The last time I visited Sheffield was in 1990 for the Labour Party Socialists (LPS) conference. This was one branch line of the broader post-miners’ strike Socialist Conference project of the late 1980s. Led by Tony Benn, Audrey Wise, Jeremy Corbyn and other members of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, the aim was to bring all sections of socialism together into a socialist alliance, irrespective of party or faction. The conjunctural premise was to prepare for the election of a Labour government in 1992, so when Kinnock managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, the Socialist Conference project imploded.
The 1990 LPS conference took place in the fag-end of the Labourist expulsion of socialists and socialist groups, with around 150 expulsions in the five years leading up to 1990. I realise at the Connections Convention (the name now shorn of its ‘Your Party’ identifier) that I, and others, have come full circle – a meeting of socialists trying to work out what to do after the expulsions of socialists from what was supposed to be a mass party of the working class!
The gathering – I counted about 130 heads at the start – proved to be a successful day overall. The strength of the day was based on both the short introductions from the speakers at the opening and closing panels, which allowed a large amount of time for three-minute contributions from the floor, bringing many different points of view to the debate about what to do next. There were numerous coherent and sometimes conflicting contributions that made for a vibrant debate.
Three main trends emerged as to what next for the left
From the kaleidoscope of views in the room, it was possible to discern three main trends, with a key difference among people being whether there was any point in doing work in Your Party (YP) at all.
The first trend included those committed to staying and fighting in Your Party. Some were more sophisticated and coherent than others. The Democratic Bloc workshop presentation was realistic about what was possible but thought there were still gains that could be made as new YP branches were set up. Others were a bit baser and sectarian, suggesting that YP was the only game in town, that anything else amounted to walking into the wilderness and that Marxist groups were the problem – in effect, simply an echo of the Labourist arguments of the past.
Neither of these views could confirm how many people were still members of YP; a rough figure of 20,000 to 40,000 was thrown out. Someone suggested 10,000 to 15,000 and got little kickback from others in the session. One thing is for sure, when YP is finally forced to detail its membership figures to the Electoral Commission, it will be a moment of clarity.
A second trend was best represented by Andrew Feinstein of London who, attending by video due to illness, described the last 18 months as a fiasco and argued: “The most important thing that we can do is take a period of reflection. Not just because of what has gone on on the left, but as importantly, because mainstream politics are in so fluid a state”. This was not an injunction to stop all work on the ground, if anything, it was a call to focus locally and build roots, while taking the time to work out how to build a mass working-class party of socialism at a national level and avoiding the type of shambles that YP had become. This argument was supported by calls for ‘realism’ about what was possible with the numbers in the room, as if the 800,000 sign-ups to Your Party had been reduced to 130 people on one wet Saturday in Sheffield.
The third current argued for a bolder approach
The third current argued that bolder steps needed to be made towards the formation of a new mass party of socialism precisely because mainstream politics is in such a fluid state and because the world we live in is faced with a march to war, the rise of fascist and xenophobic currents and the growing climate emergency. A resort to localism would offer no answer to these multiple and interlocking crises. This grouping asked socialists not to be beguiled by the apparent left shift in the Green Party and to expect battles in that party over local government budget cuts. Will Green socialists vote for cuts at a local level, or will they split? A pro-socialist party campaign was needed as a vessel for socialists across the spectrum in a time of social crisis.
There was a key recognition that many of the YP proto branches were now much weaker than six months ago because of the failure of the YP leadership to democratically share membership data as well as their active stalling of support for the over 200 local branches that had been up and running. A wry smile was to be found on many faces as an email dropped into our inboxes from Cassi Bellingham, the YP membership secretary, announcing the official launch of just three YP branches.
A broad spectrum of the socialist left was present on the day and find themselves supporting a range of interventions – the newly launched Socialist Federation, the Connections group themselves and many of the existing socialist parties and groups in the room. The Socialist Party delivered a leaflet at the door and the Socialist Workers Party did not seem to be present in any form.
The final conference statement expressed a consensus
The final statement that was agreed at the end of the day represented a consensus position that could be achieved by the three main currents in the room. In advance of its publication and because your correspondent had to leave at the agreed agenda ending time of 6.30pm and so did not see the final text, the three key points from the statement summarised are listed below.
- A commitment to continue to build and network local socialist branches whether or not they were in YP and to hold regional meetings to help build networks.
- To organise an all-Britain conference of proto-branches, local independent socialist groups and left organisations by early 2027, with one of the tasks to help socialists plan for local elections in May 2027.
- If the first two steps were successful, to prepare the ground for the building of the kind of member-led party that “we actually need,” with a clear programme for socialism.
There was a self-evident desire in the room to build something socialist, democratic and mass in the next period and to hold a space for the type of democratic debate that has long since ceased in YP. All of this is to be welcomed. One attendee offered the view that many people had been through a traumatic episode in the last year, watching a possible mass party of hundreds of thousands being reduced to rubble and that we should look after ourselves. This is a point well made, but while we are looking after ourselves, we must press on and collaborate in creating the mass party of socialism many want to see.
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