The politics of voting for the ‘Lesser Evil’ is the politics of maintaining the status-quo of neoliberalism
By Alf – a PGC & WUN member
‘The left’ is often told to swallow their principles and vote for a ‘lesser evil’. In fact, many on the left will campaign for whichever establishment party isn’t on the right. We saw this in America in the recent elections, with support for the Democrats as the lesser of two evils, despite the ‘lesser evil’ presiding over support for the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians by the Zionist regime, and attacks on the working class.
This rhetoric will undoubtedly be prominent in the next elections in Britain, Why? Recent polls have shown a massive swing in support for Reform UK, and the first test of this support will be in the Senedd elections in 2026.
Just like America, the current ruling party, Labour, in Britain is complicit in the same international crimes and oppression of the working class here and abroad. The ‘left’ needs to actively fight against this line.
A vote for a ‘lesser evil’ is a vote for maintaining the status quo, a status quo which has resulted in international war, mass poverty, the collapse of health and educational infrastructure, and the decline of living standards. The increasingly impoverished working class seek an answer, and they are not finding it in the left, as we’re telling them to vote for the same people they are suffering under! Instead, Trump and Farage come along, and they recognise that the working class is poor, they talk about the collapse in living conditions, the collapse of infrastructure, and then they tell them it’s the fault of migrants, not capitalists.
Reform (UK) or Revolution?
This places us, the left, in a difficult place.
- On the one hand, we recognise that this collapse in conditions is causing the rise of figures like Trump and Farage. They can exploit working class suffering and position themselves as ‘anti-establishment’, despite Trump being a billionaire businessman and Farage being a former stockbroker, hardly ‘anti-establishment’. This rhetoric is appealing to many – for the following reason.
- The Democrats & Republicans in the US, and Labour & Conservatives1 in the UK, are parties who compete for stewardship of the capitalist state, they are responsible for the impoverishment of the working class, for genocide being committed, for austerity and continued collapse. The working class recognises that the source of their pain comes from the top, and sees Labour and the Democrats as the people who are administering their pain – they recognise them as ‘the establishment’.
- ‘The establishment’, as it is often called, is what Marxists like us recognise as the capitalist state, the nature of the state does not change with a changing of a name or a party, as it exists to promote the interests of the ruling class, the capitalists.
Where does this leave us? How do we fight the racism of Farage and Trump, without providing a shield for the capitalists? What is our duty to the working class at this time?
Electoral Politics
The field in which this battle is being fought is the electoral field, elections provide the masses, the majority of society that are workers, with the opportunity to choose who gets to represent the will of the capitalists. They do not provide us an opportunity to change the will of the capitalists. If, by mistake or luck, a genuinely anti-capitalist politician ascends the ranks and gets near to leadership, they will be prevented at all costs from reaching national leadership.
As the current field of battle is electoral, ‘the left’ feels bound to encourage people to vote against Farage. However, it would be illogical to say “vote for a third party” who might align with more socialist or progressive views (such as the Green Party, Plaid Cymru), as they do not stand a hope in hell of winning power and ensuring Farage stays out. And most socialists know that Communist parties of all stripes have receded from the consciousness of the working class, and pose no challenge to Reform or the main electoral parties.
So we have a situation where socialists recognise the issues of Labour, but have to reject the politics of Trump, Elon Musk & Farage, and so encourage the working class to vote for the people who are directly responsible right now for our poverty!
The election happens, and the vote for the ‘lesser evil’ doesn’t work. Those of us who encouraged people to vote third party or abstain are called wreckers and blamed, and those who encouraged everyone to vote for the lesser evil are derided as being impotent to stop the rise of fascism.
This is a dead end; we are doomed to repeat it every election cycle unless we get off the path and start to walk a new one!
Wales Today – Why Reform (UK) Can Win
Let’s dive deeper into 2026, the Senedd elections, the rise of Reform UK, learning our lessons from America, and politics of voting for the ‘Lesser Evil’.
I will start with some facts: child poverty is almost 30% in Wales and has been for decades, we have been under a Labour administration for 25+ years, austerity is resulting in the collapse of public transport, depressed wages, a continuing decline in education, and record waiting times for the NHS.
The Labour Party is unable to address these issues head-on because they have happened under their watch, but Reform UK can address them, and they will. Farage will stand on a stage in Wales and say “You are poor because illegal immigrants are getting thousands of pounds a week to stay in 5* hotels”. Reform UK will talk about child poverty, about the NHS, about our schools. They will recognise the issues, name them, and they will blame them on people of colour and ‘socialists’ in the Labour Party.
Anyone who dismisses Reform as being unable to win in Wales for not being significantly Welsh enough does not understand that the majority of people’s primary concerns are issues like poverty, the NHS, schools, and work, and they will vote for the party that campaigns to solve them.
This campaign, coupled with the decreasing voter turnout, means that you only need to ensure that you agitate a base of supporters rather than a whole population. In 2021, the last Senedd elections, 46.6% of the electorate turned out, 1.1 million in total. The 2024 Westminster elections saw a massive shrink in turnout, and you can see that where the lowest turnouts were, Reform UK came second.
Lenin illustrated this democratic principle in Imperialism;
“As a matter of fact, experience shows that it is sufficient to own 40 percent of the shares of a company in order to direct its affairs, since in practice a certain number of small, scattered shareholders find it impossible to attend general meetings, etc.”
Lenin, Imperialism
You do not need a majority, you just need to be able to command enough of the democratic votes to ensure you control the democratic vote. Farage has illustrated perfectly well in previous parties that you do not need a majority share to direct government, you need to present a threat to the dominant parties so they are forced to adopt your policies. The EU referendum in 2016 did not happen because UKIP won the majority of seats, they won enough seats and enough votes to constitute a threat to the Conservatives.
I want to stress, Wales is not immune to racism, whatsoever. There will be people voting for Reform because of their lines on migrants and race. I do not wish to make excuses for racists, but to understand how to tackle them. This summer, England saw a series of racist pogroms take place, and although none happened here – this is down to the disorganisation of the far-right more than anything. The issues are there to exploit, all it takes is the wrong voice at the right time to turn genuine anger into rabid racism. If I was planning a campaign for Reform UK, I’d be looking at Wales, the places with the lowest turnouts, matching that to poverty levels, and campaigning hard on material issues. So why aren’t we doing the same?
The Welsh Way Forward
With all of this in mind, am I expected to say “Vote for the Labour Party to keep Reform out” whilst Reform addresses the real issues with false solutions? Or would my time be better spent right now, in addressing the real issues with real solutions? We must learn the lessons of this repeating cycle of ‘voting for the lesser evil’ as it is not working. So what are our lessons?
The rise of Trump and Farage will not be stopped with votes in elections. They will be stopped by addressing the issues affecting the working class, to end the exploitation of poverty to fuel racism. Secondly, not every vote for Trump and Farage needs to be courted, the bulk of society is working class, but we do not need the support of small business owners. We should aim to divide this bloc, make poverty the core issue and make socialism the core response, and see how quickly the petit-bourgeois move away from the workers.
The organised left in Wales is not a massive section of society; I know many of the names and more of the faces of the committed socialists in Wales, we are split across different organisations and have different approaches to achieving socialism. Collaboration on core issues is necessary, such as combating fascism. We need to decide what our policy is going into the Senedd election of 2026 – we call for a grassroots approach to tackling economic issues in impoverished communities, rather than waging an electoral battle.
The insurgent right-wing are not fighting a clean fight, so why should we? We need to talk with anger and passion, we need to be blunt and straightforward with our rhetoric. Farage used to be a stockbroker, so call him an establishment banker, say he’s just like every other politician – he wants to get rich and make his mates rich. Reform UK has built a strong platform on corruption and neoliberal decay, just like Trump did in 2016 and 2024, let’s utilise the base issues and turn it around on them.
A final point and one which we are firm on – we should not advocate for a vote for Labour to stop Reform in 2026. Nor should we become the Red Army of other electoral parties, if Plaid Cymru, the Greens, etc., like our grassroots approach, they can join us there. I can see the benefits of supporting socialist candidates such as Luke Fletcher MS, who is already in the Senedd and has a strong rhetoric on socialism and the economy already. Beyond select individuals, calling for a blanket vote for one party is not the way forward.
A Grassroots Campaign On Poverty
We should push our entire effort into being a constant presence within the working class, tackling the issues of poverty with direct community organising, funded by members and comrades, meeting the needs of the people. We should refuse to play by the rules as written, if someone says “I can’t get a doctors appointment”, who’s to say that we can’t just book a room in a community hall and offer public health sessions? It doesn’t solve the issue but it provides a degree of what is needed, it takes the real issue and the real anger, and illustrates that it is only the organised working class who can deliver the real solution. Apply this to anything that gets people rightfully angry, fix the potholes, repair the community centre, clean the streets, and show the people who it is that did that – be openly communist and be seen to be getting your hands dirty.
We could spend the next 18 months building up working-class power and consciousness in the communities, with the people, for the people, or we can launch a desperate last minute electoral campaign to stop what will be at that point the inevitable victory of Reform.
- Whilst there are many more parties in our various Parliaments, modern Westminster governments have so far either had Labour or Conservatives in a majority role.u00a0 ↩︎
