The former Labour and Momentum activist on how the Greens could offer a new political home for the Left.
Michael Chessum is a socialist writer and activist based in London. He was a member of Momentum’s first steering committee in 2016-17, and was the national organiser of Another Europe is Possible. He is the author of This Is Only The Beginning: the making of a new left, from anti-austerity to the fall of Corbyn.
I was a member of the Labour Party for 13 years. Today, I left to join the Greens. Leaving Labour was not a moral decision, but a strategic one. Weird and improbable as it may seem, the road to renewing the British left now runs through the Green Party. For this to succeed, the party must transform itself, becoming the central pillar of a left electoral alliance and, more importantly, a genuine expression of the social and industrial movements of the coming years.
The electoral maths of the next few years are not difficult to understand. Thatcherism and austerity have rotted the social fabric of the country but our political establishment is immune to reason. Millions yearn for an alternative. Hundreds of thousands joined one during the Corbyn Labour leadership. They will not wait for the long, improbable recapture of Labour, and, in any case, the experience of Corbynism means that a terrified Labour machine is determined to lock them out forever.
An anti-establishment left alternative
For years, I argued that a serious left-of-Labour electoral moment would have to wait for proportional representation. The volatility of the electorate during and since the 2024 general election has proved this wrong in real time. Reform is on course to enter government. For those tempted to vote for it, there must be an anti-establishment left alternative. For a Labour government taking progressive voters hostage while implementing a programme of austerity, authoritarianism and border-building, there must be a price to pay.
Zack Polanski’s run for Green Party leader is an opportunity for the Greens to begin a process of transformation. The party’s painstaking electoral wins are an important starting point. Its progressive base in rural communities, often misunderstood, is also important. But the prize is not an incremental advance. It is to affect a landslide, backed in large part by young urban voters. Polanski clearly gets this. He is bold in his policy agenda, and sharp in naming the enemy as the super-rich. It is fashionable to frame this as populism; really, it is plain old class politics.
The path of a leftward-moving Green Party is unique. Its sister parties across Europe have had success but, as in Germany and Ireland, they have often become a part of the centrist establishment. The French greens are part of the New Popular Front, but they are a relatively moderate force within it. Because of the Westminster electoral system and a lack of other alternatives, the UK Greens have begun to accumulate a hybrid electoral base, which includes policies, membership and voters elsewhere associated with Die Linke and La France Insoumise. If this trend can be worked through, the breadth of its coalition will be formidable.
The need for left-wing electoral alliances
There will be a temptation, if the strategy works, for the Greens to regard themselves as the home of the British left. This misunderstands the historical moment. It was sectarian hubris for Labour under Corbyn to demand that the Greens subsume themselves into the Labour left, and to reject electoral alliances. It would be just as short-sighted for the Greens to do the same now. Other credible left electoral vehicles may well emerge. Many unions remain affiliated to Labour, and for good reason. Thousands of left wing activists, and dozens of left MPs, remain in the party. The Greens should form electoral alliances with all of them, unilaterally, if need be. We must focus our fire on Starmer and the right.
The biggest challenge, however, is not in the electoral sphere – or rather, it is about how the electoral sphere connects to the real world. Strikes, protests and community campaigns are the raw material for political change. Attempting a radical breakthrough without them is like revving a car with a dead engine. Corbynism was badly damaged by its total focus on electoralism, at the expense of turning outwards to transform the trade union movement and build campaigns.
In the coming years, there will be mass movements against austerity and the wider policy of the Labour government. The Greens’ strong internal democracy will be a boon, allowing movements to shape and own the Greens from the bottom up. Social and industrial struggle must be viewed as a primary method for doing politics. Without a mobilised local community, left wing councillors will be fighting a losing battle. Without a mass movement engaged in something other than electioneering, electoral projects lack a legacy.
This is, of course, the wrong way round; parties are supposed to develop from movements rather than awkwardly synchronised in parallel. But it is inevitable given where we are. Our political class has been addicted to austerity and neoliberalism. Its overreach has facilitated a hunger for a radical alternative. At the same time, Thatcherism degraded the organised left and set the trade union movement back decades. It is not surprising that we can create credible electoral projects – for instance Corbynism, or a leftward moving Green Party – much faster than we can regrow the roots of working class power.
It is important in moments like this to admit that you might be wrong. There are multiple fronts on which the left needs to push. I have many comrades in Labour whose decision to remain on the inside I respect. But like many thousands of others, many of whom are finding a home in the left wing grouping Greens Organise, I think there is now a window to build the Greens as a democratic, pluralist party of the left.
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