New party "not an overnight process"

Pic: Islington Community Independents and supporters. Ilkay Cinko-Oner is on the left. Phil Graham is next to her (with the red hat). In the centre holding a piece of paper is Jackson Caines, who ran unsuccessfully for the Independents in a by-election in Junction ward.

Phil Graham, an ex-Labour, now "Community Independents", councillor in Islington, talked to Solidarity.

Phil Graham: From Zarah Sultana's initiative, I am hopeful for a new way of doing politics. That is what's needed, because at the moment the main parties are letting everyone down. They are full of lies and corruption, and inside them you're worried about saying anything because you may get expelled or excommunicated in some way.

This is going to be different from the Greens, the same way as Labour has always been different to the Greens. We work well together with the Greens [on Islington council], but it's only a working agreement. We're not joining the Greens.

Solidarity: How do you see a new party being organised? Collective was the first attempt at this, but, it wasn't a party in any usual sense of having conferences, but an internet operation that would approve certain candidates. In Islington, since Jeremy Corbyn was elected as an independent, the nearest we've got to a party is the People's Forum, which isn't a party.

We've come together as the Islington Community Independents. We're not waiting for a big party to start up. We'll carry on doing what we do, and then go under the umbrella, hopefully, of a future party.

We've got Ilkay [Cinko-Oner] as our Independents group leader, and then there's me, Asima Shaikh and Matt Nathan [all ex-Labour councillors]. We work as a group in the council with the Greens. We do joint motions as long as we agree. And as long we don't agree, we agree to disagree.

A new party has got to be a bottom-up organisation. I've just come from a meeting online with Jeremy. He's going around meeting independents all over the country, and trying to decide the best way of doing things. It's not an easy process.

What would you want to see as the main policy points of this new party?

Anti-austerity, international peace. Basically, if you think of a blend between the 2019 and 2017 manifestos when Jeremy was in charge, a lot of that will be taken into consideration.

But mainly we're anti-austerity. I will admit, the Labour Party, since they got into power, have done a couple of good things. I'd be churlish not to admit that. But the problem is they're still going after the weakest in society.

Isn't this is a bad time to bail out of the struggle inside the Labour Party and the affiliated unions when we've just pushed back Starmer and Reeves on PIP and on the winter fuel payments?

Yes, there's been a lot of pressure. But the thing is, we have to oppose this from all directions. We can't have the government balancing the books on the backs of the most vulnerable in society, especially not when they're going out spending fortunes on weapons of mass destruction.

What did you say under Tony Blair?

I was still a member of the Labour Party then. I swallowed it, right up to Iraq, and then I left. I rejoined because of Jeremy in 2015.

This time I had tried my best. I'd stood up and I'd spoken out. I was suspended three times because I was just speaking my mind.

But it's a different type of politics now. The old two party system's gone. You've got a leader who will say and do anything to get to where he wants to be without any consequences. At least Tony Blair mostly owned his mistakes.

Why do you think this will do better than the Scargill Socialist Labour Party in 1996?

Now there is more of a hunger for it. When I knock on doors and I walk around my ward, and lots of people come up to me and say, what the hell's going on with the Labour Party? Starmer is acting like a Tory. Personally, I think that he has acted more like Reform. His attitude on immigration is stinking.

This is not going to be an overnight process. It's a big thing. You've only got to look at how many people go on the marches against austerity and for Palestine, and you can see that they're not being helped by anyone in government. None of the main parties is doing anything for those people or to alleviate their concerns.

I'm really optimistic for the future, from what's happening on the streets with people fighting back. Listen, we're not going to win the general election in one session. That's never going to happen. But I'd hope we are involved in a coalition, at least.

With whom?

The Greens, whatever.

Lib Dems?

No.

SNP?

No. This is all blowing up because of what Zarah did last week. I've got enormous respect for Zarah Sultana as a politician. I think she's one of the best. But everyone's got a bit over-excited. We're moving at a pace that is good. We've got some really solid independent groups around the country, and they know what they're doing.

Do you regard the Pendle council ex-Labour Independents as part of your movement, despite their coalition with the Lib Dems?

Yes. It's their choice what coalitions they do in their own councils. We get on very well with our Green comrades here, but they won't stop us, if we disagree with them.

And the Independent Alliance in Parliament and the call by one of its members, Ayoub Khan, for the troops to be sent in against the Birmingham bins strike strike?

That's a disgrace.

But it's one of your MPs in parliament.

If they're calling the army or scabs of any sort to break a strike... They've got no place. I've said Starmer's got no place in the Labour Party, Emily Thornberry's got no place in the Labour Party, if they won't stand on a picket line.

You never see them doing that. You will see Apsana Begum, Nadia Whittome, Richard Burgon, but not them. §