Editorial from Issue 60 of Socialist Alternative’s monthly newspaper. Subscribe now!

As this issue of Socialist Alternative goes to press, preparations for Your Party’s founding conference are in full swing. Amid the frenetic, and often frustrating, internal machinations and debates taking place, it is important that all those involved take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Your Party was launched for a reason.

That reason lies in the deep overlapping crises of British capitalism, the victims of which are the same as ever – the working class. Our towns and services are broken, and genocide is being livestreamed on our phones, armed and financed by our government. In response, literally millions of people are turning away from the traditional political establishment. But the main political beneficiaries of this crisis, so far, have not been socialists. Instead the momentum is with the poisonous and racist Reform UK, which seems on course for power and is hell bent on making life worse, not better, for the majority.

Your Party was launched to turn this situation around, and redraw Britain’s political map in favour of, not against, the working class. This movement must produce more than a mailing list. It must produce a mass party that will change our society. We cannot afford to fail.

“We are fighting for a thing called socialism”

How then, should we define success? In the immediate term, we want to launch Your Party successfully, on solid democratic foundations and with a mass membership that can unite working-class communities across England, Scotland and Wales in struggle. And that (see our centre pages for more) is no small matter, given the many inadequacies in the party’s launch process so far.

But on what political basis should such a party be launched? This is the crucial question for Socialist Alternative. As an organisation, we have two main purposes at this time: building Your Party as the mass party the working class needs, and at the same time, organising within it for a socialist programme.

In the latter regard, the party’s launch process has been more promising. Socialism is a subject of live discussion. Zarah Sultana, who is touring the country at an impressive pace addressing meetings and rallies, along with the important “March of the North” which launched Your Party in Huddersfield, is playing a particularly positive role in moving this conversation forward.

What are real socialist policies?

What is most significant about Zarah’s speeches is not the fact that she mentions socialism or defends the idea that the party should be socialist, but rather what she means by socialism itself. Of course, socialism is not a new word in the vocabulary of the British labour movement, even in its recent history. The movement around Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership saw an important re-popularisation of the term, especially among the younger generation.

However, what self-professed socialists (including Jeremy himself) actually mean by this has generally been defined rather vaguely. Often in fact, socialism has been understood as support for basic left-wing policies such as taxing the rich or limited nationalisations of sectors like mail and rail. To be clear, socialists absolutely support and fight for these policies. But winning them would not bring about socialism.

Socialism is an alternative system to capitalism, with fundamentally different economic and political foundations. This is the fundamental aim for which we have always fought. And now, this is precisely what Zarah Sultana is explaining to thousands of people around the country. She told the crowds in Huddersfield, “We’re fighting for a thing called socialism. Not tweaks to a broken system, not a wealth tax here and a lowering of bills there – we are calling for a fundamental transformation of society, where workers control the means of production and the wealth of our communities is controlled by our communities. That is socialism.”

Immediate demands as part of a socialist programme

Of course, this does not mean that Your Party should avoid fighting for progressive change which stops short of socialism. This would be an absurdity. Quite the contrary, Your Party should go into working-class communities with clear immediate demands: for rent controls and mass council house building, for a significant wealth tax to reverse cuts and fund decent public services and benefits, for a £20 an hour minimum wage, pay restoration and annual pay rises for all workers linked to inflation, etc.

Your Party should lead with demands like this in the 2026 local, Holyrood and Senedd elections. It should seek to stand a candidate in every available seat, and make any electoral agreements only on the basis of a clear set of political principles. But while being the best fighters for these demands, we should also explain that they can only be won and maintained if they are part of a struggle for fundamental socialist change.

How else will we answer the inevitable chorus of “how are you going to pay for that?” and “well, the rich will just take their money and factories elsewhere”? To really be able to implement the policies we need, we must own and control the wealth that working-class people produce. That means nationalising the banks and the major corporations under democratic working-class control and putting them to work for people and the planet, not profit.

Get organised to fight for socialist ideas in Your Party

Zarah Sultana’s stand for a democratic and socialist party has our full support. But unfortunately, her role alone will not be sufficient to ensure that Your Party adopts this vision. Indeed, there are important political debates and divisions in the party, including at the top. There is clearly a more conservative political trend, which is not openly socialist and does not clearly defend trans and women’s rights. What’s more, Zarah appears to have been marginalised at the top of the project, which can’t just be explained away by personal factors, but is in reality political.

For these reasons, those fighting for a socialist programme for Your Party must get organised and wage a struggle. Socialist Alternative – revolutionary socialists organised in Your Party – exists to bring young and working-class people together to do precisely that. If you agree, get involved in our struggle today. Join Your Party to build the mass party we need, and join Socialist Alternative to argue for a revolutionary socialist programme within it.

What about the Greens?

Zarah Sultana’s position is markedly different to the approach of the Green Party, which has admittedly seen soaring support in recent months, in part benefiting from the chaotic launch process of Your Party. New party leader Zack Polanski has attracted huge enthusiasm from progressive young people for his bold, ‘eco-populist’ politics. However, the Greens’ strategy is still ultimately based on working within the system, rather than fighting to fundamentally change it.

This is why Polanski has had to backpedal on the issue of NATO – an imperialist bloc that defends the interests of capitalist warmongers. He has instead argued to ‘remain and reform’, which would be completely impossible in practise. On the other hand, Zarah Sultana has correctly called for Your Party to clearly oppose NATO and imperialism, calling for immediate withdrawal.

This approach of working within the system is also why Green-run councils continue to pass cuts to services in cities like Bristol. This brutal system can’t be changed from within, despite the best intentions of figures like Polanski. Instead we need a party that can provide a vehicle for mass working-class organising and struggle to win the fundamental change we need – and Your Party presents the opportunity to build exactly that.