Your Party: Don’t fuck this up! 

The Labour government is facilitating Israel’s genocide in Gaza while criminalising opposition at home. On Saturday, over 100,000 marched on the biggest far-right mobilisation in British history. [The far right party] Reform are leading in the polls. Starmer’s response is to move further right.

The announcement of Your Party and the 800,000 people showing interest in it has been a ray of hope. But every move has taken too long. Secret committees and cliques have been pulling the strings behind the scenes, while sexist and transphobic politics have been on display from some figures at the top, with no accountability.

Despite squabbling and delays at the top, local groups have sprung up across the country. The political will is there to build a political alternative from the grassroots up.

Tens of thousands of people signed up as members of Your Party today, but are now dismayed and confused at being told by Corbyn that this signup form was “unauthorized” and by messages claiming it was a scam.

This should have been a moment of celebration, a step towards making this new party democratic, with power in the hands of the members. Instead, the feud between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, and the teams around them, has taken a drastic turn, for which the vast majority have no context.

Many are arguing about who to blame, or saying “we just need unity!” But instead we should focus on what we want: the successful founding of a democratic new left party. That outcome is at risk, but we can take action to save it:

1. Corbyn and the other MPs must not pursue legal action. The courts are not the place to resolve this and taking our issues there only favors those who want to see us fail. Corbyn’s side were wrong to pour cold water on the membership launch. We might not get a second shot at this.
2. Local groups should keep building, regardless of the chaos at the top. Those of us coming together to build new branches in our local areas are the real backbone of the new party.
3. We have members now and we should keep going. This is no “scam”, it gives us a real list of members, which is essential to move forward. Whoever controls the money and data now, what matters is that it comes under the control of the membership through the democracy of the founding conference and the election of a diverse and accountable leadership. To achieve this, the existing infrastructure needs to be safeguarded.
4. Fight for transparency at every level. End the secrecy, maneuvering and opaque decision-making at the top – if there is a fight to be had, then do it openly, over political disagreements, not just personalities.

Everyone who wants Your Party to succeed needs to act now. The stakes are too high to fuck this up.

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”
Featured Image credit: Alisdare Hickson, Jessica Taylor; modified by Tempest.