Politics first!

The founding conference of Your Party is fast approaching. However, the conference promises to be anything but a walk in the park. All the accumulated tensions of recent months are bound to erupt in one way or another. With thousands of delegates, and infighting at the top, we can expect confused debates, clique fights and manoeuvres of all kinds. So, how can we navigate the chaos?

The task of socialists at this conference is to fight for political clarity. The only way to do this is to put politics first. We must push back against distractions, tertiary disputes and turf wars, and always fight to bring the debates back to the question of what should this party stand for? This is how we can focus the discussions on the most important questions. This is also how we can fight so that the lines of division—because there will be divisions—remain on clear political questions, and not on confused organisational issues or personal allegiances.

We think that to succeed, Your Party must be a radical, socialist and working-class party, ready to wage war against the ruling class. This is how we can win back workers (including those who look to Farage), fight Labour and distinguish ourselves from the liberal Greens. Vague calls for “peace”, “justice” and even “socialism” will not cut it. The Party must stand for a radical break with the status quo, and this will require a struggle on the conference floor.

We urge socialists to fight to adopt clear positions against NATO, against Zionism, for class-struggle politics and for working-class power against the British imperialist rulers. Furthermore, we should fight to put the people who share those politics in leading positions. Zarah Sultana stands out as a leader who has argued for clear socialist and anti-imperialist positions. She, as well as those who take a clear side with her on these questions, must be put in the strongest organisational positions.

Achieving this would be a victory against the conservative and liberal elements in the party, who will no doubt oppose these positions. It would also be a first step to establishing Your Party as a fighting alternative that is able to speak to working-class anger. Even if revolutionaries remain a minority, a debate on these questions will show where everybody stands. But to get there, we must avoid the pitfalls ahead.

Politics or rules? What is decisive?

One of the greatest dangers is that the debates and polarisations at the conference will be exclusively over organisational matters. Most of the founding documents are purely about the structure of Your Party, with the political statement being an afterthought. And many socialists are organised in the Democratic Socialist caucus, whose main focus is the organisational rules of the party. This is a false and dangerous road, which we must warn against.

It would be a disaster if the central polarisation at the founding conference of a new socialist party is purely over organisational structure. An acrimonious fight for or against sortition, over the minutiae of branch structures or for or against co-leadership will only bring confusion and sideline debates over what the party should stand for.

Those around the Democratic Socialists argue: “If members can win a democratic party with a mediocre programme, the programme can be replaced later; if we win a perfect programme but have no way for members to hold their leaders accountable, then neither is secure.” (K Glasssmith, Prometheus, 10 November). This is a totally wrong view of politics.

Politics isn’t a rule book. It is an expression of the class struggle. And parties are groupings which represent a class. Now, there is a battle raging over which class Your Party will represent: the working class, or the liberal middle class. The decisive element in this struggle is not the organisational rules, but political positions, which reflect contending class interests. Understood this way, one can see how placing structure over programme not only misses the entire struggle unfolding, but is a way to reconcile the working-class, socialist trend with the liberal, middle-class one.

Let’s be concrete and look at Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. Corbyn won two landslides in leadership contests despite the countless anti-democratic rules put in place by the Blairites to sabotage the left. The key element was that Corbyn struck a chord among workers and youth, who were animated because he spoke to their class aspirations in opposition to the Blairites. Fast forward four years, Corbyn’s leadership ended in disaster, not because of the structure of the Labour Party (or Momentum), but because Corbyn never wanted to wage a real struggle against the Blairites. He capitulated to the Zionist offensive and ended up campaigning for the European Union. This totally undermined his support, particularly among workers.

Corbyn’s rise and fall in Labour shows that what is decisive in politics is not the rules. What is decisive is what class interests you are fighting for. There is no organisational talisman against capitulating to the ruling class.

This isn’t to say that structure is unimportant, or “not political”. Sometimes, differences over structure hide broader differences over aims. So, we do need to fight for party democracy at the conference. We must oppose sortition, oppose the ban on dual membership—a threat to the left—and support the possibility of recalling leaders, etc. We support such measures because they can assist the fight for socialism. But these measures in themselves are not decisive. So, don’t get bogged down in organisational discussions. Politics is the crucial element.

Unity? Yes! But based on what?

Some in Your Party will agree with opposition to NATO, Zionism and for working-class power. But they will then argue against making these positions party policy in the name of “unity”, ie, we do not want to scare off more conservative elements. Again, here, the question is what type of party are we building?

To undercut Farage, it isn’t sufficient to simply oppose him. The Greens, Labour, the SNP, Plaid Cymru are all against Farage. But they fight Reform UK by defending the status quo, which is fuelling it. To really undercut Farage, we need a party that will wage war against the status quo. This is one of the reasons why opposing NATO or Zionism are not abstract questions. Support to NATO and Israel are clear red lines for the ruling class. We cannot fight the status quo, nor fight for a fairer Britain, if we remain part of NATO and the American Empire.

The point isn’t to shout slogans or to throw out everyone who disagrees with these positions. Rather, it is to fight for Your Party to be a real, working-class and radical alternative to the status quo—and making the case as to why these points are key to this purpose.

Wreckers or builders?

Many at conference are wary of left groups. They see them as a nuisance who seek to push their own little brand at the expense of the movement. Or else, as splitters and wreckers. Unfortunately, many leftists in their actions only reinforce these views. Groups like the SWP are jockeying for organisational positions in a covert manner. The RCG, while correctly pushing for key political positions, insist on the need for a premature split and openly declare that they are not interested in building Your Party. Each of these discredits the Marxist left as a whole.

The task of Marxists at the Conference must be to demonstrate in front of the whole membership why, in order to succeed in the struggles of today, Your Party needs Marxism. This requires putting one’s own narrow partisan interest aside and placing the interests of the movement first.

Again, the only way this can be done is if we concentrate on the key political questions facing Your Party. Marxists will be a minority at this conference. We will not have organisational control, nor should we seek to obtain it through manoeuvres and power plays. Rather, we must use this conference to cohere a revolutionary trend within Your Party on the basis of an open struggle for our ideas.

Obviously, this would be much easier if revolutionary groups came together in a united front on common positions. This is why we are supporting (with criticisms) Zarah Sultana. Not only does she draw a number of clear socialist lines, but every socialist can get behind what she is currently pushing.

This conference will likely be a mess. The way to cut through the confusion and endless debate is to put politics first. Put secondary considerations to the side, hammer out clear socialist lines, link up with those who agree with you and always keep your eyes on the goal: building a working-class, socialist party. Join us in this struggle!