Founding a new party is an exciting moment. It is a chance to build something fresh, radical, and truly democratic. However, true democracy requires time, scrutiny, and engagement—luxuries that members of Your Party have unfortunately been denied this week.
Support Our Main Priorities
We are proud to release our set of priority & recommended amendments today. These amendments represent strategic priorities for our campaign, alongside recommendations for other friendly amendments. However, for any of these ideas to even be debated, they need to make it onto the conference agenda this weekend.
We urge you to follow the link in each row below and endorse these motions immediately so they reach the agenda.
Constitution – Parliamentary Convenor
Establish a single Parliamentary Convener, elected by National Conference from the group of MPs, to act as the Spokesperson and enforcer of the party whip for the Parliamentary Group, allowing there to be a single focal point for electoral campaigning, while the political decisions are made through the collective leadership of the CEC.
Constitution – Clarify National Party Definition (Not yet released)
This clarifies that only parties that are registered with the Electoral Commission and stand candidates against the Party would require Conference’s approval to be unbanned. Any groups that don’t meet this definition will be free to be members of the Party.
Constitution – CEC Elected by Conference (Not yet released)
Conference will elect the Central Executive Committee rather than an online vote of all members. Read the link for a full justification of why we believe this would be more democratic and empowering of the membership.
Constitution – Right to Form Factions and Removing Rules on Party Values
The clause allowing the leadership to remove members who don’t meet “party values” will be removed and replaced with a positive right to form factions and argue different points of view within the Party.
Note: We recommend endorsing both versions.
Constitution – No MPs or Councillors on the CEC (Not yet released) and No Reserved Seats for Councillors
All public office holders to be banned from sitting on the Central Executive Committee as voting members. MPs would be represented by the Parliamentary Convenor, who will not have any voting rights.
Note: We recommend endorsing both versions.
Constitution – Discipline and Grievance Commission
A jury panel of 11 members selected through sortition who have the power to review and issue reports on disciplinary action to limit political decisions to expel members
Constitution – Equal Steering Committee Not Officer Roles
There shouldn’t be different named officer roles. Those elected by the CEC to run the party on a day-to-day basis should be a committee of equals, except for having two Co-Chairs to act solely as spokespeople for the CEC without additional powers.
Standing Orders – Easier Recall Mechanisms for Officers
This replaces the current recall percentage of 40% with a 10% threshold. If this is met, it triggers a vote of all members in the relevant area on whether the officer should be removed.
Standing Orders – Reduce Term Length for Officers
In line with our support for Conference electing Officers, this would reduce the length of a term to 1 year, from 2 years.
Standing Orders – Stronger Accountability Through Recall for Elected Public Officeholders
Allow members to remove the whip with a majority vote in a branch
Standing Orders – Simpler Recall for Local Parties
Allow branches to remove local officers by majority votes in the branch
Organisational Strategy – Elect the Membership Oversight Committee at Conference (Not yet released)
Replace the sortitioned panel of members with some directly elected from the floor of Conference on the second day.
Organisational Strategy – Don’t Stand Directly in Local Elections (Not yet released)
The Party should not run candidates in its own name in the local elections, and instead allow branches to endorse independents or other parties, and use party resources to campaign for them.
Other amendments motions that we support
While the above reflects our organisation’s strategic priorities, we also have written and moved other amendments motions based on our constitutional demands for Your Party. We have also collected proposed amendments from allies that we support too. We encourage you to view the full suite of these recommended amendment motions and support where appropriate.
A Rushed Process
Earlier this week, the leadership released the “evolved” founding documents. While it is good to finally see what’s changed through the assemblies and online editing process, releasing such critical documents only days before the Founding Conference leaves very little room for meaningful digest by the membership.
To compound this, the online portal for submitting amendment motions was opened with an incredibly narrow window to read, analyse, draft, and submit.
Our Response: The Party Republic
Despite the tight turnaround and the lack of notice, organisers from Democratic Socialists of Your Party have been hard at work. We haven’t slept on this because the stakes are too high.
We have drafted and submitted a comprehensive suite of amendments based on our proposals for a Party Republic. We believe these amendments are essential to ensuring that Your Party is structured democratically from day one, rather than having a top-down structure baked in by default.
Your Party Must Do Better
While we are proud of the work we have turned around in 24 hours, we have to be honest: we are not happy with how this process has been handled.
Rushing founding documents and opening amendment portals with almost zero notice is inaccessible. It makes it difficult for working people, parents, and those with limited free time to engage. A process that is rushed is inherently exclusionary.
If we want to build a movement that changes society, we cannot start by using internal processes that feel disengaging and anti-democratic.
Coming soon: we will be launching a dedicated page for Your Party Founding Conference including a conference guide, flyer, fringe events and how to stay up to date with the latest news from conference!