More than half a million people signed up to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s call for a new party within a few days of its announcement, with hundreds of thousands more since. Polls show that support for the potential new party is highest among young people, and would win among 18 to 24-year-olds – and that’s before the party has even been formed!

And no wonder there has been this enthusiasm for a political alternative, when you look at the world on offer to young people today.

In Gaza, Palestinians are suffering genocidal horror. The number of people fleeing war and persecution globally has never been higher. Capitalist politicians and the billionaires they defend just sit on their hands, while the climate crisis threatens humanity.

As students, we face the soaring cost of living, dismal housing, and more and more student debt. The prospect of one day having a good job and a decent home that we can afford seems more distant than ever.

None of the establishment parties have any answers to this situation. They are all united in their defence of a capitalist system that puts big business profits before the needs of humanity and our planet.

After 14 years of brutal Tory austerity, Labour has only offered more of the same: cuts to benefits, attacks on trans people and other minority groups, raising tuition fees, and supporting the Israeli state’s slaughter. Starmer has clamped down on the right to protest, to try and prevent even more opposition to his rule, but so far he has only provoked more anger.

Reform UK have tried to cash in, cynically posing as an alternative. But all they do is pose as anti-establishment, while offering no alternative to austerity in local councils, and all the while stoking racism and division which weakens our ability to fight back.

OUR CHANCE FOR A POLITICAL VOICE

For the thousands of young people who have signed up to Corbyn and Sultana’s initiative – ‘Your Party’ – the prospect of a new party will therefore be a ray of hope in the fight for a better future: ‘Finally, our chance to have a political voice that fights for us, not the warmongers and the billionaires’!

When Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party, there was huge enthusiasm among young people for his anti-austerity, anti-war policies. In the 2017 and 2019 general elections, Corbyn offered the chance for free education: an end to tuition fees, and maintenance grants instead of loans.

On election day, students literally queued around the block to vote for Corbyn. The capitalist media called it a ‘youthquake’ – not as praise, but out of fear of the mass movement that Corbyn’s programme generated.

Today, there is again the possibility of a major party that fights for free education, along with other policies that could make a real difference to our lives – like rent controls and mass council housebuilding, a minimum wage of at least £15-an-hour for all, and a massive ‘green transition’ away from fossil fuels. We could have a party that fights to defend the right to protest, and backs up movements fighting to end the Israeli state’s terror and occupation of the Palestinian territories.

To win all these things and more, the party will have to draw its strength from the mass mood to fight back that exists under this Labour government. By giving a lead to and reinforcing the collective action of working-class and young people, the party would be able to spearhead a movement capable of wrenching wealth, resources and control of society out of the hands of the super-rich and big business.

JOIN SOCIALIST STUDENTS

Over the past year, Socialist Students has been campaigning for fully funded, free education to end the cuts, cost-of-living crisis and debt currently facing students. We have called youth walkouts across the UK against Donald Trump’s state visit, to show that young people won’t stand for a world of war, poverty and division. We stand in council and parliamentary elections, putting forward socialist solutions to the misery facing young people, and plan to do the same in the May 2026 local elections.

So if you want to discuss, campaign and fight now for a socialist alternative to the chaos facing our futures, then you should get involved in your local Socialist Students society this year.

But imagine how much further that fight would be strengthened if we had a new mass party giving a voice to student organisations, trade unions, anti-cuts campaigns, climate and anti-war movements, and more. A political voice linking our struggles as students to everyone else in society who is fighting back under this rotten capitalist system.

That’s why Socialist Students will be joining Corbyn and Sultana’s new party this year. And if you want to fight for this to be a democratic party, rooted in the struggles of working-class and young people, which fights for socialist policies – and join up with students in socialist societies on 50+ campuses doing the same! – then Socialist Students is the organisation for you.