Alex Snowdon on emerging fault lines and how the left is reconfiguring itself

The last few days have illustrated the tensions inside the radical right on both sides of the Atlantic. The problems in Nigel Farage’s Reform party were brutally exposed by the resignation of Zia Yusuf as party chair. Many of the more stridently racist of Reform’s members and supporters disliked Yusuf, who was strongly associated with Farage’s efforts to make Reform mainstream and respectable, distancing it from explicitly far right elements.

Yet this emergence of problems inside Reform was overshadowed by a sudden flare-up between Donald Trump and his most famous wealthy supporter, Elon Musk. They tore chunks out of each other on social media.

The Trump-Musk collision is a reminder of the challenges in holding together a coalition around the Trump administration. Musk’s role until now has been an exceptionally brazen example of billionaires influencing politics. What might normally be subtle and behind-the-scenes – in terms of ruling class input to government and corporate sponsorship of politicians – has been far more upfront. It felt like the polite, carefully-constructed boundaries had been smashed to pieces.

This relationship – between the world’s richest man and the world’ most powerful political leader – was, furthermore, emboldening to racist, far-right ideas. Musk is now clearly furious that Trump has been seemingly ungrateful to the donor who helped put him in the White House.

Both Trump and Musk are committed to slashing services, enriching the already wealthy and racist scapegoating. Musk, however, was agitating against Trump’s new bill in Congress which involves increasing borrowing and making tax cuts. This culminated in his very public breach with Trump on Thursday. That has further fuelled tensions and divisions among Republican politicians.

The reality of the Trump administration is brutal. Deploying 2000 soldiers in Los Angeles, in response to protests against raids on migrants, is extreme racist authoritarianism. The raids themselves have involved the authorities using tear gas. The raids have been part of a wave of mass arrests and deportations, a central element in the Trump administration’s racist agenda.

Reform’s growing threat

Back here in the UK, the fresh outbreak of internal strife in Reform is happening as the party makes headway politically. It is exploiting economic and social problems that cause widespread discontent, accentuated by this government’s political failures to address them. This is recognised in ruling class circles.

Andy Haldane, former Bank of England chief economist, has made comments blaming aspects of Labour’s economic policy – cutting winter fuel payments, the two-child benefit cap, poor economic growth – for Reform’s current success. These examples not only indicate the government’s weakness in making real change happen, but they create a sense of cynicism about politicians. There is a deep sense of not being able to trust government ministers on delivering what they have promised.

This has enabled Nigel Farage, irrespective of his posh background and personal wealth, to present himself as a champion of working class people. Many people are not convinced, but enough are swayed to create massive headaches for Labour. A recent YouGov poll showed 19% of respondents choosing Reform as the party that best represents working people. That was the highest total for any party, though higher still was the number saying that no party represents working people.

Haldane observes that Farage is now ‘as close as what the country has to a tribune for the working classes’, as reflected in opinion polls and in recent local elections, where Reform councillors tended to be elected in overwhelmingly working class areas. His suggested remedy is for the government to get to grips with improving economic growth, in particular via an industrial strategy and greater investment. This gives a sense of ruling class unease about the weaknesses of the British economy and its political implications.

Sometimes there is debate about whether Reform is picking up support on the basis of racism or for economic reasons. It is both. But the crucial point is that racism resonates with large numbers of people precisely because of economic factors. Generating anger about migrants is much easier when people are struggling to pay the bills. Racism feeds off low pay, economic insecurity and the housing crisis.

This means that anti-racism must indeed be a core part of opposing Reform, but we cannot limit ourselves to that. The version of anti-racism we pursue needs to be rooted in class politics, showing how Reform’s racism (and, for that matter, the government’s racist policies) are geared towards dividing working class people and scapegoating some of the poorest people for problems generated by the capitalist system. And the government’s austerity agenda makes those problems worse.

Challenges for the left

The obvious gap in British politics today is a significant Left pole that can genuinely express the interests of working-class people and champion material improvements to their lives. This is true in the electoral field where Reform is opportunistically adopting sometimes left-ish economic positions, but in the service of strengthening a very right-wing, racist agenda. There is a massive gap on the left of electoral politics.

Some on the Left are currently pivoting towards the Green Party. This is partly driven by horror at the successes scored by Reform in local elections but is further fuelled by the leadership bid of Zack Polanski. While he no doubt has a better instinct for popular mass politics than the current Green leadership, it remains true that the Green Party is highly contradictory and not coherently left wing.

Its limitations are illustrated by the poll I cited above, in which only 4% chose the Greens as the party that best represents working people. It has a substantial middle class base in its membership and its voters, mainly winning council seats with quite different demographics to the wards won by Reform. It is very difficult to see how the Greens can tap into widespread working class discontent and provide an alternative to Reform.

The Green Party has no meaningful links with trade unions and, while left-leaning on many issues, it can adapt its positions to suit local circumstances. It also has a very poor record on major foreign policy issues, including Ukraine, Nato and military spending (in this respect it is typical of Green parties across Europe).

Beyond electoral politics, the picture is mixed for the Left. The greatest strength is the ongoing mass movement for Palestine, which continues to exert real pressure on government and create political problems for Labour. It has also brought very large numbers of people, way beyond the active Left, into popular protest.

On the other hand, protest movements on domestic issues have not yet mobilised on a mass scale under this government. Many unions are weakened by a reluctance to oppose Labour combined with some poor political positions, for example the Unite leadership’s support for higher military. It is precisely this commitment to boosting arms spending, though, that will create more public sector cuts and attacks on working class people. It certainly won’t stimulate economic growth.

Saturday’s anti-austerity demonstration, organised by the People’s Assembly, was therefore significant. It brought together much of the coalition we need to assemble for the struggles ahead. Doing this provides a basis for local organising, forging connections between different issues and mobilising much larger numbers on future demonstrations. It is difficult to predict how that might feed into electoral challenges, but such challenges certainly won’t go anywhere without being rooted in wider mass movements.