Corbyn faction ups stakes in YP

Voting in Your Party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections closes Monday 23 February, and results are due on 26 February.

The hustings are over. In London, Ruth Cashman, a regular contributor to this paper, has clearly set out a working-class socialist case. We call for a first-preference vote for her, with later preferences to Grassroots Left candidates.

The Corbyn-aligned slate, The Many, proclaims a “people’s party”, also billed as “a mass left party… organising in working-class communities”. The wording tells: “left”, not socialist; organising in communities, not rooted in the working class. In the official office-holders’ hustings, none of The Many candidates talked about socialism or the working class in their introductions, instead offering a welfare and community pitch. Grassroots Left, closer to Zarah Sultana, at least talks about socialism and about more democracy in YP.

The endorsement stage suggested a close contest, with the Grassroots Left having an edge. The possibility of losing a CEC majority seems to have surprised the “Corbyn faction” around Karie Murphy which controls the YP “office”, but many active members are angry about the faction’s record: a powerless conference, tightly managed online votes, and a refusal to release membership data which hindered “proto-branches”.

The “office” has also failed to make the party any sort of campaigning organisation. Publicly, Your Party has been quiet while Corbyn makes political comment through his Peace and Justice Project (PJP). Despite earlier promises, members keen to stand in the May local elections have been told they cannot use the Your Party name.

The Corbyn faction’s response has been two-fold. First, it has changed the voting system. (A promised sortitioned oversight committee was appointed in late January. When Karie Murphy found that one sortitioned member belonged to Workers’ Power, she was removed. It is unclear whether the others have met).

The election now uses the antiquated Imperiali quota rather than the usual Droop quota. In two-seat STV contests, Droop requires a candidate to have roughly a third of the vote (with transfers) to win; Imperiali allows election on a quarter, making outcomes less representative and increasing the chance that The Many can sweep both seats in some regions.

Second

Second, the Corbyn faction has campaigned for its slate by appealing over the heads of active members to a passive base. The Many candidates have largely avoided proto-branch hustings, denouncing branches as being in the thrall of “sects”, claiming that only they can represent “ordinary individual members” and that the party cannot work unless they win.

If Corbyn secures a majority through these tactics, relying on inactive members, his faction’s rhetoric suggests a witch-hunt against the organised left, as Labour has done. They promise policy commissions that would bypass the wider membership, replicating the mechanisms introduced into the Labour Party under Blair. At best they offer online one-member-one-vote consultative “democracy”, rather than collective and deliberative democracy.

The Many’s CEC campaign is run through Corbyn’s PJP, which holds data from its supporters, Your Party members, and the original 800,000 sign-ups. It is unclear which lists are being used. Its tone has hardened, with messages urging “Make Jeremy Parliamentary Leader of Your Party”, a post that does not exist. A Corbyn ally told the New Statesman: “The Many simply has to win for the party to survive”. This amounts to an attempted coup against the collective leadership agreed by conference.

This hardening of Corbyn’s position has already driven out many members. The Socialist Party appears to have followed them. It has not formally announced a break, but its paper has decoupled its call for a new mass workers’ party from Your Party and is preparing to stand TUSC candidates in the May elections. It seems the SP sought only the freedom to stand candidates under a label that Corbyn would give mass appeal. A more prosaic left unity, within which they would have to fight for democracy and for policies, is not something that interests them.

For all the talk of a “member-led” party, Corbyn now appears unwilling to accept members’ decisions, seeking instead to mobilise the inactive to secure control.

On 15 February, GL candidates Mel Mullings, Riccardo la Torre, and Chloe Braddock had an article in the Morning Star calling for “fresh new leadership” in YP.

Further trouble is likely to follow any outcome of the election. If The Many wins, GL people drifting away or being pushed out. If GL wins, a drive to secure de facto supremacy for the Corbyn YP office over the elected committee.