The Corbyn clique are attempting to split the party. Members must take control.
KD Tait
On the eve of our founding conference, the leadership clique around Jeremy Corbyn has ‘expelled’ several members of the Socialist Workers Party.
The aim is to silence any opposition to the conference organisers’ attempt to stitch-up the conference. The outcome, if a challenge is not prosecuted with maximum determination, will be to wreck the most significant attempt to form a new, independent working class party for decades.
This is the latest act in a guerilla war of sabotage waged by Corbyn and his allies against attempts to bring about a new left party; obstruction turned into open sabotage once Zarah Sultana unilaterally announced the party. Their contempt for Your Party supporters is clear in what conference is permitted to discuss—or not: no genuine say over the party’s name, leadership structure, and relationship to political tendencies within the workers’ movement.
These actions point to a dangerous direction. Instead of building a party shaped by the decisions of ordinary members, a small circle of full-time politicians, advisors and staff has taken it upon themselves to set the rules, define the boundaries, and remove anyone who stands in their way. This is the same approach that hollowed out Labour and the trade unions, and leaves our movement’s strategy in the hands of a caste of unaccountable, well paid officials who have made their peace with capitalism.
The consequences of this behaviour extend far beyond today. When people at the top act in this way, they signal to the media and to the political establishment that such methods are acceptable. They give our opponents material to justify further attacks on the left. It is no surprise that the same people driving these expulsions are the same ones who allowed principled anti-Zionists to be witch-hunted out of the Labour Party on Corbyn’s watch. Now they have boasted to their friends in the bosses’ press about hiring goons to protect themselves from members on the conference floor. This is not an attempt to protect conference; it is an attempt to frame a section of the membership as dangerous so that their voices can be removed.
Shutting people out instead of debating with them is not how a democratic organisation operates. No working-class movement can develop its ideas, test its strategy or keep its leaders accountable without open discussion and fair procedures. But the leadership has blocked hundreds of amendments submitted by members—amendments on core issues such as whether organised groups can participate openly, whether elections are overseen by an accountable body, and whether our representatives should be paid in line with the people they claim to speak for. Even well-established meeting practices—like raising a point of order or submitting an emergency motion—are being curtailed.
This is not accidental. It reflects a clash between two very different visions. One vision sees ordinary members as the lifeblood of the party, responsible for shaping its direction. The other sees the membership as a backdrop while decisions are made by a narrow professional layer whose daily work depends on controlling the political space around them. For that layer, genuine democracy is not an asset—it is a threat to their position.
The control freakery is imposed because the conference organisers fear above all becoming a transmission belt for the anger felt by working class activists who want a fighting party which enables us to go beyond the small socialist groups and organise on a class basis.
How members can respond
These actions are designed to provoke a split. We should not walk away, but we should not accept this behaviour either. A political response is needed— one that is calm, principled, and confident, made from a position of strength because without the members, the party is nothing. We must make it clear that a party built to organise the struggle of working class people for socialism cannot be run by people who have forfeited any claim to leadership.
Conference delegates must insist on the democratic principle of members’ sovereignty. Delegates should stand up for the right of members to decide the party’s direction, not a self-appointed clique that has granted itself powers it was never given.
This means immediately challenging the Standing Orders Committee, and electing one that enjoys the confidence of conference.
The conference should accept the submission of emergency amendments, or amendment unilaterally ruled out of order, which give members a real choice on:
- The party’s political statement of principles
- The name
- The manner in which the leadership is elected
- The relationship to socialist organisations
- The democratic right to self-organisation within the party
We joined this project to build a fighting socialist party, not a fan club. What happens at this conference will set the tone for years to come. Let’s choose a path where working-class activists can organise, debate, and shape our collective future.