AROUND 75 socialists and feminists gathered in Manchester on Saturday June 13 for a pioneering conference to consolidate a network of activists committed to advocating for a materialist left.

The conference committed itself to evidence-based activism based on material conditions (economic, cultural and biological, and how these complex factors interrelate to each other) and affirmed the central importance of women, class and race in an analysis and strategy to challenge the structural basis of oppression, inequality and capitalism.

This is in the context of the dominance of identity politics on the left with its narrow focus on more subjective or idealist analyses of oppression is consuming and paralysing the labour movement.

It was a refreshing and timely meeting. There was a clear and sober refocusing on the materialist philosophical foundations informing sound activist praxis — above all, the contributions of decades of Marxist, socialist and radical materialist feminism and a commitment to using theory to guide to action based on the real, everyday concerns of women, black people and the working class as a whole. This includes affordable childcare, equal pay, wages, housing and social and community services and the vital role of the labour movement.

This is a much-needed correction due to the growth of the far right, the ongoing betrayals of Labour and a left currently dominated by the paralysing insularity of identity politics, “purity tests” and an unwillingness to tolerate dissent and critical thinking.

Opening speakers Mary Davis (Women’s Liberation Alliance), Jane Clare Jones (Centre for Feminist Thought) and Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters and Project Resist) examined the nature of materialism, its significance in the struggles of the oppressed across the globe and how successive elites have abandoned materialism for political ends.

The second session featured Chetan Bhatt (professor of social theory at LSE), Kay Green (socialist feminist writer) and Deirdre O’Neill (co-director of Adult Human Female) and focused on a critique of identity politics on both the left and the right.

After decades of defeat the left has shifted from class-based, collective politics with a clear commitment to opposing racism and misogyny to subjective neoliberal notions such as gender identity and “inclusivity.”

Conversely, the far right’s version of identity politics focuses on white identity and ethno-nationalism and even Christian identity.

The next session focused key topics for the labour movement including last year’s Supreme Court judgment in relation to the Equality Act. We are unable to name the speakers on this panel due to the threats and harassment that they have already experienced in the workplace and their unions.

From their various perspectives the speakers called for the judgment and the Equality Act to be defended, and expressed dismay at trade unions representing a majority of women members calling for defiance of this judgment confirming women’s sex-based rights in law.

While the law has limits, it must be defended as essential legal protection won by the labour movement in the first place.

The conference concluded with a practical workshop discussion about which way forward for a materialist left. Though the materialist left network originally formed from sex-realist activists in Your Party, the conference made it clear that these ideas are vital across the left and labour movement if we are to challenge the rise of the far right and build movements capable of defending the interests of the working class.