A leaked early draft of the Your Party constitutional document, reportedly intended for upcoming member assemblies, has ignited serious concern among Democratic Socialists. The leaked draft is vague, highlights the incredibly short timescale for member scrutiny, and has a structure that appears to limit meaningful debate and choice.
Our initial reaction is one of disbelief at its content. No wonder there have been numerous delays. This document is not a constitution at all.
Instead of a clear, foundational document, the draft is so vague that it empowers whoever is the final drafter — leaving the wider membership with only a veneer of choice. While it’s reasonable for the document to contain some open questions, a consistently high level of problematic ambiguity is etched into the draft’s very DNA – with the most important and imperative questions expressed in a manner that could only be suitably described as vague. The concern is that this vagueness doesn’t invite open debate; it simply defers key decisions to an internal drafting team, allowing them to interpret the membership’s feedback in a way that suits what we think is a pre-determined outcome.
The Unworkable Scrutiny Timeline
We are dismayed that the official documents still haven’t been released by Your Party setting a path of a subsequent rush to debate the contents.
We were originally promised the draft documents in September, and have been receiving promises that they would be released “tomorrow” for over a week. Instead, we are only just seeing a leaked draft days before the first assemblies are due to begin. This delay leaves members with barely a month to debate what should be the foundational document of the entire party; the level of blatant disrespect to members in regions where assemblies are due to happen this weekend borders on farcical. Such blindsiding of the memberbase echoes the disregard for due democratic process that has been consistent throughout the entire founding process of Your Party. This timeline makes proper scrutiny impossible. A longer, more open process—with an earlier publication or a later conference date—would allow for:
The current situation is clearly an attempt to rush through the process, and members deserve a real say, not a rubber stamp.
Beyond the vagueness and the rushed timeline, the structure of the document itself is stifling genuine innovation.
The document is centred around binary choices based on prefigurative assumptions. This structure essentially limits members to an A or B vote on pre-packaged options, with no mechanism for introducing new ideas or entirely different approaches. At best we’re looking at a choice between two or three insubstantial variations, all inoffensive to the executive, or yes/no votes on singular unalterable proposals.
In short, the leaked draft appears to present a false choice. It asks members to endorse one of two vague options, rather than allowing for the collaborative development of a truly member-driven constitution. The entire process seems designed to validate internal assumptions rather than genuinely capture the diverse will of the membership.
This leak raises urgent questions about the party leadership’s commitment to an open and democratic process. If this leaked document—vague, rushed, and limiting—is truly representative of what Your Party members will be asked to vote on, it’s understandable why there have been delays.
We are not just demanding the final document now, we are demanding a process that allows for real scrutiny and a genuine say in the future of Your Party. As the clock ticks down to the assemblies and founding conference, the leadership needs to demonstrate that they are listening to the widespread concerns about transparency and democracy.
Read our vision for maximum democracy and draft constitution which could provide a framework for a truly democratic and socialist party this country needs now more than ever.