Your Party conference is taking place in Liverpool
Your Party members began debating the vision for the new organisation at the founding conference in Liverpool on Saturday.
The leadership’s stifling of democracy and witch-hunt of the left hung over the debates on the first day. The rows flow from rival visions—is Your Party radical, insurgent and democratic or a Labour Party mark 2.
But the mood from many people there was marked by a determination to move beyond bitter divisions—and build Your Party as a socialist alternative.
Mark Gage from Dorset got a standing ovation when he said, “We shouldn’t be scared of saying the word socialism—we should be proud.” He added it should welcome all socialists—“no expulsions, no witch-hunts.”
The conference debated amendments about what Your Party should look like. Should it be explicitly socialist, should have the working class at its heart and “should be a mass party rooted in the broadest possible social alliance”?
Karen Reissmann from Manchester spoke in the debate on whether the organisation should be a broad, mass party. She said, “Lots of people are angry, don’t want things the way they are at the moment and are looking for an alternative.
“That’s why 800,000 people signed up as being interested in Your Party.
“We are going to have to fight all of it and not leave anybody behind. We are not going to leave migrant workers behind. We are not going to leave trans+ people behind. We are not going to leave health workers behind.”
Karen said we don’t want to be like Labour, urging, “If we are different, we will attract people.”
Some attendees raised concerns about the wording of the amendment that called for the “broadest possible alliance”.
Erin from Glasgow argued the party should promote solidarity and unity, but shouldn’t welcome those who have expressed transphobic views.
“Let’s not allow people to come in under the guise of unity who will actually spread disunity,” said Erin.
James from Shropshire told Socialist Worker he was unsure about the argument for the broadest possible alliance. He felt it is too open-ended and open to interpretation.
There was a heated debate about whether dual membership would be allowed—for example, allowing Socialist Workers Party (SWP) members to be in Your Party.
Your Party expelled SWP members on Friday—and tried to remove some from the conference centre—as part of an attack on the left.
Two amendments around dual membership were on the table. The first said, “Members shall be permitted to hold membership in other national political parties where they have been approved by the CEC as aligning with the party’s values”.
The second called for dual membership to be banned. There was no third option allowing dual membership without the need for approval—for example, simply allowing groups that don’t stand candidates against Your Party to join.
The chair found it hard to find speakers against dual membership—and speaker after speaker got up to say they were against the witch-hunt.
James from Islington in north London—Corbyn’s constituency—used his speech to protest that the options did not reflect the will of the Your Party assemblies.
These have debated the organisation’s founding documents over the past few months. He said that assemblies of members overwhelmingly wanted “a party of the whole left”.
There is a sense of over-reach from the Your Party bureaucracy. Zarah Sultana and many other leading figures on the left have slammed the witch-hunt.
Jeremy Corbyn told journalists on Saturday that members of political parties registered with the Electoral Commission couldn’t join Your Party.
He said, “The Socialist Workers Party is registered with the Electoral Commission, therefore it is another party.”
But the SWP is not registered with the Electoral Commission and would not stand against Your Party candidates.
There was a discussion of whether to have a single elected leader of the party as well as a Central Executive Committee (CEC) or an alternative model of collective leadership. The second option is backed by Zarah Sultana.
In the conference, Dugald said, “We need to organise a fightback in every community, in every workplace, in every university and movement we are part of.
“We need to say loud and proud that refugees are welcome here, that trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary people exist.”
He added, “It means taking seriously that every member should be active and an organiser.”
Dugald argued that a collective leadership would be best able to push radical politics and avoid the party being pulled towards Labourism. He said, “A single leader takes power away from the grassroots.
“It centralises the movement towards electing that leader and the people around them to parliament.”
In a sometimes chaotic day, people in the crowd of thousands had to wave or use the light on their phone to try to attract the chair’s attention. At times, the chair struggled to find equal numbers of people to argue for and against motions or to ensure a balance of different backgrounds.
Trade unionist Saul told Socialist Worker that the conference had spent a lot of time debating broad principles such as support for socialism—some of which should be self-evident.
There is an urgent need to discuss the leadership of the party. An attendee tried to argue that an emergency motion should be heard—motion 571. This would allow a caretaker leadership to be elected during the conference.
The motion recognised that the existing leadership, dominated by the Independent MPs, had damaged the party. It has been responsible for a culture of public argument at the top and lack of democracy at the base.
Two of those MPs, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed, have recently left Your Party amid a row over “social conservatism”.
However, this motion was not heard, despite calls of “let them speak” from the audience. As Shabbir Lakha told the conference, “It’s outrageous that a motion calling for a democratically-elected interim leadership was disqualified.”
The conference continues tomorrow and all members, not just delegates, can vote online (see below).
Socialist Worker is for a socialist, working class party that fights austerity, racism, transphobia and all forms of oppression, imperialism and climate catastrophe.
We support a radical, insurgent and democratic vision of a left that champions mass movements and working class struggle that is key to winning change.
It’s one that breaks with Labourism where MPs rule the roost and use members as foot soldiers in elections. We are for collective leadership and for dual membership.
Your Party needs to be radical and inspire people to want to join it. And it needs to get moving to identify grassroots candidates that can stand in the elections coming up next May.
The need for an alternative to the Labour Party and to the racism of Reform UK is urgent—let’s fight to make it happen.
The top two amendments are key. The online voting is for ALL YOUR PARTY MEMBERS not just delegates.
Voting will take place via the Your Party member portal and will close at 8am on Sunday 30 November.
There are two key amendments to vote on.
Amendment One: Leadership model (clause 3.c). Vote for Option B which is collective leadership.
Amendment 2 DUAL MEMBERSHIP: (Clause 4). VOTE FOR OPTION A. This gives a glimmer of hope that expulsions can be withdrawn. It would be a defeat for those who want a witch hunt against the SWP. Option B will be used to approve the witch hunt.
Vote by 8am Sunday: in.yourparty.uk/en/vote/dashboard
A staffing crisis in the NHS
Health workers set to strike across four Manchester hospitals
Bus workers rejected an offer and came back out
