Independent community organisations are setting up to challenge Britain’s broken electoral system, and taking the first steps towards a resurgent mass movement on the left. As Southport independent Sean Halsall told attendants of a launch party for Southport Community Independents on 1 March, politics “should be about putting the needs of our community above the demands of distant bureaucracies”.
The Southport Community Independents leader has the backing of both Collective and Assemble, and told the Canary:
I believe there will be a mass party of the left… [but] we only get that… by getting off our arses and doing things.
And building strong community roots, he insisted, is essential.
‘A neighbour, friend, and fellow resident vs a distant political machine’
Halsall told the launch attendees:
I don’t stand here as a representative of a distant political machine, but as one of you, a neighbour, a friend and a fellow Southport resident.
Southport Community Independents, he said:
is not just another political party. It’s a movement – a movement rooted in the belief that real change comes from the ground up, not from the top down. It’s a movement that puts community at the heart of everything we do because we believe that the people of Southport know what’s best for Southport.
He added that:
Our aim’s simple – to root the community at the heart of how we approach politics. That means listening to you, really listening. And working with you to find collective solutions to the challenges we face. It means being transparent, accountable and accessible… It means fighting for the things that matter most to people of Southport, affordable housing, good jobs, quality healthcare and a sustainable future for our children
And he stressed that:
In one of the richest countries in the world, it’s a scandal that food banks have become a permanent fixture of society. No one should have to rely on charity to feed their family. The fact that food banks exist in such numbers is a damning indictment of the system we live in. The Southport Community Independents will fight to end their need by tackling the root causes of poverty – low wages, insecure work, and a social safety net that has been shredded by years of austerity.
Southport Community Independents: a movement that belongs to everyone
Halsall stated that Southport Community Independents is “about reclaiming politics for the people it’s meant to serve – the many”. And he emphasised:
This movement belongs to all of us. It belongs to the single parent working two jobs to make ends meet, it belongs to the young person struggling to find affordable housing, it belongs to the pensioner, who’ve worked hard all their life but now feels abandoned by this system, it belongs to small business owners trying to keep their doors open, and it belongs to everyone who believes that Southport can do better and be fairer and more just.
Together with Collective and Assemble, Southport Community Independents is part of forging a different way of doing politics. Collective is looking to “drive the formation of a new, mass-membership political party of the left”, while Assemble is focusing on putting ordinary people at the heart of politics via local assemblies. And Southport Community Independents is one of numerous locally-rooted and locally-focused groups that could eventually become the constituent parts of a new national party of the left:
Featured image via the Canary
