Discussions about an in-person meeting began soon after the Together Alliance march in London in March this year. Many of us belonging to Your Party (YP) got ourselves organised to march as a group under the YP banners (mostly home-made and in the case of Oxford, quite magnificent!). We met with friends we’d only ever met online in our various social media spaces and the whole event, as well as achieving the organisers’ purpose, gave YP Connections members a huge lift in morale.
At the time, we were eager to get started on our branch formation, but it soon became apparent (and has since proved to be the case) that this wasn’t going to happen any time soon and would quite probably not involve our various proto branches. Yet we were still enthused and determined to do something together. Thus, the idea of the Connection Convention was born.
It has to be said that this is not the first convention organised by the Connections organisation (I believe a founding convention was held last year, before I joined). However, it is the first to be organised by a group of volunteers who had mostly never worked together before, inviting speakers from a wide variety of socialist groups and aimed at keeping us all connected, no matter our background. The convention will have workshops ranging from the practical, to issues, to campaigns. We also have several groups using self-organising spaces to provide a further level of interest.
The convention has been accused in some quarters of taking resources and energy away from Your Party formation. However, I believe the opposite to be the case. By organising this sort of activity, we are keeping socialists (including Your Party members) engaged in activism and helping further cohesion between the various ‘flavours’ of socialism that have been working independently for far too long.
Connections as a group was formed before Your Party came on the scene, to connect (as the name suggests) various socialist groups, events and campaigns. Thus, the Your Party proto branches had a ready-made place to meet, organise, and discuss issues together.
Connections is a space that looks to build collaborative practice with socialists no matter what their affiliation. It provides opportunities to learn new skills and network via workshops. It is a space to discuss freely the issues that most need addressing within the socialist movement. In the current case, this is how we all move forward.
Anwarul Khan, one of the founders of Connections, says: “Some will argue to stay with YP and push for reform, others will argue to leave, others still to join Greens and so on. Connections does not hold a view or seek to impose one. We provide a space so that voices, that have otherwise been silenced, can be heard.”
We have been working hard to make this occasion one to remember and we hope as many socialists as possible will be able to join us for a day of education, networking and camaraderie.
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