This piece by Nick Wrack, Respect national secretary, appears in the current edition of Respect’s newspaper.

New Labour’s humiliation at the local elections was followed up by a thrashing in the Crewe and Nantwich parliamentary by-election with a 17% swing to the Tories, that would put Cameron and the Tories into power at the next general election.

Of course, Gordon Brown must go. But why was he elected leader in the first place? He was the architect of New Labour’s economic policy for ten years; the paymaster for the war on Iraq. One of his first decisions as Prime Minister was to appoint Digby Jones, former leader of the bosses’ CBI, to a ministerial post.

Why did so many Labour MPs nominate him? More pertinently, why did so many trade union leaders back him, when they knew he would continue with attacks on their members?

Changing the leader won’t make a fundamental difference unless there is also a complete change of direction in Labour party policy. And this is not going to happen. The Labour Party leadership is completely wedded to the right-wing, anti-working-class policies of privatisation and cuts. A decision to ditch all that and adopt policies that benefit working-class people is as likely to happen as the Queen becoming a republican.

John McDonnell has launched a campaign for labour party members and trade union branches to adopt a series of left-wing policies, all of which Respect supports. We believe that such policies are essential to advance the interests of trade unionists and working-class communities. But, unfortunately, no matter how much support John wins for them, they’re not going to be adopted by the New Labour leaders.

The fact that John could not muster the support of the 45 MPs needed to challenge for Labour Party leader says it all.

The Labour Party is completely irredeemable as a party to represent working-class interests. Whether it’s the 10p tax rate, the below inflation pay awards, the continued intrusion of the market into the NHS and schools, or the attacks on civil liberties, immigrant communities and young people, New Labour stands against pretty much everything that Labour voters expect. It has placed itself completely at the disposal of big business and the super-rich.

Workers, the poor, the pensioners, the sick and disabled, the immigrant and the youth are all disregarded. That many still vote Labour reflects the deep loyalty of many working-class communities to a party that has let them down repeatedly and a fear that Cameron’s resurgent Tory Party are heading for government in 2010.

But New Labour is squandering this capital with the determination of a drug addict in a crack house. New Labour cannot rely on its traditional vote for ever.

There’s no enthusiasm for Labour. Voters hold their noses while they vote. Others stay at home, casting a plague on all the parties. A few are tempted to vote for the conservatives, forgetting the experience of Thatcher, Heseltine and Tebbit, the miners’ strike and the poll tax. Some, in the most deprived areas, take out their frustration and disillusionment by turning to the racist and fascist BNP.

In the unions, the slow disintegration of Labour’s base continues. The RMT remains expelled from Labour and has considered standing its own candidates. The FBU’s recent conference confirmed its decision to remain disaffiliated. Discontent with the payment of the political fund to Labour is growing in other unions, with the CWU conference discussing whether to withhold money until they get a commitment from the government that the Post Office is safe from privatisation and that their pensions are safe. Now, even the GMB union, one of Labour’s biggest backers, is also debating disaffiliation over concerns about how its donations are treated.

Many younger voters do not share the traditional allegiance to the Labour Party, nor do the new immigrant workers from Africa and the extended European Union.

More and more of Labour’s own members are calling it a day. Since 1997 over 200,000 have left the Labour Party. Now the party is in financial crisis, owing over £10 million to the banks and various rich creditors. Many members have now decided they aren’t even prepared to raise funds for the party any more, worried that it will be spent on the wrong things. When a 70-year old woman in Hyndburn, Lancashire, with over 50 years’ membership, is no longer prepared to bake cakes for the party, its very existence is called into question.

Young activists in the unions, anti-war, anti-racist and environmental campaigns are not going to replace the long-time devoted Labour stalwarts. Only right-wingers and careerists seem to join these days. As one activist in the CWU postal workers’ union commented, ‘I’ve been a Labour Party member for nearly thirty years but when I see former Tories given standing ovations at the annual conference, it makes me sick to my stomach’.

The need for a left-wing alternative to New Labour could not be clearer. It won’t be built overnight. But built it must be. Respect aims to play its part it this process, recruiting new members and standing in elections to present an alternative. But Respect is still small and it cannot at this stage present a national alternative. At the next general election it will contest only a handful or two of seats.

We want to reach out a hand of unity to all on the left who want to establish a broader, unified alternative to New Labour.

There have been several false starts and, no doubt, this colours the thinking of leading figures on the left in the labour movement. The experience of the Socialist Labour Party, the Socialist Alliance, the Scottish Socialist Party and, latterly, the split in Respect would make the most optimistic exponent of left unity reach for the nearest barge pole.

‘Once bitten, twice shy’ may be the more obvious saying but ‘try, try again’ is a better one. Working-class people deserve a party that speaks for them. And time is ticking. The slow business of creating a party to the left of Labour needs to begin now.

We will continue to seek alliances with all on the left, including those still in the Labour Party, to fight for policies that can benefit working-class people – policies such as free school meals for all children; abolition of prescription charges; free leisure facilities for young people; affordable housing; an end to privatisation and job cuts; and pay awards to keep ahead of inflation.