The campaign came unexpectedly. First, Fiona was suddenly blasted to political prominence after publicly humiliating Tory MP Suella Braverman on GB News. Then, Sunak declared a snap general election. The opportunity was too good to miss.
But as Fiona describes, the decision was not made lightly. “It felt like a leap of faith. On the one hand, we have known for a long time that there’s a huge pent up anger, particularly in this constituency, due to Palestine and the huge political vacuum that exists. But we were unsure of just how far it went.”
Positive response
The enormous potential of the campaign was only revealed after the first week, as our efforts were reinforced by unbelievably positive responses.
During street rallies in Stratford and Bow, Fiona recalls being stopped hundreds of times for selfies and photographs. But more important than that, many were drawn to the campaign by our bold ideas and audacious methods.
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“The best responses we were getting weren’t just from people who recognised me,” Fiona explained, “but from passers-by who could hear the speeches outside Stratford station, and then came over to find out more about us.”
In particular, the campaign resonated with a heavily oppressed and unrepresented layer in society: young Muslim women, who have been politicised by the genocide in Gaza.
Fiona recalls how they would often thank us for speaking the truth about what is happening in Palestine. “They were so passionate to know more about our views on what the road is to the liberation of the Palestinians”.
But usually, those conversations went further. “We would talk about imperialism and oppression for example. One woman told us that she was never political before, but felt so inspired to get active,” Fiona recalled.
Another Muslim woman said that “this is the place where I feel like I can truly be myself and speak out”. It is extremely inspiring to see this layer getting organised.
Inspiring
At one rally, a group of three school students were literally jumping with joy at the chants of ‘Free Palestine’.
As they walked with the march, they picked up our slogan of ‘books not bombs’. They then gave impromptu speeches about the dire conditions in their schools, while British imperialism spends millions on the Israeli war machine.
Fiona recounts another incident with a group of sixth form students outside of a girls’ school:
“One of them recognised me and started shouting ‘this is the activist!’. They all crowded round, saying ‘I want to be like that. I want to be a fighter like you!’.”
With a conspiracy of silence from the mainstream media on the genocide in Gaza, it’s clear that Fiona’s exposure of war-criminal Suella Braverman has inspired those who are also looking to stand up to the establishment. Throughout the campaign, Fiona was inundated with people thanking her for speaking out.
Revolutionary ideas
Fiona’s response wasn’t the product of raw charisma or inspiration, however, but down to her revolutionary politics. To the numerous people asking how Fiona prepared for the interview, she responded:
“I’m not media trained, but I am a trained Marxist. I’ve been a communist for seven years. The only thing that can give you strength to either take on someone like Suella Braverman or anyone else, is having absolute conviction that your ideas are right, no matter how hostile the person or the room or the world feels to those ideas.
“We know that revolutionary, Marxist ideas were for a long time fairly hard to argue. Now we recognise that people are far more open to these ideas than they have been, which is what’s given us the confidence to put forward a full revolutionary communist programme.”
This programme was the bedrock of our campaign.
At its forefront was our unapologetic solidarity with the Palestinian people and the movement in support of Gaza, which, internationally, has become a rallying point for all opponents of imperialism.
For Fiona, however, the question goes far beyond Palestine:
“The Palestine flag is the first thing that draws people towards us. But what makes them stay for a conversation and then sign up to the campaign is everything you say beyond Palestine. Palestine is the litmus test for the rest of your politics.”
Our ten-point programme was the key to linking the question of Palestine and imperialism to the need for the working class to take power. This resonated with thousands of people, most of whom had never even heard of Marx or Lenin before.
In fact, one of the most common things our army of canvassers heard was: “I don’t know if I’m a communist, but I agree with what Fiona says.”
‘Breath of fresh air’
Unlike the mainstream politicians who go begging for votes, who appease their voter base with false promises, or dilute their politics as much as possible, we waged this campaign as open revolutionary communists.
As Fiona explained:
“The slogan ‘we’re revolutionaries, not politicians’ means never hiding one inch of your politics or what you stand for.
“In every single speech that we give, we have said we are not just against this system. We are for a different one, based on planning the economy for need, and not profit.
“We’ve had hundreds of conversations with people about what communism means and what we mean by a genuine workers’ control and workers’ democracy.
“This whole campaign has allowed us to raise the flag of genuine communism, genuine revolution, higher than we ever have before!
“What we’re offering people, unlike any other campaign, is not just a potential future MP, but ideas that they can take into their workplace, community, school, or university to convince others to try and fight for these ideas and change the world.
“We aren’t going to find those people if we hide our ideas or water them down.”
Most of all, the campaign has strikingly revealed just how hungry people are for something fundamentally different from what is being offered by the establishment.
People have described Fiona and the campaign as a “breath of fresh air”, because they can see that behind the viral video is “an actual organisation with serious plans about how it wants to change the world”.
Get organised
At the end of the day, the election campaign was just one small skirmish in what is a far larger war. With Keir Starmer’s Labour now in power, continuing austerity at home and supporting genocide abroad, the struggle is about to heat up.
Fiona’s campaign has revealed that we are certainly not alone in wanting to change the world. Scores of young revolutionaries have expressed an interest in joining the RCP over the course of the campaign, and we know there are thousands more to organise.
“There are more and more people out there who are willing to do more than just complain or doom scroll,” Fiona stated. “Everywhere you look, on every kind of plane, there are people trying to fight back in some capacity.”
“As Marxists, we understand that the class struggle is only going to intensify because of all the crises. From what I’ve seen in this election, I feel extremely confident that a new generation of class fighters is being prepared.
“Our job now is to make sure those people are trained in the ideas of Marxism, trained in a way that all of them could take on Suella Braverman, David Lammy, or whoever else is attacking our class.”
At every rally, Fiona was approached by young people who asked questions not for their own sake, but to hear how a communist would respond, in order to arm themselves to answer their friends or parents.
Fiona made an appeal to these future revolutionaries:
“Use the enthusiasm you have to educate yourself in the basic ideas of Marxism, in history and past struggles, past revolutions”.
“Then get organised with the RCP. But once you do, look around you, look around your friends, your school, your uni, your workplace. And think ‘who else in here, who else in this room, who else on this street do I think is also interested in these ideas?’
“Then go and speak to them, and you’ll probably surprise yourself with their response. Get educated, get organised, and get others involved.”
