Groups & Factions

A Your Party Supporter's Cheat Sheet

Last updated 16/12/25.
Note: This cheat sheet is neither complete nor objective, and can never be either.

Groups & Factions

A Your Party Supporter's Cheat Sheet


Your Party Members' Factions


Within Your Party, some members have organised political factions to push for certain political goals and strategies within the party, which other members can join. These are quite different from the factions of the party bureaucracy and unelected personnel, which sometimes have little political basis, and cannot be signed-up to. The main bureaucratic leadership faction is the Corbyn-allied faction around Karie Murphy, Collective, and the Peace and Justice Project. Its only rival bureaucratic faction, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) group, as well as various individuals, left the leadership after the crisis of September 2025. Details here.This cheat sheet lays out the members' factions, roughly in order of size and influence.


Democratic Socialists

Known For

  • Focus on party democracy.

Positions & Goals

  • Fighting for membership democracy, around a particular model constitution and structures.

  • Anti-capitalism

  • Anti-imperialism

  • For the liberation of oppressed groups


Membership Estimate

400-500


Associations

  • Max Shanly

Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2025 by some young ex-Corbynite and ex-ACORN activists.

  • Quickly merged with another faction, Max Shanly's For a Party Republic, before FPR was even announced publicly.

  • Signed the joint statement For a Member Led, Socialist Party at The World Transformed 2025, endorsed by an assembly there.

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.

Organising for Popular Power

Known For

  • Focus on 'basebuilding' i.e. organising in workplaces and communities.

Positions & Goals

  • Building up the party's focus on workplace and community activism rather than elections

  • Anti-capitalism

  • Anti-imperialism

  • Party democracy


Membership Estimate

100-200


Associations

  • Joshua Virasami

  • Jeanine Hourani

  • Jonas Marvin

Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2025 by largely 'movement professionals' (ie those with jobs in political and social movement organisations), alongside some well-connected lay-activists. Founding members were from London Renters Union, Greater Manchester Tenants Union, Notes from Below, Organise Now, Palestinian Youth Movement, Black Lives Matter, rs21, and others.

  • In their pre launched form, helped to write and launch the 'Our Party' open letter to leadership demanding a democratic conference process.

  • Launched in 2025 at The World Transformed festival.

  • Signed the joint statement For a Member Led, Socialist Party at The World Transformed 2025, endorsed by an assembly there.

Trans Liberation Group

Known For

  • Focus on trans liberation.

Positions & Goals

  • Committing the party to a programme of liberation for trans people

  • Making the party's internal structures unhospitable to transphobia

  • Anti-capitalism


Membership Estimate

Around 100.


Associations

  • Unknown

Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2025.

  • Signed the joint statement For a Member Led, Socialist Party at The World Transformed 2025, endorsed by an assembly there.

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.

Democratic Bloc

Known For

  • Involvement from ex-Labour Left figures.

Positions & Goals

  • Members' democracy

  • Pro- union affiliation

  • Anti-sortition


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Mish Rahman

Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2025 by some activists previously involved in Labour. Mish Rahman, for example, was in Labour until 2025 and sat on the NEC.

  • Signed the joint statement For a Member Led, Socialist Party at The World Transformed 2025, endorsed by an assembly there.

Platform for a Democratic Party

Known For

  • Association with filmmaker Ken Loach.

Positions & Goals

  • Broad demands around increased member democracy.


Membership Estimate

Around 10. No clear way to join.


Associations

  • Ken Loach

Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2025.

  • Largely a small personal network, including filmmaker Ken Loach, union leader Ian Hodson, and ex-Labour activists Audrey White and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.

  • Focused on their open letter.

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.

Eco-Socialist Horizon

Known For

  • (Little known)

Positions & Goals

  • Committing the party to a programme of eco-socialist transformation.


Membership Estimate

Fewer than 10.


Associations

  • Chris Saltmarsh (co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal)

Other Key Facts

The Peoples' Front

Known For

  • (Little known)

Positions & Goals

  • Anti-capitalism

  • Anti-imperialism

  • Social investigation and class analysis before committing to specifc political demands

  • Providing for the material needs of the working class


Membership Estimate

Fewer than 10.


Associations

  • Unknown

Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2025 at The World Transformed festival.

  • Maoist-inspired strategy, including their launch statement referencing the (Maoist) Communist Party of the Philippines.

  • Signed the joint statement For a Member Led, Socialist Party at The World Transformed 2025, endorsed by an assembly there.

Groups & Factions

A Your Party Supporter's Cheat Sheet


Political Groups


The British far left is very small, and smaller still is the number of communists and socialists organised into explicitly communist or socialist organisations. Nevertheless, these organisations often punch far above their weight. Because of the small size of the British left more generally, a few thousand people in a coordinated effort can make an impact, whether in mass movements, trade unions, student organising, or other political parties. They are even sometimes well-funded, by highly committed members and through bequests if they have been going long enough.Some of these organisations are supportive of Your Party, announced by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana in 2025. A lay-supporter of YP, especially if they are not super active in their trade union or local campaign group, may therefore encounter these organisations for the first time. To assist, this cheat sheet lays out the groups that you may encounter within YP, roughly in order of size and influence. While various other groups exist, they are not detailed here.Other useful guides include the Unofficial Guide to the British Left (published April 2024).


Socialist Workers Party

Known For

  • Extensive use of front organisations, while rarely acting openly as themselves.

  • Larger presence overall, even in smaller towns, than other groups.

  • 2013 rape cover-up.

  • More controlling tactics compared to other groups when trying to take leadership of broad left movements or organisations.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Cliffite)


Membership Estimate

2,500 paying members as of 2023.link


Associations

  • Stand Up to Racism (front)

  • We Demand Change (front)

  • Anti-Nazi League (front, defunct)

  • Socialist Worker (newspaper)

  • Marxism [YEAR] (public conference)

  • International Socialism (journal)

  • Bookmarks (bookshop/front)

  • Socialist Worker Student Society (student section)

  • International Socialist Tendency (international)

  • Lewis Neilson

  • Alex Callinicos

  • Tony Cliff

Positions on Your Party

  • Your Party should be "a broad and pluralist umbrella, which the revolutionary left can be part of and stand candidates under."

  • "[Your Party] can’t fight on “bread and butter” issues alone. It’s vital for the left to say migrants aren’t to blame and refugees are welcome, trans+ rights, free Palestine and climate action now."

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 1950 as the Socialist Review Group, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977.

  • In 2013, conducted an institutionalised rape cover-up, with many leadership figures involved in that cover-up still in post today. This made national news, and led to a large membership decrease and a number of splits.

  • Has a strong organised presence in a number of trade unions.

  • Sometimes stands candidates at elections, but as independents.

  • Members do not usually state their affiliation unless asked directly, but instead mention an SWP front and/or union affiliation.

Communist Party of Britain

Known For

  • The Morning Star, the only socialist daily newspaper. Sometimes available at newsagents.

  • Branding itself as the communist party, claiming continuity from the old official British communist party (established in 1920 and supported by the Soviet Union).

  • Cultivating a good relationship with trade union and left-wing Labour Party leaders and bureaucrats in order to gain influence.

  • Transphobia.

  • Progressive nationalism.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Marxism-Leninism


Membership Estimate

1,800 as of 2023, including its semi-autonomous youth section.link


Associations

  • Morning Star (newspaper)

  • Young Communist League (youth section, semi-autonomous)

  • Challenge (magazine of YCL)

  • Unity! (magazine)

  • Communist Review (journal)

  • Manifesto Press (publisher)

  • Marx Memorial Library (library, key supporter of)

  • Britain's Road to Socialism (political programme)

  • Robert Griffiths

Positions on Your Party

  • Cautious, informal endorsement of Your Party, but still committed to a strategy including the unions and the Labour left, as emphasised in their programme, Britain's Road to Socialism.

  • Not seeking dual membership arrangements.

  • Opposition to the "readiness of ultra-leftist sects to infiltrate [Your Party] in order to divide [it], pose as a ‘left opposition’ to the leadership and recruit from those they can influence and mislead".


Other Key Facts

  • Split from the old official communist party in 1988 over that party's rejection of Marxism-Leninism. That party then collapsed in 1991 with the Soviet Union.

  • Adopted most of the politics of the old communist party, such as support for official communist parties around the world, including the Chinese Communist Party.

  • Often campaigns against the rest of the left in trade unions, tending to support bureaucratic left-wing candidates rather than rank-and-file ones.

  • Celebrated the transphobic 2025 Supreme Court ruling excluding trans women from some protections under the Equality Act.

  • Stands openly in elections.

Socialist Party
of England and Wales

Known For

  • Historic relation to Militant, who were nationally known.

  • Electoral work through the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition.

  • Labour-style aims of federal, union-affiliated organisation.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Grantite)


Membership Estimate

1,000-2,000. 2,000 as of 2017,link but probably many fewer today due to a split and other factors.


Associations

  • Trade Union & Socialist Coalition (electoral front)

  • All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation (front, defunct)

  • The Socialist (newspaper)

  • Socialism [YEAR] (public conference)

  • Socialist Students (student section)

  • Committee for a Workers' International (international)

  • Dave Nellist

  • Ted Grant

Positions on Your Party

  • "A federal structure [that] could allow for both individual members of a new party, via local branches, as well as pre-existing workers’ organisations and democratically organised community organisations, to have ongoing oversight over policy and the elected representatives of a new party."

  • Founding conference with no individual participants, only representatives of federal organisations.


Other Key Facts

  • Its direct predecessor, Militant, practised entryism into the Labour Party and famously controlled Liverpool council in the 80s.

  • When Militant was expelled from the Labour Party in 1991, it became Militant Labour, and then the Socialist Party in 1997.

  • Its electoral project, Trade Union & Socialist Coalition, launched in 2010, was once an actual federal coalition of groups and had affiliation from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). This is no longer the case.

  • Has a strong organised presence in a number of trade unions.

Workers Party of Britain

Known For

  • Being George Galloway's latest vehicle.

  • Conservativism on social issues such as transphobia, homophobia, and abortion, as well as support for small businesses and landlords.

Type of Organisation

Electoral


Tradition

None in particular.


Membership Estimate

3,000 as of 2025.link


Associations

  • George Galloway (previously of The Respect Party)

Positions on Your Party

  • Advocates for joint work in particular circumstances, and is open to members dual carding.


Other Key Facts

Revolutionary Communist Party

Known For

  • Large percentage of student members.

  • Labour Party entryism until expelled in 2021.

  • Its ARE YOU A COMMUNIST? THEN GET ORGANISED international poster campaign.

  • Fiona Lali's 2024 electoral campaign in Stratford and Bow.

  • Alan Woods's Big Bang denialism.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Grantite)


Membership Estimate

1,200 as of 2024.link


Associations

  • The Communist (newspaper)

  • Revolution Festival (public conference)

  • In Defence of Marxism (journal)

  • Wellred Books (publisher)

  • Revolutionary Communist International (international)

  • Fiona Lali

  • Alan Woods

  • Rob Sewell

  • Ted Grant

Positions on Your Party

  • Previously supportive, but now opposed due to too much lost potential during the formation process. "All that’s clear is, right now, there’s no mass movement around Corbyn and Sultana."

  • Now argues to build their sect instead.


Other Key Facts

  • Its direct predecessor, Militant, practised entryism into the Labour Party and famously controlled Liverpool council in the 80s.

  • When Militant was expelled from the Labour Party in 1991, it split, staying in the Labour Party and becoming Socialist Appeal, where it fought for limited aims such as a return to old Labour's Clause Four.

  • In 2021, it was proscribed from the Labour Party and in 2024 regrouped as the Revolutionary Communist Party and completely pivoted, rebranding as a hardened revolutionary organisation outside of Labour.

  • Otherwise has little to no presence in trade unions.

  • Ambivalent on transphobia, emphasising 'culture war' issues as a distraction.

rs21

Known For

  • Closer collaboration with institutions of post-Corbynism, such as The World Transformed festival, than other groups.

  • Emphasis on trans liberation.

  • Emphasis on internal democracy.

  • The only surviving split from the Socialist Workers Party as a result of the 2013 rape cover-up.

  • Presence of open internal factions.

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Various. Previously Trotskyism (Cliffite).


Membership Estimate

400-500 as of 2025.link


Associations

  • Festival of the Oppressed (public conference)

  • Red Bird (ecosocialist zine)

  • The World Transformed (festival, partner organisation)

  • Troublemakers At Work (public conference, key supporter of)

  • Ian Allinson

  • Shanice McBean

  • Jonas Marvin

  • Archie Woodrow

Positions on Your Party

  • High degree of member democracy.

  • Your Party should be anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, opposed to the British state, committed to trans liberation and Palestinian liberation, and refuse to enter government unless it can enact its full programme.

  • Individual members are prominent in various Your Party members' factions.


Other Key Facts

  • Split from the SWP in 2013 in response to the SWP's institutionalised rape cover-up, where it formed as a much looser network. Now, most members and elected figures were never in the SWP.

  • rs21 stands for Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, though it is not referred to as such.

  • Possibly the only British far-left group to have open democratic factions representing different politics and traditions, such as the Marxist Unity Caucus and the Revolution from Below Faction. The few remaining Cliffites do not have an open faction.

Counterfire

Known For

  • Presence in the Stop the War coalition.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Cliffite)


Membership Estimate

In the low 100s. 300 as of 2017.link


Associations

  • Counterfire (newspaper)

  • Stop the War Coalition (campaign, dominant in)

  • John Rees

  • Lindsey German

Positions on Your Party

  • Supportive, but distinctive positions on the party are unclear.


Other Key Facts

  • Split from SWP in 2010, arguing for greater involvement in Stop the War Coalition and the People's Assembly.

  • Moderately transphobic.

Revolutionary Communist Group

Known For

  • Fervent critique of the British labour movement, including Labour Party, Labour left and trade unions as pro-imperialist and irredeemable.

  • Emphasis on support for Cuba.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Marxism-Leninism


Membership Estimate

150-200 as of 2021.link


Associations

  • Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism (newspaper)

  • Rock Around the Blockade (campaign, dominant in)

  • David Yaffe (formerly)

Positions on Your Party

  • Supportive of Zarah Sultana in the party and her more explicit socialist, anti-imperialist and class-focussed positions.

  • Highly critical of the direction of the party and fighting for Sultana to split from Corbyn and the other MPs and leadership figures.


Other Key Facts

Alliance for Workers Liberty

Known For

  • Zionism.

  • Support for the British state arming Ukraine.

  • Criticism of 'political Islam'.

  • Entryism into the Labour Party during the Corbyn years.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Matgamnaite). Previously Grantite.


Membership Estimate

Around 100. 140 as of 2017.link


Associations

  • Solidarity (newspaper)

  • Clarion (magazine)

  • Ideas for Freedom (public conference)

  • Sean Matgamna

Positions on Your Party

  • "Rather than learn from the problems of Corbynism and its failure to tackle antisemitism, there seems to be a risk that “Your Party” will instead embrace the political lines of the more anti-Israel “hardline” of the Corbynite movement, the politics of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Gaza Independents."


Other Key Facts

  • Formed as a faction in Militant in 1966 around Sean Matgamna, but split in 1968 when it agreed to enter as a faction into the International Socialists, which it eventually split from in 1992 when it formed as its own organisation.

  • Undertook entryism into the Labour Party in 2015, but was proscribed in 2022.

  • Campaigned strongly against Brexit and still vocal about its pro-EU position.

  • Active in some unions, notably on the London Underground.

Anti*Capitalist Resistance

Known For

  • Support for NATO arming Ukraine.

  • Higher degree of emphasis on ecosocialism and trans-inclusive feminism than some other groups.

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Trotskyism (Mandelite)


Membership Estimate

Around 100. 95 in its predecessor Socialist Resistance as of 2017.link


Associations

  • Fourth International (international, as observer via Socialist Resistance)

  • International Viewpoint (magazine of international)

  • Youth Camp [YEAR] (camp for young members of the international)

  • Simon Hannah

Positions on Your Party

  • Supportive, but distinctive positions on the party are unclear.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2021 as a fusion of Socialist Resistance, Mutiny and some individual activists (although Socialist Resistance doesn't seem to have completely dissolved).

  • The international that it has a relationship with (the Fourth International) is arguably Trotsky's original international organisation.

Palestinian Youth Movement

Known For

  • Being an international organisation with young Arab and Palestinian members.

  • Forefronting Palestinian liberation while being explicitly socialist.

Type of Organisation

Network/NGO


Tradition

None in particular


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Jeanine Hourani

  • Progressive International (international)

Positions on Your Party

  • Some vague support.

  • Key members involved in setting up party faction Organising for Popular Power.

  • "The working class, both for its own survival and in commitment to internationalist co-resistance, must confront Zionism at home and abroad. This means building a militant anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist mass party"


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in Britain in 2021 by ex- student activists.

  • Has chapters in several countries.

  • "PYM membership is open to Palestinian and Arab youth between the ages 18-40, and volunteering with us is open to everyone".

Socialist Alternative

Known For

  • (Little known.)

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Grantite)


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Socialist Alternative (newspaper)

  • International Marxism (journal)

  • International Socialist Alternative (international)

  • Campaign for a Democratic Party (front/operating name within Your Party)

Positions on Your Party

  • Supportive, but distinctive positions on the party are unclear.

  • Sometimes acts as 'Campaign for a Democratic Party', rather than under its own name in Your Party.

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2019 from a split from the Socialist Party. Seems to take their politics except for more of an emphasis on liberation of oppressed groups.

Workers Power

Known For

  • Entryism into the Labour Party during the Corbyn years.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Cliffite)


Membership Estimate

Around 50. 30 as of 2017.link


Associations

  • Workers Power (newspaper)

  • League for a Fifth International (international)

Positions on Your Party

  • Supportive, but distinctive positions on the party are unclear.


Other Key Facts

  • Split from SWP in 1974.

  • During the Corbyn leadership, Workers Power dissolved, entered the Labour Party, and formed Red Flag as “a revolutionary socialist initiative campaigning in the Labour Party”, but later reformed and exited the party.

  • Emphasis on democratic rank-and-file struggles in trade unions.

Climate Vanguard

Known For

  • Combination of ecological and Leninist emphasis.

  • NGO-style organisational form with no obvious way to join.

  • Eduction and organiser trainings.

Type of Organisation

Cadre/NGO


Tradition

Marxism-Leninism


Membership Estimate

No formal membership system.


Associations

  • Comet (educational programme)

Positions on Your Party

  • "[Your Party should] become a political instrument of the working and oppressed classes, whose primary function is to build social power based on anti-imperialist, eco-socialist political foundations."


Other Key Facts

  • None known.

Assemble

Known For

  • Being Roger Hallam's latest project, after Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

  • Focus on sortitioned deliberative assemblies.

Type of Organisation

Network/NGO


Tradition

Hallamite


Membership Estimate

No formal membership system.


Associations

  • Roger Hallam (founder of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil)

Positions on Your Party

  • Moderately supportive, pushing for the use of sortition and deliberative assemblies in party structures.


Other Key Facts

  • None known.

Communist Party of Great Britain
Provisional Central Committee

Known For

  • Their newspaper/website Weekly Worker, which reports on the activities of the British far-left, often in a harsh tone and with few journalistic standards.

  • Association with Mike MacNair and his book 'Revolutionary Strategy'.

  • Stated aim of reforging a mass communist party.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Orthodox Marxism. Previously Marxism-Leninism.


Membership Estimate

Low 10s.


Associations

  • Weekly Worker (newspaper)

  • Communist Platform (front/operating name within Your Party and previously in Left Unity)

  • Communist Forum (weekly livestream)

  • Communist University (public conference)

  • Why Marx? (education and discussion series, key participant of)

  • Mike MacNair

  • Jack Conrad

  • Tina Becker

Positions on Your Party

  • "We openly seek to transform [Your Party] into a Communist Party. Fundamentally that means equipping [Your Party] with a Marxist minimum-maximum programme."

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.

  • Often acts as 'Communist Platform', rather than under its own name in broad left organisations like Your Party.


Other Key Facts

  • Began as a faction in the old official communist party in 1981 around The Leninist publication, and became its own organisation in 1992 after the communist party had dissolved.

  • Their activity is mainly focused on running the newspaper, and not work in movements or unions.

Socialist Labour Network

Known For

  • Being proscribed by Keir Starmer's Labour Party.

  • (Little known)

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

None in particular. Previously Labourism.


Membership Estimate

Unknown.


Associations

  • None known.

Positions on Your Party

  • Members involved in the Democratic & Socialist Network project, pushing for member democracy and a socialist politics in Your Party.

  • The DSN is itself, with other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.


Other Key Facts

Workers International Network

Known For

  • Campaigning and events through their Campaign for a Mass Workers’ Party front.

  • (Little known)

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Trotskyism (Grantite)


Membership Estimate

Around 10.


Associations

  • Campaign for a Mass Workers Party (front/operating name within Your Party)

  • Internationalist Standpoint (international/publication, exact relation unclear)

  • Roger Silverman

Positions on Your Party

  • "A hybrid model where the members have a say, but platforms or tendencies within the party also have a role is the most meaningful way to deliver an activist-based democracy."

  • Its front the Campaign for a Mass Workers Party is, with other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.


Other Key Facts

Sparticist League/Britain

Known For

  • (Little known)

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Sparticist)


Membership Estimate

Around 10.


Associations

  • Workers Hammer (newspaper)

  • International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) (international)

Positions on Your Party

  • Particularly supportive of the pro-democracy, anti-imperialist, pro- class independence arguments of Zarah Sultana.

  • Argues for building a 'revolutionary caucus' within Your Party to include all revolutionary socialists in the party.

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.


Other Key Facts

  • The International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) was organised in 1974 (at the time named the 'International Spartacist Tendency') as the international organisation of the American Sparticist League, formed in the early 60s. Unclear when the British section officially formed.

Talking About Socialism

Known For

  • (Little known)

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Orthodox Marxism


Membership Estimate

Around 10.


Associations

  • Nick Wrack

  • Why Marx? (education and discussion series, participant in)

Positions on Your Party

  • In favour of a high degree of membership democracy.

  • Members involved in the Democratic & Socialist Network project, pushing for member democracy and a socialist politics in Your Party.

  • The DSN is itself, with other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2022.

International Bolshevik Tendency

Known For

  • (Little known)

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Sparticist)


Membership Estimate

Fewer than 10 in Britain, but maybe more in total since it is an international organisation.


Associations

  • 1917 (journal)

Positions on Your Party

  • Against all Your Party alliances with the Green Party.

  • For Your Party organising against all state repression and imperialism.

  • For maximum members' democracy.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed out of a split from the International Spartacist Tendency in 1982 and subsequent merger of various small groups in 1990/91.

  • Strongly pro- trans liberation, arguing for "class struggle against all oppression".

Bolshevik Tendency

Known For

  • (Little known)

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Sparticist)


Membership Estimate

Fewer than 10 in Britain, but maybe more in total since it is an international organisation.


Associations

Positions on Your Party

  • Supportive, but distinctive positions on the party are unclear.

  • With other organisations, part of the Socialist Unity Platform in Your Party, which is pushing for a common platform of six demands around party democracy.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed from a split from the International Bolshevik Tendency in 2018, citing an adherence to the spirit of their original 1982 split and opposing the IBT's characterisation of Russia as imperialist.

Republican Labour Education Forum

Known For

  • (Little known)

  • Socialist republicanism

  • Tricolour flag

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Orthodox Marxism. Previously Trotskyism (Cliffite).


Membership Estimate

Largely a 1-person project. No membership system as such.


Associations

  • Steve Freeman

Positions on Your Party

  • Supportive, but distinctive positions on the party are unclear.


Other Key Facts

Under construction

Your Party

Known For

  • Being the political party associated with Corbyn after his purge from Labour.

  • Being the largest far-left/socialist party in Britain.

Type of Organisation

Electoral


Tradition

None in particular.


Membership Estimate

55,000 as of 2025.


Associations

  • Jeremy Corbyn

  • Zarah Sultana

  • Karie Murphy

Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2025 out of secret negotiations that included Corbyn, ex-Labour staff from the Corbyn era, as well as various independent left figures and MPs.

  • Initially garnered 800,000 sign-ups to a supporters mailing list, but only translated this into an initial 55,000 members, in part due to early bureaucratic in-fighting and crisis.

  • Arguably the largest socialist party since the Communist Party at its height in the 1940s.

  • Many members of other left political groups are members of Your Party, and it has various members' factions.

  • Aspires to non-electoral organising moreso than other electoral parties.

Momentum

Known For

  • Being the main Corbyn-supporting Labour faction during his Labour leadership.

  • Being one of the very few left organisations in Labour.

Type of Organisation

Faction/NGO


Tradition

Labourism


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Progressive International (international)

  • James Schneider

  • Jon Lansman

Positions on Your Party

  • Opposed, arguing for socialists to be in Labour. Other specific positions unclear.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2015 by a small number of influential individual activists after Corbyn was elected Labour leader.

  • Many members of left political groups joined Momentum during Corbyn's leadership.

  • Membership peaked at 42,000 in 2018.

  • Activity and membership completely collapsed after Starmer's purge of Labour.

Greens Organise

Known For

  • Being the socialist faction in the Green Party of England and Wales and supporting leader Zack Polanski.

Type of Organisation

Faction


Tradition

None in particular.


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Zoë Garbett

  • Steve Jackson

Positions on Your Party

  • Argues for socialists to be in the Green Party instead. Other specific positions unclear.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2024 by around 150 Green members.

Youth Demand

Known For

  • Focus on youth activists and direct action on various causes.

  • Only Hallamite organisation remaining that uses direct action, arrestable tactics.

Type of Organisation

Network/NGO


Tradition

Hallamite


Membership Estimate

No formal membership system.


Associations

  • None known.

Positions on Your Party

  • None.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2024 by Just Stop Oil members, in alliance with JSO and Assemble.

  • They focus their direct action on various issues including Palestinian liberation, climate change, and wealth inequality.

Socialist Party of Great Britain

Known For

  • Being the oldest Marxist organisation in Britain. And therefore having relative wealth.

  • Unique ideology of 'impossibilsm'.

Type of Organisation

Cadre/Network


Tradition

Orthodox Marxism


Membership Estimate

300 as of 2023.link


Associations

  • Socialist Standard (newspaper/magazine)

  • World Socialist Movement (international)

  • Adam Buick

Positions on Your Party

  • Opposed, on the basis that it advocates reforms within capitalism.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 1904 as a split from the Social Democratic Federation, Britain's first self-proclaimed socialist party.

  • They focus on publishing texts and standing a small number of electoral candidates over the movement and union activism of other socialist groups.

  • Their 'impossibilism' means they advocate stateless, moneyless communism and nothing less. The revolution will only be legitimate if this programme wins a substantial majority at election.

Extinction Rebellion

Known For

  • Being the first of a wave of organisations in the 2010s using direct action and arrests to protest the climate crisis.

Type of Organisation

NGO/Network


Tradition

Hallamite


Membership Estimate

No formal membership system.


Associations

  • Roger Hallam (previously)

Positions on Your Party

  • None.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2018 by several experienced climate campaigners.

  • Co-founder Roger Hallam was expelled in 2020, favouring more disruptive tactics.

  • Used direct action and attempted to maximise arrests until the end of 2022, moving to more traditional protest tactics.

  • Has offshoots across the world.

  • Is abbreviated as 'XR'.

Sisters Uncut

Known For

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Feminism


Membership Estimate

No formal membership system.


Associations

  • None known.

Positions on Your Party

  • None.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2014 by members of UK Uncut, an anti-austerity protest group out of the early 2010s anti-austerity movement.

  • Focus on a variety of issues beyond the cuts in domestic and sexual violence support services, including prison and police abolition and Palestinian liberation.

  • Advocates modern anarchist-adjacent practices, such as consensus decision-making.

  • Men are not permitted at meetings.

Anarchist Federation

Known For

  • Being a more visible group among the very small number of explicitly anarchist organisations in Britain.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Anarchism (Platformism)


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Organise! (magazine)

  • International of Anarchist Federations (international)

Positions on Your Party

  • Against all political parties, including Your Party.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 1986 as a merger between the Anarchist Communist Discussion Group and Syndicalist Fight.

  • Highly critical of trade unions.

Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)

Known For

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Marxism-Leninism (Anti-revisionism)


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Proletarian (newspaper)

  • Lalkar (journal)

  • World Anti-Imperialist Platform (international)

  • Harpal Brar

  • Joti Brar

  • Ella Rule

Positions on Your Party

  • Opposed, due to critiques of social democracy.


Other Key Facts

  • Supported by/allied with Workers Party of Britain until 2022. The CPGB-ML's leader was deputy leader of the Workers Party during some of this time.

Plan C

Known For

  • Distinctive mixture of: Marxism with anarchist-like focus on movements rather than parties, and network structure.

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Left Communism


Membership Estimate

Around 100


Associations

  • Fast Forward (festival)

  • Mark Fisher

  • Keir Milburn (formerly)

Positions on Your Party

  • None.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2012 in part by activists from the recent student movement.

  • Despite movement focus, was engaged with Corbynism.

Solidarity Federation

Known For

  • Being the only explicitly anarchist trade union in Britain.

Type of Organisation

Network/Trade Union


Tradition

Anarchism (Syndicalism)


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Direct Action (magazine)

  • International Workers' Association (international)

Positions on Your Party

  • Opposed to all electoral parties, including Your Party.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 1994 by members of the anarchist Direct Action Movement.

  • Its website and social media are down, with only a small number of local branches active.

Anti-Imperialist Front

Known For

  • Being one of the only Maoist organisations that is also in favour of trans liberation and other progressive social causes.

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Marxism Leninism (Maoism)


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • International League of Peoples' Struggle (international, supportive of)

Positions on Your Party

  • Opposed to all electoral parties, including Your Party.


Other Key Facts

Rise Movement

Known For

  • (Little known)

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

None in particular


Membership Estimate

Unknown


Associations

  • Laura Pidcock

  • Paul O'Connell

Positions on Your Party

  • Ambivalent, due to strong critique of Labourism, social democracy, and electoralism.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2024 by Laura Pidcock (ex Labour MP), Paul O'Connell (legal academic) and others.

  • Aims to "build and provide the basis for a mass, working-class party in Britain" through community and workplace organising.

  • Critiques all other sects for their disconnect from the working class.

Black Lives Matter UK

Known For

  • Its name, giving it implicit authority and connecting it to the global Black Lives Matter movement.

Type of Organisation

NGO


Tradition

None in particular


Membership Estimate

No formal membership system.


Associations

  • Festival of Collective Liberation (public conference)

  • Anti Racist Movement (membership organisation founded by BLMUK)

  • Project Timbuktu (education programme)

  • Josh Virasami

Positions on Your Party


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2016 by a number of individual activists, including members of the London Black Revolutionaries.

  • Received over a million pounds during the 2020 George Floyd Uprisings.

  • Also known as Black Liberation Movement UK.

  • Is explicitly anti-capitalist.

  • Not a member of the international Black Lives Matter Global Network, led from the USA.

Industrial Workers of the World

Known For

  • Historically notable international union covering all workers, rather than a specific industry.

Type of Organisation

Network/Trade Union


Tradition

Syndicalism


Membership Estimate

3,300 in the British and Irish body as of 2023.link Much higher in total since it is an international organisation.


Associations

  • Wildcat (newspaper)

  • International Confederation of Labour (international)

Positions on Your Party

  • None.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed the USA in 1905 by socialists and anarchists from various political groups who opposed the moderate policy of the American Federation of Labor. Formed in Britain in 1913.

  • The regional body of the IWW covering Britain is WISE-RA (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England Regional Administration).

  • One of the only far-left organisations to operate in both Ireland and Britain.

  • Members of IWW are known as Wobblies.

AngryWorkers

Known For

  • Emphasis on workplace organising.

  • Use of salting as a tactic.

  • Their book 'Class Power on Zero Hours' about their 2014-2020 organising project in the food manufacturing and logistics sector.

Type of Organisation

Network


Tradition

Left Communism


Membership Estimate

No formal membership system. Activists maybe fewer than 10.


Associations

  • Various publications depending on workplace, including Workers' Runway, Vital Signs and WorkersWildWest.

Positions on Your Party

  • Opposed, due to opposition to electoral politics and emphasis on the primacy of workplace struggle.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 2013 by activists previously involved with Feminist Fightback and Commune.

  • Also known as Angry Workers of the World.

  • Unlike many groups, they try to explore the technical possibilities of communist transformation based on their organising projects.

Workers Revolutionary Party

Known For

  • Being associated with serial rapist and party leader Gerry Healey until his expulsion in 1985.

  • Use of violence against opponents on the left (during the Healy era).

Type of Organisation

Cadre


Tradition

Trotskyism (Healyite)


Membership Estimate

120 as of 2017, and falling.link


Associations

  • The News Line (newspaper)

  • International Committee of the Fourth International (international) (disputed by the Socialist Equality Party)

  • Revolutionary Books (publisher)

  • Young Socialists (youth section)

  • Gerry Healy (formerly)

  • Vanessa Redgrave (formerly)

  • Frank Sweeney

  • Sheila Torrance

Positions on Your Party

  • Generally ignores Your Party, calling for socialists to join the WRP.


Other Key Facts

  • Formed in 1947 as a split from the original Revolutionary Communist Party as 'The Club' (subsequently the Socialist Labour League), practising entryism in Labour. The group was proscribed by Labour in 1959, and eventually changed its name to the WRP in 1973.

  • Supported and received money from Gaddafi.

  • Its cultish leader Gerry Healy was expelled in 1985 and exposed as a serial rapist. The current party condemns him.

  • The party's prominence mostly collapsed after this.

  • Stands candidates in elections.


Groups & Factions

A Your Party Supporter's Cheat Sheet

Glossary

Types of Organisation

  • Cadre: for the purposes of this cheat sheet, a cadre organisation is a political organisation in which members are expected to act on and agitate around the programme of the organisation, recruit to it, and self-educate around its principles.
          Many British socialist cadre organisations are based on 'democratic centralism'. While the meaning of this term is highly disputed, in this context it largely means: a ban on permanent member-organised factions; leadership elected through a 'slate' system where the current leadership often proposes itself; some open discussion permitted in the lead up to a national conference; but crucially, subsequent adherence in action (and often in public speech) to the agreed positions at the national conference ('the line'). Criticism of the line could lead to a warning or expulsion. Sometimes, the programme and political line of the cadre organisation can include anything from strategic approaches to highly theoretical positions on historical questions or on world affairs. Due to the high levels of commitment required, cadre organisations will often punch far above their weight compared to their membership size, especially compared to the other types of organisation. Equally, the loyalty to and power of leadership figures (and to/of the democratic centralist cadre organisation itself) can lead to abuse and cover-ups.
          More democratic and transparent forms of democratic centralism are also possible, but less common.

  • Electoral: an electoral organisation is one that focuses on electing candidates to local and national government, so canvassing is often a main activity. It has formal membership and local branches. These members and branches may have some limited democratic input into the party's direction, but have no obligations as in the case of a cadre organisation. Membership numbers may be higher than other types of organisation, due to a higher number of paper members.

  • Faction: a faction is a group within a larger political organisation that pushes for particular political changes within the larger organisation. For the purposes of this cheat sheet, it is a membership organisation of the rank-and-file of the larger organisation, often with some democratic structures. Elsewhere, 'faction' is sometimes used to mean a looser grouping of bureaucrats or leadership figures, who jostle for power in back rooms, without any open political differences.

  • Network: for the purposes of this cheat sheet, a network is a political membership organisation much looser than the cadre organisation, with little to no requirements on members, either to follow an organisational line, or even be politically active at all. There may be democratic structures, but these can vary widely. Or there may be few or no democratic structures, and influential individuals can dominate.

  • NGO: short for 'non-governmental organisation', NGO's are generally directed by employed staff and receive money from grants and donations rather than membership subs. They may also 'recruit' volunteers for specific roles in the way a charity would. Some have limited membership systems and democratic structures. Some identify themselves as 'decentralised networks', 'political movements' or other more general terms, but are generally more akin to charities in their legal structure and operations.

  • Trade Union: a membership organisation of workers to advance their interests in a workplace. Unions of the far left are often similar to Networks in that they are explicitly political organisations that members may join despite not being in a workplace with other members, and even while being a member of a more mainstream union at the same time. Often a very high number of non-activist members.

Traditions

  • Anarchism: a tradition with a diverse array of historical influences and origins, most commonly united by a rejection of the state and political parties. Modern British anarchism is in part a legacy of both the anti-parliamentary left of the communist movement and British syndicalist movement of the early 20th century, amongst other influences.
          Within anarchism, platformism advocates the need for a specifically anarchist organisation, which should have a unifying platform that members agitate for. Meanwhile synthesis anarchist argues for an explicitly anarchist organisation but without such a high level of unity. Syndicalism is often considered a type of anarchism that emphasises the role of the revolutionary trade union. Other anarchists reject the need for any specifically revolutionary organisation.

  • Hallamite organisations: the tradition of organisations associated with influential activist Roger Hallam, most famously Extinction Rebellion. Characterised by a radical democratic liberalism, interest in 'citizens assemblies' and use of disruptive direct action, not dissimilar to movements like the road protests and anti- animal experimentation movement of the 90s.

  • Labourism: a tradition associated with the parliamentary British Labour Party founded in 1900, which has its roots in (non-revolutionary) trade unionism.

  • Left Communism: a very broad category with, in Britain at least, historical origins and politics not dissimilar to anarchism. Like anarchism, generally rejects the mainstream Marxist traditions including Trotskysim, Marxist-Leninism, and orthodox Marxism for perceived authoritarianism or statism. However, it has a greater degree of allegiance to libertarian strains of Marxism, whether from the early 20th century, or the uprisings of 1968.

  • Marxism-Leninism: the tradition of the official communist world movement during the Cold War, led by the USSR. The main British organisation in this tradition was the old communist party (Communist Party of Great Britain), which dissolved in 1991. Derogatorily known as Stalinism.
          Within Marxism-Leninism, anti-revisionism is often associated with Maoism and rejects the more moderate leadership of the USSR after Stalin and often supports the approach of Maoist China and more hard-line Communist and anti-imperialist state projects.

  • Orthodox Marxism: for the purposes of this cheat sheet, denotes a tradition of mass socialist parties of the late 19th and early 20th century before the First World War. The only existing organisation from this period is the Socialist Party of Great Britain

  • Trotskyism: beginning with Leon Trotsky's critique of Stalin's rule of the USSR, Trotskyism represents a Marxist tradition variously critical of both sides during the Cold War.
           In Britain, Trotskyism split into three in 1950, led by Ted Grant, Tony Cliff, and Gerry Healy respectively. Almost all Trotskyist groups in Britain trace their origin to one of these splits. The Grantites' most influential organisation was Militant, and its entryism into Labour, which in the 1980s led to a number of MPs and control of Liverpool Council. The Cliffites' most influential organisation is the Socialist Workers Party (previously the International Socialists). The Healyites' most influential organisation is the Workers Revolutionary Party, which mostly collapsed after Healy was exposed as a serial sexual abuser and cultish leader.
          Lesser known, the Sparticists are a result of the split in the American Socialist Workers Party in the 1960s and are known for their hyper polemical style, small numbers, and 'orthodox Trotskyism' (vigorously defending the existence of the Communist Party-ruled states while equally vigorously critiquing their leadership). The Mandelites on the other hand are associated with the Belgian Marxist theorist Ernst Mandel and (arguably) Trotsky's original Fourth International. The Mandelites most influential organisation was the International Marxist Group, which played a notable role in the New Left of the 60s and 70s.

For a concise overview of all current traditions on the British left, including their views and history, see An Unofficial Guide to the British Left from 2024.

Associations and Strategies

  • Front: a broad campaigning organisation controlled by a specific political group. Control is sometimes unsaid, or even outright denied. Often used to recruit to the specific political organisation and to try to push the broader movement closer to the politics of the political group.

  • International: an international organisation with affiliated organisations in individual countries.

  • Entryism: a strategy whereby one political organisation enters another in order to influence its politics and strategy. This can sometimes be under secrecy, especially if the host organisation does not permit factions, but it does not have to be.