” Change is in the air. But if left to its own devices it will mean a capitalist state serving the capitalist class – bailing out the billionaires & letting the rest of society sink. We need to fight for a people’s state that bails-out the people.”
Richard Burgon MP
By the Arise Volunteer Team
Richard Burgon, Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, closed Saturday’s Socialist Solutions to the Crisis – Taking on the Tories, Building a Fighting Labour Left event hosted by Arise – A Festival of Labour’s Left Ideas, with an impassioned plea that now “can be – and it must be – the moment when we build a better society.”
His message resonated strongly wiuth the 1000s of activists tuned in for parts of the event, which has since reached 10,000s more people on social media, and included sessions on economic alternatives, the need to defend our right to resist and the Black Lives matter movement, a session with representatives from across Labour’s left groups on how we defend party democracy and socialist policies against Keir Starmer’s attacks, plus a special session on the need for international co-operation to tackle the fundamental crises of our time.
The message throughout the day was clear – the Labour Left is fighting back, working together and here to stay,
Drawing together some of the key themes of the day, Richard argued that the current “crisis has shone a spotlight on the deep failings of 40-years dominated by neoliberalism, marketisation, deregulation and privatisation,” but that we can be optimistic of achieving change, especially as the “polls show people want a more inclusive, fairer, more equal society to be built out of this crisis.”
He added that “the old ideas that they rammed down our throats for decades are on the ropes,” noting that “it wasn’t long ago that we were told the state had no role in the economy – that everything should be left to the invisible hand of the market – an invisible hand that robbed workers pockets and handed their resources to the already super-rich” but now, “after the banking crisis and this crisis – nobody serious is saying there should be no role for the state in the economy.”
As he concluded, “so change is in the air. But if left to its own devices it will mean a capitalist state serving the capitalist class – bailing out the billionaires and letting the rest of society sink. We need to fight for a people’s state that bails-out the people.”
We know just how important our campaigning against the Tories’ reactionary agenda is, and our work in Labour for socialist policies and Labour Party Democracy which must go alongside this, is. As chair Christine Blower said on Saturday, now is the time to “build the resistance to the Tories and popularise socialist solutions – lets do it together.”
- Saturday’s event was the culmination of 15 months of dozens of online events. Forums, rallies and more Arise have hosted or streamed, with 100,000s of views. You can watch many of them at https://www.youtube.com/c/AriseFestivalChannel
