Statement by Socialist Alternative on the way forward for Your Party
The show is back on the road. Just a few days ago, the future of Your Party was in dire peril. The schism that had developed behind closed doors between Zarah Sultana and the other members of the Independent Alliance of MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, had exploded into the open in a messy and dangerous way.
But amid the confusion and anger that followed the public fight between the MPs – particularly the ominous threat of legal action against Zarah Sultana by Corbyn and the other independents – a new force inserted itself strongly into the picture. Thousands of working-class activists across the country have fought to salvage this historic opportunity.
Within hours of the crisis emerging, local groups were meeting to pass resolutions and issuing statements. Social media was flooded by demands from YP supporters. The pressure that this has exerted on the MPs not to stand in the way of launching this force has created a rapid and dramatic turnaround.
The membership portal has been relaunched. We have been reassured that the fees paid under the system set up by Zarah Sultana a week ago are indeed ‘safe and secure’ as she had claimed. Members will be migrated to the newly-launched membership portal. Both Corbyn and Sultana have apologised to Your Party supporters for ‘their part’ in what took place. And now a date for the launch conference has been announced: 29-30 November in Liverpool.
The fight is not over
But the fight is not over. The current plans for the conference continue to be drawn up by the Independent Alliance of MPs and Zarah Sultana’s claim to have been frozen out of it appears to have been vindicated.
In addition, the plan that has been announced so far leaves a lot to be desired. As it stands, it will provide very limited opportunities for the party’s working-class membership to make proposals, debate ideas and democratically decide the way forward. Delegates for the conference will be chosen by lottery, not elected. Regional assemblies will debate founding documents, but not vote on proposals or amendments. Suggestions from thousands of small ‘breakout groups’ will mysteriously ‘composited’ in a kind of black box.
All this concentrates enormous power in the hands of those drafting the initial documents and carrying out the ‘compositing’ process, none of whom have any elected mandate to do so. That’s why the Platform for Democratic Party, to which Socialist Alternative has given its backing, remains vital and should continue to be signed, shared and campaigned for throughout the local groups.
What’s also crucial is that local groups continue to meet, discuss and build public events. The role many of these groups have played in discussing the events taking place at the top and helping to organise activists fighting to get the launch process back on track has been crucial.
Packed meeting in Sheffield shows huge enthusiasm
Last night, over 500 people attended a huge rally in Sheffield which was addressed by Zarah Sultana, as well as Socialist Alternative member Sam Morecroft, who was speaking on behalf of the city’s Trades Council which organised the event. The huge turnout and electric mood is a reminder that the enormous desire for a political alternative among working-class people simply cannot be put back in a box.
Huge cheers greeted Sam’s call for the new party to be rooted in working-class struggle and communities, to be fully democratic in the best traditions for the workers’ movement, and to stand for the “redistribution of wealth from the billionaire class to the working class via nationalisation and expropriation”.
Next, Zarah Sultana’s fiery address was greeted with both relief and massive enthusiasm. Zarah pledged to fight for Your Party to be based on bottom-up, member-led democracy and socialism. She said the party must root itself in class politics arguing “the main difference between us and the Greens is that we are a class-based party, we recognise the power of the working class. We identify as a socialist party and proudly so. We are not pro-NATO, they are.”
She also explained how she views some of the battles that have been taking place at the top as being about the question of party democracy:
“These fights we’ve had, they were all about democracy and empowering the grassroots members. I am critical of sortition [choosing voting members by lottery], but now it has been announced, we have to make it as democratic as possible. And yes, I’m in favour of members and branches putting forward motions and amendments and that regional meetings should be autonomous and able to vote.”
She also responded favourably to a demand raised by a Socialist Alternative member from the floor for Your Party to organise a massive anti-racist demonstration in London in response to the far right, and called on trade unions to do more than simply “add their logos” to the bottom of Stand Up to Racism leaflets.
We are now entering a crucial period in the process of Your Party’s formation and launch. There is a huge amount to fight for. Socialist Alternative is campaigning for members to have the maximum democratic say. This is not just a technical argument. It’s fundamentally about the political struggle to root the party in working-class politics and to fight for it to adopt a socialist programme that points beyond the crisis-ridden capitalist system.
The Northern March to Launch Your Party, taking place in Huddersfield on 18 October, with Zarah Sultana speaking and Jeremy Corbyn invited, will be a crucial rallying point for those engaged in this struggle.
If you agree and you want to join us in the fight, it’s crucial to be organised. To find out more and to get involved, join Socialist Alternative today.
