by Ben Soton

MONDAY 27th October saw the launch of Your Party in Southampton. Earlier this year the Independent Alliance MP Jeremy Corbyn along with Sara Sultana launched the new left party along with other independent MPs elected in the 2024 election. At a well-attended meeting in Kell Hall close to the city centre heard speakers from Palestine Solidarity, Stand Up to Racism, Southampton Trades Council, along with representatives from the WASPI Women and the Trade Union Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

Maggie Fricker from Southampton Trades Union Council stated that Labour under Starmer had abandoned the working class in favour of austerity at home and genocide in Palestine.

Nadia Ditta from TUSC told the audience that she came from a deprived area with a high Muslim population with only one small area of green space.

She went on to say that should communities could expect nothing from Starmer’s Labour Party. The speaker from Palestine Solidarity talked about the work of the campaign in organising protests in support of Palestine; whilst the representative from the WASPI Women (women of pensionable age born in the 1950s) talked about their betrayal by the Starmer Government.

After the speeches those in attendance broke up into workshops to discuss their hopes and expectations for the new party. Many echoed the view that the Labour Party could no longer be expected to play a progressive role in British politics. Whilst feedback included calls for public ownership, trade union disaffiliation from Labour and an irreversible shift in wealth and power in favour of working people.