Transform Newsletter 18th December 2024

 21st December 2024

Welcome to issue 17 of the Transform newsletter. We wish all our readers a peaceful Christmas 🎄🎄. Another world is possible !

My Hopes for 2025

The political order is crumbling. In 2024 from the USA to Germany, France, UK, Japan India and South Korea, voters in their droves turned away from incumbent parties. In many countries the far right has grown alarmingly in strength, but when you analyse the reasons, what you hear again and again is that millions of people are in economic distress, and they see political elites as being out of touch and unable or unwilling to provide solutions.

Here the combined support for Labour and the Tories is the lowest that it’s been in living memory. The space for alternative politics has never been greater. Unfortunately at the moment, Farage and his supporters are making the running. So with a new year approaching, what can  -or should – the Left be doing differently ? We invited a number of people to talk about their vision, and their hopes for 2025.

Solma Ahmed (Transform Principal Speaker)

󠀢󠀢”As another year comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on the state of the world and, once again, hoping for something better. My hopes are not new or extraordinary; they are the dreams many of us share—dreams of a world rooted in social justice, equality, and compassion.

Yet, it feels as though each year brings more challenges, more heartache. As 2024 closes, my hopes for 2025 remain steadfast. HOPE is a powerful thing. It sustains us when the world feels unbearable. After all, what is life without HOPE?

This past year has been especially harrowing—the worst, in my view, since the global upheaval of COVID-19 in 2019. I thought nothing could surpass the sorrow of that year, when millions died alone in isolation, and communities, especially minorities, bore the brunt of the pandemic. But 2023 showed us otherwise.

October 2023 marked a profound shift in our collective consciousness, exposing the deep inequalities of our world and the glaring double standards of those in power. In my role as a Transform executive and co-founder of the movement, I have spent every available moment campaigning for Palestine. What I could never have imagined was the unrelenting need for marches, vigils, educational programs, and advocacy—week after week—just to demand a ceasefire and an end to genocide.

What kind of world requires millions to take to the streets, month after month, pleading for an end to atrocities? Since October, over 45,000 people—mostly women and children—have been slaughtered in Gaza. A child is killed there every 10 minutes. This is a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and yet the lessons of past atrocities seem forgotten.

And yet, we cannot give up. HOPE compels us to keep fighting for justice, for equality, for humanity. This is what socialism means to me—a relentless commitment to organizing, to resisting tyranny, and to building a better world. Every single one of us has a responsibility to act, because if we don’t, who will?

I am certain of two things as I look ahead to 2025. First, I know that Palestine will one day be free. Every tyrant falls, and it is up to us to ensure they do. Second, I know that the Left—unwavering and principled—will hold tyrants, rogue politicians, and fascists accountable.

So, here’s to a new year filled with hope, solidarity, and the fight for a better world. Here’s to socialism. May 2025 bring us closer to the world we dream of.”

Khalid Sadur (Founder of Enfield Community Action Group and Independent Parliamentary Candidate)

󠀢󠀢”2024 has been a year to forget.

From Sunak to Starmer, from Biden to Trump and from Netanyahu to…..Netanyahu?

We need something different in 2025, something to inspire, something to motivate, something to believe!

A New Party ? A New Hope?

After years of the evil Empire, will the Rebel Alliance be able to succeed?

Who will Obi “Jeremy” Kenobi pass the torch on to?

Can “Luke”, “Han”, “Leia” and “Chewy” put their differences aside and come together to take down the Death Star run by Keir Starmer and the Labour Party?

The Empire may have, indeed, struck back in 2024 but here’s looking forward to the Return of the Left in 2025!”

Paul Simmonds (musician, The Men They Couldn’t Hang)

󠀢󠀢”The left has the best stories but often doesn’t use them so;

Tell better stories; tell stories better. Don’t let the devil have all the good tunes!

I would like to see some of the bold young activists from the climate movement progress into the young left. Capitalism is at the root of all modern crises; climate, AI, Poverty and War.

We need some inspirational speakers to rally us. Nowadays politics is about emotions and we have to step up to that and win.

I want the left to be compassionate to the underdog and stern with the overdog/admin systems. Too often it is the other way round.”

Claudia Turbet-Delof (Hackney Independent Councillor)

”I have three hopes. My first hope is that the people of Palestine are finally Free.

The struggle of the Palestinian people is the struggle of our humanity, their freedom will be our freedom and so fighting for the Palestinian people must be our most important cause as the conduit to bringing balance to the world.

The genocide that aims to wipe out an entire nation, because of greed for their resources and land is the epitome of what the empire is and how it continues to rule the world, killing our native peoples of the world for power and domination.

My immediate second hope is for Mental Health to be a Human Right for all.

Our society has been robbed of the most basic of fundamental human rights we should have since birth, and it’s the right to protect our mental health.  

The historic, persistent and systematic abuse of our mental health comes in many forms and has damaged us individually and collectively. A deeply capitalist world has thrived on the back of having zero accountability for the damage their structures and money making apparatus have caused to our mental health and wellbeing, from abuses and exploitation in our workplaces, spaces of study to the discrimination many experience when accessing healthcare for example.

If our mental health was a human right, neoliberal, capitalist systems would not get away with contributing to the unmeasurable levels of depression and mental health disorders, including suicides, that our society and its greedy, profit driven policies cause on people. We would not have the levels of homelessness we see today, we would not see the number of children and young people being punished with inhumane behaviour policies at schools, specially academies, and in my personal view we would not see the levels of warfare around the world.

In Hackney, whilst Mental Health Champion for Hackney I wrote a motion that the Council passed and adopted, meaning we are the first council in the country and probably the world that recognised Mental health a Human Right for all. I hope you join me on the continued fight and demand that this is a reality not just in the UK but the world.

My last hope is for all people of all ages from our youth to senior years, to exercise their democratic rights and use their vote to elect, support their local and national government representatives.

Our fight to be allowed to vote was a long struggle, at present a very low percentage of people get engaged in elections, allowing for policies and political positions to be representing thousands of residents whose life experience is detached from those they seek to represent. We will not bring social justice if the fight doesn’t include you.

So for 2025, I hope you register to vote, have a say on how your hard earned taxes are used in public funds and finally that we continue to demand to bring justice and liberation to peoples around the world. Jallalla!”

Chris Chapman (the tennis coach)

󠀢󠀢”Keir Starmer has said that Labour is no longer the party of protest – Transform need to be the party of protest, meaningful protest. There are still seven million trade unionists in Britain. Why aren’t we demanding the Union leaders call for mass blockades of arms bases sending arms to Israel? When health workers are on strike against outsourcing contracts to corporate interests we should be demanding Starmer tax the rich to pay for our health service, not selling it off.

All the calls for unity on the left, and standing joint candidates in elections, is a good start. Peoples’ Assemblies where we hear what ordinary people are thinking and wanting are good. When I campaigned for Feinstein in Kings Cross, most of what we talked about was Gaza. 49% of kids in Starmer’s constituency grow up in poverty. That’s what we should have been talking about.”

Nick Long (Independent candidate for Mayor of Lewisham and Transform Exec member)

󠀢󠀢”I would like to see a broad left wing party established, allowing all currents, trends and fractions to exist and arguing for their politics for an initial period but dissolving after democratic decisions have been debated and agreed.

We should work with other parties of the left to form a broad left wing popular front, as recently seen in France, that can unite and defeat the growing forces of the right.

If we don’t offer a broad inclusive left-wing alternative the forces of the right are going to gain a growing hearing amongst the working class.

Our tasks in 2025 should be to continue with our work to nudge people towards forming a broad inclusive party, supporting workers in struggle and progressive local and national campaigns. Supporting the Palestinian struggle, refugees and asylum seekers and working to form a popular front alliance in readiness for the next general election.”

Action call for January 2025: Women’s Rights

Transform has decided that every month we should focus on a particular issue that members can highlight in their social media and other organisations. For January 2025, we’re asking everyone to share posts on women’s rights and the oppression that women face across the world. Find out what you can, write posts, share posts from other members, let’s get making some real noise.

UK Women’s March 2025

Transform members and supporters are urged to support these marches taking place on Saturday 18th January in 23 cities across the UK. This is a new movement which has come together very rapidly. It’s organised via a Facebook Group, you can also stay informed on Instagram and TikTok.

The official statement links together a number of issues. “We are marching” it says “because violence against women and girls in the UK has increased by 37% since 2018 and has now been declared a national emergency.” It’s also about decriminalising abortion, and about standing up in solidarity with oppressed women around the globe, from Afghanistan to Iran to Trump’s America.

Let’s do this together

Let’s do this together. We can help you to get started. If you’re planning to do any campaigning or attend any demos and could use some leaflets or maybe a Transform banner, contact Mandy Parry on mandyparrytraining@gmail.com and she can help you to get organised.

Please link in with our social media, share our posts, and share with us anything that you post while out on the campaign trail.

Facebook:        https://www.facebook.com/transformparty

Instagram:        https://www.instagram.com/transformpolitics/

Twitter/X:          https://x.com/tf_politics

TikTok:             https://www.tiktok.com/@transformpolitics

Bluesky (new!) https://bsky.app/profile/transformpolitics.bsky.social

Campaigning links

Campaign to end online abuse

Parliamentary petition to decriminalise abortion

Take action in defence of Pakhshan Azizi, a Kurdish woman sentenced to death in Iran over her human rights activities

Why we are still marching

On December 15th an Israeli military airstrike hit a UN-run school housing Palestinian civilians driven from their homes in Khan Younis. The school is in the ‘safe zone’ of al-Mawasi, but in reality nowhere in Gaza is safe. Doctors recounted their horror at the scenes they saw that day: “It was beyond imagination and beyond description. In minutes the A&E was flooded with casualties. All the casualties I saw were women, teenagers or children below the age of 10.”  Classrooms collapsed, and at least 20 people were killed. Israel claimed that it had been targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.

David Lammy hasn’t had a word to say about the latest massacre. Is this because he wants to appease his new friend in Mar-a-Lago ?

As long as our rulers remain complicit, we cannot be silent. If you can make it to London on 18th January, please join us on the next National March for Palestine.

Report from Ecosocialism Conference

“The first speaker referred to the recent decimation of the Irish Green Party who went from 12 seats and being in government, to 1 seat. She stated that this, and the decimation of Green parties across Europe, was not due to a “climate backlash” as the press claimed, but due to the fact that Green parties continued to call on the poor to do more to stop climate change – much of it expensive and demanding – while doing nothing to challenge the 1% who continue to devastate the planet.”

Read Joseph Healy’s full report on the Transform website.

Transform shop

Before you go out campaigning, make sure that you’re well equipped.

Transform T-shirts are stylish and good quality. They currently come in the following sizes: Medium, Large, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 5XL.

Transform enamel badges, tote bags, notebooks, pens, luggage labels are all available, as are our business cards and stickers.

All merchandise is free to Transform members (try beating that in the January sales !) but please do make a donation if you can. Please send your orders to Mandy by email at mandyparrytraining@gmail.com stating what you would like and your address.

Next Newsletter

The Newsletter Team are taking a well-earned break. The next scheduled newsletter is on 15th January. Please make sure that any reports, photos and suggestions for the next issue reach the Newsletter Team by 12th January: you can reach us by email at info@transformpolitics.uk.

Thank you all for the support that you’ve given to Transform over the last 12 months. Keep on fighting for what you believe in, and always remember that together we are stronger.

In solidarity,

Transform Newsletter Team