A Vision for a Party Republic: Our Amendments for a Democratic Future
The online crowd editing portal is now open for all official Your Party members. This is the moment we, the members, move from being a nascent project to the architects of our own political home. It is a historic opportunity to build the new kind of socialist party this country has been waiting for: a party of the working class, for the working class, and, above all, run by the working class.
We in Democratic Socialists of Your Party are intervening in this process as committed and enthusiastic supporters of this shared project. Our comprehensive amendments to the Constitution, Standing Orders, and Organisational Strategy are offered in a spirit of constructive, comradely debate. They are not a list of demands but a coherent, principled programme designed to strengthen our party and permanently embed our socialist values in its foundations.
Use our guide to make your submissions to the Founding Documents Portal
This is our key intervention, and we are fighting for this vision because the stakes could not be higher.
➔ View our full guide of suggested edits to the founding documents
History is a harsh teacher. It has shown us how time and again, promising socialist projects have failed. They have succumbed to bureaucratic rot, careerism, and the centralisation of power. They have become top-down electoral machines, divorced from their members and the class they were built to represent.
Our proposals are designed to act as a permanent firewall against this danger. We are arguing against a model that would see our party run from Westminster or by a small, unaccountable apparatus. We are arguing for a vibrant, member-led, and truly democratic alternative.
Our amendments provide a clear, practical framework for this “Party Republic.” While we urge you to read them in full, they are built on a few core, non-negotiable principles. We invite you to use these amendments in the Your Party online portal to send a message to the central organisers that we, the grassroots and ordinary members, want a grassroots led, truly socialist party, not another top-down parliamentary bureaucracy.
1. “Tribunes of the People,” Not a Parliamentary Elite
A socialist party must be more than a vehicle for getting people elected. Our public representatives must be instruments of the collective will, or they are nothing. Our amendments fundamentally redefine the role of our elected officials as “Tribunes of the People” — real socialist leaders who serve and stand shoulder to shoulder with the movement, not a new elite who sit above it.
To make this a reality, we propose a three-part system of accountability:
- A Worker’s Wage: Our MPs and other high-paid officeholders shall not take a salary higher than the median wage in their area. The remainder of their public salary will be donated directly to their local branch, funding the movement that put them in office.
- Subordination of MPs: We propose a clear separation between the party’s leadership and its parliamentary group. Sitting MPs may not serve as National Co-Chairs or as voting members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC). The party must lead its MPs, not the other way around.
- Democratic Oversight: We introduce Socialist in Office (SIO) Committees —new, democratic bodies charged with ensuring our elected representatives remain aligned with the party’s programme and principles: a people’s whip to ensure that our elected representatives do not stray from the mass-line.
2. Member Supremacy: Power and Money to the Grassroots
A member-led party must be resourced at the grassroots. Our amendments ensure that power and money flow from the bottom up.
- We mandate that a minimum of 50% of all membership fees are returned directly to local branches. This statutory funding empowers branches to run local campaigns, engage in community organising, and build a real presence in working-class life.
- We establish the National Conference as the party’s supreme, sovereign body, with decisions made by elected delegates from branches.
- To ensure full accountability, all delegate votes at Conference will be made publicly available to the branches that elected them.
- The Central Executive Committee shall be a collective leadership, with the elected Co-Chairs serving as spokespeople for the party, but otherwise being equal to any other member of the CEC.
3. A Living, Breathing Democracy
A socialist party must be a thinking, debating party. We must not be afraid of principled disagreement; it is how we grow stronger.
- Our proposals explicitly guarantee the right of all members to freedom of speech, dissent, and the right to form and organise in open factions.
- We introduce universal term limits to ensure leadership renewal and prevent the creation of a permanent, entrenched bureaucracy. This includes two-term limits for the CEC , National Co-Chairs , local officers , and even our public officeholders.
- We propose a fair and transparent disciplinary process overseen by a Discipline and Grievance Commission (DGC), a body of 11 members selected by democratic lot (sortition) from the membership, acting as a “jury of peers” to review all cases.
- We mandate the creation of an autonomous, self-governing Youth Section for members aged 14-25, with its own resources to organise young workers and students.
This is our vision — and we hope yours too. These amendments are not isolated tweaks but a complete and interlocking framework to build the party we all deserve; a party that is democratic in its structure, socialist in its principles, and republican in its spirit.
We offer these proposals to the membership in the spirit of comradely debate. We urge you to read them, discuss them in your branches, advocate for them alongside ourselves, and to add them to the online portal for the founding document edits.
Let’s build a party for the ages.