Ben Sellers

Starmer talking about the occupation of Gaza being “wrong” as if it was some teenagers playing on a swing. After 22 months of a genocide, after countless war crimes, after months of forced removals & ethnic cleansing. After 77 years plus of the same. He’s a disgrace.

We are delighted to be working in tandem with the @gftu.org.uk to deliver a brand new course, 'Empowering Workers: a Trade Union Certificate in Labour Law and the Labour Movement', accredited by Birbeck University, London. Details & registration here: gftuet.org.uk/courses/empo...

As communities & as a society, we can do better than that. We have to do better than that. We must stop him & @reformuk.bsky.social (3/3)

It’s based on a twisting of the truth around HMOs (house in multiple occupation) to stoke racist fears around immigration - literally attempting to ignite violence & hatred against people seeking safety & refuge, whilst completely ignoring the roots of the housing crisis. (2/3)

No doubt he thinks he’s ’exposing the truth’, but this is really poisonous by Darren Grimes.

If you want to see the whole grubby little post, it’s here: www.facebook.com/share/v/1A2W... (1/3)

Very sad to say that we lost Lotta early this morning. In the end it was very peaceful, just like they say. She was the best dog we could have hoped for, when the kids were little, right through to today - even managing a little wag of her tail as she got some attention at the vets. Farewell, cutie.

🤯 Lucy Bronze played the tournament with a fractured tibia & a fair bit of the final with a badly damaged knee. Hard as nails. I’m not recommending it, but it symbolises the never-say-die attitude we’ve seen from England all tournament. 👊

Your Party We're building a new kind of political party - one that belongs to you. Sign up here...

Link to join: www.yourparty.uk

What we need isn’t purity, but an organisation where debates are heard in a culture of tolerance, understanding & learning. If that is at the heart of any new initiative, it will lay the foundations for a new chapter in democratic, socialist politics in this country. (8/8)

You’ll not always agree with everyone in this new party. There may even be people who join that you have profound disagreements with. We cannot avoid that. It is part of politics. (7/8)

There will be a lot of negotiation to come, and those of us who really care about creating an inclusive, democratic, member-led party will have to argue for it, and be proactive, because nothing comes without a fight. (6/8)

500,000 signalling their intent to join a new party of the left is a brilliant start, but it is just that. (5/8)

The bigger the party base, the better the prospects for a truly democratic, grassroots organisation. Conversely, the smaller it is, the greater the chance of it being taken over by a clique or being the battleground for a number of factions. (4/8)

But the ones that came through to form a coherent alternative were the ones where there was a big enough core to ride the wave & plant roots. (3/8)

Almost all were born as coalitions (a combination of groups leaving the main social democratic party & independent socialists, left greens & factions / smaller parties). None of it was easy. The negotiations were torturous, the fallings out were numerous & splits common. (2/8)

A couple of summers ago, I spent a few weeks researching the formation of parties of the left, mostly in Europe but also from around the world. (1/8)

That is no easy task, and will take lots of discussion & hard work, but it’s an essential component of making this vital new initiative work & realising its potential. (10/10)

We absolutely did not make the inroads into working class communities that we promised in 2015, and that became our soft underbelly. We have to understand why, and build our new party with a determination to fix that. (9/10)

This local & regional democracy is a prerequisite for broadening the base of this new party, a need that will become very obvious as we move forward, and one of the unfinished jobs of the Corbyn movement. (8/10)

It’s about harnessing that power in a democratic, grassroots, representative way, based on regional and local structures that allow real democracy, accountability & decentralised power to flourish - as a model for the kind of society we want. (7/10)

I welcome the fact that things are now moving, and applaud those taking a lead, but we mustn’t think that sign ups are enough. People who join should not be seen as a ‘stage army’, but real, creative actors in building this party. (6/10)

But we must get it right.

I’m sure Jeremy & Zarah will agree with me when I say that it’s not the Parliamentarians, or advisors, commentators or celebs who hold the key to this party & it’s potential, but those grassroots members. (5/10)

Disillusioned though many have been at the prolonged limbo endured for at least 2-3 years, the vast majority have stuck with it too. (4/10)

Ever since the extent of Starmer’s coup d’etat in the Labour Party became clear, there has been a determined appetite for a party which represented those socialist politics honestly & independently, but Gaza gave it another dimension. (3/10)

That is seriously impressive, but unsurprising to anyone who has stuck in there while the mass of Corbyn-aligned socialists were witch-hunted, silenced, harrassed, abused, smeared & sidelined over the last 5 years. (2/10)

On holiday, so will just make this a quick 🧵. Apparently the new (temporarily named) ‘Your Party’ has had 140,000 sign ups in the first 24 hours. (1/10)

Obviously, Yvette Cooper, a Home Secretary who is currently locking up activists (including 75-80 year old pensioners) misusing anti-terrorist legislation, is not someone to be trusted, so there are battles still to come, but that’s for another day. (3/3)

See the press release for the OTJC perspective on what the inquiry needs to include: otjc.org.uk/orgreave-tru... (2/3)

Well done to everyone involved in the @orgreavejustice.bsky.social campaign in winning a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave in June 1984. It’s been a long hard road, and their absolute determination is to be massively applauded. (1/3)

Great to see this big, vibrant opposition to the Reform Council yesterday morning in #Durham. Flags, banners & placards from Climate Action, LGBTQ, unions, Palestine Solidarity, anti-racists & more - coming together to challenge their Thatcherite, culture war nonsense.