Your Party branches in Scotland have united in an open letter to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, urging them to “work together in the interest of the many”. It comes just as Sultana has issued a statement affirming her determination to reconcile with Corbyn and move the party forward in a “unified way”.

Your Party Scotland branches: a letter urging unity

Groups from Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Glasgow, and Lanarkshire have come together to:

demand transparent leadership from those who seek to lead our movement.

Your Party in Scotland have made a series of demands of those leading the process of founding the new party. These include a de-escalation of the serious disagreements seen earlier this week, a relaunch of membership in earnest, and transparency of leadership going forward.

Hundreds of people have already attended public meetings across the country, showing the need for a new kind of politics, which goes beyond a handful of MPs.

The proto-branches say it is now time to work together, towards a founding conference, as we:

fight the encroaching far-right and threats of global fascism.

Your Party doesn’t belong to MPs…

In the letter, published on Friday, the groups wrote:

In Scotland, as across Britain, this is a generational opportunity to build something new. Drug deaths remain at record levels. Rough sleeping and homelessness represent the very worst of a housing emergency. Local councils and services have been hollowed out. Austerity from Holyrood has done little to protect us from the worst indulgences of right-wing governments in London.

Tens of thousands of us, as the public already knows, recognise this cannot go on. Only a radical political programme can start to reverse this societal decline, and there is no time to waste.

Your Party doesn’t belong to MPs: it belongs to all of us. As grassroots organisers we will stay motivated and united. Across Scotland, mass meetings have already been held which shows an undoubted appetite for a new kind of politics – many other groups are in the process of being set up. This public setback cannot be allowed to slow the momentum behind Your Party. The stakes are far too high.

Centring the grassroots of our movement

Already, it seems the Your Party leadership have heard and heeded the call. In her statement, Sultana echoed much of this sentiment and said that her:

motivation has always been to ensure the collective strength of our movement, put members first and
build the genuinely democratic conference and socialist party we so urgently need.

Once again, Sultana has stepped up to lead the fledgling left party forward, and importantly, she’s resolved to do it in a way that centres “the grassroots of our movement”.

Feature image via the Canary.

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.