The purges of the socialist left from Your Party by the Corbynite wing grouped around The Many is a factional move to consolidate control and construct a formation that will only ever be a shrivelled imitation of British social democracy. 

Your Party started with a hugely exciting 800,000 people signing up for a new left party, when there is a crying need for one as Labour accelerates rightward under the reactionary pressures of Late Capitalism.  Even if 25% of those people got involved, it would have been a huge breakthrough.

Instead, Your Party was torn apart by rival visions, a rehash of Corbyn-era Labour, focused on parliamentarianism and soft social democratic politics – where they were evident at all, or a class struggle party fighting for a more radical transformation.

This is also the difference between a narrow reformist sect and a wider ‘party of the left’ bringing together thousands of people angry with Labour and looking for clearer socialist politics alongside the existing revolutionary groups. 

The decision to expel organized socialists is a ‘second time as farce’ version of what happened to the left in the early Corbyn years, when Labour Party full-timers operating in the notorious Governance and Legal Unit trawled through people’s social media and summarily expelled people they considered dangerous subversives. 

Some of us warned at the time that Corbyn was very slow to get rid of witchfinder general McNicol and then failed to confront the weaponisation of antisemitism against the pro-Palestine movement and the left more generally. 

Karie Murphy, who worked for Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party from 2016-2019, continued the sorry legacy of expulsions, particularly after McNicol’s resignation in 2018. That this is now being continued by the supposed ‘left’ who quit Labour or were forced out by Starmer shows that there is something internal to the logic of social democracy and the way it exerts control.

The move by The Many on the CEC is deeply cynical in that founding conference voted for dual membership (Option A) and rejected Option B which was a blanket ban on “national parties” being allowed to join. Now the CEC is effectively imposing Option B using their control of the mechanisms of power.  

The expulsion of revolutionary socialists from Your Party will be greeted with relief in some quarters in part because some people are committed parliamentary reformists and actively oppose revolution. Indeed, the Labour Party was set up in 1918 to stop the spread of Bolshevism across Britain. 

Others will have come across sectarian or controlling behaviour from some of the groups as well. “The SWP/Socialist Party took over my local branch” is a not uncommon complaint on some YP social media forums. 

The reality is that if the wider membership of Your Party had been properly engaged and brought into activity, then no group would have been able to ‘take over’ anything. YP boasted 66,000 members in December, which was a miracle given the faction fighting between Corbyn’s wing and Zarah Sultana conducted on Twitter and then in the press. 

A mass socialist party will involve revolutionaries and reformists, and as long as it is democratic and robust, we can work together to build a class-struggle party that fights around key issues like the cost of living and building a mass, working-class-led, anti-racist movement. ACR published a contribution towards the discussion in Your Party over its manifesto based around ecosocialism as a possible basis for working together for instance.

The early Labour Party contained socialist societies, and indeed, they often formed the left opposition when the party leadership moved to the right on crucial issues like supporting World War One.

It is clear that the dominant faction in Your Party is increasingly authoritarian and seems to have little intention of the party functioning, let alone thriving. Many suspect that Corbyn and his allies would rejoin Labour in a heartbeat if given the opportunity, so they are reluctant to build YP as a credible fighting alternative to Labour, let alone Labourism. 

Others think they just have no idea how to do anything differently. In the end, what matters is their actions rather than their motives.

What happens next depends entirely on the activity of the most active proto-branches and members. The excellent turnout on the YP block on the Together demonstration was an important boost for those of us who want to build an alternative in the workplaces and communities, as well as at the ballot box. 

In recent weeks, new initiatives such as the YP Members’ Charter have been introduced to organize members who care about grassroots democracy and the building of active branches. Your Party Connections has called a conference in Sheffield to debate the next steps. 

The Green alternative

The Greens increasingly emerge as ‘the only show in town’ for many people who want a left-of-center alternative. The Greens under Zack Polanski appear like a breath of fresh air compared to everything else that is going on, and the threat of a Reform/Tory government looms large in people’s minds, so a left-of-center party that is combative around migrants’ rights and fighting the cost-of-living crisis seems like exactly what we need right now. 

The primary warning here is that the same battles over democracy and principles will be played out within the Greens as more active socialists join them. The experience of the Green Left 15 years ago, trying to challenge the party leadership over the imposition of austerity in Brighton, is something people need to learn about.

The party is still ultimately an electoralist and parliamentarian party wedded to taking over the British state, which runs all the risks of being integrated into the smooth functioning of capitalism and imperialism as befell the Labour Party 100 years ago.

The kind of party we need

Clearly, if Your Party falls apart, that will be a strategic setback for the left. As we have said before, if you do not have a party that can fight for political power, then the left is stuck building social movements and doing trade union organising with no possibility of overthrowing capitalism. Your Party promised much but ultimately could not overcome the structural problems of the left in England, Wales, or Scotland. 

We have shared before the document from the 2018 World Congress of our International organisation,  on building ‘useful parties’ – organisations that make a difference on the ground in terms of the day-to-day struggles of working people and the unemployed, as well as the socially oppressed, but can link that to a wider political struggle against capitalism. 

These are the key points we think any left party should aim towards. If you agree or want to discuss more, then get in touch:

• participation in the social movements and struggles of the oppressed and exploited, not as a political elite intervening from the outside but as an organic part of those movements and struggles in developing political analyses and demands, continuing the fight for those demands to the end. In this process, we also learn from these movements to deepen and enrich our own programme–as we have on feminism, ecology, LGBTIQ questions;
• building active, radical, and class-struggle trade unions, either through activity in existing unions or, where necessary and appropriate, building new workers’ unions. In the unions, act with autonomy and independence in relation to employers, governments, and parties, and ensure democracy in union structures and processes. Challenge the limits of the bureaucratic machine and the legislation that binds the unions to the state. Participate in and strengthen trade unions where possible, in the direction of democracy and unity, but fight against bureaucratism, overreach into government, and class collaboration. Understand that the struggle goes beyond the unions and their structures;
• Create spaces that take into account the diversity of the working class, organize with popular social movements, of informal, cooperative, precarious, outsourced, unemployed, homeless, and artisan workers, as well as with native and traditional peoples, and with fighters against racism, LGBTophobia, machismo, and in defence of ecology;
• the attitude to the state, institutions; to elections as a support to the activity in the mass movement, which must remain the centre of gravity of our activity; the role and relationship to the party of elected representatives who are often the most visible representatives of the party, whose actions (through votes) may be seen to have the most effect, and who are often the most under pressure to be “useful” in the short term. It is the party’s responsibility to determine the political framework for its action;
• the importance of an international and internationalist understanding of the world political situation leading to activity in international campaigns and active and practical solidarity, as well as participation in the FI (see below);
• the necessity for democratic and transparent functioning with broad democracy including tendency rights, against verticalist functioning, based on the rank and file membership’s participation in the activity and decision-making of the party, with the necessary organizational structures to ensure this; understanding the oppression that continues to exist even within parties that are against all forms of women’s and other specific oppression and developing structures, functioning and procedures appropriately;
• the importance of addressing the questions thrown up in the struggles and fightbacks of the oppressed and exploited (notably feminism, ecology, LGBTQI, and others);
• The party is committed to a policy of activity on demands and campaigns combating women’s oppression, in the context of participation in the class-struggle oriented groups, campaigns, and movements, with an understanding of the strategic goal of building an autonomous women’s movement. The party’s preoccupation with both education and activity on these questions is permanent, not to be set aside in moments of lower mass activity;
• The party seeks to build a feminist profile both externally and internally to not only encourage women to join but also to internally build a positive vision of women in the leadership;
• In addition to ensuring that the democratic functioning of the party enables all members to fully participate as outlined above, the party understands that social dynamics tend to exclude women from political participation, therefore it accepts the need for specific mechanisms (women only meetings, priority for women in speakers lists etc) that encourage women’s participation, and the recognition of further problems to be overcome;
• The party does not tolerate any form of sexist (or transphobic or homo/lesbophobic) behaviour. The implementation of this political position is the responsibility of the party, which ensures not only political education on these questions but also that the structures, functioning and procedures put in place work to ensure that the parties we are building, although they cannot be “islands of socialism” in a capitalist world, strive to prefigure the society we want;
• an unremitting fight against all forms of racism – including against indigenous populations, antisemitism, islamophobia and for free movement of migrants, on the basis of solidarity and unity;
• the importance of renewal of organisations through an open and dynamic attitude to recruiting radicalizing youth and integrating them into the party through autonomous youth sectors where young radicalized activists can gather their own experience, develop their own political work and programme, gather around questions related to the questions of the youth;
• the need for continuing educational programmes, including on strategic questions such as the state or the question of power, and international questions.

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