Zarah Sultana calls for ‘democratic control and ownership of banks and the arms industry’

Speaking to the Canary at the weekend, Your Party’s Zarah Sultana didn’t just demand a platform of socialism and peace. She also insisted on democratising Britain’s banking system. That, she said, has to be part of Your Party’s plan to transform the economy into one that serves ordinary people rather than corporate profits.

She added that the political corruption surrounding the arms industry must end too. And the skills of the sector should be harnessed for social good instead:

Zarah Sultana calls for a democratic economy of peace and public service

Zarah Sultana asserted that:

Our party’s position must be in democratic control and ownership of banks, of the arms industry, so we can put those towards social good, not war and destruction. And, when it comes to banks in particular, redirect that money that is created by working-class people – that’s nurses, teachers, taxi drivers – into investments that promote the environment, that promote good jobs, that promote a well-funded public-service system.

Calling the current British establishment “a poodle to the US”, she stressed that:

Our arms industry has a very cosy relationship with this Labour government… [and] that cosy relationship has to be dismantled.

Your Party should also end Britain’s participation in NATO, she said. And that’s not just because it’s a tool for US interests that causes immense destruction. It’s also because:

Every penny that this Labour government spends on missiles, tanks and bombs is taken out of healthcare, housing, and our future and addressing the climate catastrophe

Party democracy and national democracy

Zarah Sultana told the Canary that Your Party’s communication strategy and membership system need to improve. She called the briefing of establishment gatekeepers like the Guardian “disappointing”. And she insisted that she wants Your Party to be:

more democratic than any other party

It should show “solidarity to our migrant – our refugee – communities” by opening membership up to them, for example. As she stressed:

We need to centre building a mass-movement party, mobilising everyone, having low barriers to entry. That means having an international section so people who are living abroad can get involved and become members, that involves lowering the age from 16 to 14, that means also allowing people who already have membership of another party to get involved. Because our job has to be to unify the left.

Regarding unity on the left, she stated very clearly that:

The goal in 2029 is going to be stopping Nigel Farage from getting the keys to Downing Street.

She asserted that there are differences between Your Party and Zack Polanski’s Green Party. “We are an explicitly socialist, anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist party”, she said, which favours severing “all diplomatic relations with the genocidal apartheid state of Israel”. (The Greens have long called out Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but their stance on ongoing diplomacy with Israel has come under scrutiny recently.)

Polanski, however, has favoured carefully moving the current Green position on NATO closer to Sultana’s. And he has called the Greens “an eco-populist and a socialist movement”, expressing his openness to cooperate with others on the left.

Zarah Sultana emphasised that “there’s enough space on the left for all of us” and that “electoral alliances have to be democratically voted upon by our respective memberships”. But she also insisted:

We will work together, unite to fight Farage and to fight fascism.

Featured image via the Canary