Socialist Alternative (ISA in England, Wales and Scotland)
(This article was first published on 14 September 2025)
On Saturday, tens of thousands of far-right activists and supporters flooded the streets of London at an event addressed by leading right-wing figures, ranging from Tommy Robinson to key US Trump movement ideologue Steve Bannon. It also featured a video message from Elon Musk in which he warned of the “woke mind virus” and told the crowd “you either fight back or you die”.
Undoubtedly, it was the largest far-right rally in generations, attracting a broader layer beyond only hardcore far-right activists. And despite the underreporting of its size by the Met Police, the counter-demonstration organised by Stand Up to Racism was massively outnumbered. It is a stark turnaround from the situation surrounding the racist riots in August 2024, which were ultimately brought to an end by the mobilisation of the working class and youth.
While frightening, it does not mean that British society as a whole has moved to the right. Even the unprecedented numbers pale in comparison to the size of repeated Palestine solidarity demonstrations over the last two years (a fact largely ignored in media coverage) and the over 800,000 who have signed up to be a part of Your Party. The trade unions also still have enormous potential social weight, organising 6.5 million workers of all different ethnicities, religions and genders within their ranks. Taken together, these numbers significantly dwarf the right.
To express the real balance of forces in British society, Your Party should initiate a national march together with the Palestine solidarity movement, the trade unions and others, putting forward key working-class demands to tax the rich to fund public services, for a mass programme of council house building, and to build a left-wing alternative to stand against the far right.
This march could not only mobilise the resistance to Robinson, Reform UK and the right-wing, but also to the reactionary policies of the Labour government that is providing them fuel to grow. Such a show of force could be built as a united campaign to cohere YP groups across the country and help to build YP into a real national party. The march itself could have big blocs based on national mobilisations from different trade unions, social movements, socialist organisations and campaigns, and be properly stewarded by the trade unions to make the far-right think twice about any violent threats.
This march would mark Your Party out as a dynamic, unifying force based on the struggles of the working class, young people and the oppressed. This would further mark it out as a clear beacon for all those who want to fight back against the ravages of capitalism, a genuine alternative to the political establishment and the far-right who are ultimately also their servants.
Urgency
While we should not overstate the size of the far right, we must clearly understand its growing relevance and the danger it presents. In the wake of its ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ flag campaign and fuelled by the recent situation surrounding the assassination of Charlie Kirk in the US, it clearly has momentum. In addition, the recent reshuffle of the government in the wake of the resignation of Angela Rayner has pushed the most right-wing Labour government in history even further to the right. There is thus a gaping vacuum for a genuine left-wing political alternative.
How did we get here? Even more than Reform UK, Labour is to blame. Starmer and co have, with breakneck speed, pushed attacks on the poor, pensioners, and disabled people, all while doing little to nothing to address the grievances of the working class. This is all despite election manifesto promises such as the “most significant workers’ rights legislation in ages”. They have trampled on democratic rights with the repression of the Palestine solidarity movement. It has proliferated right-wing myths around immigration including the faux ‘small boats crisis’ and encouraged blatant transphobia. This has helped legitimise these ideas while at the same time providing room for Reform UK to grow, as many prefer the original to Labour’s poor establishment imitation.
While these ideas have still not fully taken hold in British society – especially among the working class – without a challenge they are growing. One need only look at the size of Saturday’s demonstration, the poll numbers for Reform UK and the many reports of growing misogyny and transphobia by young men in schools to see it is having an effect. And as long as it is allowed to fester, the more these ideas can sink roots and become even more insidious. We can see this process in the US with the ratcheted-up extremism of the US ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) movement now, which today exists as a much more solidified far-right trend compared to the vague anti-establishment mood that propelled Trump to office in 2016.
Clearly, Your Party has struck a nerve and has enormous potential. But we must urgently move forward, making it into an actual party that is embedded in the struggles of the working class and young people in Britain. Building from the ground up is never easy, but it cannot be done over the heads of the working class. It can only come through our democratic involvement and ownership of the party.
There is no more time for delay. We must move forward with a national demonstration, a founding conference and build, build, build this new party into the mass socialist force it is capable of being.
