When it comes to absurd beginnings for new left-wing formations, it’s fair to say that Britain has a certain notoriety. In 2014, before Corbynism’s spectacular rise, there was a nascent formation known as the International Socialist Network (ISN). This split from the Socialist Workers Party came amid much optimism; it seemed to be younger, more democratic, and more in touch with the zeitgeist than its rivals on the revolutionary left. This optimism, unfortunately, was short-lived.
Just months after the foundation of the ISN, the party was embroiled in controversy. Looking back, you might have expected a dispute to revolve around the response to the coalition government’s austerity agenda, or perhaps the approach to the Labour Party and the next year’s general election, or even to the Syrian Civil War, which was raging at the time. Instead, the party saw seven resignations from its national executive over whether a human posing as a chair in a piece of art was sexy or racist.
It would have been hard to believe that this episode could be surpassed in absurdity by any new party on the British left. Yet we certainly now have a candidate to rival it. The launch of Your Party earlier this summer was met with vastly more enthusiasm than the ISN ever achieved — a reminder of the improved position of socialist politics in the wake of the 2010s. But as the new party devolved into bitter factional warfare and even rival legal threats, it also stands to contribute to a far greater wave of demoralization.
The project was fraught from the start. In early July 2025, Zarah Sultana announced that she was leaving the Labour Party and launching a new left formation in partnership with Jeremy Corbyn, naming herself and Corbyn as coleaders. However,…
Auteur: Bhaskar Sunkara
