23 people came to the launch meeting of Left Unity in Leeds this Wednesday. Everyone contributed and collectively we came up with a workable plan for building outwards to people who have been let down by Labour and believe an alternative is necessary.
The planning meeting agreed to support an upcoming demonstration against the Bedroom Tax and the People’s Assembly taking place in London on 22 June. However, some concerns were raised about the potential for the People’s Assembly to be undemocratic with so many top-table speakers and no concrete proposals for how we can unite the anti-cuts movement. This was a really positive discussion and one that Left Unity and anti-cuts groups across the country should be having if we want to shape what happens on 22 June.
Members of the IS Network, the Revolutionary Socialists, Workers Power showed up – but happily it wasn’t just the usual faces. Building Left Unity won’t happen overnight but a genuine commitment to creating a working class party will steamroll over individuals’ petty vendettas and open the road to real, principled unity in action. Equally, we need to go beyond uniting the existing Left with those who’ve dropped out of the Left – this means reaching out to our workmates, neighbours and friends to lay the foundations of a mass party that can take on the Tories.
There are huge numbers of people disillusioned with the Labour Party as their refusal to oppose any of the Tory cuts – the situation is ripe for a new party and we have the opportunity in every town and city to build that alternative.
There will be a launch event on 22 April where children’s author and libraries activist Alan Gibbons will be speaking. Let’s try to make this even a real success – packed with new and old faces coming together to make Ken Loach’s call for a new working class party a reality.