Dave Reid, Socialist Party Wales Secretary
The Wales Gathering of Your Party in Merthyr on 25 October is a welcome, if limited, start to building a new workers’ and socialist party. The 31,000 people in Wales who indicated in July they wanted to join shows the huge potential for a mass party to challenge the established parties, and to cut across support for right-populist Reform.
The potential for a workers’ party with socialist policies in Wales could not be clearer. This article is being published before the Caerphilly by-election on 23 October, but the likely catastrophic result for Labour, in a constituency the party has held for 100 years, is an indication of the complete alienation of Starmer’s Labour from the working class.
At the time of writing, Reform lead in the polls, showing the danger if an anti-austerity, socialist alternative is not provided to cut across the populist right. Working-class alienation with all the pro-capitalist parties has opened up a vacuum that needs to be filled by the socialist left.
The appetite for change was shown in the conference of Welsh trade unionists on political representation called by trades councils across Wales that met on 18 October . The conference presented a Workers’ Charter of policies that, as a minimum, trade unions should demand of their political representatives to gain their support, and above all the need for a party based on the working class and the trade unions. Your Party potentially could play this role providing it is organised to allow and encourage the affiliation of trade union bodies.
The Gathering in Merthyr will be presented with a consultation document prepared by the leading group in Wales around Corbyn-supporting ex-MP Beth Winter and ex-PCS trade union general secretary Mark Serwotka. The group has begun the process of registering the People’s Party Wales as a description for the party in the Senedd elections due to take place in May.
Discussion and debate
Democratic discussion and decision-making is key to allow full debate. Discussion and debate would not lead to division in Your Party if it is conducted in an open and comradely way – on the contrary it would clarify the direction of the party. Unfortunately, the format of the Gathering and plans for Your Party Wales do not provide for a serious discussion and airing of views by the members. The proposed agenda for the Gathering allows for hardly any time for participation from the members, and is dominated by speeches from the platform. The proposed timeline for the party suggests delaying the Cymru Founding Conference until October 2026, five months after the Senedd elections.
The Gathering consultation document proposes a debate on the Senedd election at constituency level with options including standing in all seats, targeted seats, or even not standing. Some in the party have suggested that Your Party/Peoples Party Wales should stand down in favour of Green or Plaid Cymru candidates.
It would be a big mistake to decide to stand aside at all. The format of the Senedd elections will elect six Senedd members for every one of the 16 Senedd constituencies on the basis of proportional representation. It will be possible for a candidate to be elected with 10-12% of the vote in each constituency.
Stand against austerity
If Your Party/People’s Party Wales were to stand a robust campaign against austerity and for socialist policies in every constituency, it would channel the dissatisfaction with the status quo into a positive, socialist direction and undermine support for Reform.
And a large group of Your Party Senedd Members could be elected, which would change the whole political landscape in Wales. The group could represent the struggles of workers and our communities against austerity in the Senedd. A likely Plaid-led coalition government would represent a continuation of the austerity policies of Welsh Labour and, in the absence of a genuinely left alternative, the field of opposition would be left wide open to Reform, which unopposed will likely win a number of seats. But a large group of Your Party/People’s Party Wales MSs could force that government to look over its left shoulder and, rather than making concessions to Reform, could be forced to retreat from carrying out cuts.
The launch of Your Party in Wales represents a historic opportunity to force back austerity, racism and division and to reforge the socialist traditions of the Welsh working class. Socialist Party Wales will play its part in the discussions and debates to argue for a democratic, inclusive, working-class party as a vehicle to begin the change of society.
