Your Corbyn/Sultana Party - Discussion thread - Part 2

[fromorbit]

The YP starting conference is in the ACC in Liverpool between 29-30 November so only three weeks off. With competing factions involving Islamic conservatives, every variety of Marxist/Communist, former Labour members, trade union activists, entryists from SWP and SPEW, splitters from the Scottish Greens, trans activists and actual left wing feminists [not the nice kind] it is difficult to underplay how much controversy there is likely to be. So we will need a second thread in advance.

Thus far following the internal drama of the UKs newest left party has taken a whole thread. It has been a wild ride and the party still does not have a name.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5394557-your-corbynsultana-party-discussion-thread

The thing is the main topic that comes up, always, when you poll, is immigration.

The most that was said was Corbyn saying those young men on boats are our future Doctors and scientists ( and this Inclusive Thing To Say is already pilloried in any Below-the-Line comment section on social media of choice, esp if there is a story on one that might have been arrested . The message might be heartfelt but no one, no one seems to buy it anymore).

Charliemansell also noted that there weren't ANY motions on Brexit at conference. That vox pop I posted upthread had one attendee in a bind BC he hated Brexit but didn't want to rejoin. Sultana says the EU are war criminals complicit in war crimes in Gaza, so she's Lexit. Corbyn infamously was at best lukewarm on remain during the referendum as they would be on NATO. They talk about building solidarity yet are cutting off international and internationalist links

The middle class either dont understand the working class or actively want to cause disruption within the working class through policies.

Its hardly surprising that YP dont have policies the working class would get behind.

Well, on international links, they had some bloke speaking from the (ex-Maoist) Workers Party of Belgium.

And someone from the German Linkspartei, who wibbled on about supporting a United Kurdistan.

So it's the Third Worldism you'd expect from Corbyn. Sultana says she's a big fan of Mamdani's win in NYC, but I don't think she's learned anything from that. The first big lesson to my mind is that Mamdani, though a member of the DSA, mostly ignored DSA members' niche concerns and focused his campaign on the cost of living and on improving the bus service.

The second big lesson is that Mamdani is an excellent communicator who can speak human. He has that in common with Polanski. It's not an obvious overlap with Zarah, who speaks in tweets.

Being expelled from the SGP for sexual misconduct is quite an accomplishment.

This was my first thought too when I heard about Eryn's expulsion. I thought being a sexual pervert was one of the joining requirements.

The line-up of speakers at the Your Party conference seemed to consist entirely of losers, misfits and degenerates. No one normal is going to look at it and say "Yes, this is the party for me."

The hard Left despise the WC for not doing their bidding over the last 100 years and being the footsoldiers of the Revolution. They of course, being intellectually superior won't be sullying themselves with pulling up Turnips on a collectivised farm. Their job is to run the Politburo and keep hold of all the cash for safekeeping. They hate that the people who are meant to be throwing over the elite while they take all their autonomy, money and history dont understand their vision and why in the long run it will be better for them

I've had links to talks by a Professor Sarah (prev Sally) CM Paine from the US Naval War college on pop up on my YouTube feeds. She is most definitely Not A Lefty but she has studied a lot of Russian and Chinese history and the hard evidence she cited on economic production and international relations is fascinating.

The Soviet Union was actively planning to use nuclear weapons on China as part of a border dispute in the 1960s for a start

Every line is a joy to read 😂

The central committe is not unelected. It's entirely elected by the whole membership.

Why Labour folx who aren't necessarily sold on Corbynism still can't escape the premises

Interesting: what niche DSA concerns did he ignore?

Another factor of course is that winning a super-Democratic state like NY isn't really a template for the Dems or YP (or Labour for that mater)

It will probably depend partly on that, but the whole point of the CEC is to be voted into the position to carry out certain executive functions (that's the "E" part) on behalf of the membership. (Contrary to everyone's kneejerk desperation to find Stalinist overtones in every cough and sneeze anyone connected with this party utters, that's actually a completely normal structure within plenty of completely open and democratic organisations). This particular function is defined as considering the nature of other parties and deciding whether there is a case for their members to be allowed to join YP. That case will then be voted on by the whole membership before it becomes policy.

Yes, of course they could get it wrong. Just like the CEC treasurer could get their sums wrong, the secretary could get the meeting arrangements wrong and the guy in charge of renovating the building could connect the wrong wires and blow everybody up.

I didn't think such a committee had yet been elected?

David Aaronovitch's take:

https://open.substack.com/pub/davidaaronovitch/p/oops?r=clsg2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

"The commentator Owen Jones, whose late father had been a fulltime worker for Militant"

I didn't know this.

I'd say more Trotskyist than Stalinist.

"The SWP's ideological roots are in post-1945 British Trotskyism and the party still describes itself as standing in the tradition of Leon Trotsky"

'Trans' is the hill they have all chosen to die on isn't it? Extraordinary!

I note that most of the older, Left identified men in my city ( that i'm in dalogue with) dare not say anything against it, It is as if l they ve been pulled in and dare not contradict. Very odd - considering how vocal and outspoken these men are on just about everything else.

At a certain point it hardly matters. The romantic cult of Trotsky the lost leader is something I left behind long ago. The most I can say is that there wouldn't have been a gulag under Trotsky, because he'd just have had all the dissidents summarily shot.

It gets even less relevant when talking about the SWP. An old comrade once naughtily described Cliff's biography of Lenin as a book about what a great man Lenin could have been if only he'd had Cliff around to advice him. The current leadership makes much the same use of Cliff, which I suppose is no more than what the old bastard deserves.

A carnivore let loose in a field of keffiyehed herbivores, the SWP will bore you, heckle you, outlast you, points-of-order you into submission or until you decide to give up politics altogether. They are the herpes of revolutionary socialism

😄😄
As was said above, the best thing to come out of the YP conference is some cracking writing!

Your Party have had their first merger. the Transform party have voted to dissolve and join Your Party en masse

https://nitter.net/tf_politics/status/1995618232804540465#m

Probably a more appropriate name given their likely activist base.

Meanwhile from the Lmao screenshot from @SionnachRuadh earlier, Owen Jones asking Sultana about whether there will still be kiosks in a fully nationalised economy

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/12/02/zarah-sultana-economy/

There's something utterly blank and monotonous about the way she just drones on about nationalising everything. There's no apparent enthusiasm. It's almost like she's disassociating.

Canary are trying to make out she's just reinterpreting the Corbyn 2019 manifesto of free broadband. Did she always believe in this or is she learning lots from the new coterie of trot best fwends who are sniffing around.

She's got a very flat monotone delivery. She might even be more bearable? if she put some millennial upspeak? into her sentences.

God only knows where people get the idea that she's charismatic. At least Corbyn's Jackanory narrator routine has some old fashioned charm.

So the interviewer has to be "polite and respectful" by not "misgendering" the horrendous piece of work that is Eryn Browning!

God I hadn’t really realised just how dim she is until now. Admittedly I’ve been trying to ignore that section of politics for years.

Scottish Express follows up on Browning with useful info that he is still under investigation by the Police. Spread the news.

Your Party platform Scots trans woman still being probed by cops over sexual misconduct claims
Eryn Browning was suspended by the Scottish Greens after allegations were made on social media - with Police Scotland still investigating the matter

The Scottish Tories blasted Your Party, with MSP Annie Wells telling the Scottish Daily Express: "The last thing Scotland needs is another extreme far-left party that obsesses over niche issues like gender self-ID.”

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “On Wednesday, 30 April, 2025, we received a report regarding concerns linked to online communications. Enquiries are ongoing."

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/your-party-platform-scots-trans-36341488

Useful analysis of many of the areas under threat from Gaza Independents in May local elections. Adnan could soon be proved right electorally.

Your Party may be in demise, but the Muslim vote is not going away
Labour could face a second Brexit moment and lose another core feature of its electoral base
https://archive.is/0eEgc

Prick News on the trans debate in the party has some interesting details. No mention of sex pest Browning;'s stunt for some reason.

Your Party puts support for trans people to a members’ vote
https://archive.is/w7B8Y

Your Party overwhelmingly votes to make trans rights party policy
https://archive.is/I4DeS

The Socialist Equality Party (UK) were another Trotskyist group banned from the conference, didn't stop them doing a funny write up denouncing the Corbyn faction as Stalinists, Sultana's supporters and "pseudo-left parties (including the SWP, Counterfire, the Socialist Party) and left-talking trade union bureaucrats" as little better.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party founding conference: Witch-hunts and expulsions against the left
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/12/02/zkea-d02.html

Look from inside Labour

Your Party is a joke – but that doesn’t mean Labour can afford to laugh off all its lessons’
https://labourlist.org/2025/12/your-party-joke-lessons-for-labour/

I suppose it's worth giving praise where it's due. One of the arguments against the left has been a lack of ambition and clearly defined end goal. If you say you're going to get rid of neoliberalism - what does that mean?

Contrasting Sultana with Bennism, Benn’s AES (Alternative Economic Strategy) only envisioned privatizing major industries and the financial sector -- specifically he didn't include small local business under nationalisation. Heavy manufacturing, energy, post, utilities and transport would be directly owned and other large enterprises would remain private, but bound to government-set investment and employment targets. Agriculture would operate under a special system of agreed upon quotes and prices, but also remain in private hands.

AES also had a regulatory layer for administering price controls, for land management/development and for controlling rents.

The AES proposed a transition period for how nationalisation would proceed. First the financial sector would be nationalised; this would be done with forced shareholder swaps with long term government bonds. Second, the financial sector would be used as a golden goose to fund the rest of nationalisation with savings and insurance premiums funneled into government directed investments: nationalising private firms, and then investing capital into new or existing industries. Additional taxes on the wealthy would be added to further enrich nationalisation; as would fiddling with capital import/export controls.

It's one thing to say that you're going to nationalise the economy, but the more important question is how you're going to nationalise it. It's worth noting that nationalising the current British economy would be much more complex than that of Benn's world of the 70s. All large companies, especially financial services are owned internationally and forced swaps for a fixed number of future British pounds would surely be unacceptable and contested legally both in the UK and in the home countries of shareholders and exchanges. Also most heavy industry has vanished from the UK; instead what you have is high value added industries, like: aviation, automotive, pharmaceuticals, and advanced metallurgy, which have to be competitive internationally; so capital import/export controls and forcing companies in advance to pay predetermined prices for planned quantities of their inputs would almost certainly lead to a rapid collapse of many businesses. And of course Sultana is proposing a much more massive nationalisation than Benn did.

Oh dear I think your party are learning the hard way that not all transwomen are the nice kind.

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/your-party-suspend-trans-former-36346119?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar