- All out for 100,000 members! Build mass, democratic branches rooted in working-class struggle.
- Continue the struggle for maximum member democracy – for a socialist-led Central Executive Committee!
- Out of the meeting halls, into the streets! Endorse the March 2026 national demo against the far-right and build a massive socialist bloc.
Despite recent difficulties and internal battles, Your Party has finally been officially founded. Over the weekend of 29-30 November, over 2,000 YP members gathered in Liverpool to establish what is already the largest socialist party in Britain since the 1940s.
Nobody will have missed the sharp debates which were thrashed out on the conference floor. This follows months of crisis, public infighting and smears – particularly directed at Zarah Sultana – which led to a dramatic undermining of the enthusiasm surrounding the project.
Members Organise to Rescue the Party
But despite the well-publicized “shitshow,” this conference was undoubtedly a huge success for socialists. After months of rank-and-file organising, working-class people travelled from across the country to make their voices heard and shape the party’s development. Thanks to this, several landmark victories were achieved, which lay the foundations to both further build YP and clearly distinguish it from the pro-capitalist parties.
Among other things, the conference voted by overwhelming majorities to embed socialism in the party’s founding political statement, and reaffirm the central role of the working class and the labour movement in our struggle for change. An amendment submitted by a member of Socialist Alternative, committing the party to the fight for trans liberation was also resoundingly endorsed. This made it clear, following some transphobic statements made by MPs formerly linked to the party, that we stand unequivocally for liberation from all oppression.
Motions calling for YP to fight for anti-austerity, no-cuts budgets in local government were also passed decisively. Conference also voted to establish an elected collective leadership, demonstrating a real commitment to creating a party genuinely controlled by its members and accountable to the working class.
These gains were won despite attempts to block many motions from even being heard. Party members faced a series of disgraceful manoeuvres by the unaccountable grouping running conference. Multiple rounds of deliberate filibustering (lengthy speeches scheduled to push controversial amendments off the agenda) triggered uproar in the conference hall.
Out of hundreds of amendments submitted by members, only one was debated and voted on during the first day. A hugely popular proposal for MPs to be paid the wage of an average skilled worker was ruled out of order, supposedly due to a spelling mistake! The fight for a workers’ MP on a workers’ wage remains a fundamental principle for the working-class movement, and must continue to be fought for.
Witch-Hunt Rejected
One of the most brazen abuses of power occurred the night before the conference began, when several YP members were expelled for their membership of existing socialist organisations. In many cases, these activists only found out they had been expelled once they’d already arrived in Liverpool. This egregious action was met with widespread opposition inside and outside the hall. YP, as a mass party of the left, will inevitably contain a wide range of opinions, including those of people already active in socialist organisations.
Where political disagreements exist, they must be debated openly, democratically, and transparently – not through bureaucratic expulsions, hostile press briefings, or witch-hunts. It was therefore welcome that the conference overwhelmingly passed a motion affirming the right of socialists to hold ‘dual membership’, delivering a clear rebuke to the party’s self-appointed leaders’ witch-hunting.
This decision must now lead to the reinstatement of all socialists expelled from Your Party, respecting the right of everyone who shares the party’s basic aims – which were broadly defined in the founding political statement – to organise and put forward their ideas.
What Next?
The gains made for the left on the conference floor must now be genuinely reflected in the party’s day-to-day life, rather than remaining just words on paper. The conference’s commitment to socialist ideas needs to be fleshed out and connected with the struggles of today. This must be reflected in the party’s election campaigns, social media and written material.
Hints of how this can be done are already there in the political ideas being put forward by Zarah Sultana, who has begun to outline some of the most far-reaching and clearly defined socialist ideas put forward to a mass audience in Britain for decades. In addition to calling for wealth taxes and public ownership of utilities, Sultana expanded on this at her pre-conference rally to include construction, banking, and major industries. This is precisely what Socialist Alternative has been arguing for.
Of course, the super-rich and capitalist class will not simply accept pro-working-class reforms without a monumental fight. To resist their blackmail we must, ultimately, fight to take control of the economy out of their hands altogether.
Rather than just taxing the billionaires (as welcome as that would be!) we have to fight for a society where billionaires can’t exist in the first place. This means fighting for public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy – starting with the 100 corporations that dominate British capitalism – under democratic working-class control and management.
Likewise, the commitment to making YP a genuine working-class party must become a reality, not just words tucked away in the constitution and ignored in practice. As was said many times, YP cannot simply become a “Labour Party 2.0.”
This also means obeying conference policy and standing candidates in the May 2026 local elections (and Welsh and Scottish elections) on a clear anti-cuts platform. Beyond door-knocking and phone banking, the party’s campaign must also be grounded in real struggles on the streets and in workplaces. YP must become a space to organise, amplify, and initiate the struggles of the working class, young people, oppressed communities, and the Palestine solidarity movement.
The national march against the far right which has been called for 28 March, backed by most of the trade union and anti-war movement, presents a unique opportunity to put these words into action. YP should not just formally endorse this March, but build for it with all its energy and resources. On the march itself, a YP should organise a socialist bloc of tens of thousands. No other party, including the Greens, has the base among active and mobilised working-class people.
Build the Branches!
YP’s membership must build on and consolidate the gains won at conference. This requires establishing strong, independent, and democratically organised branches. To recruit and organise the next generation of socialists and fighters, a strong, autonomous youth and student wing needs to be built. Demands ignored by the leadership at conference, such as the workers’ wage, should be endorsed by as many branches as possible, making clear where the membership stands.
Despite some important victories at the conference, the struggle for a socialist party genuinely controlled by its working-class membership is far from over – it begins now. Ahead of the party’s upcoming Central Executive Committee elections, we support forming a joint, democratic, socialist slate of candidates to maintain, consolidate, and expand the gains won by the rank-and-file.
Socialist Alternative will be actively involved in this effort to secure a leadership committed to maximum member democracy and class struggle. This is about fighting for a party that the working class controls, that speaks to our interests and fights for the socialist future we all need.
