Oxfordshire Your Party Public Meeting

This public meeting is an opportunity for the many people who have signed up to support the new party announced by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.

Join others who want to see a new kind of politics for the working class to address poverty wages, housing shortages, attacks on benefits, escalating racism, government support for the genocide in Gaza, climate change, and much more.

We are very much hoping to have Jeremy or Zarah, alongside other guests from the movement, to spark off a discussion about what kind of party we need. We look forward to hearing YOUR contributions.

You can add your name to the call for the meeting here https://bit.ly/YPletter

This meeting was initiated by the call issued in the letter below:

Dear Friend,

We have all already signed up as individuals to support the launch of new left party by Jeremy Corbyn MP and Zara Sultana MP, which at the moment is using the name Your Party. Over 700,000 people have already signed up with more doing so every day. We think the time has arrived to get started on connecting people together in our area, beginning to get to know each other and start the discussion on what we should prioritise in our area and how we should begin to organise. Many of us are active in campaigns, trade unions, community organisations and politics in Oxfordshire and/or have signed up because we want a new left party in the UK.

We think this is an exciting and necessary development in politics in Britain - given the simply awful record of Starmer’s Labour which is continuing the austerity policies and attacks on working people of the previous Tory regimes. Worse still, Starmer’s echoing of Enoch Powell’s racist language with his “Island of Strangers” speech and continuing attacks on refugees simply paving the way for Reform UK to grow and become a serious threat in Britain. And internationally the British government’s role in continuing to supply arms and give cover for the genocide in Gaza is sickening.

We need a left alternative which stands against austerity, against racism, stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and with trans people, fights for real action on climate change and stands in solidarity with all those fighting back from the Birmingham bin workers to the resident doctors and more.

There will be national meetings and conferences to decide the detailed structures and policies and so on of the new party. But as Jeremy and Zarah have rightly said this new force needs to be shaped and led by the grassroots. In that spirit we would like to reach out to everyone in our area who shares our enthusiasm for the new party and who has or is considering signing up for it.We are certainly not pretending to be any leadership or committee - such questions will be for members to decide democratically as we move forward in building this new force nationally and locally.

We would like to invite you to come along to an open meeting in September (details tbc). Given the response to the national sign up we would ask you to register to get a ticket so we get an idea of numbers in advance in case we need to think again about the size of the venue. Details will be released nearer the time. We will hold a collection on the day to cover the costs of the venue and we would ask people to donate to that as at present we clearly have no structure or funds.

We hope you agree that this is an exciting but also challenging time and will want to join us in starting the urgent process of shaping a new left worthy indeed of the name Your Party. We also support a local music event which is being planned to raise funds for the foundation of the new party.

Let’s Get that Party started! We hope you can join us with us and take part in our upcoming events. Bring your energy, commitment, ideas and skills to help us change politics in the UK forever.

Signatories

Leigh Seedhouse (Joint District Secretary, Oxon NEU, NEU National Executive personal capacity)

Chad Croom (Branch Secretary, CWU South Central Postal personal capacity)

Paul Garraway (Branch Chair, CWU South Central Postal personal capacity)

Keith Hamilton (Political Officer, CWU South Central Postal personal capacity)

Mark Simmons (East Oxford delivery rep, CWU South Central Postal personal capacity)

Kate Douglas (Branch Chair, PCS DWP Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire personal capacity)

Jane Lacey (Branch Secretary, Oxfordshire Unison Health personal capacity)

Georgie Lacey (Lifelong Learning Officer, Oxfordshire Unison Health personal capacity)

Ian McKendrick (Communications Officer, Oxfordshire Unison Health personal capacity)

Joe Lawes (Oxfordshire Unison Health Occupational Therapy Officer, personal capacity)

David Radford (International Officer, Oxford City Unison, personal capacity)

John Parrington (Treasurer, Oxford UCU personal capacity)

Gerard Ward (local resident and member UCU Oxford Brookes personal capacity)

Dr John G Walker (retired tutor, Ruskin College, member of Southern UCU personal capacity)

James Bonner (Treasurer, Unite Community Berks, Oxon & Bucks personal capacity)

Teige Matthews Palmer (Shop steward, Unite LE524 personal capacity)

Thomas Shepherd (Shop steward, Unite SE region personal capacity)

Pat Carmody (Unite SE/6232 member)

David Hillman (Secretary, Oxford PSC personal capacity)

Ahmed Murad (Chair, Oxford PSC personal capacity)

Adam Alabed Llamas – (Organiser, Oxford Schools 4 Palestine personal capacity)

Julie Simmons (Treasurer, Oxford Stand Up to Racism personal capacity)

Colin Aries (Stand Up To Racism activist)

Coral Price (Unite community and Stand Up to Racism activist)

Hilary Price (resident and Stand Up to Racism activist)

Francesca McFadden (resident and member of Oxfordshire Unison Health personal capacity)

Natalie Moss (resident and member of Oxfordshire Unison Health personal capacity)

Leon Price (resident / Oxfordshire Unison health member personal capacity)

Sherry Clapham (resident / Oxfordshire Unison health member personal capacity)

Frank Clapham (resident / Oxfordshire Unison health member personal capacity)

Geoff Taylor (resident and member of UCU Southern Region Retired personal capacity)

Vanessa Benjamin-Smith (Oxfordshire NEU workplace rep personal capacity)

Shaun Doherty (resident and retired member Oxfordshire NEU personal capacity)

Judy Rafferty (resident and retired member Oxfordshire NEU personal capacity)

Chris Blakey (resident, activist and retired Oxfordshire NEU personal capacity)

Cherry Mosteshar (resident and Palestine activist)

Lucy Smith (resident and Parents 4 Palestine activist)

Feng Ho (resident and Palestine activist)

Emma Jones (local resident personal capacity)

Skye Macleod (resident and student)

Euan Telford (resident and student)

Ezra Nguyen (resident and student)

Willow Firth (resident and student)

Xiangyue Wang (student and activist)

Andy Murray (resident)

Zelie Lowles-Wardrop (resident and Palestine activist)

Cameron Wardrop (resident and Palestine activist)

Patrick Currier (resident and activist)

Caroline Marques (resident)

Georgina Fraser (resident)

Steven Gill (resident)

Francesco Sticchi (resident)

Sarah Fifield (resident)

Theo Biggs (resident)

Colin Carritt (Unison Retired Personal Capacity

Ann Schofield (resident)

Rehan Jamil (resident)

Kelvin Jenkins (resident)