Organise to fight the cost-of-living crisis and the threat of Reform
Build a new party of the working class and socialism
Text of a Socialist Party leaflet printed in the evening of 8 May
Labour got a hammering in the elections on 7 May. The collapse in support for the main establishment parties that represent the interests of the bosses is not a new process. The Tories faced a wipeout in the 2024 general election, pay-back for 14 years of austerity. Labour was the main beneficiary at that point, but is now being punished for continuing the same Tory policies.
As we print this leaflet, the results are still being counted but it is clear that Labour has suffered the loss of hundreds of councillors across England, and of control of a whole swathe of councils. Labour’s 100-year winning streak in Wales has also come to an end.
Even before the final tally, it’s clear that the losses are of historic proportions. And the votes have gone in all sort of directions as voters seek ways to register their protest at the cost-of-living crises, crumbling public services, war, and curbs on the right to protest and of trade unions to defend their members.
The main beneficiary of the desire to punish Labour has been the right populist Reform UK led by Nigel Farage. Farage and Co claim to be on the side of the workers – but they never point the finger of blame at those at the top. They are a third Tory party, also acting in the interests of the rich elite.
The Labour government has also legitimised Reform’s hateful rhetoric by scapegoating migrants and refugees. While we are expected to fight over the crumbs, the billionaires are cashing in. In 2025, over £80bn was paid to shareholders of the FTSE 100 biggest companies while public services were starved.
Whatever the final results, it’s clear that workers, young people and communities need to get organised to fight council cuts, racist division, and war. We need to campaign for councils to use their powers and resources to introduce measures that support those squeezed by rising prices. We need our trade unions playing a leading role in this.
To cut across Reform and fight the cost-of-living squeeze, a national anti-austerity party that represents the needs of the working class is also needed. In these elections, many of those looking to protest Labour from the left voted Green and they made big gains including winning the mayor of Hackney. This shows the huge potential there is for a new party that fights austerity and stands for socialism.
Last September, Zack Polanski won the leadership of the Green Party, describing himself as an eco-populist, explaining that means going after billionaires, water companies, and corporations. Who could disagree with that?
But why not call for nationalisation of energy, or the banking system, rather than just of water? That would really start to take the power out of the hands of the billionaires and corporations.
Some Green candidates have committed to opposing austerity in office. In the run-up to the elections, leading socialist trade unionists called on Green leader Zack Polanski to transform the approach all Green councillors take.
Rather than continuing to administer council cuts, Zack was called on to instruct Green Party councillors to fight against austerity. Even before the election Green councillors numbered 900+ and were present in 194 councils. They were already the largest party in 12 councils, and in power or part of the administration on 40 councils where no group has an overall majority. In other words, they had a significant platform from which to challenge the government over funding of council services.
That now needs to be the approach that is taken. Councils still control around 20% of all public spending – that is a potential basis for launching a resistance movement.
We will undoubtedly be told that councils can’t do anything while the government is making cuts to spending. Trade unionists and socialists are always told our demands for fair pay, decent working conditions, public services and rights are unaffordable and unrealistic. To win these campaigns means rejecting that capitalist ‘logic’.
In the 1980s, Thatcher’s Tory government told the socialist-led Liverpool City Council there was no money. A mass struggle, including strikes, to back the council’s demands forced Thatcher to concede £60m.
The gains for the Liverpool working class included 5,000 council homes, nurseries, apprenticeships, and more. That movement was led by the Socialist Party, then called Militant.
Since 2010, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), whose founders included militant former RMT general secretary Bob Crow and the Socialist Party, has pioneered an anti-cuts strategy.
Councils can use their borrowing powers and reserves to set no-cuts needs-based budgets as part of building a mass campaign for proper government funding for local services. In other words, setting a budget that fights to take the money off the billionaires not the working class.
The organised working class is the most powerful force for change in society. In Britain, the 2022-23 strike wave gave a glimpse of the power in the over six million-strong trade unions to challenge the rule of the super-rich elite.
It’s our organised collective strength that makes the working class capable of fighting the bosses, winning pay rises, defending conditions, building solidarity in struggle – and changing the world.
A party that can represent the interests of our class must have the trade unions democratically involved in its organisation and programme. A socialist programme summarises how the rigged and rotten system of capitalism can be ended.
