In an interview with Mouna Madanat, Nandita Lal calls on the people of the UK to focus on building community and solidarity to defeat capitalism

Nandita Lal stood as an independent candidate in Tottenham in this year’s general election, and after a five-week-long campaign, she came in third. She defeated both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and along with the Green party, they cut David Lammy’s majority by 20%. 

She was backed by the Tottenham and Haringey Palestine Action group and won 2,348 votes. Nandita ran as a candidate after hearing what the people of Tottenham had to say about David Lammy.

‘One of the things that we wanted to counter is that David Lammy is proud of his Tottenham heritage. He’s invisible here. We’ve talked to many people and asked them if they’ve had face-to-face, personal time with Lammy and they’ve said no. This whole narrative of David Lammy as a “Tottenham lad”, is not true. People aren’t really proud of the fact that he is calling himself that because he is so disconnected from the people there.’

More notably, Lammy has been criticised for his previously heavily pro-Israel stance. He visited Israel in December and abstained from a ceasefire vote in November. Although he later signed the ceasefire vote in March this year, Nandita describes this as a ‘very watered down version and didn’t have any sort of bite to it.’

Since Tottenham and Haringey Palestine Action has been so active in being a voice for the Palestinians, the people of Tottenham didn’t feel that Lammy represented them accurately at all. This is where Nandita steps in.

‘People were really fed up with the status quo, so in May we just wanted to be really clear that because Lammy didn’t vote for a ceasefire until it was convenient for him, we were not going to be voting for him. We were the protest vote that was saying this is absolutely not acceptable for the people of Tottenham.’

She says that, despite having been born in India, and being a privileged person now living in the UK, she wanted to use her voice in whatever way possible. ‘My experience has been mixed. I’ve had a lot of grassroots support, but at the same time, I’ve had a lot of abuse on social media. People say, “Those who are not born in this country should not be able to stand for office.” It just gave me so much clarity about the lack of education.’

‘When you’re not saying the things that people want to hear, then you are immediately not going to get any mainstream space. I was very happy to make peace with that.’

Nandita tells me that she doesn’t see herself as a politician, rather she sees herself as a dissenter. ‘I don’t think I could ever walk that line that politicians in the UK walk, because there hasn’t been a politician that has been seriously anti-imperial. Or has talked about the empire in the way that it really does need to be talked about.’

Nandita talks to me about her reputation and how she wishes to be viewed, which she describes as being the ‘voice of opposition on the streets because I don’t have faith in the electoral system. It’s a bourgeois democracy.’ Living under such a system, and in the UK’s current political climate, has meant that the general public cannot fully put their trust in their leaders to provide a fair and just society for their citizens. 

Nandita’s solution is that ‘as grassroots activists, we need to build a movement and reach out to people and say it’s completely fine if you feel you’re not represented by these political classes. A lot of us feel the same way and the best way to get over this feeling of hopelessness is to stand together.’

She highlights how what we are seeing in Palestine is what has historically taken place in other instances of colonisation, but the difference now is that it’s being live broadcasted. The genocide in Palestine is a clear example of the extractive nature of capitalism and growing militarisation. 

Nandita decided to centre the Palestinian cause in her campaign since she feels very strongly about climate change and climate justice (her day job is in climate policy for a non-profit organisation). She touches on how what we are seeing in Palestine is going to be the future of a lot of the Global South. 

She says, ‘All of the Global South’s destiny is linked to this expansion that is happening in the Global North and it’s completely going unchecked. That is what is happening to the Palestinian people. They are getting displaced and killed because capitalism demands a military expansion to keep on growing.’

‘Coming from a climate-justice perspective, saying that Palestine is a climate-justice issue, is the truth – because it is. It shows us how all of these things that we are facing in terms of rising temperatures, flooding, drought etc., are all linked to the fact that fossil-fuel companies and military companies are ravaging the Global South.’

‘Indigenous people take care of 80% of the world’s biodiversity, and that includes the Palestinian people. Indigenous people know that land doesn’t belong to them, they belong to the land, and we have to service and take care of land, which is not what capitalism or colonialism will have us believe. It’s all about extraction and how we can make the most money out of those lands. It is fundamental to capitalism because it relies on continuous extraction which historically comes from nature. It comes from resource exploitation of the Global South.’

‘Everything that Western civilisation claims to stand for, you can see that they are not standing for in Palestine – and in such a brazen way. If that doesn’t raise alarm bells of what we should be fighting for right now, then I don’t know what would.’

We finish up on the importance of building solidarity and the grassroots, and Nandita says ‘Community is all we have. We are going to save each other. No corporations, and no two-party system are going to save us in the way we should be saved. We deserve to live with dignity and happiness and abundance. Only we can give that to each other. Whatever you can do, invest in the people.’

Nandita doesn’t have big hopes for the new Labour government, but she addresses the fact that if they keep up with what the ICJ rulings are saying in relation to Gaza, it would be in their best interests.

‘It was so disappointing to see David Lammy go and shake Netanyahu’s hand and to be wearing the Israel pin. It’s shameful. However we can pressure the ruling class, any institution we can pressure into divesting, would be great. That’s what we will be doing as a community.’

When asked what her final message to the people might be, Nandita said, ‘To any supporters in Tottenham – keep going – as much I know how draining it can be, keep going. Come to all the action, the demos, meetings etc. Heal and talk. Rely on community, build more community. That’s how we will get anywhere.’