Your Party reveals new name after months of indecision and confusion
After months of confusion and indecision, your Party has finally decided on its official name as its founding conference draws to a close.
Co-founder Jeremy Corbyn announced while reading the result of the vote that the party would continue to be known as “Your Party”. Members were told to choose between Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For the Majority.
Making the announcement on Sunday afternoon, Mr Corbyn told delegates: “So every time you step on a doorstep you’ll be asked ‘who are you?’ They say, and you say that this is Your Party.”
The party’s name is one of many decisions finally corrected after months of public debate between Mr Corbyn and co-founder Zarah Sultana. Just yesterday, Ms. Sultana criticized the fact that one of her suggestions regarding the party name was not included in the voting options for members.
He said: “Interestingly, I also supported the ‘Left Party’ as one of the names of the party I supported, and this was not included as an option for members, which is actually an anti-democratic move.”
A party spokesman said it had been “your party from the beginning”.
They added: “Our permanent name reflects what our party and conference are about: a radical democratic movement aimed at the radical transfer of wealth and power from the few to the many. This weekend was a festival of democracy that broke the Westminster mold of top-down politics. That’s what we will offer voters across the country: a truly new kind of politics.”
Hours before the name selection, the conference voted to have the party governed by its own members rather than an individual leader.
At the conference, 51.6 percent voted in favor of management by a committee of members. This was seen by many as a major setback for Mr Corbyn, who had previously stated that he supported the “one leader” model and would defend that position.
Supporting collective leadership, Ms. Sultana told conference attendees: “Some will say that the decision to adopt the collective leadership model was a win for me.
“It’s not. It’s your win. You’re the winner, members.”
The party charter was adopted by a vote of 90 percent to 10 percent, while the political declaration was adopted by a vote of 93 percent to 7 percent.
In a separate vote, the conference agreed to allow members of other parties to join your Party if they were found to be “consistent with the Party’s values”. This followed a row on the eve of the conference over the expulsion of some members on the grounds that they were also members of the Socialist Workers Party.
Ms Sultana boycotted the first day of the conference in Liverpool after one of her supporters, Kingston councilor James Giles, was allegedly denied entry to the conference.
A spokesman for Ms Sultana said: “Zarah met members outside the conference and condemned the recent expulsions. This witch hunt is indefensible. We must build a party that embraces all socialists. She will not enter the conference hall today.”
However, Your Party responded by denying claims that members had been “purged”, saying those expelled violated “clearly stated membership rules”.
Ms Sultana’s criticism came just hours after Mr Corbyn insisted the party had found unity and sent a message of “support and solidarity” to his co-leader’s rally on Friday night.
Addressing party members in Liverpool on Saturday, he said: “We need to come together and unite as a party because division and division will not serve the interests of the people we want to represent. So we are launching the party on that basis now.”
In her speech on the last day of the conference, Ms. Sultana apologized for the “hiccups” in the founding of your Party and admitted that some of them were her “fault”.
He said at your party’s conference: “You may have noticed that there are some hitches in the process of establishing this party.
“Some of it is my fault and I’m sorry for that,” he added. However, I want you to know that my goal from the very beginning was to ensure that this party is governed by you, the members, not by the MPs.”
He continued: “We need to work better with each other.
“We must ensure that the best solution to any culture of collusion is people power, and that is why I am fighting for maximum member democracy.”
