Red Partisan is a new Marxist journal published by Consistent Democrats and like-minded others involved in Your Party, the party initiated by Zarah Sultana last July, and less than whole-heartedly endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn. However, it struck an enormous chord in the working-class population, as shown by the 800,000 who signed up as YP supporters in August 2025.
The whole point of this new journal is to emphasise the need for a proper working-class party, not merely ‘business as usual’ leftist political activity, which has often been at a distance from any perspective of playing a role in the birth of a mass party of the working class. But now we are in a situation where such a change in politics is both urgent and possible. The catastrophic decline in both Labour and the Conservative party in this decade, and conversely the rise of the ‘respectable’ far right Reform – really the UK version of Trumpism, which in its second term has plunged the US close to fascism and the world close to World War, shows the urgent necessity of a serious engagement with the practical need for a working class mass party.
The sabotage of YP by the Corbynites has itself further fuelled the volatility of politics in Britain today. Last year, the 800,000 that signed up for Your Party themselves indicated how volatile things are. Then we had the very public attack by Corbynites on the first membership portal by Zarah Sultana, and a series of virulent briefings against her in the reactionary media. The wave of popular enthusiasm for the new party, ridiculously named ‘Your Party’ by Corbyn rapidly wore off. And at roughly the same time, the Green Party gained a left-talking new leader, who attacked Zionism and NATO, and no doubt consciously tailored his profile to appeal to those attracted to YP. The Greens gained more than 100,000 actual new members, while YP withered, having gained less than 60,000 members by the time of its founding conference in November.
In the first period of Starmer’s ‘Labour’ government, after July 2024, such was the popular odium of the government’s attacks on pensioners’ winter fuel payments, keeping the Tory 2-child benefit cap, and attacks on disability benefits, that the far right were able to take advantage of this and mount a racist, xenophobic offensive. Two summers running there have been waves of far-right attacks on refugees. In summer 2025 there was the ‘Raise the Colours’ far right tactic of plastering lampposts with Union and England flags, and painting roundabouts with similar insignia. Then the left was massively outnumbered and tactically defeat by Yaxley’s 150,000 strong march in Central London last September. And as a result of this, Farage’s Reform party for a year or so has been the leading party in opinion polls.
There has been a counter-offensive with the 500,000 Together Alliance London march in late March 2026, which even though its politics were laced with liberal and ‘peace and love’ type illusions, does represent a counterattack by anti-racists and socialists. Given the huge problems and disappointment with Your Party, the petit-bourgeois Greens have filled the vacuum on the left and are now neck-and-neck with Farage’s party in the polls, with some showing the Greens in the lead. This is obviously an improvement in some sense, but the Greens are not a working-class party, which is a huge problem and means that this turnaround is not at all secure or to be relied on. The only real antidote to fascism is a solidly working-class party, and it is to this that Red Partisan is oriented to playing a constructive but critical – when necessary, harshly so – role in creating.
In this vein, the new journal contains a page titled, “A Revolutionary Platform for Your Party”. An earlier attempt at such a platform was produced by the Spartacist League/Britain last year, as YP was at an earlier stage. They invited others on the left to submit amendments, and the Consistent Democrats responded by noting there were some serious flaws in the original. Notably, we identified a one-sided hostility to the liberal left, linked to a degree of softness on the populist right, adaptation to anti-migrant sentiment, and the lack of a point in their programme addressing the danger of fascism. They did not like our changes or want to discuss them at this point, but we consider the result to be a reasonable starting point for discussion on the programme we need, so it does serve well as the basis for the journal.
The first issue contains a major article on Trump’s and Israel’s brutal war on Iran, a detailed analysis as to why this war is clearly driven by Israeli interests, and how that can be in terms of a historical materialist analysis. It centres on the way this war is draining away US world hegemony and creating a new world situation. There is also a major article on Your Party, which deals with the fundamental dishonesty of Corbyn and those around him in taking control of the movement generated from Zarah Sultana’s call for a new left-wing party, and effectively sabotaging it. It does offer some solutions to this situation.
Along with these main pieces is published two statements on the US/Israeli attack on Iran – one from the Consistent Democrats issued on 28 Feb, the day of the attack, and one from the Liaison Committee for the Fourth International produced a few days into the war. Subsidiary to this we have a short article on “Jerusalem Fever” – addressing the Christian religious fanaticism that interlaces with Zionism which has been very apparent in this war with the apocalyptic statements of Hesgeth, and the absurd ‘laying of hands’ on the paedophile Trump in the Oval Office by crazed Christian-Zionists.
There is also a piece on the building of a new national Holocaust memorial in London, supposedly as a symbol of the ‘fight against hatred’, but with the purposes in mind of Zionists in and out of government which are anything but that. This is about covering up and distracting from today’s Zionist genocide in Gaza, which is now being extended to Lebanon and Iran. The purpose behind this monument has nothing to do with preventing genocide.
One final important item in this is a short piece from the Tendance Militante Bolchevique of Argentina, noting the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Videla coup in Argentina, a key landmark in the reactionary offensive against the left in South America in the 70s. The parallels with Trump’s offensive of today are obvious.
We hope that this new journal plays a role in crystallising a new working-class political movement our of today’s volatile circumstances.
