As Keir Starmer’s Labour government prepares for yet more austerity in the Autumn Budget, while Reform continues its rise in the polls, the need for a new working class alternative becomes ever more urgent.

But the moves to a new party suffered a setback in mid-September as disagreements within ‘Your Party’ emerged, inevitably amplified by the establishment media. And, while the show is now back on the road with membership opened (at https://in.yourparty.uk/users/sign_up) and the founding conference set for the end of November, the reconvened ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ meeting on Monday 13 October was aptly timed to discuss the role of the organised working class in these developments.

With over 570 registrants and over 300 screens taking part, including a number of watch parties, hundreds of trade unionists tuned in to discuss the way forward.

Strikes in Italy have inspired many workers in Britain. To start the meeting, Hugo Pierre, a former Unison National Executive Council (NEC) member currently in Italy, reported on the demonstrations and massive strikes there, which have shaken the right-populist Meloni government and shown the ability of workers to bring society to a halt. Hugo argued that the movement has the “potential power to organise politically too, to win a general election and force the Meloni government out of power”. Like in the UK, “there’s a vacuum that needs to be filled by the working class”.

On 21 July, over 1,000 trade unionists had attended the launch of the Trade Unionists for a New Party campaign, hosted by former Labour MP and chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) Dave Nellist and addressed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, just days before they launched ‘Your Party’.

In introducing the 13 October recall meeting, Dave outlined how since then ten follow-up meetings of trade unionists in specific unions have taken place so far – again with over a thousand trade unionists registering, with the general format being to work out model motions for union branches tailored to the particular situation in each union

The most recent of these meetings was of members of the RMT transport union, hosted by the London Underground (LU) engineering branch, secretary Sam Ashley explained.

Sam reported on the motion carried overwhelmingly by the RMT London Transport region, calling for the National Executive Committee (NEC) to engage with Corbyn and Sultana about the role the union could play in the founding of a new party, including to be involved in the drafting of policy, and encouraged branches to pass such a motion “to start the conversation in trade union branches”. Dave reminded us that LU Engineering was the old branch of the late RMT general secretary Bob Crow who, in November 2009, convened a conference of trade unionists on the crisis of political representation and played a leading role in founding TUSC.

Why the working class?

University and College Union (UCU) NEC member Richard Wild questioned whether it was right to centre a new party on the working class and the trade unions. UCU congress in May had overwhelmingly agreed that UCU should engage in the debate about a new party, encourage members to stand as candidates, and invite Jeremy Corbyn and the Independents to meet with the NEC.

But Richard argued to “do politics differently” rather than being based on trade unions, pointing to former Momentum leader James Schneider’s championing of ‘organic mobilisation’ in Latin America as another model. He worried that a focus on the working class would exclude groups such as disabled people, homeless or migrant workers.

This point was taken up by a number of other speakers. RMT member Simon, also from the LU Engineering branch, argued the importance of aiming to represent the working-class people who feel betrayed, while also putting forward a programme that champions the interests of all oppressed people. Throughout the meeting, trade unionists argued for policies against austerity and council cuts, on housing, benefits, tuition fees, for nationalisation, the right to protest and more.

Unite Executive Council member Suzanne Muna explained that ‘working class’ means all those people Richard was referring to, “but the organised and collective working class has the power to make change”.

Unite is a Labour-affiliated union. Suz reported on the decision of Unite’s policy conference to debate the union’s relationship with Labour, particularly due to the role of Angela Rayner and the Labour councillors in the Birmingham bin strike. She reported that around 20 Unite branches had passed their model motion so far to campaign for a special conference.

Trade unions have a role

Deji Olayinka, chair of a Communication Workers Union (CWU) branch, argued for trade unionists, socialist parties, working-class and community groups to be able to join and affiliate to Your Party. He explained that trade unions playing a collective role in the new party does not mean a return to unaccountable leaders “overriding the votes of thousands of members”, but “a federal system where democratic interventions can take place at all levels”, including at branch and regional level, that would “prevent leaders blocking policies in interests of the working class”. 

He explained that members across CWU, a Labour-affiliated union, want disaffiliation. If union branches were able to affiliate to Your Party it would help a bottom-up wave within the union to fight for disaffiliation.

Also speaking from an affiliated union, Unison NEC member April Ashley explained the petition and model motion campaigning to review the union’s political fund, to enable money only to be used to back candidates that support the union’s policies. Only 16% of Unison members pay to affiliate to Labour.

Chris Bowkett, a branch chair in the retail union Usdaw, another Labour-affiliated union, explained how several model rule change motions had been drawn up to be put forward for next year’s Annual Delegate Meeting, including a rule change to remove the limitation on branches only being able to make political donations to the Labour Party.

Adam Harmsworth, vice president of the probation and family courts union Napo, reported that a motion was being put to the upcoming Napo AGM along similar lines to that in UCU.

Is union ‘independence’ from parties enough?

Sean McCauley, former National Education Union (NEU) NEC member, took up an argument being made in some of the non-affiliated unions. He explained that while NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede has spoken on some platforms of ‘Your Party’ meetings, he advocates that the NEU should be independent of any party.

Sean argued instead for trade unions to be involved in forming a party, “to influence the direction that the new party takes”. ‘Independence’ means relying on ‘friends’ of the union, rather than a trade union being able to collectively decide its policy and hold political representatives to account. That includes in councils – especially when Your Party councillors could be elected and even win control of councils next year, directly affecting NEU members.

What about the Greens?

This point was also taken up in relation to the idea of alliances with the Green Party, by the president of Waltham Forest Trades Council Nancy Taaffe. She welcomed the more radical positions adopted by the Greens, but argued that that needs backing up where they hold power.

She pointed out that when questioned at the recent World Transformed conference about the role of the Green Party’s 800 councillors in resisting austerity, Zack Polanski had defended Green-led councils’ implementation of huge cuts. In the Green Party there is no way for “the will of trade unionists” to be reflected, “to hold those with elected positions to account”.

In response to a question about whether there are meetings of trade unionists in local areas, debates hosted by trades councils were encouraged. Dave Warren from Swansea TUC reported that five Welsh trades union councils, the bakers union BFAWU, the civil service union PCS Wales Executive, and numerous local trade union branches had backed a conference on 18 October to discuss political representation for trade unionists ahead of the Welsh Assembly elections.

Dave Nellist rounded off the meeting reminding attendees of the Wales and Scotland parliamentary elections and council elections in May. Reform are set to make gains, but they can be countered. In the general election in 2015, Farage, then heading Ukip, got four million votes; in the 2017 election, with Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and a radical manifesto, they were down to 600,000. The Reform “bubble could be burst – but it will be burst quicker if the organised trade union movement is at the heart of the development of Your Party”. ■

A round-up of the model motions or other action points at each of the union-specific follow-ups is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Model-motions-round-up.pdf.  Watch out for further meetings planned to assess progress later in the autumn.