Fiona Lali took on Suella, now she’s taking on parliament

“I think it’s great that you went to that camp and tried to talk to those students, and you embarrassed yourself while doing that. It was a reminder for me – and I’m sure for other people watching – that the Palestine movement brought you down, and has the potential to bring down lots of other Tory ministers and the whole Tory government. And not just the Tories either, but any mainstream political party that is backing what Israel is doing right now, which is a genocide.” These are the words of 26-year-old Fiona Lali, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, in response to former Home Secretary Suella Braverman in their televised interview on GB News two weeks ago.

Braverman had travelled to the University of Cambridge, claiming that she wanted to speak to students protesting in support of Palestine on campus. But the students knew that Braverman, who has repeatedly expressed her unwavering support for Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza, was there merely to antagonise them. And so she was met with silence. All Braverman could say to Lali’s powerful statement was a lame mocking of her retort: “Bringing down the government, right.” But this is precisely what the student protests, Lali and the Revolutionary Communist Party are doing.

Since her viral interviews with Braverman and James Whale on the popular conservative streaming service TalkTV, Lali has risen in prominence for her clear, concise and revolutionary messaging. As a result, she decided to capitalise on that attention, and run in this year’s General Election in the seat of Stratford and Bow with the support of her party.

“I’m interested in using the platform as an MP to try and be a tribune of the people,” Lali tells Dazed. “I want to use this platform to help build a movement outside of Parliament where things can be more effective. Jeremy Corbyn was at his best not in Parliament, but outside of it, in mass protests supporting workers on strike and talking in the community.”

We spoke to the young political activist about her campaign, the connection between Palestine and austerity in Britain and how one of the Revolutionary Communist Party’s biggest aims is to train up “class fighters”.

What made you want to run in this election?

Fiona Lali: I got a lot of support after the media interviews I did and I wanted to try and build on the movement that has already started to develop. If I were to win as an MP, I would want to use that platform to continue to expose the whole of the political establishment for their role in continuing to support Israel and its war crimes against Palestinians. It’s clear that as an MP or once you have a platform, there are more people that you can speak to and reach. That is the primary goal for me. It’s not just about votes, although I'm going to campaign as much as I can, and we’re already door-knocking and canvassing.

Still, it’s about signing people up for a broader political project and showing them that they can be involved in actively changing things. When people look at Parliament today, they’re apathetic or angry. I’m interested in the people who are angry and trying to channel that anger into organising. So, I would say the purpose of running is to represent the genuine interests of the working class and young people more broadly because no political party is speaking to these people or offering them a future.

When did you first become disillusioned by the main political parties? Or, more accurately, when did you realise Labour aren’t the ‘people’s party’ as they claim to be?

Fiona Lali: I was a member of the Labour Party under Corbyn, and then I was expelled from the Labour Party when Keir Starmer took power. Starmer expelled a lot of socialists and left-wingers for being a part of different socialist groups. So I was expelled, along with [many] others. And as we saw last week, they’re still trying to block people like Diane Abbott from standing, as well as a whole host of other people. Everything they have in common is that they’re on the left of the party. I supported Corbyn and canvassed for him. I would say that Corbyn popularised the ideas of socialism for a lot of people, and under him, the Labour Party became one of the biggest political parties in Europe. But I would also say that Corbyn didn’t go far enough. Corbyn and the people who were around him at the time were too gentle in trying to appease all of those right-wingers, who are now expelling the whole of the left from the Labour Party, and we have all suffered as a result of that.

Once Starmer was elected as leader, it became clear to me that Labour was already moving toward being a party for business and a party of austerity. Now, their position on Palestine has acted as a kind of final nail in the coffin for a whole generation of people who feel like they can never forgive them for their role. I mean, people easily hate the Tories, right? They implement austerity, implement racist policies and attack living standards, but then you have the so-called Labour Party doing the same thing. I think people are angry at that because it’s a betrayal. How dare you speak in our name and continue to facilitate not just horrific oppression for the Palestinians, but also for us? Everyone knows what Starmer is going to do when he gets into power. He’s been very upfront about that and the austerity they will implement. This is also why I think it’s important to stand as an alternative to the Labour Party, who are taking the votes they think they can get for granted.

“If you’re 18 years old and voting for the first time, you’ve got no experience of capitalism making life better, and in fact, your only experience with capitalism is life getting worse.” – Fiona Lali 

I remember when Corbyn was running to be Prime Minister in 2019, and he spoke about increasing the police force. I felt so stuck and conflicted because I was not going to vote for the Tories, but now Labour had made this pledge that will negatively affect all people, but especially Black people.

Fiona Lali: I think that’s a good example of the limits of Corbyn and what I would describe as trying to reform the system rather than fundamentally transform it. Trying to reform capitalism rather than transform it. When Corbyn made that pledge, I remember saying that there was no such thing as Corbyn’s police force versus Theresa May’s police force. There wasn’t a difference, maybe a slight tonal change in terms of the way things are spoken about, but fundamentally, the role police play in society, so long as capitalism still exists, would be the same. I think people are yearning for something fundamentally different from what is on offer to them. We are the generation that has grown up with the pandemic, the climate strikes, Black Lives Matter and war being in our consciousness constantly. If you’re 18 years old and voting for the first time, you’ve got no experience of capitalism making life better, and in fact, your only experience with capitalism is life getting worse.

Life expectancy in the UK is declining in certain places, the NHS is falling apart, there’s asbestos in your school walls, and your school is falling apart. Young people are growing up, looking at their future, thinking: what is on offer? Keir Starmer or Rishi Sunak? No thanks. That’s why there are lots of polls that show young people identifying as communists and as socialists and saying that they don’t want anything to do with capitalism. That isn’t because people like myself shout about it from the sidelines. It’s because of the state of their lives. It is the events of capitalism that have pushed people towards those conclusions. What I want to do is shout to as many of them as possible and say, ‘Yeah, there are others here that feel exactly the same.’ We now need to be organised to build an alternative, political force that can change society.

What are you and the Revolutionary Communist Party working towards after July 4, regardless of whether you win or lose?

Fiona Lali: One of the main things I’ve been focused on is the Palestine encampments. We had a national meeting with students at as many different campuses as possible to try and plan how to reignite the movement in the freshers’ period in September and October. We said that over the summer, all the encampments need to reach out to wider layers in their towns and in specific workplaces. For example, in hospitals, where there’s a lot of sympathy towards the Palestinian cause. They should send delegations to these key places to say we must reignite this movement on a mass scale in September and October. It will look a little different in different areas, but the main thing is to grow.

Ultimately, I would appeal for people to join the organisation. I’m a part of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which is trying to train people in their communities, universities, and workplaces to be a hub for political activity. That is outside of what the mainstream political establishment offers, which can and will involve strike action. But I think it’s important to say that this doesn’t happen with the click of a finger. So, in general, I would say from July 5, we will be preparing to train up class fighters in every single main political hub, every main workplace, and every university across the whole of the UK so that they can go into the huge class battles that are already taking place. We want to prepare for revolution. I wholeheartedly believe that I will see a revolution in this country in my lifetime. Other countries already have them, but Britain is ripe and ready for the taking.

“We want to prepare for revolution. I wholeheartedly believe that I will see a revolution in this country in my lifetime. Other countries already have them, but Britain is ripe and ready for the making” – Fiona Lali

You’ve been incredibly vocal about the fight for Palestinian liberation, and how the genocide is connected to austerity in Britain. Can you expand further on this connection?

Fiona Lali: The reason that the Palestine movement is now growing at a rate that is quicker than it has done in the past is because people are experiencing deterioration in their own living standards. While we go through the cost of living crisis, inflation going through the roof, university tuition and student accommodation costs skyrocketing, Sunak comes out and says, ‘We need to increase defence spending to two and a half per cent.’ I think there’s an obvious question that forms in people’s minds in this circumstance: how do you have money for that but no money for the NHS, housing, or education? The whole higher education sector is on the brink of bankruptcy, yet they’re using the money they have to invest in profit-making schemes, weapons being one of them, but a whole host of other things.

I think it’s very important for us to make the connection to Palestine because I want people to realise that the money to fund everything we need exists in society. We know it exists because we’ve seen them using it to do everything they’re doing in Palestine and to line their pockets in other ways. What we stand for is expropriating that money. The austerity that is being implemented today and that will be implemented under Starmer plays a big role in why people are so angry. They are connecting the dots with Palestine. Our campaign slogans are: ‘Books, not Bombs’ and ‘Healthcare, not Warfare’.

How can people support your campaign?   

Fiona Lali: The best thing people can do is sign up for my website. Come and meet us. We’re having mass canvassing sessions where we’re going to knock on people’s doors and talk to as many people as possible. But also, I would say, in order to do that, learn about these ideas yourself. For example, on the question of Palestine, we all need to be as educated as possible on the history of the struggle going back to 76 years ago, when the Nakba took place and then linking that with the whole global imperialist system, which my party, spend a lot of time discussing and educating people on. I think once people feel they politically understand the world, that’s how you give them agency to change it, and that’s what we’re striving to do. Then we will go out there, talk to as many people as possible, and build this campaign aiming for the best possible result on July 4, but preparing no matter what for July 5 and the beginning of a broader fight back.