The Central Executive Committee of Your Party results and the result of the highly significant Gorton and Denton by election have been announced within 24 hours of one another. As previously reported, Your Party decided not to contest the Gorton and Denton by election and in general to offer critical support to the Green candidate, Hannah Spencer.
Your Party internal elections
In the CEC elections there were two main slates taking part: The Many slate, led by Jeremy Corbyn and the Grassroots Left slate headed up by Zarah Sultana, as well as many independent candidates. There were 24 seats available. In the first stage of selection, candidates had to pass a threshold of nominations in order to go forward to the second stage of voting. In these indicative votes, the Grassroots Left and The Many candidates were running very close in terms of support. The final result however proved to be a significant victory for The Many slate. The Many slate had 13 candidates elected, including Jeremy Corbyn and The Grassroots Left slate had 8 candidates elected, including Zarah Sultana. There were three independent candidates elected as well. This gives The Many team a significant majority on the CEC and the authority to carry through their strategy towards building Your Party.
It remains to be seen what ramifications there might be emerging out of this victory. There are clear mandates from the Your Party conference which the CEC might find difficult to challenge but the key issue of dual membership now appears to be in their gift because the CEC will decide which parties conform to criteria for membership, which they determine. The current anonymous management team of Your Party could largely remain in place, as it was a team selected by Corbyn and the Independent Parliamentary group. It will be difficult to see how Sultana’s team will be able to significantly influence the selection of the backroom staff, including the General Secretary. This gives Corbyn’s group the ability to determine policy in all kinds of ways and the obvious hostility of the existing management to the organised left could increase. There have already been suspensions of lefts from the Your Party Conference as well as exclusions of left candidates from the current CEC elections. These exclusions and suspensions could increase.
It is clear that relations between the Sultana team and the Corbyn team have fractured. Let’s hope that now the elections are over, there is an attempt at joint-working between the two teams because although the Sultana team lost out, they did gain a significant number of votes and in general could be said to represent the left of Your Party. The overtly left positioning of the Grassroots Left team however could result in difficult working relations if expulsions of left members begins. Members of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Worker’s Party for example could be expelled, because they are seen as revolutionary socialists and therefore outside the political trajectory of Your Party. Even in the time of Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, there was hostility towards those seen as revolutionary socialists. The social democratic trend within Your Party may well, at least for a time hold sway and move Your Party politically to the right and away from confronting the capitalist class as may have been possible under a CEC led by The Grassroots Left team.
Important by election
In the Gorton and Denton by election (for a parliamentary seat) a desire for a new kind of politics seems to have emerged. The Green Party took the seat with a huge swing in support towards it. The swing towards the Greens exceeded polling predictions with support for Labour and the far-right Reform UK Party matching expectations. Labours’ support fell from 51% at the general election to 25% this time. Support for Reform UK increased by 15% to 29% but support for the Greens increased by 28% to 41%, ten percentage points ahead of the most recent poll. This seems to indicate a new willingness to vote Green instead of voting Labour. There is also a desire amongst socially progressive voters to vote Green in order to stop the far-right Reform UK. This was definitely a feature in this election and could be repeated in future by elections and at a general election.
Where is Your Party going?
Where does this leave Your Party? The protracted launch of Your Party and the hostility between the Corbyn and Sultana camps has been widely reported. Because of a bureaucratic approach towards data sharing, it has not been possible to establish Your Party branches and there is widespread disaffection with the project in Your Party proto-branches. Meetings, both on-line and in person are being attended by fewer and fewer people and WhatsApp groups are less and less active. When the membership data is eventually shared it will be demoralised forces tasked with reaching out to the membership base. The paid-up membership base of Your Party currently stands at only 40,985 according to the YP returning officer, with only 61% of those members actually bothering to vote. The claim of over 60,000 members, previously widely announced by Your Party has therefore proved to be an exaggeration.
This is an even greater inditement of the bureaucrats responsible for the huge loss in momentum of Your Party. It is worth noting that over 800,000 people expressed initial interest in Your Party less than a year ago. 40,000 represents only 5% of those that expressed that interest. Meanwhile the Green Party has more than trebled its membership with socially progressive left of centre, green politics persuading many that they are the alternative to Reform UK and Labour, at least for the present time. Although the Green Party does not have a clear anti-austerity or socialist platform, it is able to draw voters towards it. It now occupies the centre of UK politics as all other mainstream parties have moved to the right.
If Your Party is to survive, it must be based on a radical socialist platform because many people who would describe themselves as socialists have been flooding towards the Greens and may already have been lost to Your Party. The future for UK and global politics lies with parties that will challenge the ruling class head-on and not compromise with the failed capitalist project.
Will Greens deliver?
When in a position of power, the Green Party has invariably been prepared to compromise with the capitalist project. There may be a growing number of members who could force the Green Party to confront the pro-austerity approach of previous Green groups. It remains to be seen how far to the left their next Green Party conference is prepared to go. It could be that many right-wing Greens will leave if they see The Greens moving too far to the left and a space may open up for socialist ideas. The Greens do say that they are a member led party and policy is determined by members, so this could be a possibility. What the balance of forces inside the Greens is remains to be seen. How far left they are prepared to go will be of interest. Your Party, TUSC and other left groups should demand an anti-austerity commitment from any Green Party candidates at the next local elections in May.
Your Party is now a long-term project. The hope for the rapid emergence of a new mass party of the working class has not materialised. Events in the coming months will see whether it is possible to build a party that is qualitatively different from the Greens. It could be that the CEC majority copies the Green’s approach and tries to occupy the centre ground alongside the Greens. This would be a serious mistake.
At some point a radical alternative political direction will be demanded by the working class. Without a mass worker’s party, the struggle against the capitalist system itself will present a much more significant challenge than it ought. If a mass party of the working class has not been created as a catalyst for anger at the capitalist system and a vehicle for political change, then the working class will have been betrayed.
