Vote Progressive and Get Organised!

As the polls open for the general election, we endorse getting the Tories out, progressive candidates in and, most importantly, getting organised to bring about real change.

Each of us has a story of how life has been made harder in the last 14 years. Maybe you have many. From watching our futures getting slowly stolen from us, to those locked up and violently deported, those who’ve seen families and loved ones die as they wait for an ambulance or the many millions of us who’ve been forced below the breadline, we have all suffered in different ways.

There are very few, besides the ultra wealthy, who can genuinely say their lives, and the lives of their friends, colleagues and loved ones, are better now than when the Conservatives took power in May 2010.

But that is not the whole story.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been bringing you the stories of those missing from the conversation, those who have been organising to create a better world and the opinions of experts on the scale of the omnicrisis facing us. It’s why we also know that Keir Starmer’s Labour party is far from the answer.

From providing political cover to the genocide in Gaza, to tacking right on social issues like Trans rights to the milquetoast proposals for saving our NHS, our welfare state, our schools and more, Starmer’s “changed” Labour party will not bring about the radical shake up desperately needed to help the millions of people in desperate need of it. It’s why the idea of a Labour supermajority in Parliament come tomorrow morning does not inspire hope in many of us and why we cannot, in good conscience, endorse him.

Across the country, there are little pockets of hope. Whether it’s staunch advocates for justice in the Labour Party like Nadia Whittome in Nottingham East or Zarah Sultana in Coventry South, members of the Green Party like co-leader Carla Denyer in Bristol Central, or Siân Berry in Brighton Pavilion, or independents like Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North, many hundreds of thousands will have the opportunity to vote for a genuine alternative and deliver those to Parliament.

For the many millions of us not in those positions, the choice is less clear. In those situations, we come back to our first and original contention. It is imperative that the Conservatives are thrown out of Government and kept as far away, for as long as possible. It’s also clear that other threats from the right, like the further right Reform Party, pose a danger to progress, safety and hope.

However you decide to vote today, we would urge you to make sure it’s not the end of your involvement in our democratic system. Whether it’s joining renters unions, anti-raids groups, trade unions, climate action groups and many more doing the work, or those making art, creating space and community, or so many other ways of coming together and fighting for the change we all desperately need, the point is to do it. There are millions of stories of hope, change and possibility if you look for them.

Today, vote to get the Tories out. Vote for progressives if you can, and then, get involved in the real movement for change out on the streets. It’s only together that we’ll win the world we need.