There was a lively debate about a new left challenge in the elections
By Camilla Royle in Sheffield
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There was an electric atmosphere at the We Demand Change summit in Sheffield
Over 500 people discussed how to build the resistance to Keir Starmer at a We Demand Change (WDC) summit in Sheffield on Sunday.
It comes out of the 2,000-strong summit of resistance in London in March, which called for a roll-out of WDC across Britain.
The Sheffield summit brought people together from a wide variety of campaigns. They included Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, the Voice of Voiceless Immigration Detainees Yorkshire and Sheffield Keep Our NHS public.
Corbyn told Socialist Worker he was impressed by the diversity of people who had come together to end austerity, eliminate poverty and stop arms sales to Israel.
The summit came the day after over 500,000 people took to the streets of London for the 27th national demonstration for Palestine.
Palestinian human rights activist Musheir El-Farrar has been at the centre of the Palestine solidarity movement in South Yorkshire. He told the opening rally, “Despite the killing, despite the fact that Britain and the US are sending rockets, we have hope because we have you.”
“The worst feeling is the feeling of abandonment by all regimes and governments in the world including Arab and Muslim countries.
“But when we see you on the streets chanting for a free Palestine we are not abandoned.”
WDC is a space that brings together the movements fighting back. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets after the Supreme Court’s attack on trans+ rights last month, including 1,000 people in Sheffield.
Jenny Black from the Unison union said, “I’m a woman, I’m a trans woman. I have a message for Keir Starmer—my biology is my business and I will not be judged by it.”
The WDC summit came after the local elections, which saw far right party Reform UK take control of nearby Doncaster council.
Samira Ali from Stand Up To Racism said, “We are seeing the surge of the far right and Reform UK.
“We can’t be afraid to call Reform out for what it is—that is a far right racist party that represents a danger in Britain.”
Samira slammed Starmer’s “island of strangers” speech last week that adopted the language of the far right. “We are getting a masterclass in how not to fight Reform UK from Starmer,” she said.
Green Party leadership candidate Zack Polanski said the Labour Party is criminalising protest. He said it is “so important” that groups like WDC come together to challenge the power of the failing and deeply unpopular Starmer government.
There was a packed debate about the left and elections.
Maxine Bowler, a Socialist Workers Party (SWP) member, stood as an independent socialist candidate in Sheffield in the general election. She said, “I think there is a definite need for an alternative to stand against Labour in the 2026 local election.
“We can’t stand by and allow the most vulnerable people in our society to be attacked.”
A speaker from the Greens said the party should not be left out of discussions about a left alternative. He claimed that Green councils don’t support cuts in local government, saying, “Government imposes cuts and we do our best to protect what services we have.”
Another participant disagreed and said the Green Party does vote through cuts and implement austerity like Labour.
Elections: an opportunity for the left?
Campaigner Salma Yaqoob said, “Real power is actually on our streets and in communities. But we do need an electoral expression of these movements. We need an answer at the ballot box—a new left party. My message today is ‘let’s get this party started’.”
Salma said that a new left organisation doesn’t need everyone to agree on every point, as long as candidates agree on a core set of principles.
In the opening rally Salma suggested that a new party could be announced soon. That comes a week after Corbyn edged closer to declaring a new left grouping at a meeting in Huddersfield.
Sheffield bin worker Joel Mayfield praised the “mega picket” in Birmingham last week. It saw hundreds stop the Labour council’s strike-breaking operation against an indefinite bin strike.
“We want to bring some of that spirit of Birmingham to Lumley street in Sheffield,” he said. “We ought to build a mass picket and it will be a pleasure to see any of you there.”
He added, “You could feel the solidarity—those people at Birmingham are the vanguard of the fight against cuts.
“Ordinary people are the ones that have got the real power. If we don’t like something, we can say enough is enough and do something about it.”
There is an urgent need for a much higher level struggle on the streets and picket lines—and a socialist alternative based on it.