On 24 October, several Scottish Green Party members – including councillors and MSP candidates – defected to Your Party, urging others to follow suit.
This development stands starkly at odds with the success of the Greens in England and Wales, where they are currently enjoying a newfound popularity.
South of the border, the Green’s membership has surged to over 150,000, as leader Zack Polanski’s media presence taps into the anti-establishment mood in society, while Your Party lags behind.
So how do we make sense of the situation in Scotland?
To the left?
Historically, the Scottish Greens have been seen as to the left of their southern counterparts.
Over the summer, Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer were elected as the Scottish Green co-leaders. This was touted by some as evidence of a move further to the left, though less dramatically than what has since been seen under Polanski.
But notably, only 12.5 percent of Scottish Green members even voted in the leadership election – suggesting a significant drop in activity and energy within the party. And while they have seen a certain growth in recent months, it has been markedly slower.
The Scottish Greens established themselves as part of the left of the independence movement in 2014. Since then, they have played a relatively prominent role in Scottish politics and placed themselves to the left of the SNP.
However, since the SNP lost their absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament in 2016, they have often relied on the Greens to pass their budgets. From 2021-24, the Bute House Agreement even saw the Greens enter into an official cooperation agreement with the SNP.
The Green MSPs often boast of having pushed the Holyrood Government to the left, particularly on issues like council funding. In reality, the pushes were minor – and likely less than what they could have done.
Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ got over 800,000 sign ups all across Britain when it started earlier in the summer. But it has since been plagued by very public and toxic fallouts. This has left many of its would-be supporters demoralised, and created a vacuum for parties like the Greens.
But as a result of their years of association with the Holyrood government, the Greens in Scotland have lost a lot of their anti-establishment image.
This is what is behind their failure to gain from the SNP’s losses, in the same way that Polanski is gaining in England and Wales from the failures of Starmer’s Labour and the stalling of Your Party.
Defections
At a recent Scottish Green conference, delegates voted against opening discussions with Your Party around cooperation and electoral pacts.
In part, this was down to an understandable lack of confidence in Your Party.
However, there are also other motivations surrounding the more careerist layers within the Greens, who are not interested in competing for positions – or compromising with a party with a more explicitly anti-capitalist image.
This decision led to a layer of prominent members ultimately defecting to Your Party, giving Corbyn and Sultana’s new outfit their first representation in Scotland.
The group was made up of three Glasgow City councillors and five MSP candidates – including left-wingers such as Ellie Gomorsall, who has been a vocal opponent of the party leadership. She stated:
“Where every single one of the existing Holyrood parties is complicit in passing on brutal cuts to public services, it’s clear to me that only Your Party can be taken seriously to stand firm against austerity and work to materially improve the lives of the working class.”
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Dan Hutchison, one of the three Glasgow City Council councillors to defect, further explained:
“I’m proud to be joining a truly socialist party who will not accept the status quo, will actually involve ordinary people in the politics that impacts their lives, and won’t be accepting brutal cuts in exchange for scraps off the table.”
Where next?
Securing three councillors and five MSP candidates before its founding conference is a modest but significant boost for Your Party, at least on the electoral front.
It suggests that, despite its major setbacks, Your Party still has some support in Scotland, despite no pre-existing Corbyn tradition. There have been a number of meetings held and branches formed around the country, particularly in Glasgow.
As communists, we will critically support any movement that serves to build class consciousness. All the while, however, we maintain our own revolutionary banner.
The trajectory of Your Party remains uncertain.From 800,000 sign-ups at its launch, it has just reached 50,000 members. Its full programme is yet to be decided.
It is also currently up in the air if and how the Green surge in England and Wales will ultimately affect Scotland and the Scottish Greens.
What is certain is that workers and youth across Britain – whether they be organised in the Greens or Your Party or neither – are searching for a way out.
For those looking for a genuine revolutionary alternative, it’s time to join the Revolutionary Communist Party.
