WE ARE at a crossroads for the future of the British left. A new mass working-class party is in formation. With Labour in meltdown, the cost of living rising, and millions looking leftwards and rightwards for radical answers, this is a moment filled with potential.

To say Your Party has had a difficult start would be an understatement. From the agonising delays that left 800,000 interested signatories frustrated and confused, through to the exclusions of prominent socialists on the eve of the party’s founding conference, it has sometimes felt like we have secured 60,000 members despite rather than because of the party’s unelected interim leadership.

Yet we remain the biggest working-class and socialist political party in Britain since the second world war.

This February, we elect Your Party’s new leadership, the central executive committee. Two rival slates have emerged: The Many, led by Jeremy Corbyn, and Grassroots Left, led by Zarah Sultana.

We — Mel Mullings, Riccardo la Torre and Chloe Braddock — are standing as part of the Grassroots Left slate for CEC positions.

But this election is not about Corbyn or Sultana, nor is it about the personalities on either slate.

No — this election is about capital-P politics and two different visions for this party: what it should be, and what it should stand for.

Trade unions must urgently re-evaluate their affiliation to a Labour Party that no longer serves them. We see the same unions marching every week against the genocide and fighting cuts to vital public service and attacks on jobs, yet many remain tethered to a government that fails to align with our core socialist principles. This contradiction is unsustainable. And we believe that Your Party will be a socialist vehicle for organised labour.

One party — two visions

The Many slate has not put forward a cohesive and comprehensive vision for the party; their three pillars are “building our base,” “reuniting our multiracial coalition,” and “winning people to our politics.”

While these are unobjectionable, they are deliberately rather vague, all a bit motherhood and apple pie.

Your Party needs to present a real alternative to the Greens and Labour, which is why we must talk about concrete policies not just vague values.

We need clear policies on the cost of living, promoting action against price rises and rent hikes, against evictions and deportations. We should stand 100 per cent against Nato, the European military build-up, zionism and war. We need a clear demand for democratic control of the economy. All policies championed by the Grassroots Left slate.

Branches — where members lead

Given their backing from the current leadership team around Jeremy Corbyn, it is reasonable to ask not what The Many say they want but what they are actually doing. And nowhere is the gap between rhetoric and reality more apparent than when it comes to the question of branches.

With no support the members have organised themselves into proto-branches — hundreds of local groups all over the country, comprising thousands of activists.

Proto-branches are mobilising to oppose the far right, standing in solidarity with Palestine and Venezuela, supporting industrial action and renters’ campaigns, and actively working to rebuild working-class unity in the face of fragmentation and repression.

The Many say they want to “get branches going.” This statement is met by branch activists with shock, if not an involuntary expletive. Why?

Because the current leadership has repeatedly stalled and blocked the formation and effective work of our branches at every turn.

Requests to Your Party HQ to mail the members to publicise branch meetings are ignored. Try to upload details of meetings to the party website and they are never approved for publication. No funding is made available. 55,000 people are paying monthly dues: not a penny is shared with the branches.

By contrast, the Grassroots Left slate promise that if elected they will do everything possible to empower the branches.

The very first actions of a GL-led CEC will be to officially recognise the proto-branches, get them access to their membership data for their area and ensure they receive at least 50 per cent of member dues to fund their work.

How else can we build a mass movement that is rooted in local working-class communities? Launch action on the cost of living, against rent hikes, against cuts? Work with local unions and tenants’ and pensioners’ groups? Stand in elections this May, on a working-class and socialist platform?

A party of the whole left

The Many slate loves to talk about the “need to unite,” and on this they are absolutely correct, but what have they got to say about the many expulsions? First ahead of conference, and now again as the CEC election kicks off, we have seen socialists purged from the party or blocked from standing.

We have seen this playbook before in Labour time and again: the right wing of the party, because it knows it can’t compete on the actual policies, turns to bureaucratic tricks and the weaponisation of the party’s structures to crush internal opposition and solidify its hold on power.

We in the Grassroots Left stand for a party of the whole left with freedom for members to organise into policy platforms and open factions, where freedom of debate and discussion can thrive — not backroom deals and obscure schemes. Our job is to unite the left, not divide it and that’s why dual membership is salient to the party that we are building.

The future of the British left

The question being put to the members is really this: do they want the member-led, democratically run mass socialist party put forward by the Grassroots Left, or do they want a top-down Labour 2.0 lacking any campaigning vision?

This means having a real democratic policy debate, not new-fangled stage-managed digital plebiscites or assemblies of randomly chosen participants, but a conference of elected delegates, the tried and tested methods of the working-class movement.

The choice for the 60,000 Your Party members is clear. The people who derailed the train are not the ones to get it “back on track.”

A fresh new leadership of the Grassroots Left — young, ethnically diverse, bringing together trade unionists, social movements and local campaigners — is the way forward.

Let’s break this self-imposed logjam and really get this party started. That starts by supporting the Grassroots Left vision to make this happen.

Mel Mullings

Mel Mullings is a London Underground train driver and lifelong RMT activist, currently serving as Bakerloo branch secretary and chair of the union’s women’s advisory committee. Her organising is rooted in intersectional, rank-and-file solidarity, shaped by her experience as a black woman with an invisible disability. Mel is a leading reparations campaigner and chairs the RMT reparations conference, linking historical justice to modern labour struggles. She also teaches black and Afrikan history in Croydon and co-leads grassroots organisations including GACuk and BLM Croydon, always focused on building power from within.

Riccardo la Torre

Riccardo la Torre is a lifelong trade unionist, anti-fascist and anti-war activist. He has represented firefighters and control staff at workplace, regional and national level, including five years as an FBU national officer, leading successful industrial action against cuts and for improved pay and conditions. Riccardo believes working-class political representation must be rooted in strong, combative trade unions. On the CEC, he is committed to building a democratic, member-led socialist party that works hand in hand with organised labour.

Chloe Braddock

Chloe Braddock is a socialist organiser with a background in tenant unionism, anti-imperialist organising and anti-fascist struggle. She has been a leading figure in the Democratic Socialists of Your Party and has worked across the wider socialist movement, gaining a clear view of where today’s struggles are being fought. Chloe argues for a politically bold, radically democratic party rooted in rank-and-file power. She believes real change is built through organising in communities and on the streets, not by chasing electoral office alone.