Hundreds of thousands - half-a-million according to the organisers - joined a national demonstration against the far-right and Farage's so-called "Reform" in London last weekend. Trade unions, anti-racist campaigns, left-wing organisations, along with the Greens, Labour party groups, and many, many, others turned out to show their opposition to racist anti-immigrant politics.

    However it was also clear that the objective of the mainstream parties in this march was to launch their own electoral campaigns for the 7 May local, mayoral, and Scottish and Welsh assembly elections.

    They see Farage's Reform as the main threat to their vote. So the Greens' leader, Zack Polanski exhorted everyone to 'go back to your communities, and organise" adding that "Jocal elections are coming, we will defeat hate!". On the other hand, loyal TUC leader, Paul Nowak called on the Labour government to "deliver the change" people voted for in 2024.

    Indeed, across the board, what was on offer was the same old electoral road which leads to the dead end of the voting booth. By focusing on the "fight" against Reform UK at the ballot box, they abandon the real fight against division, which has to be fought in the workplaces and on the streeis against the profit system which is squeezing everyone more than ever...

    Union leaders who fell over each other to show their support for "Love, Hope, Unity", on Saturday, have, in "unity" with the bosses, colluded in the brutal deterioration of Ts&Cs and the cutting of jobs. The CWU's Dave Ward, agreed to Royal Mail new starters' 2" tier status; UNITE's Sharon Graham presides over members in BMW's MINI plant, stuck on agency contracts, who do all the main assembly work, but are sacked at will and don't even have the right to vote in union ballots!

    When writing about the degeneration of the trade unions in rich countries almost 100 years ago, Leon Trotsky described the unions' bureaucratic leadership as "lieutenants of capital" who act as a "transmission belt" to enforce the interests of the bosses on the working class. All the more so today!

    So, against the sectional divisions imposed by the bosses and against the racist divisions peddled by Farage, the working class needs to build its own united revolutionary force in order to fight for social change. Because there's no parliamentary road to socialism!