Follow our lead in Worthing and pursue socialism rooted in the local community

Okay, so by now we probably all know the story of the catastrophic mass failure of neoliberal economics. Since the late 1970s, the grand experiment to test the claim that free markets really do work best has reversed or undermined progressive taxation, welfare transfers, the empowerment of workers and the regulation of banks and other major industries. Despite the failure of these policies, the theory and practical influence of neoliberalism marches on as the unashamed power grab that it is. As a result, residents across the country are now facing an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. The situation is unfathomably bleak.

I’m not a great fan of the idea of political journeys, but we’ve undeniably had one here in Worthing, a coastal town in Sussex that had been considered a Tory comfort blanket for years. After our local elections last year, we started to articulate our Worthing model for beating the Tories in their heartlands. (Rather presumptuous given that we hadn’t actually beaten the Tories in their heartlands at the time.) But, as of May this year, we have become the first Labour council in Worthing’s history.

Prior to winning council control, our project started by behaving like the council we wanted to be before we actually had any power. We set up mutual aid groups, a non-referral community food bank and a school uniform exchange and started carrying out town-wide consultations to find out what the residents of Worthing wanted. Our growing success was built on making change in our community without access to power: a kind of socialism-in-action. We also organised a group of grassroots community campaigns against whichever form of local Tory public sector vandalism was wreaking havoc at the time.

Now is not the time in local or national politics to retreat into reactionary slogans to mollify the baying right-wing press that so bedevils our national social fabric. Now is the time for us to be upfront in presenting versions of socialism rooted in our communities and that serve those communities in the way that they desperately need us to. If we can win power in Worthing with a bold community-orientated municipal socialism, then we can win it anywhere.

So now we find ourselves in charge of the council, and we need to translate our socialism-in-action into radical municipal socialism. For us, this means developing an approach that draws on the very best practice, but in a context that fits Worthing. This begins with declaring a cost-of-living emergency and setting out a cost-of-living emergency strategy that takes a collaborative and evidence-based approach, working more closely with health, trade unions, further education facilities and community groups. As part of this work, we will be urging the risible Westminster government to act immediately to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

We also want to follow groundbreaking councils like Preston by implementing a radical economic strategy based on community wealth building – to anchor jobs locally, broaden our ownership over capital, ensure local economic stability, bring about living wage expansion and community banking and encourage worker ownership and municipal enterprise, tied to a local procurement strategy.

A key third strand of our approach is to embark on a programme of radical democratic changes so that we start to look like a council run for and by the community. The Conservatives lost 23 seats in five years to a party that hadn’t had a seat on the council in 40 years. This kind of catastrophic collapse in public confidence happens when councils simply stop listening to their residents.

Our council for the community will gain a deep understanding of our local communities so that we can start to ensure that our priorities for Worthing Borough Council – and for the town – are driven by the needs of our residents and community groups. Firstly, we are going to embark on a town-wide ‘big listening’ campaign. We are also going to explore ways in which local residents can have long-term opportunities to be genuinely engaged and involved in local decision-making, allocation of resources and the council’s work. We want to make sure that Worthing is a truly inclusive, resident-led town.

These three strands are essential in the implementation of municipal socialism, and they are the logical steps to progress from the socialism-in-action ethos that served us and residents so well when we were not in power. But we must also play a leading role in national campaigning, by coordinating a response on behalf of our residents against the disgraceful and prolonged neoliberal assault by the national Conservative government on the standard of living of ordinary working people in our country. A council for the community needs to be a vocal player in national campaigns.

Having run a community food bank for the last two years that feeds 500 people a week and watched the scale of need increase beyond anything previously comprehensible in recent times, the idea of rejecting a right to food in favour of power to exercise “freedom of choice” so woefully misunderstands food insecurity and poverty generally as to be dangerous. Socialism should not be concerned with some kind of chimeric, mythical notion of ‘choice’ in an era of neoliberal economics that has stripped choice, autonomy and dignity from so many. This is why we are organising a national right to food event in Worthing in November.

Just as Nye Bevan drove the socialised medicine that became our NHS, radical socialism has to be about ensuring key legislative rights. Nobody wants food banks to be part of the solution to the brutalities of 40 years of economic violence – but you only avoid this by enshrining the defence of public wellbeing in the role of the state. Our national right to food event will bring together campaigners, food support organisations, politicians, anti-poverty groups, councils and other organisations from across the country to develop a single national campaign to work toward a right to food.

Socialism in action happens when we bring together trade unions, local grassroots campaign groups, communities, national left-wing political groups and national campaigning to form a coherent movement to link local grassroots action to radical local and national politics. Worthing was a Tory stronghold for decade. But something changed here, and it can change everywhere else too.