Hundreds of members will come together this weekend for the Founding Conference.
The Founding Conference of Your Party Scotland will take place in Dundee this weekend, with members debating election plans, policy, and the party’s leadership model north of the border.
The event is expected to welcome hundreds of party members to the city’s Bonar Hall, with high-profile speakers travelling from England and Europe.
Among the speakers will be Your Party Glasgow councillor Dan Hutchison, MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, and Teachta Dála Paul Murphy of Ireland’s People Before Profit–Solidarity. Representatives from socialist parties and movements in Germany, Serbia and Spain will also join the conference.
On the agenda are debates on Your Party Scotland’s Founding Documents, which will resolve the party’s position on Scottish independence, Your Party Scotland’s relationship to the party in England and Wales, and the model used for leadership north of the border. Discussions about working with other left-wing parties will also be discussed.
Importantly, members will also discuss and decide Your Party’s approach to May’s Scottish Parliament elections. Should the party decide to stand, the process for selecting candidates, and developing policy will begin as early as Monday.
The hybrid event will also allow members to take part in all sessions via Zoom, ensuring the maximum amount of discussion and input from members in the democratic process.
Organising group member Ellie Gomersall said: “The political establishment has let people across Scotland down time after time. It couldn’t be clearer that a new movement – built from the ground up by ordinary people – is desperately needed.
“That’s exactly what we’re doing this weekend. This is a member-led party, and it’ll be members from all across Scotland who’ll be collectively making key decisions in Dundee – from our approach to Scottish independence, to our own organisational set-up, and our approach to this year’s Holyrood elections.
“No-one said founding a new party from scratch would be easy – but with a genocidal right-wing Labour government in power in Westminster and a stale SNP government running out of ideas in Holyrood, the need for Your Party in Scotland is clear – and this conference is just the start.”