Sultana says the Labour government is “weak and pathetic” as the party does not have the “political will” to confront the “parasites who own Britain”.
She says Your Party is there to dismantle a system that attacks disabled people and demonises people coming to Britain via small boats.
Sultana said:
We have a weak and pathetic Labour government that is pushed this way and that way with the political winds, because it does not have the political will to confront the parasites who own Britain.
We are here to break up a system that humiliates our disabled friends and neighbours and deprives them of the cash that they need, while funnelling an extra 11 billion pounds a year to arms companies.
That’s right. Keir Starmer wants an extra 11 billion pounds on defence every year and all the old parties back it. £350 of our money every second on war. That’s money into the pockets of shareholders for the merchants of death, after two years where our money has funded daily spy flights over the ruins of Gaza, aiding and abetting a genocide.
This is a Labour government happy to oppress people abroad and at home. This isn’t a coincidence. The politicians who attack the disabled in Liverpool and demonise the desperate arriving on small boats, they are the same people who blow up our world with war, occupation and genocide, but we know that the real enemy of the working-class travels by private jet, not migrant dinghy …
Ordinary humans suffer everywhere, so the mighty and powerful can sleep in silk sheets in their blood soaked mansions, and as socialists, we stand with the oppressed everywhere, from Sudan to Congo to Palestine.
Sultana is met with cheers of ‘Free, Free, Free Palestine’ after saying she is proudly an “anti zionist”.
Corbyn added:
I’ve often found some of the wisest philopshers are those people that are sweeping our streets, are homeless or working in care homes, or working in hospitals and have real philosophy and real empathy for fellow human beings.
Corbyn also spoke of the need to bring people together to put forward an alternative to the current political offerings, including “Reform, Tommy Robinson or the triopoly of political thinking in parliament”.
Elections are not an end in themselves. They are an opportunity to put someone in a position of responsibility on a local authority, a national parliament or the UK parliament – putting them in a position of responsibility. They only get there because of the work done by people mobilising in communities and those communities putting their hope, their faith and their trust in those communities. The alternative is Reform, Tommy Robinson or the triopoly of political thinking in parliament at the present time.
He continued:
Are we up for the alternative? Are we up for socialism? Are we up for social justice? Are we up for a world of peace? And do you know what? When we do it, we bring people together. When we do it, we actually have a lot of fun together. When we do it, it’s important to listen to other people.
Corbyn criticised the government, saying the “only department that’s gained a lot of money is the Ministry of Defence”.
So you have in office a government that is more interested in spending money on weapons of war than it is dealing with the crisis of homelessness and the division within our society.
He added:
We can be the people who do something very different and put that across very differently. That means campaigning. It means working with a lot of other people in a decent, inclusive and respectful way, and it means then yes, contesting elections as well.
Corbyn said “ a lot of people are looking for political change”, adding that the “economic orthodoxy” has to be “challenged”.
He said:
Young people spending half their salary trying to pay for a private rented flat – that’s wrong. It’s got to change. It’s got to be us who bring about that change.
He spoke about the “thousands of people” who sleep rough every night or “spend the whole day hanging around bus stations, train stations, trying to raise the money for one night in a night shelter”.
He added:
We can, as a country, do so much better that that, and in doing that we have to challenge the economic orthodoxy which is in place, the economic orthodoxy which we saw in operation in the budget in which the lowest paid, poorest people are going to be brought into taxation for the first time, are going to be paying more in tax. Yes, they have lifted the two-child benefit cap, but everything else is pretty grim.
Jeremy Corbyn used his conference speech to call for unity in the party to “fight back against the rise of the far right”.
He said:
It is important that we all absolutely work together on all of this and recognise that what we say and what we do has huge implications for people all over this country. It also is a signpost for the way in which the left in Europe and around the world can organise together in unity to fight back against the rise of the far right, not just in Europe, but in the USA and the nationalist right that are going all around the world.
So the solidarity we’ve shown over Palestine is right, but we also need to show solidarity against the other conflicts in the world to bring about peace in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Congo, and recognise what Trump is doing in the Caribbean is incredibly dangerous to not just to Venezuela, but to Colombia and all of the other Caribbean islands as well.
These issues are incredibly important. We are a very diverse group of people and supporters, and that is the strongest way of attacking what the government is doing in creating a new, horrible, hostile environment for so many people within our society.
The attacks on asylum seekers and refugees, the threats to people who are here with indefinite leave to remain, and the systematic abuse of those people that … [through] no will of their own have been put into asylum hotels … our party, your party, this party, we have got to be in the forefront of the fight against racism and discrimination in any form whatsoever in our society. And that means we have to be well organised.
Corbyn alluded to the problems that have beset the foundation of Your Party.
He said:
As Zarah [Sultana] said in her speech, there is no handbook on how to set up a political party, but we have come a long way and learned a lot along the way.
The former Labour leader said members had decided the interim name would become permanent at the close of Your Party’s inaugural conference.
“We have a party, we have rules, we have a constitution, we have enthusiasm, we have commitment, we have principles. And, above all, we have a name,” he said.
“Your Party is the name of your party.”
Members chose between Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many.
Jeremy Corbyn is now giving his speech at the Your Party conference.
Jeremy Corbyn announces the name of the party: “Your Party, is the name of your party.”
Here are some images coming to us from the Your Party conference:
As a reminder, Jeremy Corbyn will close the conference by announcing the result of a ballot on the new party’s formal name, with members choosing between Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many. We are expecting this to happen at about 4.30pm.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
