Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By Dave Reid
Needed—a real political alternative for the working class
The Wales Gathering of Your Party on October 25th in Merthyr is a welcome, if limited, start to building a new workers’ and socialist party. The 31,000 people in Wales who indicated in July they wanted to join shows the huge potential for a mass party to challenge the established parties and to cut across Reform. Socialist Party members have joined Your Party and is arguing for how it can meet its potential and become the kind of party the working class so urgently needs.
Against the background of brutal austerity from Starmer’s New Labour Mark II and electoral gains for Reform the potential for a workers’ party with socialist policies in Wales could not be clearer. The catastrophic result for Labour in the Caerphilly by election, a constituency which the party has held for 100 years, is an indication of the complete alienation of Starmer’s Labour from the working class. And the large increase in the vote Reform also shows the dangers to our movement if an anti-austerity, socialist alternative is not provided to cut across the far right. Working class alienation with all the pro-capitalist parties has opened up a vacuum that needs to be filled by the socialist left.
And Plaid Cymru does not offer a real alternative. By posing as a left alternative it is currently riding high in the polls. But in power in local councils it acts little different to Welsh Labour, and in government would continue with similarly disastrous austerity policies. This could further build support for Reform if a real anti-austerity alternative is not provided.
Trade unionists looking for change
The appetite for real change was shown in the conference of Welsh trade unionists on political representation called by trades councils across Wales that met on October 18th. There was anger at the government attacks on disability benefits and on trade unionism in the Birmingham bin dispute and a determination to build a workers’ alternative to Starmer Labour and Reform.
The conference presented a Workers’ Charter of basic policies that as a minimum trade unions should demand of its political representatives to gain their support and above all the need for a party which at its heart is based on the working class and the trade unions. Your Party potentially could play this role providing it is organised to allow and encourage the affiliation of trade union bodies.
For a democratic, inclusive party
The Gathering in Merthyr will be presented with a consultation document prepared by the leading group in Wales around Beth Winter and Mark Serwotka. The group has begun the process of registering the People’s Party Wales as a description for the party in the Senedd Elections
Socialist Party Wales believes that Your Party should be democratic, inclusive of all socialist and working-class currents, and armed with a socialist programme, become a vehicle for the struggle against austerity.
Democratic discussion and decision making is key to allow full debate. Discussion and debate would not lead to division in Your Party if it is conducted in an open and comradely way – on the contrary it would clarify the direction of the party.
Unfortunately the format of the Gathering and plans for Your Party Wales does not provide for a serious discussion and airing of views by the members. The proposed agenda for the Gathering on October 25th allows for hardly any time for participation from the members, dominated by speeches from the platform. And the proposed timeline for the party suggests delaying the Cymru Founding Conference until October 2026, five months after the Senedd elections.
The current UK leadership has proposed that members could not be a member of another ‘national political party’, which could be used to bar members of existing socialist parties from joining. This must be resisted by the members and by Your Party Wales. If Your Party is to succeed it must be open to all strands of opinion in the workers and socialist movement including those socialists who have been campaigning for a new workers party for many years.
Present a real challenge in the Senedd elections
The Gathering consultation document proposes a debate on the Senedd election at constituency level with options including standing in all seats, targeted seats, or even not standing. Some in the party have suggested that Your Party/Peoples Party Wales should stand down in favour of Green or Plaid Cymru candidates.
But in the opinion of Socialist Party Wales it would be a big mistake to decide to stand aside at all. The format of the Senedd elections will elect six Senedd members for every one of the 16 Senedd constituencies on the basis of proportional representation. It will be possible for a candidate to be elected with 10-12% of the vote in each constituency.
For a fighting Party group in the Senedd
If Your Party/People’s Party Wales were to stand a robust campaign against austerity and for socialist policies in every constituency it would channel the dissatisfaction with the status quo into a positive, socialist direction and undermine support for Reform.
And a large group of MSs could be elected, which would change the whole political landscape in Wales. The group could represent the struggles of workers and our communities against austerity in the Senedd. A likely Plaid-led coalition government would represent a continuation of the austerity policies of Welsh Labour and, in the absence of a genuinely left alternative, the field of opposition would be left wide open to Reform, which unopposed will likely win a number of seats.
A large group of Your Party/People’s Party Wales MSs could force that government to look over its left shoulder and rather than making concessions to Reform could be forced to retreat from carrying out more cuts.
The launch of Your Party in Wales represents a historic opportunity to force back austerity, racism and division and to re-forge the socialist traditions of the Welsh working class. The Socialist Party will play its part in the discussions and debates to argue for a democratic, inclusive, working class party as a vehicle to begin the change of society.
For No-Cuts Budgets
The Senedd election on 7 May 2026 could be the moment when things really start to change. With the establishment of Your Party we have the chance to elect MSs who demand and end to cuts.
Your Party could win a number of seats in the Senedd and demand a no cuts budget from the new Welsh government.
And in May 2027 there will be council elections across Wales. We could win councillors in almost every authority. In some we could hold the balance of power or even win majorities and form administrations. We could have councils introducing rent controls and building council homes, and reversing privatisation.
We believe Your Party should stand for needs no-cuts busgets. Let’s fight together for the money from Welsh and UK governments.
The Socialist Party is calling on Your Party to bring together local trade unions, community campaigns, and socialists to collaborate on alternative People’s Budgets that shows what a new party will be fighting for.
Councils can use their borrowing powers and reserves to set no-cuts needs-based budgets as part of building a mass campaign for proper government funding for local services.
The Wales TUC, Unite the Union and the local government committees of Unison and GMB support the demand for no-cuts budgets.
What better way to expose Reform?
