As we remarked back in 2019, commenting on Corbynism after Corbyn,
"Electoralism is a bankrupt and debilitating strategy for the workingclass. Governments have little autonomy from the ruling class and the
electoral farce is just a way to make us think we have some kind of
power, distracting us from the real struggle. It is capitalism which
determines how things pan out in the political sphere. Getting a
progressive party into power can never achieve more than very minor
reforms. And, given the situation for both the planet and the working
class, it is imperative that change is fundamental and revolutionary;
this means destroying capitalism and creating new economic, political,
and social structures."
Back then, after Corbyn's defeat at the election, many of the
Corbynistas hadn't given up hope for the transformation of the Labour
Party. They spent their time struggling in Constituency Labour Party
branches to oust more Blairites and pushing for a more radical programme
at Labour Party conferences.
When this failed, and Corbyn himself was given the bum's rush from the
Labour Party, some of them had to rethink, whilst others have remained
inside Labour, despite that Party's increasingly obvious anti-working
class, pro-war, and racist nature. Some still maintained the illusion
that they could radically change Labour, whilst others tacked to the
right and fell in behind Starmer.
Corbyn was horrified when he was ejected from a Party where he had made
his career for fifty years. He had refused to resign as Labour moved
further and further to the right. His suspension and determination by
the Starmer leadership that he would not be re-admitted, forced him to
reluctantly stand as an independent four years later. Corbyn remains a
firm supporter of old-style Labourism. One of his associates, John
McDonnell, who remains inside Labour admitted in 2017 that "Jeremy
Corbyn and I are the stabilisers of capitalism." Corbyn's role is to
divert and sabotage any real attempt to counter capitalism by grassroots
action by the working class. When he was Labour leader, he offered a
package of mild reforms, whilst promising big business that they have
nothing to fear. Whilst having a long record of supporting
anti-militarist and nuclear disarmament initiatives, when he became
leader he capitulated to the Labour right, and committed to NATO.
In July 2025, another suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana, announced that
she would, with Jeremy Corbyn, "co-lead the founding of a new party,
with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the
country." Corbyn's hand was forced by this, and after keeping schtum
for some time after Sultana's announcement, was forced to agree to the
formation of the new party.
Many on the Labour left were expelled or resigned in disgust over the
last few years. They are desperately seeking a new home, whilst being in
the main still wedded to electoralist and reformist politics. Alongside
this has been a widespread disgust for the increasingly open
anti-working class nature of the Labour government.
This resulted in more than 850,000 applying for membership of this new
party. This should not be underestimated. It indicates a willingness by
a substantial number to look for an alternative. Whilst this is still
framed within a social-democratic context, it nevertheless indicates a
certain radicalisation of a sizeable number of people, which should be
addressed by revolutionaries.
However, the ensuing few months have proven to be a fiasco for Your
Party. The embarrassing mess around membership dues, with Sultana
precipitately opening up a membership portal, and the ongoing internal
war between the Corbyn circle and Sultana, has resulted in only 53,000
out of the initial figure of 850,000 actually becoming members. Many of
those initially enthused by the appearance of Your Party are now
reluctant to join, whilst Zack Polanski's leadership victory within the
Green Party, posing an alternative reformist and quasi-social-democratic
alternative to Your Party, meant an increasing number have chosen to
join the Greens and not Your Party. Also in the process, two of the
originally six-strong group of suspended Labour MPs, organised as the
Independent Alliance, have now walked out.
Corbyn is surrounded by people like Karie Murphy, (partner of ex-Unite
boss Len McCluskey) and Corbyn's own partner Laura Alvarez, who are
determined that he be uncontested leader of the Your Party formation.
Corbyn's personal preference is for a single leader, himself.
As for Zarah Sultana, she is another career politician who came up
through the old Labour career channels of the National Union of Students
and Young Labour. She wanted to sit on the throne next to that of
Corbyn, as 'co-leader,' as she explicitly made clear, with no reference
as to whether the rank and file of Your Party thought that this was a
good idea or not. We have now been subjected to egotistical hissy fits
between the Corbyn clique and Sultana, which the ruling class media has
gleefully seized upon.
This was all crowned by the recent Your Party national conference, which
the Socialist Workers Party and Counterfire were banned from, and where
Sultana refused to attend the first day, only to make a barnstorming and
demagogic speech on the second day. Sultana poses as the champion of
the Party rank and file. Sultana still wants to be co-leader, although
the decision at conference to have a collective leadership goes against
this. This body, the Central Executive Committee (CEC) will include a
chair and a deputy chair. MPs are not allowed to stand for the chair and
deputy chair roles on the CEC, but may stand for one of the public
office roles, as will councillors and mayors. Elections to the CEC will
finish by the end of February. Until then, the process will be stewarded
by those MPs who are members of the Independent Alliance and Your Party
- Corbyn, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan, but not Zarah Sultana, with a
sortitioned committee of ordinary members.
As to the SWP and Counterfire, barred from the conference, this decision
was made by the Corbyn clique, with no consultation with members in an
undemocratic way. But for outfits like Counterfire and the SWP to bleat
about lack of democracy, when we know the history of these groups, is a
bit rich. Comrade Delta, anyone? The SWP think they can be a major
player in this new party, when all previous evidence shows that they
will attempt to control it and recruit to their own organisation. If
this fails, and the returns aren't worth their investment they will stay
and wreck it if they can or just leave. This goes for the other Trot
groups buzzing round YP like flies around a cowpat.
And indeed, that's what conference looked like, an array of these
various left groups, with little involvement from the 53,000 members. A
thousand attended, but these were decided by sortition by the Corbyn
clique (sortition being selection by lottery, where a random sample of
people is chosen as "delegates"). Many motions put forward by branches
were not even considered, or ruled out of order, and the Corbyn clique
manipulated the conference.
Only around 20,000 members have taken the trouble to verify their
membership, indicating a general unease, and of these only 6,000
actually voted online. Of those physically at the Conference, there was
widespread disgruntlement that they had spent a lot of money on fares
and accommodation but had little say on which direction YP is going.
All these shenanigans indicate that YP is a mess, and cannot even offer
a serious mild reformist programme engaging with sections of the working
class.
It is unlikely that YP will mobilise in the workplaces and
neighbourhoods, increasingly engaged in internal warfare, manoeuvrings,
and manipulation, and in obsession with electoralism. It will to some
extent draw people involved in grassroots campaigns away from meaningful
work, as happened with the previous Corbynmania.
As we continue to say, grassroots groups and campaigns should look
towards common class interests and unity, and meaningful alliances and
coalitions, based on self-organisation, autonomy, and the need to create
new forms of social organisation. This is obviously a hard task,
involving much work, but when we look at the car crash of YP, it must
be seen as the only real alternative.
As Theodore Dezamy, early French communist, wrote in 1842,
"Proletarians! It is to you that I address these reflections, to you
who, a thousand times already, have been betrayed, sold, handed over,
slandered, tortured and mocked by alleged saviours! If you again submit
to the cult of individuals, expect to experience once more cruel and
poignant illusions".
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/12/01/your-party-another-episode-in-the-death-agony-of-social-democracy/
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