Inside Zarah Sultana’s rally on the eve of Your Party Conference
Chris Jarvis
It was standing-room-only
\
A Holiday Inn might seem an odd location for the beginning of the revolution. But the entrance to the Liverpool Lime Street branch on the evening of November 28 was adorned with an assortment of revolutionary socialists, Trotskyists and communists. Clutching fistfuls of paper – briefings, newspapers and leaflets – they sought to engage the people filing into the building in their particular persuasion of far-left politics.
The occasion that brought them here? Zarah Sultana’s standing-room-only rally on the eve of the founding conference of Your Party. Inside, hundreds of people gathered to hear a long list of speakers giving their views on the direction of Your Party.
Those who addressed the audience were very much on one ‘camp’ of the internal divisions within Your Party. As members of the party meet over the weekend, this group of people are advocating for what they argue is democracy, grassroots empowerment and accountability within the new outfit – as well as for Your Party to be explicit in its advocacy of a socialist political platform.
The rally was held against the backdrop, not only of the imminent founding conference, but also the news that senior members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) had been expelled from Your Party. Among those expelled is the SWP national secretary Lewis Nielsen, who spoke at the rally.
Nielsen told the rally: “It’s been a bumpy ride. And today’s news makes it a bit bumpier to be honest.” Later, he added: “Today, myself and some of my comrades received a letter – an email – saying that we were expelled from Your Party. It’s a record to be expelled from an organisation which hasn’t been fully formed, before the conference has even started. I was expelled because I’m a member of the Socialist Workers Party.”
When Nielsen said that he had been expelled, he was met with shouts of ‘shame’ from the floor. Later, he said “there is a group in Your Party that is trying to take it over, that has an agenda, that is undemocratic and it’s the clique of the people running it at the top.”
Nielsen wasn’t alone in criticising his expulsion from the party. Many of the other speakers on the platform raised this issue too. Mish Rahman, a former member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, said: “Today, some unnamed, unelected, faceless bureaucrats have on the eve of conference – taking lessons seemingly from Labour and the right – have conducted a witch-hunt.
Much of the audience appeared to agree, with various moments seeing interjections from the floor of ‘no expulsions’. Speakers argued that the alleged purging of senior figures within the SWP was emblematic of a failure of democracy within Your Party.
That word – democracy – was recurring throughout the event. Sultana and her allies see this as the crux of the potential problems facing Your Party going forward. Not the petty infighting, or the statements and counter-statements made over social media, or the legal threats flying in different directions, but instead what they see as an unwillingness of others in the party hierarchy to trust members with the power to steer the party’s future.
Those speaking from the platform made the case that this is foundational to the kind of party that will emerge out of the founding conference and put itself forward as an electoral alternative in the future.
Long time left-wing activist Max Shanly made this very case. “Without building a democratic party, you can’t build a democratic society,” he told the rally. Rahman, meanwhile, said: “The answer always must be that you the members are bringing decision making as close to everybody as possible”.
In pursuit of this vision, the rally sought to generate support amongst those Your Party members who will be able to attend and debate the party’s new constitution over the weekend (see our explainer here for how they were selected), for a series of changes to the party’s founding documents. Amongst the rules that Sultana and her supporters are advocating for are a ‘collective’ leadership model rather than a single leader and increased autonomy for local party branches, and ‘dual membership’ where people could be both a member of Your Party and another, separate but ‘aligned’ party.
The rally’s headline act – Sultana herself – made the case for these positions, and carried forward the tone of the other speakers. At one point she told the rally: “I did not leave the Labour Party to create a new Labour Party”, and at another that she wanted to see Your Party led by you – the members – and not MPs”.
Everything you need to know about Your Party’s founding conference
Your Party conference is just around the corner
Your Party – the new political outfit being formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana among others – is holding its founding conference in Liverpool this weekend. But what’s happening there? What are the key decisions and debates? This is everything you need to know.
When and where is Your Party Conference?
Your Party’s Conference is taking place from 29-30 November in Liverpool.
Who will be attending Your Party Conference?
Because there are currently no local parties and no branch structure exists, attendees for the founding conference have been selected by sortition. This happened in two stages. First, a pool of members were randomly selected to attend the conference. Then, a second pool of members were selected to attend in order to ensure that no demographic was underrepresented at the event.
According to Your Party, “A representative group, selected from the membership by lottery, will be tasked with founding the party. It’s fair, it’s legitimate, and it’s democratic.”
Who will be speaking at Your Party conference?
The four Your Party MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan are all expected to address the conference. Alongside this, representatives from left-wing parties across Europe are also expected to speak to attendees.
What will Your Party’s new name be?
One of the things being decided at the conference this weekend will be the new name for the party. Leading figures have consistently described ‘Your Party’ as merely a holding name, with the permanent name to be decided at the founding conference.
The new name of the party, as agreed by members, is expected to be announced on Sunday.
Who will be the leader of Your Party?
Your Party hasn’t yet elected its leadership. And that won’t be happening at the conference either. Any election for the party’s leadership will take place in the new year.
However, what will be decided at the conference this weekend will be the structure of the leadership. Two options are on the table. Members will be asked to decide between having a conventional single leader, or what has been described by the party as a ‘pioneering’ model of collective leadership.
Will Your Party conference be debating policies?
The founding conference will primarily be dealing with internal and constitutional issues. Essentially, the event is designed to established the ‘rulebook’ that will govern the party in the future.
However, alongside this, party members will be asked to debate and vote on a ‘political statement’. This document is designed to set out the ‘broad principles and purpose’ of the party going forward.
The main draft of this document reads: “Our aim is to win elections with a popular programme of action for real change, but also to transform our country, in the interests of the many, not the few.”
Elsewhere, it says: “Your Party is a democratic, member-led socialist party that stands for social justice, peace and international solidarity”, and “Our task is to build a mass party for the many, rooted in the broadest possible social alliance, with the working class at its heart”.
However, there are a series of amendments to the document. One of these would remove the word ‘socialist’ from the political statement. Another would remove ‘with the working class at its heart’ from it.
Members will be debating these amendments and the document as a whole at the conference.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
But in addressing the audience, she also gave a clear indication as to the kind of politics that she wants Your Party to be explicit in advocating. Railing against what she at various points termed the ‘billionaires’, ‘profiteers’ and ‘parasites’ in society, Sultana put forward a vision that Your Party should be unashamedly on the radical left of British politics, calling for the economy to be nationalised and the monarchy to be abolished.
She also made clear the strength of the position she wanted the party to take on international issues, telling attendees: “I am a proud anti-Zionist and if we fight for it, Your Party will be an anti-Zionist party” and calling for: “A single democratic state from the river to the sea with equal rights for all”.
Like the questions around party structures, some of this is likely to spill into the debates about what the party is and what it is for over the course of the conference. At the event, members will have the chance to vote for a ‘political statement’ – a foundational document which summarises the broad ideological basis on which the party will be established.
Much of the text is what you would expect from a party to the left of Labour. It talks about opposing inequality, economic injustice, privatisation, discrimination, imperialism, poverty and war.
But at the founding conference, there will be a debate about whether to include the word ‘socialist’ in the text, and whether this should be an explicit ideological badge that Your Party should wear. Sultana and the other speakers at the rally have made it clear where they stand on that debate. This weekend – like on the questions around party governance, structures and democracy – we will learn where the membership stands too.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Chris Jarvis
Today
Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward
It was standing-room-only
\
A Holiday Inn might seem an odd location for the beginning of the revolution. But the entrance to the Liverpool Lime Street branch on the evening of November 28 was adorned with an assortment of revolutionary socialists, Trotskyists and communists. Clutching fistfuls of paper – briefings, newspapers and leaflets – they sought to engage the people filing into the building in their particular persuasion of far-left politics.
The occasion that brought them here? Zarah Sultana’s standing-room-only rally on the eve of the founding conference of Your Party. Inside, hundreds of people gathered to hear a long list of speakers giving their views on the direction of Your Party.
Those who addressed the audience were very much on one ‘camp’ of the internal divisions within Your Party. As members of the party meet over the weekend, this group of people are advocating for what they argue is democracy, grassroots empowerment and accountability within the new outfit – as well as for Your Party to be explicit in its advocacy of a socialist political platform.
The rally was held against the backdrop, not only of the imminent founding conference, but also the news that senior members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) had been expelled from Your Party. Among those expelled is the SWP national secretary Lewis Nielsen, who spoke at the rally.
Nielsen told the rally: “It’s been a bumpy ride. And today’s news makes it a bit bumpier to be honest.” Later, he added: “Today, myself and some of my comrades received a letter – an email – saying that we were expelled from Your Party. It’s a record to be expelled from an organisation which hasn’t been fully formed, before the conference has even started. I was expelled because I’m a member of the Socialist Workers Party.”
When Nielsen said that he had been expelled, he was met with shouts of ‘shame’ from the floor. Later, he said “there is a group in Your Party that is trying to take it over, that has an agenda, that is undemocratic and it’s the clique of the people running it at the top.”
Nielsen wasn’t alone in criticising his expulsion from the party. Many of the other speakers on the platform raised this issue too. Mish Rahman, a former member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, said: “Today, some unnamed, unelected, faceless bureaucrats have on the eve of conference – taking lessons seemingly from Labour and the right – have conducted a witch-hunt.
Much of the audience appeared to agree, with various moments seeing interjections from the floor of ‘no expulsions’. Speakers argued that the alleged purging of senior figures within the SWP was emblematic of a failure of democracy within Your Party.
That word – democracy – was recurring throughout the event. Sultana and her allies see this as the crux of the potential problems facing Your Party going forward. Not the petty infighting, or the statements and counter-statements made over social media, or the legal threats flying in different directions, but instead what they see as an unwillingness of others in the party hierarchy to trust members with the power to steer the party’s future.
Those speaking from the platform made the case that this is foundational to the kind of party that will emerge out of the founding conference and put itself forward as an electoral alternative in the future.
Long time left-wing activist Max Shanly made this very case. “Without building a democratic party, you can’t build a democratic society,” he told the rally. Rahman, meanwhile, said: “The answer always must be that you the members are bringing decision making as close to everybody as possible”.
In pursuit of this vision, the rally sought to generate support amongst those Your Party members who will be able to attend and debate the party’s new constitution over the weekend (see our explainer here for how they were selected), for a series of changes to the party’s founding documents. Amongst the rules that Sultana and her supporters are advocating for are a ‘collective’ leadership model rather than a single leader and increased autonomy for local party branches, and ‘dual membership’ where people could be both a member of Your Party and another, separate but ‘aligned’ party.
The rally’s headline act – Sultana herself – made the case for these positions, and carried forward the tone of the other speakers. At one point she told the rally: “I did not leave the Labour Party to create a new Labour Party”, and at another that she wanted to see Your Party led by you – the members – and not MPs”.
Everything you need to know about Your Party’s founding conference
Yesterday
Left Foot Forward
Your Party conference is just around the corner
Your Party – the new political outfit being formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana among others – is holding its founding conference in Liverpool this weekend. But what’s happening there? What are the key decisions and debates? This is everything you need to know.
When and where is Your Party Conference?
Your Party’s Conference is taking place from 29-30 November in Liverpool.
Who will be attending Your Party Conference?
Because there are currently no local parties and no branch structure exists, attendees for the founding conference have been selected by sortition. This happened in two stages. First, a pool of members were randomly selected to attend the conference. Then, a second pool of members were selected to attend in order to ensure that no demographic was underrepresented at the event.
According to Your Party, “A representative group, selected from the membership by lottery, will be tasked with founding the party. It’s fair, it’s legitimate, and it’s democratic.”
Who will be speaking at Your Party conference?
The four Your Party MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan are all expected to address the conference. Alongside this, representatives from left-wing parties across Europe are also expected to speak to attendees.
What will Your Party’s new name be?
One of the things being decided at the conference this weekend will be the new name for the party. Leading figures have consistently described ‘Your Party’ as merely a holding name, with the permanent name to be decided at the founding conference.
The new name of the party, as agreed by members, is expected to be announced on Sunday.
Who will be the leader of Your Party?
Your Party hasn’t yet elected its leadership. And that won’t be happening at the conference either. Any election for the party’s leadership will take place in the new year.
However, what will be decided at the conference this weekend will be the structure of the leadership. Two options are on the table. Members will be asked to decide between having a conventional single leader, or what has been described by the party as a ‘pioneering’ model of collective leadership.
Will Your Party conference be debating policies?
The founding conference will primarily be dealing with internal and constitutional issues. Essentially, the event is designed to established the ‘rulebook’ that will govern the party in the future.
However, alongside this, party members will be asked to debate and vote on a ‘political statement’. This document is designed to set out the ‘broad principles and purpose’ of the party going forward.
The main draft of this document reads: “Our aim is to win elections with a popular programme of action for real change, but also to transform our country, in the interests of the many, not the few.”
Elsewhere, it says: “Your Party is a democratic, member-led socialist party that stands for social justice, peace and international solidarity”, and “Our task is to build a mass party for the many, rooted in the broadest possible social alliance, with the working class at its heart”.
However, there are a series of amendments to the document. One of these would remove the word ‘socialist’ from the political statement. Another would remove ‘with the working class at its heart’ from it.
Members will be debating these amendments and the document as a whole at the conference.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
But in addressing the audience, she also gave a clear indication as to the kind of politics that she wants Your Party to be explicit in advocating. Railing against what she at various points termed the ‘billionaires’, ‘profiteers’ and ‘parasites’ in society, Sultana put forward a vision that Your Party should be unashamedly on the radical left of British politics, calling for the economy to be nationalised and the monarchy to be abolished.
She also made clear the strength of the position she wanted the party to take on international issues, telling attendees: “I am a proud anti-Zionist and if we fight for it, Your Party will be an anti-Zionist party” and calling for: “A single democratic state from the river to the sea with equal rights for all”.
Like the questions around party structures, some of this is likely to spill into the debates about what the party is and what it is for over the course of the conference. At the event, members will have the chance to vote for a ‘political statement’ – a foundational document which summarises the broad ideological basis on which the party will be established.
Much of the text is what you would expect from a party to the left of Labour. It talks about opposing inequality, economic injustice, privatisation, discrimination, imperialism, poverty and war.
But at the founding conference, there will be a debate about whether to include the word ‘socialist’ in the text, and whether this should be an explicit ideological badge that Your Party should wear. Sultana and the other speakers at the rally have made it clear where they stand on that debate. This weekend – like on the questions around party governance, structures and democracy – we will learn where the membership stands too.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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