“The left can only ever win if we put our differences aside and embrace one of our most important values: solidarity.”
By Ed Swann
The summer of 2025 has seen British politics once again in turmoil, with the populist-right making inroads both electorally and culturally and the Labour government yet again transfixed on pandering to the austerity-inducing, genocide-enabling and immigration-fearmongering policies of both Reform and Badenoch’s (increasingly irrelevant) Conservatives. From this, alongside the erosion of Labour Party democracy, a year of watered-down bills and condescending rhetoric towards us, the left have finally bitten the bullet and, in parts, walked away.
The decision of Sultana and Corbyn to make the leap of faith and build a new movement, one that actually maintains the principles of democratic socialism and anti-imperialism within it, was too enticing for student societies like Warwick Left Society to not get involved, and so a new chapter in the student movement has been born.
For too long have Labour Clubs up and down the country had to defend their very existence as a Labour-affiliate (if albeit in name only) to their members and university counterparts, with it clear to see that this Labour Government has strived so far from the ‘change’ it was elected to represent, continuing its regime stolen straight from the Reform playbook as the right of the party, ironically called ‘Labour to Win,’ seek to chase votes so far right they have pushed the left away for good.
Something that Labour HQ seems to not grasp is the importance of the UK Government’s (lack of) action on the genocide in Gaza. This is a subject which runs deeply through the hearts of students across the country, both politicised and not, with campuses like my own becoming hotspots for protests, direct action and the formation of a spirit of collective liberation. If it wasn’t already difficult for Labour Clubs to justify their ties to yet another government continuing neoliberal economic policy and failing to stand up in defence of the marginalised in our society, then the complicity in Israel’s genocide would be enough on its own.
With this new ‘Your Party’ on the horizon, it was inevitable that societies like Warwick, of which I am proud to have been the Chair of since March, Manchester and Newcastle would break away from their overseers in the form of Labour Students, in pursuit of not just a way to survive on campus, but to build the next stage of the student political movement.
Following Warwick’s decision to rebrand to Warwick Left Society, a new student movement more united than ever before is beginning to form. Many disregard the importance of students in political movements – often times they have a fair point. I myself detest the idea that a group of Russell Group university students, many of which are from middle- or higher-class backgrounds, raised in England’s home counties with no real grasp of how the normal Brit lives, should think they could singlehandedly lead the way in transforming our political climate in the interests of the many, not the few.
However, although this is naturally going to be a recurring issue in student politics, we have seen the student movement historically achieve great things, even if all that was achieved was shifting the debate onto a topic previously ignored at times. From rent strikes to the huge 2010 student movement against austerity and tuition fee rises, to ‘Red Warwick,’ a period at Warwick in the 1970-80s that saw an incredibly diverse array of ideologues uniting for common causes such as the creation of an SU building, there is power in the student movement waiting to be unlocked and released into today’s unsteady and unpredictable climate. Behind us are years of experience through alumni who fought hard for their causes, who took the brave decisions that needed to be made, who stood up not just for their generation but for future ones to come, and made great sacrifices in the name of progress.
The important lesson to learn from all of the student movement’s history is that we must stand united. Time and time again, as if we want the stereotypes to forever be true, does the left fail to unite its ideas and plans into something greater than a standalone action or protest. We must combine these displays of agitation with a united front both electorally and culturally, sharing plans, thoughts and goals across organisations and political parties. That is why, despite breaking away from the Labour Party, Warwick Left Society is excited to be hosting a variety of SCG MPs and leftist speakers across the next year.
Personally, after 3 years in the party where I got to meet so many incredible people from all ages and backgrounds, I know that the left of Labour is still alive and kicking, with much left to offer to the socialist cause. It is pertinent that all of us who share that same cause, whether we remain in Labour, have broken away to ‘Your Party’, found home in Polanski’s Green Party, or who’s political vehicles remain outside of electoral politics (like many in the student movement) don’t lose sight of that shared cause.
The left can only ever win if we put our differences aside and embrace one of our most important values: solidarity. Side by side, students must stand with those in the Labour left, the Greens, ‘Your Party’ and beyond if we want to make the real difference to people’s lives that they deserve. If we don’t, we know exactly who is waiting to snatch power.
- Ed Swann is the Chair of Warwick Left Society. You can follow the society on Twitter/X and Instagram.
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