Your Party must trust its members

rs21 members attended the inaugural Your Party conference. Hannah Dahwa reflects on the conference and the future of Your Party.

Since Your Party was announced by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn in the summer, members and supporters have been vocal about the need for a party that occupies a different political space from the existing offering. There is consensus that we need a radical political platform to the left of Labour, combined with a focus on organising in communities and workplaces. I hoped that the conference would be a place where the tensions between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana that have dominated discussions in recent months could be overcome with an outward-facing debate on how we best shape the party.

Arguments at the top of the organisation reflected to a certain extent divisions over whether the new party should offer a new and better kind of Labour Party with a more left-wing horizon, or a more radical vision of putting power into the hands of working-class communities. There were many positive outcomes of this debate. Many on the left had started to agree on points of unity in advance, and at the conference, comrades argued strongly for members to decide policy. Left positions on collective leadership and a commitment to fight for trans liberation and against all forms of oppression were adopted. 

Yet the conference unfolded amidst tension and mistrust. The unelected leadership group around Corbyn seemed afraid of their membership, particularly those who were members of socialist organisations. From the moment I walked into the hall, I was met by airport-style scanners and over fifty security guards. Inappropriate rules had been established for the event. Attendees were notified barely a week before the conference that they had a place, allowing little time for reviewing agenda items or proposing amendments. Most amendments were disallowed, and there was no space to bring emergency motions or points of order from the floor. Time for debate on the founding documents was very restrictive. Perhaps the most counterproductive decision made by the leadership was to expel several members of the Socialist Workers Party on the eve of the conference, which gave the organisation lots of visibility, not to mention sympathy from a membership that, on the whole, supported an inclusive party that welcomed socialists. 

Those that the leadership hoped to exclude, the organised left, came across as well spoken, while those with access requirements or who needed time to prepare to be on stage were significantly disadvantaged. I spoke twice over the weekend and argued that trade union members, not union bureaucrats, create changes in workers’ material conditions for workers, and they should be in the driving seat of Your Party. I also argued for branch autonomy over financing community organising, since those with the most developed links in their communities are best placed to decide how funds are spent, democratically decided with branch members. There was a debate over the party’s identity that highlighted to me the deficit in accessible, straightforward political education. For example, there was no definition or explanation of what “working class” meant, which left some members unclear how to vote. 

Despite a commitment to democracy and being member-led, Your Party’s leadership allowed only minimal member influence over the founding documents and adopted systems such as sortition and remote voting that prioritised passive voting over participation. Real member-led democracy means active decision-making in branches, linking with communities and shaping social change through shared organising. While the regional assemblies that led up to the conference put forward many radical ideas for meaningful member engagement, they were consultative and non-binding. Key decisions on what was debated at conference remained in the hands of the centre, which talked about democracy and transparency while restricting it in practice. There was too much slow filibustering rather than allowing members to formulate political strategy. One of the most popular motions, for a worker’s wage for staff and MPs, was disallowed. There was widespread dissent from the conference floor, with people trying to force discussion on the matter, and the microphone was too often cut, with members viewing at home left in the dark as the live feed was cut.

Erik Uden from Die Linke in Germany, a broad left party that allows socialist groups to openly organise, gave a militant speech that was well received by the crowd. Successful socialist parties are built by facilitating members to create links and explore ideas and shared values. Yet the leadership of Your Party is afraid of allowing this and sees such organisations as wreckers. Your Party presented two options for dual membership: outright banning members from other parties or allowing the executive to decide which groups can join. It was a positive sign that a huge majority of members supported the second option, and it will be important for the membership to ensure this “list” is appropriately inclusive. 

Many experienced organisers in the health movement and beyond have approached me to discuss the party before, during and after the conference. I have told them that socialism and democracy, a participatory and inclusive process, are still valid and needed to ensure that Your Party can survive. Someone at conference described the party as like giving birth: they had an idea of what it would be like beforehand and they prepared with essential oils and a water bath, but then they haemorrhaged and needed an emergency C-section: ‘Founding a political party was never going to be pretty.’ they said, ‘but afterwards all I remembered was all the love and my child was wonderful. That’s how I think of Your Party’.

I would put it slightly differently. Right now, Your Party is like a patient on a ventilator. Its real source of oxygen is the members and organisers who have built powerful movements against racism, austerity and the genocide in Gaza. They are keeping the party alive and pushing it to recover. Members are the lifeblood of this project, not an audience to be managed while others get on with policy. If the leadership continues to restrict participation and treat grassroots organisers as a threat, the flow of oxygen will be limited and the party will struggle to breathe. If members are trusted and empowered, that ventilator can come off, and Your Party could thrive and grow into what it set out to be.

A genuinely socialist party grows when its members are trusted to organise, decide and lead at every level. Your Party already has a wealth of experienced organisers who have spent months building local branches and forming real links in their communities. By bringing people together in shared spaces, developing skills and shaping strategy collectively, we can become a transformative force that resists division, challenges anti-migrant rhetoric and builds working-class unity. Members, not party or trade union bureaucrats, need to be empowered to make decisions and formulate strategies to avoid replicating the failed structure of the Labour Party.

There is plenty that members can do right now. We can back candidates for the Central Executive Committee who have built social movements from below and who have a clear track record of encouraging others to participate. These are the people best placed to push for the changes our society and our membership urgently need. In Wales and Scotland there is a real chance to shape something different from the outset, as autonomy has already been granted to the devolved nations, and this can set a precedent for the rest of the party.

We can continue building our branches without waiting for permission from the centre, establishing clear ways to make decisions, agreeing points of unity and finding out what matters to people locally through listening exercises and collaboration. Branches should be places where participation is encouraged, votes happen, accountability is embedded and social connection strengthens political work. We should resist any attempt to turn Your Party into Labour 2.0 by demanding a workers wage for representatives, speaking up on the issues we care about and insisting that funding is placed directly into the hands of branches. We can build our own membership lists through stalls, local engagement and welcoming events. Above all, we should keep putting forward our ideas about what the party can be and the values it should live by, because without a living culture shaped by members we cannot hope to transform wider society.

*With thanks to Elizabeth Bailey who also contributed to this article.