If Keir Starmer wants to be prime minister, he needs to back working people

Across the country, working people are starting to rise up. Through their trade unions, they are organising and asserting collective power, demanding and winning above-inflation pay rises and better working conditions.

Rail workers in the RMT, TSSA and ASLEF, communication workers in the CWU, and even barristers, have all taken strike action to defend their livelihoods, while Amazon workers are launching wildcat stoppages across the country. Many more ballots are under way, seemingly heralding a new era of industrial militancy on a scale last seen decades ago.

This could not be more necessary. While the Tory leadership contenders offer only unpopular tax cuts in place of real solutions, unaffordable energy bills are set to soar, food banks are struggling to keep up with demand, and spiralling inflation is eating away at the value of the pound in people’s pockets, following on from a decade of wage stagnation and austerity.

At the same time, energy companies post multibillion-pound profits and CEOs implement real-terms pay cuts for staff while taking millions in bonuses. The country’s rich and powerful are driving and exploiting this crisis for their own ends, whilst tens of millions won’t be able to afford to feed their families or heat their homes this winter, with warnings of 45 million people falling into fuel poverty.

This cost of living crisis is a crisis of capitalism. It demands a comprehensive response and, right now, it is trade unions and not the”party of labour” that are leading the way. Despite pitching himself in his successful leadership bid as someone who would “stand shoulder to shoulder with the unions”, Keir Starmer has been conspicuous by his absence, and he has even instituted a ban on frontbenchers attending picket lines or supporting above-inflation pay rises. When shadow minister for transport Sam Tarry stood with rail workers, he was sacked.

Starmer’s explanation for the picket line ban is that as a “government-in-waiting”, the Labour leadership must appear neutral. Apparently governments shouldn’t “take sides” between bosses and workers. Labour is afraid of its own shadow.

This isn’t a strategy for winning. Internally, Starmer has driven a wedge between his leadership and the affiliated unions, not to mention the near-100,000 members who have left the party, weakening Labour’s financial and campaigning position. Meanwhile, public support is rising for industrial action and for solutions such as public ownership, which even two-thirds of Tory voters support in the current crises. Desire for bold economic action is, in fact, strongest in the “red wall” seats Labour needs to win back.

The economic and political landscape is shifting beneath Starmer and he is in danger of being swallowed up. As has happened over the corporation and windfall taxes, the Tories could yet outflank Labour’s own cost of living “rescue” package if they feel electorally desperate enough.

Labour cannot win without being bold and truly tapping into the public mood. That means getting fully behind the trade union movement as it organises to fight the cost of living crisis; and pushing common sense solutions like public ownership. As the polling shows, the centre ground has well and truly shifted and the Labour leadership has to as well if it wants to form the next government.

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That’s why Momentum is launching our Labour for labour campaign, backed by MPs like Sam Tarry and leading figures in the trade union movement. Momentum members have already started to mobilise across the country for Labour to stand with labour, demanding that: every Labour MP stands with striking workers on a picket line; Labour backs an inflation-proof pay rise; Labour backs public ownership to put the working class before corporate profits; and Labour supports the abolition of anti-trade union laws, so workers can fight for their rights.

Our goal is to move the Labour leadership and the parliamentary party to a position of openly supporting ongoing strikes and championing the interests of workers. Our local groups will organise strike solidarity meetings and picket line visits, while lobbying Labour MPs to attend picket lines, and we will mobilise around pro-trade union motions at this year’s Labour conference.

The Labour Party was set up by trade unions. Amid this cost of living crisis, and the inequality rampant in modern Britain, these links are essential to ensure the party is attuned to the collective needs and demands of working-class people. And no matter where they sit in Labour’s broad church, the vast majority of members agree with this. We are urging every member to get behind our campaign.

So, sign up to the campaign and, if you haven’t already, join Momentum. Together we can ensure that the Labour leadership stands with the labour movement and the British public. Backing workers is a crucial step to winning the next general election – it’s time to pick a side.

Hilary Schan is co-chair of Momentum