TUSC offers its full backing to a Corbyn/Sultana new left party

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee has offered its full backing to the recent moves made towards the establishment of a new political voice for the working class to challenge the continuity Tories of Keir Starmer’s New Labour Party. It is in response to the upcoming new left party.

The new left party

At its first meeting since the dramatic announcement on 3 July by the Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana that she was resigning from Labour to work with Jeremy Corbyn to found a new left party, the TUSC steering committee agreed to help in any way it can to make a new working-class party become a reality.

TUSC national chairperson Dave Nellist, also a former Labour MP (1983-1992) from Coventry South, said:

From its beginning TUSC has been conceived as ‘contributing to the hard, long-term task of rebuilding political representation’ for the working class – in the words of the 2012 RMT transport workers’ union AGM resolution that saw it officially join the TUSC steering committee – not as the finished broader vehicle that is needed but rather a lever to help bring it about.

Our activity has always been aimed to help develop the self-confidence of the working class that it is an alternative power to the tiny capitalist elite who rule our society.  And that it has the capacity to create and build its own democratic mass workers’ party to realise that power politically.

It is from that starting point that TUSC has been involved in some of the discussions that preceded Zarah Sultana’s announcement on July 3rd. And it is on that basis too that we will enthusiastically contribute what we can to the process of getting a new party off the ground.

One immediate step we will be pushing forward is the campaign initiated in May by senior trade unionists – now with 41 current and former members of trade union executive committees signed up – calling for urgent discussions across the unions to establish a political voice for working people (see the online petition at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty).

Another will be to offer support to councillors prepared to come over to a new party; in a situation where Labour’s continued austerity agenda for local government means that a fighting, no cuts strategy – which TUSC has pioneered since its inception – will be vital to marking out a new party and its representatives as completely different to the establishment politicians.

TUSC: a party registration offer

Dealing with the next practical steps to be addressed in a new left party, TUSC national election agent Clive Heemskerk added:

Establishing a new workers’ party able to bring together trade unions, anti-war protestors, working class community campaigners, environmental activists, young people fighting for a future, and the already existing groups of independent councillors, is a process and not something to be achieved in one act.

One issue is the requirement under Britain’s election laws to register a party with the Electoral Commission before it can appear on ballot papers, including the restrictions on what the name could be if it overlaps with already existing parties.  As an interim measure, the TUSC steering committee agreed that we would be prepared to ‘hand over’ our registration to Jeremy and Zarah if that helps the process along.

It would allow things to get going straightaway.  And actually TUSC’s ‘federal coalition’ model of organisation also fits in with how a new, inclusive party could operate, at least in its early stages, to achieve the greatest unity.

Over the years various socialist parties, independent councillors, community organisations – and for ten years a national trade union – have participated in TUSC’s ‘consensus method’ of decision-making which, while often requiring patient discussions with everyone’s viewpoint both being and being seen to be equal, has brought everybody along.

Of course, once a party is registered – or, in this case, if our offer is taken up, new statutory officers appointed – things can be amended later on with the democratic involvement of members.  That could include a debate on the best ballot paper name, although TUSC’s legally-registered descriptions including ‘Socialist and Trade Union Candidate’ and ‘Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate’, have the advantage of saying clearly which side of the class division of wealth and power the new party’s candidates would be on.

But the most important thing to realise now is that the idea of a new party is out there and the chance to take a big step forward for working class political representation must be seized.

Nothing unexpected about Labour’s shift to the right

Different component parts of the TUSC steering committee give their own, independent, responses on the moves to a new left party.

Returning from the Unite the Union conference held on 7-11 July, during which Birmingham Labour council announced the effective fire-and-rehire of refuse workers striking against pay cuts of up to £8,000 a year, Unite Executive Council member Suz Muna, who sits on the TUSC steering committee in a personal capacity, said:

The government has a direct role in Birmingham through its appointed commissioners to the council and it led our conference to vote overwhelmingly to re-examine Unite’s relationship with the Labour Party.

Members want political representatives who work in their interests.  This means a party of trade unionists and community campaigners, who speak for us in parliament and council chambers across the country”.

We can learn from the foundations of the Labour Party, when different trade union and socialist organisations fought to get their representatives elected to parliament, and then combined to fight for working class interests.

It was this party that won us welfare support, the NHS, free education, a state pension, and mass council housing.

There was nothing inevitable about its move to the right.  That came from a series of decisions that allowed democracy to wither within the party.  And that’s the other lesson from history: to cleave to meaningful democratic accountability so that the people we elect never lose touch with, or betray, those who elected them.

Another senior trade unionist who participates in the TUSC steering committee in a personal capacity, April Ashley, who has just won 28,792 votes to be re-elected as the female black members’ rep on the UNISON national executive council, said:

At Unison conference 2025 every delegate who called for a new party for workers got massive applause.  However, that was not the only view expressed. Our general secretary, Christina McAnea, praised the ‘significant changes’ she claimed we’re seeing under Starmer’s government.  For most Unison members, however, their experience is not of positive change but a continuation of Tory austerity, including savage cuts to local authorities that are already on their knees.

Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn’s announcements about moves to found a new party are therefore very welcome to me and other Unison members.  In my view, however, it will be crucial to successfully building a force with real roots in the working class that any structure for a new party gives trade unions a collective voice, under the democratic control of union members.

Featured image via the Canary