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Zarah Sultana was just talking ’bout a revolution at her Your Party rally

Suppose it wasn’t clear before that Your Party offered a real hope of change for the masses. In that case, it certainly is now after Zarah Sultana’s energetic, passionate, and principled rally ahead of the Your Party founding conference. Joined by prominent left-wing speakers, including Lewis Nielsen, who was expelled today from Your Party for membership of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), Zarah made it clear that this party must be about inclusion and a refusal to leave anyone out in the cold.

Well, unless you’re a billionaire who doesn’t want to pay their taxes.

“What a huge turnout – turns out that the left is back”

After empowering and motivating speeches from the panellists, Zarah Sultana stood to a massive eruption of applause to speak to the monumental and pivotal moment we find ourselves in:

We gather on the eve of a historic founding conference, at a moment of profound crisis, but also of profound opportunity. Everyone in this room knows what is wrong with Britain; everyone outside of this room knows what is wrong with Britain, too.

Nothing works, and nothing gets better because this country is rigged to serve the rich and powerful who bought and paid for it. And we plan on beating them before they lead us into fascism to protect their own wealth and power.

Our diagnosis is pretty simple: over the last 20 years, mega donations to political parties from the super-rich haven’t just doubled or tripled; they’ve gone up sevenfold.

Billionaires buy up newspapers, social media platforms and tv channels to gaslight us into blaming our neighbours for the mess. They want you angry, but not at them. Our message to our friends and our neighbours is, if you want to know why you’re depressed, why everything keeps getting worse, know that the people who control your food, your home, your energy and your media are sending billions of your hard earned money to the Cayman Islands and we have got three parties, Labour, Conservative, and Reform, all sewn up. So you work harder, for longer, for less, whilst politicians take money from poor kids and pensioners.

Everything gets harder, so offshore bank accounts get fatter. It is a total disgrace

Zarah Sultana: we have to confront the ‘parasites that own Britain’

Reminding the room of the purpose of the collective power we are building, Zarah Sultana added:

We are here to fight back, we are here to break up a system that humiliates our disabled friends and neighbours, and deprives them of the cash that they need, while funnelling an extra 11 billion a year to arms companies…. All the old parties back it. That’s money into the pockets of shareholders for the merchants of death, after two years where we have witnessed a live streamed genocide.

This labour government is just as happy oppressing people at home, as it is abroad. It isn’t a coincidence, the politicians who attacked disabled people, and demonised desperate people arriving in small boats, are the same people who blow up our world with war, genocide and occupation. The real enemy of the working class travels by private jet, not by dinghy.

So its not about stopping the boats, its about stopping the private jets.

Addressing the controversies about whether Your Party will be anti-Zionist, she said:

As socialists, we stand with the oppressed everywhere, from Sudan to Congo to Palestine. Let me say proudly and loudly, i am a proud anti-Zionist, and if we fight for it, Your Party will be an antizionist party

Bringing the revolution

Bringing some more revolutionary energy into the room, Zarah went on to discuss the murky ties between Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and unashamedly, to great delight in the room, shared her views about the Royal Family:

The people running this country want you to believe that every refugee is a racist, whilst they grab £12 million of taxpayers money to protect a parasite named Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
Never seen the inside of a cell or a court room, because what matters to the ruling class is not the safety of women and girls, its the peace and pleasure of the super powerful. And what a sick society we live in, when the rich and the powerful bend over backwards to defend the royal family, including Andrew, close friends with the notorious paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.

That’s our money that defending him in court, that’s our money that put food on his table.

Well not any more, we shouldn’t just abolish Andrews title, we should abolish the monarchy itself.

Lewis Nielsen of the SWP, expelled from Your Party today before it technically actually exists, also spoke to the packed out crowd, saying:

It’s been a bumpy road, and todays news makes it a bit bumpier to be honest. But when I look around this room, and I think about the 30+ meetings Zarah has done across the country, and just 4 months since 800,000 people signed up, I’m filled with the possibility of hope for the first time in a long, long time. For too long, the politics in Britain is about the politics of despair.

I want to argue that despite the bumpy road, we can make this thing work, we can turn Your party into a force that can win. Number one: the public spats and statements on social media have to stop. The second, we need more democracy, not less. Too much of it has been controlled by people at the top, and there hasn’t been enough democracy given to the branches. Today, myself and some of my comrades, received a letter, email, saying we were expelled from your party. Its a record to be expelled from an organisation which hasn’t been fully formed.

I was expelled because I was a member of the SWP. I have a confession to make, there is a group in Your Party that is trying to take it over, that has an agenda, that is undemocratic, and its the clique of the people running it at the top.

Zarah Sultana: where it’s at right now

What stood out from Zarah Sultana’s rally tonight is that she is unapologetic over her righteous anger at how the ‘bureaucrats’ in Your Party have not only smeared and briefed against her – but are now also turning against members and socialists before the conference has even begun. As she told the Canary, that’s no way to run things – and members should not tolerate it:

 

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However, given the fact conference organisers have put Sultana in a “graveyard” slot to speak on Sunday 30 November, it seems that they don’t care about how their actions are being perceived by members or the public.

What was clear though from tonight is that the support and enthusiasm for Zarah Sultana has not waned – if anything it is growing. Your Party without her would be a poorer place. Let’s hope those with agendas against her are forced to face a reckoning for their actions – and quickly.

You can watch the full livestream from our friends at Turn Left Media below:

Featured image and additional video via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

This post was originally published on Canary.