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Counterfire is a Marxist and revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2010, it runs a website and has published pamphlets under the Counterfire imprint. [1] It has its origins in the Trotskyist political tradition.
Counterfire was launched on International Women’s Day in 2010, following a split from the Socialist Workers Party. [2] Counterfire has put emphasis on participation in social movements, [3] notably the Coalition of Resistance, the People’s Assembly Against Austerity and Stop the War Coalition.
A number of Counterfire members, including Lindsey German, John Rees and Chris Nineham, have played prominent roles in the Stop the War Coalition, both before and after the formation of Counterfire. [4] In 2010, Counterfire was instrumental in establishing a new campaigning organisation, Coalition of Resistance, to oppose the Conservative-led government’s austerity programme, following a call by Tony Benn. [5] In 2013, this was supplanted by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, which Counterfire has continued to actively promote. [6] [7]
Counterfire was supportive of the Arab spring uprisings in 2011. [8] As part of the Stop the War Coalition, it opposed subsequent military interventions involving the UK in Libya [9] and Syria. [10]
Between 2012 and 2013, Counterfire ran a left-wing café in London called Firebox, where it hosted political events aimed at building socialist ideas. [11] [12] It also organised political theory and organising events including citizen activism day schools. [13]
Counterfire was strongly supportive of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party (2015–19) but maintained an independent organisation and publications, rather than joining the Labour Party. [14] The organisation defended Corbyn against accusations of antisemitism and in 2018 opposed the Labour Party national executive’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, arguing that it was part of the weaponising of antisemitism for political ends. [15]
In 2014, Counterfire advocated voting Yes in the referendum on Scottish independence [16] [17] and supported the left-wing Radical Independence Campaign. [18]
In 2016, the organisation argued for voting Leave in the referendum on UK membership of the European Union on a socialist, democratic and anti-racist basis. [19]
At the People’s Assembly Against Austerity protest outside the Conservative Party Conference in 2017, [20] Counterfire activist Shabbir Lakha confronted Jacob-Rees Mogg, who was then being touted as a potential next leader of the party, over his support for austerity. [21] [22]
Counterfire members in the Stop the War Coalition and People’s Assembly Against Austerity played prominent roles in organising the demonstration against Donald Trump’s State Visit to the UK in 2019 where an estimated 250,000 people marched through London against the US President. [23] [24] [25]
Counterfire supported the Clapham Common vigil for Sarah Everard in March 2021, where they interviewed Patsy Stevenson after she was aggressively arrested by the Metropolitan Police. [26] [27] [28]
Counterfire publishes a free monthly newspaper as well as two weekly email bulletins: Lindsey German’s Weekly Briefing and News from the Frontline. Through its publishing imprint, Counterfire has produced several books:
The Socialist Campaign Group, also simply known as the Campaign Group, is a UK parliamentary caucus of Labour Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The group also includes some MPs who formerly represented Labour in Parliament, but have had the whip withdrawn or been expelled from the party.
Lindsey Ann German is a British left-wing political activist. A founding member and convenor of the British anti-war organisation Stop the War Coalition, she was formerly a member of the Socialist Workers Party, sitting on its central committee and editor of its magazine, Socialist Review.
John Rees is a British political activist, academic, journalist and writer who is a national officer of the Stop the War Coalition, and founding member of Counterfire. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Christopher Mark Nineham is a British political activist and founder member of the Stop the War Coalition serving as National Officer and Deputy Chair of the Stop the War Coalition in the UK. He served under Jeremy Corbyn from 2011 to 2015. He was one of the main organisers of the 15 February 2003 anti-war protest against the invasion of Iraq.
Sir Jacob William Rees-Mogg is a British politician and member of the Conservative Party serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset since 2010. He served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from 2019 to 2022, Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency from February to September 2022 and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from September to October 2022. Rees-Mogg previously chaired the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) from 2018 to 2019 and has been associated with socially conservative views.
Piers Richard Corbyn is a British weather forecaster, anti-vaccine activist, conspiracy theorist, and former politician. Corbyn was born in Wiltshire and raised in Shropshire wherein he attended Adams' Grammar School. He was awarded a first class BSc degree in physics from Imperial College London in 1968 and a postgraduate MSc in astrophysics from Queen Mary College, University of London, in 1981. Corbyn was a member of the Labour Party and served as a councillor in the London Borough of Southwark from 1986 to 1990. He is the elder brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, leaving Labour in 2003 due to his opposition to the Iraq War.
The British left can refer to multiple concepts. It is sometimes used as shorthand for groups aligned with the Labour Party. It can also refer to other individuals, groups and political parties that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United Kingdom. There are various subgroups, split between reformist and revolutionary viewpoints. Liberals, progressives and social democrats believe that equality can be accommodated into existing capitalist structures, but they differ in their criticism of capitalism and on the extent of reform and the welfare state. Anarchists, communists, and socialists, among others on the far left, on the other hand argue for abolition of the capitalist system.
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is a socialist electoral alliance in Britain. It was originally launched for the 2010 general election.
The anti-austerity movement in the United Kingdom saw major demonstrations throughout the 2010s in response to Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government's austerity measures which saw significant reductions in local council budgets, increasing of university tuition fees and reduction of public spending on welfare, education, health and policing, among others. Anti-austerity protests became a prominent part of popular demonstrations across the 2010s, particularly the first half of the decade.
The People's Assembly Against Austerity is a political organisation based in the United Kingdom that was originally set up to end and reverse the country's government-instituted austerity programme.
The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a far-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded as the Socialist Review Group by supporters of Tony Cliff in 1950, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977. The party considers itself to be Trotskyist. Cliff and his followers criticised the Soviet Union and its satellites, calling them state capitalist rather than socialist countries.
Socialist Resistance (SR) is a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. In 2009, the International Socialist Group (ISG) merged into it, making it the British Section of the Fourth International. In 2021, Socialist Resistance helped launch a new initiative, Anti*Capitalist Resistance.
The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group that campaigns against the United Kingdom's involvement in military conflicts.
Neil Alan John Coyle is a British politician who has served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Bermondsey and Old Southwark since 2015.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Member of Parliament for Islington North, stood as a candidate in the 2015 British Labour Party leadership election, in a successful campaign that made him the leader of the Labour Party.
Sisters Uncut describe themselves as a British feminist direct action group that is opposed to cuts to UK government services for domestic violence victims. It was founded in November 2014, and came to international prominence in October 2015 for a protest on the red carpet at the London premiere of the film Suffragette. The group identify as revolutionary feminists and police and prison abolitionists, and is open to women, nonbinary, agender and gender variant people. The group aims to organise non-hierarchically and uses consensus decision-making. Sisters Uncut originated in London but has regional groups throughout the UK including Manchester and Leeds.
Momentum is a British left-wing political organisation which has been described as a grassroots movement supportive of the Labour Party; since January 2017, all Momentum members must be members of the party. It was founded in 2015 by Jon Lansman, Adam Klug, Emma Rees and James Schneider after Jeremy Corbyn's successful campaign to become Labour Party leader and it was reported to have between 20,000 and 30,000 members in 2021.
Zarah Sultana is a British politician who is a member of the Labour Party. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry South since the 2019 general election. She is on the left-wing of the Labour Party and is chair of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus.
On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police constable Wayne Couzens, who identified himself as a police officer, handcuffed her, and placed her in his car before transporting Everard to Dover. Couzens subsequently raped and strangled Everard, before burning her body and disposing of her remains in a pond in nearby woodland.
Reclaim These Streets (RTS) is a social justice organisation movement in the UK. The organization has the motto: We aim to use legislation, education and community action to ensure no woman has to be asked to “Text Me When You Get Home” again. It exists as a hashtag #ReclaimTheseStreets. RTS raises funds for ROSA a feminist charity in the UK that is named for three human rights champions Rosa Luxemburg, Rosa May Billinghurst, and Rosa Parks. As well as speaking out about feminist topics, RTS speaks out about policing issues, internet harassment, neighbourhood safety, and the right to protest in the street.
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