In the new East London constituency of Stratford & Bow, a first-time parliamentary candidate is making waves.
Fiona Lali shot to prominence because of her viral debate with Suella Braverman, in which she humiliated the right-wing former home secretary over the issue of Palestine.
“You’re a liar…You’re a war criminal,” Fiona told Braverman on live TV.
“That interview gave me a platform to put forward ideas about Israel’s genocide in Palestine, and link the issue to the problems faced by working-class people in Britain,” Fiona explains. This is what her election campaign is all about.
Fiona has put forward ten demands: denouncing the war criminals in Westminster; tackling the housing crisis; protecting the environment; increasing workers’ pay and strengthening workers’ rights; and attacking capitalism.
What Fiona fights for sets her apart from any other candidate in terms of her radicalism. “We’re not politicians, we’re revolutionaries,” Fiona stated to a cheering crowd during a rally to launch her campaign.
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Activism
Fiona’s electoral campaign is just the latest step in eight years of revolutionary political activism.
“I joined the Labour Party when I was 18 to support Jeremy Corbyn as leader,” explains Fiona. She went on to coordinate a Students for Corbyn campaign, and was part of the Labour4Clause4 campaign (see 48m21 in this video).
Ever since then, Fiona has been fighting against the right wing of the Labour Party. In 2020, she ran to be the Young Labour London representative, in order to kick out the Labour right.
Fiona studied law and international development at SOAS university, where she joined the local Marxist society. As an undergraduate, she was elected as the lead SOAS delegate to the National Union of Students conference, standing on a Marxist platform.
After she graduated, Fiona went on to coordinate Marxist societies at universities all over the country, under the banner of the Marxist Student Federation (MSF). In that time, the MSF grew spectacularly, increasing its presence nationally: from 30 campuses to 60 universities, schools, and colleges.
Oppression
“I became a Marxist because I just felt this burning desire to fight injustice and oppression – not only in Britain, but anywhere in the world that I can,” says Fiona. “This is why I’m an internationalist.”
She’s written and spoken extensively on the fight against national and racial oppression, inspired by her own family background. Her mother is from a Catholic family in the North of Ireland, and her father came to Britain as a Ugandan refugee.
Back in 2017, for example, Fiona was writing about the war crimes of the Blair government in Iraq. And in 2019 she wrote an article commemorating the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
After university, Fiona was heavily involved in her local Labour Party in the run-up to the 2019 general election.
“At that time, I was living in Chingford & Woodford Green, in north-east London,” she recalls, “where a few of us set up a local anti-racist campaign group and did a bit of activity with young Black and Asian people in the area.”
In 2020, Fiona was involved in the Black Lives Matter protests across Britain, giving speeches about this inspiring movement at the time. She also spent time researching the history and legacy of racism in Britain. And she has pushed to connect the fight against racism to the struggles of the working class and the trade unions.
Internationalism
Fiona’s activism stretches across borders. She has spoken specifically about the political crisis and class struggle in Uganda, where she spent years growing up. And she has led campaigns in solidarity with political activists in Pakistan.
“It’s so important to me that political activism is international,” explains Fiona. “That’s why the endorsements I’ve had from overseas for this campaign mean so much to me.”
She has received support for her campaign from the famous Bangladeshi film director Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, and from Meghamallar Bose, the President of the Dhaka University unit of the Bangladesh Student Union.
Closer to home, legendary film director Ken Loach has also offered his endorsement of Fiona’s campaign. And the acclaimed filmmaker has been joined by the Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers’ Union, which has also backed Fiona.
Thank you @KenLoachSixteen for supporting my campaign, it’s great to be supported by someone who has spent their life fighting for socialism and has always been on the side of workers.
Help us fight this rotten establishment – donate to our campaign fund & get involved. pic.twitter.com/cVDvQIxqAd
— Fiona Lali (@fiona_lali) June 4, 2024
Palestine
Disgracefully, under Keir Starmer, Fiona was expelled from the Labour Party for her political ideas and activism. “I wear that expulsion as a badge of honour,” she laughs.
While Starmer has parroted the Tories on culture war questions, Fiona has been speaking out and fighting against this divisive discrimination, bigotry, and xenophobia.
Since being driven out of the Labour Party, Fiona has focused on coordinating youth work and campaigns for the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Since October, this activity has centred on Palestine.
The RCP has called campus demonstrations, passed resolutions through trade union branches, and lately has been heavily involved with student encampments all over the country.
Fiona has been giving talks and speeches at these student protests, and was invited to speak on LBC after she helped organise a campus demonstration against hated Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Fiona Lali, National Campaigns Coordinator of the Revolutionary Communist Party gets cut off by LBC host as she calls for workers to strike against our governments complicity in the massacre of Palestinians!
JOIN THE RCP! pic.twitter.com/Fgg2wE9wrA
— Revolutionary Communist Party (@revcommunists) April 28, 2024
Since her famous debate with Suella Braverman, Fiona has done interviews with Al Jazeera (English & Arabic), Pulse of Palestine, Middle East Eye, The New Arab, Dazed, and TalkTV.
“I’m determined to use my platform to defend Palestine, attack the war criminals and imperialists here in Britain, and make the case against capitalism,” she says.
She has also given fiery speeches on the question of Palestine and imperialism at Queen Mary University of London, PSC rallies and demos (see her TikTok: fionalali), rallies for her own campaign, and for Nandita Lal’s campaign against David Lammy in Tottenham.
@fionalali
Support
Unlike most of the other candidates in this constituency (including the Labour candidate!), Fiona actually lives in Stratford.
“I moved here two years ago and love it,” she says. “I’ve gotten to know Stratford really well.”
Since Fiona launched her campaign, she’s had over 500 people sign up to volunteer, along with well over £8,000 in small donations from hundreds of supporters.
“We’ve been out canvassing across all nine wards in the constituency every day since the campaign began,” Fiona notes, “and we’ve been getting such a good response, especially from Gen Z and younger people.”
For us, it seems like a no-brainer. Clear out Starmer’s Labour and the Tories. Vote Fiona Lali for Stratford & Bow on 4 July!
