“Make no mistake: this is just the beginning.” That is what we said after our election victory in Islington North last summer – and we meant it. For many people, the past year in politics is easy to define: Labour has failed to deliver the change the British people deserved. Refusing to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Taking support away from disabled people. Providing political and military support to Israel as starving Palestinians are shot in the street. From the moment this government was elected, it has inflicted suffering and injustice at home and abroad.
There is another definition of the past year in politics: up and down the country, communities have been organising for something different, something new, something better. Trade unions and tenants’ unions are fighting back against corporations, bosses and rogue landlords profiting from the cost of living crisis. Disability justice campaigners are mobilising in their thousands to resist cruel welfare cuts, anti-racism campaigners are resisting the prime minister’s attack on migrants and climate activists are bringing into focus the single greatest threat facing humanity. A movement for Palestine is still coming out to demonstrate in unprecedented numbers against the government’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
