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Your Party’s founding conference has already been tainted

Well, kicking out the SWP the night before the conference was a fucking bad decision for ‘Your Party.’

Your Party conference: it’s not going well

I came to this conference this morning full of hope. Last night, I saw Zarah Sultana’s rally, and every single speaker was vibrant and full of hope. Our power, each of them implored, doesn’t come from the top, but it comes from the millions of people building the movement. Platforming Lewis Nielson, a proud member of the SWP, was a shot at Corbyn and the undemocratic way they had expelled a vast demographic of the left.

On the eve of the fucking conference. Come on, guys, who could have thought this was a good idea?

It’s tainted it all. There’s an air of defiance at this conference, and it’s being shown by every member and every speaker I have seen so far. Rebellion is in the air, with crowds of people milling around asking, ‘Who the fuck is making these decisions?’

It was meant to be us.

We have speakers on stage, screaming for unity. For this fucking party to drop the bullshit. We thought it was meant to be led by the members, that every single decision was going to be made by us? That this was meant to a truly, 100% democratic party?

And members are fuming.

From security dragging out young activists roughly purely for being a member of the SWP, we are absolutely at a cross-roads:

When speakers are hushed for nothing more than calling out transphobia:

When you have the majority of members here screaming for democracy, speakers on stage being hushed when they go off topic and plead for unity, there is something clearly wrong. Clearly broken.

And now the question is, will those at the ‘top’ of this conference, and indeed Your Party, listen to us?

Will anyone listen?

And why the fuck do we have speakers telling us we should pull away from the word ‘socialist?’ We are fucking socialist, we are not socially conservative. This party is for everyone, it was built to stand with and protect minorities, wasn’t it? Or so we were told.

It is breaking my heart that this conference has gone the way it has. This should have been a morning full of hope, planning a future where we can finally take on the far-right. But it’s been tarnished and the air is one of rebellion.

But it’s been made very fucking clear by the vast majority of members here. We will not be quiet, you can drag us out, you can try to cut us out. But we will not be quiet and we will fight. This is our party, it does not belong to anyone but the membership. Please, top making decisions before we have been fucking consulted. When Your Party is claiming to be entirely inclusive, why are we kicking out members of the left? Yes, they are difficult. Yes, their past is dark. But these people are part of the movement.

Please, fucking listen to the members.

Featured image via the Canary

By Antifabot

This post was originally published on Canary.