Make Sultana’s speech party policy

At the Liverpool Your Party launch meeting earlier this month, Zarah Sultana gave a fiery speech for socialism, arguing for “the working class controlling the wealth that they produce” and calling to “embrace class war because it’s about time we won.” She also called for our movement to be pro-trans, “proudly anti-Zionist” and “unashamedly anti-imperialist”, calling NATO an “imperialist war machine” which cannot be “greenwashed”—a direct jab at pro-NATO Zack Polanski. Like many Your Party members, we welcome this!

But unfortunately, none of these sharp political points made it into the Your Party founding documents. The political statement, apart from the word “socialist”, is a vague and toothless one-page note. Rather than opposition to Zionism and NATO, we have “opposition to a global system of imperial domination”. Rather than workers control of the means of production, we have the abstract “transfer of wealth and power” to the “majority”. Rather than sharp points drawing a line against the ruling class, we have vague “values”, written to be acceptable to basically anyone left of Starmer.

It is obvious that most of the energy went into the three other documents laying out the structure of the party, and not what the party should actually fight for. Yet this is of paramount importance. Parties are built first and foremost on political ideas. An organisational structure is useful only if it serves a political aim. Without clear principles answering the great questions of our time, we cannot build a strong party. So, with regional assemblies scheduled to prepare for the founding conference, what should socialists do?

The task must be to fight in Your Party meetings for Sultana’s speech to become party policy. Zarah’s speech was welcomed by many members. What matters now is that it does not remain a dead letter. And if we have learned anything, it is that if the members don’t fight and instead place their faith in the hands of these leaders, nothing will happen. And this very much includes Sultana.

Concretely, socialists should argue, including by trying to pass motions at meetings, for Your Party to be:

• Staunchly anti-Zionist
• Clearly anti-NATO
• For class-struggle politics

Membership in NATO is directly linked to the falling living standards of the working class. Increased militarism to satisfy the US’s demands means austerity. As for Zionism, it means support for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and continued war in the Middle East. More broadly, these two points act as a loyalty oath to the American Empire and its wars abroad. This is why support to NATO and Zionism are such red lines for the British ruling class and are imposed on every politician. Any concessions on these are the first step towards capitulation. We already saw this when Corbyn was Labour leader.

As for class-struggle politics, it is high time that the left gets back to it. For decades now, the left has been dominated by liberal middle-class politics, ie accepting the existing capitalist system while giving it a progressive veneer, accepting the US-dominated “rules-based order” and pushing change through gradual reformism and identity politics. This has only led to countless betrayals while pushing many workers into the arms of the far right. Let the Greens defend the legacy of liberalism. Your Party should stand for socialist, working-class politics.

We cannot let the discussions for the foundation of a new socialist party be dominated exclusively by organisational questions of structure. Yes, we need a democratic party structure. But what we need above all else is a political fight to define what Your Party should be, and what it shouldn’t. Sultana’s Liverpool speech was a good first step. Now, the real test is to fight to make those good words a reality.