New Left of Labour Political Party?
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London branch leafletted a meeting of YP supporters in central London yesterday evening. It was addressed by second level leaders such as Andrew Feinstein, the former ANC MP, Salma Yaquoob, former leader of Respect, and County Councillor Michael Lavalette. And by Tariq Ali. Must have been between 150 to 200 there, with a majority of older people.
It looks as if they may be able to contain the wilder Trots. Three spoke from the floor to criticise Corbyn (for not been forceful enough when he was the Leader of the Labour Party and for not saying Israel should be abolished). They got only sparse applause. When somebody defended Corbyn there was loud applause.
The others from who spoke wanted the priority to be given to child poverty or to defend feminism or to leave NATO. Tariq Ali wanted the party to commit itself to abolishing the monarchy – a pretty pointless reform and a long way for his call student leader in 1968 to abolish money.
Besides us and some single issue groups the only others leafletting were the SWP breakaway Counterfire and the Socialist Equality Party.
Zarah Sultana was in Acton in West London yesterday evening. There were 70 at the meeting including 20 paper sellers from four different Trotskyist groups, two which had decided to “enter” the new party (SWP and SPEW) and two which were not going to (SEP and RCG).
The RCG were handing out a leaflet calling on Sultana to breakaway from Corbyn because he doesn’t went to abolish Israel, a split in the new party which they said “would be an enormous step forward for the working class in Britain”.
London branch members went to Brighton this morning to leaflet the members only YP assembly there. 5 Trotskyist groups were there too, the new one being “Socialist Alternative” (apparently a breakaway from SPEW). The RCG stall was flying the Venezuelan flag.
The previous evening a meeting in Putney in South West London addressed by Corbyn was leafletted. One of the SWP paper sellers said his grandfather had been in the SPGB. He has since contacted us for any articles written by his grandfather.
The striking thing about these various meetings we have attended is the age composition, with retired people being over-represented. Maybe the younger anti-Stamerites have joined the Green Party.
Party members were also out today leafletting YP meetings in Cardiff and Doncaster. Reports later.
Report from South Wales Branch;
“The Cardiff YP meeting was a flop. I reckon there were 40 attendees at the most [in a venue booked for up to 500], some may have been there already before I turned up around 10.15, I counted 35 going in over the next hour or so. The SPEW/Militant members I spoke to didn’t explicitly say they were planning to infiltrate YP, but their leaflets and paper gave me that impression. I missed a few people, so only handed out 30 leaflets.”
Report from Doncaster;
“went to leaflet. was there early, hung around until well after the appointed time – no bugger turned up / building locked.”
This was a meeting advertised on the official Your Party site here:
https://in.yourparty.uk/en/events/279-doncaster-your-party-meeting
It looks like they haven’t quite got their act together yet.
It appears that internal dissent is hindering the growth of YP. Here´s the latest news
I suspect more people are going to gravitate towards the Greens as a result
More electoral victories for the Greens. Could it mean potential YP supporters gravitating to the Greens?
Report from Gillingham (Kent) on meeting there yesterday:
“A fairly small meeting of about 20. I’d planned on leafleting as they went in, but I couldn’t see anyone around when I arrived so I went inside and was ushered into the meeting hall. I felt unsure if I should pretend to be there for the meeting and wait till the end to give out leaflets. I decided to come clean about my motive for attendance and they were really nice about it and offered tea and biccies and a table for my literature. So I did sit through the 90 mins of meeting and then gave them all a leaflet at the end. They had a table selling literature from the Socialist Alternative.”
London branch leafleted two meetings this weekend. The SPEW annual weekend school and rally on Saturday at which Sultana was billed to speak and the East London member-only assembly to discuss the documents for the YP founding conference at the end of this month.
Not sure why Sultana is hobnobbing with them. Also there was one of the more way-out Trot groups, the Spartacist League and their paper “Workers Hammer”.
The East London meeting was held somewhere in the Olympic Park in Stratford that was not easy to get to and the venue management (not the organisers) did not allow leafletting outside the meeting place. So conditions were not ideal for leafleting those attending but we managed to hand out some though not as many as intended. The SWP suffered the same handicap.
Zara Sultana says it again. This time in Durham on Saturday:
“What I’m saying is, we need socialism. We need to be explicitly socialist.
“That is not tweaking here and there. It’s not just lowering a few bills and a wealth tax just sprinkled on top, but it is a fundamental transformation of our society: the working class controlling the wealth that they produce and the means of production in their hands.” (Zarah Sultana, Durham, 15 November).Of course, as we say in our leaflet the new party is highly unlikely to pursue socialism as its aim but rather only sprinklings and end up a Labour Party Mark 2.
The cautious position towards the new party of the CPB (the pro-China grouping that runs the Morning Star):
Spotted this on FB, a post from Labour Heartlands. Copied and pasted it here for people not on FB. Things don’t look good for Your Party….
””””””””””””””””’
“Remember when I called it last week, and half of Facebook lost its mind because they couldn’t smell the coffee burning?
Well… here we are.
Zarah Sultana has now been openly invited by the Green Party leader to jump ship, exactly as predicted.
🔥 So let me repeat it clearly: barring divine intervention from the liberal gods, Sultana is heading for the Greens. And the signs aren’t subtle.
While Your Party publicly tears itself apart, Sultana’s been quietly cosying up to someone who represents everything Your Party was supposedly built to challenge: Zack Polanski, the leader of the Greens.
This is the same Green Party she dismissed in July as “not radical enough,” too compromised, too establishment.
Yet according to the New Statesman, they’re “WhatsApping again.” They’ve been seen deep in discussion at Portcullis House. They sat on friendly panels at TWT. And Polanski himself told The News Agents:
“I like Zarah. Come join the Green Party.”
Not exactly coy, is he?
Now look at Sultana’s recent behaviour:
She unilaterally announced Your Party ten minutes after Corbyn said he didn’t agree to co-leadership and wanted a delay.
She launched her own membership portal, raised £800,000, and collected 22,000 members’ data without approval.
She accused Corbyn and the Independent Alliance MPs of running a “sexist boys’ club.”
Both sides threatened legal action.
She’s in it to win it, but only if she’s calling the shots…
“Team Zarah” has been operating as a parallel organisation ever since.
This isn’t coalition-building. This is exit-strategy testing in real time.
And the Liverpool conference (29–30 Nov) will be the flashpoint. Delegates chosen by lottery will vote on a constitution written to favour Corbyn’s faction, while Sultana controls roughly £800,000 of party funds. If the room doesn’t swing her way? If she doesn’t get the authority she wants?
Well… she already has the justification prepared.
She’ll say Your Party cannot be changed. She’ll say it’s a “sexist boys’ club.” She’ll say she has no choice but to take her supporters somewhere more “progressive.”
And she’ll walk – likely in January – straight into the Greens’ open arms.
Polanski would bite her hand off.
He’s said it publicly.The Greens need MPs. They need profile. They need someone who can speak to younger voters and Muslim communities. Sultana gives them everything they lack, overnight.
Imagine the headlines by spring:
“Greens gain star socialist MP as Sultana defects.”Just in time to front their May local election campaign.
After all… the Greens love joint leaders.
They’re just so progressive like that. 😉”Your Party: The People’s Money Ivory Towers and Empty Coffers
#yourparty
Wild speculation. Judging by her recent statements she’d be more likely to join the SWP than the Greens!
But it does seem that the Greens have won the left of Labour electoral franchise. If there’s any deal between them and the new Corbyn party they are in far the stronger bargaining position. We’ll see next May but I imagine they will reserve the council sears with the best prospective for themselves leaving the Corbyn party to take on Labour in the council estates and Muslim areas.
One straw in the wind is this defection from Corbyn to the Greens in his own fiefdom
https://x.com/jackson_caines/status/1991890532172452065
Jackson Caines stood as an “independent” candidate with Corbyn’s endorsement and support in a council by-election almost exactly a year ago:
https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/mp-backs-independent-challenger-to-labour
We stood in that council by-election too:
https://www.islington.media/news/junction-by-election-result
Distribution of our leaflet has been continuing. At a Corbyn meeting in Manchester on Tuesday and another in Oxford yesterday.
More have been printed, with a different heading — “Labour Party 0.2?” Instead of “Same Old Same Old?” — ready for handing out to those attending the founding of the new party this weekend in Liverpool. The first of these were distributed in Manchester on Tuesday.
The text of the leaflet remains the same arguing that as the new party will be pursuing reforms “it will become a Labour Party Mark 2”.
Others have been taking up this theme, with the SWP in Oxford handing out a leaflet saying “Your Party must not be Labour Mark 2” but a meeting on “Why Lenin Matters Today” advertised on the leaflet suggests that their alternative is a Bolshevik Party Mark 2. Or maybe it’s to outbid their main Trotskyist rival, SPEW, which has been calling for years for a Labour Party Mark 2.
The SWP are reporting that they have been expelled from the new party:
Meanwhile the choice of names has been announced:
https://www.urban75.net/forums/attachments/img_7748-png.510594/
Are they serious? At least they won’t be mistaken for socialists.
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