A GREAT Italian socialist once said: “I hate the indifferent. I believe that living means taking sides. Those who really live cannot help being a citizen and a partisan. Indifference and apathy are parasitism, not life. Indifference is the deadweight of history.”

These words from Antonio Gramsci in a very different context sum up the situation socialists face in Britain today as Labour conference meets.

Now is the time for everyone in the labour movement to take sides.

You can either take the side of the 1 per cent and the whole rotten capitalist system, where corporate greed comes before public need.

Or you can take the side of all those people fighting back against the ruling-class offensive, including those workers across many sectors who have taken industrial action over the last 18 months, fighting back on behalf of all us.

And we must also take the side of all those others that have said “No more!” to Tory reaction — including Black Lives Matter and Refugees Welcome activists, those groups defending our right to protest, and those movements calling out the climate catastrophe, including those taking direct action in support of a greener future and highlighting the urgency of the situation.

And facing the situation that we do — of multiple and deepening crises — more and more people in society agree it’s time to take a side, and are open to the idea that taking the side of the many not the few means that we need to bury this system for good.

Especially among younger people, Tony Benn’s message for the labour movement that “we are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values” will resonate more and more in the years ahead.

The current situation is that Sunak’s government has exposed itself as being as right-wing and Thatcherite as ever.

They are locking-in austerity for years — and leading attack after attack on democratic rights in a desperate bit to dampen resistance.

But they aren’t getting away with it, and in this context, we on the left can and must play a vital role.

As many have said, this means fully backing these resistance movements mushrooming up — and it also needs to mean more conscious moves to co-ordinate and sustain actions across and between different social movements, trade actions and others. 

In terms of such co-ordination with regards to industrial action and trade union activity, Arise was delighted to be part of the Organising Committee of Union Lefts launch event at the recent TUC Congress called by NEU Left, PCS Left Unity, RMT Broad Left, Time for a Real Change in Unison and Unite United Left.

This can be a key part of building and co-ordinating resistance going forward, and to, in their own words, “build momentum to bust the Tory pay freeze and prevent striking workers from feeling isolated.”

To give another positive example, when Extinction Rebellion and Don’t Pay both gave support to — and added supplementary actions to — a day of action called around the cost-of-living crisis last year, it helped amplify the core messages and bring together different activists that have a common enemy not only in this Tory government, but the whole system. 

Such developments need to be the norm not an exception if we are to build up the resistance to the levels needed.

And in this spirit of solidarity, it is possible for people across the left to work much more productively together where we agree — and amplify each others’ voices.

And those of us who are in Labour on the left face a particular challenge in this regard — we need to work together consciously, consistently and better, to do what we can to back these vital struggles in society inside the party.

There is no reason, for example, why groups across the left couldn’t promote model motions on the same key struggle each month across the country.

It would win support for those struggles, help inject discussion on the need for socialist solutions to the crisis back into our movement and galvanise people too.

Taking sides at this vital moment means we also need to speak up more and consistently on the deepening attacks on Labour Party democracy and members’ rights, remembering the motto that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” 

Thousands of Labour members have been pleased to see people speaking up against Keir Starmer and co’s treatment of Diane Abbott in recent weeks — but campaigning on attacks on the left such as this must be a permanent and integral part of our work all the time. We mustn’t let them get away with it any more.

It also means clearly taking the side of those internationally fighting for a better future, from the Palestinian people who continue to resist the illegal and deadly occupation, to those left movements in Latin America showing that another world really is possible.

To put it simply, it’s time for the left to come together and get our act together.

Let’s make the run-up to next year’s general election a year of mass waves of resistance, where we put our socialist values of solidarity, struggle and unity into practice. 

Matt Willgress is the national organiser of Arise — A Festival of Left Ideas and editor of www.labouroutlook.org.