Your Party conference is just around the corner
Your Party – the new political outfit being formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana among others – is holding its founding conference in Liverpool this weekend. But what’s happening there? What are the key decisions and debates? This is everything you need to know.
When and where is Your Party Conference?
Your Party’s Conference is taking place from 29-30 November in Liverpool.
Who will be attending Your Party Conference?
Because there are currently no local parties and no branch structure exists, attendees for the founding conference have been selected by sortition. This happened in two stages. First, a pool of members were randomly selected to attend the conference. Then, a second pool of members were selected to attend in order to ensure that no demographic was underrepresented at the event.
According to Your Party, “A representative group, selected from the membership by lottery, will be tasked with founding the party. It’s fair, it’s legitimate, and it’s democratic.”
Who will be speaking at Your Party conference?
The four Your Party MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan are all expected to address the conference. Alongside this, representatives from left-wing parties across Europe are also expected to speak to attendees.
What will Your Party’s new name be?
One of the things being decided at the conference this weekend will be the new name for the party. Leading figures have consistently described ‘Your Party’ as merely a holding name, with the permanent name to be decided at the founding conference.
The new name of the party, as agreed by members, is expected to be announced on Sunday.
Who will be the leader of Your Party?
Your Party hasn’t yet elected its leadership. And that won’t be happening at the conference either. Any election for the party’s leadership will take place in the new year.
However, what will be decided at the conference this weekend will be the structure of the leadership. Two options are on the table. Members will be asked to decide between having a conventional single leader, or what has been described by the party as a ‘pioneering’ model of collective leadership.
Will Your Party conference be debating policies?
The founding conference will primarily be dealing with internal and constitutional issues. Essentially, the event is designed to established the ‘rulebook’ that will govern the party in the future.
However, alongside this, party members will be asked to debate and vote on a ‘political statement’. This document is designed to set out the ‘broad principles and purpose’ of the party going forward.
The main draft of this document reads: “Our aim is to win elections with a popular programme of action for real change, but also to transform our country, in the interests of the many, not the few.”
Elsewhere, it says: “Your Party is a democratic, member-led socialist party that stands for social justice, peace and international solidarity”, and “Our task is to build a mass party for the many, rooted in the broadest possible social alliance, with the working class at its heart”.
However, there are a series of amendments to the document. One of these would remove the word ‘socialist’ from the political statement. Another would remove ‘with the working class at its heart’ from it.
Members will be debating these amendments and the document as a whole at the conference.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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