A-Infos (en) UK, ACG, Jackdaw #24 - Your Party: another nice mess (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Back in 2019, after Corbyn's defeat at the election, many of 
the Corbynistas hadn't given up hope for the transformation of the 
Labour Party. They spent their time struggling to oust more Blairites 
and pushing for a more radical programme at Labour Party conferences.  
---- When this failed, some of them had to rethink, whilst others 
have remained inside Labour, despite that Party's increasingly obvious 
anti-working class, pro-war, and racist nature. Some maintained the 
illusion that they could radically change Labour, whilst others tacked 
to the right and fell in behind Starmer.
Corbyn had refused to resign as Labour moved further to the right. His 
suspension and determination by the Starmer leadership that he would not 
be re-admitted, forced him to reluctantly stand as an independent four 
years later. Corbyn remains a firm supporter of old-style Labourism. One 
of his associates, John McDonnell, who remains inside 
Labour, admitted that "Jeremy Corbyn and I are the stabilisers of 
capitalism." When Corbyn was Labour leader, he offered a package of mild 
reforms, whilst promising big business that they have nothing to fear. 
Whilst having a long record of supporting anti-militarist and nuclear 
disarmament initiatives, when he became leader he capitulated to the 
Labour right, and committed to NATO.
In July 2025, another suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana, announced that 
she would, with Jeremy Corbyn, "co-lead the founding of a new 
party." Corbyn's hand was forced by this, and after keeping schtum for 
some time after Sultana's announcement, was forced to agree to the 
formation of the new party, called Your Party (YP). More than 850,000 
applied for membership of this new party.
Many on the Labour left were expelled or resigned in disgust over the 
last few years. They are desperately seeking a new home, whilst being in 
the main still wedded to reformist politics.
The last few months have proven to be a fiasco for Your Party. The 
embarrassing mess around membership dues, and the ongoing internal war 
between the Corbyn circle and Sultana, has resulted in only 53,000 out 
of the initial figure of 850,000 becoming members. Many of those at 
first enthused by the appearance of Your Party are now reluctant to 
join, whilst Zack Polanski's leadership of the Greens, posing an 
alternative reformist alternative to Your Party, has meant an increasing 
number have chosen to join the Greens and not Your Party.
Zarah Sultana is another career politician who came up through the old 
Labour career channels of the National Union of Students and Young 
Labour. She wanted to sit on the throne next to that of Corbyn, as 
'co-leader,' as she explicitly made clear, with no reference as to 
whether the rank and file of Your Party thought that this was a good 
idea. We have now been subjected to hissy fits between the Corbyn clique 
and Sultana, which the ruling class media has gleefully seized upon.
This was all crowned by the recent Your Party national conference, which 
the Socialist Workers Party and Counterfire were banned from, and where 
Sultana refused to attend the first day, only to make a barnstorming and 
demagogic speech on the second day. Sultana poses as the champion of the 
Party rank and file. Sultana still wants to be co-leader, although the 
decision at conference to have a collective leadership goes against this.
As to the SWP and Counterfire, barred from the conference, this decision 
was made by the Corbyn clique, with no consultation with members in an 
undemocratic way. But for outfits like Counterfire and the SWP to bleat 
about lack of democracy, when we know the history of these groups, is a 
bit rich. Comrade Delta, anyone? The SWP think they can be a major 
player in this new party, when all previous evidence shows that they 
will attempt to control it and recruit to their own organisation. If 
this fails, and the returns aren't worth their investment they will stay 
and wreck it if they can or leave. This goes for the other Trot groups 
buzzing round YP like flies around a cowpat.
That's what conference looked like, an array of these various left 
groups, with little involvement from the 53,000 members. A thousand 
attended, but these were decided by sortition by the Corbyn clique 
(sortition being selection by lottery, where a random sample of people 
is chosen as 'delegates'). Many motions put forward by branches were not 
even considered, or ruled out of order, and the Corbyn clique 
manipulated the conference.
Only around 20,000 members have taken the trouble to verify their 
membership, indicating a general unease, and of these only 6,000 voted 
online. Of those at the Conference, there was widespread disgruntlement 
that they had spent a lot of money on fares and accommodation but had 
little say on which direction YP is going.
It is unlikely that YP will mobilise in the workplaces and 
neighbourhoods, increasingly engaged in internal warfare, and in 
obsession with elections. It will to some extent draw people involved in 
grassroots campaigns away from meaningful work, as happened with 
the previous Corbynmania.
Grassroots groups and campaigns should look towards common class 
interests and unity, and meaningful alliances and coalitions, based on 
self-organisation, autonomy, and the need to create new forms of social 
organisation. This is obviously a hard task, involving much work, but 
when we look at the car crash of YP, it must be seen as the only real 
alternative.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/jackdaw24_low-res-1.pdf
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