islamophobia, for equal rights and equal wages for migrant workers as well as for open borders; for the abolition of the monarchy; for the nationalisation of monopolies in industry, finance, transport and energy under workers’ control; for unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian resistance; for closure of all military bases abroad and for exit from NATO, etc. It should advocate a workers’ government based on popular councils and militias, opening the road to socialism in Britain and internationally.

9.           Given the numerical weakness of authentic Marxist forces in the current period, it is clear that revolutionaries would only constitute a minority in such a new party and a program as outlined above would not find support by the majority of the membership. But this must not stop socialists to work inside such a party, to help building it and to argue for their ideas. At the same time, it will be crucial to build a revolutionary pole within the new party and to forge alliances with other anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist forces. Their task would be to help the development of the political consciousness of new layers of workers and youth and to oppose any attempts of the Corbyn/Sultana leadership to drag the new party in a reformist direction.

10.         It is currently not possible to predict if the new party will be a success, if it will become a new workers party, a left-reformist or a petty-bourgeois populist force. But the task now is not to speculate about what might be in 1-2 years but to build the new party and to fight within it for an anti-imperialist, socialist perspective and against those who want to lead it in bureaucratic and reformist direction.