Democratic Socialists of Your Party (DSYP) have played a central role in convening unity talks in the lead up to the founding conference of Your Party. At The World Transformed we facilitated and participated in negotiations for a set of minimum points of unity across several emerging groups and factions organising in Your Party. Since then, we’ve played a central role in convening a new round of unity discussions, with the formation of the Socialist Unity Platform (SUP).
The SUP has become a focal point for organisations across the left attempting to coordinate ahead of the Your Party founding conference. This process has drawn in a wide range of groups, from local proto-branches to longstanding socialist organisations. Multiple organisations across the socialist left have recognised the need for coordination and cooperation during this formative moment. At its best, unity is not merely about bloc voting or tactical alignment; it is about generating political clarity, strengthening the position of the working-class left within Your Party, and anchoring the founding conference to democratic socialist principles.
DSYP supports the unity initiative. It can only be a positive development that groups who often operate in silos are attempting to act collectively. In a party whose official founding documents remain deeply inadequate on questions of democracy, accountability, and political clarity, a coordinated left presence is both necessary and overdue.
The SUP represents a set of amendments derived from the Sheffield Demands, itself inspired by some of DSYP’s platform. These demands represent a sincere attempt to distill a few core constitutional priorities into a short, accessible platform. On most points, there is genuine alignment with DSYP: democratic conference sovereignty, local branch autonomy, rights to organise political tendencies, and basic demands for transparency.
We support the adoption of the SUP as a foundation for cooperation among organisations with quite different traditions.This will allow us to advance a number of key demands on a unified basis with others at the conference, strengthening the potential influence of these positions and maximising our chances of winning key changes to the constitutional documents that are in line with major parts of the DSYP programme.
The SUP only goes so far and at DSYP we have developed and ratified a comprehensive constitutional programme that is broader and more structurally robust.
This is why DSYP’s demands remain indispensable where we go further than the SUP in these key areas that we believe address the full political and structural crises at the heart of Your Party’s founding documents:
These omissions are not minor technical differences—they collectively shape what kind of party Your Party will become.
We, the Executive Committee of DSYP are clear:
DSYP supports the unity platform, but we will continue to fight for our programme.
Our constitutional programme is the most detailed and coherent attempt within the party to articulate a vision of maximum democracy, working-class control, and internal accountability. It is precisely because other groups do not have comprehensive constitutional proposals that DSYP must continue acting as a constitutional vanguard—constructive, collaborative, but principled.
Supporting unity does not mean diluting our politics. It means helping shape the arena in which our politics can win.
DSYP will continue to work alongside the organisations in the Socialist Unity Platform on areas of shared agreement. We have provided facilities to the SUP through hosting a web page on the DSYP website to facilitate a quick launch. We will support joint interventions at Conference, shared events, and collective campaigning where appropriate.
But we will also continue to publicly advance our own programme—our detailed amendments, our case for a party republic, our insistence on democratic accountability, and our vision for a mass socialist party worthy of the working class.
Looking beyond Your Party’s founding conference, we will continue to push for our full constitutional documents to be adopted. We hope to continue in the SUP and would ask other socialist organisations who have also signed up to the Platform to consider the benefits of our proposals, which we believe are the best foundation for a socialist party that we can all organise in.
Unity is strongest when it is clear, honest, and principled. That is the approach DSYP will take to the founding conference and beyond.
If you are part of a socialist organisation, campaign group, or Your Party proto-branch and you broadly align with the democratic and socialist direction set out here, we encourage you to get in touch and participate in the ongoing unity process.
The Socialist Unity Platform remains open to groups committed to building a democratic, member-led, working-class party.