A political party styling itself as the “new radical force on the left” has launched in the UK. The Left Unity seeks to revive the working class ideal of the Labour party which, it claims, is failing Britain’s poorest communities in the “class war”.
Around 400 people gathered at the new party’s launch conference
in Bloomsbury, London on Friday. It was decided at the meeting
that the party would represent the “broad left” and be a viable
alternative to the Labour Party.
We are "Left Unity" a new political force on the left. Result of party name: Left Unity Party 47 Left Party 122... http://t.co/F3PV16Zqsf
— Left Unity (@LeftUnityUK) November 30, 2013
“The Conservatives and their Lib Dem stooges are launching an
all-out class war on the poorest people in this country and
Labour is doing nothing about it,” Salman Shaheen, Left Unity
National Coordinating Group, told RT correspondent, Tesa Arcilla.
In addition, Ken Loach, one of the party’s co-founders, told RT
that Britain needed a party to represent the values and interests
of the Left.
“Britain is different to Europe in that most European countries
have a party on the left. If that’s the best they can do then we
can think of a better way,” said Loach.
Left Unity believes that in the light of the financial crisis,
drastic action is required to defend the interests of the working
classes in the UK. Citing the appearance of new political
formations in “Greece, France, Germany and elsewhere,” the
party’s founders say a political force needs to challenge the
“capitulation of social democracy to neo-liberalism”.
Left Unity has called on its 1,000-odd followers to reject the
“rightwards move of Labour” and reject austerity and war.
“Europe is plunging deeper and deeper into crisis. Its
governments are continuing with their failed austerity policies
which are destroying the social and economic gains working people
have made over many decades,” writes the party in its mission
statement.
The UK’s coalition government, headed by the Conservative party,
has implemented massive austerity measures on public services in
the UK. Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the success of the
austerity measures and said that they should be a permanent
measure rather than a way out of the financial crisis.
“It also means something more profound, it means building a
leaner, more efficient state. We need to do more with less.
Not just now, but permanently,” the Prime Minister said at
the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London’s Guildhall.
Cameron’s austerity measures have made him unpopular among the
British working classes who have accused the
Conservative government of being out of touch with the majority.
The 2013 British Social Attitudes Survey revealed that support
for the government has plummeted, with around 75 percent saying
they do not believe in the British political system.
Additionally, the amount of people who approve of the UK’s
coalition government has plummeted from 40 percent in 2010 to 28
percent.
The launch of the Left Unity party goes against the recent
European trend, where right-wing parties are turning the tide on
the continent. The euro skeptical UK Independence Party (UKIP) is
currently considered the legitimate third party in Britain.
The Alternative for Germany party nearly made it to the country’s
parliament, the Bundestag, this September. In Austria, the
far-right Freedom Party gained over one-fifth of the votes in
September’s general election.
Norway's current conservative government came to power with tough
immigration promises and there have also been far-right gains in
Sweden and Finland.