Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana have completely shaken up British politics in recent weeks with their announcement of the ‘Your Party’ project to build a new party on the left. 800,000 people have already signed up, eager to help shape the positions and structure of this new party at “an inaugural founding conference“. And organisers are working hard behind the scenes to make this conference happen as soon as possible.

There have been, however, a number of unhelpful leaks surrounding the whole process. Some may come from a good place, some may not. But the latest suggests “there has been a coup of sorts in the working group responsible for the #YourParty Founding Conference”. The criticism of this centres around the need for transparency and democracy, which most supporters of a new party would certainly agree are of great importance. *However…*

The first step is setting up the founding Your Party conference

Speaking to the Canary, sources close to the organising process have questioned the origin of the new rumours and cited a number of inaccuracies. They’ve also clarified that the working group mentioned above is focusing on setting up the founding conference. It’s not about policies. And it’s not about the structure of the party. It’s just about bringing us to conference.

800,000 potential members of Your Party absolutely should have a say about what policies a new left party presents to the public in future elections, and about what that party’s structure is like. And that is still the plan. The conference organisers’ argument right now simply seems to be that ‘we need to set up the conference asap, and streamlining that process is quicker and more effective’.

Everyone has the right to disagree with that, of course. But right now, we have a government supporting genocide and suppressing non-violent protests while allowing fascists to go after asylum seekers with signs saying “Kill ’em all“. So the sense of urgency requires the organisation of a new party to happen *yesterday*.

After the founding conference, the real building will begin

All members of a new party should demand it be representative of the general population and be democratic to its core. And there is currently no reason to believe this is not what Corbyn, Sultana, and others want too. When the Canary spoke to Corbyn in March, he said “the political movement regenerating is one that’s inevitably and required to be rooted within the community”. He and Sultana stressed this again in the statement launching the Your Party project, insisting that a new party had to be “rooted in our communities, trade unions and social movements”. They added that the founding conference would be the place for members to:

decide the party’s direction, the model of leadership and the policies that are needed to transform society.

They have told us they want to “build a democratic movement that [can] take on the rich and powerful – and win”. They’ve made it clear they want “a mass redistribution of wealth and power”. And 800,000 people have given them a vote of confidence already, without the existence of a new party or even a name for it.

The leaks and gossip about what’s going on behind the scenes are perhaps inevitable considering how badly people around the country want and need this new party to exist. But they serve no positive purpose right now – precisely because there isn’t even a party yet, and it doesn’t even have a name yet. What we actually need is to fix a date for the founding conference. Then, the real building and debate can begin.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.