A Your Party assembly in St Helens was beset by problems – and it shows lessons must be learned

The latest regional assembly in St Helens is a shining example of grassroots organisers’ perseverance and a clear lesson that needs to be heeded by Your Party.

Your Party in St Helens: a litany of issues

A team of voluntary grassroots organisers worked hard to deliver this northwest regional assembly, securing venues, facilitators and raising local awareness ahead of the event. However, this dedication was met with a very fraught final week, marked by invoice and resource delays and the team scrambling to ensure it went off without a hitch. This included attempts to personally print the thousands of documents required, only for the printer to die mid-print.

The toll this has taken cannot be understated, alongside everything individuals are juggling personally or professionally. This event must be seen as a wake-up call for the executive to better support and empower grassroots organising if they want success, rather than depending on them entirely to deliver events and drum up local support alone.

Emails weren’t even sent to members until 3 days prior to the event. Considering there were 138 in attendance, when the aim was 500, this shortfall arguably speaks to the lack of notice people were given in the region.

To make matters even more challenging, the venue was cancelled with little over 24 hours to spare until the event itself. This is despite there being full clarity as to the purpose of the booking at all times, according a member of the local organising group.

Cancelling venues

One of the organisers informed that the lettings agency, Progressive Lettings, confirmed the booking the afternoon prior to the event, however 20 minutes later, they rang back to inform that Hope Academy cancelled the event due to being of a ‘political nature’.

The fact that the event was always known to be of a political nature, only to be cancelled at the very last point, within 24-hours notice, could suggest local, undue pressure to thwart local organising for Your Party. It is also worth noting, the first to report that the event was cancelled entirely, categorically untrue, was a local Independent councillor for Newton Le Willows, Terry Maguire. When asked how he became aware and if there were any other reasons behind the school’s decision that he may be aware of, Maguire was quick to suggest I take that up with the school.

When Hope Academy were asked for more reasoning for their cancellation, they denied any involvement and insisted bookings and cancellations were at the discretion of the lettings agency. No response has been received after relaying the position of the lettings agency and our enquiry into any other pressures applied to the school affecting its decision.

Some concerns – but a lot of positivity

Thankfully, a venue was secured by a very committed local Your Party member and organiser, but it should not be understated that this assembly was saved by the grassroots. The grassroots are the bedrock and fuel behind this movement, and empowering them to be the strongest they can be is how Your Party will ensure its success in challenging the far-right.

It is also imperative for Your Party to appreciate those who have volunteered to help organise are risking their own reputations and the trust they hold in their communities, when they become the local ‘face’ of the movement. The anxiety and distrust that has grown over the last few weeks is having to be answered by grassroots members, who are equally none the wise, and often share the same concerns. Repairing this broken trust must be a priority for the executive Your Party team, focusing on improving transparency, humility and honesty at all levels, or it risks giving a bad name to all involved.

One of the local organisers, Anthony Lafferty, stated:

Your Party central has to make Assembly organisation and founding documents creation more transparent. Members, volunteers and local activists shouldn’t be having to answer these questions. And more importantly, be accused of not being 100% transparent within our activity. It’s very clear how people can volunteer their skills and join facilitator courses upon signing up to the party. However, some members are not feeling listened to and are deeply worried about top down politics. I was personally questioned numerous times at the assembly, as if I was one of the points of official contact within the Party.

A number of members in attendance raised concerns about how the founding documents were created in the first place, who was responsible for them, and generally, how accountable to membership the executive team will be in practice. These answers could not be answered, which inevitably leads to disappointment and disenfranchisement from the movement, seeing instead, many flock to the Green Party and the hope that they are blossoming.

Your Party can do this – but communities must be central to it

A facilitator at the assembly, Jennifer Savage, found the afternoon to be overwhelmingly positive:

Whilst acknowledging the challenges which have arisen in these early days, there was a wealth of experience available in these groups, amounting to hundreds of years of passionate and determined support for all socialist values and an excitement that these can be realised by Your Party.

Jennifer added her favourite quote of the event from a member long fighting for a socialist agenda, in response to the structure and guidance outlined in the section on how people are selected to the core team, in a very frank and quintessentially northern ‘to-the-point’ tone:

With a few changes, this is good enough for now… really we just want to know: who you are, what you stand for, and how we get rid of you if you don’t uphold the party values!

This event shows us that the backbone of this movement is the work in our communities, the activism and efforts put in at the grassroots, and this movement will be a success if we centre that progress and empowerment. People don’t need people around a table telling them what to think, they’re ready to take a seat at that table, and make sure they are heard.

Your Party must pull them up a seat at that table.

Featured image and additional images via the Canary