What is a Political Party for the Left? (25/3/26 panel)

Описание: On March 25, 2026 the London chapter of the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted the panel "What is a Political Party for the Left?"

PANELISTS:
Hau-Yu Tam (Greens Organise Co-Chair)
Baris Graham (CPGB-PCC)
Lorenzo Marconi (KCL Masters' student)
In absentia: Sacha Ismail (Green Party Trade Union Group)

DESCRIPTION:
The question of a specifically Leftist political party seems once again to be on the table - most recently spurred by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s launch of “Your Party” and the recent by-election success of the Greens under the leadership "Left populist" Zack Polanski. The “party” question has been raised several times already in the 21st century: the neo-anarchism of Occupy; Left Populist movements in Greece and Spain; as well as the Sanders and Corbyn electoral campaigns for social democracy. These too point to a deeper history of the question of politics for the Left: Chartism and the emergence of the “proletarian party”; the conflict between anarchists and Marxists in the First International on the question of social vs. political action; the mass social democratic parties centralised in the Second International; Lenin’s vanguard “party of a new type”, up to the counterculture and social movements of the New Left. It may seem like it has never not been “party time” - and when it hasn’t, “the struggle continues” elsewhere, indefinitely…

What does it mean to have a political party for the Left? Toward what ends?
Who or what should we look back to for inspiration?
What is there to learn from recent political defeats?
How would a new party differ from the Labour Party?
Does the Left need politics?
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The Platypus Affiliated Society organizes reading groups, public fora, research, and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the "Old" (1920s-30s), "New" (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left, for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today.

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