IT’S an election year. From its earliest days the Tories, Labour and SNP have been in salesperson mode, making pitches to the electorate.

But the last months of 2023 have, through the eruption of a huge street movement for peace and an exodus of councillors from a Labour Party that backs Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, thrown up new questions about that election.

Have they put the left back on the map, I ask film director Ken Loach — who since his expulsion from Starmer’s Labour (for the very Starmerist offence of failing to condemn other people who had been expelled) has helped set up the For the Many network to maintain a socialist voice in politics.

“The left is always on the map! Strong or weak. The conflict at the heart of society is between those who sell their labour, and those who profit from it. That’s irreconcilable, that conflict. The left is always there, because the conflict is always there.

“What the Palestinian struggle has done is bring people together. In the light of the massacres we see every day, on television, people have said: ‘This is clearly outrageous.’

“At the beginning of November there were I think 76 per cent of people saying there should be an immediate ceasefire, and yet Starmer and Sunak refuse to accept the will of the people in that, so both big parties refuse to represent the people.

“And people are struck by the lack of humanity, the lack of principle, the lack of respect for international law, human rights, the Geneva conventions.

“Starmer and Sunak have really been exposed as shallow politicians without principle, and I think the disgust at them is now across the country.”

But Loach isn’t satisfied with mass marches alone. “The problem we face is: how do we make an impact?

“The war’s entered its fourth month — this attack on an essentially defenceless population rather.

“It’s time for the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement to gather strength. That really would have an impact. Calls should go out through trade unions not to handle Israeli goods. Campaigns should call on academics to cut ties with Israeli universities.

“Not against individuals. Against institutions that are part of the state that is doing this to the Palestinians. So everybody go to the BDS website (BDSmovement.net) and see what you can do!”

The British state has targeted the BDS movement for obstruction and bans for some time, and its hostility to Palestine solidarity action has recently been expressed by ex-Labour MP John Woodcock’s proposal to charge protesters for the policing of their demonstrations.

“Woodcock is a classic example of a right-wing Labour MP showing us his true colours with these repressive suggestions. But it’s sad to see so many Labour MPs — Lisa Nandy recently for example — opposing BDS.

“The BDS movement was inspired by the black African movement against apartheid in South Africa and by the civil rights movement in the US.

“It’s proposed by grassroots organisations within Palestinian society, trade unions, academics, artists and community organisations. We should absolutely support them: it’s not up to us to say we’ll support you in the way we think best, this is their call for solidarity. How can we refuse?”

Loach was one of the most prominent supporters of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership, which brought together a range of forces across the left which have mostly broken up since it ended. He says the Palestine movement has brought people together, but is there really evidence it can unite people in the same way?

“I think it exposes the huge political vacuum, there’s a gap here between public opinion and two main political parties without a cigarette paper between them.

“We should be very clear now in explaining that close proximity: that both main parties stand for corporate power.

“That neither takes the climate crisis seriously. Neither respects human rights or international law. They will not put the interests of the people first, because they represent a different class.

“And obviously those who try to articulate this will stress different elements of it. Some will stress peace, others human rights, others the environment, others poverty, hunger, insecurity, homelessness.

“But there’s a common denominator in all of them. That’s the job of the left: to say look, all these issues have a common denominator and, to put it in traditional language, that is the protection of the interests of the ruling class.

“Whether it’s the demand to use fossil fuels because it protects profit, accepting human rights abuses and the destruction of international law to keep a strategic ally, or the exploitation of labour because the gig economy makes it easy to exploit workers, it all reflects the interests of corporate power, and if there’s one thing to say, that’s it.

“That’s why environmental campaigners should be on picket lines with rail workers. We have the same fundamental cause.

“Class politics is not outdated, if anything it is clearer than ever.” 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike, and Loach considers the anniversary key.

“What we’re seeing is the playing out of Thatcher’s victory against the miners. That ushered in the neoliberal project. And this is the consequence — homelessness, poverty, hunger, massacres on the television, the destruction of international law — the destruction of the planet itself. That’s neoliberalism — that’s the consequence of the unbridled pursuit of profit.”

The need to change direction was what inspired hundreds of thousands to join the Corbyn movement. But does he think the For the Many network can replicate that?

“Let’s be clear, For the Many is not an electoral organisation. We are setting up hubs in different cities and towns, and people will make up their own minds about which candidates they support.

“In some areas, those will be good Labour candidates. For the Many is a bid to reassert the basic ideas, the political principles necessary for a decent, just society.

“Individual members will absolutely back candidates but we wouldn’t take a view on behalf of all the hubs in the country, in some places there will be a good case for a Labour vote, in others there will be candidates worth supporting who are independents or standing under another ticket.

“We want to say, these are the core ideas we need to put back on the agenda, and electorally we would want to promote candidates who challenge the politics of Starmer.”

Is that a futile project, given Labour’s lead in the polls?

“All the evidence is that people if they do vote for Starmer will be holding their noses. There is no enthusiasm for him and his clique.

“What’s missing from political discourse about this? The question, ‘Why did Corbyn lose?’ What nobody mentions any more is that in 2017 he came very close to victory.

“Labour’s policies were popular under Corbyn. Labour became the biggest political party in Europe. It’s never mentioned.

“And that was defeated above all by the right wing of the Labour Party. By the smears, the exaggerated claims of anti-semitism, with many Jewish members of Labour accused of anti-semitism by the way.

“Even a journalist not on the left, Peter Oborne, has called it a ‘political assassination’ of Corbyn, and it was. And the people wielding the knife were the right wing of the Labour Party.

“Some had season tickets on Newsnight, the attack interviews, year after year after year. In the end of course they had an effect.

“That led to the massive defeat but nobody opposed the programme, the socialist policies, which were barely even discussed back then.

“That means there is a chance when we have serious socialist candidates.” Some will emerge from the councillors opposing war, some may be put up by left of Labour groups, others may be candidates barred or excluded from the Labour ticket by Starmer stitch-ups — Loach believes “Jeremy [Corbyn] and Diane [Abbott] have a very good chance of winning.”

But he’s insistent that under no circumstances should the left end up “giving cover for right-wing Labour.

“In the end, they are our enemy. They’re not people who are playing a long game and will do good things if we elect them to office. They are our class enemy.”

The pattern of electoral challenges to Labour in certain constituencies will emerge over the next weeks and months. It may prove a bigger headache for Starmer than he is expecting.