Trade unionists for a new party – online meeting report

Thank you for signing the Trade Unionists for a New Party petition. Here is a report on the online meeting we organised on Monday, 21st July (apologies if you have already received this). 

Over 1,000 trade unionists attended the Zoom and Facebook Live meeting to discuss the next steps in ensuring that trade unionists and trade unions are at the heart of a new party. If you were able to attend, I hope you agree it went well.

The meeting featured contributions from Jeremy Corbyn MP, Zarah Sultana MP, Ian Hodson, President of the Bakers’ Union, and executive committee members from Unite, UCU, NEU, Unison, PCS, and other trade unionists.  If you missed it, you can watch the full video on YouTube here. The Socialist Party has also produced a 15-minute ‘edited highlights’ video as part of their editorial in the current edition of The Socialist.

Your Party
Three days later, the call by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana for a “new kind of political party” to challenge “the rigged system” received a remarkable response. At the time of writing, over 400,000 people had signed up “to be part of the founding process” of a new party.

If you haven’t already, you can read Jeremy and Zarah’s statement and sign up at www.yourparty.uk. I am sure everyone involved in this campaign fully supports the move towards establishing a new working-class party and will do everything possible to advance this process. 

Next steps
So, to practicalities. Firstly, I’ve contacted those registrants of the online meeting who indicated they'd like to be further involved in the campaign to suggest a series of meetings where more detailed plans for individual unions can be discussed, allowing people more opportunities to contribute than was possible last Monday.

So if you receive an email, please try to attend the meeting organised for fellow activists in your union, and let’s see if, over the next few weeks, we can get model resolutions and serious discussions in hundreds of trade union branches, so that trade unionists and trade unions can be at the heart of this new party.

And if you, or other trade union activists you know, would be interested, please ask them to register for the meeting at https://tinyurl.com/Register4TUnewpartymeeting. Although the date has passed, I will still be able to collect the details and add you or them to the circulation list for future activities.

Secondly, the meeting was organised by me and leading trade union members on the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee. If you are able and willing to contribute towards the costs of this work, please donate here, and put a note in the Comments section 'for the Trade Unionists for a New Party' initiative.

Thank you and solidarity,

Dave Nellist
(former Labour MP, now chair of TUSC)